A Few Surprises

Over the weekend we went to visit Juli and Carl in Rodonda beach, well, surprise they had tickets for us to go to Disneyland with them! Ellia even got to ride the Monsters Inc. ride! The day after Disneyland we visited the beach. Surprise, Ellia slept almost the WHOLE time (stupid waves). When she did wake up we made her play in the sand and she really liked it.

Ellia and Rachel, Jeremy had his hands full for a minute!

The beach house

drumroll please . . . .

SURPRISE! Ellia is officially crawling - and I am officially redecorating!

Don't get enough of Ellia?

Trying to keep me happy and clean on picture day
A park where I like to see the birds and ducks
A walk along the Kern River walkway

What happens when dad feeds me

Visitors

Well the last week has been pretty exciting. Gillespie's came to visit and got to swim (our neighbors ran into us and asked "did we hear you swimming today?" They thought it was funny because the water is still quite cold!) Juli and Carl also surprised me one day and stopped by for a few hours on their way to LA. - and my parents let me know that they wouldn't be able to visit when they planned because Zak got his head ran over by a motorcycle in a race and broke his jaw. On that note, here are some visitor pictures!

Thanks for the freezing cold cannonball splash Greg

Ellia has never had to share toys before!

Sam had a nice goodbye hug for Ellia.

Tagged

Tagged by Liz! (and others who didn’t explain what I was supposed to do – Keysha – so I was clueless and pretty much ignored the other taggings) Liz graciously explained that I am to say 5 random things about myself and then, um tag other people I guess?

I like strategy computer games. When I try to talk to other people about it I feel like I am getting really exited and they just think I’m a geek, so I kindof keep it to myself. Now that I’m out of the closet, if anyone loves King’s Quest, SimAnt or the Tycoon games, let’s talk!

When I was a little girl I was really loud and obnoxious – yikes I hope no one is thinking “when you were little? Try now.” Anyway if you think I am now, you would have been blown away by me then. I had annoying voices and wouldn’t leave people alone. There was a joke in my family – once is funny, twice is ok, third time is annoying, fourth time is Stefanie.

More and more I am discovering I don’t like decorating for the holidays and especially don’t like storing the decorations. I like my house the way it is. However, because I do not want to deny my kids of the holiday fun I will probably designate a room or area to be the “holiday” place and change the decorations to fit each holiday.

I am a pretty diverse person as far as interests go. In fact there aren’t many hobbies I don’t enjoy (which reminds me that there aren’t many foods I dislike either – that’s an entirely different subject though) I have been considered a jack of all trades, for example, I have taken and enjoyed the following classes kayaking, sewing, radio broadcasting, pottery, jewelry making, tv broadcasting, graphic design, western swing dancing, golf, volleyball, films, oceanography, scuba diving, astronomy, children’s literature, weight loss and eating behaviors, and violin to name a few. I also enjoy reading, writing, snowboarding, being in the water, gardening, jogging, organizing, planning, and scrapbooking. A few things I stink at however are singing and drawing.

As messy as I used to be growing up, once I went to college, being clean became kindof an obsession. My mom should be surprised that now it drives me crazy to leave any article or clothing sitting out on the bedroom floor.

Hmm, I probably could have done a lot better, now I will probably be thinking what other random things I could have said . . .

I tag Sarah Epps, the only person I can think of who is new to blogging so has probably not been tagged, only problem is, she is so new she can’t figure out how to make her blog public!!!

Progress Outdoors

Watching the grass grow.

To prepare for our guests we decided we should get our own water in the pool and let it start heating up in the sun...here is the process from 9 a.m. to noon.

Luckily the people who drained it also cleaned it out and put all the chemicals back in once we were finished - now, a beautiful pool!

Even Ellia is showing progress! (p.s. unless you want to be really annoyed by my baby talk, be prepared to press mute.)

Yard Work

Another week in California and only more to love! Jeremy and I spent a lot of time working on our backyard last weekend and it is coming along quite nicely. I love shopping for vegetation to plant and thinking about all the other things we can do to improve the look and feel of our backyard in the future – although I am having a hard time waiting for the future, I want to do it all NOW!

Basically there is so much to look forward to here right now. I hope I always feel that way!

Jeremy and I are using one car right now which is working out really great – although sometimes I get some strange looks while I am shopping at Wal-Mart with my baby at 6:30 a.m. when all the employees are stocking shelves. Let me explain. On days when Ellia wakes up as early as Jeremy I get up with them and drive him to work so I can have the car. Then, since Ellia and are both dressed and in the car I sometimes stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Yep, I am pretty much the only one there, but I can get any question I have answered by any number of employees, and whatever I want is always available, no waiting in checkout lines etc.

Luckily I also found a grocery store that I LOVE! It’s called WinCo Foods, awesome prices and brand options for most things. The last thing I need to find is a new brand of bread we like that doesn’t cost a fortune, no luck with that so far.


More discoveries:

Instead of Sno Cone Stations on every supermarket corner there are coffee stations.

Liquor on the end of every grocery store aisle is hard to get used to.

Stores feel so far apart. There are lot’s of little shopping districts everywhere, but nothing like University Ave in Provo that has so many of my favorite stores. Here, it seems they have everything, but only ONE of everything, which makes stopping at a “few” places time consuming and gas guzzling.

Because most of the roads have center strips, next to the green arrow turning lights there is actually a street sign indicating that U turns are an option vs. the No U Turns sign – this just makes turning right on a red light a little more tricky.

Ellia is getting her second tooth, still not crawling.

Recycling is a big deal. I kindof already knew that because all the glass drink bottles you see have CA cash refund stamped into them. However, I did not know that for an extra few dollars a month you can get a separate can to put all your recyclables in. Yes, I am doing it. Now I will have a tan can, a green can and a blue can. This will save me a lot of trips down the street to the recycling collection center I was using before.

House tour with furniture

Backyard Day 1

Backyard a few weeks later

Day 1

Today

Before

After

Who's ready for a swim? This was after a really windy/dirty storm, blygck.

No peas mom.