Happy new year to all!

What a year it's been for us. PeopleSoft ended as a company. I began to work for Oracle. I quit! We moved to Georgia. Rene is working for Club Car. Lauren started walking and talking. Erin had her first dance recital. We're grateful for each other, our families, our health, and our wonderful friends. 2006 is the year that Erin starts kindergarten. Who knows what else the year will bring?

Today I joined Weight Watchers (again). With the new year I hope to lose weight. I've added my 2 favorite weight loss sites to my list of links.

Here's to a happy, healthy, skinnier new year!

It wouldn't be the holidays...

without someone being sick. The day after Christmas, Erin was sick, and I didn't feel so hot myself. Luckily the next day we were feeling better.

This morning I got up early with Nanna and PopPop and drove them to the Columbia, SC airport. Their plane left 1/2 hour late, but hopefully they'll be home soon.

Last night there were tornado watches for the area. The power went out momentarily. A reminder that we need to have a few flashlights in strategic places. We then decided to take out Chinese food. As we were driving through the torrential rain to pick up the food, Erin said, "Who would go out in this weather to get Chinese food?" Crazy us, that's who.

We have almost a week until Erin starts school again, and we'll have to come up with some interesting things to do before then. Erin is very creative. Yesterday, on her own, she taped some cone shaped coffee filters together & painted them to make butterflies. Still, there's only so many things we can do with paper plates and coffee filters!

Christmas in Georgia

Hey y'all. We had a great Christmas in Georgia. We had prime rib for Rene's birthday on the 23rd, salmon on Christmas Eve and a big ol Turkey yesterday. A few neighbors dropped by baked goods over the past few days to welcome us to the neighborhood, so we've been eating well!

Christmas Eve we put out reindeer food on the lawn, and left out milk and cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. We watched polar express which was fun. Erin and Lauren went to bed early, which is a good thing, because Santa won't come if you're awake!

Lauren woke up at 5 Christmas morning. I took her into bed. Closer to 6, we heard a loud beeping noise. Rene was running around trying to figure it out. It was Erin's alarm clark, she must have played with the buttons. He yanked it out of the wall, and it still continued to beep (battery backup). Finally we silenced it. Erin slept through all that but she soon woke up and we went down stairs to see that Santa had come! Erin was very excited. Finally we told her she could get Nana and PopPop. She ran up into their room and said "Santa came! Santa came!" Erin's big gift was a huge princess tent that fits two sleeping bags in it. Erin and Lauren spent a good part of the day lying in the tent in the playroom. Lauren got a tricyle, so now she can ride a bike just like the other kids on the block! Hooray! We also have a slew of Polly Pockets and their dam teeny tiny shoes all over the place.

We had decided to go to an 11 am mass on Christmas at St. Mary's. That was the most convenient time. The church was not the one we go to every week. I took my parents and Erin. Lauren was fussy, so Rene stayed behind with her. I saw St. Mary's school, and next to that everyone was piling into the church parking lot. We went in, sat down, and started singing the usual Christmas carols. 10 minutes in, my mother looked at the bulletin. We realized we were not in St. Mary's, but a Methodist church. We sang a few more songs, but Erin was getting antsy, so we left, walked across the stree to St. Mary's. My parents went into Mass, and I stayed in the lobby with Erin. She saw her friend Claire from school there. So we got two church services for the price of one. Why St. Mary's school is not next to St. Mary's church, I don't know, but it threw me for a loop!

Today my childhood friend Kara and her two children come to visit overnight. Kara's in-laws live not too far away in South Carolina.

I forgot to mention earlier that Nana got to witness Lauren's first haircut! Lauren still does not have as much hair as her younger cousins Lara and Samantha, but it needed a little cleaning up. She did not enjoy her haircut, but she looks cute now. Will try to post some pictures soon. Erin loves haircuts and happily got hers cut.

Hope all our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas!

