lessons on shopping in LA

• Start early . . . but really . . . that doesn't matter because hundreds of other people have thought the same thing.
• Be prepared to stand in line everywhere you go (even the garden shop).
• Plan for extra time to look for parking --there is none.
• Super Target is your new store for everyday items because there isn't a Wal-Mart any where close!!  Now I love Target but they don't always cater to the simple things like a kitchen sink stopper.  Sure they have them but they cost $10.  Really?  I was just looking for a cheap $2-3 made of rubber not the ones with stainless steel edges.
• You can find (just about) anything if you go to enough stores (I'm still looking for the stopper).  There is every store you could ever want, but they are smaller and with less variety.  I guess in North Carolina (where we used to live), they have to serve such a larger geographical area that stores are larger and carry a wider variety.
• Here, Costco is by far more popular than Sams, which is next door.  Parking is cutthroat.  The store is the same size as in NC but with 2-3 times more people.  They have twice as many cash registers and the food cafe is outside and at least 3 times bigger.  I really think they need to adopt Sam's early hours instead of waiting to open at 9.
• The best part is that instead of making my shopping a two day affair like in North Carolina (Wal-Mart in one town + Costco and Sams in the other town + a lot of miles = 2 days).  Here in LA I was not only able to go to these stores (insert Target) but to Lowes and Home Goods and still make it back in time to pick up the girls all in one day.  There is something to be said for compact geography

The picture doesn't have anything to do with shopping.  I just wanted to include it.

Fog anyone?

This is what often greets us in the morning.  This morning was even thicker.  I probably would not have been able to see that stop sign today. Maybe we all need fog horns.  They call it "marine layer".  It should clear by lunch (fingers crossed).

Only a couple of days til Aunt Tammy comes to visit!

boxes & trees

After a stressful day of running around for the kids & errands then trying to make things work with a new (not hooked up right) dryer, I'd like to mention a couple of  "good things":

• first off is that my large pile of moving boxes are gone!! Yea!!
• I'm so excited that we have fruit trees.  I've always wanted some.



Even though they are pale yellow, they taste pretty good.



grapefruit tree

 tangerine

 orange (I'm told I'll have to fight the squirrels for these, that is, when they turn orange)

 fig

 lemon and lime trees too (a Sprite tree....no, they are separate trees)

It's a "good thing"

We have a little tradition at the dinner table.  Usually I ask the kids if anything interesting happened at school that day.  But I found that since we moved to California, there is a plethora of "interesting" things happening that don't really seem to be helping with our transition. So I decided to change the question to "what good did you see or experience today" (because of course, good can always be found).  I think it has helped.

The last couple of days, I've been in need of hearing those good things too.

My pace has slowed since everything is settling down.  Mom left on Monday,

and I've found my thoughts going back to North Carolina, my friends, and my "country" life.

So to remind myself of the good that I see here (yes there is a lot of good), I'm going to 

make a point of including a "good thing" each day.

Today, my good was found in Abi.  She is such a ray of light bouncing here and there.

She can't help but make me smile.

Finally, all on the same side of the country

Dad is home for good!  I really feel for him cause he had to do the month long goodbye while I had a few days to say goodbye, then weeks of setting up a new house.  While I became misty when I remembered all that I love about NC is far away, I could quickly refocus at the task at hand.  But for Joseph, he was balancing his attention between two coasts while daily saying goodbyes.  Tough stuff.

Nevertheless...he arrived at LAX on 9-11.  No it didn't escape us that our nation was mourning and on high alert.  We just tried to put it out of our mind and prayed that nothing would happen again.

Prayers answered. 

 He's at his first day of work

as we speak. 

These pictures that I've been posting were taken this summer at our favorite Tanglewood Park in NC by a friend Alyson Shultz-- fun lady and great photographer.  (You can see her work here)  We were rushing around taking the pics because it was thundering overhead.  It even sprinkled a little on us.  Alyson was great and got everything done just before it started to rain.  The twist to this pic is that Esther is stone face while Matthew is smiling.  It's usually the other way around.

Is it worth it?

We are connected to the world again!  The internet was hooked up for us yesterday and I'm just now sitting to write about my absent days from the blog.

It's been a hard week, to put it bluntly.  Remember how everything was running so smoothly with the move?  Well, after a day unpacking in our house, I called to say that our air conditioning wasn't working.  "Oh no, you don't have any.  Sorry for the misunderstanding."  Silly me thought that a thermostat on the wall that had the words heat and cool meant that you could either heat or cool.  And unfortunately that nice weather that we were enjoying before turned into a mini heat wave (upper 90s with no breeze).  That was the day I thought I might lose it.  Thankfully, summer is almost over and the stores still had floor fans in stock.

