Let's see, January started out with good old family craziness that seemed more Jerry Springer than I ever would have imagined would have been possible in my extended family - although the last couple years have just been crazy in that sense. I am really hoping 2012 has seen that influence wrapped up. Things are looking promising as far as that is concerned, but you never know. No need to go into the details, many of you know and we'll leave the past in the past. We also found out in January that Little Lady was going to be a big sister! We also put our condo and house on the market in our process of getting ready to move to Boise. We had announced to our families we were moving in November of 2011, and this was just the continuation of that plan. I also began the process of wrapping up my home daycare business.
She was so tiny! And still at that point she was giving herself bruises all the time, hence the shiner. She was my helper, getting everything ready for our move!
We got an offer on our house a week after it was listed and an offer on our condo about a month after it was listed. We had invested a lot of time and a bit of money getting them in tip top shape and it paid off. Our house was a short sale, our condo was not, but we were out the entire down payment we put on it. Times are tough and, in all reality, I don't see the economy getting any better. Times are probably going to get much tougher, but us being in Idaho has made things much easier on our family financially. Not having those mortgages over us with properties that were loosing value and property taxes that were going up is a lifesaver.
The next couple months we just got ready to move. Chris had been doing job search stuff, looking into possible travel nursing. I finished up my daycare in March, right when Chris headed to Boise for a week to do a hard push on the job search - a month before we were slated to move out here. He had three interviews while out here. He got a good feel with the interviews, but didn't get any offers before heading home, leaving him feeling rather defeated.
After being home for about a week his first offer came in. It wasn't great. It was at St. Luke's, but it was in a different department than he had worked in and it was night shift. He was ready to take it to do what he had to do. He did go ahead and give the other place he interviewed at a call to let them know he had received and offer and asking if they had been interested in making one. They were and asked what they needed to give him to get him to work there. Ummmmm - how 'bout $250k a year? Yeah - he didn't ask for that and that would have stopped that deal right there, but it was nice to hear and helped encourage him after his initial disappointment. So finally, a couple weeks before our scheduled move, a job was lined up, we had a house lined up and we were really doing it!
Of course, this whole time I was pregnant. I had gone on the zofran again for the morning sickness but was thankfully able to get off in March. I was still exhausted though. This pregnancy was much more tiring. Of course, I'm older than I was last time, but we also had a whole different world of stress on our plate this time and I'm sure that was a factor. I tried to pack up the house as best as I could, but it was really hard with a not-yet-two year old and a growing baby. At the end of March we had a going away/early birthday party for little lady so we could see everyone before we left. It was a great gathering, I even splurged on a face painter for the kids. Most of my daycare kids were able to make it and my Grandmother and Aunt even made the trip from Rehoboth!
Little Lady got a lady bug.
The kids all seemed to have a great time.
The face painter requested to work with Chris' amazing canvas.
We spent our last Easter in Frederick.
Took our last strolls through Downtown.
Said goodbye to landmarks.
In April we were busy wrapping up any business we had in Maryland. We got our settlements done and made the rounds to say goodbye. We also found out we were having a boy! Then our moving trailer was dropped off and some AMAZING family and friends came to help us pack it up. We are really blessed to have such great people in our lives. Dave and Lorraine even came by the following day to help again. They are such wonderful people and Lorraine helped watch Little Lady several times leading up to our move, which was a lifesaver. I miss them. Our neighbors were also awesome. They busted their tails helping load it up. Hopefully they didn't just want us gone..... ;-) It of course took us a day longer to get packed up than we planned, but I had given us an extra day in our schedule to get to Idaho. I know how things go. My sister stayed the night before we left, having a sleepover with Little Lady, and my Mother came that morning to say goodbye. Then we were off and our journey began.
From that point on, our year has been pretty well documented on this blog. I really do hope you enjoy it. I do wonder who my readers are sometimes though. I have enabled comments from anyone for now, so if you have a minute, leave one saying hello! With your name though, so I know who is reading! No need to have a blogger account to do so.
We miss our friends and family, but we really have no regrets. This has been the right move for us and we really like it out here. The people, the area, the landscape - it all feels right.
We are also now taking reservations! My Mother and Sister will be here in two weeks. My Mother hasn't met Little Man and hasn't seen Little Lady in 9 months.
Spaces are filling up fast! Make your reservation today! :)
Nice summary. And I noticed right away your change to the comments--no more having to pass the tests to get a comment up. Checking your stats in your blogger dashboard can be encouraging if you see you get more readers than you imagined from your followers or your comments. Knowing I can get 200 reads a day when I only have 40 followers is motivating. :O)
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