Happy, Happy Mally

The Birthday Fairy visited in the night and turned Mally 6 years old. She was so excited to see the 6 on her forehead to prove it.

We spent her birthday weekend in Sacramento with cousins. She got to play with all their wonderful toys, open a few presents, go to Fairytale Towne with her cousins and shared her mint brownie birthday “cake”. The girls enjoy hanging out with the cousins, especially Dallin. He lets the girls sit and watch him do Legos. They think it’s great.

Back at the apartment we did a little decorating and made a balloon banner and gave her the rest of her gifts (a coloring book, glitter glue, a beach pail and glow stick wands).

Kung Fu Panda Day

With the release of Kung Fu Panda 2 this weekend, DreamWorks dubbed this "Kung Fu Panda Day." We got to go to the office and join in on the party. They had lunch for all and activities for the kids. For entertainment they had martial artists perform a Kung Fu demonstration. It was all very cool.Go see it. Robert Ebert gave the movie 3 1/2 stars.

The Perks

Stephen began work at DreamWorks yesterday. He likes it. The job comes with some nice perks. One perk is free breakfast and lunch everyday. Stephen loves this idea so much I am worried he will be so pleased with the food he will tell them he doesn’t need a pay check the free food is payment enough. Another perk is that Friday is family day and family can come and eat too. This Friday there’s a family BBQ. We were told family can come really any day and enjoy lunch.

Tonight we enjoyed another perk, free movie screenings. We all got to go to the office and see Kung Fu Panda 2. I had to sign a non-disclosure statement so I can’t say much about the movie. But I will say, I laughed. I cried. I was thoroughly entertained. I found myself smiling so much my cheeks were hurting (that’s been happening a lot lately). I loved the moral of the story. I totally recommend it. We all loved it.

Eva posing as Tigress.

We got to see it in 3D. Very cool.

The Happiest Place on Earth

We drove 6+ hours south to Southern California to go to Disneyland the next day. My gracious Aunt Cathy let us stay at her house. She lives just minutes from the Magic Kingdom. The girls loved staying with her. Their room was full of toys for them to play with. That night my cousin Andrea threw a BBQ for us. They served great food and our girls got along perfectly with hers.

The next morning we woke up to rain. We thought we would have to postpone our plans a day. Around 8:30 a.m. the rain stopped and the sun started shining. We decided to brave the weather and to just go. The weather turned out to be perfect. It never rained and stayed sunny and slightly cool in the high 60s. The crowds were perfect, too. Most rides only had a 5-10 minute wait.

I have been to Disneyland a few times, but it was the first time for Stephen and the girls. It was also the first time for me at many of the sights. Every time I have gone before I always focused on the big attractions, but since we were with the girls we focused on the small, simple rides. We learned early on in the day that the girls weren’t going to be able to handle anything even slightly scary. It even took some convincing to get Eva to go on Small World, but she then loved it.

Our first ride was the Peter Pan ride. I prepped the girls by telling them it would be fun and magical. They were scared throughout the ride and came out a bit traumatized. It was too dark and unpredictable for them. I didn’t sympathize with them and thought they just needed to be brave. After all, we came all this way for these rides. Scary or not, we were going on them and getting our money’s worth.

So after Peter Pan we got in line for “Snow White’s Scary Adventure.” The name didn’t help ease their fears. The girls’ animal instincts kicked in and the girls began kicking and screaming that they didn’t want to go on it. The line was very short and once we got to the front we realized there was no use forcing them to go. The girls won and we walked right out the exit. It was quite dramatic and comical for me and Stephen. The rest of the day we spent going on the calm and simple rides like the carousel, Dumbo, the train, the steamboat, the jungle cruise (my favorite; I love the corny jokes) and the cars (Mally is a terrible driver). We really had a pleasant day enjoying the park at the girls’ pace.

Mally with Mickey. We waited 30 minutes to meet him and Eva wouldn’t go near him. “That’s it, no more waiting in line to see any characters.” Needless to say, we didn’t see any princesses. But the girls didn’t seem to mind.

