where have we been?

a lot is happening in our neck of the woods...

but just where our neck of the woods is these days

 is the major question!

we are currently without an address until mid next week when we can move into our new apartment in AUSTIN! we are becoming texans y'all!

but before we could officially move (which we still haven't done yet), we had some holiday travel to attend to. during the past two weeks, this is where we've been and what we've been up to:

• packed up and moved out of our apartment in san francisco
• shipped all our possesions (minus a few suitcases) and our car to austin. (the disaster stories acciated with this process are a nightmare and may or may not be shared in another post. too enraging to relive! but i digress...)
• flew to chicago. early morning flight and we all slept. pretty smooth 4.5 hour flight. phew!
• rented a car, drove to grand rapids, michigan and spent the night visiting my aunt's family and my two little cousins
• drove to windsor, canada to spend a three nights with david's brother's family meeting our new neice Clara for the first time and playing with our nephew Sam
• drove back to chicago and spent one night downtown for annual cousin's christmas "uncle santa" tradition
• drove to northbrook, il, the town where i grew up and where most of my family lives, and spent four nights hanging with my fam, the sibs, my cousins and seeing some of my best friends too
• had christmas eve and christmas day celebrations with family
• flew to austin the day after christmas. scarlett screamed for 2.5 hours of the 3 hours flight. we were that family.
• then we waited 2.5 hours for a policeman so we could file our car stolen because the shippers would not release our car due to a dispute unrelated to us with the booking company! argh! ridic!
• drove to llano, texas where david's parents live
• i spent two nights in llano laying on the couch reading on my new kindle
• wednesday morning i drove to austin to have appointments with two potential OBs
• then i flew back to san francisco, leaving Scarlett and david with his parents, so that i could return to work
• i've been working the past three days in the PICU and will work again tomorrow. (that's four 12s in a row, nurses!!) yikers!
• meanwhile, sad news that one of david's best friend's father passed away, so david flew to cincinnati yesterday to be at the funeral while Scarlett stayed with pop and nana sue in llano. he will return tonight (hopefully, just got a text that he may miss connection due to delays)
• then i fly back to austin monday, which is way too long to not see Scarlett!! 
• david starts his new job on tuesday
• we can move into our apartment on tuesday, but the movers won't arrive with our stuff until thrusday or friday
• then one day after that i might release a huge exhale and be grateful its all over.
• but we are still not done yet. january weekends are already full with visitng davids grandparents, me returning again to SF for work and david traveling to conferences.
• maybe in february i can exhale?

wow! i hope you're tired reading this because i am tired just remembering it all. but our holiday travels were completely worth it. We got to see my large fun crazy dysfunctional but amazing extended family and celebrate a very wonderful christmas. in fact, one of the best christmases i can remember in recent years! I haven't been able to take that much work off around the holidays in 5 years, so i am very thankful to have had that time with everyone.

thank you to all of our wonerful hosts: aunt maureen, uncle john, stephen, cynthia, uncle eddie, aunt tara, uncle chuck, mom, nana sue, pop, kate and margy! and lots of love to my siblings, cousins and wonderful family and friends!!

why am i returning to SF to work, you ask? three words: maternity leave pay! i'll be flying back to work part time until i start maternity leave. because i remain a california employee, i will receive califronia maternity leave benefits. phew, thank goodness! obviously if i quit i would get nothing. even if i started a new job in austin, i'd only be working for a month and a half before going out on leave and thus would not get maternity benefits. not ideal right now, but i'll be thankful when i don't have to start a new job six weeks after baby2 is born. delayed gratification i keep repeating. delayed gratification...

oh, forgot to mention: Scarlett was sick this entire travel time with a fever high of 103.3, continuous congestion and runny nose, terrible sounding cough and just altogether a sad little puppy. i guess that's what happens when you travel to cold weather climates and surround your 18 month old who has never been very sick before with a million little cousins! david was sick too. boo. i somehow remained unscathed from any viral infections, thankfully, but am experiencing shortness of breath, weakness, near fainting and racing hearbeat from pregnancy related anemia. awesome.

ok, ok, ok, i'm done now. my apologies for being mia the past few weeks, but as you can tell, there has been a lot going on!

i'm exctied to start blogging from and about Austin. i've been looking up a lot of kid friendly activities that i can't wait to try and share with you all. check back soon!

hope you had a fantastic christmas and holiday season as well!

and happy happy happy new year!

photo cred to auntie K

and thats auntie gracie creepin' in the background! ha!

love you both, kisses!