Pine Cones and Parties

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA! Yes, my sister-in-law is celebrating her birthday. Juliana has been waiting for July 30 since last year. It's finally here. We were able to celebrate with Laura, my brother Patrick, and Laura's adorable nephew Giovanni and niece Pricilla on saturday night at my mom's house. Mom had eclairs, chocolate cream puffs, and other yummy desserts to enjoy. My camera was out of battery power from all of its use lately, so I did not take any pictures. I'll post another one that I can find of Auntie Laura! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

This weekend, we went to Lake Tahoe for a fun BBQ with friends at their cabin. The kids played in the freezing stream, ate birthday cake, collected pine cones, and just had a great time. We stayed overnight at my mom's house because Jason had a production on sunday in Sacramento, and I had a doctor's appointment for my prospective job. Fun and busy weekend.


Tomorrow Auntie Meara will be here, and wednesday, we are heading back to the valley to be with Auntie Steph and the kids.

Beach Day Friday

It's friday afternoon! YEAHHH!

Yesterday, thursday, I had my interview. It turned out to be a two part interview with the standard Q&A, then observations later in the day. I am pretty confident about getting the position, but who knows. I believe I will find out next week. Thank you to Mom for watching the kids while I was out most of the morning and early afternoon.

Today, we have already had our beach stop. I wanted to go on an ocean walk, but could not find parking for a particular walking area that I found yesterday. Sooooo, we ended up driving a little bit further and just had a fun morning at the beach. I was really stupid and packed some things into the stroller. Have you ever tried to push a child, toys, camera, and other things in a stroller through the sand???? I don't recommend it! After about 2 hours playing ball on the beach, collecting broken seashells, and dancing in the sand, we packed up and came home for lunch and rest time. The kids are still sleeping, the house is quiet, so guess what... I'm going to sit on the couch without the TV on and enjoy every quiet moment I can get.

An exciting weekend coming up... alright, exciting in the life of us. As usual, more pictures too.

A Few Things...

I update this blog as if most of mankind are watching our every move. I am not that naive. I have fun reading all of the entries occasionally to see what we have done in the last few months.

Let's see, in the last 2 days since the last entry, the tooth fairy has visited our house, I am gearing up for a teaching interview tomorrow, Grand is having a sleepover tonight at our house, today is our silly dating anniversary of 11 years (STOP LAUGHING... HAAA), and tomorrow Jason is meeting with Clint Eastwood, First Lady Laura Bush, and Maria Shriver doing something mega important for work in Sacramento. He was also invited by his VP to go to the San Francisco Giants game tonight and be in the cozy "box seats" provided courtesy of Comcast. Must be nice!

Our daily and nightly walks have been refreshing. Yesterday, the kids got a HUGE laugh out of watching a dog scare the ducks by swimming in the water. After the ducks calmed down, a little boy and his mother came to the little beach at the water to feed the ducks. Apparently, they have named the ducks and they respond to their names. A little pathetic, but fun to watch.

More tomorrow after my interview and Jason's big day with the big shots of this state. I wonder if our Terminator Governor will be there too!?!

Besos y mas besos

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY TO NANA/KATHY! Nana's birthday was yesterday we wish we all could have teleported to Massachusetts to give her one big birthday hug. Hope it was a wonderful day!

Weekends seem to pass with a blur. Saturday, we cleaned up the house, did a little more unpacking, then headed to Berkeley for something new to do. We ended up with Juliana jumping for joy that we were at a mall, yet walking outside looking at the ocean full of windsurfers and parasailers. Beautiful sight I must say. While driving around, the Hershey's Kiss Mobile ended up behind us. It was hilarious!

Yesterday, Mom came over to pick up Juliana for their big day together. Grand (my mom) took Juliana to spend the morning and afternoon with GG, my 90 year young Granny. I have heard that Juliana was the hit of the lunch dining room with the "old ladies and old men". Grand took her to Kohl's on the way home to buy her a Kindergarten backpack and lunch box. Of course, Juliana picked princesses. She's in love with her new belongings. THANKS GRAND! I wish I was there to have fun with them, but it is wonderful to know that new memories can be made without me standing in the way.


