We made it

I think that phrase describes 2010 in a nutshell.  We made it through the year, somehow. 

The move was challenging for me.

The Pacific Northwest has welcomed us with mild weather so far.  We may get a bit of snow this week, which will be really fun for Gabriel if we can convince him to wear a coat and boots.  He is stuck in his California ways and doesn't like the idea.  I am thinking of letting him go out and get wet and cold and figure it out himself.  In general, he is doing well after the move and keeps asking if we can keep the house.  Here he is playing out front in his pajamas:

And enjoying his Christmas gifts:

Here's to a happy and prosperous 2011 for everyone!

Four days left

The moving crunch is on!  We are not even half ready yet, but have some helpers coming this week every day.  Kit really couldn't do much until he finished working, and I just can't do much with my arms, still.   As Kit remarked, at one point we will just have to throw the remaining stuff into boxes and leave.

I really hope our next home will be forever.  Not just because moving is so awful, but also because we just want to have a long-term home. 

Things are coming together as well as can be expected.  Gabriel is really upset about the idea of a new home.  It's all too hard for him to understand.  So we have taken to calling the new place, "our #2 house".  He seems to accept that better for now.  Once we are there, we can introduce the idea of permanence.

Our wonderful realtors came by today with a little gift for Gabriel.  They said that our mortgage company has everything on hold for the short sale and is not being very responsive.  *sigh*  I don't have the energy to engage in that battle.

Sadly, our beloved dog Havi will not be making the move with us.  She has become quite ill in the past week, and even though we don't have an exact diagnosis, we feel her time has come.  We are confident it's the right decision, but what timing.  The last emotional blow in our long, sad goodbye to California.  Here is my sweetie, who has been with me for 13.5 years:





We took her on vacation last summer, and she was so excited to see snow at Crater Lake that she lay right down in it and proceeded to eat it!

We move in 6 weeks!

There is so much going on, and no time for blogging.  I will try to put some new cute pictures up soon!

We are moving north on or about December 16th.  Not much packing has happened yet.  I'd really like to get rid of stuff.  We have quite a few boxes in the garage that have never been unpacked since our move here from Ohio in 2002.  Yes, that means most of it has to go. 

We don't have a place to live yet, but we are going up next weekend to find one.  I will also have a day or so of work meetings, to get some things rolling.  We're hoping Kit can make some work connections, too.

We have our current house on the market.  It will have to be a short sale, and that's just the California scene right now.  Our realtors are pushing to get a bid quickly because the mortgage companies take so long to approve the short sales.  Yesterday, they had a realtors-only open house, and 50 people showed up.  Kit said the dining room table was covered with business cards.  Sounds like the realtors are desperate for business.  We have had 5 individual showings so far, and 2 more are coming tomorrow.  Just for the record, I do NOT like my home being on display. 

I'm a bit worried that our mortgage company won't respond in time to keep a prospective buyer.  I applied in July for a hardship loan modification, and they still haven't processed that paperwork.  When I called them in early October to inform them we are moving, I asked if we could start the short sale process.  They asked me not to, because they hadn't gotten around to my other paperwork yet.  But the realtor thinks that with an actual offer, they will be forced to respond.  I really don't trust the mortgage company at all.  I won't go into the details of all our dealings with them, but it's disgusting.  Everything you've read in the paper is true, and more.  They really don't care about actual people who live in actual houses.  It's all a bunch of asset shuffling to them.

Good news! But....

I got the job!!  I am starting next week, doing a few hours per week of remote work.  Then we will move in December, and I start in person in January. 

But--Kit found out today that he can't transfer his Federal job to the new location.  There is no way for them to do it and stay budget neutral, which was a requirement.

We will still go forward, because my new job creates great long-term prospects for me.  It's really disappointing that Kit will be giving up work that he has done so well.  The person who had to say no wrote to him,
" I would give my right arm to get you on the team, you are outstanding in every way - but I cannot figure out a way to make it happen."

Talk about mixed feelings.

More oil spill work

Kit is back in Louisiana for two weeks, continuing the work of monitoring oil spill damage.  He enjoys being there, in spite of the circumstances.  This time he is way down at the bottom of the Mississippi River in Venice, LA.  Yesterday he saw a 12-foot alligator (luckily he was on a boat!) and today he had crawfish pie for dinner.   So he's having a great Cajun experience.

Still waiting for something to change

I had a good interview up in Washington about 2 weeks ago.  They promised to let me know by the end of September. I felt like I had a very good chance of being hired.  Not sure if feelings really count, though!

Meanwhile, adoption is very far away right now.  Not sure if it's gone forever or not.  We are dealing with many financial issues.  That's what happens when you lose 2/3 of your household income!  Just have to wait out the situation.

Gabriel is doing his thing, back to preschool now, and riding the bus this year.  He is really enjoying being back at school, with the other kids and the stimulation.  Here are the pics from the first week of school:

Some movement on the job front!

This week I have had two very positive phone conversations with nice people at a hospital in Mt. Vernon, Washington (about an hour north of Seattle).  I found out that my resume was sent there by the school I visited last month, and the hospital is very ready to move forward with their medical education program.  So far, I like everything I hear about the place and their plans for the future.  It could be *perfect* for me. They don't quite have "my" job ready, but they will by January 1st.  My next step is to submit a formal job application so that I can be invited up to interview.

Meanwhile, on the same day that I had my first phone call, Kit had a discussion with his boss about the chances of being transferred to Seattle.  Strangely enough, the Seattle NOAA office is relatively short-staffed these days because lots of employees are working full-time on the oil spill.  So they might really need him to transfer there.  And their timeline would likely be January 1st.

I think we might be moving north in December.  :-)  Don't want to count my chickens, but these are just about the most positive bits of news I've had in over two years.