Handling all of life's major changes at once....

August 26, 2006 This should cover the major life changes we have done over the past three months... Life Change #1 and #2 Buy and Sell a House, Move to Another State (in our case across the country) Where Are We? California! Wyatt and I went out last night to celebrate (finally) being fully in California. Our house in Alexandria, VA is sold and we are now officially Angelenos. We bought a beautiful 1910 Craftsman home in Jefferson Park. The neighborhood is up and coming, slowly gentrifying but the majority of folks who have moved into the neighborhood in the past few years were looking for an affordable single family home AND diversity. We've met many of our neighbors and they are all very nice. Life Change #3 Get a New Job and Position What am I doing? I started with Laureate Education the second week of June. Their offices are in Marina del Ray so I do not have to get on the freeway to go to work. The job is a challenge in that I am managing an employee for the first time as well as responsible for major Exec level research. I really like the team I'm working with as well as the subject matter. Laureate is the parent company of Walden University which is a 100% Online Graduate University. Life Change #4 Go back to school for Graduate Degree What is Wyatt doing? School has started for Wyatt at USC and he's very excited about the quality of the professors, the quality of his classmates and it seems like I won't have a husband for a few years unless it's a term break. He currently has about 1.2 mile walk to school from the house. We are trying to find him a motorcycle but that has been difficult due to high gas prices and popularity of the bikes he is interested in. Life Change #5 Start a family. The final bit of information that comes with this was great news. Wyatt and I are pregnant. It was bit rough in the first trimester with some ALL DAY SICKNESS that involved the inability to be in rush hour traffic, bumper to bumper traffic of any sort, and general aversions to foods that usually make me feel beter when nauseaus. Towards the end of the first trimester I had a very scary episode that broke the news to my new employer that I was pregnant AND introduced me to the wonderful people at UCLA medical. I don't think I've ever been to an emergency room that has parking right in front as well as a triage that was so quick I didn't have time to deal with the insurance papers. Our friend John came to the hospital to be with me so I wasn't alone. Wyatt was still in VA at the time. My director and VP were also amazing about the whole situation and thought "the more the merrier" with regard to my having a child. All ended up well. I have a "friable" cervix and low lying placenta. Neither my OB out here nor the radiologist seemed concerned. It was the only episode I've had and the pregnancy has been normal since. I'm now six months pregnant (or somewhere around 26 weeks). Baby Poist aka Dancing Queen or Kick Boxer depending on which sex it could be is doing well and just loves reggae music. If I'm sitting on the couch quietly reading or watching television the baby will move enough to make my belly move! It's reassuring and when I talk to the baby I have a sense it knows who mommy is and settles down. According to pregnant women and moms around me, I don't look as pregnant as I am...according to me I'm huge! I've gained 20 pounds so far and am carrying from just under my breasts to right above my pubic bone. I don't stick out too far yet but just enough that putting sneakers on is a pain! I'm hoping to have a photo soon of my belly but so far the opportunity hasn't arisen.