Update!

Maddie and I made it safely to CA on Tuesday and Jason crossed the border last night. He should be arriving in Gilroy today in the afternoon. I can't wait to see him! Yesterday, Mom, Grandma and I went to go look at a few apartments in Sunnyvale. We found two promising ones in our budget and timeline. I am going to take Jason on Friday to see them. All in all things are going well. Maddie seems to be adjusting to the time change and loves crawling around this big house. :) I will write more soon when we find a place. I should have pictures of Jason's journey to share with you as well.

Answered Prayer!!!

Jason just received the written Oracle offer in his inbox!!! Yay!!!!!

Prayer Request!

In my post a couple weeks ago I mentioned that we had confirmation that Jason's written offer was on its way. Well, we still have not received it. It should come by email and Jason needs to print it off and Fedex it back to them. If it doesn't come before Tuesday then Jason will be on the road and it will be much more difficult to have that done, which could push back his start date. Jason talked with his new boss a couple days ago and he had found the offer on the director's desk. She had been out of the office which is why it was taking so long. We were told that he would be receiving it a day later. That was Monday. Jason is not worried, but I have to admit that I am. This is the last thing that needs to happen before Jason is truly official. Please pray that we receive this offer ASAP. The truck is rented, the plane flights are booked and Jason gave his two week notice on Friday. (He is using his vacation to fulfill the last week of his notice.) Still all we have is a verbal offer and a preferred start date. I am going to feel so much more at ease with everything in writing.

Also, another prayer request is help loading our truck. We have reached out a couple times and have had only one taker. Sunday will be a long day if we have no help. We have had several CA friends offer to help us unload, now all we need are some OK friends to help load. :)

1 Week

The move starts one week from tomorrow meaning I have 1 week to finish packing up the house, finish painting the house (touch-up and repainting the nursery), and finish cleaning the house. We want the house to look great for our new renters. So much to do in such a short amount of time! Please pray for both Jason and I as we are both sick right now. Jason's doesn't have much of a voice which doesn't help at work and this is his last week so no sick days. My voice is also going. We both have head colds (runny nose, congestion, sore throat and cough). Our little Maddie also has the sniffles. Poor baby! Please pray we can get everything done that needs to be done.

I can't believe we will be in CA next week!

More Pictures from the Pumpkin Patch

Playing with Sam

She loved riding the pony!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we are in Tulsa for Jason's 10 year high school reunion and to say goobye to family and friends before we move. We met our friends, Dan and Steph, and their two kids, Rachel and Sam, at the Bixby pumpkin patch. Maddie had so much fun and even got to ride a pony! :)

Walking!

Less than 2 weeks!

Time is going by so fast! I cannot believe that in less than 2 weeks Maddie and I will be in Ca and Jason and our good friend Trey will be on the road headed for Ca.

Boxes now cover every room of our home except for Maddie's room and our garage is full of items for our garage sale coming up on the 22nd and 23rd. (Yes, I remembered to get the permit.) I think we are doing rather well on the packing front. The kitchen is almost completely packed except for Maddie's cups, bowls, and utensils as well as some pots and pans and a sandwich maker so we still have the option of cooking at home. We have packed up all of the plates, bowls, cups, and silverware and have swapped them out for the paper/plastic variety.

Curtains and pictures are coming off the walls and as I look around, I wish I would have done more with the house while we lived here. I think the next house we buy, we will make it a point to make it ours from the very beginning. While painting the living room a month ago, Jason and I made the comment, "I wish we had done this years ago!" Next time, we won't wait so long.

Although I am completely excited about this new chapter in our lives, I have to admit I am sad to be leaving this house. It is our first house. It is the house we brought Maddie home to. I took so much time in decorating her nursery to make sure it was perfect. There are a lot of memories here. We will also miss the neighborhood and the people. We have some great neighbors and we will miss them very much. I guess technically, we are not leaving this house completely behind yet. We will still own it, but it will be home to our renters. I am just so grateful that we were able to call this beautiful home ours for these past 3 years.