Bathroom update

Well I've lost track of how many people have come or said they would come for the shower, but we think we have a winner! We ordered the new showerpan yesterday. ETA is 6 weeks. So I'll get to take a shower in our master bath in 2006. Whoo hoo!

Holidays are here!

And they came with a fever. Lauren had a 103 fever yesterday, but was in good spirits with some motrin. Still we stayed in and had a "sick day". I ended up doing grocery shopping after Lauren fell asleep last night. She slept well and seems to be better.

Today the girls and I drive to Columbia, SC to pick up Nana and PopPop (or "Pop" as Lauren calls him) from the airport there. There's a direct flight from Laguardia to Columbia and it was cheaper than flying to Augusta. It's a little over an hour drive, not bad.

Erin's so excited about Christmas. She keeps making things for us and giving them right away. We tell her we'd like to wait for our presents, but she wants us to have them right away. On Monday we went to the mom's club holiday party and Erin made bookmarks. I told her to give them to daddy for a Christmas present, but she gave them yesterday. She also made a nice serving tray for us that we've opened already. As per Erin, "You could serve brownies or cookies on it, if you like." We have two advent calendars and every morning Erin is excited to open the "doors".

Lauren is talking so much more. She says Erin "Eh in" and stuck "guck". It's amazing how many things get "guck" throughout the day. She also says gone a lot. For example, if Dora is on tv, and then it is over, she says "Gone". Last week when Erin was at school, Lauren found a pair of Erin's shoes, brought them to me and said: "Erin. Shoes. Gone."

Picky, picky...

We will eat the raisins from the Raisin Bran, but not the Bran Flakes. (When served Bran Flakes however, we will eat them).

We will not eat "skin". Which means apples must be peeled. Grapes are out of the question. Too much skin, not enough guts!

We will eat carrots and spinach if dipped in "dranch" dressing, but the dranch dressing must be in a particular spot on the plate.

We will not eat the crust.

For hardboiled eggs, Erin will only eat the yellow, Lauren will only eat the white. (This actually works out pretty well.) No one will eat the shell.

Plumber update

Well the plumber came and went 2 weeks ago? Hard to keep track. Determined it was not a plumbing problem but the shower pan must have been installed improperly so we need someone to install that. Soo, had one guy come, and the estimate was sky high! So, now been trying to get another person to come. Missed an appointment yesterday and he claimed he kept trying my phone, but couldn't get trough, couldn't even leave a message. Odd, isn't it? I only got through by calling his cell. We'll see if he shows up today. Grrrr.

Updates for the week

We've had a busy week. On Wednesday, Erin had her Christmas singing performance at school. Rene was able to come as it was at lunchtime. The kids were very cute. They ended the performance with a few kids saying "Merry Christmas" in differerent languages. Then all the kids said, "Merry Christmas ya'll from Georgia!"

Erin started ballet class after Thanksgiving and it's been going well. Last night I got to observe the class with the other parents. Again, very cute. Erin's friend Sam (Samantha) from school switched classes so now Erin and Sam are in the same class. Lots of giggling going on!

I don't think I mentioned it, but Rene purchased a rider mower. It's a big job keeping this yard free of leaves. I'll have to post a picture.

Today is Friday, the last day of school before the Christmas break. boo hoo! But it's my morning to myself as Friday's Lauren goes to school. Lots to do do! My parents fly here on Wednesday.

It's official

It's official, this must be home! Both girls have now thrown up in their new house. :(

On Saturday at 2:00, I left Rene and the girls to drive to Woodstock, GA, outside Atlanta, to visit my childhood friend, Kara. She was throwing a surprise 40th birthday party for her husband, Walt. The party was fun. It was great to see Kara and Walt and their two cute kids, Samantha and Sean. I slept in the bonus room. At 8:30 the next morning, Rene called me on my cell phone. Erin had been getting sick all night. So I hightailed it out of there and was back home by lunchtime. Erin still wasn't feeling well, but seemed better by bedtime. We stayed home from school on Monday just to be sure. Rene did a good job while mom was away.

