April 2014

So, April will be split up into several parts.  It was a very busy month.  Lots of things went on.  Here's just an overview of a few happenings.

First, Steve and I went on a date!  We're trying to be better about getting out together more often.  We need that time to spend together just the two of us.  This date was a geocaching date.  There's a nearby park called Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch Park.  Steve found a couple of geocaches in the area, so we headed over with a couple of Subway sandwiches.  Oh, April is beautiful in California!  The hills were so green and there were wildflowers everywhere.  We hiked all over, thinking we were close, but then just having to go a little further.  We hiked up this huge hill trying to find the cache.  Finally, we found it at the top under a gnarled tree.  Surprise, surprise, there on the other side, was a trail.  We didn't have to go cross-country, we could have walked easily along the road. Oh well!  Below are some of the pictures from that date.

One of the biggest changes to happen to us this month was our move.  We moved April 17 and 18 from our rental on Mira Bella in Morgan Hill to a house 7 miles south in San Martin on the corner of Middle and Center.  This was our 4th move in 18months.  Ugh!  We decided to hire movers to pack us up and move us to the new house.  It was so nice!  I don't think I'll ever go back to packing myself.  They packed all day April 17 and then moved us on the 18.  Apparently, we have so much stuff they had to do two trips!  They men were very nice and the only thing that got broken was Anna's pink piggy bank.  The mover felt so bad about it that he refused his tip that night.  We ordered her one that evening on Amazon and got it two days later.

View of the house from across the street.

We spent that night at Steve's parents' house.  They watched Anna and Matthew both days so that Steve and I could concentrate on getting the houses taken apart and put back together.  Thank you, Mom and Dad!  Later that evening, they brought the kids back so we could all spend our first night in the house together.

View from the back door of the house.  Yard is in front of the fence, hayfield behind.

The house is old- built in the 1950's, and smaller than the one on Mira Bella.  It's surrounded on 3 sides by a hayfield, so no next door neighbors.  We're far enough in the country that we had to get satellite internet, which we hate.  In fact, we've decided that this is just a little too country for us.  We miss having neighbors that we know and kids playing in the neighborhood.  So, when the lease is up in April, we will be moving on.

Our Move

I'm finally going to write about our move from Stansbury to San Jose!  I know you're all riveted.

This move was very strange for me.  It didn't really feel like we were moving.  Google is paying for us to move.  They have a moving company and such that will pack and move and store all of our stuff.  We only had to pack up the things we would need in San Jose until our things arrive.  That was difficult because there were many things we wanted that just wouldn't fit in the Corolla.  It took a few sessions of deciding what was essential, nice to have, and a total luxury.

On Monday, the car transport company picked up Steve's car.  I think it was as we watched it getting loaded up, that it finally began to sink in that we were really going.  It was driven to CA and delivered 10 days later. I'm so glad we didn't have to drive 2 cars!

We left Tuesday afternoon after packing up the car and making sure the house was relatively clean.  The car was PACKED.  Every available space had something in it, including under all the passengers' feet and in the back window.  We made it as far as Kraver's.  We decided to stop there and have lunch one last time.  Our official start time, then, was 1:15pm.  We were off.

The first third of the trip was great.  1pm is Anna and Matthew's regular nap-time, so they both zonked out pretty quickly.  We passed the time listening to CDs and talking.  It was really windy.  In no time we were in Nevada.  We stopped for some gas in Wells, NV after driving about 3 hours for gas.  Lucky me, I got to feed Matthew in the mini-mart part.

When we first knew we were going to move, we decided to crack out the portable DVD player and use it for the trip.  Well, it broke and we were unable to get it repaired before we left.  What were we going to do?!?  Instead, I prepared some bags of toys and snacks for the trip for Anna; one for each of the 9 hours.  She got her first one outside of Wells- a little chalkboard and chalk.  I scored big with this one!  She played with that chalkboard for the next 3 hours until we got to Winnemucca.

In Winnemucca, we stopped for gas and dinner.  Yum- Subway sandwiches.  At that point we decided to continue on toward California instead of staying the night.  Anna was still doing really well and Matthew seemed ok, too.

The last half of the trip was probably the hardest.  Anna did great all around, but Matthew had been sleeping most of the trip and was tired of it.  He wanted out.  We had to stop several times to take him out and walk him around and nurse him.  As the trip wore on, the time in between those stops got shorter and shorter.  We finally just had to let him cry because we could do nothing to make him feel better.

We arrived at Jeff (Steve's brother) and Gina's house around 11:30pm (12:30 UT time).  Boy, were we tired.  Gina and Becky were so fabulous and sat with a wide awake Matthew for several hours so I could get some sleep.

We stayed at Jeff's for 3 days then headed to Scott (Steve's brother) and Kim's house for a couple of days.  It was nice being able to spend some time with all of them.  Anna had so much fun playing with all of her cousins.  Matthew, amazingly, started waking up only once a night!

Finally, we headed out on the last 3 hour leg from Sacramento to San Jose.  We got here on Saturday evening and started settling in.

Westward, Ho!!!

We're heading west!  In just 3 or 4 weeks, our little family is heading to California.   I thought that we should write out how this happened so soon after moving into our new house here in Stansbury.

In January, Steve was contacted by a recruiter from Google through LynkedIn, a job networking site.  He wanted Steve to interview for a test engineer position.  First, he had a phone interview just before Matthew's blessing.  It went really well, so they asked him to come to California for a day of interviews.

Steve flew out the 14th of February (which postponed our Valentine's plans a little) for a day of interviews on the 15th.  He stayed with our friends, Charles and Desiree, for his trip.  Charles has worked for Google for 2 years already.  He and his wife had a lot of good advice and answered a lot of our questions.

Steve had 7 different interviews that day.  Each had a different interviewer and Steve said that they all seemed to come from a different part of the world: India, the UK, South America.  He felt that all the interviews went well and we started to think seriously about the possibility of working for Google.

Two weeks ago, we got a call from Google with an offer of employment.  The first offer was not one that we were willing to take, so Steve went back.  They came back with another that was better, but not quite what we wanted.  The third offer came just this week and was one that we could take.

Steve put in his two weeks notice on Thursday.  Our start date at Google will be April 22.  That will give us about two weeks after Steve finishes to move and get settled.  We will probably be staying with Steve's parents for a couple of months while we sell the house in Stansbury and look for a house in California.  Wish us luck!