It's official, we are Southern California bound.

Yep, we are getting the hell out of Dogde. P accepted a job offer and everything has been a blur since. Better pay, better benefits (medical coverage is awesome), and better location. Southern California is home to us, we never expected that it would take almost 15 years to return. We are excited, but understandably apprehensive. There are many positives and two negatives, those negatives could result in regretting the move. But it is what is best for our family financially, difficult to turn down a job that pays more. The one thing we are going to miss about P's current job is the flexibility. P can come in at whatever time, as long as his work gets done. He can take a day off during the week, then work during the weekend. This is why he was able to make my and SS's appointments. I realize that we will not have that any longer, we are worried about SS's reaction, but we'll cope and adapt.

P called as soon as he received the offer. He was a bit miffed about what he perceived as a lack of enthusiasm on my part. That could not be further from the truth. I was very excited, but not surprised. I know P, his work ethic is solid, and he interviews well. P makes an amazing first impression, unlike me. He is usually perceived as harmless (suckers) and trustworthy. P can charm the pants off of anyone, male or female. I have seen the man in action, after all, I am one of his victims. ;) I recall weighing the pros of cons of a relationship given our differences. I had a speech carefully crafted and rehearsed, lack of love was not the issue, just too many differences. I did not want for us to spend our lives scrutinized and judged. And here we are 16 years later. Dude knows what he is doing.

Barely two hours after the offer life bit me in the rear end and hard. P was home for lunch when my cell rang. I did not recognize the number so let it go to voice mail. When I mentioned the name of the city the call originated P reminded me of applying to one of their facilities in our city. Talk about really lousy timing. The main offices are 3 hours away, but they were willing to come to me for the interview. It appears that they were rather interested. It sucked big time to decline, and I did explain why. Most people would not consider director of a group home as positive, but I have a lot of experience with children with behavioral issues, severely emotionally disturbed (SED) or incarcerated. Oh well...

P wants me to stay home with SS until she enters kindergarten, because he is concerned about how the transition will affect his baby. I was not expecting that request at all. But six months pass quickly, especially when you are experiencing life altering changes. This is where the scrutinizing and judgment come in to mess with my mind. Although P is getting a substantial raise, things will be tight financially, the new area has a higher cost of living. I am also concerned about SS not attending preschool, because I am convinced that it was a major factor on her kinder readiness. P is confident that SS's progress will continue, just with a different teacher (me, wow , that is one scary thought), and we are researching activities that will allow her to socialize. We have so much to do, and so little time, the worries will be placed on the back burner for a later time.

P's new job was the reason for our impromptu mini trip last weekend. We had two days to find a place to live. P's tentative start day is April 2. We initially planned on arriving March 29, but JJ can't take that day off. We really need him, because due to my abdominal hernia and freak leg injury I am very limited physically. We are now planning to move a week earlier, and if JJ can't make it we are SOL. Two days to research, tour and decide where you are going to reside for a year is plain crazy. But we are used to crazy around here, who knew it would come in handy.

Needless to say our urgent care detour really messed things up. We did catch a break. The plan was for P to go to his physical exam Monday morning, then off to UC when he was done. The PE doctor shares an office with UC. P did not realize this until about an hour before his appointment. He was ready, but SS and I were lounging around in our PJs. We made a mad dash to the shower, while P began a packing frenzy. That is usually my domain, but P did a bang up job.

There was an unexpected hiccup. We talked to SS about the physical, explained that a doctor would examine Baba to make sure he's healthy. Thankfully SS has never seen her Baba hospitalized, or examined by a doctor. Since the plan was for P to go alone, we did not go in depth about what a physical exam entails. We separated when we arrived, and we expected P to be done before me. There were a lot of people ahead of me, we were ready for a really long wait. When I counted how many were before me, I tried to bargain with P. Hey, I can't help it OK? It's in my DNA to foolishly try to postpone the inevitable. I texted P that since we were so pressed for time (still had no housing prospects), it would be best if I just made an appointment with my doctor at home. My husband's cold response after I selflessly offered to skip UC for the greater good? "If we had waited last time you'd be dead." See? There is nothing easy peachy and harmless about P, he can be vile when it suits him. :)

P asked us to join him when we were done, and neither one of us gave it a second thought. This lame ass decision will forever be remembered as our DUH moment. When SS saw P in the exam room she fell apart. Why wouldn't she? SS's experience with her Mama in medical settings is not positive, and yet it is all she knows. It's not a stretch for SS to think that Baba and JJ are infallible, because she has never seen them in that setting. This explains the picture where SS is hanging on to P for dear life. We wanted to leave ASAP, but couldn't. When the exam room door opened the doctor that examined me entered. Her face was just freaking classic. She just looked at SS and I like she had seen a ghost. I introduced her to my husband and the father of my children. I still crack up when I think about that.

From UC we went to the imaging center, then to the realtor's office. It was so late in the day, and staying another day was not an option. We had narrowed our choices the day before, when we were house hunting. When the receptionist stated that we had to make an appointment with the realtor we were beyond disappointed. But he returned P's call a few minutes later and we were able to enter the properties in our short list. We still can't believe we pulled it off, since we had such a tight schedule and an unexpected detour. Now we are crossing our fingers that we made the right decision. The next two weeks are going to be interesting, fun and hectic around here.

SS inspecting Baba's bandage from his blood draw.

P found a lady bug on our bed, and they are allegedly a sign of good luck. Since we were on our way to urgent care we assumed that the good omen was house hunting related.

Not surprisingly, SS entered every property first.

Already scouting hiding places.

SS immediately called dibs on the master bedroom. Nice try baby girl. She slayed us when she settled for her second choice and said "I'm sharing a room with JJ."

SS's new tub is a lot deeper than her current one. She will be doing some diving there.