One Year

We have hit our one year anniversary of California living. I think it has mostly been a good year. Owie and Claire had open houses at their schools. At the risk of sounding like a bragging mom, both teachers had terrific things to say about the kids. Words like: wonderful, model student, well rounded, pleasure to have in class. I'm still kinda new to school, maybe teachers say this to all of the parents but Bill and I were beaming for the rest of the day. The kids have adjusted extremely well to the cross country move. Another pro has been our physical health. This weather really agrees with our immune system. For the first time since since birth (I think) neither kid has been on an antibiotic this year. I don't know if CC grew out of her little wheeze problem or if it was caused by an allergy. All I know is that about a week after we moved to Cali we stopped giving her Pulmicort and we have not looked back! I guess the downside of the move would be the hard time we have had making connections with grown ups. People here are hard nuts to crack. My cheeks hurt from all of the friendly smiling I have been doing . We had such an easy time making super friends in Ohio, what gives? I have to take part of the blame. I only made it to one PTA meeting this year, and I have yet to find a babysitter. I was spoiled in Ohio by always having a few friends who were at the same meetings and sporting events and YMCA. Not to mention a couple of nice teenage girls that liked to babysit for neighbors. It feels weird to be sitting on the outskirts. Before you get to feeling all sorry for me, I do talk to a couple of people pretty regularly when CC and I pick Owen up from school and at Owie's baseball games. If I had a dollar for everytime someone (after finding out that we are new to the area) has said, "It's not just anywhere that you can snow ski in the morning and go surfing in the afternoon." I would probably have around 12$. Have yet to meet someone who has actually done this. To sum up, it has been a hard working year for all of us (especially Bill). My goal for the second year of California living is to have more fun, put myself out there and try to be a bit more (sigh) social. Photo taken one year ago, living in a motel, waiting for the moving truck with all of our possessions, a little crazy.