this guy I know

This guy I know has his own way of doing things:

• He prefers to go commando if his Mr. Incredible wonder-pants are unavailable
• He prefers to eat nothing resembling a fruit or a vegetable, unless it is juice of an apple
• He refuses to drink anything unless it originally came from an apple
• He is most particular about his footwear. He currently has his "fast train shoes" (they have Thomas the Tank engine on them - these allow him to run fast as a train). He has "strong shoes" (these are Transformer shoes which are very much a Keen knockoff. They fit him well, but as he is unfamiliar with Transformers, we told him the character on them (OptimusPrime) is a friend of Spiderman, and of course these shoes demonstrate his strong-ness). He also has "chocolate shoes" which are his brown loafers he wears to church.
• He loathes church clothes and insists on wearing "fast" clothes every day.

See if you can figure the following things out. Put your answers in the comments area:

1. Jimmy wants to read "the green book about dinner." What book is it?

2. A convertible Porche drives by, Jimmy says: a. Its fast!!! b. Its cool!!! c. Look, its a goken car.

3. What does 'goken' mean?

4. He desperately wants to be a "surfer-California-boy." What is the one major thing holding him back?

5. What color is his cowboy hat?

three hour tour

I haven't seen Nate very much over the last 2 weeks. So you can imagine my delight last night during three luxurious hours. We had conversations only interrupted by our waiter who brought us delicious things to eat (such as hand-picked heirloom tomatoes with goat cheese and a basil buttermilk dressing; followed by some tasty soups (for me - Japanese clam chowder with shiitake mushrooms and for Nate a Mulligawtawny with a light hint of curry); followed by perfectly seared scallops, Yukon gold-olive oil smashed potatoes, a cauliflower puree and an arugula shallot salad (for me) and (for Nate) Moroccan spiced prawns, crispy tofu, thinly sliced peppers and a white wine butter. If that wasn't enough, we were presented with a dark chocolate cake with a cream filling, Grand Marnier strawberries (I told Nate to go easy on those as he would be driving home) and vanilla bean honey gelato). I am still swooning.

Also, we partook of this deliciousness overlooking the ocean. Wow.

We then crossed the street walked down to the coast and watched the sun set. Pretty incredible. And to think, Jimmy and Grace missed it all.

eleven

What were you doing eleven years ago?

This is what we were doing:

a long time ago and far, far away

Well at least three weeks ago, we were still on our 1900+ mile journey to our new home in San Diego. One of the reasons it was over 1900 miles is because we couldn't resist taking some side jaunts off the main drag.

You see, Nate always wants to go off the beaten path and see whatever desert, forest or rock collection we are driving by. Combine that with my dream of visiting the Painted Desert (this came from reading about said desert in my social studies book back in the Fourth Grade. Oh, how I dreamed of going there...) and you get a side trip to not only the Painted Desert, but the Petrified Forest as well!!!

Pretty awesome. See, dreams do come true (even if they are a bit more windy than you anticipated).

speed

Jimmy will tell you, "I am Speed." He likes to go fast - all the time. It is no surprise he LOVED his first roller coaster. Looks like Nate rather enjoyed it as well.

will tinkle for tracks

Day Two of serious potty training. We are making slow and steady progress. He's quite delighted with getting a sticker on the chart for participating, and he is beyond excited about getting a train track or other miscellaneous part of a cheap Geo Trx set I bought off of craigslist. Wish us luck.

beach girl

This girl is a major beach bum. She's been to the beach four times in the last eight days and really can't get enough. Today she had sand EVERYWHERE (and really, I mean everywhere).

Jimmy on the other hand really does not care too much for the beach. He stays far out of the water and has to warm up to sand. But he keeps asking for a "buggy board."
Also you should note, Grace informed Nate she was totally ready for a surf board. Nate thinks he's ready for one too.

And what am I ready for? I'm ready for a whole day to go by without me getting lost! (At least I usually know which way is west).

sweet

getting settled

Its been almost a week since we've been here and we are mostly moved in. Our living room still lacks furniture, but it is a great place to stash stuff we don't quite know what to do with. Our kitchen is 3 times the size of our old one (and for those of you who have been to my old kitchen know that this means our current kitchen is enormous to us, but not necessarily the rest of the civilized world), its also my first experience with a side-by-side fridge. I've gotten lost or misplaced at least once a day for the last seven days.

There have been many things for me to get used to. Nate loves all of these new experiences, I am doing my best to be a good sport. The nice thing is that when I find I'm overwhelmed with change, newness, and adapting to such things, I just go outside and breath the fresh air, or drive the 3 miles to the coast. Things just seem much better then for some reason.

Hopefully in the next few days I'll get back to regular blogging (and also I hope to stop ending my habit of run-on sentences and ending sentences with prepositions).

