In the second week of January Blair received a job offer from Broward County, FL! He has been searching and interviewing since before he graduated last April so we were really relieved to find this job. (For the record, he did have an offer elsewhere this past summer but after some thinking and praying we didn't feel like it would be a good fit for us, so he turned it down and kept looking.)
Blair accepted the Florida job and then we went to work looking for housing and trying to become acquainted with the area from over 2,000 miles away. After many hours of research we decided to rent an apartment without looking in person. It was a risky decision but we felt like things would work out just fine. With housing squared away we set to work sorting through our belongings and packing stuff up. We had four weeks from the time the offer was extended to the start date, and with 4-5 days of driving the moving truck that gave us just three weeks to tie up loose ends and get packed.
As a side note, I really like that Florida's seal states, "In God we trust." That sums up very well the last 10 months of job hunting and will be our family motto for the next several months as we move to a completely unfamiliar place where we know no one.
Blair and I never, ever pictured ourselves in Florida. I've only ever been to one ocean beach in my life--and it was so cold I wore a sweatshirt the whole time and barely got my toes wet. I'm excited to experience a warm beach and glad that Ella will get to enjoy that, too. Blair's job will be a great start for his career and we think we'll really like it in Florida. The first adventure we'll plan will be driving down the Florida Keys all the way to Key West. It should be great! We'll keep you posted.
For New Year's Eve this year Blair and I went to to his sister's house in Mesa. We put Ella to bed there then spent the evening playing the Wii, wearing silly hats, and eating delicious scones with honey butter. We were traditional and watched the ball drop then rang in the new year with some smooches. We can tell we're boring parents now because it took major effort to stay awake past 11:00. We made a tired drive home and once Ella was safe in her own bed we crashed only to be awakened entirely too early by our little one. We didn't make any resolutions this year besides improving where we're slacking, but we do have some goals for this year. We have a feeling 2010 will be a good one!