LIFE'S A PEARL

Happy Labor Day! Since it’s been nearly a year from my last post, I’m sharing a few life updates to catch us up. Let me know in the comments what is new with you! Without further ado:

 

We’re Parents!

Mr. O is just this amazing little human being who enchants us everyday as he grows and explores his world.

He also can drive us insane particularly at night when he just won’t sleep.

Seriously I mean I knew babies only slept in small amounts but goodness, it felt like we’d never sleep again.

When the adrenaline wore off in month 3 among the holidays and a once in a lifetime snowmageddon hitting us, I thought I was going to lose it. To be honest, my husband probably thought I had. But we all made it through.

Actually we’re currently in the midst of the sleepless trifecta – first tooth, growth spurt, and sleep regression. That’s been a great reminder for the importance of birth control! I feel like I start each morning telling Mr. O, you’re lucky you’re cute, and he so knows it.

 

We Moved!

I mentioned snowmageddon earlier. Yeah, having 50+ trees down on our property, roads blocked for days, and no power for weeks with a sick 3 month old was a real life changer.

After that experience, my husband and I began to re-evaluate our lifestyle and how raising a family fit in. He didn’t want to spend all his time at home working on our property rather than spending time together as a family. We needed a different balance.

We started wanting an already complete home but neither one of us wanted to give up on our ideals and both have to work full time away from the home. The reality being even if we compromised there, it’d still be a struggle to make ends meet with the high cost of homes in our area.

We started to consider moving out of state again and I jokingly threw out that we should look into Texas since that’s where his two brothers had moved the year before.

The next day we were both on Zillow looking at houses. There were actually a few we could swing on one income or with two part time ones. That way one of us could always be home with Mr. O.

My husband flew out to scout things first and then we went as a family the next month. We bought a house on that trip! As did my mom to Mr. O’s great relief (we lived next door to each other and back then Grandma’s shoulder was vital for his afternoon nap!)

There was a ton of stress and ups and downs to the whole process but in early summer our house officially closed! We fulfilled a previous dream and moved out of own rural hometown in Northern California to relocate to a slightly larger town in the Texas Hill Country.

As did 300,000 other people or so my dad informed me saying, “You’re not original” when we shared our news. Thanks Dad!

Even with the months of endless triple digit temperatures, I have to say we are loving it here so far. And even with the mass exodus of Californians every person we’ve encountered has been warm and welcoming. This little town has historic charm with a lot of spirit.

We got to see the most amazing firework show for the 4th of July right on the river. A beautiful river that so far is never overran for fishing or kayaking – even on the weekend! My husband’s family is also close by so Mr. O will hopefully get to grow up among some of his many cousins.

When it’s not a million degrees outside I’m looking forward to being walking distance to town for a coffee break or library trip. This week the weather changed to a full 10 day forecast of rain and thunderstorms. Bring on fall!

 

Pearl, the original inspiration behind this blog!

Last but not least for updates – Pearl! She’s begrudgingly settled into her new status of no longer being an only “child”.

It’s been a tough year for her. She seemed to get very depressed when we moved in with family for a couple months between dismantling our property and moving here. She lost a ton of weight and we were trying everything to put it back on.

Thankfully being here with her own house and yard and getting to spend most days with me and Mr. O (even though there’s usually a baby gate between us) she’s bounced back. She’s gained back some of her pounds. She gets the zoomies again racing around her backyard. Most of all she enjoys teaching Mr. O the art of whining. Oh joy!