It's raining, it's pouring

Wow, over two weeks since my last update. Oops.

I have little news to share, really. I have spent pretty much everyday of the past 3 weeks chasing two way-too-energetic toddlers around and picking up the mess. Or, sitting on my butt and thinking how much I don't want to pick up yet another mess. Welcome to motherhood, right?

James continues to enjoy his new position. He's had a few hiccups as he adjusts to a few changes between his old shop and this new one. But, overall, he's still well-liked by his managers. He's working crazy hours, unfortunately. Since some of the machines are still not up and running after the move, the workload on the machines that are running is doubled, which means they need as much as they can get out of their operators. James, naturally, is working as many hours as they ask of him within reason. Once things run smoothly, the hours will calm down, but he expects to be pretty busy for quite awhile.

So, most of the time, it's just me and the girls.

Yesterday we got caught in a decent downpour. We'd experienced some Houston rain shortly after reaching the city, but Thursday's downpour put it all to shame. I pulled into the small parking lot of Babies R Us while it was overcast (lots of thick, low, gray clouds threatening to rain at any second at this point). The parking lot really is tiny. Four parking spots deep with the extra row along the far side. I parked at the "far side". As I was checking out ten minutes later I noticed it was raining outside, so I put Cadence into the cart and ducked into the rain. It took me all of one second to decide my best option was to run. So run I did, as quickly as safely possible. Megan, who hates baths and swimming pools, immediately began freaking out. Cadence, my water baby, was bouncing in the cart and laughing. And in the time it took me to get to the car, we were all soaked.

I'm not talking our hair has a sheen of water over it and our clothes are damp. By the time I got the girls in the car, their hair was plastered to their heads. My jeans remained wet for the entire 20 minute ride and for the next hour indoors. It was crazy. I turned my windshields to their highest setting and it barely kept up with the rain we were experiencing. There weren't rain drops on the places the wipers missed. It was a solid flow of water pouring down my windshield. Craziness!

Later, I learned I walked out into the absolutely worst of the day's storm at just the right moment. I have to say, I'm rather pleased. It was an awesome rain experience, lol. If it wasn't for Megan, I might've enjoyed just strolling to the car so Cadence and I could enjoy it. :-)

But, that's really the most exciting news of the past few weeks. Unless you count paying someone to mow our lawn, or the delivery of our washer and dryer. Well, I guess the TV's exciting news, but not really blog-worthy. We really got it so we could fully enjoy Skyrim when the time comes (uh-oh, my geek is showing...) And, no, I will not bore you all with a geek review of Skyrim when the time comes. Just... when this blog goes silent again in November, know I'm too busy to care about any of you and my kids are probably being unwashed and unfed. ;-) (Totally kidding about that last part, mostly...)

Unfortunately, my camera has officially gone kaput for the time being. No real worries. I'll be getting one next week for an early birthday present. Then I'll get lots of pictures for you all to enjoy. And maybe I'll even get some family pictures done soon so you can see the whole good-looking brood (maybe, it'll take a lot of sweet-talking on my end to get James to spend his free time in front of a camera, lol).

House Pictures (part 1)

Rather than wait and hope my house comes together any time soon, I figured I'd show it off as best I could under the circumstances. Obviously, we are not fully settled. There are boxes of books in one corner and I was in the middle of cleaning (thus the pile in the middle of the room) when I decided to take the pictures. Anyway, just the front room for today. The bedrooms are still a WIP. The girls' playroom has a stack of empty boxes filling an entire corner and I want to hang pictures and such before I take pictures there.

But, the front room. This is the view from the front door. Had to buy a cheap desk for our desktop computer since our old one is currently in about a dozen pieces in our garage. But this works, because the smaller desk means the whole thing takes up less space in general and I'm happy with that:
The view from the opposite side of the main room. Unhung pictures and piles to be picked up and all. The rug in front of the couch is covering a very worn spot in the carpet, but it works, so I'm happy:
A view of my living room from the loft. A nice overhead look to give you a good idea of the whole thing. Enjoy:
So, there it is. A little peek into my new world. :-)