 But I don't think I would want to trade with my husband who was wrapping things up at work and church this week and getting ready to start his new job on Monday.  Everyone is being so sweet to him and even crying over his leaving that I think it is making it more difficult for him.  Today was his last bittersweet day.  When I spoke with him over the phone, I could tell he was tired and maybe a little sad. I feel bad that he has to do that all without us there to support him.  But, it will certainly be nice to be living as a family again.

This is why it is all worth it-our family.  We have been very blessed with wonderful friends and experiences in North Carolina that have strengthened our family.  We knew that we had been led to that wonderful place for a reason and in hind sight we can see many blessings that could have only come to us through those people and those experiences.  Moving there so far away from everything we knew was totally worth it.

Now, we are being led to new friends and new experiences that will further enrich our lives and strengthen our family.  There will be bumps in the road just as there were with previous moves but we will be the better for them.  We'll continue our faith that Heavenly Father has a plan for us.  His hand has been evident in the past so if we look to Him, he'll continue to show us the way. 

 Strengthening our family makes it all totally worth it.

Move in day

We're in!!  The moving van finally made it all the way across the US and came to our new house at 9 am.  I would have to say that this was one of the smoothest moves I've ever had.  It seems like something always goes wrong (our move from Colorado to TX was the worst ever) but this time I really don't have any complaints.  Thank Heavens (literally)!

This is our truck driver Daryl who was great.

He had quite the trick backing his truck into our cul-de-sac because our neighbor didn't move his cars like he said he would (twice).  Did I mention that he is a used car salesman that, I think, sells them from the neighborhood?  If you look real close the cars aren't shabby (there's even a Rolls Royce in the mix).  Why he leaves them there is beyond me.

That's our mailbox that Abi's playing with, by the way.

 Here's our new kitchen (love the cabinets and I finally have granite counter tops, woohoo!)

This is the "formal" living room (haven't had one in a while....we'll see how it goes).

This is our family room.  It's waaaaayyy bigger than our one in NC....nice.

Matthew actually was looking forward to a smaller back yard, so he wouldn't have to "run so far".  Well, he certainly got his wish.  Abi was covered in dirt today from playing outside most of the day.

More pictures after we get unpacked.  

We're actually staying one more night in the hotel since there are boxes everywhere.

So tomorrow night, the move-in will be complete, but the move won't be totally

finished until Joseph is here to stay.

Joseph flew in tonight to spend the long weekend with us then will fly back to finish his last week at work.  He is also staying for one more Sunday to finish his work as the Bishop of our NC ward.  We'll sure miss the blessings that came from that calling.  It affected our whole family for good.

Tomorrow's the day!

We have the keys to the house!

Tomorrow is finally the day for our stuff to arrive.

I'll drop the kids off at school then

go to the house to direct. 

I just hope that the neighbor's 6 cars

parked on our cul-de-sac will be gone.

It could get tricky fitting them

and a semi.

1st day of school in CA

We survived the first day!  We managed to get everyone to where they needed to be and each of the kids met new people. They all had classes that they seem excited about.  It was only a half day (a get to know you day) so Abi and I only had a couple of hours to ourselves.  Abi watched a movie while I returned some calls (Tammy I'll call you tomorrow, promise).

Home Sweet Home (for now).

A couple of interesting things learned in school today:

• There isn't a dress code at the High School.  It was told to me that as long as they didn't show their "private parts" they can wear it.  Interesting...you would think that with such high academic standards that they would have better dress standards.  That being said, it doesn't seem to affect their testing scores.  Rachel had a couple of kids in her class that have already taken the SAT with a score of 800. Short shorts didn't distract them, I guess.
• The kids also heard cursing in the classroom that didn't affect anyone, especially not the teacher because they were the ones doing it!  They didn't correct the kids when they did it either.  Interesting....
• There seems to be a lot of "it's up to you" type attitude, which I like.  
• There are no buses in this district only shuttle buses.  Parents drop off and pick up their kids which makes for major traffic and terrible parking.
• Parking? what parking?  I'm so glad we got rid of Bertha (our bus) because she wouldn't have fit in very well here.  I'm having a hard enough time with my rented Suburban.
• As much as I hated filling out papers today, I'm so thankful that they do them all at once.  We even ordered class pictures today, signed up for volunteering for the year, and gave donations (they don't do fund raisers! Yea!) among many others.  
• Lastly, I think we can all breath a little better now.  The unknown has been seen.  

What a day

Holy cow, what a day!  

