Fillmore, CA pop. 14,100 + 4

We have discovered that there is still a Mayberry USA! This past Monday we drove to Fillmore to check out the town and hopefully find a place to rent. We succeeded!

When we got there we drove down the main street where everything is. The thing that surprised me, in a good way, is that the stores still have window displays! I haven't seen window displays since Firebaugh and those weren't the best. There's still a small town hardware store and drugstore and all the little things associated with "small town America". There were even people sitting in front of a coffee shop drinking coffee.....not Starbucks.

Leroy & I both grew up in small towns (Exeter & Firebaugh) and from the looks of things, we are going to be raising Derrick & Danae in a small town as well =) The great thing is that Fillmore is right of off the 126 so on the highway there is a Rite Aid, Vons and all the fast food places. So we get the small town charm with the big city amenities. Everyone was really nice that we ran into so it put me at ease a little.

After looking in the paper, stopping by a real estate place and calling around, we had an appointment at 2:30 with an apartment complex 1 1/2 blocks from work. We were hoping we would like it because it would mean saving $200 in gas a month due to me being able to walk to work. After meeting the manager, a sweet and very nice little old lady named Betty, we got to see the apartment and loved it! It's only a two bedroom, but the kids are little and sharing a room isn't such a big deal right now. We turned in our application and she told us she'd give it to the owner because he was coming over in a few minutes. Just our luck, the owner showed up right as we were leaving so we got to personally meet him and go over the application. When we left we got a good vibe and hoped we were right. It was still early so we decided to hit the road and see what towns were close, 20 minutes later we were at the beach! We walked out onto the Venture Pier to Mill's End and saw some dolphins. Anyone who pays attention to legends knows that dolphins are supposed to be good luck. And for our sake, we hoped it was right.

The owner said to fax some salary info to him Tuesday and he'd give us a call that night to let us know if we got the place. A little after 8 last night we got the call.......WE GOT IT! Our stress level isn't nearly as high as it was. We now have a new home, the only thing now is waiting on work to fax all my info to the movers so we can have them come, box it up and move us to Fillmore. We've spent the day going through the shed trying to downsize. It's worked, but going from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment is hard. Luckily someone invented storage places and that's where we will house some stuff.

This is definitely an adventure but one that is exciting and a good thing. Not many companies will pay for your move, but as much as I get frustrated with the postal service this is really a great thing they do for people that are getting relocated to a new office.

Only 9 more days left!