happy october!

Helloooooo!! [Anyone there?] Did I say I'd be back in September?... I meant October. :) We did it, we moved! And boy do we love our new (rental) home! We've been unpacking boxes slowly and organizing new rooms and the garage (a garaaaage!) for the last month, and just been livin' life (without blogging about it. Ahh, sweet break.) Been playing in the yard (a real-deal backyarrrrd!), running up the stairs, rolling every ball we own down the stairs (note to self: must introduce the Slinky to a certain 3 year old), setting up an office, a big boy bed, a new crib... I'm blown away with the amount of awesomeness a bigger space has been for our family. And as much as I love the excitement of  moving, I think we're gonna stay put here for a long while. It's perfect.

As for the boys, Graham sits up now! wahoo! And eats food, which is always a fun adventure. And Ewan tells me everyday, "I love our new house. I have a room UPSTAIRS!" He's a happy kid, with room now to burn some energy. As for Jeff and me, we celebrated our 7th anniversary with our annual tradition of ordering our wedding cake. We also bought our first antique piece of furniture, which you'd think we brought another newborn into the house... it's our baby that we care for very gently. :)

I've got so much to share! Keep tweet following, and feed following for some fun October posts ahead... I've got a guest post (my first!) lined up over on Sarah's sweet blog, and there's a Followers Fest hosted by some of my fave gals coming up! I also just got back from a Blogger event (another first for me!) this past weekend... write-up on that coming soon! So happy to be back!

we're outta here

Jeff and Ewan made this strategic plan the night before our Disneyland trip...

9 out of 17 rides for the day. Not bad.

A week later, all those toys have been tossed in a box and the chalkboard has had us on a new focus...

pay no attention to the boy rockin' out, in the way, on purpose. little stinker.
back to the to-do-list...

easy enough, right?

Oh man, life has been lame over here this week.

The apartment smells like cardboard and dust.

The boys are so over the sound of screeching packing tape.

I'm overworked and in need of a 10 hour nap.

Jeff gets home at 10pm again tonight.

Thank you to family for all the boxes collected. Haven't had to buy one yet.

Thank you to sisters for playing with the boys so I can pack. And pack and pack.

Sorry to those who I have been short with. (See 5 lines up... I need a nap.)

But beyond all that is right now, we've got a shiny new everything ahead. Moving friday!

And not to be outdone in the busy business, our families scheduled THREE birthdays and a friend's bridal shower this weekend. I'm really going to have to put my foot down soon when it comes to God's day of rest that we're commanded. :)

For now, utilities are being transferred and the computer is going in a box. I will still be socially available and tweeting my way through the move-in excitement, follow here. And will be back to blog share all the new happenings in september. xo!

ch-ch-changes

"It is ten o’clock and, like most nights, my wife and I are sitting on separate ends of the room. Each of us typing away at our computers, Katrina spends her nights updating the world on our family’s happenings through her blog and I pass the time with homework, online discussions, revenue projections or browsing through a countless number of golf websites. The previous three hours, having been spent with our two sons, are now forgotten as we both try to find just a few last moments in the day for ourselves. Hunting for ladybugs named Thomas, building “pillow caves” on the bed, spinning, jumping, running, screaming and an hour spent trying to figure out if our three-month-old’s cries were out of hunger, pain, fatigue or intestinal troubles no longer seem as if they occurred within this same day. This is the time I am able to chase my dreams, to work on my education, my company, my relationship with Christ and my golf game. My aspirations are endless and having two kids under the age of three has helped me realize that sleep is often times a trivial matter."

That was the beginning paragraph to Jeff's law school application personal statement. To which HE WAS ACCEPTED! To his first choice school, WITH a scholarship. Praise Jesus! And the very following day to the school acceptance phone call, we got the call from the owner of the rental we looked at, WE GOT THE HOUSE! God is good! Or tying to kill me. Way too much emotional excitement to handle for one family. And you read that correctly, HOUSE. We're moving outta the apartment bubble, into a 2-car garage, 3 bedroom, laundry room, backyard, real-deal house. I feel like such a grownup all of a sudden. And if you're local, you may recognize the place in the photo above and know exactly where we're moving to. More inland, which means goodbye ocean. But closer to family, which is a priority for us while Jeff works his way through night school and I'm home with the boys as a single-parent essentially, three nights a week for the next four years.

