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Jazz, Thank you so much for the insight! I am not surprised about anything that you said, and that is one of the reasons we thought maybe Chandler or Ahwatukee area may be less "plastic" and more family oriented. I do believe we will miss the seasons after a couple years, but I will not miss the 9 months of rain and lack of sun that we deal with here in Seattle and the cold dampness. Another plus is we really like the idea of being so close to CA, we love going to Disneyland and San Diego.
After looking into N. Scottdale and the west valley, I think we are more comfortable with the east valley. My husband is interviewing for 3 different jobs and one is in the east valley. The other is in downtown Phoenix and the 3rd is the one in Sun City West. I'm hoping the one in the east valley works out.
I keep hearing how bad the schools are in AZ but everytime we look at neighborhoods and research the schools on Greatschools.com they have the highest rating of a 9 or 10. Can someone please explain this to me? Again, we are looking at high schools since our son is currently a freshman.
I'm curious, where are you thinking about moving to when you do move?
Do you take vacations in the summer to get out of the heat? That would be our plan.
Thanks again!
I do think Chandler and Ahwatukee would be less "plastic" than, say, Scottsdale. However in my opinion it's still a bit more than you might find elsewhere - more like Real Housewives of OC than say Real Housewives of NYC, for lack of more appropriate analogy, haha. When I first moved here, I went on a date w/ someone and one of the things he commented most about was how "natural" and "down-to-earth" I was compared to other girls there. Now take that w/ a grain of salt, but I did find it an interesting focus of his.
School info - I go based on what my husband and I have learned from natives and based on what has happened since we've moved here. Education is extremely important to us w/ hubby's dad being a long-time school board member, many teachers on both sides, both of us having degrees, etc. One co-worker (a molecular biology degree holder and AZ native) told me to expect to send our kids to private school if we stay here, for example. Here are a couple fairly recent articles (in the last yr or 2) that may give you an idea what I mean. You will find pockets of better schools in both areas and even Scottsdale...but better compared to what is our question.
Sun City I don't have personal experience w/ but a general understanding that it is more of a retirement type of community than a vibrant, family type place.
Where would we consider moving? Well, my husband is a techie and if we're being pragmatic, we need to consider where the best potential is for careers. He currently works from home but if the worst were to happen, we'd want to be in an area w/ a high likelihood of finding another job quickly. W/ that in mind, we've been looking at Silicon Valley (of course, haha), Austin, TX, CO, and DC area. Mainly we look at Silicon Valley and Austin, w/ the lower cost of living of Austin giving it a slight edge. Now the summers there aren't much better than here, so that will suck. But the schools in both places are better as are many other things on our "do not like" list. If money were no object, it'd be Silicon Valley. I would love to move back to the Chicago suburb area, but hubby wouldn't be on board w/ the weather or job prospects.
Many do vacation during the summer to escape the heat. One good thing you have in AZ is a short distance to such varied climates/landscapes in every direction. You can drive north for cooler temps, snow, mountains, green. You can go to Mexico (though we wouldn't given its current climate and my hubby's particular field of expertise). You can drive to CA w/in a day, or stay in the desert. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing palm trees on a daily basis. Now I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of the things that this fairly new parent (2 yr old) and midwest native finds terrifying about traveling north - mainly Bubonic Plague and Hantavirus. Now how much of this is new parent anxiety? I don't know...maybe all of it, haha. But I distinctly remember when I learned that these things exist here in one of my micro courses (biology degree) and I thought it was a joke. The Bubonic plague...in AZ. Ha. Now I think you stay away from fleas and you're ok w/ the plague - so I guess no hunting or playing w/ dead things? But w/ an adventurous toddler, we won't be making any camping trips up north in the near future.
It is also still an adventure for me coming from the land of deer and raccoons to worry about things like scorpions, black widows, tarantulas, coyotes, mountain lions, gila monsters, cactus, etc...again through the eyes of a new parent. It doesn't seem to phase others, though, so perhaps it's just a familiarity thing. I do love seeing geckos every day though!
for some reason the summer heat isn't bothering me as much so far. Going on 5 years here. Only hating it when I have to get in my hot car. I guess I could throw it in the garage. Well, we shall see how insane I get around September when its still over 100 degrees.
I do think Chandler and Ahwatukee would be less "plastic" than, say, Scottsdale. However in my opinion it's still a bit more than you might find elsewhere - more like Real Housewives of OC than say Real Housewives of NYC, for lack of more appropriate analogy, haha. When I first moved here, I went on a date w/ someone and one of the things he commented most about was how "natural" and "down-to-earth" I was compared to other girls there. Now take that w/ a grain of salt, but I did find it an interesting focus of his.