It's official, Oprah rules the world!

At Walt's birthday party, the drink of choice was a pomegranate martini, the "Oprah" recipe. I guess Oprah had talked about these on her show, and everyone knew about them. Kara's friend, Amy, aka "Martini Girl", said that stores were suffering a run on pomegranate juice since Oprah talked about the recipe. I haven't watched Oprah in a while, but I have a feeling if she told everyone to run out and buy combat boots, there'd be a run on them.

It's official, I must be a SAHM (stay at home mom)

I've been stamping. One of the mom's from the mom's club invited me over to learn how to "stamp". You use rubber stamps, paper, markers to create notecards. She was creating notecards as Christmas gifts. I have to admit, it was kind of fun. I may attempt it on my own in the future. I don't feel this is as intense as scrapbooking seems to be. That seems to be another whole subculture. If I attempt scrapbooking, I'll know for sure I'm a SAHM.

FAQs

Whenever I talk to folks, they seem to have the same questions, so I thought I'd cover them here.

Do you like it there?

Yes, so far. I feel like we've been too busy to have strong feelings. We know it will take time. We like our house, and our neighbors. I'm about to start getting involved with some Moms club things, and have invited someone over from Erin's school for a play date, so that should start to make us feel connected. Of course we miss all our California friends very much!

Does Rene like his job?

Yes, so far. He's working very hard. As a matter of fact, starting today, he's going to go in a little later (8 am!) and stay later (8 or after). This is for the next few weeks. The project he's working on should be over by the end of the year. He's working on the Seibel implementation team on the analytics portion of the project. He enjoys the fact that he's learning a lot and he likes the people he works with. Of course he won't like missing dinner with me and the girls, and he likely won't see the girls before they go to bed. The good news is that he's very close to home, and once in a while can come home for lunch.

What's different in Augusta?

Things generally seem cheaper. Day care, gas, houses, etc. Iced tea is usually served "sweet". As mentioned before, Martinez is pronounced "Mar-tin-ez". People speak with southern accents, although I've met a number of transplants. Why even Santa seemed to adopt a southern accent when we visited him at the Autusta mall! We get our garbage picked up twice a week instead of once. I don't have to work here. There seem to be more churches around here (all kinds). Erin will be starting her ballet class this week, so we'll see how that's different from our California dance class.

Did you get a plumber yet?

Aaaagh! Had one plumber come, diagnose the problem, said their boss would need to provide estimate. Never heard from them! I called the office, they said they'd call back, never heard from them! So I have a new plumber coming (hopefully!) on Thursday! This will be #3. I don't think I ever relayed the original problem. Our first day in the house, and Rene was in our master bathroom taking a shower. Robbin, the girls and I were downstairs in the kitchen. All of a sudden we see water coming through the ceiling! Good thing we were there. The way Rene takes showers, the house could have floated to the Savannah River had we not seen the problem. So, here we are a month later, and we still can't use our master bath shower! The jacuzzi tub works fine, however. :)

Various updates & Santa photo

Hmmm. It's been a while since I updated this. We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving, which suited us just fine. That is after Jake returned home. We put him in the backyard first thing in the morning and off he went (under the gap in the fence we suspect). So after an hour of searching in two cars, we returned home. Shortly after, Jake was sitting in the backyard, dirty and with a small cut on his face. From that point on, the day was calm. The weather on Thanksgiving day was beautiful. While I did some cooking Rene did some yard work and straightened up the garage. We're working our way through turkey soup, and then we'll be done with the leftovers.