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There ya have it. Our new life waiting for us, all set to begin August 26th. I'm so extremely proud of my husband and love him for his ambition and passionate spirit, his faith, and the security and incredible example he provides for his family. And I'm overwhelmed with all the decisions and changes being made and haven't had the words to express it fully for the last week. I'm a big mess of excitement and nervousness, anxious, worried, pleased as punch happy and exploding with joy (all at once!) when I get lost in the thoughts of all that is ahead.

pinterest interest

{image via pinterest}

My list of things-to-do when my 2 year old spends the day with his grandparents is long and extravagant. (Mind you, I still have to bring a 4 month old along so unfortunately the day spa is out of the question.) What did I cross off my list today...  crochet and watch movies, play with graham without interruption, eat cookies in plain sight, and just be lazy and quiet. Ah, quiet. Quiet is nice. And Graham soaked up the quiet and napped better than ever.

And with all the quiet around here, I finally dove head first into Pinterest. I had been holding off with all my might so as not to have one more thing to take away precious sleeping minutes while I'm on the computer late at night. But hey, I tried it and I liked it. It's actually easier to use than I thought, and now I can stop cluttering up my desktop with "inspiration-ies". So far, I have a whoppin' 8 pins. But I can guarantee I'll have a full yarn board stat!

Not only did I have time to myself today, but Jeff and I took a sleeping baby out for a bbq patio dinner and had some sweet time together... ordered drinks, had uninterrupted conversation and laughs, and licked our fingers after sharing a sauced-up artichoke, bbq sandwich, and sugar biscuits. We love Lucille's.

We picked up Ewan from Disneyland, listened to him talk a mile-a-minute about the fun he had with Violet, Nana, and Papa, until his voice faded in the backseat and he fell asleep.

Time for bed for all, we have a rental hunting/appointment planned day for tomorrow.

Remember that extension? Yeah, it's already coming to an end.

6 weeks and counting till the next move!

valentine's panic weekend

• last sunday: visited 6 rentals, none were right.
• monday: visited our apartment office to ask, "what if we change our minds, and stay"
• saturday: called office to confirm staying, but was told, "too late, unit already rented"

PANIC. and fully expressed it in every way possible.

• sunday: office called, we can have a 6 month extension.

DONE. we're staying. for 6 more months. WHEW.

We'll never plan a move 6 weeks before a new baby again.

• monday: valentine's day! started UNpacking. and ordered a pepperoni pizza for dinner delivery. :)

.........

Jeff's valentines card had me laughing hard. and loving him more than ever.

And cute print above found here.

wip wednesday

Um, yeah.

This is make or break week for us. Besides putting in our 30 day notice, we have no other plans finalized.

The uncertainty is slowly making me go crazy now. Mostly due to the fact that I've hit the nesting stage. Being 6 weeks out from holding a newborn baby, all I want to do is get settled and feel ready. And unfortunately this comes at a time when we're far from being settled.

Fingers crossed, prayers sent and received, multiple pros/cons lists reviewed, our moving direction decision needs to be made. Now.

Whew. Feels good to get that out. If only our orange county rent budget was unlimited, we'd so be done already. :)

wip wednesday

It's Wednesday! It's February! It's crazy-month-I've-been-anticipating time!

Current work-in-progress includes:

• Packing. I'm at a steady pace of once box a day. Gotta spread out the limited amounts of energy I have lately.
• Baby growing. Speaking of energy, this baby seems to take all of it now that we're in the home stretch.
• Rental hunting. Thought we were done with this, but got word an hour ago that we did not get our rental of choice due to another applicant willing to move in by friday. Disappointing. I've cried over lost rentals before, but I'm determined to move on (quickly!) and realize that this was not meant to be. God has a plan. We're in our lease 'till the 28th, so it's back to the drawing board (fast!) - we've got 3 weeks!
• And potty-training/paci-quitting. Paci's will for sure be gone before baby. Ewan's been thoroughly informed. As for potty-training, I'm in no rush. We have good days, we have bad days. Looking forward to having an IN-HOME washer/dryer for all the ThomasTrain underpants... my #1 search criteria for rentals right now. :)

 And as far as yarn goes, got four fresh new skeins of 'charlotte blue' goodness that I'm trying out on a new granny square blanket pattern. I just love yarn and all the quiet time it consumes.

I really should go pack a box now though. :)

our first apartment

Thought I'd stroll down memory lane...

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This was our first place together. Fullerton, Apartment #D1, 2004.

It was across the street from CSUF, where I was still working towards my

BS in Human Services and elementary education.
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It was Divot's first home.
And the place where Jeff and I gained some serious party hosting experience.

Good times. :)

tape strips: pugly pixel :)

the story

Ok, here's the quick version of how the gypsy travels began...
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Jeff and I are both from the same town, where we met and fell in love. I went to college. He followed. We got married, and moved into our first apartment together and couldn't have been happier. In fact, our first rental was our longest stay anywhere... 2 years.

