February 2010: Cursed?

This month isn't going so well. It's actually the worst one I've had in a long time, and the things that keep happening one after the other have made it almost comical. It's been like the dominoe effect! Why does the concept of "When it rains, it pours" actually have to work when it comes to the difficult things in life?!

To briefly summarize this strange, frustrating month, it started out on February 2nd with a trip to the E.R. for my 4-month-old baby Sam. Something had somehow gotten wrapped super-tightly around the little middle toe on his right foot. He's fine now, but it was VERY stressful!

Then there have been various ongoing anxieties and issues that are still causing some inner turmoil. All of that stress coupled with the E.R. trip gave me a kanker sore last week that made life fairly miserable. (Although on the bright side, I think I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight because I could hardly eat for days because it hurt too much.) Then John got sick, Sam got a temperature, a supposedly big snowstorm never materialized (disappointing!), I was having weird aches and pains in my feet and legs, and I felt like an unfocused, overtired, unhealthy, disorganized mess. We're supposed to put our house on the market in a few weeks, which is overwhelming, as is the fact that we'll be moving away to a new part of the country in a few months. It's all too much!

This week we're in Massachusetts with my family for February vacation and life should be better. I'm planning on catching up on sleep and trying to get myself organized and re-centered. And things are starting to look up. Peter and I enjoyed a lovely Valentine's dinner at one of my favorite places on Saturday night. The Winter Olympics is happening, and I enjoy that, especially the figure skating. Right now as I'm writing this there is the prettiest snowfall outside.

So that's been my month. I hope yours has been better! If the month is indeed "cursed," at least it's halfway over. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to March and the coming of spring!

Our Big News

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I might have some news to share. I do in fact have news to share, and, without further ado, here it is: We're moving to Iowa. That's right, Iowa!

Why would we leave Connecticut, a wonderful place where we've lived for four years and like very much, a place where we're 90 minutes away from both my family in Massachusetts and Peter's family in Rhode Island, a place where we're close to the ocean and to the great cities of Boston and New York, a place where history, culture, and natural beauty abound all around?

It's all because my husband got lured away from Prudential, the company for which he's worked for all eight years of his career. He wasn't looking for a new job, but late last summer an executive recruiter contacted him about an attractive opening with another insurance company. It turned out to be "the one" for Peter: a big step up in the areas he's good in with a lot of responsibility and leadership opportunity. This company just happens to be headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

This was such a difficult decision to make. There were many factors to consider. I had months to think about it, and I went from "No, absolutely not, NEVER" to "Probably not" to "Hmmm, maybe" to, finally, "Yes." I visited Iowa at the end of December with Peter to see if it was a place I could agree to move to, and I was impressed. It wasn't all flat cornfields like I'd been expecting. In fact, many of the areas that we saw looked a lot like the Northeast, with trees, rivers, hills, a sprawling university campus, and similar shops and buildings to what we have here.

So anyway, there's a lot more I could write about, and I'm sure I'll do that in various posts in the months to come, but that's the scoop. We won't be moving until this summer, thank goodness. I need all the time I can get to get used to the idea of becoming a Midwesterner!