(Rachelle) well we’ve officially got the american dream. sure i’m thrilled, but i have to admit, i’ve never been one to aim for it either. it may seem so strange to say that, but i tend not to subscribe to what the majority wants (i’m too creative for that). i wasn’t one of those girls in high school planning their wedding, picking out their china patterns, dreaming of their white-picket-fence homes with husband, 2.5 kids, and dog. no, i pulsate on creative curiosity, a love of life, discovering beauty and living with wide-eyed wonder. none of this suburban mediocrity for me. so along the way, an infinitely-wise God has me married with child and buying our first brand-new home. i am humbled, grateful and chuckle that this is my life.

dj and i don’t want some secluded cul-de-sac home where you have to drive everywhere. how i miss walking to the metro in bethesda, md! we wanted a walkable community to engage with people and life. aliso viejo may be a bit boring and white-bread, ’scuse the term, but it is clean, safe, stunningly-beautiful and filled with fresh air and gorgeous scenery. so we chose Vantis South Latitudes as our permanent abode for at least the next 7 years to get jeremiah through middle and high school. check out the pics, our model in plan 4, the hawkins. it is a 3 floor loft style condo/townhouse. my main concerns was having lots of natural light and some place to finally make art in a permanent studio. at present i am making art on our dining table, surely about 5-steps backwards from previous art-making environments i’ve had. so i’m thrilled to have a small space in our tandem garage and a window. like i said, i’m not a typical homeowner who relishes in luxurious bathrooms and kitchen updgrades. i just wanted art space and light all these years and now i have a little more.

closing today. dj’s done all the work, we just pick up our keys and voila we’re moving in! open house and bbq gatherings to come!

Yesterday we took a family excursion with 2 of Jeremiah’s childhood friends to Six Flags America for one wet & fun farewell — they spent most of the day at the water park part. They’ve known each other since they were 3 year old when they went to the same day care.

This morning we packed our final bags and boxes, cleaned up the house, and we loaded up our Xterra for the start of our road trip adventure! It all miraculously fit into the Xterra, with the extra space courtesy of the soft carrier case strapped on top. This video gives you a quick glimpse at how much of our worldly possession was crammed into our family vehicle.

We’re scheduled for dinner in Winchester, Virginia, tonight, and stay over tomorrow for Father’s Day with my Dad (DJ’s). My parents have been proprietors of Tourist City Motel, a small boutique motel inside of Winchester city limits, located conveniently off of I-81 and US-50/Rt-522 at 214 Millwood Avenue, Winchester, VA 22601 (phone 540-662-9011). As my Dad says, it’s “a nice place for nice people.” Mention you saw the motel mentioned here when you check-in — it’ll bring a smile to my Dad’s face.

And from there, we’ll take the extra breathing room to plot out some more detail on our travel route with ETAs (estimated time of arrivals). We anticipate meeting many people along the way– perhaps even you, if you’re reading from Winchester, Blacksburg, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Memphis, Little Rock, Dallas, Amarillo, Santa Fe, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, or Orange County. Add a comment, would enjoy meetin’ up over coffee or a meal!

We’ve been packing like mad. I didn’t think it’d be too interesting to talk about our packing play by play. Besides, to blog about our packing would have taken away time from packing. The most interesting part of the packing for this move is that we are moving without a moving truck! We’ve sold off our furniture and 2nd car, we’ve donated lots of stuff, trashed lots of stuff, and are down to a few more boxes needing final consolidating and downsizing, so all our worldly possessions can fit into a Nissan Xterra for the cross country drive beginning tomorrow. (Well, we did have to ship a dozen boxes ahead of us; is that cheating?)

We do think it can be more interesting to read about our driving cross country play by play (sorta), and we’re working on getting some equipment so we can lifestream (broadcast) our drive. Soon as that arrives, we’re expecting it today, we’ll announce how we’ll do all of that.

We do want to thank all the great supporters who’ve chipped in to defray our moving costs! Thank you!! We were pleasantly surprised to see our goal exceeded so quickly! Not only do we have more than a handful of online contributors, we’ve also received a handful of offline gifts from people in person, and a gas gift card from an enthusiastic Californian looking forward to our relocation.