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I graduated college. He got a new job. I followed, and got a job at the same office. We bought our first home, painted, decorated, threw a party, and couldn't have been happier. Then... the mortgage company we worked for closed. We lost our jobs. We sold our home. This is where the rental hopping started. It wasn't ideal at first, but we grew to love it. To own it. To make it a part of who we were. It has become an adventure. Exciting and gratifying. We never move far from Jeff's job, so no worries. No predetermined plans. No heavy responsibilty. No mortgage payment. No long commitment. It has become a fun hobby looking for our next "new" place come the end of each lease!

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A few tidbits...

Our first apartment was our longest stay of 2 years.

We sold our home after living in it for 1 year.

We moved twice while I was pregnant with Ewan.

Our 2 pets, a lovebird and yorkie, have made every move with us.

Our cheapest rent in southern california was $969/month.

Our most expensive was $2,150/month, for 2 bedrooms.

At one point, we lived at my parent's for 8 months. Rent free. :)

We always choose the bottom floor.

And we've become pros at lease agreements, walk-thrus, packing, and patching holes.

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After getting married, I did desire the typical, traditional way of family living...

A house with a yard. Walls I could paint.

A place we could stay put and plant plants.

But not anymore. At least not at this point.

I look forward to the surprise of where we're going to be next!

.....

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On another note,

It's nice to see everyone here, in our new part of blog-town! Katie, you win as the offical first follower here. :)

For those of you who are new, this originally started as a baby blog to document our first born. But being as that we have plans for more kids and more moves, I needed to generalize the blog a bit. Plus, I've started to get a little more personal on here instead of just hiding behind cute pictures of my son. :)

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Don't forget to update your feed readers, and blog lists before the other blog is a goner.

Maybe I'll slurp it into a blurb book. Hmmm...

point G

We made it to point G! Our new home for the next 12 months. :)

Point A through F are all the other moves we made in the last 6 years.

This is the closest we've been to the coast. 8 minutes to PCH and Dana Point Harbor!

But first things first... summer needs to get here.

And I need to finish unpacking.

But I've run outta room to put stuff!

This is not the first place we've lived at without a garage...

but we did have one at the last 3 places,

and we may have accumulated a little too much stuff because of it.

Or maybe the fact that it's a 3 person move now, instead of just 2 of us.

This picture of the kitchen was taken Monday. Ugh.
But there are a few less boxes now. :)

Ewan sees no difference in the new place.
As long as the bed has retained it's jumpability, life is good.

So far, we're loving it!
But we do miss our packing peeps
(and ALL our family!)
back in Murrieta.
Come visit soon!

moving

I'm quietly making these felt fish during Ewan's nap

when I really should be packing!

We're moving! Again. :)

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This ups our moving total now to:

6 rentals,

in 6 years,

in 5 different socal cities!

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So, while we're moving out and settling in and transferring utility services...

I'll be going dark on here and FB for a while.

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Now, time for me to get back to packing up the gypsy wagon to hit the road on Friday.

See you all soon!

hello!

So the holidays have come and gone, and the new year is here!! What to do now? Where to start? I've been putting off posting, and was really slow about it through the holidays, not because there is a lack of pictures or fun things to cover, but a lack of excitement in sharing. That sounds depressing, but I assure you that's not the direction of this post. :) I'm just at this point where I feel like I don't know who I'm sharing with. You? Are you reading this? Not you mom, I know you read. :)

I started this blog back in 2007 (happy 2 year blogoversary to me!) to keep my family informed of the first grandchild/great-grandchild/nephew on the way. We did not live near any family at the time, and was so excited to share all the details with everyone in a special way. I wrote each post as if I were directing it specifically to my mom or grandma and that made it easy and informal... and true. I literally had 2 people reading about our happenings. Now, 2 years later, I have followers (I love all 24 of you!), friends I've reconnected with, new blog friends across the country, and new blog friends even in my own town! And now my family has even joined in and each have their own corners of the internet along side me. All very exciting, and fuels the blogger in me to keep posting and keep connecting with others.

But I ask myself often, is anybody reading this? After I put Ewan to bed and enjoy the company of my husband before he falls asleep on the couch, I spend the rest of the late night posting pictures of our day, assuming people are interested in reading about it. And then I read about your kids, in-laws, holidays and latest recipes on your blogs! And even crazier still, I do all this and try to remain anonymous. Anonymous?! Crazy I tell you. Just the other night I was chatting with my bf, debating if we should go private or not. Cause then you know exactly who's reading and who you're addressing when describing your latest and greatest. But instead of such a drastic move, I'm going to just try this...

