Next Big Purchase

Santa didn't quite get the hint this year that I wanted an $800 camera. Ok maybe he did and he just ignored me and got me something else that's equally special. I will just have to save up for my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi 12.2 Megapixel SLR.

I love my point and shoot camera and it does its job, but I think I'm ready for my photographic artist in me to emerge. I can only do so much with my little Sony and I really try to make my photos as artistic as I can. My subjects never stay still unless they are just tangible things.

The best price for this guy is $800 anywhere I looked. Even eBay. I've done my research and this is the camera that will give me the photos I want. Of course, I will have to invest in the lens also but that's ok. One day I will have time to take some lessons from someone who actually knows how to take good photos for a living without costing me an arm and a leg... like this camera will. LOL.

Christmas

This year was much different than all the other years obviously. It felt like any other weekend at home except we get to open presents! It was a weird feeling not having to get up early and drive to the valley to be with family. It was also weird that it's not as cold as we're used to, however it did rain.

Chris tried to go to the grocery store to get more veggies to make breakfast with but guess what?? Nothing is open! Walgreens was the only store that was open and only for a few hours.

Here are some photos from Christmas morning.

Girls and shoes!

Bailey loves new shoes, just like her mommy! Or any girl for that matter. lol.

New Photos

Homework Time!

Bailey showing me her latest boo boo. It's a daily thing.

Reese and his monkey.

Bailey loves her daddy. This is one of my favorite photos of the two of them. Deserves a frame for sure. :-)

The Alphabet Song

Happy Birthday to MEEEEEEEEE!

Well I am officially 34 as of 8:10pm tonight.

I am 34. Happily married to a wonderful man. I have 2 beautiful children who are healthy, well-behaved, and loving human beings. We share a beautiful home in a great town in a new and exciting state. I have a great job with room for advancement. I am surrounded by people who cares.

I am very lucky.

New photos

Bailey had her first haircut ever. I had to cut her bangs. They were in her eyes and she would try to swipe them out of the way, but at times her hands are icky so she would end up having icky hair in her eyes.
She's also starting to learn how to color. Or something.

Reese puts up with her antics... and he loves it.
And Chris is still into his poker.
So yeah nothing much has changed besides our location. lol.

I miss....

Kobe Sushi in Santa Clara
http://www.kobesushi.com/

All the Vietnamese Pho restaurants we had in San Jose

Dusita Thai
http://www.dusitathaicuisine.com/index.html

Korean BBQ

Blue Mermaid
http://www.bluemermaidsf.com/index.html

King Eggroll

Gloria's Burritos

Amato's Cheesesteaks

Happi House

Fun with Daddy

This is what they do while Reese is busy doing homework.

I guess you can see a little bit of our house in this video. This is the family room where all the hanging out take place every day. We haven't put any pictures up yet so the walls are kinda bare. In the opening where they're biking from is the 'formal living room' which we don't really know what to do with yet. Lots of toys in there so we might just make it a play room for the kids. Our bedroom is through the opening next to the tv. We also have a den next to our master bedroom. The kids rooms are right out from the kitchen.

The house is mostly tiled flooring. The carpeting we have are only in the bedrooms.

Ok that's all for now! More later!

Arizona vs. California

Ok I am a victim of creating lists and comparing things.

1. The heat.

Ok so it's not a surprise that it's 110+ here all the time. At night the temp only drops to the high 80's. Our A/C is on 24/7. It's sort of like when it's winter in northern CA. The heat gets turned off during the day but it comes back on when you get home. It's our A/C here. We turn it to 82 when we leave in the morning, which means it doesn't kick on at all. Our power bill is going to be about $200/month. Small price to pay if you think about it... because it beats putting up with 115 degree indoors!

2. Helmet law.

Apparently there is none here in Arizona. It kinda scares me when I see motorcyclists here riding on the freeway with no helmet. I mean... why wouldn't you want to wear a helmet??

3. HOV lane.

It's High Occupancy Vehicle lane here in AZ. It's a double solid white lines that you can move in and out of at anytime and there's no breaks. No one told me this and here I thought you're trapped in the lane until there's a break in the lines like in LA. durrr...

4. Where are the Rice Rockets?

I am going to risk sounding really really racist right now, but there are no rice rockets here! It's kinda nice because you're not dodging (or them dodging you) stupid little cars all the time like back home. It's probably because there is hardly any asians here.

5. The friendly people

I don't know what it is but people here are so much more friendly and nice. Not saying people in the bay area aren't friendly... they're just more stand-off-ish. I don't know. People here are so much more approachable and warm. Easier to talk to.

