Our Portland Home (for now)

After searching for days on craigslist, making endless phone calls to potential landlords, and generally not meeting any of the needs of my children, I managed to find us a place to live in Portland. We are going to be residing in a section of town known as Irvington. It is here that we are going to be best set-up to meet a community of others--there are lots of baby strollers, two parks, and many stores within walking distance of our new dogs. Even better, my brother is likely going to be living just a short bike ride away. All of my dreams are coming true--except for the fact that we are going to have no friends in this new land AND Brian is going to be spending the next 3-4 months on the road. Now THAT is going to be hard on everyone involved, but we have a job and are grateful for that in this economy.

We are going to be living in a part of Portland known as Irvington--evidently the heart of Music Together in Portland. I am hoping that we will meet as many friends in Portland through the MT program as we did in Montclair. Irvington is as close to Montclair as you can get on the West Coast. Th shops are quaint, there are not a lot of franchised businesses, and it is relatively urban as well. In fact, it is more urban than Montclair. Our backyard will be roughly half the size of the yard we have here, but this will be all the more reason from me to get out of the house and head to the park where hopefully some other nice mother will take pity on my lonely soul and invite me into her group of friends.

Brian and I were originally considering renting a place in the West Hills--still in Portland proper but much less citified. The place we almost rented had a kitchen constructed out of juniper and was virtually in a forest! however, at the last minute, we decided against it. Because he is going to be traveling so much, we worried that we would feel too isolated. I have this vision of all four of us living on acres of land, growing our own food, and truly living a sustainable life. BUT... now is just not the time.

Instead we will enjoy our little backyard in the big city...