January

The first month of the year was all about recovering from the holidays.  The boys spent all break with us in Omaha. Unfortunately I was still working most days, so they spent a lot of time hanging out in the house with J.  We did get a ton of board games played and books read.  After they left, it was back to the daily grind of work.

February

The second month always seemed to be a quiet one.  Not much happened.  We braced for the cold that never got too bad.  I read, watched tv, and of course, worked.

March

Things got very interesting in March.  It was my, the boys', and J's birthdays.  I turned 30!  Not as weird as I thought it would be.  I still feel like I'm 25 (which is probably a good  thing).  Plus, I am really looking forward to this decade.  It has to be better than my 20s.  To celebrate, I posted pics and stories from all of my thirty years each day of the month.  Check out the beginning of the My Years posts.  Beyond birthdays, J was offered a job for a company in Silicon Valley.  We always figured that we would move out west at some point, but this was very unexpected.  After a few phone interviews, we flew out for a weekend to do a final interview and look at living situations.  I spent the weekend driving around the San Jose area.  I even popped into a great little Egyptian Museum.  And J and I visited Sonoma Valley for a great wine afternoon.  Back in Omaha, we discussed the situation and decided that moving was our best opportunity.  He said yes, they worked out moving packages, and we planned on moving at the end of April!

April

Before all the moving stuff came up, J and I planned a Spring Break road trip with the boys.  We drove to Indiana to pick them up and then headed east to Ohio and Pennsylvania.  All in all it was a great trip.  I love old fashioned road trips.  Plus I got to visit some cities that I've never been to (hello Pittsburgh and Philadelphia!).  And I got to visit one of my Top 10 American Attractions... Fallingwater!  I made my mom really jealous with that!  After getting back, J flew out to California to start his job and secure housing.  He came back to Nebraska and a week later we packed up the truck and traversed the western half of the country to our new home.

May

May was all about settling in and getting to know my new town.  First things first, I located and obtained a library card.  Always a priority for me!  Plus, I found a coffeehouse, supermarket, park, DMV (CA driver's license), movie theater, and many many favorite nearby restaurants.  I also trolled Meetup and found a great card making group.  I really love some of those ladies.  On the blog, I topped the month off with a bit of a political rant with "I am a Citizen."

June

The boys traveled out to the coast to spend the summer with us.  We started a great two months of adventures and exploration.  Our activities were documented in my Sunnyvale Summer posts.

July

July was full of tons of adventures with the boys including the beach, the amusement park, summer camps, pool days, library visits, and trips to San Francisco.  I also confirmed my suspicions that I was pregnant.  Very happy news.

August

The boys returned the first week of August to Indiana for school.  I am so grateful that they love their school and teachers.  It makes the situation a bit easier to handle.  Unfortunately the heartache continued with my mid-month miscarriage.  More information about my experience can be found here.

September

September was a month of healing and restarts.  I had to deal with aftermath of my miscarriage.  My hormones made me absolutely crazy for a few weeks.  I also decided to finally make an appointment with a therapist to discuss the event and my past and current depression woes.  It didn't help that we had multiple apartment issues: fridge quitting randomly, dishwasher not really cleaning, and a dripping ceiling.  And J was super busy at work.  I hardly saw him.

On a brighter note, I accomplished a ton of crafting.  I really jumped in with both feet.  The end result found a home in my mother's flower shop in November.  I also got a jump on Christmas projects.  Obviously I can't tell you what they are, but they were greatly appreciated.

October

Some of the ladies I craft with decided to start a very informal book club and asked me to join.  We had our first meeting!  Such fun.  With the holidays we had our second meeting in December.  But hopefully this will become more of a monthly occurrences.  I also reconnected with an old high school friend who is now living in San Francisco.  I met her husband and adorable baby boy.  We had a few fun lunch/shopping dates.  I'm sure we'll continue these after the new year.

November

Starting slow, things got crazy when I flew back to Indiana to spend almost two weeks with the boys and family.  We had tons of fun and ate some great food for Thanksgiving.  I really needed that visit to reconnect with old friends and break out of my day to day routine.  I came back to California refreshed.

December

Just like November, it started slow, and then I traveled back to Indiana for the holidays.  Check back in few days for some vacation highlights.