Saturday, October 9, 2010

Updates...

OK, for everyone who talks to us all the time, this will be a boring post, since it doesn't have any pictures, and you already know all of this... But for anyone else, read on... This summer (and early fall) has been the most stressed out either of us has ever been. Mark decided not to do a periodontal residency (which he had already been enrolled in and was set to start July 1st) late in June. We had some very quick decisions to make, but the answer seemed obvious: we always wanted to live in California, and I have a sister here who volunteered to watch Boston while I work. So it was a no brainer. We put our house up for sale in July (which closed in August, thank goodness), packed up, and got ready for the move clear across the country.



I finished up my requirements in early July, and we moved out of our home in Indianapolis, and in with my sister in Brentwood, California. We thought it would only be for a couple weeks, but we were grossly underestimating how much time things take. It took Mark until late August to get his DDS license, and it took me until September. We moved out without a real plan (no leads as to where we would be working) but figured since we were licensed in California, if we couldn't find jobs in the bay area, we could always go anywhere in the state. We had interviews in San Diego set up, as well as in the central valley, since it seemed we were getting nowhere on the job front here in Brentwood.



Just before we were about to head out to San Diego (they had two offices within 10 minutes of each other, and wanted us each to take one), Mark got a call from a dentist in Clayton (about a 20-30 minute drive from Brentwood). Mark had been talking with him for a couple weeks. He was looking for an associate eventually, but he just hadn't been ready yet. Well, things changed. He called and told Mark that his hygienist was out on maternity leave, and that he could take over her part time hygiene position for a month or so, and then he would transition him into the practice as a dentist. Mark is now practicing with him, has signed a two-year contract for a full time dentist associate position, and they are already talking about opening a second practice together. As for me, I had been pursuing the only other dentist in Clayton. She is expanding her practice next year. We really hit it off, but until she opens the new office sometime next year, she doesn't have room for a second dentist. So we have agreed to keep in touch, and hopefully the time will be right for both of us sometime next year. For now, I finally received a job offer, and I am actually super excited about it. It was supposed to be a five-to-six-day-per-weeker... but they liked me so much that I talked them into 3-4 days per week, and higher pay (Maybe it also had something to do with how I TORE UP my working interview - I did two root canals on a patient in about 45 minutes, not to mention like 8 fillings in a half hour, and all the work was beautiful!).

So that took care of the work aspect, but we have been stressing about how to afford moving into our own place. Things here are pretty expensive anyway, so 1st and last months rent, plus deposit, adds up to a pretty hefty sum, which we just don't have yet. We have looked at several houses, and there was one that we looked at about three weeks ago that we just kept coming back to. The only problem was, we knew we wouldn't be ready to pay all that money up front for at least another month or so. But, as fate would have it, the people who ended up renting it just found out that a house they were trying to buy was going to work out afterall... So they had already paid for September's rent, plus half of October's, and were hoping someone could step in and take the lease. So that's where we come in... We really lucked into this one (I guess you could call it luck, I don't) and are very excited to be able to give Nikki and John back their house. We really appreciate all they did for us during this transition, but I know they've got to be ready to give Catherine back her room... let's just say that lately, Mitchell's family prayers have involved phrases like, "And please help Mark and Kristin find a house..." Well, we are certainly glad we finally did, and we move in on Tuesday! So there's our life for the past three months. Pretty crazy. I will post pics soon of the new house!