"The Time Has Come," the Walrus said

We're leaving Boston. For about a year Brent and I have felt our time in Beantown was drawing to a close. Our wanderlust has definitely kicked in and we're ready for new adventures. After living here for 8 years I'm feeling like I've been there, done that. We wanted to stay in Boston until Ireland was born because we have a fabulous OB. Then we stayed because layoffs were nigh at my company and we hoped I'd get severance. Now we have no more excuses, no more ties keeping us here. Except Brent's job of course. Perhaps I should mention we do not actually have a job offer in Chicago which is our target destination. Brent has had many promising leads but nothing firm. However, fate dealt us a hand when our landlady returned from India.

For quite some time we've been under the radar in regards to our apartment. We haven't been under a rental contract for quite a while and our landlady kept forgetting to have us sign a new one. Technically, we're on a month-to-month basis which was perfect. Even sweeter was the fact our landlady was in India so we quietly sent in our monthly rent check and had nothing more to worry about. Our upstairs neighbors recently bought a home and were hoping to find renters to cover the last month of their rental agreement for July. They asked us if we wanted the bigger space and we politely declined. Then our landlady showed up to make the same offer and point blank asked us if we were looking to move.

We were honest with her and perhaps overestimated her. We thought we'd been good renters for 4 years, of course she'd want to keep us in the apartment for as long as possible, right? Wrong. She listed our apartment and asked for a date when we would be out. Brent and I thought carefully about it seeing as the job market is difficult. We also don't want to end up paying rent for two places. We settled on Septemeber 1, crossing our fingers another 2 months would be sufficient for Brent to secure employment. About a week later the landlady showed the apartment to a couple who wanted it but hoped to be in a few days early. The landlady also wanted a day or two for some renovations before they moved in so she asked if we could be out mid-August. My parents are helping us with the move and they will be in Utah for BYU Education Week mid-August. They noted however, they'd be in Chicago on July 21 and basically headed our way anyway.

We contacted our landlady and told her we'd be out at the end of this month. There's still a possibility we will move to Chicago as a family at that time. Our backup plan is for the girls and I to temporarily move in with my parents in Iowa City which is a few hours from Chicago. They've graciously offered to store our meager belongings so we can save on moving expenses. Brent will either house-sit for one of the families in our ward who vacation during August or he will rent a hole in the wall until he has an offer.

I have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I'm about 75% excited and 25% scared. Maybe that's 75% scared and 25% excited. I'm thrilled with the prospect of spending the summer with family. Liesel can be with her grandparents and cousins and I'll have extra hands to help with Ireland. I've always loved Chicago and we have a small list of people who swear they will visit. On the flip side, I'd be more at ease if we had a job... especially in this economy. I've never been away from Brent for more than a few days at a time. A number of my own sisters and girlfriends have spent a chunk of time away from their spouses and I've always wondered how they managed. I married Brent so I could wake up next to him every day. The thought of going back to a long-distance relationship just makes me cringe.

The bottom line is it doesn't make sense for us to pack up all our thing to move somewhere across town until everything falls into place. Even if we'd lied and told our landlady we're planning on sticking around she would have made us sign a year-long rental agreement. I'm sure everything will work out, I just don't know exactly how it will happen. The only thing I'm sure of is that the time has come.