Showing Up For Yourself

When you move over 5,000 miles away from Family and Friends, you need to put in extra effort to make sure the Holiday season is just as memorable as the Holidays you had back home. This year we waited until the last minute to put up our Christmas tree. With a newly walking baby in the house, we had to childproof the tree and refrained from hanging up ornaments. So, we opted for some tinsel and homemade felt ornaments. We also hung up our lights on Christmas Eve. This was going to be our first white Christmas or so we thought. The forecast week the week of the 25th showed a slight chance of snow. When it didn't snow, I hoped on the inter-webs and looked for some Christmassy things we could do in the Triad. THE POLAR EXPRESS™ 2022 was the reopening of the Polar Express train ride since Covid closure in 2020. "The 1¼ hour round-trip passenger excursion comes to life as the train departs the Bryson City depot for a journey through the quiet wilderness for a special visi

We've been unofficial official North Carolinians for almost 6 months now. What makes us unofficial is our lack of true commitment. I mean, I still have my California plates on my car, we don't have North Carolina Drivers Licenses and my mail is being forwarded to my mom’s home. And whenever we talk about California, we always refer to it as Home. I hate that for us. Nevertheless, as we continue to ease into this transition, I want to highlight some of the good and not so good things we've experienced so far living in North Carolina. NORTH CAROLINA 1. Finances 💸💸💸 In my previous post, I briefly mentioned the details of our move but there was a lot that I left out. Since we decided to bring most of our possessions across country, we had a hefty bill to pay getting here. Flights, shipping vehicles, shipping our furniture, and buying everything we would need for our new place easily cost well over $8k. If I had to do it again, I would get rid of our larger ite

Whew... What isn't there to say about 2022. I'll start at the beginning but let me preface that Blogger/Blogspot does not mark when there are grammatical errors so forgive me in advance if some things end up misspelled because I am too lazy to re-read through my post before posting. Amara and I celebrated the New Year by watching the firework show at Great America. We unfortunately too late to make into the park before the show but we got a good view from the parking lot across the street. I mean they’re in the sky so pretty much any spot was good. We had rung in the New Year by practicing the usual NYE superstitions/traditions. We had black eyed peas, drank ginger-ale, and made sure to kick Jonathan outside the house before midnight and made sure he had cash in this wallet before he stepped back inside the house. Oh and of course we kissed. As a family we shared our resolutions for 2022 and collectively hoped for a prosperous year. On January 8th, we went up to Mare Island

I gave birth to a handsome, healthy son via C-section on Friday, January 28th at 4:10pm at Kaiser in Santa Clara.

Boy, was I not ready to go back to work fulltime. Aside from the annoying ever-changing mandates and 24hr businesses suddenly switching to 12hr working days, the time spent away from work was amazing. I mean, I was still working during this time but a few days a week were remote and that truly helped me cope with the transition. This year, we moved, again. We've lived in Silicon Valley for the past 5 years and have moved a total of 4 TIMES!?! Mainly due to the ever increasing cost of housing in this area. I frequently use craigslist to find a good deal for apartments because places offer first month discounts. We're in a nice, quiet townhouse where everyone has their own bathroom and we have a in-home washer/dryer. The only complaint I have are the stairs....I hate stairs!! Yes, the former athelete hates stairs. My husband says to think about it as built-in exercise equipment but Lord, our next spot has to be 1 story open concept, hopefully our next spot is our last spot...