The next day, we crazily went to the Augusta mall. We ordered a mattress for our guest bedroom, and got to see Santa. I had gotten the girls matching Christmas dresses. Erin, as usual, wants to wear hers all the time. I tried to put it on Lauren and she wanted nothing to do with it. Lauren did not want to see Santa, either. Erin, as usual, was prepared for Santa and what she wanted to tell him and ask him. ("Where's Rudolph?") So, I only have a picture of Erin with Santa (see below), but it came out pretty good. And since Lauren refuses to put on a dress, I guess I'll be using the family portrait from Long Beach Island this summer as our Christmas card.

Later we rode our bikes down the bike path (Rene pulling the girls in the Burley trailer) to the Savannah Rapids Pavilion park, next to the Savannah River. The kids played in the park and then we ate turkey sandwiches. (Note: Burley trailers are great for siblings to torture each other as each is confined close to each other.)

Saturday, we took a drive to Aiken, SC. The downtown is very cute, and there were people walking around in old fashioned clothes for the start of the Christmas season.

Erin has been doing fairly well at school, but after the first 2 days, she started saying "I don't want to go to school!" as we got closer. This seems to have gotten better after the long weekend. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, the 4 year olds had a Thanksgiving "feast". Lauren and I went to watch. Erin and classmates were dressed as Indians, and the other kids were dressed as pilgrims. They sat around a teepee and fake campfire and sang Thanksgiving songs. Then they feasted on turkey, corn on the cob, apple and brownies. Just like the pilgrims! : )

Erin's school (and other schools in the area) have a Mom's Morning Out program for the smaller kids. The only slot they have open is Fridays, so the Friday before Thanksgiving I dropped off Lauren. She cried for 15 seconds. I waited, waited some more, and heard no crying. The teachers said she had a good day, so I guess we'll go again.

Those are the updates for now. Here's Erin's Santa photo (click on photo to see larger version, and use browser back button to return here):

I'm thankful for...

my husband setting up a wireless network. I'm sitting in the car with the kids asleep in the backseat and I can surf the internet while they sleep. So thanks, Rene!

Jake!

We had an emotional late afternoon/early evening. As I was across the street in the neighbor's yard with the girls, Jake must have escaped from the back yard. This, despite us extending the fence. Some of the existing fence does not reach the ground (?!) so he must have slipped out.

The neighbor's kids ran down the cul de sac calling Jake's name. Erin, Lauren and I jumped in the car and started driving around and calling Jake's name. Rene left work to join the search. Some of the neighbors drove around looking for him. It was getting dark and I was getting very upset.

Finally at 6:10, Jake came in. Rene had found him on the busy road turning onto our street. Jake's face was all dirty, and he seemed exhausted. I burst in to tears.

I think we're going for the electronic fence.

Getting out

Erin started her new preschool on Monday. She happily went and had a great first day. She met a girl named Hope she seemed to like. She goes from 9-1 Monday through Friday. We had a great day yesterday. I met up with a moms club, in the morning and did a Thanksgiving craft with Lauren. The moms club said the 4 year old playgroup was meeting in a nearby park, so after we picked up Erin we went to the park. Erin recognized another little girl from her preschool and her mom (they moved here 6 months ago) and we're going to do a playdate. So I feel like I've made progress making some contacts. Today Erin said she didn't want to go to school, but she ended up having a fun day.

On Monday, Erin is having a Thanksgiving "feast" at school. She keeps asking me, "when are we having the beast?"

We have a plumber scheduled to come tomorrow. I predict great misfortune for the plumber. (See previous post).

The contractor's curse

It seems we must have inadvertantly put some kind of curse on any contractor who does work for us. Every contractor oddly has some family emergency which prevents them from coming or completing any work. This started in Lafayette when we were having our bathroom remodeled at the end of the summer.

Here in Augusta, the fence installer had a family emergency, one of the workers was taken to the emergency room, etc.

Word must be spreading of this curse. I cannot get a plumber to return my calls. Can you blame them? Who knows what ailment might strike if they start working on our home?

