the grass is greener in Oregon.

Today was a BUSY day for us...
This morning we called and accepted an offer at

AND, we went to an ultra sound appointment...
First, let me tell you about Oregon...
Soon, i'll tell you about my ultra sound.
We decided to be SURPRISED on the sex of the baby.  :)

.

I've visited Oregon once... it was beautiful.

I've heard good things about Corvallis...

One friend emailed me a link that said Corvallis was rated #3 on the list of best places to raise a Mormon outside of Utah.  Idaho Falls, Idaho was #2 and Boise, Idaho was #8.  I didn't even know such a list existed and how funny that Corvallis, Oregon made the cut...

Want to know more good stuff about this town?

• Frommer’s Travel Guides, Cities Ranked & Rated ranks Corvallis as the 10th best city of any size in the United States and Canada.
• The February 2004 issue of the Harvard Business Review ranks Corvallis as the 15th most creative city in the nation.
• Bike at Work listed Corvallis as the 9th best city in the nation “As a car free community” (2005).
• Men’s Journal ranked Corvallis as “The 8th best place in the nation to live” in 2003.  In April 2005, they moved Corvallis up one place to 7th.
• Expansion Management selected Corvallis as a “Five-Star Knowledge Worker Metro”, the highest rating achievable (2005).
• A survey by the National Science Foundation found Corvallis ranks second in the nation for the number of scientists as a percentage of total employment (12.7 percent) as of 2006.
• Corvallis was the first city on the West Coast and only the third city in the nation to receive the “Green Power Community” designation by the EPA (2006).
• In 2006, the Morgan Quitno Awards ranked Corvallis as the 20th safest city (of 344) in the 13th Annual America’s Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities publication for metropolitan areas of its size.
• In 2007 Farmers Insurance ranked Corvallis as the Number One Most Secure Place to Live for a city of it’s size.

They have houses like this...

 (actually, that is a bed and breakfast)
 But, we'll probably end up in a house like this...

it has potential...

I told the [almost real] professor that i'm a bit apathetic about where we go.
can you believe it?
after years of anticipation... he gets an offer and i really don't care whether he accepts it or waits to hear from the other schools he has applied to...
apathy?  what an odd emotion for a pregnant me.

Oregon sounds beautiful... Corvallis is a small town that sounds nice.
It's near Portland, which is a fun city.
And, it's near family in Idaho.

There is a lot to do, it's close to mountains and beach.
Yes, it rains a lot.
Yes, Oregon is liberal.
Yes, it's far from my eastern relatives.
and... it's a pretty expensive place to live.
But, the professor says there aren't a lot of stores.  He thinks I'd have to drive 20 minutes to Walmart.
I guess I'll be saving a lot of money. 
I always fancied myself a small town girl,  we'll see!

My friend's brother lives in Salem, Oregon.  She lives here in Lubbock.
Once she told him, "In Lubbock, you just have to look up some days to see true beauty."
He said, "It's the opposite in Oregon.  The skies may be overcast, but if you just look at the ground it is green and beautiful."
Funny huh?!
I believe Lubbock has been a place of looking up, thinking of somedays...
Corallis will be a place where i'm grounded... real life.

plus, they have bike thrills!!

I'm excited and nervous.
Change is sometimes fun...  right?!
ready or not--

OSU... here we come!!