One Year

We realized that its been one year since we showed up in Colorado! This has probably been the most eventful year we've ever had, so I thought I'd recap the highlights:

First long distance road trip: We drove straight through, 16 straight hours, with nary a stop over 20 minutes the whole way. I got to see lots of amazing natural wonders, and Jenna got to see nothing but taillights and Vegas.

3 months in the tiniest dwelling that 2 people and a dog should ever occupy: Our 290sf hotel room on the third floor, with "kitchenette" (really just a sink with microwave above and mini-mini fridge below)

New Job for me: I started a few days after we got here at my new firm, Klipp

New Car for Jenna: Jenna picked up her Matrix shortly after we arrived here

Positive Pregnancy Test: This was a shocker, especially within the first couple months of being here...

First "downpayment" on a brand new house: We kind of got to feel what it's like to have a brand new house being built when we put $5 down on a house in nearby Horse Creek (they were running a special)... but eventually had to back out when our house hadn't sold in time to close.

New job for Jenna: Jenna worked at a horse stable for a few months, until winter came.

New church: hitting about 8 or 9 local churches in just a few weeks, we found the church community we felt we could call home.

First snowstorm, blizzard, etc.: Our first winter was one of the worst in Denver history, so we got to experience the worst of it right away... luckily we moved into a 1br condo just before the first snow of the year in late October. With the blizzards came lots of firsts, like first time shovelling it, taking the dog for walks in it, driving in it on a regular basis, hitching a ride on the back of a stranger's snowmobile down a major highway during a blizzard, etc.

Another new job for Jenna: Jenna started working at Old Navy, which was much more reasonable during pregnancy

Most stressful time ever: The period after Christmas, when our house still hadn't sold after 6-7 months after dropping the price by $100k +, blizzards were happening weekly, work was getting busier and busier, Jenna was working lots of evenings and weekends, and the due date was approaching fast, was one of the darkest, most frustrating, and most stressful that we will hopefully ever endure...

Strangest escrow ever (and first sold house!): Once we did finally get an offer, it was a great one, $10k over our asking price (with $10k in closing costs, of course). We had both just basically given up, so neither of us believed it. We both were so negative that we assumed it was going to fall through up until closing day. The buyers gave us lots of reasons to think that way - like getting everthing done late, not returning our agent's calls, never asking for inspection repairs, etc., but they did finally come through and close! (a couple of days late, but we expected that)

New House!: This was an awesome day... one we never would have appreciated to the extent that we did if we had moved right on out here into our house. We finally got to sleep in our bed again, we got to let Ella outside to the backyard, and best of all, we weren't going further into debt each month to pay both a mortgage and rent, all right before the baby was due, which was awesome, because every baby book talks about how financially stressed couples can get right before having their first baby... multiply that times 10 when you're digging further into debt every month living in limbo between moves...

New Baby!: Laina was definitely the biggest and best thing to happen all year (but probably the smallest physically). Along with her came all kinds of baby-related firsts: There are so many of these I won't waste your time... but they're still happening...

New friends: Since settling in we've made a bunch of new friends, in our neighborhood, church, work, etc, and we actually feel, after a year in Colorado, that we can really call this home.

Anyway, thinking back, we're hoping this next year goes a little smoother...