Rather Random Life Bits

*Moved & settled in paradise...er I mean San Diego. Our family is loving this beautiful city & the endless activities. Don't think I will ever tire of sunny 75* days & warm waters.

*We started attending a church that we like and are beginning to plug in and get to know people.

*My iPhone GPS is infuriating and often puts me off a street or two-not a good thing when you have no clue where you are to begin with. Joe's droid's GPS is SO awesome that I am highly considering abandoning the i for a droid.

*I recently read "Fifty Shades of Grey" ......Ummmm dare I write a real review?

*We got L into the preschool we wanted! A preschool that generally has a two-year wait list, somehow God literally slipped her in there.

*Our cat Felix went missing a week after we arrived. Pretty much each person we have met has informed us that cats and small dogs should never be outside alone here, and if your pet isn't back by 4 pm that is the end of your pet. Why? Because there is a crazy amount of coyotes roaming San Diego. I would be rather speculative of this absurd information had I not seen my first coyote looking out of a friends living room window!

* Elle loves the beach life and is happiest splashing in the waves. However, she is still struggling greatly with this move and will randomly burst into tears saying that she just wants to go home. It is heart wrenching. She misses her friends, her schedule, her life, the familiarity. Felix going missing has not helped.

* And on that note....We recently let Elle pick out two kittens from the humane society, two of the sweetest most loving kittens a sad four year old could want. They have been a God send, and gently take all the manhandling the girls dish out. Currently the girls spend most of their time playing "animal scientists" with those poor kitties.

*Hannah, our previous non talker, skipped all regular talking progression and went strait to full sentences. With barely two teeth and barley 15 months old she is often still difficult to understand, however, other times she is ridiculously clear. It started this past week when I asked her, "Hannah, why are you all wet?" and she clearly replied, "I took a bath." Joe informed me that he had indeed just pulled her out of the still damp shower. Then we stared at each other dumbfounded. A few other things she has said clearly, "Hi Mom, I see you." "What are you doing, Dada?" "I go to bed now." "I did!" and her current favorite phrase, "Here you go!" She has other sentences but those are the ones that are currently clear in my mind.

*Hannah also has no sense of fear or caution. She climbs EVERYTHING and recently jumped off a two foot high stool! She is a total adrenaline junky and loves to sit on Joe's shoulders, without holding on, and then randomly throwing herself back so she is dangling upside down as Joe clings to her ankles, shouting for help above Hannah's roaring laughter. And like her sister she loves being at the beach but has to be watched like a hawk as she is always darting to be crushed under a wave. Our prayer is to keep her alive until she is five, if we can get her to five I think she will be alright.

*Elle LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the San Diego Zoo, as well as the Wild Animal Safari Park. I think the Safari Park has actually trumped the zoo due to its shear volume of "Keeper Talks". Unfortunately, the zoo is ten minutes away where as the Safari park is closer to 40 minutes. Needless to say her two year determination to one day be a zoologist is living on. Thank you Granddad and Oma for the two for one pass!

There is more to update but will leave with a few pictures of the past month:

 Hannah running happily with her new must have on necklaces.

 Elle at her happy place.

 Hannah helping me unpack right after we moved in.

 Hannah playing school with Elle as the teacher of course.

 Elle dancing to Bach being played from the country's largest outdoor pipe organ.

 Music loving Hannah was mesmerized by the sounds.

Elle singing to herself as she plays with rose petals in our front yard.
And Hannah one minute into making a huge mess.

Elle getting ready to put on an elaborate show for Hannah, and Hannah eagerly waiting in anticipation. But really this deserves its own blog post if ever I blog again :-)

And finally the AMAZING view from our street. Every time I see it I am reminded of God's incredible kindness and love. Anyone who has ever looked for a rental house in San Diego knows what slim pickings there are, and to find this house, at this price, in this neighborhood and to actually get is is truly a miracle. The more people we meet the more they confirm the improbability of our house "luck".

A year without sleep in review...

Up until 5 weeks ago Hannah was averaging about 5-7 hours a sleep in a 24 hour period-as this blog has documented on more than one occasion. Generally she would wake every 1-2 hours and did not nap during the day. There were weeks at a time where I would get four to five 45 minutes increments of sleep a night. And like I said she NEVER napped.

