Amygdalia's Blog

California Dreamin'

Hello Blog!  So sorry I've been neglecting you for well over a year.  You can forgive me, right?

What a rollercoaster the past year and a half have been!  After a few short term contract positions, we realized that Bob was not going to find a good, permanent position in our local area.  So we decided it was time for him to start looking elsewhere in the country.  Within a few weeks I was researching areas like Gaithersburg, Maryland and northern California.  Within a few weeks after that he was flying to the Bay area for an interview.  And within days of returning home he received a job offer!  Our heads were still spinning from the idea, and Goldilocks in particular was VERY unhappy about the idea of moving away from her friends, but at the same time this was not an opportunity we could pass up.  After going through hell and back at his old job, Bob SO deserved the recognition of his abilities that this job offer presented.  The company really wanted him!  They did everything they could to sweeten the deal for us. 

The biggest concern for us while making this decision was Dr. B.  She'd decided during the previous school year that she wanted to find a way to graduate a year early.  Which meant . . . we would be moving one month into her senior year in high school.  If she were to come with us, there was very little chance that she'd be able to graduate early.  All of our family and closest friends who might have been in a position to take her for the remainder of the school year are over the border in PA.  So she's staying with the family of one of her closest friends.  If I thought it was difficult to parent a teenager in the same house . . . it's doubly so from 3,000 miles away!

We moved out to California at the very end of September.  The kids started a new school (first and only time I ever had/will have 2 kids in the same school), and we lived in a small 2 bedroom apartment that Bob's new company provided for us.  We quickly decided that this was NOT the place for us, so despite the fact that I very much did not want to have to switch the kids' school again after we moved, we decided to look for a house in another town. 

We moved into our new house just before Christmas break, and Dr. B came to spend the holidays with us.  The kids started at their 3rd schools for the school year after winter break.  Monkey's school is literally across the street from our house!  It's a great house . . . or it will be once we're through with it (in a decade or so).  We're feeling quite like we've moved into the Money Pit, as we keep finding more and more things that need to be taken care of.  We had the bedroom carpets replaced as soon as we moved in, as well as tile in the master bathroom and the laundry room.  Our next project, which cannot happen soon enough, is to have the kitchen remodeled.  It's original to the 30+ year old house, and the particleboard crumbled when we tried to clean it.  In the meantime all of our kitchen supplies are being stored in the laundry room.  But we have 5 bedrooms, lots of space, and a backyard pool!  Plenty of room for visitors, and we've already had a few.  I love our neighborhood.  We had several neighbors come over right after we moved in, with trays of holiday cookies to welcome us.  The neighborhood had a progressive dinner a few weeks ago, where we had a chance to meet many of the families.  And when I was sick last week, a friend from down the street brought me homemade SOUP!   

The downtown is absolutely adorable, and our city is home to 60 wineries.  I've visited 5, so far.    The winter has been GLORIOUS!!!  We should have done this years ago . . . despite being lonely and somewhat overwhelmed by all the changes and things that need to be done, the weather has made a huge difference in my typical Seasonal Affective Disorder.  I LOVE IT!!

And . . . just because we wouldn't want things to go too smoothly . . . we got a call a few weeks ago from our Realtor back east (yes, our house is still on the market . . . or it was) letting us know that we had a burst pipe in the utility room.  Our poor house . . . the downstairs had to be gutted.    So now we're going to have construction projects going on both coasts!  Oh boy.  Fortunately, insurance will cover just about all of the repair/rebuilding costs. 

So now we're caught up, and hopefully I'll remember to blog on a regular basis, now.  And maybe even *gasp* WRITE something!