Just some pictures

Day 16 in Houston and still living in a hotel (day 21 of hotel living in general). The novelty has worn off and rubbed raw. But, what can you do when your stuff is sitting in a moving van 800 miles away? We spent a lot of time in the car running errands, driving over to the house to let the girls run around, and picking up lunches and dinners (pretty much over eating out as well).
I loved this picture of the clouds. I think it describes Houston weather pretty well, lol. See those storm clouds coasting in right over the blue sky?
We brought our laptop to the house when the cable guy came to get our internet up and running. James taught Megan how to play Bejeweled. He moved the mouse and she'd click when he told her to. It was super adorable to watch.
Then they just started goofing off together. James is such a goof with the girls and they just love it!
The girls love the hotel bed. Cadence is pretending to sleep. She was even fake snoring. The girl cracks me up.
James went back to work on Monday. He was getting antsy with having 2 1/2 weeks off. I can relate. Even after almost 3 years of not working or going to school, I still have antsy moments. Anyway, the only thing that stinks is having to wake up at 5:30 to drive him to the shop. The girls did well the first day, though they did take two naps each. Yesterday, they both dropped by 8am and slept until I woke them up at 10:30 to go run errands.
My final picture is me bragging (again) about my brilliant child. While drawing on the hotel wall is obviously a bad thing, I was impressed with her skill. I did a little google research and rediscovered some things from my various child development classes that implies she's well ahead of the curve artistically. I remember seeing similar pictures drawn by one of my more talented Sunbeams near the end of our year together. Probably not the best ruler to measure Cadence's development with, but...
Speaking of Sunbeams... guess who'll be one in only 5 months?!?!?!

Houston Top 5

Our stuff just left Bakersfield on Wednesday via the moving company, so we continue our hotel stays. I am beyond ready to be settling in my new house. Every day, James and I go over there for one reason or another. Yesterday it was to have the fridge delivered. Today, the cable internet gets turned on. We water the lawn and spend time with the cats and let the girls run crazy in an enclosed area larger than our cramped hotel room.

We are ready to be home. The girls can't express this particular desire, but they are beginning to grow restless and Cadence actually cries every time we leave the house (not because it's home, but because it's big enough to actually run).

Anyway, we've been here about a week and a half, so here is my list of top 10 things of Houston (so far), in no particular order:

1. The Rain - It fascinates me. You can see blue skies and sunshine but you can still have your windshield wipers on full blast because you're stuck under one of the fat gray clouds that happens to be raining at that exact moment.

2. The Clouds (and blue sky) - I never fully realized what we were missing. There are some seriously gorgeous clouds here in Houston. Big fat fluffy ones. All the time. And a bright blue sky behind it. No smog to diminish the blue and no mountains to comb out the fluffy clouds.

3. Half Price Books - Its exactly how it sounds. A used book store chain. We got a hard cover copy of a Wheel of Time book (that we already own, just not in hardback...) and a paper back cover copy of another Wheel of Time book (same situation, lol). James also got a new role-playing book. We got a DVD and I got another book I've been wanting for awhile. And we only spent $35 ($20 of that was the role-playing book).

4. Sweet Tomatoes - Better known as Soup Plantation, at least to me. Oh yum. And it's not too far from our house.

5. Showboat DriveIn Theater - I've been sulking that I won't get to see Harry Potter's final chapter until it came out on DVD unless we befriended a new babysitter. But, we're going to see it AND Captain America tonight. Bring our portable DVD player to entertain the kids and close our car so if they scream they're only bothering us and enjoy two movies we've been wanting to see for $10. Score!

I did intend to do top 10, but I'm running out of time, so top 5 it is!

The past week or so (with pictures)

We were homeless starting Wednesday, the 13th. Packers came early in the morning and packed everything up. The girls spent the day with Aunt Robyn (and eventually the rest of the family). And I spend the day running errands, checking into hotels, and occasionally kicking my feet up at my mom's house, trying to enjoy every last moment. We enjoyed a dinner at La Mina, since it's my all time favorite Bakersfield restaurant.

Megan ignored the chips and salsa and tried to eat me instead

He doesn't know I took this picture, lol:

Cadence enjoyed dipping the chips in the salsa, but not eating them. She also begged for Megan's high chair:

Thursday, we drove out to Taft to see James's grandparents one last time (as well as meet up with Jared and his girlfriend who were in town), then all of us trekked out to Porterville to see Talon, Jacob, Charish and Sydnee. After a few pictures and dinner at Taco Bell, we all went to the park. The girls, who'd begun showing signs of having a very stressful week, perked up once we were at the park and I got some super cute shots:
We spent most of Friday with my family, except for dinner with James's boss. It was a very strange day, and we all started crying when it came time to leave. Heck, I was blinking back tears when I was trying to track down the kids' shoes to put them on. I cried for awhile after that. Every time I had myself under control, James would pat my knee or squeeze my hand or give me a hug and I'd start crying all over again.

