La Jolla/San Diego

We had a wonderful weekend in La Jolla and San Diego. We stayed at a condo of a family at Stone Ridge. It was right on the beach and boardwalk of the bay, and absolutely beautiful. They had a tandem bike that we rode a couple of times on the boardwalk; which was a lot of fun, but hard work too. I got booted to the back seat because I couldn't steer it very well, ha ha. Matt did a much better job. We went to Mission Beach/Boardwalk on Friday and had a great time walking on the beach, putting our feet in the ocean (oh the glorious ocean!), and checking out the shops and Belmont park. I had been wanting to go to Mission Beach because I had been there in 9th grade after a mission trip... and then we realized that it was only 5 min from the condo :).

On Saturday Matt had his AP Chem conference, and I hung out at the condo and read in the sun. I picked him up when he was finished around 3 and we headed to La Jolla Cave Beach. I had also been here before on a different mission trip in high school, and remembered it being a really cool beach. It didn't disappoint. The tide was coming in and waves were crashing against the rocks. There were several tide pools to check out with sea urchins and crabs... reminded me so much of growing up in Washington. Now I need to go to the San Juans or Deception Pass to see those tide pools again! We also walked around La Jolla and got dinner at some brewery restaurant that Matt LOVED (his favorite food and drink: burgers and beer!).

We left early Sunday morning to pick up Samson and get home by afternoon. We were SO PLEASED to find out that Samson did wonderfully for Matt's aunt and uncle! What a good puppy we have :).

Here's a link to pictures from our weekend.

A Clean House

Well, we spent most of Saturday doing some serious deep cleaning at the new house. Let me just say that there were a lot of ants and spiders taking up residence while no one was living there. We sprayed them with cleaners, drowned them, and squished them as best we could. Matt even came across a black widow spider! He really doesn't like spiders in the first place, so he was kind of freaked out... and I don't mind normal spiders, but big ones or poisonous ones... no thank you! I wish I had a picture or video though of Matt spraying it with a bottle of 409; he had it aimed like a gun, and kept spraying until it stopped moving :).

We also found fruit trees in the back yard! We aren't positive what kinds because they aren't 100% ripe yet, but we think there's a lime and an orange tree. I feel like a true Californian now; in a stucco house, complete with fruit trees... now if only we also had a palm tree; that would be perfection.

Please pray that we will find more people to help us move our big items on Saturday, we don't have any confirmed yet.

Things are coming together!

So this part time job isn't really just working in the school library... I will be the actual librarian (and no, I will not be getting glasses or wearing a bun!). It will be part time, probably from 10-2, every day. I will be doing library for the elementary classes and organizing, cleaning, checking in and out, etc... Right now I actually have a ton of work to do in there! The old librarian organized things in a very weird and confusing way, so I am basically moving all of the books around on the shelves to make more sense. I also need to do a bit of rearranging and redecorating, so I am getting a start on all of those organizational details this week and then really taking over next week. This way too, If it's rainy or anything, I can still drive Matt to school and pick him up again. And hopefully I'll be able to find some babysitting work or something a little extra in the afternoons to bring in more money. Oh, but I will be working extra hours during the winter months to help the school get ready for their annual auction. I will be in charge of keeping records for who is bringing what and organizing all of that. It will be fun to get to know the elementary classes through this and I will be around and involved if anything else opens up. This does get rid of any chance of finding anything else in other schools for the rest of the school year, because I am committed to it for at least that long, but oh well, this feels right for now.

We are getting the house! It is the one I was describing in a previous post that we liked a lot. We went back today to check it out again. We brought Samson and he loved the yard and the wall in the back was high enough to hold him in (yes!). We are meeting the guy on Friday again to sign the lease, pay the deposit, and get the keys! He is letting us have access from then on, but we don't have to start paying rent until Nov 1st! He said he'd rather have it occupied and give us some extra time than wait until then, because we have to pay for our apartment through November 12th (we gave our 30 days notice today), but that's only 12 days of double rent, better than a whole month. So this weekend already we can start the deep cleaning. Then next week I will start bringing carloads over, and we're hoping to get some people together the weekend after that to move the big items. It's kinda tricky, because we have a convention Halloween weekend, that are busy the 2 weekends after that, so we want to get as much done as we can before then. We are SO excited!! For some reason, it is not letting me post pictures on here, so here is a link to the pictures of the house that I put on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083730&id=15301958&l=e8bea51a4c

The Dog Park Is Open!!!

Just got back from San Diego, more to come about that later... but we stopped by the dog park first thing, and it was open! Thank you Jesus!