Piggy Park and the Riverbanks Zoo

We took our first excursion in the area to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC, which is about an hour away from us. On our way, we were hungry, so we turned off the highway. We ended up at the Piggy Park Barbecue or something like that. I ordered the "little pig" which was not so little. It came with pulled pork in the signature barbecue sauce (mustard based) and some kind of hash over rice, along with hush puppies and cole slaw. It wasn't bad, but I couldn't eat again for another 8 hours. But the most interesting thing about this place is in the entryway are lots of books on the confederacy for sale. I guess the owner still feels the south should be a separate union. It was an interesting place, but I don't think we'll be going back.

The zoo was another story. The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden was quite lovely. My favorites were the blue frogs. Rene like the big turtles. Lauren seemed to like the baboon and was upset when he walked out of view. Erin claims she like the moose the best. We did not see a moose at the zoo. Both girls enjoyed the carousel. Mom and dad enjoyed the girls napping on the way back. :)

Yeah, Lauren!

Bought a potty for potty training for Lauren today. She sat on it a little when we got home. Right before dinner, she insisted in sitting on it. She kept getting up & looking to see if there were any results. Finally she stood up & said pee pee! Sure enough, she had gone! Hooray for Lauren! Gotta get some pull-up diapers.

Critters

We've got critters. The most recent critter was in our bedroom. Rene spotted a little frog jumping around our bedroom the other night. (I'm sure this evokes an image of us living in a shack with an outhouse!) Erin has been requesting a turtle. Rene stopped home for lunch on Monday and on his way back to work saw a turtle in the middle of the road. He retrieved it and brought it back. We're not sure where Speedy Jr. is now. He did spend a day in the garage. And finally, we have Anole lizards in our yard. The "Assembly Man" (that's what it says on his business card, he was assembling the play structure), caught one and showed us and told us about them. Here's what they look like: http://www.hilozoo.com/animals/AR_anole.htm

And of course, our friends, the mosquitoes are quite fond of us. Especially me. :(

We're in the house!

Well it feels like it took a long time to get here, but we're finally in the house. The movers came Friday, Nov 4th. We were hoping they would have come on Thursday, but it turned out OK. It was nice to have a day to adjust to everything and walk through the house and decide where things should go.

Moving day seems like a blur, but thank goodness Robbin was here. She kept the kids occupied in the yard and bonus room (which I guess we're calling the playroom). Robbin, Erin, Lauren and I took a lunchtime trip to the Publix supermarket which was pretty nice. Rene and I were able to quickly unpack kitchen stuff. By the end of the day, the beds all had sheets and blankets and the bathrooms all had towels. I felt prety good about that.

We've still got a fair amount of boxes, but I think we now have more empty boxes than full boxes.

When we came to the house on Wednesday, we met some of the neighbors. Since then Jacob (3) from across the street has appeared in our driveway a number of times on his little scooter.

On Saturday we decided to take a break and have lunch in downtown Augusta. I must say, downtown Augusta is no Walnut Creek. We found a bar & grill that seemed to be crowded and had lunch. The waitress told us that the table behind us was the Charlie Daniels band! They were in town for a concert. It didn't seem that Charlie himself was there, but that was kind of cool. We took a little walk on the riverwalk which was pretty.

On Sunday morning we sadly took Robbin to the airport. Sunday night Lauren got sick again. It's much less stressful having a child get sick at home than on an airplane! She was fine on Monday.

Monday, the playset was almost finished (slide post needs to be cemented), the work on extending the fence started (so Jake can hang out in the back yard without running away), Rene's car arrived, and I scheduled someone to come connect the dryer, ice maker, and collect the empty boxes. Greg, the young tv, stereo, wiring installer got the plama tv and speakers working by Monday evening, and we also got internet access last night, hooray! Now I can figure out where to find parks, preschools, post offices, hooray!

Now that we have a second car and less installation folks coming by, I'm hoping the girls and I can get out today. Maybe to a park. I think I'm going to need some adult interaction soon!

Lots of work to do, but we're getting there.

We're in Georgia!

