Two Things...

1) We're moving to Sacramento!  Zach accepted a job at a small start-up in Sacramento, CA (about 2 hrs from here, towards the mountains).  His start date as of now is May 17th (yikes!).  Also...

2) I'm pregnant!  Baby #2 is set to arrive sometime this December.  I'm only 8 weeks, but we saw the heartbeat last week so I'm feeling fairly confident that this little bean is here to stay.  (still, crossing fingers...)

See? I told y'all we had a crapload of stuff to going on over here.  This should help explain why I haven't been blogging much lately-- it's hard to find stuff to write about when you have two HUGE major life-changing developments going on, but can't really talk much about either of them.  It also explains why I've been so tired lately, and why I look like death in any and all recent pictures (I seem to be lucking out again and escaping full-on morning sickness... but the bone-chilling, want-to-sleep-all-day exhaustion is completely kicking my butt).

The job decision was pretty tough.  It's been an emotional, exciting, frustrating, stressful past few weeks in this household.  Zach ended up getting two offers-- one in Lansing, Michigan, and the other in Sacramento.  Both start-ups, both pretty exciting opportunities. For a little while Michigan was all we had, and for that bit of time I think we were both getting excited about that possibility. East Lansing sounds like a very cute little town; it's home to Michigan State University, so would have the advantage of being a college town with a bit more excitement and diversity; Zach's potential employers were super incredibly nice; Zach's trip for the interview went really well, and had gorgeous weather to really help show off the place.  But then we started really thinking about what it would mean to live through a Michigan winter.  Five or six months of cold, little sun, and lots of snow that sticks around for weeks at a time... and I think we both started to worry a bit for our sanity.  The worst winters we've gone through were probably in Geneva, which weren't that bad, but the greyness, fog, and overall lack of sun really affected Zach's mood (I swear he's got at least a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder).  And for myself, I had some very real concerns about having a baby in December, and facing several months of near-freezing temperatures and being stuck indoors with a newborn and an active toddler.  And pretty soon we both started feeling a sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs when we thought about actually moving there.

(Why yes, we are spoiled Californians.)

So when the offer from Sacramento came through, I think we both knew that's where we'd go.  Unfortunately, there's a significant difference in the quality of the offers-- Michigan (partially b/c they've had trouble getting people to move there) had a very nice offer, which combined with the much lower cost of living would have made a lot of financial stuff a lot easier.  Sacramento's offer is not quite as nice, and while cost of living is cheaper there than here in the bay area, we may end up taking a bit of a pay cut in the end.  Which kinda sucks.

Still, he has a job. One that allows us to stay in California, and enjoy the year-round good weather, beautiful landscape, fresh produce and markets, etc. We get to move closer to the mountains, which makes Zach very happy, but still are close enough to our friends in the bay, and Jenny and Andrew in San Francisco, to be able to still see them reasonably often.  And, heck, with cheaper housing we may actually be able to afford to buy a house one of these days, a prospect that was always going to be iffy in Silicon Valley.  The finances might not be perfect, but everything else is working out pretty dang nicely, and that's something to be quite grateful for.

So, onward and upward.  We're heading to Sacramento later this week to look at housing and hopefully find a place to rent.  Then we'll figure out when we can move, which may be after Zach starts work.  We'll see. It will be an adventure.   ; )