Getting Caught Up: Califor-nuh

These pictures are from the last part of our flight when Kensington would not sit in her carseat (she did great the other 5 hours) and this would be right before Amaryllis barfed all over me. We were the very last row and it was so turbulent; if only she had held it in for an extra 40 seconds until we touched ground.  But no. Instead it was at the worst time because the stewardess had to sit in her little chair and we couldn't get up (literally we were landing--wheels down, gravity against us, and all). Awesome.

But we made it!  And the weather is totally fabulous here!  I keep feeling like we have to hurry up and enjoy it because beautiful days like this in the South don't last long and you know gross weather is creeping in, so you feel this rush to spend all your time outside.  It just baffles me that it is 67 degrees everyday here.

Here are some picts from the rental site.  It's been 2 weeks and we are totally moved in with pictures hanging on most of the walls. Applause please!

We were going to buy.  So close to buying.  But we decided prices haven't bottomed out yet, so we're waiting.  There are things I love about this rental house: the neighborhood is flat which is awesome for jogging, big sidewalks, streetlamps, 2 parks about 1 minute walk in either direction, 2 pools, splash pad, YMCA and elementary school is inside the neighborhood, huge fields down the street--as in like 4 baseball diamonds and 7 soccer fields.  The family room opens to a nice patio and the backyard is small so NO maintenance! The front yards of the neighborhood are taken care of by HOA.  There are roses everywhere, so fun for Amaryllis who is turning into such a flower lover (how appropriate!).

I love that Target is now only 3 minutes away instead of 10, which leads me to my next announcement that I caved and got a Target RedCard...yikes! Another thing I like is this outlet mall is across from Target.  I will wait here while you click on that link and look at the stores.  Go, do it now.  Seriously have you ever seen so many outlet stores!!!????  I've never seen such a huge outlet mall.  We drove through it and Jake said "did you see they have a Forever21 outlet" and I turned to see and he's all "whoa! you about gave yourself whip lash when I said that".   

A few things I don't like but since we're renting, they don't really matter: the tiled kitchen counters are lame, the laundry room is upstairs which I actually don't like even though I thought I would, the master bathroom and closet are ridiculously huge but I'm actually starting to like that--I have a chair in my closet, it's kinda nice!  Oh and the water here taste's really funky.  No likey.

The most surprising thing about our city that we've found are: it's a lot smaller than what we're used to...1 post office, 1 library, and 1 high school in our actually city.  Which is fine, because there are lots of other little cities within 15 minutes in each direction.  And there is a lot of fields/agriculture everywhere which is odd, because you wouldn't think of farmland this close to LA.  But apparently this soil is some of the most fertile soil in the country, and it is very valuable and protected farmland.  Another thing we weren't expecting...tons of LDS people! I feel like we're living in Utah!  Haha, ok not that many.  But it is pretty cool to have about 10 couples our age, with young kids, within walking distance in our neighborhood.  It's pretty neat---I love how our church provides instant friends.  Our truck shows up less than 24 hours within us being in California, and there are 7 nice dudes from our church just waiting in our driveway ready to help unload...which they did in less than an hour. It was amazing.  Where else can you get such service, I ask?

Maybe someday I will post pictures of the house decorated.  But basically just take all my junk, and envision it sitting in this house.

We miss all our friends and Schrammparents dearly, but we are settling in and having fun exploring.