6. Our little dinky town

I never thought I would say this but we love our dinky town of Maricopa. We definitely live in the 'Tracy' of Arizona. We're a half hour (no traffic) outside of Phoenix and the only way you can get to our town is on a 2 lane road through an indian reservation. It's 20 miles from the next town with a hospital. lol. If we ever have an medical emergency... lord help us.

7. Peet's? Starbucks? Where are you?

There is one Starbucks in our town, yes ONE Starbucks and it's inside the grocery store. Which means it's not the quick in and out like I'm used to. And Peet's? These people have never heard of it. I guess we'll have to get our fix when we come home again. But I did find a Tully's coffee and they make KILLER iced mocha's.

You're in our thoughts....

In the recent events - even captured by the media... one of our good friends has had a run-in with the law. We know he's in a lot of trouble and probably won't see the light of day for a while.

We just want him to know that our thoughts and prayers are with him and his wife.

If you ever need an escape, come on down.

First week in our new home

Ok here are some more photos of our place with furniture and stuff in it. Settling in if you will. Some of the rooms have really weird angles so I couldn't get a good picture. Like Reese's room for example. If I took a picture from the door, I would just get him and his bed. He's happy in his new room though with all his toys, Xbox, and TV.


Here's Bailey in her "Big Girl Bed" with her entourage of stuffed animals.

Our master bath with a stand up shower and open oval tub. Which the kids mostly use because it's big and fun!

Our walk-in closet in the master. That's all my clothes on that side, Chris has the other side, but his clothes are mostly folded shirts and he goes to work in shorts! So his pants are just hung up collecting dust now.

Our bedroom. With the TV that used to be in the living room at our old place. I am going to paint the nightstands black to match the bed and the dressers.

Our (messy) kitchen. I really try to keep it less cluttered, but for now, things are still finding where they belong so that's what it looks like.

Our family room in the back of the house behind the kitchen. That's where we hang out. We actually have a formal living room that we don't really know what to do with. I think we're going to make it a play room for the kids instead.

That's all for now! More in a few days!

Invading Arizona

So here's a little bit of our first day in our house in AZ. It sure is hot down here in the desert. We now live in a little town way far away from the closest suburb city to Phoenix. But we're not so far that we can't drive into Phoenix to work/play. I love it. This little house is perfect for us. In a neighborhood where it's safe for Reese to go ride his bike on the street without us being too worried that something might happen. Here are some pictures of the house BEFORE the movers got there. I swear, I took these pictures... then an hour later the movers showed up with our stuff. More pictures tomorrow.

Our garage with my car parked in it. My car now has a 'home' :)



Our master bedroom. Chris put his big TV in it at first but it's now in the living room.


The kitchen with all our random stuff on the island. I was hijacking internet for a couple of days before we called for cable/internet/phone. The fridge is stainless steel and I can't put any of my magnets on it!! How am I supposed to keep up with what's happening if I can't post it on my fridge!!??


Front of the house. No grass... it doesn't grow down here. Well it does, but it's too high maintenance to grow.


Our family room. Bailey had a great time running around the house when it was still empty yelling just to hear herself echo. lol. Yes, that's all tile. That's how they do it here. Carpeting only in the bedrooms. We have to consider buying a few area rugs.

Ok that's all for now. More tomorrow.

T-Minus 7 days to Arizona

Everytime I think about updating this blog I get busy doing something else to really hunker down and write something interesting in here. bleh.

So here we are seven days before we move to Arizona. I haven't quite packed much stuff. More cleaning than packing I would say. I've been putting baby stuff on Craigslist to see if I can sell off some of her things we don't use anymore.

Reese is excited about moving, but he's mostly sad to lose his friends. We have been talking with him about his new school and our new house. But when you're 8 and having to leave the home you've always known, it's traumatic no matter how you look at it.

Bailey has had her birthday bash and Reese wanted to go to Chuck e Cheese to celebrate with his friends. My job is coming to an end this next week on Tuesday. I have a couple of interviews set up at the beginning of August in Phoenix. I can't even think about the month of August right now... I think I'm stuck in July 2008 because this was THE end of our time in California.

Speaking of moving out of California. Our good friends Lisa and Roy and their son Andrew are also moving out of the state. They are going to Tennessee within about 6 months and totally looking forward to it. I am really gonna miss them once we're all in different states. Bailey is surely going to miss her 'An-noo'.

I will take picture of our progress in moving and post them in a couple of days.

The aftermath

Who ever invented the whole themed party thing should be shot. What ever happened to the simple cake and ice-cream get-togethers? Plain and simple, just have some friends over to celebrate your birthday. Now a days you have to send out annoucements like it's a wedding... then you gotta pick a theme to tie it all together... then you gotta list out the shopping list for everything you're going to need because if you don't budget it right, you're doomed financially.