I can't believe it, we're in Augusta. We arrived here yesterday afternoon. I have so much to update, but, here are the highlights for now:

Trip from California to NY was hell. Lauren was still sick and threw up a few times while on the plane. Not fun. Luckily Erin did well. We were happy to get to my parents' home. It was a nice relaxing visit, and Lauren finally perked up on Sunday night.

Flight to Augusta was much better. Robbin came with us which has been a great help. Rene and Jake met us at the tiny Augusta airport, and we were very happy to see him. We went directly to the house which looks great! Movers come on Friday. so we have one more day to go. Today we'll try to figure out who get's what room and where stuff should go. We met two neighbors as we pulled up to the house, and they seem very nice.

It's a foggy morning. Will update more when we get settled.

Packers are here...

I may lose internet access soon. My packing ladies, Colleen and Mary (no not the PeopleSoft Colleen and Mary! are doing a great job. I was very stressed out this morning, but they put me at ease. They're moving quickly and will be back tomorrow. I'm guessing I may lose internet access pretty soon, so who knows when I'll post again.

I guess it's good I have so much to do, or I'd probably be crying.

Tragedy in Lafayette

When I saw the news that a 16 year old boy had been held in the Lafayette attorney's wife killing, I looked at the news online, and I couldn't believe it, I knew who that kid! His mother, Esther, co-owned the bagel store next to Erin & Lauren's school. They were very nice ladies. Esther would write Erin's name on her bagel bag every day and draw a special picture for her. We'd even go on the weekends sometimes and Kim and Esther would greet us alll by name. When they owned the store, I sometimes saw Esther's son Scott in the store. Sometimes he helped made the bagels. He was hard to miss as he dressed all in black, with black boots and a trenchcoat.

Other times, he'd just be hanging out at a table with some other kids. They sold the bagel store during the past six months, although Esther had still helped out sometimes. I last saw Esther last week.

Anyway, it's very creepy to know that someone you've encountered might have done something so horrible. My heart goes out to Esther.

Habits

Even though Rene has been gone for what seems like forever, I still put a fork and knife out for him when I'm setting the table.

Jake left this morning, and I find myself moving all food to the center of the table and expecting that he'll eat whatever Lauren drops on the floor. Alas, I may have to break down and sweep the floor or, perish the thought, vacuum!

Jake's in Georgia!

Thanks to help from Jill and Danny, Jake's in Georgia. The girls and I walked Jake in the dark this am. Jill and Danny arrived at 7 am and Jill stayed with the girls while Danny came with me and Jake to the airport along with the biggest dog crate they make, the "Furrari" (no joke).

Anyhoo, I had gotten a mild tranquilizer for Jake, which I tried to sneak in a piece of banana. Somehow he managed to eat the banana while spitting out the pill. I tried a few ways to get him to take it, and then Danny & couldn't find it on the ground, so that was that. I didn't want to over sedate him, so I'm thinking he flew without sedation. Under protest I listed his value as $0. When it was time to get into the Furrari crate, Jake would not go. Finally, I shoved him in. I was very upset leaving him.

Then I was upset saying goodbye to Jill and Danny.

I'm happy to report that Rene called and a very excited Jake greeted Rene in Atlanta.

It's 5:30 am

It's 5:30 and we've been up for 1/2 hour. My kids were born to be on East Coast time! Good thing we're moving.

One week to go...

Tick, tock, our days in California are winding down. A week to go. I've been cleaning, organizing, cancelling things, making reservations, and packing (although the professional packers will do the real work). My packing priority is to make sure I keep together everything that should not be packed.

So here's our schedule:

Thu 10/20 Jeanne signs papers for closing on California house.
Fri 10/21 Lauren's music project finale at school.
Sat 10/22 Take Jake to airport. Rene to pick up in Atlanta. Dance class.
Sun 10/23 Sunday school? Halloween party with Lifeworks friends.
Mon 10/24 Packers come. Pizza night at school. Me & girls check in local hotel.
Tue 10/25 Packers finish. Night in hotel.
Wed 10/26 Movers come. Pick up rental car. Say goodbye to folks at school, and go to airport hotel.
Thu 10/27 Fly from Oakland to NY to stay with mom & dad.

