Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back. Again.

This time with the promise of more posts!

2010 was a bumpy year for us - my work was in flux, we made big changes around our house and decided, for once and for all (of the next 5 years, at least) to stay put.

2010 was a great year for many reasons - we spent a lot of time with our family and made some wonderful memories with our friends. A night with a fun group at the Pelican Inn in February, Dique's 35th birthday at Tommy's Joynt, my birthday bbq, Outside Lands, our friends from Nebraska coming and sparking a spontaneous dinner party at our home. What fun! The happiest part was an expanding family. We didn't help any, though, the new additions who joined the fold are our biological and honorary nieces and nephews. It's made us (fine, me) even more baby crazy than I previously was. As long as I get to hold other people's babies, though, I can simmer down.

The job thing was tough for me, and for us both. I wasn't very happy at McCann in early 2010 - working at a much smaller company within a huge company without a path for advancement wasn't satisfying. I pressed on and used the downtime to work on our home. We recovered the kitchen and bathroom floors, repainted/redecorated the guestroom and our bedroom, Dique built us a bed with storage. Yes, he built it. From scratch! I painted the fence out back and pulled up a strip of lawn to plant a veggie garden. The work yeilded a successful bounty of green beans, zuchini, tomatoes, rhubarb and lots of herbs. Seriously, we have so much mint. Still. would you like to come over for a mojito? Please do. Today. And then take home some more mint.

In June I learned my job was dissolving and by August had moved back into the advertising side of McCann, supporting two new execs. This wasn't the perfect fit either so when a girlfriend mentioned a role at AOL I took an interview. The pros? Instantly connecting with the people, the goals and vision of the company and the path they saw themselves on. And I'd be a liar if I said salary wasn't an plus. Not having a raise or bonus in three years had been tough, so the idea of an increase was very exciting. The cons? The office is in Palo Alto, a 45-60 minute drive from our home. And we didn't own a car.

After much deliberation, I accepted the job and Dique and I headed to Honda to lease a Fit Sport. I started work on October 18th, waking up before 6am to cruise 280 before traffic hit. I support three execs in the Applications and Commerce Group - which means I support three execs who actually are making cool stuff. My main boss is the head of Marketing for our division; we hit it off instantly. I've told him before that I feel like we're siblings. We have a great time, but can be totally honest with each other when things go wrong. He's been a big supporter of mine - giving me more to do than just book meetings and schedule conference calls. I get to write copy and plan events - two of my favorite things! My other two guys are the heads of Mobile and Messaging, which means if you have an AOL ap on your cell phone, my boss' team created that. And if you use AIM for computer chat/messaging, my other boss is making that a better product for you. I've never worked at a company that actually *builds* things, and creates products. I love it here. I hate that the office is in Palo Alto, but I love this company.

Dique's job survived the market crash - thank goodness. We definitely worried about the real estate market in San Francisco. It all turned out for the better, however, as he even managed to close a sale in January 2011. It was his first sale in San Francisco to close, he was thrilled and I was so proud of him. We experienced our own troubles with our property at the end of 2010 - needing to refinance our mortgage from an interest-only loan to a 30-year ammortized. Our building has lost value (like every other place out there) since the bubble burst, and we were faced with some tough decision in December. Do we sell and walk away, at a loss? Do we keep renting the top unit even though we don't want to? Supportive families, an excellent mortage broker and prayers to everything high and holy made it all come together just before Christmas. We could stay, we could take over the whole building later in 2011 and stop renting out the top. We could continue on as planned. Whew.

Now that it's actually April, we're on the cusp of having more house news - but I can't count any chickens before they hatch! Rest assured it won't be another year before I let the cat out of the bag.

Hope the last 12 months have been good to you and yours. :-)