While Juliana and Grand were having a grand ol' time, Jason, Kevin and I were at Shadow's new home. Shadow is with my brother Patrick and my sister-in-law Laura. He's turned into a happy fat doggy in the last couple weeks with treats and bones. He now has his cage, his old water bowl, collar, and is back to his old routine. Patrick and Laura love to have him, which is such a relief. THANK YOU PAT AND LAURA!

Kevin had a few Spanish lessons from Tia Laura too. He nearly said, "mas" when he wanted "more" of her juice, and loved it when she said, "un beso" for another kiss. Juliana's only response to Tia/Auntie Laura was "si". Haaaaa, perhaps we will have bilingual children soon. I wish!

All Shaken Up

As most of you already know, we experienced our first earthquake since moving here a week ago. Early early this morning, I woke up thinking that Juliana fell out of bed. I thought I heard a loud noise, but after checking on her I realized that I must have been dreaming and looked outside our bedroom window to see if there was explanation for waking me up. No, there was not, so I just went back to sleep. I got up around 7am, made breakfast, and turned on the news only to find out that at 4:42am, we had an earthquake centered in Oakland. I am wondering if I ever heard a noise at all, or just felt the bed shake at that time. Who knows. All I know is that I woke up and thought I was going nuts. The joys of the Bay Area!



Yesterday, Auntie Steph, Taylore, Trace, and Grandpa made their first venture over to our house. Grandpa loved taking little walks around the water, and insists that we need to get a canoe or a paddle boat like many of our neighbors. I'd like to think that one day in the future we could afford a sailboat to go on the bay. Wishful thinking, I know.

Kevin warmed up to Auntie Steph very easily yesterday. He is very timid of nearly everyone except Mommy and Daddy, so to see the bonding was wonderful. I hope it is the beginning of a trust he will start building with many friends and family.

Getting Settled

We've been in our new "temp shelter" for 3 nights now, and we are starting to get settled. Unpacking is a challenge because we went from a 2100 sq ft home with a basement, to a 1500 sq ft house without a basement. I wish we could invest in a dumpster. I thought we got rid of a lot of junk in Michigan, but little did I know how much more we really have. Many of you know that I can be a sentimental packrat, so ripping up old cards, letters, or throwing away items from the past is not easy. The clutter worse though.

The kids are getting used to their new surroundings. They love to stare out the living room window and watch the ducks and people walking by. I took a walk last night in the chilly summer air. It was gorgeous. The picture above was taken last night right outside our front door. I had to remind myself that this is our home now. I hope we get to know our neighbors soon and are lucky to have such great ones like in Michigan.

It's breakfast time. Juliana's tummy is growling, and once Kevin gets up for the day, he'll be ready to eat too. Hugs......

Adventures of Moving

This entry may be a long one, so get comfortable. Then again, there is certainly a lot to say, although I may cut it short.

July 5: the movers arrived all ready to pack. We allowed them in the door with open arms. I am not so sure we were all ready to have them pack up our belongings that day, but they did. It was rather uneventful except for our first in-house camping experience. All of the food in the pantry was packed, as well as our pots/pans, so we borrowed a cookie sheet from our wonderful neighbor Mary Ann, and made kielbasa with a side of chicken nuggets, and carrots. GROSS COMBO, I know. Talk to Jason about that one. The kids thought that ketchup for the nuggets and ranch dressing for the carrots in a cup were hilarious. I have to agree.

July 6: The rest of the house was packed in boxes, then moved onto the truck to head west. What should have lasted about 4 hours really took about 7 hours because these people were somewhat lazy and incompetent. It all got done, but once you read the entry for July 14, you'll find out why I say these people were lazy and incompetent. Today was Jason and Juliana's last night at home. We all slept without our beds, but once again, our wonderful neighbor came to the rescue. We borrowed matresses for the floor, a couple pillows, and sheets too. THANKS!



