Christmas

This year we celebrated Christmas with the Richards family in Watsonville. It was the first time that all of the siblings and husbands/fiances were able to get together. If you were wondering if we were having some sort of costume party, that answer is a no. Tim was quite festive this year sporting his Dad's Jesus vest on Christmas eve and Rudy (Debra's sister's husband)was in and out as he was one duty and getting calls left and right. There was never a dull moment between all the family and the three dogs. The Richards family dog Kirby is 14 and super old, Cali the Romano dog was constantly in the kitchen begging for food, and Nikko (Deanna's and Rudy's 9 month old German Shepard) was generally just out of control.

Strange Happenings in the New Neighborhood

I'm sitting on the couch like any other week night grading stacks upon stacks of papers for school when I start to hear tons of police sirens in our neighborhood. I start to think this is a little odd because our neighborhood is one of those sleepy neighborhoods past 7pm where you don't see a lot of cars, people, or cops for that matter. Keep in mind I am home alone as Tim is out at a bachelor party all night. I am trying not to start the typical worst case scenario thoughts that I always think, when I feel the need to investigate the situation. I go to the back of the house and can see the reflection of lights from all of these cop cars on the houses. Weird... some of the neighbors are starting to gather outside. Weird... So I thought this might be a good time to meet neighbors since we never see any around. I grab my coat while trying not to alarm the dog in a frenzy and head outside. I am feeling very brave for actually walking outside. Normally I run around locking all doors. The sirens havn't stopped and it is progressively getting louder. I walk across the street and ask what is going on. The neighbors then inform me that Santa is coming on his sleigh! (Escorted by 5 screaming cop cars of course) What on Earth! So sure enough about 10 min. later the parade makes it to our house where all the neighborhood kids have gathered, including howling dogs, to greet Santa on his sleigh who is giving out candy canes. A neighborhood doesn't get much better than this! (Next year I will remember this and try not to freak out)

I tried to get some pictures but didn't have the best camera for the job.

Happy 31st Birthday Tim!

This year for Tim's birthday we went to Disneyland. They are doing the "get in free for your birthday" promotion and we couldn't pass it up. They gave Tim special treatment from the moment we arrived. He recieved a Happy Birthday button with his name on it at the gate, so everywhere we went everyone was constantly telling him Happy Birthday. Even during the Christmas parade, Santa Claus looked down and yelled out Happy Birthday. We had a great day riding just about every ride twice (We managed to hit up the Matterhorn 4 times) The lines were very short, we waited at the most for 20 min. on just a few rides. To top it off, Tim even got free chocolate mousse with dinner including mickey sprinkles. It was so much fun to see Disneyland all decorated for Christmas. It even snowed during the firework show. (well, fake snow of course)

Home Sweet Home

Sorry for the delay, but we have finally gotten back on track with life it seems. After about a month we finally have internet access again and are reconnected with the world. Here are some pics of the house. We still have some painting to do, but other than that we are pretty much settled. Debra's favorite about the house is central heating. Having an automatic thermostat is amazing. A luxury we are loving until we get the first heating bill. Tim's favorite includes the garage. It is so great not to chip ice off the car windows in the morning before work. We have space we just don't know what to do with yet. Sorry we forgot to take a picture of the front of the house. It's raining outside, so we will definitely post the front next time. In the meantime, come visit us.

We're moving...

I have been putting off blogging about our move because it doesn't quite seem real yet. Tim and I have been talking about moving to north county for quite a while now and finally decided to put the house up for sale. With the interest rates so good right now as well as the housing market, we are able to get so much more for our money in north county. So we put our house on the market to test the waters. Well, it sold the first day with a full price offer! We were in complete shock. I prayed that the Lord would open up doors if he wanted us to move, and sure enough we were answered quite quickly. We did not have any home in particular that we were hoping to move into and now we were looking at having to leave our home with a 45 day escrow. The next week it started to fall into place as a house became available in Paso Robles for a bank owned price we couldn't turn down. We will have plenty of room to grow into this house someday. (No, I'm not pregnant) So things have happened quite quickly and we are in escrow on the house in Paso now, and will probably be moving at the end of this month. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind to say the least.

Shopping cart wheelies

If you haven't done it yourself, I know you've seen someone else doing it. Riding down the aisle in the grocery store on the back of their shopping cart. This works great when there are lots of heavy items in the cart, but what happens when the cart is empty?

I was rolling through home depot as i so often do, and hopped on the back of my cart for a quick ride. This time, I thought, I'll go big. This time I pushed myself up onto the cart, chest forward, and kicked my feet back superman style. I was impressed at how smoothly I glided along through the garden section... until I tried to put my feet back down.

The empty cart was only balanced as long as my weight was forward. Once I shifted my legs down and chest back, the cart immediately popped into a wheelie. I was completely unprepared for this and subsequently tumbled onto the concrete, the cart rolling on ahead of me.

Immediately I jumped up and looked around to see who was watching. I didn't see anyone but there happened to be a sliding glass door right behind me and who knows who was looking through the glass and laughing. I did the only thing I could do - pretend like nothing happened and mosey into the next aisle to get my pavers.

Like most husbands would do, I opted not to tell Debra about this fumble when I got home. But when she asked how my ankle got scraped and bloody, the cat was out of the bag. She was quite thankful it happened when she wasn't with me to suffer the embarrasment of being identified with the 30 year old who still hasn't quite grown up when it comes to shopping carts and wheelies.

Labor Day Weekend

My brother and his girlfriend were in town this past wekend. We spent the day in Avila Beach hiking, visiting the Avila Barn for ice cream, eating lunch on the Bob Jones Trail, and then picking apples at Gopher Glen. Avila just doesn't get much better than that.

