The Enchanted Forest

EJ came home for the weekend. He got home from on Saturday afternoon and left on Sunday afternoon. It was so wonderful to see him! We went to the store together and EJ encountered a couple of his former co-workers. The joy on his face as he talked about his new job was a delight to me. He exclaimed that there is no smoke at his new company, no heavy parts to lift, and it’s not terribly noisy. Plus, he works with some nice people. I haven’t heard such joy for quite some time.

We stopped at the pharmacy so EJ could pick up a prescription. We found out when we tried to pay for the medication that EJ’s former company had canceled our insurance on the day he left the company. Usually they provide insurance until the end of the month, but when EJ called them this morning, he was told they don’t do that anymore. So now we have to buy COBRA until EJ gets regular insurance after he has worked at the new company for 90 days. I’m so glad he is out of the old company.

This morning I drove JJ to visit his oncologist for his three-month checkup. Everything is clear. The oncologist said that he thinks the shadow on the CT scan was scar tissue–and they will keep an eye on that. We told him that we were in the process of moving to the Emerald City. He said that we could have the CT scans and lab work done up there and just come down for the follow-up visits. Or, if we preferred, he would recommend a good oncologist up near the Emerald City. We told him we’d let him know.

While EJ was home, we looked at and discussed the houses on real estate websites together. We decided against the one he was planning to look at because EJ’s new co-workers had advised him against the area. Also, the realtor had said that since the house was a foreclosure, banks might be reluctant to finance it. We finally decided on a house that has been on our “possibilities list” for a few weeks. EJ was tempted to cross it off when he heard that there was going to be road construction on the route he’d take to work each day and also that it would get clogged with tourists during the summer. However, I reminded him that the construction would be temporary and there would be lots of tourists no matter where we lived up there. This house was absolutely the best house I had seen for the price. I liked the place and it wasn’t a foreclosure.

EJ met a realtor this morning at the house. He said it looks really nice. It’s on five acres surrounded by trees. He said the setting is so beautiful that he didn’t want to leave it. He took a wrong turn driving there (or maybe driving away from it) and ended up having to almost four-wheel on the road so he said getting four-wheeled vehicles would be a must. We already have the Xterra, but we’d need to replace the HHR with a four-wheel vehicle. The roads get plowed in the winter, which is a necessity since there’s lots of snow there. The realtor would actually be a neighbor. Here are pictures of the house:

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EJ talked to a mortgage person on the phone when he got back to the hotel. He asked me to fax some documents to her and he will meet with her tomorrow morning. If we get a pre-approval, EJ will write an offer for the house. I really pray we get this house. The area is beautiful! We could watch stars, and meteorite showers, and the northern lights. We could enjoy storms rolling in. We could see wonderful birds and other wildlife. We would be not far from lakes.

EJ said that it’s amazing to him that the towns are like little outposts surrounded by wilderness. He said he’d make sure we all had smartphones so that we had GPS.

I told EJ that he might work in the Emerald City, but if we get this house, we’d live at the edge of the Enchanted Forest.

I’m so excited.