July 7: o7/o7/07 was Jason and Juliana's official last day in Michigan. After saying some good-bye's, although not enough since we were so busy, Kevin and I took them to the airport. Kevin, Shadow, and I wondered what in the world we would do for the next 24 hours. We had a ball, 3 books, no food, no dog cage, no bones... what are we going to do????? Somehow we made it. Imagine that?!?! Kevin and I threw the one green ball around the house for hours. He loved it since there were no obstacles. Shadow just stared at us and wondered what the heck was goin' on.



July 8: I finished cleaning up the fridge, and freezer, took out remaining trash, cleaned windows, bathrooms, bedrooms, and all of that fun stuff. I didn't want to leave the house looking like a disaster. I failed to mention that Jason painted the entire house in one day to give it a fresh look for our prospective buyers, whoever they are. The house looked fabulous!! SOOOOOO, Mom arrived about an hour late into DTW, so we got onto the road (after a home cooked meal from Mary Ann and David) about 6pm. We drove out of Michigan and it was a scary feeling to once again be moving and picking up our lives and starting fresh. We stayed in Hammond, Indiana that night.

July 9: We woke up in Hammond, Indiana and headed for Des Moines, Iowa. This was the easiest day of all. Only 5 hours of driving, well 7 or so with stops. Des Moines is a great little city. I wouldn't exactly call it a tourist destination, but it had everything you could need or want. We were tempted to go to The Cheesecake Factory, although mom did not want to leave Shadow in the hotel room alone. Throughout the trip, we never ate at a restaurant. It was too hot to leave poor Shadow in the back of the car, even with the windows down. We because quite familiar with Subway, McDonald's, or Lean Cuisine from The Residence Inn freezers. We ate on WalMart lawns, hotel lawns, and rest stop picnic tables.

July 10: Des Moines, Iowa to Sidney, Nebraska. Ohhhhh boy, our wonderful country is beautiful, yet desolate in so many areas. Corn fields were not only next to us, but they were on the horizons too. Sidney, Nebraska was a small town, yet it was city life to those wonderful Nebraskans.



July 11: Sidney, Nebraska to Salt Lake City Utah. We thought today would be the most beautiful drive through Wyoming. I am not sure where we got that idea. Wyoming is terribly boring and somewhat ugly too. We'd see signs such as, "Next Rest Stop 102 Miles" or "No Facilities" next to rest stop signs. With a toddler and a dog, facilities were a necessity. Once we made it to Utah, the drive was worth every minute. Utah is gorgeous!!! This was a big reason for wanting to take this drive. Salt Lake City is a great city too, very clean, and the people were wonderful!






July 12: Salt Lake City, Utah to Roseville, California. Because I am tired of writing and you are tired of reading, I'll keep this part really short. Once we made the drive through Nevada and saw Reno, we knew that home was not far away. We canceled our hotel reservation and drove to Roseville where my sister Stephanie lives. She was watching Juliana all week and I felt like I had to relieve her of those duties. I also needed something familiar at this point. I was going crazy with hotels, and a think Kevin, Shadow, and Mom were too. Mom dropped Kevin and I off in Roseville, then she and Shadow continued to her house.



July 13: Mom picked us up and we were off to our new little home. Once we made the 2 hour drive, we were locked out. Jason forgot to unlock an inside lock on the front door, so we were only able to see the outside. That was enough for me. It is beautiful here!!!

July 14: Party at Dad and Dorene's house! Fun fun fun!



July 15: Comcast party at Paramount Great America! Another day of fun and sun!!! Juliana loved the rides! She even went on a lot by herself. What a big girl! Kevin had a great time too, although he just loved to people watch and drink his bottled water. He did go on a few rides. Jason and I were just along for the fun and really didn't care what the day would bring. It was a great day!!