To hold you over to that point, here is a list of the contents of an unlabeled random box we unpacked (please note the box was originally a Grl Scout cookie distribution box (Thin Mnts to be exact):

1. long, serrated bread knife
2. harmonica holder
3. vice grip
4. fishing vest
5. one gallon Ziploc bag full of office supplies
6. can opener
7. an old Samsung cell phone box containing to outdated cell phones and their accessories
8. 2 Sham-Wows

we're moving on up

We're moving on up ... to the 2nd floor. Our stuff arrived today. We're unloading today. Wish us luck.

only 300 or so more to go

We've enjoyed our stay with Nate's parents, but our new apartment is waiting for us and time is ticking away. Nate and I will hit the road late this afternoon and will arrive at his Aunt and Uncle's house tonight. Grace and Jimmy will make the trek tomorrow morning with Nana, Poppy, and Uncle Coby. The second half of the move commences tomorrow. Wish me peace and a calm mind - I'm going to need it!

we're here, well in az anyway

We're one day ahead of schedule. We've had a few eventful days. We are happy, but zonked. Here's what we've been up to (please note I put captions with the pictures but to read them you need to click on the pictures and view the slideshow in my picasa web album, that will give you an idea of what on earth we've been doing and where we were):

we're tired, but at least we're ahead of schedule

We skipped through Amarillo, sailed past Tucumcari (New Mexico) and found ourselves a deal in Albuquerque. We're zonked. I'll have to tell you about our travels, adventures, and tastiness tomorrow.

oh did I mention Nate graduated?

Residency is over. We're pretty excited.

oklahoma is ok

500 down only 1300 more to go.

Currently Nate and the kids are partaking in the most anticipated event of the trip:

I am enjoying the calm of the hotel room. Today is our longest day of travel (well, I hope so!). We drove SW through Missouri, down through Tulsa and are now in OKC. I was reminded (for four-plus hours) how beautiful Missouri is. If you haven't really checked it out and find yourself in a position to do so, I highly recommend it.

We decided to go a bit out of the way and visit the birthplace of George Washington Carver. May I just say, he was one amazing person. Why is it that most people know who particular pop stars are, but have no idea about this guy. He had some incredible insights, here's one I really liked:

The other thing I've thought about today is why there is such terrible things to eat on road trips, but I won't go into details on that one.

I'll also take a minute and say THANKS and THANKS to all of you lovely people who gave up a good part of their weekend (or week, in the case of Nate's parents) to come and help us move. Without you, I'm pretty certain we'd not be in Oklahoma City yet...

goals

Our new goal is to have EVERYTHING packed and ready to go by mid-day tomorrow. This will allow the burly men (Nate, his dad, and my dad) to do some loading into the moving "relo-cubes" (seems strange not to say trailer) while the ladies (me, my mom, and Nate's mom) get some needed attention at the spa (I must say, that couldn't have been planned any more perfect!).

Tomorrow evening is Graduation and we're pretty excited about that. Our celebration shouldn't go too far into the evening, because much too early on Saturday morning the remainder of our things will be loaded into the relo-cubes, our house will be swept clean, and we'll say goodbye to our home of 8 years.

Our journey West will officially commence Sunday morning. Our plan is to be in Oklahoma City before sunset.

drinking, driving, and animal behavior

The last few days the kids hung out with Dad. Evidently there was some serious water drinking at the Science Center:


Some Jeep driving at the Children's Zoo:

Sting Rays are awesome:

It is often easier to communicate with goats on their own level:

Sometimes your sister will refuse to let you ride the horse on the merry-go-round and you are stuck riding an elephant:

All in all, days with Dad are very cool.

hippo birdie 2 ewe, deer

Look at this little face:

It grew up into this handsome face:

That face went on to become a surgeon:

btw - residency is over in 10 days!!!

And that surgeon happens to be an excellent dad:

And of course, he cracks us up - daily:

Happy Birthday, Nate!

my kind of town

While visiting the Chicago area last week, we decided it best to get ourselves into the city and make the most of it.

Buckingham Fountain - check
Drive Lake Shore Drive - check
Pay homage to Wrigleyville - check
Cruise Michigan Ave - check
Eat lunch at Suzie's* - check
Navigate oneself and family through somewhat familiar Chicago neighborhoods and territory back to one's parents house - check
Nap - check (well at least for Jimmy)
Pack back up and head out for another culinary must: Lou Malnatis** - check

* Suzies is an amazing little hole-in-the-wall. It has been open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the last 5 decades (at least). Their milkshakes are the kind you can dream about, the fries are well worth the 40 minute drive from my parents' house, and the baby Philly is truly a gastronomical feat. By the way, this is one of the places my parents would go to when they were dating. Grace found this little tidbit hilarious.

** There are basically three deep dish pizza camps in Chicago: Gino's, Giordano's and Lou's. I was raised in a strict Lou household - so much so that my mom is shocked I really like Giordanos as well. She still lets me stay here with her (I think its only because I bring the kids with or is it that Nate makes eclairs...)

I'm going to miss this place!

sticky fingers

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when we were cleaning out our winter clothes and has nothing to do with the following:

Last night we had a delicious dinner at our friends' house. But that is not the point of the story.

Last night I got to hold one of my favorite babies. But that is not the point of the story either.

Last night we buckled Jimmy into his car seat. The following conversation ensued:

J: Uh oh, what's in my shirt?

Me: Um, I don't know. What's in your shirt?

J: Oh, I don't know.

Me: Jimmy, did you put something in your shirt?

J: Yes!

Me: Jimmy, what did you put in your shirt?

J: A Phone!!!

Me: A phone?!

J: Yes. Phone is in my shirt, right here.

We pulled over, unbuckled him and wouldn't you know our host-of-the-evening's phone was in his shirt!

Me: Jimmy, why did you put Nick's phone in your shirt?

J: Dunno.