We made it!

We have officially been in Portland for a week now. The drive out was beautiful...and long. We arrived in Seattle on Saturday morning and got to meet up with some of our friends and congratulate the newly weds! On Sunday we headed to Portland. Our wonderful cousins let us stay with then until we signed our lease. Our family here has been wonderful and so incredibly helpful. It's been great to have a support system, someone else we know out here!
Actually everyone has been so kind, people at the grocery store love to talk and are so helpful!! We signed our lease on Wednesday....we were a little hesitant. The neighborhood is quite a bit further out from the city then we wanted. Only about 15 minutes by car but 40 by bus. This neighborhood is right next to the expressway, quite a bit of fast food chains and not really any of the "hip" coffee shops and bars we were hoping to walk to....after I (Abbie) spent some time thinking about this I realized I was too easily becoming comfortable and even expectant of gentrification. I mean why not? Grand Rapids is huge on gentrification and I can't say Portland is any better. That is not the type of person I want to become.  I am learning to embrace my neighborhood and so thankful for its diversity in terms of disability, sexual orientation, race and income.  And as far as the neighborhood goes...our neighbors are lovely! Everyone has been so welcoming! The property management has been great and even the owner of the property is out here all the time doing work. He put in new cabinets and countertop tiling before we moved. All of our neighbors know and love him and there is even talk of putting in a communal fire place!

So we are finally starting to get settled. Our little place is coming together. Nick had 2 job interviews this past week, one at a bar and one as a care taker in a youth boys home. So please keep him in your thoughts!! I have put in several applications and there are 2 I am really hoping to hear back on! We finally went grocery shopping and can get back into cooking! Nick has decided to go back to being vegetarian as he felt healthier when he was. I am still trying to decide. Our cousins have recently gone back to being vegan and they have provided us with some wonderful meals! For now I think I will stick to mostly vegetarian unless I partake in a farmshare. I'll let you all know how that goes! =P

Today we get to meet up with some friends of ours who recenter moved out of Portland over to Eugene. My biggest fear in moving is what if we don't make friends. I know many of you have told me I'm silly for this. But it's a fear I have all the same. Soo I am excited to get out there and hopefully meet some new people today!

That's all for now!
♡♡♡
~Abbie