Sunday, December 05, 2010
In case you're wondering
My online mom’s group has been a big support to me over the last two years. And perhaps like you, they’ve been wondering how I’ve been doing lately. In particular have been curious about how we survived the move. Tonight I finally updated them and realized it felt good to document the story a bit. So for you too, a copy of my response to “Hey, how are you guys doing?”
Answer = Doing pretty well considering!
The move out was ridiculously hard and stressful, I'm not going to lie. Purging the house, putting it on the market, scrambling for showings, packing, coordinating and moving in 30 days was a joke. I don’t recommend it.
The hubby quit his job early to handle all the moving stuff while I started to wind down my client work, and ramp up for the new job. That ended up being awesome and hard all at the same time. Awesome because my husband kicks ass for the most part and plowed through his to dos, and really worked like a dog to make shit happen etc. Hard because I'm a type A and I had to bite my tongue left and right and try to trust him and not tell him what to do. F’ing hard. Which brings me to my next point - moving your family across the country (and in our case, switching our household/worker roles at the same time) will test your marriage like nuthin' else. Wooo doogie.
So here's what I learned about that - I'm really glad I bit my tongue and let go. There were a few flare ups here and there, and things definitely didn't get run with the brilliant efficiency I would have run them with (hahaha!), but you know what, the move went pretty damn well on the whole, and when we got here in one piece, he was pretty damn triumphant. Deservedly so. So good for us.
Ok, as I type, here's a good story I just thought of - So the night before the packers came I had a mini breakdown because I thought Justin would understand that we needed to be involved in the packing too and would allow for that during the packing process. Like we would be able to do some labeling and prioritizing certain boxes etc. He disagreed, and felt like there was only so much we could reasonably do, we were hiring guys and we needed to let go. ("You just need to let go" is not a good phrase for me in general, but certainly not during that kind of chaos, so you can imagine how that went. Hahahhaha.) Anyway, long story short, I had to let go. And the boxes all got packed and moved and when we got to the new house we realized all 32 of our kitchen boxes were labeled "kitchen". That was it. No way to know where the plates were, etc. Hahahaah. I thought about saying I told you so, but instead we managed to have a good laugh.
The kids have adjusted pretty well, although H hasn't consistently slept through the night since the move really and we've both been too tired to deal with CIO. In prep for the flight, Audrey was told that we were flying to California, and that soon after we arrived she would meet Santa so now every time she hears a plane, she'll look up and say, "The plane is going to California to visit Santa!" Ha.
The rental house is pretty crappy but we're less than a mile from the beach and have gone a lot. In fact, in our first week here (before I went to work) we went every morning, which was wonderful.
The job is great (it’s the reason we moved, so you’d hope so, right?) but I really miss working from home and it scares me how easily I fall back into working like a drone. The full time working mom guilt has set in too. I definitely miss them all day and feel like I won't know H the way I know A. A got so much more attention from me every day of her first two years.
I have no idea how I'm going to make time for myself, although two girlfriends/colleagues of mine took me out to lunch yesterday which was awesome on a lot of levels, but perhaps most importantly gave me a glimpse into the fact that I may be able to get a little girlfriend time in every once in a while. Maybe. Oh, and we saw Courtney Cox which was fun. (She's had some work done, that one. Yowza.)
The house in Oak Park sits empty. Our little surveys come back from viewings with feedback that it IS priced right, so I don't think we need to come down. It's just a terrible market. I'm crossing my fingers for a Christmas miracle renter because paying our mortgage and my rent and a new car payment is killing me.
Audrey isn’t in preschool yet either. The waiting list game out here is brutal and she is the worst age for it. Too young to just jump into a random empty spot and too old to actually get a decent spot on a waiting list. So I actually need two Christmas miracles.
On a bright note, Mr. Anderson is kicking ass at being a dad at home. He's great with the kids and has been all over the preschool thing. He's cooking dinner, and doing the grocery shopping with great gusto. He's got a baby group already and found classes for music and gym, etc.
Hmmmm... What else?
LA is like an old shoe for me. But not quite a comfy one, maybe? I've slipped back into everything very easily, and love it, but on occasion the old little blisters are rubbing up against the sides a bit. I love the weather, love being near my family, and my best friend, and I love the familiarity of the landscape and the great lifestyle. Hate the traffic and the douchebaggery. Hate the fact that while I was just carrying a little bit of extra weight in Oak Park, I'm downright fat here. And i hate the cost of housing.
But did I mention I live less than a mile from the beach? And we go there a lot? And I get to see my nephews?
Anyway, I'm definitely rambling at this point. My short answer is, we're good.
JA
PPS - It took 436 boxes to move us. OmG.
Saturday, December 04, 2010
The song Ms. A serenaded us with this evening...
Let's clap hello for vagina.
Let's clap hello for penis.
We're here to sing and clap and play.
So let's get started right away.
Hello
Hello
Hello
Huge News
1) Ms. A will be two this week.
2) Mr. Giggles is 6 months.
3) We have moved back to California
4) J is experimenting with a new bourbon.
Those of us who know us well are only be stunned by 4.
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