I am very excited about the opportunity we have to make our home in California. I cannot wait to see what is in store. I know that one day in the not-so-distant future, we will be moving into a new home. What an exciting day that will be! :)

First Steps: 10/11/2010

Last night, Maddie took 4 steps!!! We have not been able to capture this on video yet. She gets too excited and falls down. We skyped with my parents to see if she would walk to the computer, but she got too excited. She would stand and squeal and fall. She took maybe two steps while we were talking with them. Hopefully, I will be able to get a video today.

JBF Find

Today, I went to the Norman JBF sale with a friend of mine and I was able to find what I was looking for! Yay! I wanted a lightweight stroller for Maddie to take with us when we fly out to San Jose. It will be just the two of us and I didn't want to have to deal with having her big stroller. This one is in great shape and it rolls very nicely. It is only missing the sun shade, which I found out I can order from the manufacturer for $15. I am thinking I will order the spare part in the Spring as the weather is cooling down and the sun will not stay bright for too much longer. :)

Garage Sale Postponed

With everything going on with the move I forgot to do one simple thing: call the city for a garage sale permit. By the time I realized it, the offices were closed for the weekend. Oops! We are postponing the sale until 10/22. The house should be all packed up by then so this will give us the opportunity to find more possible items to sell in the next couple weeks. This also worked out well for our neighbors who are doing the sale with us. They didn't get to go through everything they wanted to sell either. I feel so silly for forgetting about this, but I guess it will work out!

Packing is so much fun!

A New Adventure!!

On my last post I mentioned that a lot has been going on lately in our life. I am now able to elaborate...

In June, Jason heard about a possible new job opportunity with Oracle out in Redwood City, CA. He talked to a recruiter and then we didn't hear anything for two months. We naturally assumed that nothing was going to come of it, that is until Jason got a message from the recruiter in late August. Apparently, there was a mix-up (long story) which is why he was never called. Two weeks later, Jason had his first phone interview. The interview went well and Jason was supposed to fly out for an in-person interview the following week, but we never received a call as to an interview time, so we thought again that this was not going to work out. Then out of the blue we heard something. Jason was qualified for two positions and they wanted him to do another phone interview with a different manager before he flew out for an in-person interview. Jason had the next phone interview a week later which went extremely well and Jason became very excited about this second job opportunity (this job seemed to be perfect for him). That interview led to yet another phone interview, this time with the director of the department. Jason told me after that the interview was the most challenging interview he has ever had. He did well though and impressed the director of the department (so much so that she started the hiring process). Jason was told he would have to face one more interview, but to save us time and money they decided to do it over Skype. Jason had to prepare a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation and sales pitch for the product he would be selling. Jason did his homework and he did great. Jason received a verbal offer this last Thursday. Since the hiring process had already started (something we did not know about until recently) his written offer is already on its way. It usually takes 2-4 weeks to get approval for a written offer after a verbal is given. Oracle is so excited to have Jason on their team.

The timeline is quick. They want Jason to start November 1st. Jason will give his two weeks at Dell this Friday and his last day will be October 22nd, giving us a week to move. We are so blessed to have family that will let us stay with them until we find a place to live.

We are renting out our house here in OKC. The property management company we are having manage the rental of our home is coming by today to take pictures and place a sign in our front yard. Please pray we find a renter soon.

We are so excited! We have been wanting to move back to CA for a while now, but we thought it would be a few years down the road. We are still in awe at how God has orchestrated all of this. We are still pinching ourselves a bit.

Now we are packing, cleaning and packing some more. We are having a garage sale this weekend and are going to try and get rid of everything we do not need. What doesn't sell is being donated. Our goal is to have everything ready to go so we can have a smooth move with little to no hiccups. We will see... :) I am flying out with Maddie and Jason in driving a moving truck with one of our friends who has offered to help. Please pray for their trip!

3 more weeks and we will be leaving OK. This month is going to fly by with everything we have to do. I am looking forward to being moved into a new place and getting some time to relax! :)