I am a victim of the perfect themed party for my kids. I know, I shouldn't bitch if I do exactly what I complain about. .. but when I get started, I really don't leave myself much of a choice. Kids like the commercialized charactors. For Bailey right now it's all about Elmo and sometimes Dora and Teletubbies. But Elmo has always been the one to capture her heart. So it's the little red monster it is for her second birthday.

The banner across the living room

The cake

The table setting, paper plates, cups

The party goodies for the kids to take home

And then when she opened some of the gifts... MORE Elmo!

Gotta love it. Here are some photos. Happy birthday baby!

Bailey turned 2

I can't believe she's 2 years old now. It's amazing how fast time really flies by when you're busy. Yesterday was her birthday, Reese and I woke her up by singing the birthday song to her. All she wanted was for us to turn on her Dora on TV. What have I done? She's already addicted to TV. lol.

Today was her 24 month check up. The next one will be in a year and there are no more shots until she enters kindergarten. I asked the doc about moving to AZ and what should we do to prepare both the kids. She recommends just keeping them hydrated and use plenty of sunscreen. She also said that we shouldn't make major changes while in the midst of moving. i.e. don't try to potty train her or take her off the bottle while adjusting to the big move. It will be trauma enough having to learn new lifestyle of not playing outside during the daylight hours most days.

Bailey now (6/08)

Bailey one year ago (6/07)

Bailey two years ago (6/06)

Tomorrow is her party at our house. Complete with a jumphouse and games. I will post pictures next week!

A day at the beach

Harbor Beach, Santa Cruz

This past weekend I took the kids to Santa Cruz. I knew it would be one of if not the last time they will see the Pacific Ocean for a good long time. Phoenix will be a great place to live, but it's a good 5 hours away from the water front.

Bailey had the greatest time in 'big sand box' as she called it.

The water was cold and it was way too windy for me, but the kids braved it. All they need are the simple things... to see the big bath tub called the Pacific Ocean, to dig a hole as far as they can go in the sand, to fun along the beach until they're out of energy.

Bailey was fascinated by the water, more than anything the tides. She loved the big bubbles that touched her feet everytime the water came back up. Reese just wanted to run into the ocean. At one point he ran in and back and tripped on the sand and fell. He swallowed some sea water and was surprised it was so salty.

We were lucky enough to have some friends who lived so close to Harbor Beach. As close as 2 blocks away. Parking is a pain there for visitors because there used to be a problem with people randomly parking infront of residence blocking drive ways during peak beach season. Our friends gave us a parking pass so we can park in front of their house for the day.

It was a fun and particularly emotional for me to go to Harbor Beach. Chris and I shared a lot of time there together in the past 4 years. It will always be a special place in our hearts... and now it's special for our kids too...

At first she wasn't quite sure about the big bath tub called the Pacific

It wasn't long before they both headed towards the water

She was mad the water and bubbles made her pants all wet. But she didn't stay mad, she ran right back into the water.

From looking at this picture you wouldn't have guessed it was freezing cold. They didn't care!

She didn't like digging the sand at all, can you tell?

Bailey had a full on conversation with this seagull. She called it her 'birdie' and wanted it to come to us. The bird stood there for a good long time yacking back. I suspect it might have thought we had food to throw at it. The conversation was long enough for me to watch for a bit, get the camera out and took this picture.

Vegas Trip - Day 3

By day 3 our feet were killing us... Chris's knees were about to explode. We've seen everything we wanted to see, spent all the money we wanted to spend, drank all the alcohol our bodies can handle. lol.

Today we had breakfast with some friends who went to Vagas for 'the wedding' at the MGM Grand. They had a cool lion cage there where you can walk through when the exhibit is open. Then we walked down to the M&M world just down the street.

I was actually disappointed in the place, I really thought it would be a 'WORLD' of M&M's... I guess I expected more of an amusement park type of attraction there rather than just a store full of gadgets and random candies. We bought a few things for the kids while we were in the store though.

After that we walked down to the Hawaiian Marketplace and bought a few things. It's an outdoor vending floor where you can set up a kiosk and sell whatever. Most tourists are willing to pay $25 for a t-shirt you'll only wear to sleep. So this is where you'd provide the city of Las Vegas with their stash of cash. As I walked around to see what I can buy at this market, Chris found a walk-up bar where he bought a 50 oz hurricane of Pina Colata. Well I don't know if it was 50 oz but it sure looked like it!

And after that... things were just a bit of a blur really. lol. We went down to the Venetian and walked around the shops. Really wanted to do the gondela ride, but the line was like Disneyland long so we decided against it. Although it would probably be really romantic... but with all those people just looking at us riding in a plastic boat down a manmade river inside a casino under a fake sky... is kinda weird.