Hello, its me. I was wondering if after all these days you would like to read...

Matt came by my work last Friday in uniform for the very last time.

He brought me lunch.

I may have shed a tear or two as we munched on our Jimmy Johns.

He signed out on leave for the very last time. 

His last flight was Feb 5, his retirement ceremony was March 24th, and he officially retires on June 30, but Friday, April 29 was the very last time he will ever be required to wear a uniform.

So here he is.... CW4 (Ret) Matthew Hernandez.

He picked up a job somewhere between his last flight and his last day in uniform.
Some little company that starts with AM and ends in ON.
Happens to be one of my favorites.

After waiting what seemed like forever, we finally found out the location of his super secret worksite.  Most of the time he will be working about 60 miles from our current home.
That translates to 1.5-2 hrs of drive time or in more simple terms: an eternity.
We decided that we just love this guy too much to have him spending half of his day in his car along I-5, so we are moving on up to the Eastside.
No kidding.
We are leasing our house to hopefully some amazing family who will treat it with great respect and cleanliness, and then renting our own little shack up in Issaquah.
It was between Issaquah and Renton.  My brother in law decided we needed to live in Issaquah because he likes the way it rolls off his tongue.  Naturally, we took his advice.

So the new house is approximately 19 miles from his primary office and that current drive time is 23 minutes.  It is 10pm so probably not a good gauge of the traffic - commuter hour estimates are 30-45 minutes.  I'm not saying that is great but it is 1-1.5 hours shorter than the commute from here!

The decision to lease, not sell our house, and to rent not buy in Seattle were very difficult ones to come to.  The emotions involved in leaving a home that we absolutely love....I can't even express how I feel.

The process of finding a rental in a very expensive market that is super short on homes, has been draining.  Physically, emotionally, mentally draining.
We truly did not expect it to be such a painful process.

With the house search finally done.  Lease paperwork being signed and move in date set, we can breathe for a minute or two before we begin the move that is short in distance, compared to most of our others, but very much the biggest of our lives.