Oh, hello, Blog! We kind of forgot about you... 

Sorry about that.  I'll attempt to catch up some major details here, then we'll do some catch up/ overviews of highlights from the past six months.

When we last updated, Johnny was into hats, was just getting over his fear of walking on grass, and or neighborhood amenities were nearly complete! Not surprisingly, a lot has changed in six months.
(...except for John's love of hats. That may never change.)

But biggest news first, I suppose: We're moving to California! LA County to be specific, though more specifics on that will have to wait until after our house in Houston sells.  Here are some favorite pictures from the listing.  Wouldn't you like to buy this house?

We love our house! We're especially sad to leave it after we finally got that wall painted, they finished the pool and fixed the splash-pad, and we were really getting to know our neighbors as friends.  Sigh, but all good things must come to an end. I usually feel like change is good, but leaving the City of Houston, our neighborhood, our hand picked little dream house, my beloved Klein High School, Johnny's daycare (that's known him more than half of his life), our friends from church, and most especially my mom so nearby, all make leaving Houston a pretty heart-wrenching decision. We would really not choose anything different about the place we live.

What, you may ask, could persuade us to leave such a perfect life behind?

SPACE!

In mid September, Gordon interviewed with Northrop Grumman, Aerospace Systems for a thermal engineering position working on instruments for civil defense satellites. In October, they called and offered him the position. After some panic and much prayer, we decided to take the offer. After all, who is going to say no to Aerospace? Not us! So away we go!

Except that extraction from one place and settling into another is actually quite an involved process (thankfully aided to a bit by a relocation package).

I made a friendly and (mostly) graceful exit from my almost year and a half career at KHS before the end of the fall semester. Gordon drove out to CA via Tucson, and he arrived just in LA time for Trick or Treating on Haloween night with Rob, Michelle, Emma, and Charlotte. They and the parents Rupp are kind enough to let Gordon stay in a guest room while we get things figured out with housing out there.   It's really wonderful that we have family there to help! Also, spending Uncle Gordon time with Emma and Charlotte makes it a little less sad for him to be apart from Johnny.

 Here we are enjoying some farewell Bahama Mamma Ramma Style Bahama Buck's Hawaiian Shaved Ice and Gordon holding a farewell Hank's Rootbeer from an HP coworker. 

Grandma Debby, Johnny, and I spent Halloween finishing cleaning out/ staging dark corners of closets (nothing more horrifying) and finished with Johnny's first and last trick or treat outing in Sawmill Ranch.  His costume was very appropriately themed.

(Thank you, Grandma Debby and Pottery Barn!)

 Our little extroverted astronaut loves visiting with friends,
    but his favorite part was splashing in muddy puddles!

 

 

So to sum up, the last month went something like this: Johnny and I moved in with Grandma Debby Halloween weekend; Gordon started work in LA November 2nd; our house went on the market November 3rd; my last day at work was November 6th; Johnny's last day at Xplor was November 13th (celebrated with a doughnut party); packers came on the 16th, moved our house into pods on the 17th (our 3rd anniversary!), final clean up of the house/ touch up paint with ward members was the 18th (also the day my mom left for Saudi Arabia to visit the expat Browns), and Sunday the 22nd Johnny and I few to Tucson for a Reese family Thanksgiving!

 

Johnny did surprisingly well on the flight from 'houston to Tucson! Still, it's easier with a higher than 1:1 kid/adult ratio.

We're so happy to be here!

 Grammy Felicia found a box of Gordon's old blocks and train set, much to the delight of Johnny and Grandpa Bryan. It made for quite an industrious evening of building, destruction, and rebuilding.

And the best part?  Gordon drove in Monday night from LA and we'll all be together this week! Huzzah! We're happy to be here escaping it all for a week with family and fun. Along with Grammy and Grandpa Reese, we get to see Aunt Haley tomorrow! 

We found a sandy dessert playground.

         

On the way home I kept getting distracted by the alien Arizona landscape.

Next week Johnny will stay with Bryan and Felicia (THANK YOU!) while Gordon and I go back to LA to try and hammer out some more details there. Big thrills! Hopefully we'll be able to sell our house and go through with the contingency offer we put down on a house we love in San Dimas/ La Verne area.

But for now, Johnny will continue to torment the dogs, and we'll just enjoy this time together.

I am thankful for these new adventures, but I'm most grateful for our friends, family, and all the love and support we've had through this wild and crazy time.  We hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, and know that if you're reading this, you're loved and appreciated by us!