Saturday morning, we said good-bye to Bakersfield and drove through Barstow and on to Flagstaff. It was fairly uneventful. It was our hardest day with the girls as they got used to this idea of a road trip. By the last hour we were counting down miles and trying to keep Cadence happy long enough to reach the hotel. The second day she did better. James woke up at 2:30am and we just went. We were out of the hotel by 3:30 and on our way. It was great, because we had an amazing sunrise over the Arizona desert on the way to New Mexico. Gorgeous:

The best part of the early start was the girls sleeping for the first few hours and then being perfectly content to watch their DVDs between stops:

The third day, we were ready to reach Houston. The girls, now used to road trips, did all right all said and done. We stopped off in Fort Worth to visit an old cemetery where one of my ancestors was buried. Unfortunately, they didn't have a gravestone for her, but there were a few others with the same last name:

We reached Houston, finally, and were happy to be here. We went shopping shortly after arriving to stock up our kitchenette for the three days in our first hotel. The girls loved the car attached to the front of the cart.
And, of course, we had to stop by the big Bass Pro Shop just down the street. Cadence and Megan LOVED the aquarium full of catfish and the like.
Megan cracked me up because she was mimicking this O-mouthed fish. She and the fish just stared at each other with their round mouths for a full minute until Megan started giggling.
Anyway, obviously there's more. We've been keeping busy trying to get the car registered, signing our lease, filling out paperwork, and all the other important stuff you're supposed to do when you move to a new state. Our stuff is finally en route from Bakersfield to Houston, so we're hoping to set up house within the next week or so and plan to post pictures as soon as it's done! We've also been enjoying some summer rain. I just had to bust up laughing when I walked out of the hotel and curse myself for not grabbing my sunglasses, then 2 minutes down the road I have to turn my wipers on full force. I don't think I've turned the wipers on that high since we bought the car!

I Promise

A new post is on the way soon. We've had a few hiccups here in Houston, namely, learning we'll be hotel-dwellers for twice as long as initially expected. Thankfully, Seaboard put us in a really nice hotel that's more like a 1-bedroom apartment. The girls sleep in the living room's pullout couch and James and I claimed the queen-sized bed in the separate bedroom. And we recently stocked up the full-sized fridge (the only thing this kitchen lacks is an oven, but at least it has a stovetop!)

But, we have arrived safely in Houston, well, Pearland, rather. We're off to get our fancy Texas licenses and register our car. We have the keys to our new house (though no stuff to move into it yet, thus the reason for our extended hotel-stay).

So, we're doing good. :-)

What's the word?

Life is surprisingly quiet, considering this time next week we'll be on the road toward Flagstaff. I plan on taking advantage of having family nearby to get all my cleaning and organizing done so the packers' job is easier.

The girls have been crazy lately. Everyone tells me they're probably sensing that something big is right around the corner. I believe it. I've noticed changes in my own way of getting through the day and I think the girls have picked up on it. They've definitely picked up on the fact that I have way less patience than normal recently.

Anyway, a little brag post before I run and put on a bit of make-up for my lunch date:

Cadence is amazing us with how smart she is. She picks up so much just from interaction. She's able to count in her head (small numbers) and tell me how many things she has. For example, if I give her three cookies, she doesn't have to count them out loud to recognize she has three of them. She's speaking in full sentences almost entirely now. The heat's gotten to her recently and she's been whining in one-word sentences, but mostly she'll chatter at us nonstop. She loves songs and now has a small arsenal of favorites. She won't sing with me when I'm singing but at night I'll hear her singing "Wheels on the bus" or her favorite: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

Megan's talking like crazy, too. Unlike Cadence, who picked up words I used frequently, Megan has picked up on her sister's favorite words. Our favorite of hers is a very pronounced "He-ey!" whenever someone does something she disapproves of. She still monkeys Cadence in everything and has a chronic case of the "me-toos". She's so cute when she wants a diaper change. She'll bend over and put her head on the ground, then flop her butt sideways and roll to her back and grin up at him. Thanks to her sister, she's also very much aware of bodily functions such as "pee", "poop" and "fart". And if she ever hears a fart sound, real or not, she will instantly run over to me and pull on the waistband of my pants to see if it was me. Cracks me up.

Anyway, kind of nervous how they'll handle the upcoming road trip and week or more of hotel stays. I'm optimistic, though. So long as they have plenty of freedom to run themselves ragged, they're pretty easy-going kids. We've split it up so we only have one really long day of driving and two 7-8 hour days.

Countdowns

10 days until the packers come and pack everything we own into boxes, making this place uninhabitable and forcing us into a hotel for our final days in Bakersfield.

12 days until Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (which I will be unable to see in theater, drat)

13 days until we check out of our hotel, load up our car and begin our trek to Houston

15 days until we reach Houston and officially become Texans.

16 days until we get the key to our new house!!! (Fancy link for those that haven't seen the picture yet)

66 days until my 26th birthday (might as well throw this one in here)

131 days until Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is released (I'm only slightly geeking out over it... Really, only the teensiest little bit)

136 days until Megan's 2nd birthday.