School info - I go based on what my husband and I have learned from natives and based on what has happened since we've moved here. Education is extremely important to us w/ hubby's dad being a long-time school board member, many teachers on both sides, both of us having degrees, etc. One co-worker (a molecular biology degree holder and AZ native) told me to expect to send our kids to private school if we stay here, for example. Here are a couple fairly recent articles (in the last yr or 2) that may give you an idea what I mean. You will find pockets of better schools in both areas and even Scottsdale...but better compared to what is our question.
Sun City I don't have personal experience w/ but a general understanding that it is more of a retirement type of community than a vibrant, family type place.
Where would we consider moving? Well, my husband is a techie and if we're being pragmatic, we need to consider where the best potential is for careers. He currently works from home but if the worst were to happen, we'd want to be in an area w/ a high likelihood of finding another job quickly. W/ that in mind, we've been looking at Silicon Valley (of course, haha), Austin, TX, CO, and DC area. Mainly we look at Silicon Valley and Austin, w/ the lower cost of living of Austin giving it a slight edge. Now the summers there aren't much better than here, so that will suck. But the schools in both places are better as are many other things on our "do not like" list. If money were no object, it'd be Silicon Valley. I would love to move back to the Chicago suburb area, but hubby wouldn't be on board w/ the weather or job prospects.
Many do vacation during the summer to escape the heat. One good thing you have in AZ is a short distance to such varied climates/landscapes in every direction. You can drive north for cooler temps, snow, mountains, green. You can go to Mexico (though we wouldn't given its current climate and my hubby's particular field of expertise). You can drive to CA w/in a day, or stay in the desert. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing palm trees on a daily basis. Now I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of the things that this fairly new parent (2 yr old) and midwest native finds terrifying about traveling north - mainly Bubonic Plague and Hantavirus. Now how much of this is new parent anxiety? I don't know...maybe all of it, haha. But I distinctly remember when I learned that these things exist here in one of my micro courses (biology degree) and I thought it was a joke. The Bubonic plague...in AZ. Ha. Now I think you stay away from fleas and you're ok w/ the plague - so I guess no hunting or playing w/ dead things? But w/ an adventurous toddler, we won't be making any camping trips up north in the near future.
It is also still an adventure for me coming from the land of deer and raccoons to worry about things like scorpions, black widows, tarantulas, coyotes, mountain lions, gila monsters, cactus, etc...again through the eyes of a new parent. It doesn't seem to phase others, though, so perhaps it's just a familiarity thing. I do love seeing geckos every day though!
I think you'd like Chandler. However, if your situation changed and you moved Austin would not be a bad choice. My family briefly lived there and I had no idea how techie the city was! It's economy is nearly recession proof as they learned from their dot com crisis in the past and it always rates high on many lists of best cities to live in. It was pretty family-oriented as far as I could tell and it was nice to have the Colorado river flowing through the downtown area.
Jazz, Thank you so much for the insight! I am not surprised about anything that you said, and that is one of the reasons we thought maybe Chandler or Ahwatukee area may be less "plastic" and more family oriented. I do believe we will miss the seasons after a couple years, but I will not miss the 9 months of rain and lack of sun that we deal with here in Seattle and the cold dampness. Another plus is we really like the idea of being so close to CA, we love going to Disneyland and San Diego.
After looking into N. Scottdale and the west valley, I think we are more comfortable with the east valley. My husband is interviewing for 3 different jobs and one is in the east valley. The other is in downtown Phoenix and the 3rd is the one in Sun City West. I'm hoping the one in the east valley works out.
I keep hearing how bad the schools are in AZ but everytime we look at neighborhoods and research the schools on Greatschools.com they have the highest rating of a 9 or 10. Can someone please explain this to me? Again, we are looking at high schools since our son is currently a freshman.
I'm curious, where are you thinking about moving to when you do move?
Do you take vacations in the summer to get out of the heat? That would be our plan.
Thanks again!
The rankings on GreatSchools are based on the state test(AIMS). The Arizona
Instrument to Measure Standards is our state test and most people outside the
world of education and policy think it is on par with every other state.
Unfortunately this is not the case. When I was in high school, they tested us
with the 12th grade level version of the test and 85% of the state failed it.
To pad the numbers, Arizona lowered the benchmarks to a 7th grade level to keep
the wheels churning and make it appear as though the majority of children are
doing well. After 10 years of having pathetically easy standards, most of the
school system is ruined. There are randomly good districts and schools, but as
soon as they start to pull away they are flooded with students and ruined. They
are like life boats on the Titanic, overturned by the people in the water trying
to survive. To get a good education in Arizona, you have to get your children
into the honors track with AP, IB or dual credit standards in place. This can
be very hard to do when most of their friends are receiving A's in all their
easy regular classes with out doing any real work.
