August Catch Up Blog

I am SOOOOOO behind in blogging. I really wanted to post my Halloween pictures but told myself I had to wait until I was all caught up. Hopefully I can make the posts somewhat brief but this is my journal and scrap booking lately.

August - Last Few Weeks in Oregon and Trip to California

The last few weeks of August were a blur. I was so busy trying to get everything ready to move, stopping and starting utilities, changing addresses, and cleaning out all of our stuff so that we wouldn't be moving things that we didn't want to keep. I made lots of trips to the local Value Village. All the while Trent had started working in California for half of each week. We didn't see him much during August.

With only a few weeks left the kids were getting lots of play dates with their friends and neighbors. They wanted to see all of their friends and spend as much time as they could with them before we moved. We also fit in a few boating afternoons and evenings with friends. Thank you Maysen, Abbi, Maya, Molly, Zach, Shane, Keaton, Brenden, Kyle, Kira, Erik, Jarae, Jane, Anne, and Aaron.

My dear friends planned a surprise night out and it was such a surprise that I was over an hour late to it. My cell phone just happened to die that night and so everyone was calling me while the kids and I went out to dinner after Talia's swimming practice. Trent was out of town that night. My awesome friends waited in my house for over an hour for me to show up for my own party and then we all went to dinner and a movie. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and I had dessert since I had just eaten dinner. We went and watched the Time Travelers Wife which I chose. Thank you for a fun night!

The packing day finally came and it took a day and a half to pack up all our stuff. I could have given the movers some pointers and if they would have arrived before 11:00 a.m. each day they probably could have got it all packed in one day. The packing of the boxes and packing up the truck took 2 LONG days. We used Master Movers and I wouldn't recommend using them. They damaged my dresser due to not very good wrapping and they even stole some gifts that I was saving for a birthday or Christmas. It was a brand new Wii game still in the package. They weren't very professional and seemed to want to take lots of short cuts rather than do a good job.

Our last night in Oregon our house was empty. We wanted to spend our last night with so many different friends we decided to have everyone come to our house for a big slumber party. The kids had a great time running around in an empty house, playing games, eating ice cream, and eating snacks. The parents just talked and played games. We had over 15 kids spend the night and everyone just slept in their sleeping bags downstairs. Trent and I got a lot of sleep and miraculously so did the kids. I think that they had run around so much everyone was able to crash.

Finally the dreaded morning came and with a very tearful good-bye we started our long trip to California. Our friends took such good care of us and sent us off with care packages and treats. One of my friends even did some research and gave me a gift certificate to go and get dinner in Corona once I was there. I have AWESOME friends. Trent was staying for a couple of days to work and was going to meet us in California. We had a slow start and ended up spending 5 hours in Salem while they did repairs on our car. The check engine light came on 30 minutes into our trip which led to the stop in Salem. That made for a very long day. We had Tate with us so we couldn't go to the mall across the street to pass time. Luckily the rest of the trip that day went smoothly and we made it to my brother's house in Sacramento at 11:00 p.m. Talia and Tucker feel asleep the last few hours of the trip. I was extremely tired but thanks to the sunflower seeds in the care packages from friends I was able to stay awake.

We stayed with my brother for a couple of days and had lots of fun. My sister-in-law was a wonderful hostess and took great care of us. She is an excellent cook. Talia and Tucker had lots of fun with their cousins Lilly and Parker. Sunday we went to church with them and just spent afternoon together. Monday we went to a Fairy Tale Park. It was a very cute park and it was FREE that day. Talia, Tucker, Lilly and Parker made up a song and sat on top of a big statue of cheese and sang their song about LOVING cheese for over 15-20 minutes. Other kids even joined in and then we couldn't take it anymore we ended the fun. That afternoon we went swimming in Ross and Jana's friend's pool. It was lots of fun and Talia and Tucker would have stayed all afternoon if they could. Thanks to Ross and Jana for their hospitality. We had lots of fun.

Tuesday morning we drove to Corona and I was able to make it in time to get the kids registered for school. It was a relief to finally be done with the LONG road trip. We unpacked the car and went grocery shopping so that we would have some food to eat. Our rental house was very empty for over a week and a half before the movers arrived. It as interesting not having any furniture. It made me realize how much I take chairs and couches for granted.