It was horrible and I am very glad I took pictures, and kept up on her baby book because honestly I do not remember most of this past year. Seriously, I think back and it is just a blur with an occasional foggy memory. Recently I was looking through the photos I took  and more than once I would come across a picture and only have the vaguest recollection of being there, and doing that. It was oddly like flipping through another person's life.

Even weirder though I am finding strange sleep deprived things....like various stacks of thank you cards written but never sent, clothing items that I haven't been able to find for months in places like a potting planter on a garage shelf, a Christmas gift I had custom made from an Etsy shop but apparently left in the garage when I went in there for probably shipping material.

I am also starting to remember things that I forgot-Like last night as I was drifting off to sleep it occurred to me that I missed a friend's baby shower that I RSVPed to! It was an evite and I remember waiting for the evite reminder cause I couldn't remember the date, time or location. Because I thought I didn't get  a reminder I assumed the shower had been canceled. Not really sure where my logic was, but wait it gets worse. Around that same time I got what I thought was another evite baby shower invitation for another friend of the same name and same first initial of surname.  I even TOLD a mutual friend (who no longer lives in Portland so wouldn't of gotten the evite) that this girl was pregnant! Nope not pregnant...friend two of same name was not having a baby shower but a going away party! I some how mentally combined her going away party evite with friend one of same name's baby shower evite reminder. The puzzle pieces all lined up last night, but seriously how tired must I have been to get that so wrong?!  (HUGE apology card and gift will be going her way soon. I feel SO terrible about this. Probably should also apologize for pregnancy rumor to other friend-EEK.)

I am a bit afraid what other things will pop up, or what other things I forgot. I can only imagine how flighty I must of seemed to everyone. The fact that both kids are alive, and that we still did so much amazes me. What a sleep deprived year it was.

OH, but Wonderful Hannah is making up the year without sleep beautifully. In bed between 6-6:30pm, up between 5-6am, then a morning nap daily from 8:30-10:30/11:30 am, and then another from 3:30-4:30/5:00 pm. And this baby is insistent on her sleep schedule! Like clock work she lets us know she is ready for sleep-generally she gets her blanket and lays her head on it, although recently she also brought me her "Good Night Moon" Book too. If we are out and about she TRANSFERS as in doesn't even wakes when I move her from car to bed. Even if she is wide awake at nap time I just read her her book(s), put her in her crib and then she plays happily in there for about 20 minutes before going out.

The bliss of sleep, the bliss of productivity....the bliss of having a working brain.

A rant about rain, and a relish in the sun

Today the weather reached 80*! I assure this is not a Portland spring time norm, heck it is not even a 4th of July norm. But regardless I cannot even begin to explain how good the warm sunlight felt on my skin. Sun is a funny thing up here, and with an average of 68 sunny days a year we don't take the sunshine lightly.

The first few years we lived here Portland was having a drought. When I say drought I don't mean a California drought-there was no water rationing, no band on sprinklers, no posters saying "If it is yellow it is mellow, if it is brown flush it down", and I am pretty sure the schools weren't having water conserving poster contests. (Why yes, I was raised in Cali in the 1980's.) Every time a news article would pop up about the NW being in a drought Joe and I would laugh. Not just a little laugh, I mean a full blown, what the hell are the talking about it is freaking raining right now, belly laugh. Yeah, we hoodwinked ourselves into thinking Portland has good weather-damn Portland drought.

The less than normal, actually pleasant living condition amount of rain ended right around the time Elle was born. And I got to say, I have no idea how people raise children long term up here. Every day is a rainy day activitIES-emphasis on the plural-kind of day. My friend Amanda, a self professed NW escapee, believes strongly that only convicted criminals should live up here. My sister calls it Purgatory-everyone waiting for the gray to be lifted and for the sun, the glorious sun, to shine down on to them.

