PC and a Mac It must be true – opposites do attract…

What with our changing lives, I thought it was a good time to change blogs. You can find our new blog at:

http://thatcouldbefun.wordpress.com/

See you there!

I’m not sure if you’ve heard or not, but about a month ago Brian got some calls from head hunters with jobs that he was actually interested in. I usually humor him just enough to let him get it out of his system, but patiently remind him how awesome his current job is.

“Hey Brian, remember when you had to spend two hours every day just getting to and from work?”

“Hey Brian, remember how we had lunch together today? Wasn’t that awesome?”

“Hey Brian, remember that time I was freaking out because Lyra found a razor and you were able to come right home?”

But the more we talked about it, the more I started to see why RK might not be the best place for us.

“Hey Hillary, remember all the traveling I’ve had to do? As a partner, it will be even more.”

“Hey Hillary, remember all those nights I wasn’t able to come home for dinner because of stupid happy hours and client dinners that I had to go to?”

“Hey Hillary, remember the ratings of the schools in our area? And the price of houses outside of our area?”

He was on track to become partner in the next two years or so, but Brian is not one to be swayed by fancy titles. He realized how as a partner, he’d have to spend a lot more time with the other partners. In the end, their lifestyle wasn’t really something we wanted for our family.

So he interviewed in UT. Kind of risky. Then in San Fran, not the kind of work he’d like to do. And he interviewed in TX. Intriguing.

He’ll be working at Fidelity. Going from a firm working on lots of clients, to working for one really big client. The job sounds good, but they also had a great relocation package. Everything from helping to sell our house, putting us up in corporate housing until we find a place, and boxing up all our belongings and moving them there. To Texas. I can’t believe I’m going to be a Texan! In all my life, I never anticipated that.

I was really bummed at first. When it started looking like it might actually happen, I was so sad. I was so sad to leave my little house. I was sad to leave CA where it’s (relatively) easy to visit with family. I’m mostly sad to leave my friends, though. I’ve made some really great friends here and I’m going to miss them most.

But I’m excited. I’m excited for a (big) house. I’m excited for us to live by lots of great schools. I’m excited about all the possibilities of what can happen.

We were both really nervous about the decision, but after lots of prayer, I think we’ve been able to see that our decision is the right one. So wish us luck! We’re going to Texas!

Unfortunately I won’t be posting anything about our Christmas because Brian bought me an awesome new camera for Christmas (thanks B!) that thinks it’s too cool for my not-even-very-old computer. Unfortunately I didn’t know this until I’d only used that camera for all things Christmas. I think Apple and Canon are conspiring to make more money off of us. Curse them. But enjoy these other little tidbits.

RK Prom 2012 – Brian and I had quite the time finding a babysitter and almost didn’t make it to this years prom. Only the fact that I’d put so much time and effort into finding a dress and accessories kept me wanting to go. We ended up finding a great babysitter (she even painted Lyra’s toenails like a pro!) and had a fabulous time in the city despite the many rats we walked past to get to the party. It was fun to see some of the people there, I’m finally starting to recognize faces, and the food was good enough that we went back for seconds after our caricature was drawn. 

We did a couple cute crafts for Christmas this year. One of Lyra’s favorites was finger painting a Christmas tree. At first I had her painting with a brush, but then I showed her that fingers are more fun and she agreed.

Lyra is loving dress-up lately. She very princessy and loves all her dresses. She never wants to wear jackets over her dresses. I tell her, it’s a pretty jacket and she says, “No, not pretty!” I basically have had to force winter appropriate clothing on her for this whole month. She got a cute pink dinosaur outfit from her grandma Linda but decided it looked better on bear. That’s why you have more than one kid right?

One night for some reason I decided Lyra could have a brownie as a snack before dinner. Lyra loved it of course! I sent the picture out to some family and my sister Shan texts back.

Shan: you never let me give her brownies before dinner.

Me: Well it was like a healthy brownie anyway, so it hardly counts.

Shan: A healthy brownie? You monster.

And then one day after Lyra’s bath, I had her all wrapped up and then thought to myself, she looks just like Elora Danan in Willow. Don’t you agree? Well, maybe not just like, but you can for sure see the connection.

