Moving, Zoo, First Step, Birthday

Well, it happened. B got offered a great position with a new city... wonderful opportunity for his career, better benefits, a little bit more money, and a move to a bigger home is imminent! But it's to... Abilene, Texas! We had been applying all over the DFW Metroplex and then someone from Abilene saw his resume at a Planner's Conference in October. He called him, set up an interview (we said why not?), and two weeks later.... we're moving to Abilene! (2 1/2 hours West of Fort Worth for those of you who don't know)

We are very excited but also nervous since this will be our first experience selling a home (and in a Buyer's Market no less!) and housing in Abilene is quite a bit more expensive than here. Hopefully we can find something to meet the needs of our family and when B is ready for the next step in his career, hopefully we can step back towards the DFW Metroplex and get our dream house really cheap! :) Or we may end up loving Abilene and staying there forever. Who knows?

It should be exciting and I actually like change. I'll just have anxiety about everything for a while! So what's new? J is excited but doesn't understand why we can't bring our friends with us. But she was relieved to hear we ARE taking her bed! Silly kid. :) I just hope we can sell the house quickly and join B since he has to start in about 30 days!

Today I took the girls, plus the little girl I babysit, plus a friend and her daughter, to the Dallas Zoo today. We had a great time and enjoyed the nice weather. The only downside to the trip was the lock on the stroller not working! I tried to lock the stroller, then stepped in front of it to take a picture of the other girls with a turtle statue, and Jill started to yell. I turned around to see my precious N rolling down the hill! The stroller hit the curb and it flipped over but amazingly... she was fine! Very scared and annoyed at me, I'm sure, but she just got a yucky road rash on her precious cheek. Definitely the dumbest thing I've ever done as a parent. Good to get it out of the way now though, right? And to her credit, she cried for about 1 minute total and then was her regular, happy self! For those of you that know N, I'm sure you can believe that. :) AND... later the same day, she took her first step! So I guess I didn't do too much damage! Or maybe she decided that if she started walking, she wouldn't have to be put in the death trap stroller anymore! :)

Today is B's 33rd birthday. We had a joint party for him a couple weeks ago with Natalie and last night we had dinner and cake here with some friends (one of which was celebrating a birthday a little belatedly), but today he came home and I went to the gym for Yoga class and he put the kids to bed and then worked all evening. Some birthday! Hopefully this new job will not put as much pressure on him and we can enjoy our evenings together more. Abilene doesn't have ANY night meetings -- only afternoons! Love that!

So that's us. I've caught you all up. We are VERY sad to leave our wonderful friends, ward, doctors, community, but we think this is the direction we are supposed to go now. We may still be around for months but when we do leave, I hope everybody will keep in touch!!!