Newby from California

[zoes-Dad]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Mark and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife and my 9 month old baby girl Zoe. After Zoe was born my wife and I decided we were not going to put our child into daycare and have some stranger raise our child. So we had to decide which parent was going to stay home, it was obvious it was going to be me. My wife has a great job with great benefits and perks. So I quit my job to be a stay at home dad or as my friends like to put it a MR. MOM. I'm sure glad to see there were quite a few SAHD out there. It's not the easiest job but it's the most rewarding. :lol: Thaks for having a great site.

[mjknapp]

Welcome to the site, I'm glad to hear another story of parents staying home instead of using day-care, noone will be able to raise your little girl better then you or youre wife.

Stick around, and keep posting, there is alot of good people on this board.

[Remington]

Hi Mark and welcome to the site. It is definitely a tough job but absolutely the most rewarding. :D

[tt3]

Welcome aboard Mark, post away!
Glad you found us. I've been at this job longer then any other! :lol:

[Indy]

Welcome aboard! I have a daughter the same age.

[Don-Dad]

Welcome Mark and your welcome!

You will find a great bunch of dads here who can sympathize with all the ups and downs of your new job :wink:

[SAHF]

Welcome Mark!

All I can do is reinterate the great dads we have here and that the job you have taken is the most rewarding and entertaining as well as hecktec as well!

Share all your stories or problems, we all have experience one way or another!

[Jackson's Dad]

Hi Mark. Welcome. I just moved out of the Bay Area this spring (right before our critter was born), where we lived in Redwood City last. Too bad, we could've had a little SF chapter going!

[zoes-Dad]

Hi jacksons Dad, Redwood city is not that far from me. Born and raised in San Leandro. How do you like N.J.?

[mjknapp]

You went from one extreme to the next huh Jackson's dad, that must have been quite a move, did you hire a moving company to move for you, or did you pack it all in a u-haul and do it yourself. Wow, I thought the move from Iowa to Philly was long, I did it by myself, but I dont know if I would want to do that long of a move.

[Jackson's Dad]

Well, I'm an east coast boy, so after 8 years in the Bay Area, it's nice to be home. I never lived in NJ before (it's my wife's home) but it's still feels very much like home to me. It was amazing how quickly we just settled into living here. I never felt homesick for SF, which convinced us we made the right choice. (Helps to have the grandparents and cousins nearby too.) Plus, we were able to get a house 3x the size for a bit less money than in SF. Woo hoo!

It's a big move, so we hired pros to do it for us. When I first moved to SF, I did it myself. But I was a bachelor and life was simple then. I just sold off 90% of my belongings (which were cruddy anyway), backed my favorite stuff in a UHaul hitch, and drove across. Everyone's gotta do that once (the trip, not the move).

Dan

[mjknapp]

Plus, we were able to get a house 3x the size for a bit less money than in SF. Woo hoo!Dan

Wow, Houses are expensive in NJ, I would hate to see the market in SF.

Not to be nosy, but how does the property taxes compare between the two. NJ is famous for outrageous property taxes, just curious.

[mjknapp]

I agree. Once in a while's cool. The neighbours drove from Philly to California for their honeymoon in a Z3 convertible. That had to be a cool trip.

That had to be awesome, I would love to do that, just driving, and visiting wherever you want, wow, that would be cool after the kids are grown, or if we can get the grandparents to watch them for couple weeks one summer.

[Jackson's Dad]

Just do it without a UHaul. It was annoying (and a bit nerve-wracking) to have all your belongs with you as you drove. Plus, it was hard to just go off on some side roads and explore. The convertible is a nice touch.

[Jackson's Dad]

I ran over a large nail on the easter side of Kansas, around 6pm one evening. One of my rear tires was leaking air fast. And changing a rear tire with a UHaul 2-wheel trailer, after driving for several days? No thanks. Luckily, if I pumped it up with air, I could drive about 10-15 minutes before it was too low again. So I started hopping from gas station to truckstop, finding no one who could help (lots of head-scratching "hm, yep that should be something we do I suppose"). Around 9pm, I finally strayed into this huge mirage of a truckstop. Amazing place. They had me fixed up in 10 minutes. I then booked the last room at the last Holiday Inn in town, and since no restautant was open in this small town, I dined on peanuts, popcorn, and Sam Adams in the bar. What a trip.

[Indy]

I did the trip from Indianapolis to San Francisco once. Drove non-stop, took 40 hours. In all, four days of driving to spend two days in San Fran. Kansas was enough to vow I'd never drive through it again.

I did the drive from Indy to Las Vegas, earlier this year. That one was tougher because we were dragging a 7000 lb, 20ft cargo trailer. Aside from stopping for 6 hours, that one was pretty much a non-stop drive too.

Both drives were fun, once you got into the mountains.

[Bozeman]

Oh, the U-Haul stories! How cringe-worthy are those? My wife had just finished up school in Utah and we were heading back to California to use that degree of hers. With a 20 ft trailer and a car-dolly for the Camry, I knew we were in trouble when the rental office didn't even have a computer for transactions. It seemed to be the trifecta of bad omens when they also did wedding dress alterations and sold livestock feed off the rear loading dock.
The tow dolly blew a flat 4 hours in and the second flat on the truck had us waiting on the I-15 for a guy with a jack that looked like it was made in high school shop class.
A Utah to Los Angeles drive which normally takes 10 hours, took 20.
I'd sooner dance naked with scorpions than do that again.