If you want a better measure of our schools, you'll have to dig through ACT,
SAT, AP, and IB data. I won't bore you with the results, I'll just tell you
about my life.
Born in AZ(Ahwatukee, pre-AIMS), Raised in AZ, BS in AZ, First career in AZ, MS
in AZ, Second career as a High school teacher in AZ, Married in AZ, Just had a
baby in AZ and want the best for him.....so.......
We're moving
Probably Iowa, maybe Minnesota, or possibly out of country.
For your situation, does your child enjoy school? If he hates it, he will love
AZ, since he won't have to do anything as he is probably already able to pass
our state test already.
I wanted to give an update on our move to Arizona! We ended up buying a house in south Chandler and have now lived here for a 18 months. We love it here and our son had no problem adjusting and making friends right away. It helped that he tried out and made the baseball team the day after we arrived! All that worrying for nothing! Moving here has been great for us since we love going to professional sports games, concerts, spring training, The Scottsdale Arabian Horse show etc. etc.! We drive to L.A, Disneyland and San Diego. We love Weekend getaways to Tucson and driving up to Mt. Lemmon and also Sedona. We have a swimming pool, which I feel is a must living here, and I feel like we live the resort lifestyle in our own backyard. We also love the weather, even the summer. We have now lived here for two summers and they don't bother us a bit, in fact we enjoy them. If we get too hot we jump in the pool. I'd say the worst part is getting into your hot car! I'm so happy that we took the leap and thanks to all of you who helped with your advice and comments!
I wanted to give an update on our move to Arizona! We ended up buying a house in south Chandler and have now lived here for a 18 months. We love it here and our son had no problem adjusting and making friends right away. It helped that he tried out and made the baseball team the day after we arrived! All that worrying for nothing! Moving here has been great for us since we love going to professional sports games, concerts, spring training, The Scottsdale Arabian Horse show etc. etc.! We drive to L.A, Disneyland and San Diego. We love Weekend getaways to Tucson and driving up to Mt. Lemmon and also Sedona. We have a swimming pool, which I feel is a must living here, and I feel like we live the resort lifestyle in our own backyard. We also love the weather, even the summer. We have now lived here for two summers and they don't bother us a bit, in fact we enjoy them. If we get too hot we jump in the pool. I'd say the worst part is getting into your hot car! I'm so happy that we took the leap and thanks to all of you who helped with your advice and comments!
THANK YOU so much for coming back to update. (It doesn't happen nearly often enough.) So glad everything has worked out so well for you! Where in the Valley is your husband working?
If we get too hot we jump in the pool. I'd say the worst part is getting into your hot car! I'm so happy that we took the leap and thanks to all of you who helped with your advice and comments!
Congratulations on your successful move! Glad to hear the positivity as we plan our own.
(For what it's worth, I've been reading quite a bit about infrared-rejecting window tints to help manage car heat. There are a number of reputable places in the area that install top brands. If you're interested, I'd be happy to drop you a message with what I've found.)
I wanted to give an update on our move to Arizona! We ended up buying a house in south Chandler and have now lived here for a 18 months. We love it here and our son had no problem adjusting and making friends right away. It helped that he tried out and made the baseball team the day after we arrived! All that worrying for nothing! Moving here has been great for us since we love going to professional sports games, concerts, spring training, The Scottsdale Arabian Horse show etc. etc.! We drive to L.A, Disneyland and San Diego. We love Weekend getaways to Tucson and driving up to Mt. Lemmon and also Sedona. We have a swimming pool, which I feel is a must living here, and I feel like we live the resort lifestyle in our own backyard. We also love the weather, even the summer. We have now lived here for two summers and they don't bother us a bit, in fact we enjoy them. If we get too hot we jump in the pool. I'd say the worst part is getting into your hot car! I'm so happy that we took the leap and thanks to all of you who helped with your advice and comments!
Thanks for the update and I'm glad you are enjoying everything the valley offers! If you like the summers then living here will be a breeze.
Congratulations on your successful move! Glad to hear the positivity as we plan our own.
(For what it's worth, I've been reading quite a bit about infrared-rejecting window tints to help manage car heat. There are a number of reputable places in the area that install top brands. If you're interested, I'd be happy to drop you a message with what I've found.)
That's what a garage is for- to keep the car out of the sun!
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Where in the Valley is your husband working?
