Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Sight Seeing!

We were able to go to San Francisco this last weekend and enjoy all the great sights. We started off with the Golden Gate Park. So much fun!! It's the biggest playground I have ever seen. Trey was in sand heaven. He sat and dug in that sand for about an hour. Then finally went and played on one of the 4 massive slide/climbing/swing sets. Avery only cared about the pigeons. She chased them around, yelled at them when they would run away, and threw sand at them. They finally took a liking to her when she kept dropping her cheetoes. We stayed for about 2 hours then went on the merry-go-round right before we left. After, we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge....SO AMAZING!! We kind of went at a bad time. The sun wasn't on our side for pictures. Sorry, you really can't see our faces in these. Good times though!






Thursday, November 12, 2009

Things I'm Thankful For.

Since I moved out here to California I've learned to be grateful for so many things I greedily took for granted back home. It's been quite the cultural shock to be honest, and it's been a challenge from day to day whenever I step outside and have any interaction with people. It takes everything out of me NOT to start crying. I'm not used to the "say what you want, be as blunt as you can" kind of attitude. I guess people in Ut are just more friendly. We have however managed to meet a lot of really nice people in our ward. It's so great to be able to go once a week and know that everyone there is happy, friendly, and ready to help you with whatever. And I have such a great husband who listens to all my drama. Here are a few things I'm most grateful for:

-My husband. He is such a hard worker. As much as he loves school, this has been the most challenging for him, but I haven't heard him complain yet. This has been his dream since he was about 12. I'm so proud of him. Although we don't see him as much as we would like to, I know he is doing this for our family.
-Health insurance. We had AWESOME insurance back in Ut. Jeremy had a great job that provided our family with wonderful benefits. Since we've been out here we've got the kids on Medi-CAL (Cali's Medicaid) and it's been a little rough. The lady we were working with when applying for it pretty much shook her finger at us and told us we were stupid for VOLUNTARILY leaving a job in UT to come here and have no income. She even chuckled to herself and kept shaking her head. And trying to find a doctor to take Medi-CAL is so hard. We finally did and had to take them both in for fevers and it was a joke!! I miss Mckay. I miss Dr. Hom....oh and I've cracked a tooth, so we'll see how that pans out.
-My family. I loved having them around all the time. It's weird because I talk to them more now than I did back home. I guess knowing that we could always see each other made it easier to not. I miss all my nieces. Their little laughs.
-Walmart and Macey's. Okay, I know this sounds stupid but you would not believe how expensive it is out here. One box of Kraft Mac and Cheese is $1.29...I KNOW!! I could buy 2 for a $1 at Walmart. I seriously had heart palpitations as I was checking out. People in grocery stores are also not very nice. One lady kept talking really fast and I couldn't understand her and then I proceeded to swipe my card and she waved her arms in the air and said "no not yet, now listen up ma'am"...I almost did 2 things. First I was sweating to death from the whole thing, and I just about told her where she could go, second, I just wanted to start bawling. And when I went to Costco, some lady tried to steal my spot but I managed to get it first. She ended up parking 2 spots down from me. As we were getting out of the car, Trey tripped jumping out of the car and got nervous about the cars driving by him in the parking lot, so he started to "almost cry" Well as I was telling him "you're okay, you're a big boy, let's think about something else" the lady that tried to steal my spot came walking by and she says out loud "man, what a whiny little kid"....OH NO SHE DIDN'T!! I was LIVID!!! You can say nasty things to me all you want, but picking on my 3 year old is NOT an option. OK, I'm not as tough as I'd like to be yet, plus she had two friends with her, I didn't stand a chance, but I did shoot her the ugliest scuz EVER! Her friend got the clue and told her to stop. People here can be so mean! I'm getting a little emotional thinking about it, I better stop.
Anyways, I'm grateful to be out here to experience all this. It's making me stronger and more independent. Me and Jeremy talk so much more and we are getting closer as a family. Whenever I'm having my bad days I just vent to Jer and drown my sorrows in chocolate.

Monday, November 9, 2009

For the Family

This a post mostly for the family that has been wanting to see updated pics of my kids. Sorry for those of you who really could care less.

At the Oakland Zoo. That is a kamodo dragon.


Avery outing my secret...a push up bra. Well it's really her fault that I need one.


Going for a hike. There is a lot of hidden trails around us.


The little lake we stumbled upon.


A ravine that will probably end your life just one slip to the left. I was really nervous to walk on it but of course Jeremy just had to.


Pretending to talk on the phone.



Dad trying out the new camera.


Mom not caring for it.


Popsicles...


and a deer in the headlights.


I'll try and keep you updated with the kids as much as I can. I've never been the mom who just sits around and snaps pictures of my kids all day long. We are doing really good. Jeremy is still loving school. He is staying busy with all the reading. I've met some really nice girls in our ward. I've forced myself to step out of my comfort zone and go to different play groups. So far so good! We will be in Ut on the Nov 24th and staying until Jan 10th. I'm counting down the days!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween/House Pics

We had a fun Halloween. Although I would've liked to be home in Ut with family, we still had a good time here. We went to our ward party and did trunk-or-treat. Then Saturday we headed out to trick-or-treat. Now correct me if I'm wrong but normally in Ut we would start around 4:30 5ish. Maybe because we wanted to beat the cold or the dark but we always went at this time. So naturally we did the same here. However, this is not the norm. You don't start trick-or-treating UNTIL it gets dark. Needless to say every house told us this and we were the first ones each time. Still had fun.

My Transformer aka Bumble Bee, and my naughty little witch.


And for all the people who have been sending me death threats because I have yet to post pictures of the apartment, here ya go!

view from the kitchen to the family room


kitchen


kitchen and dining


dining


family room


kids bathroom


kids room...no I did not clean it for the picture


hallway to our bathroom (notice the 2, yes 2 closets...love that!!


our bathroom. I didn't get the shower because it's one of those old school sliding glass door kind. Can't say I really love it.


Well there you go for now people. I have a ton of pictures of the kids for family but it would've been a terribly long post so I will spare ya 'til next time...oh ya, and congrats to my sis in law Cherie and Tyler, they are expecting a baby in March. We are so happy for them. We are hoping it's a boy:) Yah!!