Sousan turns 30!

This past weekend we drove down to Santa Monica to celebrate Sousan turning 30. We had a lot of fun hanging out with friends that we hardly ever see anymore because they all live down South.

Celebrity Sighting at the Pool

This morning I woke up and decided to go for a swim and then sit in the hot tub at the gym. I was a little concerned that I might see some of my students in the pool practicing with their swim team, so I called ahead to make sure there were no swim teams in the pool. The lady told me that the pool was clear, so I headed for the gym. Upon arriving I spot 4 students in the pool. I jumped in the far lane and ignored them for a good half hour. It wasn't until their practice ended that I ran into trouble. A couple kids from my class were standing at the outside showers chatting loudly. (Nothing unusual, I now know they don't just constantly talk in my class) I was getting really tired of swimming and wanted to get out of the pool, but they were good motivation for me to keep going because I was so inconspicuous in my goggles. Well, I couldn't handle the pool anymore and they weren't moving from the showers. I got out and bee lined straight for my towell. Upon this move they spotted me. This is what caught my attention....
"Oh my God, that is my teacher!"
my response: "Oh, hey guys how's it going?"

Now I really wanted to get into the hot tub so I put my towell around me the best I could and headed for the hot tub. While walking away I hear the chatter...

"Hey everyone, that's my new 5th grade teacher!"

I would have liked to just wear the towell into the hot tub, but I couldn't so I dropped it at the last second to get in. This is what I hear next....

"Oh my GOD!!!"

If that doesn't give someone a complex I don't know what does. I think I am going to have to pull out the one piece next time. At least they realize that I don't live in my classroom on the weekends. Can't wait to see the little darlings Monday morning. Their response usually goes something like this....

"Hey, I saw you at the pool on Saturday."
my response: "ya, wasn't that fun!"

1st Day

Today was the first day of school.

37 students....

1 little boy rolled his eyes at me and thought he would get away with it...

1 little girl tried passing notes in class and thought she would get away with it....

179 school days left....

I'm trying to be optimistic....

Roses!

I have been complaining to Tim lately that it has been a while since he bought me flowers. So I got these.... thorns included.

Little Hosking

We spent one of the last summer weekends haning out with RJ, Anna, and little Landon recently. He's such a cute kid, and it was super fun watching RJ and Anna be parents. We are heading back down to Ventura in a couple weeks. Just can't get enough!

SLO Girls Reunion

It was so much fun to host our college girls reunion at my house this year. We had a great time catching up, laying out at the beach, and eating lots of food from all of those "must eat at" restaurants in San Luis when you are visiting. It was a lot of fun to see Monique and Becky with their pregnant bellies.

Home Sweet Home

After driving 3,000 miles on our tour of the Pacific Northwest we were definitely ready to be home. We loved every minute of our trip and were really blessed with safe travel, beautiful weather, and fantastic scenery. Upon arriving home, this was our scene in the garden! We were a little fearful of what might be growing while we were gone. You can guess what I will be doing for the next week or so.

Vacation Day 19

Day 19... July 23

Today's road led us back into California with a view of Mt. Shasta. We originally planned on camping up in Northern California, but we were getting ready to be home and see our dog again. We pushed on and did another one of those 10 hour day until we reached Watsonville where my parents were. It was great to be in a familar place with family and of course Cali! We really owe my parents for taking in our dog for three weeks.

Vacation Day 18

Day 18... July 22

We hit the road for Crater Lake today. The lake was beautiful! It gets its really blue color from the snow melt. This is the deepest lake in the US formed from a volcano. When we arrived, there was no wind and you could see the reflections of the clouds in the water. There is a 1 mile hike down to the lake that is super steep. This is the only place all the way around to access the lake. There are only 2 tour boats that they operate in the lake and they had to helicopter them in. The mosquitos here were out of control!!! We made it down the trail to touch the icy water and then headed back up in record time (due to the mosquitos) We camped in the park and of course got in the tent early for fear of more bites. The weather was really warm (about 90) and it was really weird to see snow covering the ground in places still. The 4 Runner his 90,000 miles here! We also noticed that our front license plate was missing! We couldn't exactly remember if we ever had one in the first place or if it was stolen in Eugene. (They really don't like Californians there)

Vacation Day 17

Day 17... July 21

This morning we headed to Astoria to see Fort Clatsop. (Lewis and Clark) I took lots of pictures of the fort so that I could share them with my students. We listened to a guide dressed up in timepiece clothing and doing demonstrations at the fort. I remember coming here when I was little with my family and waiting forever for my dad to read about everything in the museum. This time it was not much different bringing Tim for the first time. (History buffs!) From there we made the long drive up the Columbia River to Euguene, Oregon to see friends Corey and Donna Templeton. They gave us the quick driving tour around town and showed us the University of Oregon (Track City USA) where Corey is working on his masters in Architecture.

Vacation Day 16

Day 16... July 20

We reluctantly decided to cut short our stay in Victoria due to ferry schedules. Before we left we visited Butchart Gardens. There were over 55 acres of phenomenal gardens that we toured! We have never seen anything like it. There were rose gardens, Japanese gardens, Italian gardens, etc. They have 50 gardners working round the clock keeping this place beautiful. When we boarded the ferry we then traveled to Port Angeles and the Olympic Peninsula. This is one of the few rainforests in the US (over 10 ft of rain a year) The weather was super nice, sunny and hot! Not what we were expecting. We anticipated staying the night in Forks, Washington but when we got there we realized the town was booked because it is where the author of Twilight based all of the novels. Crazy! Everyone was there to see the town so we had to camp outside of town. The campsite proved to be better. It had a really nice creek running beside it and it was perfect warm camping weather. Couldn't help but think there might be vampires lurking...