The following week, we'll leave for Augusta on November 2nd and finally be reunited with Rene! My friend Robbin will take the trip with us to help us out for a few days. That means Halloween at Nana & PopPops! Hopefully moving truck will be at our new house on November 3rd.

Tired yet? I am. And I have a cough that won't go away. Hoping this is the worst of it and I feel better soon.

Wish us luck!

Now he's really gone :(

Rene finished his training & early Thursday morning we all took him to the airport. We didn't bother calling a cab this time. :) We all miss daddy very much. Erin's teacher called me Thursday morning at 10:30 am. She said Erin was very sad & missed her daddy. So we both agreed that Erin could probablly use some one on one mom time. So I picked up Erin at noon (carefully sneaking past the baby room so Lauren wouldn't see me). She got a haircut (she loves haircuts), we had lunch out (quesadillas), and then a nap together. When we woke up, we took Jake for a walk and then we picked up Lauren. Erin seemed to be happy with her afternoon with mommy.

Today, Jake had a deep teeth cleaning appt at the vet, along with a spinal xray. He needed anasthesia for both of these. When I picked him up, he was out of it. He could barely get into the car, and I practically had to carry him out of the car. Lifting 88 pounds of golden retriever is a bit of a workout! : ) He spit up a little when we got home, and he's been sleeping ever since. I did manage to give him a little rice with a painkiller in it. The vet warned me that Jake might drink too much water since he might be dehydrated. He barely lifted his head to eat, and had no interest in the water.

The girls and I had a good evening, watching Barbie Swan Lake and eating popcorn. Lauren is starting to talk more. Like Erin was, Lauren seems advanced in some ways, can communicate very well, but is stubborn to talk. But we're seeing signs of improvement. When the popcorn was popping, she kept saying "pop!" She can say "Pooh" for Winnie the Pooh, and can say "Ella", one of her friends at school. This in addition to her standard repertoire of Mommy. Dada, Nana, baby, bye bye, etc. We're making progress!

I'm suddenly feeling stressed out because of the move, probably because I only have a week to organize things before the packers come. So, I'm guessing these posts will not be too frequent.

We put Jake on the plane on October 22nd. The vet gave me a mild tranquilizer for Jake. Rene will pick up Jake in Atlanta. He'll either put Jake in a kennel or might approach a co-worker who has a few dogs if Jake could stay with them for a week.

The packers come on Monday October, 24th and then again on the 25th. The girls and I leave on Thursday, October 27th. We'll go to NY and have Halloween at Nana & PopPop's. Then we'll fly to NY with my friend Robbin on November 2nd. Hopefully, we can get into the house November 3rd.

Yikes! Lots to do.

Now he's really back

Rene arrived Saturday morning after Erin's dance class. He had a long day and was tired, but we were all glad to see each other. We wrapped up some details of our house sale, so it looks like a go. We watched Cinderella, and on Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch in Livermore with Mark and June.

Today we drove Rene to his training class (which is in his old building where he worked, so he gets to have lunch with his old pals).

The girls and I are off to buy the fixings for pumpkin pie!

He's back...

Well not yet, but he will be. Rene somehow managed to sign up for a training class near here, so he'll be coming back to California on Saturday and then he'll return to Georgia on Thursday. We're very happy! :)

Officially retired!

Yesterday, I became an official member of the PeopleSoft Alumni Network. Yes, I was working for Oracle, but when I think of my working years, I will always think of PeopleSoft. Farewell, from employee 485.

Now I begin my job as project manager for the Schmidt family move.

We survived!

