Hi! I’m back! 👋 Did you miss me?!

It’s been more than 7 months since I have written a big kid post, and I can’t wait to tell you what has been going on in this big kid’s life!

First off, we moved! We did it! 🎊

If you remember, in my puppy post, I had three epiphanies during the hike I did with my mom through Portugal and Spain:

There is no shame in rest; there is strength in recovery 💪
Puppies make everything better 🐶
I need to sell my house and move 🏡

Texas just wasn’t doing it anymore. Austin isn’t the same town that it used to be, and I’m not the same person that I used to be. I’ve attended a hundred funerals of my past selves in the last couple years, and this current, evolved version of me needs to live by the sea. I am a Pisces after all.

Thank goodness the husband agreed. Derek was getting sick of the oppressive heat and oppressive politics as well, and after a visit to Santa Cruz, CA, he was in love. Redwood forests just 10 minutes from the ocean? Mountain bike trail galore? Stunning ocean cliff hikes? Perfect weather? Progressive politics? Sign. Us. Up.

We called up the most amazing realtor in Austin, and set to work getting our house ready to sell. We had really transformed this house since we purchased it barely two years prior, so I was a bit nervous that prospective buyers wouldn’t understand my style. But we got a good offer (not great, the market was doing some weird stuff, per usual) the first weekend it was on the market, we jumped on it. We were motivated to leave.

Before and after photos of the “formal dining room.”

The first thing people saw when they walked into the house.

ugly guest bedroom into epic home library/office.

There were virtually no snags in the selling process (halleloo!), and before we knew it, we were flying to coastal California to look at houses with another excellent realtor there. The market was infinitely different in Santa Cruz than in Austin, and finding a house that wasn’t going for tens of thousands over asking in cash was impossible. Every time we would tour a house, we’d find out that it had an offer accepted 30 minutes later. It felt like we were never going to catch a break! We put an offer in on a tiny two bedroom house in Capitola, but it ended up selling for $200k over asking price. 😖

We went back to Texas feeling a bit defeated; however, the short time we spent in Santa Cruz solidified our love for the area and desire to move there. Our determination to make it happen multiplied. Back in Texas, we finished up packing and selling off about half of our belongings (the downsize was real!). We prayed that something would fall into place back in California.

About a week before we were going to start panicking because we didn’t have a place to move to, our CA realtor called us and said that a house that we had toured and liked that had gone under contract had fallen out of contract. Usually that means that something scary was found during the inspection, but he assured us that it was only because the buyer had gotten cold feet. The house was back on the market and no one wanted it.

We jumped again.

We put in an offer below asking (because we’re ballsy), AND WE GOT IT.

And I’m not really sure how it happened, but this house is perfect. It’s the perfect size (3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 1500 sq ft), in the perfect neighborhood (Pleasure Point), and it’s only a 10 minute walk to the ocean. 10 minute walk to all kinds of restaurants, 20 minute walk to Target/Trader Joe’s, 5 minute drive to literally anything else you could need to spend money on, and about a 20 minute drive to some of the most beautiful redwood forests in the area.

We’re not sure how we got this lucky. I still wake up and can’t believe that I’m living here, in this house, in this neighborhood, and that if I leave my bedroom windows open at night I can hear the ocean waves.

If you believe in karma, I’m hoping this means that I’m a good person 😭

Once the offer had officially gone under contract, we sold Derek’s truck back in Texas, packed all of our remaining things into a 20 foot Penske truck, towed our Subaru behind us, and drove to California.

We drove all the way up to Santa Cruz, deposited our belongings in a storage unit, returned the truck, and then drove the Subaru back down to San Diego to stay with my dad and step-mom for two weeks until our new house closed. (Note to self: it’s sensory overload to work from home in a small condo in a loud city with two Boomers who also both work from home and who both talk with commanding (loud) voices. Will not do again, even though we are so thankful for their hospitality and support 😉.)

When everything was appropriately dotted and crossed (huge shout out to my rockstar step-mom who put our sneaky lender in his place), we drove back up to NorCal, got in a massive fender bender accident in LA (typical), and then moved into our dream home.

So many other things have happened since then (September), and I promise to update you throughout the next couple posts (sneak peek: we adopted another dog!), but I wanted to get back to the big kid topic at hand — magazine collage memory boxes!

When I was a preteen, cutting out letters, words, phrases, and images from teen magazines and then haphazardly taping them to an old shoe box could occupy me for hours on end. I made a sports-themed one and kept all of my various hair ribbons and scrunchies in it. I made a boy-themed one and kept all of my boy memorabilia in it (letters from boys — cute; things I would collect from my crushes that they didn’t know I had — creepy, stalker vibes).

It was such a good way for me to express a piece of my identity, to spend time alone figuring out what I liked and what caught my attention, and I thought (mistakenly) that they were super cool for storing all of the random crap that I accumulated over the years instead of just throwing it all out.

This time around, I wanted to create a memory box that would remind me of the person who I want to be. The person who I am becoming. That big kid Ellen, if you will!

I made a box right before I left Texas, hoping to cover it in images and words that I would emulate by new life in California. Obtaining magazines was… expensive! I went to Barnes and Noble and was outraged at how expensive magazines were these days. I could be buying books!

A friend of mine and I sat down at my kitchen table and tore those pricey magazines apart and created brand new memory boxes. The act of flipping through the pages, letting something catch my eye, and then carefully cutting it out is surprisingly calming and zen. I saw a trend start to form as I looked at the pieces of paper that I had collected in front of me. They all screamed I AM BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL AND BRILLIANT AND SO IS MY LIFE.

I ended up with a vibrant, maximalist box that makes me smile every time I see it. It’s currently being used to prop up my laptop on my desk, but it’s filled with fun, silly things that bring me joy — a deck of tarot cards, untouched notebooks that I hope to fill with character descriptions and story outlines, colorful pens that I can’t live without, hand lotion (self-care, baby), sequined scrunchies, and blue-light glasses that make me feel smarter.

I’m using this box as a metaphor for my “new” life in California. I want this life to be full of bright, colorful things. New friends, new places, new experiences. Adventure, curiosity, courage, heart. Getting to create a “fresh start” is a bit of a hoax (I’m still the same me), but I like the perspective that a different community has to offer, and I plan to use every day building a life that brings me joy 💚

I hope you’ll stick with me this year and I continue down the list of 100 things that I used to do as a kid! I plan to post every week, and I’m currently updating my own website where I will eventually house all of my blog posts. Stay tuned!

Click to see all blog posts: That Big Kid Ellen