California

Why we moved to California:

George was being underpaid for his talents at the job he was at in Burlington. He tried to address this with his bosses, but my impression is they were powerless to fix it until a spot on a higher up team opened up, which doesn't have a clear timeline. Sometime around when this was starting to be apparent to us that it might be a problem with the price of living in Burlington and a baby on the way, Google contacted George about wanting him to interview. We discussed this as a couple, and decided it was worth talking to them because they have an office in Boston that wouldn't be too bad to commute to. I did NOT want to move to Cali. 

He went ahead and did the phone interview and they really liked him! The next step was to fly out to Cali for an interview at the Googleplex. At that point Google had made it clear that they wanted George in Cali and were not offering a job in Boston. I really like Boston, particularly Burlington/Lexington. I reluctantly agreed that we could fly out and check it out, and if Cali was not too bad and they were offering enough interesting work and salary, we might do it. Still only maybe. We flew out to Cali on something like 3 days notice. We arrived, picked up our rental car, and spent the afternoon with some friends (Liza and Clint) in the area. I didn't like it very much. It reminded me way too much of Texas, and I didn't want to go back to that. I REALLY like Boston. 

The next day, George had an all-day interview. I was taken on a tour of Googleplex by Clint, who works there already. We ate lunch in the AMAZING TOTALLY FREE cafe, and I tried caffeinated water for the first time. I spent most of the day walking around and enjoying the awesome weather. As much as I like Boston, this place was starting to look amazing. And, George did awesome in his interview! 

When we got back home we discussed how much money it would be worth to leave the East Coast. The company he was working at is a really cool company and they would be finding a higher place for him eventually. Boston has SNOW and amazingly colored leaves in the fall. Education is highly valued in the area we lived, and our senator was the BEST ONE. But, our family would thrive better with more income. We would better be able to take trips to see cool things or go to museums. There would be less stress about prices of things, which makes for a better home life. (Not to say those who are struggling are bad or doing anything wrong! We just were discussing how given a choice it might be better for OUR family.) I determined the minimum starting salary it would take to make me leave.

Then George got the offer letter (YAY!) and Google pretty well surpassed what my minimum was to get me to leave. Plus they included the list of benefits, which are spectacular. I kinda ran out of reasons why we shouldn't move to the West Coast. George's previous job did not want to attempt to match Google's offer, so we decided to move. (But the old job still a great place! No bad thoughts or feelings!)

Now, things got complicated. The original plan was to stay at the old job until the baby is born, then move to Cali in late March. Then I thought about it, and that sounded like a terrible idea. Moving all our stuff is pretty stressful, getting to know a new area is stressful (at least to me,) and infants I hear are pretty stressful, so how about lets NOT do all that at the same time. I shouldn't be on a plane after the last week of December due to the potential of things going wrong and having a baby ON A PLANE, so it had to be before then. We got the offer letter around Thanksgiving. I was already set up to have surgery on my left wrist the first week of December, and I had to be in town for a week after that for a follow-up. We had a very tiny window of potential moving times. After lots of back-and-forth e-mails and figuring things out, we finally got it set up for movers to take our stuff December 11 and deliver it by December 27. I found us a cool new apartment, and Liza and Clint toured it for us and took lots of pictures. 

All of that is over now, and we have our stuff in our new place in California. I would still rather be in Boston, even with the current blizzard. This place is not that bad though. I think it will grow on me. George starts his first day at Google in the morning! Apparently Google will be giving him 7 weeks of paid paternity leave once Baby Kylie is born, even if he is only able to work for a few days before that. It's pretty awesome =)

Rachael

2014 Goals

If I write out my 2014 goals here, I might be more likely to stick to them. That is the idea anyway.

• Take at least one picture a day.
• I had this goal before when I got my camera, but then I failed at it. I will try again!
• Do at least 30 minutes of Memrise a day to work on my French. 
• Ideally every day, but at least 6 days a week.
• Blog more often!
• I was trying to stick to at least monthly updates, but I don't always do even that. I think this will get easier once I have interesting things to tell everyone about the baby =)
• Catch up on paperwork and STAY THAT WAY.
• I have a little pile of places to call and things to figure out that I avoid. I need to clear out the pile once and for all! Like tax stuff. I don't even want to think about it. Bleh.
• Start logging receipts. 
• George and I talked about doing this a few months ago, but with the huge move and all the new baby stuff expenses, we decided it would be easier to wait until the new year to start. I would like to start tracking how much we actually spend on things, because for the most part I really don't know.

That is all I can think of right now that I want to change in 2014. =)

Rachael