Just a few more days in Australia

It's hard to believe we take off for Portland in 3 days. It doesn't seem real.

I have been spending a lot of time looking into things at that end. Homeschooling groups and activities for the kids, places to live, jobs. I was feeling a bit nervous about our social lives - we have spent the last 6 years settling into our current group of homeschooling friends, and it feels like we really belong there. Sure there's a lot on in Portland (at least the internet makes it look so), but what if they all think we're weirdos? What if we just don't fit in? What if the kids don't make new wonderful friends and regret moving from Sydney?

There are lots of homeschooling park days over the summer which is great. Worst case scenario, we spend some awesome days at some awesome parks and the kids play with lots of kids and no lasting friendships are formed - it would still be a lot of temporary fun. So I thought I'd look into some organised activities for the kids so that they could have interesting stuff to do and opportunities to meet people.

Here's one of those situations that could be looked at as a coincidence or serendipity or just that we have found the path we were meant to find, wherever you're coming from. I discovered Village Home Education Resource Center. Interesting because I am highly interested in the "village" concept - in fact, I cofounded a group in Sydney with "village" in the title! Village Home is a membership thing, and once you're members, loads of the classes and activities are free. And there are so many activities! Chess (Nate's current passion), knitting, arts, drama, foreign languages, lego robotics, math and English (if that's your thing, hehe), martial arts, hang-out groups, yoga, classes for adults. There is even a class to talk about and act out the Magic Treehouse series of books which the kids have been listening to on their iPod. The kids and I are so excited about this place. Some of the classes cost additional money, but it's cheaper if you volunteer - I'm hoping that means that Nick can do a sports class because I think he would love it (especially if it meant saving money!) - it seems like a lot of the instructors are homeschooling parents. And to top it all off, the main campus is in Beaverton, a block away from our favourite library and a block away from the farmers market we will go to every Saturday. It's amazing.

I'm also so excited about getting our own place. I miss having our own place. We are going to rent to start out with, and we're looking forward to a community pool, fitness room, playground and green spaces. I never really appreciated how wonderful apartment complexes in the Portland area are, but looking at them now is really exciting. Like a holiday unit.

I applied for a job the other day at a chiropractic/acupuncture clinic as a Clinical Assistant. It looks completely perfect for me and I'm hoping I hear back from them soon. I'm feeling like we had a date and I'm waiting the required amount of days until I call. I want to keep emailing, "Did you get my resume? Did you get my cover letter? Don't you want me??" But instead I'm waiting. We'll see what Monday brings.

Oh, one more funny thing. A delivery guy came to drop something off and ended up buying our car. Nick had put signs on it, but that was the extent of our advertising - we thought if it didn't sell we would just leave it here to use when we visit (not quite sure where we'd leave it), decided not to worry about it, and just let it work itself out. He's picking it up Monday evening.