• went to high school, middle and elementary schools to register kids (tons of paperwork)
• called all the utilities to set up service
• bought school clothes
• sat 2 hours in doctors office so that the kids could get their shots for California guidelines (Rachel got four !)
• grocery shopping, again
• picked up little girls from our new friends at church (we even had dinner at their house last night.) They've been great!
• Still filling out school papers...well, I'm making the girls do it.
• Sorry, haven't returned any phone calls (sorry Mom and Tammy).  I'll get a chance to call when the kids are in school tomorrow.

Didn't get my camera out today, but had this cute picture of Esther to share thanks to Aaron Richardson who managed to get my cherished pictures off a crashed computer.  

It's great to have this section of our memories back!

Thanks a million Aaron!!

Hurricane? What hurricane?

Several of you were worried if the hurricane would affect our flight.  But true to form, Heavenly Father continues to make our transition smooth.  Nothing was delayed, the flights were calm, and everyone is doing great.  We are sitting in Salt Lake City waiting for our college kids to come have lunch with us before we continue on to California.

Over and "out"...

Emptying the house

Packing and loading a truck has to be one of my least favorite things to do.  But on the bright side, I didn't actually have to do the packing or the loading.  Yea! 

 After the truck arrived , they made a plan for getting the boxes from upstairs.  They laid boxes on the stairs and slid each one down then lined them up down the driveway.  I was too busy elsewhere to get a picture of them actually doing this, but it was very efficient.

Now, at 7 pm, we are just sitting here in an empty house waiting for them to finish up the last few things.  I can't wait for the hotel room!

Abi helped Rachel do the last mow job.

We have a winner!

Yes!  We have a house to move into!  We were about to rent an apartment for a couple of months but have found a house to rent instead.  Yes, I said rent and for those of you who know me, this wasn't our most ideal situation (buying a good size house in 2 wks + moving in on the 3rd wk = perfect, but not possible).  But we are thrilled to be in the right place with a terrific school and a ward we feel we are supposed to be a part of.  As we adjust to the shocking housing prices, we'll find a permanent house.  It may even turn out that we'll buy the one we are renting (sound familiar?).

For now, we continue to pack and throw things on our ever increasing trash pile.  The give away pile is almost as big.

My living room is unrecognizable.

And my kitchen now looks like this.

moving time line

Well, I've had several people ask me what we are doing.  So I thought I would help answer those questions.

• Packing today (Tues 23rd) & tomorrow
• loading truck Thurs (maybe Fri)
• Me and the kids fly to CA on Sat (27th)
• Joseph stays behind to finish things at work and church
• Staying at The Residence Inn, in CA, til truck arrives (that is if the house comes through.  We should find out today. If not, then we know of an apt that we'll stay in for a couple of months while we keep looking.  Fingers crossed.)
• Attend new ward on Sunday
• Start School on Tues (30th)
• Move into house when truck arrives?? 
• Joseph's 1st day at Kinecta  is on the 12th

So yes, that means we won't be there on Sunday, :(  When we went to church in CA, I was mostly concentrated on observing the ward but then when we were singing, I started thinking about my dear Tanglewood ward and I got a little choked up.  I'm sorry that I won't get to say goodbye to everyone but am glad to miss all the tears (that I'll be shedding).  So I guess it will be a little like the band-aid method-quick.

This is just the beginning!  You should see it now!  It looked much cuter here and here.

Packing day & CA pics

Packing day is upon us!  The movers will be here any minute and I think they might heave a heavy sigh when they see what they have to do.  We came home yesterday at 10am and have been working on the house ever since.  Thankfully we did get a good nights sleep to make up for the "red-eye" flight.

I don't know what my posting will be like the next couple of days, so here are a couple more pics from CA.

This is the nearby lighthouse.

Nice view!

Not long after this picture, we saw a whale surface.  Cool!  It was far away, so we only saw it's back and spray from it's air hole.  Still cool!

Our new church building.  It looks familiar with some of the local flavor.  I like that the organ pipes are exposed in the chapel too.  Our new ward shares time with the Chinese branch then there is one other ward that attends later.

2 house possibilities

Per the request of my children, I'm posting some pics of a couple houses that are possibles.  Unfortunately, I again forgot to take pictures while actually in the house.  So Joseph and I went back on our own and could only take outside shots of two of the houses.  The third is behind a gate that we couldn't get through.  But I posted the backyard of that house a couple posts ago.

Below is the first house, which is close to the high school.  The living area is great, especially the kitchen.  We could fit our family and then some.  The yard is what is lacking, but it is "do-able".  Joseph's in the pics so that there is a point of reference.  Pictures can be deceiving, we have found.  And in the top right photo, you'll see a white fence at the bottom of the hill, peeking through the trees.  That is a riding trail for horses that runs through the community.