Brian has been traveling so much for work lately and realized he needed a second suit coat. I wondered if we could just get one at JCPenny or something, but none of them fit right. We went to Men’s Warehouse and found out that he has a long torso and not as long arms. Bummer! So we ended up buying some suits from MW so they could alter them, which was a tiny bit more expensive. Oh well.

Well I told you that, to tell you this, Lyra was so cute in the store! She was wearing a dress that day and went into the 360 mirror dressing area while Brian was with the salesman. She admired herself and danced to the Christmas music. I thought it was so darling.

Password is: mirror

Later Brian was putting on shoes to see how the pants should fit. Lyra came over and said she wanted to help. She picked up a shoe and tried to help dad put his foot in. haha. Then later she brought over socks and ties for him to pick out. She would also tell Brian about the jackets. Blue dad! Buttons! She might have a future in retail?

Brian had to work in Beverly Hills shortly after we returned from UT, so about a week after we got back we left again. Lyra and I stayed with my family in Ventura, and for a couple days Brian left us and worked in BH.

We had been staying in the outside bedroom while Brian was there, but after he left and the rain stopped Lyra and I moved inside to Micaela’s room. The spiders looking for a dry place to stay were just too big.

Dad made sure that Lyra and I got out each day. One day we went to the park, which may have been a bad idea since it was so wet outside. The kids loved it though. Lyra ran through the puddles, but wouldn’t run through them on the way back. One direction puddles apparently. And Sophie. She kind of ran through the puddles, but then just sat down in one. She also slipped in some muddy grass. Poor wet little bottom!

Another day we went to the harbor for lunch. We went on a walk while we waited for April and Eliza to show up.  We all enjoyed our walk. The little girls were so cute ‘running’. We sat down for lunch and Lyra would not eat anything (surprise surprise) except for the crackers that go in the clam chowder. We all went back to the house after that and Lyra and Eliza had a dance party. It was the cutest thing ever.

Password is: dancing

This trip was one of my best with Kim. Since her accident I hadn’t really spent any time with her, but there were a lot of opportunities this trip. Sometimes Lyra would ask to go in and see her, so we’d go in and tell her about our day. We watched a couple movies with her one night and read some books in there too. Sometimes late at night I’d go in while Linda Massaged her and we’d talk until the night nurse came. It was nice to not feel like I was intruding or anything.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This year for Thanksgiving we decided to visit my family in Utah. I think we thought it would be better for driving (less snow on the roads) and we hadn’t had Thanksgiving dinner with my Utah family in a really long time. The snow thing turned out to be true. There wasn’t any snow on the roads all the way there and back. Wahoo!

On the way there we made an extra stop in Elko so that I could see my old high school friend Autumn. Since we’re facebook friends I knew she was living in NV so we messaged back and forth and were able to meet up at taco time. I hadn’t seen her since hs graduation! Brian asked how we’d become friends and it was funny to realize that we’d never had any classes together in school but only mutual friends who’d initially brought us together. Sometimes friendships are just meant to be.

Once we got there we just spent a lot of time with the family. I had lunch with mom at Greenery, we all had a lovely afternoon at grandma Ruthie’s, Shan babysat Lyra so Brian and I could go see Lincoln, Brian took me to Chick-fil-a since the lines are too long in CA, Brian worked, Lyra and I got sick, we made sugar cookies, spent the weekends with Hurley, watched lots of Ratatouille. and got Shan and Ryker up to date with our favorite youtube videos (mom had a good one too). That’s of course not all we did, we’re just scratching the surface, but that’s what I remember the best aside from Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving was great this year. Shelli and Lee got there first since Shelli was in charge of appetizers, and let me tell you, she rocked it! Never have I craved veggie dip like that before. She also brought over a sausagy dip for chips, cheese & grapes, and cream cheese with jalapeno jelly for crackers. Muy bueno. Then we went traditional for everything else. We had turkey, stuffing, olives, cranberries, etc with pumpkin dessert after. Lyra was so unhappy when everyone started coming over. She wouldn’t talk to anyone and was just sad, but about an hour in she warmed up and started having a lot of fun with Bailee and Liam. I think grandpa liked that Brian was there to watch football with him. No one else in the family really likes sports (Lee had to work). We also got to see my aunt Dawn and some of her family after dinner. And after that I got some people to play Telestrations with me. I think we all had a great time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Password is: tickle