What have we been doing?

Ebbs and flows. I haven't been able to post the last few weeks months, for a variety of reasons. Mostly work reasons. Too much of it. And time reasons. Too little of it. Some things that have occurred since the last post in April.

We flew to Boston in late April--yes, all of us--to attend my grandmother's memorial service. Connie was 98 years old when she passed away. The service was wonderful, touching. For someone who was so long-lived, there were so many people there, family, friends of family, people she had touched in some way over the course of her long, generous life. She was buried next to her husband, my grandfather, on a beautiful, warm, sunny spring day. Xander and Kai played with sticks in the cemetery while we laid her to rest.
We stayed with Xander and Kai's Grandma Dixie. My sister and her family came up from South Carolina, and Xander and his cousin Kat were able to play together for the first time. It was wonderful to spend time with Mom, Jen, Steve, and Kat. If only there was a tesseract connecting the West Coast and the East Coast. Delta doesn't quite cut it.

In June, we ramped up our apartment/house hunt to full gear. Micah and I spent every spare minute (and some not-spare minutes at work) scouring Craigslist for apartments, condos, houses in and around Sunnyvale that met our (stringent?) standards: two to three bedrooms, decent school, walkable/bikeable neighborhood, place for bike storage, and allowed cats. Oh, and not $3500 a month. Rents are obscene in Silicon Valley--driven up by young programmers with no families, living three to an apartment, making six-figure salaries.

Well, in early July--after emailing no fewer than 60 landlords--we found a place that met most of our criteria. We'll be moving to Sunnyvale, into a cute, 3-bedroom, single-family home, in a neighborhood within walking distance of a park, an elementary school, downtown (Farmer's Market! Target ?! Macy's ?!?!?), Caltrain, and, most importantly, Micah's work. Hardwood floors, a giant magnolia tree with branches awaiting a swing, a garage. We'll be neighbors with our friends Arwen & Satyam. We're looking forward to setting up and settling in, and hope to have a BBQ with friends once we're established.

Whew! Now all we need to do is move.