two years in california.

so far, today is just like any other day: i had to go get some blood drawn first thing in the morning, and then i came home and we all ate breakfast and did chores and ran errands and then came home for lunch and now alice is going down for her nap and im trying to quietly get some work done before having to go to my real job this evening. 

but, today is also very much not just like any other day. 

today just so happens to be the two-year anniversary of us moving back to the south bay (my hometown) after living in prescott, arizona for the first 16 months of our marriage. 

heres a picture of us then (a few days after getting here we took alice to the beach for the first time):

and here we are today:

now, im still not really ready to talk much about our move from prescott, or living in prescott, because, well, i still cant talk about it without getting all ranty and emotional and calling certain people (mostly pastors and pastors wives) some very bad names. what i can say though is living there was a lot like living alexanders terrible, horrible, no good very bad day for almost a year and a half and that i am very, VERY happy that we escaped.

and i am so, SO thankful to live near my family, to have a church that treats us like human beings and isnt run by a bunch of bullys, to have friends that actually care about us that we dont have to censor ourselves around, to be able to do fun things without spending $50 on gas, to both have jobs (and opportunity for better jobs!) and most importantly, that alice has dozens of kids her age to play with (i dont know if i ever mentioned this, but alice was literally the ONLY BABY at our church in arizona). 

moving back here was hard, starting all over with everything. our home, our jobs, our friends, our relationship, everything was back at square one. 

and two years later, its still a struggle. but im SO glad we did it. 

maybe one day ill talk more about the transition, about how bad things were and how much  better they are now, but like i said, im not ready.