So, a random life experience is coming our way. 3 weeks ago, Matt's mentor Ricky Horst was offered a job in Ocala Florida and in true move form- Matt called Rick and told him congratulations and told him that if he ever needed someone then to think about him, since we have family in Florida. But, true to Rick form, Rick called back within 1 1/2 hours and told Matt that he was going to need an Assistant City Manager/ Director of Utilities!
Matt talked to me about it and Rick asked Matt to send in an application and this is when our lives started rolling into HIGH SPEED!
Ocala was already a pull since my parents are 2 hours away and Sharon is 4 hours away, but you never can tell what a town in Florida is really like until you actually get there, so we felt it was necessary for not only Matt but that I too go and check out the town and see if we could actually live there. Driving in our rental car from Orlando to Ocala on Saturday, (it is 1 hour north,) we wondered if we could even try to see the potential of moving, because we drove through every scary neighborhood on the road to Ocala, but then we got to Ocala, hit the downtown area saw the potential and started thinking it might not be too bad, I mean it had a Stars Hollow gazebo in the middle of the downtown square- how can that be wrong?!
My parents, Mary and Sharon (with Indie and Samuel,) came on Sunday and we drove ALL day looking for neighborhoods and houses, which we didn't really find. We went to linner at Olive Garden and then the Field/White's left to go home and the Finlinson's stayed to spend the night- which was really fun since Indigo is so entertaining....
Monday- we went to cracker barrel for breakfast and then kissed and said goodbye to Sharon and Matt and I headed off to find more neighborhoods- no such luck, so we decided to find a Realtor and see what they could offer for advice. We were sent to two offices and then found the sweetest, most helpful lady in town- Mary Colbert. Up until Mary helping us we were very emotionally doubtful that we were going to be moving and were very sad to be away from our beautiful Santa Clara, but then Mary showed us neighborhoods that helped us to realize that we could actually live in Ocala and that even though very different from Santa Clara, could be a good opportunity for Matt and the rest of our family. This day we also went to look at the Highschool and dance studios. We went to two studios and were very impressed with the Performing Arts Conservatory, but it isn't competitive and the other studio was, such decisions!!!
Tuesday, Matt had a meeting/job interview with Ricky and was gone for 3 hours. While he was doing that I entertained myself with my camera and a walking tour of Historic Ocala with it's beautiful Victorian homes and the middle school that we hoped Mckenna would be going to. I also had a nice breakfast at Starbucks of a croissant and a hot cocoa while reading the local paper. After I decided to go sit on a bench on the City office grounds and read a book that I had brought with me while i waited for Matt to finish whatever they were doing.
Matt, another gentleman i don't know and Rick came back, Rick took us to lunch and showed us more of the town.
While talking to Rick we realized that we knew more about the schools and where to live than he did, but then again, he had only been working for one day and hadn't had that much time to explore subdivisions or drive around for personal reasons.
After Matt talked to Rick, and took their drive (before me being in the car,) I guess Matt felt really good about the opportunity to work in Ocala so when we were driving around he told Rick that he would like to take the job, but needed more particulars which they discussed during Lunch. Then all of a sudden we were going to be Floridian's again! Wow, what a crazy few days....
I will be blogging about the next 2 weeks seperately
Enjoy my pictures of our Ocala journey!
