The State of My Life... and How it Impacts My Blog

Big changes are coming to the ARPSmith household over the next couple months.  As you may recall, we had a little girl, our 3rd child, back in early December.  She is a sweet and wonderful little girl and we couldn't have ordered a better baby.  My boys love her to death and are wonderful with her.  We are very happy and baby girl has definitely completed our family.  If that wasn't a big enough change (my middle son just turned 6 so we were out of the baby mode), we received another twist that is impacting our family.

This new change isn't bad, at least long term.  I just got a new job with my company.  It is a lateral move but it has a much broader scope of responsibility and it much more visible that my old job.  My goal is to get promoted to the executive level in the next 1-3 years and I think this job will help me get there.  The big change is that the job requires us to move.  It is only 90 miles away but that is hours of commute in So Cal so we are picking up the family and moving at the end of the school year.

This is something we somewhat anticipated at some point in the future but it came along pretty quickly.  After some initial sadness and disappointment my boys seem to be on board and somewhat excited (most of the time).  My wife has been wonderful despite some serious downside for her.  She is a middle school teacher and currently has what most would consider a dream job (small school district with few budget concerns, high paying for a teach and a classroom overlooking the beach) and will have to leave her job.  Her disappointment is somewhat balanced out by the fact that she most likely will take at least a year off of work after the move.  This should be great for the family allowing her to spend more time with our baby girl, help the boys acclimate to the new area and a new school and take some home pressure off me as I dive into my new job.

I started my new job last Monday and will be spending the week at a Residence Inn new my new office while my wife plays single mom back home. She survived the first week but it is going to be tough on her to make it through the next 8-10 weeks of this until the school year is over and we make the move.  It sucks for me to be away from my family but the burden is much worse on her.

So what does that mean for this little old blog?  Well I really enjoy doing this and have been at it for more than a year.  I have become friends with a bunch of fellow bloggers and some that just read my blog.  I have met tons of trading partners and have had more fun with this hobby then I could probably imagine.  I drafted a few posts last weekend before taking off for the new job thinking I could just keep going as normal but have quickly found out that it just won't work.  My personal internet access is limited to my iPad which is a little challenging to post with. I don't have any cards with me to scan so new posts are tough.

My plan is to do as much as I can on the weekends (which probably won't be a ton) until we get settled in our new home.  Trading will need to slow considerably and posting will probably do the same.  I will still be reading posts and trying to comment perhaps a little more than normal.  With my wife leaving her job I suspect my monthly spending budget will be impacted but I actually think that will allow me to appreciate my collecting more and spend more time looking through my binders.

I am excited with what the future holds, for my family, my career and my blog but the next few months will be a little tumultuous.   Since this is a card blog I figured I would show a few cards I have accumulated over Giants Player of the Game today and 2-time Cy Young Award Winner Tim Lincecum for you to enjoy.