The girls & I survived our first weekend without Rene. Even though we miss him very much, we had a pretty good weekend: dance class for Erin, a trip to a park with Mark, June, Nathan & Lauren B. (and lunch out too), movie night, Sunday school, a visit with Jill in her classroom, shopping at Safeway, and a few more distractions. Oh, and the daily "drive to nowhere" so the girls napped.

Rene reports that he met the current owner of the house we're buying and her maiden name is Schmidt. She told him that the neighbors across the street are also named Schmidt, and the across the street Schmidts have a daughter a little older than Erin. Hooray! I predict some mixed up mail in the future...

Fame for Erin & Lauren!

Erin's fame comes from the big "Bug Show" she performed in yesterday at her school with her classmates. It was the finale to the big bug project they were working on. There was a video of the project & Erin & some of the kids did a "bug interpretive dance" while the video played. She did a great job!

Lauren's fame comes from a video clip that she is featured in (me too) on the school's website. You need Quicktime installed to view it, which I somehow could not access on my work computer, but at home I could view it.

If you go to this link: http://www.oldfirehouseschool.com/ofsL_intro2ofs.html scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Inserimento Individuale" in the infant/Toddler room video image. If you don't have quick time installed it will prompt you to install it.

The video was made by the director of the school for a presentation she did on ways to help infants transition into daycare by having a parent spend time at the school with the baby. This video was made almost a year ago, September, 2004. You'll notice I'm wearing a baseball cap in it as I was trying to make sure Erin didn't see me as her room was right next door with windows to the baby room. Very sweet if you can watch it. It runs about 5 minutes.

We have a buyer!

Almost forgot, as of yesterday we have a buyer. So that's one big accomplishment on our big to do list!

He's leaving, on that sunrise plane to Georgia...

Boo, hoo, Rene is gone. We had some excitement this morning. Rene had scheduled a cab to pick up up at 5 am so he could make is 7am flight to Georgia. Cab never came. Called another cab. Didn't come. Finally I had to throw some clothes on, scoop up the girls in their PJs and rush Rene to Oakland airport. There was a funny phone message from one of the cabbies on the answering machine when I returned. "Please come out of the house sir, I am waiting!" Happy to say he made his plane and arrived in Augusta.

For future reference, don't choose a cab by picking the first one alphabetically in the phone book. Perhaps choosing one that is close to your home, or at least based in your town might be a good start.

New home in Augusta

Assuming all goes well, this will be our new home in Augusta. The house is actually Martinez, which is in Columbia County just outside Augusta. Note that it's pronounced "Martin-ez" not the Spanish pronunciation of "Mar-teen-ez" that we're used to since we live very close to Mar-teen-ez, California.

Note for each picture you should be able to click on it to see it in a bigger window, and then you can hit the browser back button to return to the blog page.

Our "Odyssey" begins...

Our Honda Odyssey begins it's trip to Georgia! As if we didn't have enough on our plate in the past week, Rene got in a fender bender & his Accord is still in the shop, so the Odyssey will be the first member of the family to begin the trip to Georgia. Rene took this picture today of them getting the Odyssey on the ramp. Notice the suitcase full of books on the ground removed as the extra weight might have been just been too much.

Photos of current California house

Hoping to have offers tonight! Need to add pictures of new bathrooms & bedrooms.

Get your motor runnin...

Rene just left for work in his new rental Ford Focus! His car is in the shop as he got rear ended last week. As he left I serenaded him with "Born to Be Wild!"

Georgia...

Georgia, Georgia, the whole day through...

Oakland Zoo

We went to the Oakland Zoo this weekend (hoping to cool off, but it was hot there too!) The new children's zoo, while not complete, is now open. I think they did a really nice job there. Here's some info: http://www.oaklandzoo.org/childrens/map.html

Lauren liked the large red frog and petting the goats. Lauren also loved her first merry go round ride! Erin braved the roller coaster with Rene, and though she said she liked it, she also added that she would not be going on again. :)