Work

It turns out I won't be subbing for preschool this week anymore. One of the teachers who was going to be at camp with the junior highers is not needed there anymore. Bummer, but oh well. It looks like I'll be starting on some of that part time work though instead. What I can say for now is that I will be working in the school library... more details to come later. Part time hours will be a huge blessing if we end up moving in the next month!

Rental House

On our way out of town, the guy with the rental house that we looked at on Wednesday called us (the 2 we saw on Thursday were no good). He made it sound like we were approved and wanted to know if/when we wanted to put a deposit down. We are going to go back and look at it again on Monday, and bring Samson along to make sure he can't get out of the back yard. We have a few things to check out and ask questions about. But we are feeling pretty good about this house and could be moving in the next month! I also had the principal at the MCS check it out for me (since he used to be a cop and knows a lot about the safety of neighborhoods), and said it looked great! I tried to post pics of it, but the internet is slow here and it's not working. I will once we get home.

As we continue to look Up in life, so do our circumstances...

We didn't end up finding anyone to watch Samson, and the kennel was full, but luckily, Matt's aunt, uncle, and cousin agreed to watch him for us (not sure how happy they were about it, but oh well). Next time we may just have to schedule him for the kennel ahead of time to be safe.

Yesterday we went to look at a rental house and it is a great possibility! It's 2 miles from Matt's school (still easily bikable), in an old neighborhood with mature trees lining the roads, older and newer homes with a lot of character, well maintained yards, and good neighbors. The house is a 2 bedroom with a yard, a huge living room with fireplace and built in book shelves, lots of storage space, and a one stall garage (with laundry hookups). The only problem is that the yard has a brick wall at the back that is only about 4 ft (?) tall... I don't think Samson could get out, but he might be able to peek over it. Also, we would have to buy several things: a lawn mower, washer and dryer, microwave, and some sort of butcher block table for the kitchen (there isn't a ton of counter space). We are looking at two more houses today before we head out of town, and then probably a couple more next week; all in this same area of town (but the one we already saw was the closest, some are more like 3 miles from Matt's school).

I am subbing in preschool next week! Oh how I miss preschoolers, this should be fun :). I also have a part time job opportunity that is going to be unfolding in the next couple of weeks. It's kinda under wraps at the moment, but I will explain more when I can.

I am SO excited for La Jolla! We met with the woman whose condo we are going to be staying at and it sounds amazing. She said they have a pool and jacuzzi there, and also a tandem bike that we can ride on the board walk :). Saweet!

No work is a lot of work

I haven't had any work this week, but I have actually been very busy. On Monday I was more tired and sore than if I had been teaching all day! Last week was so crazy with me not getting home until around 6 every night, that nothing got done around here. So the time at home this week is kinda nice to get things back on track. I got MANY loads of laundry done (even though our laundry room only has 1 out of 5 washers working!), did some cleaning, searched for rental houses, made lots of phone calls (and spent a lot of time on hold), ran a bunch of errands, checked out dog kennels, and have gone jogging every morning, whew! Today I even helped out with my friend Katie's kindergarten class, giving some one on one reading support. I will be doing that tomorrow as well... they are just too stinkin cute! I miss kids that age. Anyways, the rental houses are probably the most exciting part of my week so far. We have a couple of good looking prospects, actually. Prayers would be much appreciated though, that one of these will work out, and that we'll get approved, even though we may not technically have the required proof of income with me not having a permanent job. One landlord I talked to today said that should be fine to use my subbing as proof of income, so I hope so! We are going to look at one house this afternoon, possibly one tomorrow, and 2 more next week.

We are going to La Jolla/San Diego this weekend, woo hoo! We are either leaving Thursday afternoon or Friday early morning. That kinda depends on Samson.... we don't officially have someone to watch him yet... prayers needed on that one too. I looked into a kennel, but they only had one spot open yesterday, so I don't know if that will even be there still today. Hopefully we can work something out so that we can leave Thursday, get there late that night, spend the whole day Friday hanging out and having a good time, then Matt's conference is on Saturday, and drive home Sunday. Should be fun!

Oh, and the dog park is "supposedly" opening on Saturday, so we are really hoping that that is the case when we get back. Although Samson is doing much better and doesn't have too much extra energy with me being home with him.

Grrr...

We went to the dog park yesterday, for the supposed opening day on October 1st.... only to approach a still locked gate with yet another sign, stating that opening day is October 10. Those schmucks! They are really creating some enemies I feel...