location, location, location

it's been almost 5 years since we left our beloved peccole ranch ward and home. we've moved 14 times in the near 14 years we've been married and it's the only place we ever wanted to stay. all the others we were happy to leave and move on from. and we even thought we were moving to a place we would half-way enjoy. it's been tougher than we thought - both in geography and job.

a friend once asked us, would we live anywhere for 5 years if we were paid 1 million a year. this was 2 years into residency and we said absolutely not, with no hesitation. money has never been the motivator for us, and when we look back, it almost seems like the poverty has been more of a decision-maker. and then year 4 of residency came along, and it hit hard. we thought after we got over the internship year, that things were all downhill from there. but personal and work-related events seemed to land on us that 4th year and everything came crashing down. and with all that, the debt was really beginning to rub me the wrong way. all i started thinking about was how quickly we could get out from underneath it. the question our friend asked starting ringing in my head. and i began to answer yes. and when push came to shove, doc M began to agree. what made us change our minds? were we getting greedy in our old age? i wasn't sure, but i didn't care. i just wanted a quick fix. and instead of talking about opening our own practice, we began to talk about following the highest bidder and going wherever would allow us to pay off our debts the quickest.

we just returned from a full week in SD, scouting out neighborhoods and trying to narrow down where we would look for a new home. even with weather not as warm as we would've liked, we were in heaven. from the time we woke up that first morning, until the time we returned the rental car, we felt like it could be the last place we would ever need to call home. we loved everything about it. it's an almost indescribable feeling. then we attended church on sunday in a neighborhood we thought we might like to land in. we went back on tuesday, talked with more ward members and we were sold. and as we drove around again and again within the ward boundaries, we kept saying to each other how much it reminded us of peccole ranch in vegas. of course you can't duplicate a town or memories or people. but i guess since we had such great friends, great ward, great home, great weather and all associated with peccole. i suppose it's only natural to think that if it looks similar, maybe some of the same things will follow.

we now are back to our original line of thinking. and we know that in the end, our hearts will never choose the money over everything else. if given the opportunity to stay in SD, i think we'd take it, no matter how long it took to pay off our loans. but we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

we thought we would be able to return to peccole after residency was finished. it just hasn't worked out that way. but we've found the next-best thing...and we hope to be able to make our new peccole in san diego.