Colorado It Is

Dwayne and I flew out to Denver Wednesday morning. My cousin Talia was very kind in babysitting my kids for two days while we went out on our scouting expedition. Sheri was able to drop us off at the airport and our plane was on time. Though we did get a little confused about which gate we needed to be at. Because it wasn't labled well we almost missed it but it worked out in the end. Getting through security is much easier than it used to be too. I haven't flown since shortly after 9/11 when everything was so ridiculous on what was allowed or not allowed. We read up on the regulations before we flew and had everything ready. I was even allowed to take my embroidery scissors through without even a blink of an eye.

We arrived in Denver to clear sunny skies and brown coloring wherever you look. Winter in Denver is not pretty. There wasn't even any snow to give it a winter wonderland kind of feeling. We got our rental car and with me clutching the map and attempting to be the navigator we proceeded into our new prospective home city. Luckily, we found the hotel without too much trouble. ProBuild put us in a Hilton in the tech area so it was a nice place. The hotel gives out free cookies in the evening and a free newspaper in the morning. We felt a little out of place but it sure was nice to be doted upon a little. And Dwayne and I hadn't had alone time in quite a while. After a quick bite in the hotel restaurant, Dwayne went off to his meeting while I dinked around the hotel. He came back so much more relaxed and calm. It was nice to see him not quite so stressed about the whole thing. I was a little frustrated though because they still haven't given him a firm deadline or salary. After a little talking though we decided that no matter what the money offer is, we will be moving. The choice before us is a for sure job with company paid moving expenses, or no job and only 3 weeks pay as compensation. With the job market the way it is right now, it just doesn't make sense to give up a sure thing. Dwayne's boss took us out to dinner at an expensive restaurant that evening. Company paid of course.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to run around town with the realtor. She had a few places lined up but there wasn't much available in our price range in the areas we wanted to look. The culture is a bit different in Denver than we are used to here in the NW. Because Denver is such a city of professionals and Denver is a city where many corporations have their corporate offices, the city is more "upper crust." Money is a bit more available and people have more of it. There are very few middle class houses available for rent. You can either afford a really expensive and nice house or you own a condo or live in an apartment community. There isn't many places for the people in between. The suburb that does have them, we found out, is considered the "ghetto" and not the place we would want to live. And until we lived there a bit and discovered the bad places on our own, I wanted to make sure we would be fairly safe. So we found a really nice apartment in the town I had my heart set on living in called Parker. Apparently, 80% of ProBuild workers live in Parker and it was highly recommended. When I visited the town website, I got excited as well. The town seems to be very nice with lots of community events. It is considered a suburb of Denver but far enough away to still have a small town feel to it. Douglas county also has the best schools in the state. I figured if worse came to worse and I had to send the kids to public school, I wanted it to be in a good area. Dwayne will only have about a 15-20 min drive to work.

Our realtor was from Seattle so she was very helpful in answering our questions and what we could expect as northwesterners coming to live there. The elevation will take some getting used too. People get a little bit of elevation sickness. I felt it a little while I was there but it wasn't too bad. Browsing throughout the day rather than large meals and lots and lots of water takes care of the worst of it. Also, Denver is very very dry compared to the NW. She said that was the hardest part to get used to. So I'll need to make it a habit to use moisturizer more often to combat that dryness. But the plus side is that I get over 300 days of sunshine to enjoy. Looking around was a bit weird for us. Everything is so open and spacious. I'm used to trees or hills or mountains or shrubbery blocking my view of things. You get the Rocky Mountains on one side and nothing on the other. People seemed very open and accepting the idea of my homeschooling the kids out there. Even the state-created welcome to Denver book had a section on homeschooling as a viable education choice and resources to help you get started. After some research, I found out that Colorado's schooling laws state very clearly that the parents are responsible and have the right to choose whatever education they feel best meets the needs of the child. Because of that, all of the schools in the Denver area have an "open" policy. You can pick whichever school you want for your children to go to, pending room of course. They have a wide variety of private, charter, public, online, and homeschooling options available. It is refreshing to talk about my choices without feeling defensive about my decision or feeling like I have a stigma attached to me as one of "those" parents. The state is largely Rupublican with Denver of course being more Democratic. But being a "big business" type of city it doesn't seem to be too far left. At least from what I have perceived so far.

Friday was spent traveling. We went to the airport far too early not sure how security was going to go. Our flight was uneventful and we even arrived in Portland early. We quickly grabbed the kids and headed home. Today I spent working all day while Dwayne caught up on laundry. So that is where we are at the moment. More decisions really can't be made until Monday and even then many people won't be available as it is Christmas week. I have a sinking sensation that we will be on pause for a couple weeks and then it will be a hurry up and rush kind of January. Please keep us in your prayers that we can find renters for our house quickly to help us get out of our lease and that our moving will be mostly uneventful.