I simply call it a terribly difficult place to raise kids, and today proved to me that I am correct. For HOURS on END Elle entertained her self in our backyard. There was no, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" every few minutes. There was no giant kid messes in my house. There was no Pintresting activities, and then scurrying the house to make sure we had all the ingredients. Even Hannah, who is either sick or teething, spent some happy time just relishing in the warmth. Kids are meant to be outside. Kids are meant to shout, run, jump, and just play like the crazy animals that they are. At the end of the day both were exhausted from the exuberant sun and CRASHED. 
(Less than two months before every day is more a sun day-a reminder that helps with the sadness of leaving behind so many beloved friends).

 Loving the water table-although used rarely always a great thing to have around. (Poor Hannah was feeling miserable all day. On and off fever, lots of chewing, lots of screaming. I think it is probably teething...)

 Oh the fun sunshine smiles. But doesn't it look Elle is hatching a plan of some sort in this one:

And she was...That blue bowl ended up doing this:

 Which led to this:

Doesn't Hannah look a tad disgruntled? Like I said she is sick/teething.

 However, my guess for the face is that she is wearing:

 Why? Well, Elle may of gotten her when going crazy with this:

So, so cold! But Elle LOVED it. 

She would scream, then sing a silly song about the water being cold, do a crazy dance & then go back for more.

 And literally played FOR HOURS in the cold, cold water. Look at that lip shiver.

Still doesn't seem real but...

...the reality is setting in. We have plane tickets, a rental car & a hotel room, and my parents are schedule to watch the girls for a week. But moreover, I have tours scheduled with a few different Montessori schools, working with a few different rental agencies on setting up tours of potential homes, even have the neighborhood we want to live in picked out. EEk, guess we really are moving in June.

Portland's forecast is like this well into June, heck, even in the middle of July sometimes. I think it will be at least 6 months before it doesn't feel like a vacation.

San Diego!

San Diego it is! About 24 hours after I wrote the limbo land post Joe was accepted with an assistant/reader position-Yay! It is a bit unreal and a little bittersweet to know that in a few short months we will be starting a new adventure in a new city. Let the planning,purging, packing begin! (It helps maintain the denial of leaving so many great friends.)

Just Dance

I have an on going love hate relationship with Portland. The weather sucks, I mean really sucks. However, Portland is an awesome city and I really love so much about it. I especially love the culture or general vibe that is Puddletown. So just when I think the never ending gray, cold, wet weather is going to throw me over the edge Portland throws me a "THIS IS WHY YOU LOVE ME." And like an abusive cycle I come back around.

This week the Oregon Ballet Theater (OBT) is hosting free, outside, observations of their rehearsals of the Nutcracker at Directors Park. For those not in the know Directors Park is a new park that isn't really a park-it is more like a smaller, more modern version of Pioneer Square with a glass roof that covers about half of its cement pavilion, water feature, outside tables and chairs and eateries.  My friend Nancy and I wavered on the fence all morning about whether or not we should take the kiddos-as it was off and on downpours. But rather last minute, simultaneously we both decided to just do it. My sister works rather close to that area and happened to be having lunch as we arrived so she joined us too. The rain held off for nearly two hours before it came back with a vengeance sending us scrambling to take refuge in the nearby toy store.

Nonetheless, L and Kate, both 3.5, ADORED every minute of it-even Kate's little bro Carter was mesmerized. Unfortunately, they were being so, so cute trying to mimic the dancers that we watched very little of the rehearsal and spent most of our time snapping away at the uber cuteness that was entertaining the entire pavilion.

My sister held the babe and watched the girls as...

...L intently watched every ballet move...

...so that she and Kate could discuss it.

And try them out.

They worked so hard getting each move right.

Practicing their primadona stances.

Because in Puddletown you must take every second the rain has ceased to....

...practice your arms...

...practice your toe points...

...practice with your dance partner...

...practice your bows and bends...

...and your leaps...

...and get all your delightful laughter out because..

...at any moment you could be wet and wondering how...

...to dance with an umbrella or if...

...ditching the umbrella...

...to stand under a friends...

...is a better idea.

But then again it can't rain all the time, right?

Sisters

Sister, will you make believe,

play dress up,

let me be the princess,

tell me stories in the dark, 

always be my friend?