Longest Month Ever

Though shortest in days, February feels like the longest month and this year proved no exception. Cold and snow and cold and snow and more cold and more snow. I'm a Utah girl so I should be prepared for winters like this but this year was pound you into the ground until you're bruised and bloodied and forgotten what warmth feels like. It didn't help that I had to travel to Toronto twice. Yes I may be being a bit dramatic but I don't care. This year's winter tested all my sanity.

A few highlights:

Captured a perfect sunset at the temple

Visited Lincoln's Cottage (missed the tour though)

Found 1st National Cemetery (aka Arlington Light)

Additionally my friend Mel came to town for a week so I spent a few days driving to Leesburg after work to play with her and Cheryl. One night we went to Cheryl's gym and did pilates. I wish someone had a camera as we looked quite uncoordinated at times.

The biggest news that happened in February started from a Sunday morning message from my boss's boss asking if I'd seen his email the day before. I hadn't since I don't check my emails on the weekend. Quickly looked and he asked if I would come up to Toronto for leadership meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. Having no idea why I was singled out but also knowing I'd miss an important opportunity at work, I logged onto my company's travel site and booked a trip the next day. My boss chatted with me the next day and mentioned that the org changes that we all thought were going to happen were tossed aside for a new plan from the VP. After two days of meetings, I still had no idea why I had been asked to join. An hour before leaving for the airport, the VP pulled me into his office to chat. What he suggested was exactly what I had been hoping for and immediately accepted a new role. The catch: I had to fly to Toronto more often. Gratefully it's such a quick flight that going once or twice a month wouldn't be too problematic and the weather is getting warmer so here's hoping to better things.

And so it begins

1. Old job - I started out the month helping interview for my replacement. No one really stood out to me and my friend in Palo Alto reminded me when I was there visiting in September that "It's not my problem." Having multiple friends in HR has been very helpful.

My friend Annie

My friend Karen

My "Legit 50" crew

Domo rooster

So I can remember when they make it big

2. New job - The old job ended on a Friday and the new one started on a Monday. I didn't quite know what to expect and since I hadn't heard from my new boss, I spent the day packing for my move across the country. The next day I flew to San Francisco for our annual users conference where I met too many people and spent too much time helping people from the old job figure out what I had been doing. Apparently my efforts the last few months to do knowledge transfer fell on deaf ears. 

Advocate friends from Deer Valley ski trip

3. Running - In the middle of all of this, I was training for a half marathon. I really enjoyed starting the race with two of my sisters and my niece. They finished well ahead of me but I still finished close to my goal (only five minutes slower). 

Halloween Half

Finished!

4. Last minute things - I had time to get in one more cabin trip, one more BYU football game, and one more last goodbye. Tears fell multiple times.

My home :(

Cabin time

Cabin memories

Skyline drive at sunset

One more football game

One more story with Max

One more Fairbanks group hug

One more Woolston group hug

5. Eyes - I was at the eye doctor every 2-3 days. I was there so often the receptionist would call me out by name telling me she had already checked me in as I walked through the door. The doctor prescribed two different types of antibiotic drops, two different types of steroid drops, and multiple natural tears drops. My wallet hurt. My eyes hurt. And I still couldn't see clearly. I could only see clearly once I used the natural tears. Yes I drove. But my vision was only slightly worse than before the surgery so I knew how to compensate. Gratefully, the infection cleared and I had minimal to no scarring on my eyes. I continued the steroid and regular eye drops until Christmas when I saw the doctor again. Everything healed beautifully and I can see perfectly. It just took a long process to get me there.

Too many drops

6. Moving - My sister stepped into my mom's shoes and helped me drive across country. I decided to have everything shipped since I didn't know exactly where I'd be moving. Best decision! I had two cousins (one in Colorado and one in Missouri) who let us stay at their homes. Early November 1st, my sister and I rolled into Virginia...my new home. (See post here about the moving process.)

Eastern Colorado

Western Kansas

Eastern Kansas

St. Louis

Endure to the End

You know those moments where you finally sit down to finish a project, push save, refresh and realize nothing saved. Welcome to September. This post has already been written so the second go-around will probably not be as detailed, which is good for you as the previous one tended to push the TMI limits.

Source of my strength through all of this craziness!

First, the job: I finally (Whew!) received a phone call from the recruiter telling me he could officially extend the offer. So began actually applying for the job so he could move through the process, negotiating salary (thanks to my HR friend who helped me with my skills), background check, and three weeks later (seriously?!) I had an email letting me know I was moving to Virginia!

