Somewhere along the line I started comparing our lives during this pregnancy with when I was pregnant with Mikayla. When Mika was in my tummy, we lived in Seattle. We fully expected to have a Seattle-born child with loved ones flying in to visit. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment with only three windows in the entire place. Our laundry was coin-operated and down the hall. We were trying to figure out where to put our office items since the office was becoming "the baby's room."

Then some time when I was in the late-end of the 2nd trimester, Ian discovered Net Devil and a job opening there. He flew out and interviewed, and we spent the good part of a month waiting for a response. Once we got the answer, we had TWO WEEKS to do everything. I had to quit my job; Ian had work, school, and a midterm; had to find a new doctor; figure out insurance; find a place to live; figure out how to get across the Rockies; and pack. As of this week I am 32 weeks pregnant, and it was at time we were just days away from our big move. This is probably only interesting to me, but here are excerpts from my writings during that time:

3/23/07
Well, I gave my notice today at work. Five days left, yeahhh! How cool is that? They were all very congratulatory and supportive, and it made it all the more sweet after Sue yelled at me over nothing again this morning. It was nice to nod and smile sweetly and thinking "I never have to deal with your crap again, just wait until this afternoon when I tell you I'm leaving!"

We went to the doctor today, no weight gain this time! yeah! Mikayla was measuring good, great heartbeat, good appointment. Tonight we're goint to see TMNT with Leon and whoever else comes along. Should be fun! :)

Tomorrow I get to start packing, yay! haha We found what might be a great townhome near 120th & Sheridan. I'd describe it but I'm too tired. =P

I'm so excited for this whole thing -- I still can't quite fathom it. We'll get to spend easter with our family this year, yay! Now I won't have to cry when everyone leaves after meeting Mikayla, because they'll just be down the street! No more 8pm dinners, Ian will come home at a normal time. I can take Mikayla to visit everyone, and not be sad that I'm locked up in our condo alone with her. :) I used to love flying, but 2-4 times a year made it less fun. Now we can use our vacation time to go to other places. Thunderstorms again, yay! I'm even looking forward to the long, arduous drive back! I still wish we could merge the two places, but it will be so wonderful to be near family again. :)


3/30/07
Today was my last day! It was very... odd. As much as I've posted about disliking my job, this last week when they were extra nice to me it made all the difference. If only it'd been like this the whole time, it would have been a lot more pleasant there. But still, I've spent the last year and a half there, it'll be weird never going back. I stayed an hour later today, wrapping things up, packing up my pictures, all that fun stuff. Strangely bizarre.

Tomorrow we're going to clean out our cars and make them pretty, pickup some snazzy wardrobe boxes, and pack most the rest of our stuff! Sunday we'll hopefully relax; Monday my car gets picked up and we have a doctor's appointment; Tuesday is my prenatal massage (ohhh yeah!! Thanks Dacia!); Wednesday morning we pick up the truck, later we load the truck; then Thursday we'll be off! This is much more real now that I don't have to go back to my job...

On another note, I'm 32.5 weeks pregnant -- how weird is that? There's like, a living baby in my tummy who will arrive in less than 2 months! Strange! :)

4/6/07
We finally got the truck loaded, Leon's truck dropped off, and the condo cleaned out by 10 last night and made it the house for Lost (great episode btw!). We went to sleep sometime between 1-2am, woke up at 7:30, and spent the following 2 hours doing our little inspection to get our deposit back and wrapping everything up. We finally hit the road a little after 10, later than we hoped, but not bad. We drove and drove and drove until finally we hit Burley, ID around 11pm tonight. Our hotel is nice and the kitties are happy to be free from their cage. They did great though! My body did great driving today too, I didn't even swell! Mikayla enjoyed the music and danced around a lot, so all is well.

That's about it. We can't wait to get to CO, if only to sleep for a couple days. :)
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It continues on. We arrived, Ian started work just a few days later, and I spent all of my new-found free time unpacking. I distinctly remember how hard it was to unpack a home when you can barely bend over. I loved it, I was in pure bliss. lol

Now here we are this time around. Mikayla is almost 3.5 and in preschool. Ian is still at Net Devil. I'm still trying to figure out how to do this whole stay-at-home-mom thing. We've since upgraded our townhome to a house. I'm 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy we're excited to meet, and this time around the biggest challenge is getting his room painted. SO much easier than moving out of state. I remember three years ago thinking we'd never be able to live in Colorado again, and yet here we are. I am so grateful for our awesome little family and the mostly mundane life we live. I love being so close to the family and friends I've always known. I love the amazing sunsets over the mountains.

Mikayla puts together quite the interesting clothing ensembles as you'll see below. It's weird to me that the next baby will ever be as "grown up" as she is!