 And because of my forgetfulness, we are stuck with this lame pic of the kitchen, window screen and all.  The kitchen, dining and family room all run together.  Very open.

 The following is probably the most practical house.  Again, I forgot to take pictures inside, so for now these will have to do (When we went back to take pictures, a guy was washing his car across the street so we felt we couldn't "stalk" the house and peek through the windows). What's nice about this house is that it has huge living areas, a bigger level backyard with a playground already there.  It's on a cul-de-sac and walking distance from the middle school.

 This is the neighborhood that it is in with the middle school two blocks away.

We are at LAX at the moment waiting for our 11 pm flight home (ugh).  The kids are in bed at home and won't see this til tomorrow.  By then, we'll be in NC and I can show them the full details.  But here it is just in case they wake up before we get there.  Love you!!  See you  soon!

Our new boss

This is the place...

where Joseph is going to work (I like their logo, very colorful).

As I write this, Joseph is sawing logs next to me.  He flew in today and is on North Carolina time (1 am). His downfall (besides time change) was laying down to discuss the moving information.  That gets him every time.  Oh well, he needs his sleep

Neighborhood & High School choices

We were almost done looking at houses when I remembered I was supposed to be taking pictures.  So I'm a little limited.  The first set are of a neighborhood that I'm drawn to. I'm seeing others today and will take pictures (if I remember, of course).

The two pictures on the right are of the backyard of the last house I looked at.  At the end of the grassy(bottom) is a hill (top).  Great view!

This is a school in Torrance  (West Torrance HS) that has good scores (above average), a good band program (they are on the field having band camp), and not so good football.
The Torrance area has one other school ( South Torrance HS) that I wanted to look at but couldn't get close because of construction.

 This is Palos Verdes Peninsula HS that is located in the area that I like.  Their scores are way above average, offer 27 AP classes, multiple foreign languages and even have an equestrian team.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but in the top pic, in the middle they have an outside stage and theater where they have assemblies and such.  They've blocked off the grass to help it grow.  Apparently it was dirt from construction this summer.
There is one other school in this district (no pictures yet) called Palos Verdes HS that scores equally as high as the other.   They are a little smaller, located on the bluff side in a very "richie" neighborhood. We can actually choose which high school we want to attend.

A note to my kids:  Take a look at their websites and give me your "two cents".
Torrance West HS
Torrance South HS
Palos Verdes HS
Palos Verdes Peninsula HS

1st day of house hunting

I saw a lot of houses today but none were perfect (typical).  One house came close and one area, I liked the best (it has horse properties! there's hope yet!).  Tomorrow we'll see a couple more areas, then I'll have to narrow it down.

We stopped at the "Friendship Bell" that was given to the US in 1976 by China.  It overlooks the ocean.

When I was on my own, I explored down by the beach, walked a pier and found a man who caught a shark. The top pic is of the peninsula that has the subdivision that I like (towards the left of the pic).

Hello bed!

Headed for LA

On my way to LA!
My experience so far:

• excited/not excited to be traveling alone (love hubby taking care of me).
•  love airports!
•  love people watching; guessing where they are going and doing; and forever wondering why women wear sky-high heels when they know that they have to walk down a long concourse and possibly run for a plane.  I'll never figure that one out.
•  Get on my first plane to discover that there is someone in my seat.  A 20-something couple with a baby claim that they "messed" up the seating by being confused and sitting in the wrong spot.  They asked if I would be willing to sit in the seat behind them.  Okay..I'm flexible.  Then I see part of their reasoning for musical chairs (besides the baby reason).  There is a large woman not only sitting in her seat but part of mine.  Thankfully she had my seat belt available because as a teen I once sat next to a very large man who was on my belt. I was too embarrassed to ask so I just drapped my belt over my lap. 
• After I sat down, I quickly realized that there was a tired baby behind me and on infant (the 20-something's) in front of me.  Great!  Knowing that I was a little nervous about this trip, I count it as God's tender mercy that they both went to sleep after take off.

• Love Detroit airport!
• currently flying over Colorado Springs, Hello!!
• Half (more, really) way there!

Okay, I was about so post this when my computer ran out of juice and turned off.  Since then, I've arrived in LA and am sitting comfortably in my hotel room.  Here's the rest of the day:

• sat next to two friendly lawyers, one even gave me her business card (personal injury lawyers always workin).
• met a pregnant girl (woman) who was flying to meet the people who are going to adopt her baby.  They happen to be two women.....?.....
• sat next to the window (my favorite)
• saw the Grand Canyon (cool)
• survived my first drive in 8 miles of LA traffic.  It wasn't that bad.

Now I'm excited to look at houses tomorrow!