Offer letter

Second, how my boss took it: her jaw dropped as she slunk into her chair. She tried to the "whatever they offered you, we'll match it". No they couldn't. I had a really, really good offer. I gave her two weeks and she asked for three. Considering I didn't like the idea of going without a paycheck and I wanted to leave on good terms regardless of all that happened, I agreed to three weeks.

Third, family time: I took some time to check on things at my parents' house and my two nieces agreed to the quick 3-hour round trip drive. We ended the day at a pool party which is how all summers should end: by the pool. Later my aunt and I attended the James Taylor with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert. Honestly, I didn't know most of his singles and neither did my aunt. Still a good time.

G-town with a Planes character

James Taylor concert

Fourth, football: I needed one more weekend in California and a friend had offered one of his tickets to the ASU v. Stanford game. In reality, this date didn't go that well. We had met once and hit it off, but for some reason this date really shut off any potential. Probably didn't help that I was moving across the country. Oh well. At least I got to see a football game. Another friend of mine offered me a ticket to the Texas v. BYU football game. That started about as bad as the Stanford date but ended on a much better note. I had never seen rain like this in Utah and only a few times here in Virginia. Wow!

Stanford stadium

BYU game right before the storm moved in

Storm coming 

The crowd cheering as the clouds moved in 

Winning the game

Fifth, running: I decided I wasn't working out and started training for a half-marathon in October. That's what I do. When I need to get healthy, I sign up for half-marathons. Not 5Ks. Half-marathons.

Sixth, being blinded: My eyesight started weakening from my LASIK surgery seven years ago. I wasn't surprised. I knew it could happen. I went from wearing coke-bottle glasses to seeing. Modern-day miracle in my opinion. But I had all this money saved up in my HSA account and I figured I should use it and touch up the LASIK. Long (very, very, very) story short. The day I went in for surgery, we discovered I had an eye infection. Many bottles of antibiotics and doctor's appointments, my eyes were primed for PRK surgery as I wasn't a candidate for LASIK after this long. FYI, PRK is harder to recover from, especially when you try and run 8 miles the next day and a different infection decides to attack your eyes rendering you blind (or at least an out of focus camera lens). Thus began a three month long journey.

Just the beginning

California

June 2013 was basically split into two parts: family reunion and job interviews. First the fun part, my mom surprised us all and flew to Utah to help my sister with her new baby, which meant she got to join us for out family reunion in California. I think it says a lot about my family that even with my parents in another country, we still worked out a time to spend a week together. Sadly we still missed having my brother, his wife, my brother-in-law, and my dad with us. For the drive out, I had my niece and nephew in my car, and I had a great time introducing them to 80s rock music. Needless to say, my niece had a new list of music groups and songs she wanted to download. We gathered in Folsom at my siblings houses and spent time in San Francisco and Yosemite. The pictures capture the great time we all had.

Grandma is in town

Alcatraz

Boat from Alcatraz to San Francisco

Lombard Street

Yosemite

Hiking the Mist Trail

Hiking the Mist Trail

To be two again

Yosemite Falls

Playing at the campsite

Taking a break from hiking

My kids

Yosemite redwoods

Practicing the musical number for my nephew's baptism

Happy Father's Day

While my mom was visiting, I had an accident. We were watching the kids play in the cul-de-sac when a car turned the corner. I saw my two-year-old nephew in the street and ran towards him to make sure the car didn't hit him. My feet got the better of me and slid second base style over the paver stones. I'd never been to the ER before nor had stitches. It was weird having someone other than my dad take care of me. But I got all stitched up and a year later (as I'm writing this) the scar is barely visible.

ER shots

My niece wrote me a cute note after the fall

While in California, I had the distinct impression that I should go to DC (well Northern Virginia) soon with the intention of seeing if I could live there. I had a job interview lined up the Monday after the reunion in San Francisco for a position located in Virginia. The interview was fine but I wasn't in love with the role or the company, but I felt I should move in this direction. I came back from the interview with the prayer that I'll go where the Lord wants me to go even if I'm not in love with the job and that maybe it's just one more step to get me to where I need to be. Then the miracle. I arrived at work after having this conversation with the Lord (we do that a lot while I'm driving) and saw an email from the SVP at Eloqua (the company I went skiing with back in February). He asked if I was interested in a job. Within a week I was chatting with a Sr. Director for a product management position. They basically said, "We can teach you to be a product manager. We can't teach you to think like a marketer. And we need a marketer." I knew this was my answer. This job was going to happen. It was based in northern Virginia and I already had a ticket to fly there the week after to see if this was going to be a good fit for me. The wheels were in motion and my life was about to change in a fantastic new direction.