137 days until Cadence's 3rd.

(While we're at it, I should backtrack and say 129 days until our 4th wedding anniversary. Guess what my anniversary present is... Refer to the 131 day countdown if you need the reminder. Or maybe we'll make that James's present and I can get myself something pretty.)

At least 8 months (242 days) until Wheel of Time's final book is released and I become a bad mom while I ignore my kids for the 48 hours it'll take to read it (I'd say 24 hours, but let's be realistic, I do have two kids to watch here and the book will probably be close to 1000 pages). You can totally expect a little banner countdown thing added to my blog once the final release date is announced (just like last time). Again, only slightly geeking out here.

And 9 months until... just kidding.

:-)

Impromptu Beach Trip

When James got to work Monday morning, things went pretty much as expected. They had no clue what to do with him. He could have just kicked his feet up and been paid to sit around all day, but instead took the day off, came home, and we did a practice road trip and drove to the beach.

First of all, it was a great learning experience for our upcoming Houston road-trip. We already have a dozen or so "now we knows" for the trip (such as "now we know coloring books don't work for half as long in the car as they do in Sacrament" or "now we know if we let them run around for just 15 minutes we can probably squeeze another hour of nearly-fuss-free driving out of them").

Anyway, instead of driving through the Grapevine and turning toward Ventura, we cut through Taft and drove the windy Highway 33 instead. It actually was a beautiful road to travel. Lots of flowers and several gorgeous views of the foothills. Wasn't much of a shortcut, though. While it might have shaved some miles off our trip, the mountain road kept us at a slower pace. Still, we drove home the same way and enjoyed it just as much.

But now, pictures of our beach visit. First, Cadence loved the sand. She started digging in it as soon as we had the towels spread and handed her the sand toys. She was absolutely covered in sand by the time we left and we had to actually strip her down and cover her in a towel because she'd managed to get sand in pretty much every crevice and I didn't want her sitting in that for 2 1/2 hours.
Megan was a little less enthusiastic after the long drive and refused to leave my lap (notice my white legs underneath her), but eventually she warmed up to the idea and was playing happily:
Cadence enjoyed the waves, but they were pretty high for beach waves yesterday and she wasn't too sure about that. Especially when one splashed her in the face and she got a big gulp (probably through her nose too) of salty ocean water. She enjoyed dangling from James's arms as the waves came toward her, but she pronounced herself "done" a lot sooner than either of us expected once the wave hit her face.
In the end, we didn't stay as long as we might have hoped. After about an hour, we packed things up and headed to the showers to try to get as much sand off of us as possible before getting back in the car. Probably best. James and his fair skin were starting to turn pink while we were out there, but he avoided a sunburn in the end. I bet if we'd stayed any longer he'd have been rubbing aloe vera on his face and neck all evening.

Hopefully, we can find a nice beach in Houston. I'm sure there are some, it is close to the gulf, after all. So this won't be the last beach we visit. But it probably is the last time we visit the Pacific Ocean (aww, what a sad thought).

Houston, here we come

I know I've mentioned this once or twice in passing in this blog, but I've put off major announcements until we had official news to share. And, well, after months of waiting, wondering, and living off every bit of rumor and gossip we could get our hands (ears?) on, we have official news.

James's first day of work in Houston is on August 1, 2011.

We'll be out of here two weeks before than. The movers will be coming to our place on Friday, July 15th. We'll spend Saturday cleaning up the apartment, turning in keys, and spending those last final moments with family. Then bright and early Sunday morning, July 17th, we'll load up our car and leave Bakersfield.

It's bittersweet. It's a great job move for James. In Houston there is far more potential for him than if we stay in Bakersfield. Plus, the move is also getting him a raise. And Houston has far more culture to introduce our kids to as they grow up. Leaving family behind, though, is a major blemish on our rosy picture. Bakersfield has been my home for 12 years now. It's the longest I've been in any one place. I graduated high school here, met my husband here, graduated college and had my children here. We'll be leaving the comfort of the amazing support system we have here.

There are lots of bonuses, of course, beyond James's job. First, though we'll be on the opposite side of Houston, we'll still be closer to a temple than we are here. And what a pretty temple it is!:

We're also upgrading our apartment for a 1500 sq foot house with a backyard, 2-car garage and access to a washer and dryer that doesn't require a key and a trek across the complex. We submitted a rental application for a place already. We haven't been approved yet, but we foresee no complications ahead:

So, there it is. In 3 1/2 weeks, we'll be gone. It's crazy to consider. I'm both terrified and excited. James has spent the past 2 weeks in Houston and he's excited for us to move there. Wish us luck!