Musings on my new life

It's taken me some time to get into the swing of things, so my blogging is way behind schedule. It's not completely my fault. When we arrived in California, my computer refused to turn on. Somehow it got killed in the move. No problem, because my computer guy (my bro in law Mark) lives close now, and the computer needed to be wiped and reformatted anyway. I just hadn't gotten it done yet, because my computer guy lived so far away. I sent my computer off with Mark and told him that he didn't need to retrieve my files first because I had carefully backed them up before the move to an external hard drive, which I had carefully packed and transported personally. Unfortunately, when I got the computer back, and plugged in the hard drive, it wouldn't even turn on. AAK! Fortunately, my genius bro in law had decided to retrieve the files anyway just in case. Disaster was averted! Then he fixed the hard drive, just for good measure.

My next excuse is that it took me a while to figure out where the camera cable and battery charger had been unpacked to. But now I've found them, so it's time to start blogging again.

Life is hectic, but good. I am currently driving about 1 1/2 hours per day and using 1/4 tank of gas per day. Yes, I have to fill up my 20 gallon tank almost twice a week. I am not used to this. I was spoiled with having work, school and church all less than a mile away. Not so anymore! Everything here is 15 minutes away. Church, school, shopping, baseball practice. Work is about 30 minutes away, but it's only 15 minutes beyond the kids school, so I like to tell myself it's only 15 minutes away. The upside is that the speed limits are really high. Most roads are 45-50 mph , and the freeways are 70, so it doesn't take as long as it could.

The kids have made friends and gotten involved in lots of stuff. Jordan is running cross country and is in the Madrigals choir at school. He hasn't gotten a job yet, but will need to soon to earn money for his choir trip to Florida. Kallai has taken up surfing, which he loves, and joined a baseball team. Taliah hasn't started anything so far, but has a couple of friends that she enjoys having play dates with.

I have started working at an elementary school as a Special Ed Assistant. I really enjoy it so far, but am still up in the air about what my duties really will be. The program is a new one. They have removed most special ed students from special ed classes and put them into mainstream classes, so the school is still figuring out how things will be working. Whatever I end up doing, I really enjoy working with the students. They are a great group of kids. I work with fifth graders. The teacher I am working with is great too, and we have quite a bit in common.

David is missing in action most of the time. He works very long hours, and has a stressful job. He made a business trip to Singapore and Shanghai recently, where he attended lots of meetings, and saw the inside of several offices and hotel rooms. Not much time for sightseeing, they really worked him hard. At least he has the weekends off, so we play hard every Saturday, and rest and recover on Sundays.

We try to spend lots of family time together on the weekends, playing and surfing at the beach and hanging out with my sister's family. I love the beach, and love that I can get there with very little effort. When I open my trunk, I usually see sand piling up in the corners from the beach toys. You might think that would upset me, but it makes me smile to see it. I love lazing around on the sand reading a book, watching the kids boogie board and surf, looking for critters in the rocks at low tide, building sand castles. I love smelling the ocean for several minutes before I actually see it. I love driving along the PCH, coming over a hill and catching glimpses of the blue water. I love walking along the pier at night. I almost feel like I live in "Vacationland" because we go to the beach so often.

Sometimes it's foggy in the morning as the "marine layer" reaches all the way inland to our house. At first I thought that meant the weather would be cold, but no, it's nice and warm, and foggy! Usually it burns off after a couple of hours. I do get cold in the afternoons when the sun starts to sink toward the horizon, and at the beach. The humidity really makes the air feel colder than I'm used to. I'm starting to remember to bring a jacket with me even when it's warm, just in case.

People here are really friendly. Random people start conversations with me all the time, from the guy in front of me in the grocery line asking my opinion of Prince William's wedding, to the woman competing with me for a job chatting about the best beaches in the area. People are always willing to chat. I've even caught myself starting conversations, which is quite out of character for me.

My ward is awesome! Everyone has been so welcoming. The kids were drawn into a circle of friends immediately. So were David and I. I think we attended about 8 parties during the first month that we were here. The people are very down to earth. There's no need to try to keep up with the Joneses. Everyone is happy to take you as you are. The crazy thing about the ward is how loud they are. In my Utah ward we often were chastized for being irreverent in Sacrament Meeting. Well, we were silent compared to my new ward. Everyone goes into the Chapel and walks around and visits. No one whispers, they talk right out loud, and sometimes get louder as they talk over the noise. When it's time to start the meeting, the Bishop will stand and say "Please take your seats so we can start." Sometimes he has to say it a couple of times, and raise his voice to be heard over the din. Once he gets their attention, everyone quiets right down. The people of the ward are mostly related. Brothers and sisters, parents and their grown children, cousins, etc. It seems like people like it so much here that they never leave. They just move around the corner, and stay. The nice thing though, is they aren't cliquey at all. They have known each other forever, but there is always room for another friend.

Choir practice made me laugh the other day. It lasted 15 minutes exactly. The choir director timed it. The altos weren't getting our line, and I asked if we could go over it. He consulted his watch and said, "We have 8 minutes left, I guess we have time." We ran through it once alone, and once with the whole choir, and then we moved on. I asked if we could go over the intro a few times, because we were really having a hard time picking out our first note, but time was up. We are singing it next week. This was the only practice, and we aren't meeting early to run through it. I wonder how we will sound.

David has been called into Young Mens, I've been called into Young Womens. In the last 2 weeks I said the prayer and gave a talk in Sacrament, Jordan and Kallai gave talks in Sacrament, and Taliah gave a talk in Primary. It's the month of the Dresens I guess.

Well, enough of my ramblings. We are doing well. Our new life has its challenge, but we are together, which is the important thing. I have had a few small bouts of home sickness, but I usually get over them quickly. I miss all of my old friends, but I'm enjoying this new adventure.

Time flies...

We've been having lots of fun this summer, but now it's time for school to start and we will have to hunker down and get to work. I'm pretty behind in my blogging, but I though I would share a few things that we have done at the end of summer.



Kallai received his First Class Badge. He actually earned it in Utah, but he didn't get his Board of Review taken care of until the day before we moved, so he received it in California. We have a great Scout Troop here, with very capable leaders. Kallai has gone on a couple camp outs, built bird houses, participated in service projects and had a lot of fun.



We went to the Oceanside Pier, which is a fun place to go at night. You can rent fishing poles and fish off the sides of the pier with glowsticks for bobbers. The first time we went people were catching fish left and right. You just had to stick your hook in the water, and within a minute or two you would catch a fish. The second time we went (and actually tried fishing), it wasn't quite that easy, but the kids each caught a fish or two. Then we went and had shakes at the restaurant at the end of the pier.




Kallai received a surf board for his birthday, and has had lots of fun with it. He has been able to get up on his feet, and has told me that surfing is the best thing he has done all summer. We spend almost every Saturday at the beach, and really enjoy our time there.




Of course I don't have a good pic of him surfing because I couldn't find my camera/charger until just recently, so all my good pics are on my sister's camera.

This weekend we hung out with my sister Teri's family, and my parents who were in town visiting. We went to Doheney State Beach, which is a good surfing beach, but it also has a very rocky bottom. When we got there, we found that the tide was out, and much of the rocks were exposed. We went hunting for crabs, and had lots of fun catching them. We found a shrimp, and lots of hermit crabs. It was fun to hold them and wait for them to come out of their shell to run away.

We have done many more things this summer, and eventually I will post them all. Hopefully! It's been an eventful summer, and I'm kind of sad that it's over.