Around 4 p.m. Stephen was ready for a nap. Eva crashed on the floor within minutes of arriving back at my aunt’s. The girls were troopers and lasted the whole day. You can still see her satisfied smile.

The next morning we headed out to L.A. to meet a few of Stephen’s high school friends. One of his friends lives in L.A. and through Facebook he found out that two others would be on vacation in the area at the same time. We all met up at a café for breakfast. It was very nice chatting with the group.

Then we were northward bound for the Bay. As we were in the Gilroy area (you know you are near Gilroy because the air literally smells of garlic from all the garlic fields; it smells fabulous) I began to feel like I was home. I love Northern California so much more than Southern. It must be the mixture of cooler cleaner air, lusher vegetation and a little bit less traffic. I feel more at home up here.

The Tour

My mom requested a tour of our apartment.

There are a few blogs I follow from women living in SF. Their lives and apartments seem so chic and hip. I envy them. There is NOTHING chic or hip about the décor of our apartment. I know I should have embraced this summer as a time to hunt for great furniture and home décor through second hand stores and garage sells. The idea sounds fun. I LOVE doing that sort of thing. But, the fact that I can’t easily take any of it home with me stops me from even trying. I did go to Goodwill today because I just can’t stop myself from just looking. I did buy a dress, though. It was only $3.00, very cute and very easily transported back to UT.

Here are the pictures of our apartment, sadly, but conveniently furnished all by Kmart.

That’s it. Five pictures cover everything. The apartment has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 air mattress (surprisingly comfortable), 2 sleeping pads for the girls, 2 lamps, 4 camping chairs, 1 plastic card table, 2 plastic chairs, 2 plastic stools, and our TV from home. It’s not much, but it’s home for now and we are finding it is just right.

We’re Going to Disneyland

We decided to drive down to Disneyland while we are in CA and have some free time before Stephen starts work. We kept it as a secret from the girls and decided to tell them today to give them a few days to anticipate it and build up excitement. We wanted to make the announcement special so we walked down to a neighborhood bakery that sells Mickey Mouse cupcakes. The cupcake was the clue and we wanted to see if the girls could guess the exciting news. You can tell from the video below it took a lot of clues from us before they could guess. Once Mally really grasped the idea she got a little emotional and teary eyed.

The Beach

Today we ventured to the coast to see the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the beach at Half Moon Bay. It was the girls’ first time ever seeing the ocean. They were in heaven. It didn’t matter that it was a cool overcast day and they weren’t in swimming suits; they still played in the waves and covered themselves in sand. It was so fulfilling for me to see them in complete bliss playing at the beach. I overheard Mally say to herself, “I can’t believe I am making a sandcastle,” as if it was her life’s dream come true.

Here are the pictures to prove it:

Tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

After seeing images of the tsunami in Japan, believe me I was keeping a lookout for big waves.

I kept finding pieces of sea glass. I may have to start a collection.

The drive to the beach only took a half hour. I can’t believe a wonderful beach is so close by. It was a windy drive through the mountains to the beach, but totally easy to find. I believe we’ll be going back a lot this summer.

California Travel Log

We have been Internetless for the past six day while we have been settling in here in CA. I have been keeping daily logs about our goings on. You are welcome to read, but it’s not very interesting. Maybe pictures will up the interest level. Maybe.

May 5, 2011

We drove all day (12 hours) to Sacramento, CA. We left UT just after 7 a.m., but before we left we noticed our swamp cooler was leaking onto the roof. Because it was still too cold that morning the roof was icy and Stephen was unable to climb onto the roof to fix it. We emailed our home teacher, Michael Bishop, asking him to fix it for us. Luckily his wife showed up on our doorstep just before we were leaving and we were able to tell her of the situation. She came over with her son Phillip who wanted to give Mally a stuffed animal (a white bear wearing a crown and holding a heart that says “princess”) of theirs that she has always loved. That was very sweet of Phillip. Mally has since carried the bear around with her everywhere we go.

