And the winner of the derby is...............!

It seems like a joke. It can't really be true. Have we seriously been in this town almost EIGHT YEARS?!? If either one of us had guessed that we would have stayed in Philly this long, I guarantee we never would have even started podiatry school. For crying out loud, Keith wanted to be a custom shoe maker 8 years ago, not a surgeon. What a truly bizarre series of events that have led us to this point. And even though we never would have guessed that we would ever be where we are now, we are so grateful for every little step that has brought us here.

We got a job!!! Not that Keith hasn't been working non-stop in some fashion since we've lived here (having remodeled 2 houses, plus built every peice of furniture in the houses, plus sold a bunch of other furniture along the way...), but we will finally be legit--we'll start paying off student loans! If that isn't something to look forward to... :(

This job decision was a tough one. We basically spent the entire month of September traveling around for interviews. Plus Keith was on the phone or sending e-mails late into the night for two months prior trying to narrow down and weed out the options. It was really exhausting! We are just starting to be able to have conversations again that don't revolve around "what should we do?" Although, now they are taking on the tone of "what else should we do to the house so that it's ready to sell?" I have to keep reminding Keith that we are having a baby in 2 months since that is almost never a topic of conversation. We have just had so much other stuff going on!

So, where are we going? We are taking what we always thought was our most unlikely option. We are moving to Kentucky! Of all the people we talked to all over the west, we NEVER thought we would end up in Kentucky. But in the end, Kentucky won out pretty big and we are super excited about it. We have the final contract in our hands and are just waiting for Keith to have a spare minute to get it notarized so we can send it back. YEEEHAW!!! We're fixin' to get on down south and get ourselves some friiied chikin! Corbin, Kentucky, here we come!

The job in Kentucky has everything we've been looking for--except that it's not in Washington. Or Northern California. We wanted those to be dreams jobs in such a big way. We really wanted to live there!!! But they just weren't right for various reasons. We always thought we would end up in a mountain town in the west. We wanted somewhere that we could live and be close to a forest, plus have lots of other good fun outdoor things really close by. Basically, the job in Kentucky shot the others out of the water. But, we had never been to or remotely considered that Kentucky would have anything on our list of outdoor requirements. Here's a quick peek at why we changed our minds....

All these pics are within a half-hour of our new Kentucky home:






And finally, for the foodies out there, Corbin, Kentucky is the center of the known universe for friiiied chikin! That's right--the secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices was developed in a secret laboratory/gas station in north Corbin. Folks, here you have it--crispy or regular? The HOME of KFC!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nobody worry--that big lurpy dude in the overalls and beard is NOT Keith. Thanks to the internet, it's just a random sampling of true Corbin, KY townspeople. Finger lickin good!