California here we come. Right back where we started from. . .

Well. It's official and it has happened. We Giles have left New York and are moving (once again--hope you wrote our address in pencil) "home" to California. There were countless reasons to stay in NY and countless reasons to move home and our pro/con list has been growing for years and years. I think we always suspected we'd be back, but we are feeling so bittersweet about this prodigal return to CA after 8 years away. The timing was a fluke since the market was tough, but we actually did make a few bucks on our house (shocker) and Brian was able to transfer with Chase into a similar job in CA--he will be managing a region in Southern California. He is really feeling the loss of his NY team but what an amazing experience to have been able to do what he has done in NYC! We are all a little sad, even Meg expressed herself this week, "It's sad to leave the city. And it's sad to leave our friends." My feelings exactly, my little sweet pea.

To make this entry even more official, I am typing it as we are flying to CA. Let me describe the scene for you: Six suitcases (some of these are just duffel bags), one stroller, one carseat, one husband attached to his iPod watching episode after episode of 24, one three year old who is nearing the end of her airplane activity bag and one 12 year old cat who is panting away with stress and hasn't seen the inside of a litter box in 6 hours--so far. The cat and the child have had one accident each (so far) but nothing, uh . . . solid. So far. We still have about an hour left and then a two hour ride to my parents place and I realize the feline may need to do her thing before that. Anyways, she (cat) actually succeeded in a small-scale escape a little bit ago. Meg asked me to help with something and when I looked over I saw the cat slinking out of the bag. I lunged and caught her before she dashed under the seat and made a run for it. She now has a few layers of protection piled on top of her little travel case. Nice try kitty cat.

So, if you're looking for us, we'll be staying with my parents at their house in Hesperia for a few weeks while we scope out a place to live. We'd like to look at some communities on all sides of Brian's new region and while we are familiar with the territory, we never cared about school districts the last time we lived there, so we'll be doing some research. Our cell phone numbers are the same and my email address is the same, so please keep in touch!