Our drive was uneventful. The girls were able to make it until Reno to hold off watching movies on the iPods. We let them watch the movies through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We stayed the night at the Suggs’ house. Once we got to the Suggs’ the girls disappeared to their playroom and gladly found all of the toys that they fell in love with the last time we visited. We all went to bed around 8:30 p.m.

Friday, May 6th

Early the next morning we went to their neighborhood park and then walked to the levy to walk by the river. Sacramento is such a beautiful area. When we got back to their house we watched a home video of the Suggs kids’ latest opera, Egbert. It was very creative. We had to cut watching the video short so that we could leave to drive down to San Mateo in time to meet the lady to move into our apartment.

Around 10:30 a.m. we left Sacramento to drive San Mateo. It took us about an 1 ½ hours to get there. We met the apartment manager, Teri Penpraze, to go through the apartment. We are very blessed that the apartment was just redone before we moved in. We have all new carpet, flooring, paint, and appliances. Since we have little to no furniture we literally live on the floor, so clean new carpet is such a blessing. The apartment is very clean and basic. It’s about 700 sf. We don’t have a dishwasher or microwave. I think we can get by for 3 months without those conveniences. We had planned on renting furniture here, but that doesn’t look promising. The nearest rental company charges $200 to deliver, plus we would have to spend a minimum of $224 a month. That makes for expensive rental furniture. Especially, considering that all we wanted to rent was a table with chairs and a couch. I just can’t bring myself spent so much for furniture I really don’t want to invest in. We decided to buy a plastic card table with 2 chairs and 2 plastic garden side tables to be used as stools for the girls. The combination is just the right size and they are things I would like to have back home in UT for when we have guests for dinner. To act as our couch we have decided to buy camping chairs. They are inexpensive, easy to transport home and for the most part comfortable. Hey, they are more comfortable than the floor.

Life on the floor. Mally eating breakfast without a table or chairs.

Once we were unpacked we went to Costco to have a late lunch of pizza and hotdogs and to stock up with a three month supply of food. Our trip to Costco was mostly successful, though I couldn’t find all the items I am used to buying back at the Lehi Costco. After Costco, we still needed items from other stores so Stephen stayed home with the girls and I went to Trader Joe’s and Safeway. I am so used to buying at Walmart and price matching and using coupons that I was unhappy to pay full price for my groceries. I always want to feel like I bought something for a deal. And I don’t think I am going to find any deals here in CA. I got lost driving home from Safeway. I drove down a dead end street, scraped the underside of the car while trying to turn around and swore during my frustration. I had to tell myself, it’s just my first day and I’ll understand how to get around soon enough.

That night we went out to eat because although we now had food, we didn’t have a table or chairs to use and I didn’t have the energy to deal with making dinner. We went to IHOP. Stephen’s and my meals were fine and the girls seemed to like theirs, but we think they got food poisoning because that night Eva awoke crying in the night. She complained of throwing up in her mouth. I thought she was just whining about boogers, and I told her to just go back to bed. Later that night she awoke crying again. This time I woke Stephen up to deal with her and this time she really did throw up. We changed her clothes and brought her bed (the girls are just sleeping on mats on the floor) to our room and let her sleep with us and a bucket near by. We all mostly got a good night’s sleep.

Saturday, May 7^th 2011

After breakfast the next morning we ventured off to Target for more supplies. This time Mally was complaining about a sick tummy. I let her sit in the cart while we shopped and I gave her a plastic bag to carry around just in case. Truly I didn’t believe that she was really sick. I figured Eva’s sickness was attributed to all the junk food we have been eating the past few days and not actual bacterial sickness. Sure enough the plastic bag came in handy. Mally ended up throwing up. We were able to handle that situation pretty inconspicuously. She threw up in the bag, I threw the bag away, I took her to the bathroom, got her washed up and we went back to shopping. We were able to fill our cart up with more supplies when all of the sudden Eva threw up. This time we did not handle situation so nicely. She threw up all over the aisle floor, her clothes and my leg. Then she cried as loud as she could as if to tell everyone around us that she threw up and to look at us. It was a huge gross mess and I had it all over me. An employee, off duty, cleaned it up. We stripped Eva down and out of her soiled clothes. Stephen took the girls to the car while I went to buy Pedialyte and purchase all the items in our cart. When we got back home the girls got a bath and stayed with Stephen while I went back out shopping. This time to Kmart.