My new goal on here... is to connect with you. We all want to be part of a community on here and connect with others who care about what we post, and understand why we post it. :) Unlike scrapbooking where we perfectly put together a page of smiling, loving family photos of a big event- blogging is more about the imperfections of daily life that other's are able to connect with. I look for those connections with other moms on here. If you're reading this... more likely than not, I read your blog too. And even more likely, I've never stopped to say hi. That's it. I will no longer be an anonymous stalker... er, reader. :) And I hope you will stop to say hello too, and let me know I'm not talking to an empty internet. I also plan on actually writing more instead of just posting pictures, as a way of connecting on a more personal level. But don't hold me to that, I'm not the writer of the family. :)

I'm looking forward to a very exciting new year! First up, Jeff and I both have birthday's to celebrate this month. We are exactly 4 years and 4 days apart in age. Cute, huh? :) Then come February, we're moving! Again. Always exciting, but always such a pain to pack and unpack everything. We then have a roadtrip up the California coast planned for June. And looking ahead towards summer, Ewan will be turning 2 and plans for baby#2 are a go!

Here's looking at a beautiful 2010! And, hello. It's nice to meetcha. :)

warm and fuzzy

My favorite season is here!

And the house (well... 700 sq ft, 1 bedroom, attached garage, apartment) is getting cozy. :)

The candles are lit...

The sparkly pillows and cozy afghan (knitted by Jeff's Grandma!) are placed... Vince Guaraldi is playing round the clock...


Collected magazines from holidays past are pulled out (Martha Stewart circa 2003!)...

Pumpkins are popping up...

Cinnamon on everything, especially coffee... in our fall color Starbucks mug collection...

Pumpkin pie bites warm our tummies (from the inspirational bakerella.com)...

And warm socks and jammies keep us cozy all day.

Happy Fall! Autumn! October! November! December! :)

Eight

I'm it! Thanks to Molly.

8 things I'm looking forward to...
1. Summer. Beach. Swimming. Tanning.
2. Ewan's 1st birthday!
3. My 1st Mother's Day this weekend.
4. The arrival of Violet. I'm finally going to be an Aunt! And Ewan gets to be the big cousin.
5. Dinner tonight. Left over tacos from last night's fiesta. And margaritas again, while we're at it. :)
6. Our 5 year anniversary in September.
7. Another baby.
8. Next year. Our lease will be up, which means a new adventure for us!

8 things I did yesterday...
1. Took a shower AND washed my hair.
2. Was Liana's personal stylist. Again. Seriously, what would you do without me?
3. Walked around Michael's for an hour while Ewan slept in the stroller. Scored some fun finds. And scored a nap.
4. Bought a car battery. Mine is going to die. However, it's still currently sitting in the passenger seat.
5. Made business cards for Ewan. Curious, aren't ya?
6. Cooked up chicken tacos with all the fixin's.
7. Threw Liana's toothbrush in the street. With good reason people.
8. Had a wedgie war with Jeff. :)

8 things I wish I could do...
1. Fly Jeff home every night after work so he would be home within 10 minutes of getting off versus an hour+.
2. Travel.
3. See Alex whenever I wanted. We missed you for Cinco de Mayo!
4. Read faster. I have so many books I want to read.
5. Buy a profesh camera. Someday.
6. Relax more. I'm such a busy body.
7. Get a new pair of shoes for every occasion. Doesn't every girl wish that?
8. Sew. My mom and mother-in-law are amazing at it. Is it not genetic?

8 shows I am currently watching...
1. American Idol
2. Survivor
3. The Office
4. Ghost Hunters
5. Lost
6. The Food Network
7. Desperate Housewives
8. The Amazing Race

The end. :)

Movers and Shakers!

As my dad would say, we are "movers and shakers!" Jeff, Ewan, Divot (our dog), Marko (our lovebird), and I all moved last weekend! We are in a new apartment that we absolutely love. It is close to our families, and close to the freeway for commuting purposes. To top off a busy week of moving and unpacking, all 3 of us have been sick! Ewan is the last one to finally get better, as of today. I can't wait to share pictures of our new home once we are finnished living out of boxes. To show you how we've been making do, here is a picture of our shower curtain currently being hung up by Ewan's toy rings!

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And the moment we finished putting together our bed, the boys decided it was the perfect time for a nap... leaving mommy to continue unpacking... which a week later, I still am. Better get back to it! :)