this place doesn't seem so bad...
Sometime in the recent past, I came across this piece on SFGate.
In a city that seems to make families, especially those with kids, want to move, be it for affordable housing, quality schools, space(!), more affordable living, leaving SF is hard thing to even think about for a 2nd generation native like myself. Even moving down south to where I went to college was difficult for me to consider. But now, as a mommy of two, I’m starting to reconsider staying in the city by the Bay.
I thought the timing of the article was quite coincidental since S & I have been contemplating moving out of SF…even contemplating moving out of state, even out of the country. Even in conversation with friends, moving out of the bay area was a topic that seemed to come up. Family seemed to be the main reason for leaving, but quality of schools and generally, a better quality of life was the motivating factor to even consider leaving the Bay Area.
Now, S & I had always talked about moving to France one day. It wasn’t until we met the family we bought our car from that we started to contemplate moving out of the Bay Area…again. (The family was packing up their home in Oakland and moving to New Zealand!)
As it is a known fact (of course, it is!), that all native San Franciscans/NorCal-ers move north, heading north to Oregon seems to be trend among some of our friends. This place in Oregon in particular. So don’t be surprised if I blog, sometime in the future, about a family vacation to Oregon. 🙂
Nice, but it might be too cold for this CA girl
Of course, this couldn’t come at a more difficult time, with the economy in it’s current clusterf*** state. Thankfully, Peanut & Ringo are young enough that a move wouldn’t traumatize them too much.
Who knows what the future will bring and where we’ll end up? I’m just thinking out loud…for now.
images borrowed from the internets
Crap. January is well under way and I already have a “catching up” post.
I’ve been on m-leave since Thanksgiving and sadly posted nothing. Nothing substantive, at least.
So here’s how I’ve been spending my m-leave…
S’ nesting project
About a month before I went on leave, we took it upon ourselves and decided that our kitchen needed to be remodeled. Granted, our kitchen needed to be remodeled when we moved in x years ago, but taking on a project of this type about a month, month-and-a-half before a baby is due seemed like too much to me. But, really, when would be a good time? I’m just glad it was all finished before Ringo made his/her appearance.
Though our contractor said everything could be finished, inspections and all, in about 4 weeks, the project only ran over by 2 weeks (or so) – which is pretty good, no? I was only home for one inspection – the final one – and it was quite interesting. The inspector arrived, met with our contractor and before really “inspecting” anything, she was quick to comment on our backsplash. How she’d hadn’t seen anything like it before. Honestly, I think she had more questions about our backsplash then the overall construction of the kitchen. Though, she did check one bedroom for smoke detectors, or CO detectors, or whatever they’re called these days.
Once everything was painted, closed up, installed, we could start finding homes for our kitchen stuff. Though it’s been a month since the project finished, we’re still figuring out the flow of the kitchen and where things should be placed, functionally.
French Toast
So, not even 48 hours after the kitchen was completed, the constructions guys gone, my water breaks. Good timing, huh?
Before you know it, S and I are en route to the hospital, and in less than two hours (with NO drugs) later, we welcomed Ringo into this world!
The funny thing is, within 15 minutes of giving birth – this supposed amazing, life-altering, moment in one’s life – I was back in bed, eating hospital french toast for breakfast. Okay, maybe 25 minutes, after this momentous occasion it was back to business as usual. French toast. Just like that. French toast. And caffeinated coffee. Mmmm…
And yes, Ringo turned out to be a boy.
Though, I do not recommend birth au naturelle for those who are faint of heart, or any woman, really, there has to be something said about the recovery time. Within two days, I was up and about and feeling just fine.
Perhaps it’s the lack of pharmaceuticals, but there’s this rush of adrenaline one gets (at least I did) postpartum that leaves you, eh, not so tired. I’m still waiting to hit that wall of complete and utter fatigue, but, knocking on wood, I haven’t gotten there yet.
You’re a Big Sister Now
Due to a H1N1 flu scare precaution, Peanut wasn’t allowed in the hospital. No peanut under the age of 16 was allowed in hospital for that matter.
Two days had passed without me seeing her – she was informed that the baby here, though, and she did call me regularly to see how the baby was doing. I didn’t realize how excited she really was until we we were all home. Happy to see me, happier to see baby Ringo. So happy, that she was jumping up and down and smothering Ringo with love. And, I really mean smothering him with love. She is really in his face. It’s a matter of time before [1] Ringo gets sick or [2] Ringo punches her in the face.