Moving

Leaving Laramie was difficult. Logistically we had to sell our house, wrap things up at work, and do all of the necessary planning for relocating while caring for a one-year-old. Emotionally we had to say goodbye to a place we called home for almost five years, to our first house, and to a town that felt really comfortable. We said goodbye to wonderful and supportive co-workers. And, perhaps hardest of all, we said goodbye to Nora's fantastic childcare center and the place where she was born and spent her first year. Some days we thought we were totally crazy to leave.

Last UW basketball game

I loved being a Wyoming librarian

My wonderful co-workers threw me a lovely farewell tea on my last day, February 14

Goodbye to our favorite restaurant, Sweet Melissa Vegetarian Cafe

Goodbye to our first house. We loved it so much.

But, new opportunities awaited us in Nevada. So we took off on Tuesday, February 18th right after the moving truck left with all of our household goods. We had a really good time on the road. (No, I'm not being sarcastic.) We spent a night in Evanston, WY and then spent a day and night in Salt Lake City, the halfway point of our drive.

Thanks to our friends, John and Corianne, we stayed in Castle Creek Inn in Sandy, Utah. They live there and manage things. We had the Ivanhoe room, which was so fabulous.

Nora's favorite part was the big bathtub.

The weather wasn't quite nice enough to really enjoy the balcony, but it was a lot warmer than in Laramie!

We spent some time at the children's museum in Salt Lake.

One of the animal noises that Nora knows is "neigh."

After a night in Salt Lake, we met Grandma & Grandpa Brough in St. George and enjoyed lunch at Cafe Rio. Nora found the black beans delightful.

We arrived in Henderson at our new home on Thursday the 20th and the truck with all of our stuff arrived on Friday the 21st.

We're enjoying the great weather and the park next to our house.

Highs have been in the 70s almost every day since we got here.

We're getting everything unpacked and set up. Here's our living room and dining area.

And Nora is pretty happy. She has seemed a little extra clingy and not quite her usual happy self, but there's lots of new stuff to adjust to. We expect it will take us all a little while to feel settled.

My cousin Celia and her family have had us over for meals, which has been so nice. We've been to campus a few times to take care of business and we're looking forward to getting to know our new colleagues. We're impressed with how friendly and helpful people seem at local businesses and around town. We bought a second car and have only been lost a few times.

We hope friends and family will come visit us in Las Vegas! Sheri and Garth Terry are coming next week, but our guest room is available after that. It's easy and fairly inexpensive to get here, and of course there are lots of entertainment options that we're becoming acquainted with. Let us know if you're coming this way!

Las Vegas

We are moving to Las Vegas in about a month! We're very excited and a little overwhelmed with all we need to do to prepare for the move. I'll be working at UNLV Libraries as head of educational initiatives and Mike will work at the academic success center at UNLV.

We visited Las Vegas and Henderson last weekend to find a place to live, scope out our neighborhood, and get Nora registered at her new school. It was a very successful trip, given that we accomplished those goals and did a couple of fun things while in the area. Here is photographic evidence of the fun stuff.

We visited a bird preserve in Henderson, and it was beautiful and peaceful. The weather was amazing -- 65 degrees in January? Yes, please. (Check back in July to see how much we love the weather then.)

Nora was very excited about ducks. She now says "quack quack" when she sees a picture of a duck. 

Our evening activities on the strip were a big contrast to our peaceful morning outing. The fountains at the Bellagio scared the little one.

But the conservatory at the Bellagio was really beautiful!

The gardens are currently celebrating the Chinese New Year. The children in the photo above are made of flowers.

Job

For the last seven months, much of my time and brain space has been devoted to job searching. After 15 job applications, 5 job interviews, and 3 job offers, I've finally accepted a tenure track position at University of Wyoming libraries as the Instruction and Assessment Librarian and I'm totally excited about the job. This is the job description:

The Instruction and Assessment Librarian provides leadership for the Libraries for our instruction program that includes bibliographic and formal instruction. The position also oversees an assessment program that evaluates our instruction program and will provide direction for improving information literacy for the university. This position also provides reference and instruction, including night and weekend work and may have subject liaison responsibilities. The Librarian reports to the Head of the Reference and Instruction Services. As a member of the library faculty, you will pursue an active and ongoing program of professional development, scholarship, and service.

This position is a great fit for me because it will involve a great deal of teaching, which is my favorite part of librarianship and what led me to library school in the first place. The University of Wyoming is in Laramie and meets many of the requirements that Mike and I had for our next place: it has mountains, an active outdoor culture, and is within a day's drive of many of our family members who live in Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico. They do have nasty winters in Laramie, which we experienced firsthand in December 2007 when we got stuck there while driving from Illinois to Idaho. But, harsh winters notwithstanding, we are really looking forward to getting settled there. Mike is looking into employment options with the University, area community colleges, the Wyoming Arts Council, Wyoming Humanities Council, and more. Laramie is a small town of about 27,000 people, but it's just about a two hour drive to Denver, so it's not completely remote from civilization.

We're planning to move in mid-July and I'll start work at the beginning of August. We're taking a house-hunting trip to Laramie in the middle/end of June. So, if your travels take you to Wyoming in the near future, get in touch and come visit us!