I can’t remember all that I bough at Kmart but I do remember that I went there twice in one day. On my second trip while I was checking out and using my credit card my credit card was “flagged.” I had to have the manager verify that I was the owner of the credit card and call American Express and tell them the transaction could go through. I guess American Express has noticed uncharacteristic purchases being made at a different (CA not UT) location. It was a weird situation and I wasn’t sure if the manager would believe that I really was who I said I was.

Saturday night the girls were feeling mostly better and we had our first home cooked meal in our apartment. We ate at our new plastic table. It will be just fine for our time here. We drove to church that night to see how to get there. The building is in Foster City, the town to the east of San Mateo. It is in a very nice neighborhood right across from a river with a park. It looks like the building was built in the 80s.

Sunday, May 8^th 2011

We went to church. Our meeting was at 9 a.m. It is a big ward and since it was Mother’s Day there were lots of visitors and lots of confusion. It wasn’t until RS that anyone said hi or introduced themselves. Our RS lesson was cut short so that the sisters could enjoy a wonderful chocolate fondue buffet. Once we were all mingling some of the sisters came and introduced themselves. I met another “Jeana.” She is also new but she spells her name with two “n’s.” It seems like there are very nice people in the ward. It will be fun getting to know them.

We were pretty lazy the rest of the day. We had pancakes for lunch and I got a Mother’s Day midday nap, a favorite gift. That evening we drove to Central Park to see where it was and if it was a good park. It is a great park. It has plenty of playground area with enormous shade trees. In the summer they have a train kids can ride. There is a wonderful rose garden with gazebo. I really liked the park and we’ll definitely go back.

Each of us choose our favorite rose at the rose garden in San Mateo’s Central Park.

Monday, May 9, 2011

I went jogging around 6 a.m. It was a beautiful morning. There is a park with a track nearby. The neighborhood seems safe to go jogging in. We went to Kmart again today. Hopefully, I don’t have to go there for a while. We bought our “summer couches” AKA camping chairs. We also bought an inexpensive stroller. Then we went to the city’s main library and got library cards. It is a beautiful library. I think we will make weekly trips. It is near Central Park. We just hung around the apartment this afternoon while Eva napped. Around 5 p.m. Stephen decided it was warm enough to go swimming. So, we all ventured down to the pool. It was actually NOT warm enough to go swimming. Mally and Stephen braved it, but not me and Eva. We all lasted about 10 minutes. Once back in the apartment the girls warmed up with a hot bath. We had dinner and FHE then reading and bedtime for the girls. Later that night Stephen and I watched “Goonies.”

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

I went jogging again this morning but a little later, around 7 p.m. There were more people out this morning. It feels like this is a safe neighborhood. The scariest thing I have run into has been the Canadian geese in the park. Someone needs to deport them back to Canada. I took the girls to Dollar Tree this morning. I realized I should have gone there first to buy a lot of the house supplies. Stephen stayed at home to wait for the man to install our Internet. On the drive back home I tried to find some more parks. I wasn’t too successful. We did stop at a park I was already familiar with and I let the girls get out and play. We then drove home and had lunch. After lunch Stephen took the girls swimming while I stayed back and deleted through the 200+ emails that have been filling up my inbox while we have been Internetless. I also made a few calls about buying AFLAC supplemental insurance. Since AFLAC no longer sells certain policies to Utahans, we had planned on buying the policy while living in CA. The AFLAC guy came over later and we got that all taken care of. We had a yummy dinner of fish tacos and then walked to the train stop to see where Stephen will be catching the train to commute to work. The stop is just a 6-ish minute walk. Now we need to find where to buy monthly passes. I have to say it has been really nice to have a few weeks to get settled in before Stephen starts work. I have needed him to help set up home.

The girls all geared up for swimming.

Tomorrow we plan on driving to Half Moon Bay to see tide pools. The AFLAC guy told us about a great farmer’s market on the way out there and we hope to stop by.