Severely Overdo Update

I know my diligence in maintaining this blog has been worse than pathetic. However, I think I have some pretty darn good excuses for being a slacker - sometimes I feel about how Evan looks in this picture. To say the least, a lot has happened in the last year. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly:
· Economy takes a grueling dive into the asphalt from outer space.
· Aaron laid off with the masses at LifeScan, but has to stay working there until March 2009.
· Julie gets eye laser surgery in February (yay!)
· Evan has his first trip to Hawaii in March (pictures/blog in previous post).
· Slight panic occurs at the realization that the best job prospects are NOT in the Bay Area. An opportunity for Aaron arises in Salt Lake City, Utah instilling further hysteria as our sole research on the area (i.e. HBO’s Big Love) reveals that Utah would not be the place for us.
· Evan starts becoming extremely mobile – lots of crawling around and rolling everywhere.
· We are saved from Utah when Aaron is offered a job in beautiful San Diego with Covidien. Julie is extremely lucky because EDAW has an office in San Diego and they were very enthusiastic to have me transfer down there.
· We put our house on the market at the absolute worst possible time to do so.
· Aaron starts at Covidien in June 2009 while Julie and Evan stay in the Bay Area.
· While Aaron was gone, Julie had possibly the worst month of her life (yes, worse than law school). Here’s why:

o Evan was sick for 3 weeks straight with a fever that hit 103.5 at one point. We made 3 trips to the hospital. He refused to drink any fluids at one point.
o I had to keep the house sparkling for showings, which is nearly impossible with a baby. We had at least 6+ people coming every day to see it.
o I almost killed my cat Bear because she was under the sofabed when I put it back together (mom was staying with me to help out and was sleeping on the sofabed since our guest bed was packed in the garage for showings). More than $800 later for xrays, blood work and emergency vet visits, she ended up being okay with only severe bruising and puffiness (however, this was her 9th life apparently – more below).
o Aaron got sick when he was home for one of the weekends.
o Mom got sick shortly after.
o All of this while I was still working full time and deadlines were naturally crazy during that time. I ended up using all my vacation so that I had to take a leave of absence when we
finally had to move down to San Diego.

· We sell the house and take it off the market.
· We take a desperately needed family trip to Seattle. Pictures are on the picasa site.
· Julie and Evan move to San Diego and we all live in corporate housing for about a week. Evan starts to pull himself up and stand.
· After contingencies are removed, the buyers back out and a fight ensues over the deposit and panic creeps up that it will be nearly impossible to sell an empty house.
· The house is back on the market.
· Luckily we sell again almost immediately and no issues happen with this one.
· We move to an apartment in San Marcos while we look for a house in San Diego.
· Evan has his first birthday! Pictures on Picasa.
· Evan starts walking and saying more words.
· Bear does not return after going outside one evening. Poor Bear-Bear. I made regular visits to animal shelters and we put up signs, but she was never found.

Okay, so now you say to yourself – it has to get better, right?
· Julie gets promoted.
· We find an amazing house in Carlsbad: 10 minutes from the beach and town, minutes from shopping and freeways, across the street from a preserve with hiking and biking trails, large and cozy, and on a cul-de-sac.
· The weather is absolutely perfect here.
· Our friends Amy, Rich and Drew visit over Thanksgiving to help us move.
· The whole family comes to visit for Christmas and we have a wonderful time.
· Aaron and Julie take their 1st vacation together sans family in 3 years to the Yucatan in Mexico.
· Evan is absolutely amazing (‘nuf said).

So now that I have gotten all that out of the way, I will try to be better about posting little stories of Evan (because that’s what we really care about right!) He is currently almost 21 months. He has taken to running everywhere instead of walking. He is stringing together words, like "mama shoe" or "mama juice" when he wants something. We are getting a peak at the terrible twos - he is starting to perfect the Julie-patented stomp and stare. He can read the numbers 1 through 10. He is a pro at eating (but he always was.) And there is lots more to report, but in the meantime, please enjoy the recent photos of him posted on Picasa.