August = Transition

Joshua and I were chatting about how August is a big transition month for both of us.  I started thinking back to my own Augusts of years past.

1997 -- Go off to college as a Physics major

1998 -- Back to college excited to continue on the sailing team

1999 -- Studying abroad in Bangkok,Thailand

2000 -- Back to college excited to be a senior Economics major

2001 -- Transition from teaching sailing full time to starting at JPMorgan Chase

2002 -- Sail from Baltimore to Canada on a private sailing yacht (I was employed as the full-time cook and mate) as the first leg of a journey that would eventually take us all over the Caribbean

2003 -- Having driven cross country by myself, I spent August in Eugene, Oregon running a Catholic Worker home for teenage mothers before heading up to Seattle to begin as an AmeriCorps VISTA

2004 -- Finish up my volunteer year at the Refugee Resettlement Office in Seattle and get hired on full-time to run an asset development program; also I paid off the loan on my boat, which was my primary residence

2005 -- Continue working at the Refugee Resettlement Office but cut back on my hours so that I could also work part time at The Center for Wooden Boats as a sailing instructor; spend every other waking moment with Joshua who I had been dating for five months

2006 -- Drive cross country with Joshua, get married in Carlisle, move into an apartment in Philadelphia

2007 -- Moved into the house that we bought and rehabbed; after a year of looking (unsuccessfully) for a decent job, started school full-time for my Masters in Urban Studies; cut off most of my hair

2008 -- Got Simon the dog to keep me company while I was home doing school work; spent the summer working at a transporation planning agency

2009 -- Pregnant and preparing for the arrival of our SweetPea; spent the summer working at a housing non-profit

2010 -- Stay-at-home-mom to Alma while in the midst of having our house on the market and planning a move to the Lehigh Valley;  have a husband who makes funny faces while repeating "I'm a dad" over and over again 

While we aren't quite done with all of our current transitions, it is feeling closer.  We have both of our closings scheduled, all the financial stuff is figured out (not an ideal deal for our home sale, but a great agreement for our home purchase) and we are feeling excited for the next steps into our new home.  Nervous-excited, but mostly excited these days.