Fabulous SoCal

So.  The trip.  It was amazing, and I think I’m getting over my exhaustion. Finally. It’s hard work traveling all over the place with 4 kids, and don’t let anyone ever tell you different, son.

The highlights: seeing my mother.  Oh dear.  I missed her so, and the girls could not get enough of her.

Also: Sea World.  The beluga whales, and the girls feeding the seals.

Disneyland.  Ugh, it sucked for the adults, but the kids had fun.  They got to go on all the kiddie rides, and Nanny spoiled the shit out of them by buying them princess dresses at the Bibbity Bobbity Boo store.  I just about DIED.

We also hit up the LA Fashion district, and I did some damage there buy a) buying a suitcase for the trip home, and then b) accidentally filling it with fabric as we went shopping for, you know, fabric.  Oops.

Sidenote: although we did have 2 tons of shit to bring home, we only had 3 checked bags (for 6 people) that included about 30 pounds of fabric.  AND.  The 3rd suitcase? Stuffed full of fabric and notions?  Was only 2 pounds over the weight limit.  The sweet, sweet lady at the Continental counter didn’t charge me extra.  I’m pretty sure I should win a prize for that shit.  I’m like a magical packer.

Another highlight: getting to meet up with friends that Bryan and I haven’t seen in about 6 years (since before Charlie turned 1!).  Thea is older now than Charlie was when we moved.  Mind blowing, right?

The last day our flight didn’t take off until 9:30pm, which was actually pretty sweet.  We got to hang out with my mom and step-dad all day at Balboa park, got some (delicious!) food and gelato at Pappalecco, and then took our sweet ass time checking in for the flight and going through security.

Funny little story: when we went through security, Thea and I were flagged for additional inspection.  The agents looked at me, looked at my herd of kids, looked at each other, and stood there with their mouths hanging open.  I may have yelled.  A lot.  About dumb shit security flagging a mother of four and WHERE ARE MY KIDS GOING TO GO?   A very nice agent came over, apologized for the dumbness, and had me “additionally screened” in two minutes flat.  I guess having 47 kids with you *can* be a good thing.

I had such a good time.  So did Bryan, and so did the girls.  Such fun, and just a ton of experiences that we were so blessed to share with our girls.  I haven’t even pulled all the pictures off my camera yet.  FOR SHAME.  Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend?

Want to see the pics I do have?  Click here for the Flickr gallery. <3

Exhausted

Early Sunday morning we got back from our week-long trip to San Diego/SoCal.  It was an absolutely amazing experience: Squarespace sent the entire family for a vacation.  We got to hang out with friends and family that we haven’t seen in far too long, and go on some incredible adventures.

Of course, we got up early every morning and stayed up late to make the most of our days.  We’re terribly tired, but I can’t wait to share our pictures here, once I’ve had a bit of time to recover.

I didn’t realize how fiercely I miss my mother, those blue skies and palm trees, and the long freeway drives.  Sweet memories.

Mostly a picture post...

I can't believe it's almost the end of November already. Time has flown by so fast, and we've been busy little bees in our new neck of the woods. I sometimes miss our old life, but looking back through our pictures I can see that the girls are, in fact, adjusting well here, and we are (mostly) happy with our day-to-day.

In October, Bryan turned 30(something), Thea turned two, we had a several-days-long power outage, and then Halloween festivities.

The girls were sugar skulls, and not to toot my own horn but DAMN. I did a good job. Costumes, flower headgear, and face painting all made by me, by hand. I'm nothing if not dedicated.

Most recently, of course, was Thanksgiving. We were blessed to share the day with my best friend and some of her sidekicks. :) It's nice to have such good friends so close by, and it makes the holidays even more special to be able to share it with them.

I wish I had more time for my poor little blog, and more time for sewing and some of the crafts I love so much. With my work schedule and new commute there is less time than ever before, and I'm still (after 6 months!) trying to adjust. One day, I'm sure, I'll find that balance.

In the meantime, thanks to those of you that still swing by from time to time: I'm glad I'm still able to share what we've been up to. ♥

Point Pleasant

I got tired of seeing everyone’s pool pics on Facebook, and decided to haul the entire gang of us to the beach. Plus, the godmother is out here visiting, and she’s never been to the Atlantic ocean — it was my duty to introduce the two of them.

We settled on Point Pleasant since it’s not too far away, and seemed to be family friendly. I wanted to leave the house early early, but we got a very late start. Couple that with making a few pit stops on the way, and we didn’t end up getting there until pretty late in the afternoon.

Parking was disgusting. Seriously awful. We had to park super far away from any beach entrance, and haul the kids and all our junk several thousand miles to get to the water. The cooler itself was jam-packed, so it was a nightmare.

Secondly, the beach was SO. CROWDED, and it seemed like all the assholes were out in full force. As we were trekking across the sand, trying not to DIE from exhaustion, some jerk pointed out that we were on a “private beach” and didn’t we see the ropes (half buried in the sand) to clearly illustrate this? Oh jeez, lady. Bite me.

It was beautiful weather, though, and once we finally got everything set up and arranged we were able to relax and start to have some fun. The kids immediately ran down to the water and proceeded to have an amaze-balls time. The water was colder than I remember it being — maybe because it was later in the summer than the last time we visited the ocean? The girls each came out of the water shivering, with purple lips, but they didn’t seem to mind.

It was really expensive, $50 for all of us to get our wristband-thingies, so I wanted to stay as long as possible to really get our money’s worth. I’m a cheap-ass like that, of course. By the end of about 5 hours the kids were melting down and the adults were sick of the sand, so we decided to call it a day.

I think we all had fun, but it was nothing like the vacation we took last year. We’ve decided we need to explore some and find a beach that’s a little closer.  And definitely get there earlier in the day. It seems like the beach fees are pretty standard so I doubt we’ll find a cheaper rate, but it wouldn’t hurt to scope it out. I’m glad we went, but I think many valuable lessons were learned this time around.

Greetings from Jersey

Oh, apartment living.  I hate it.  It’s the pits.  The area we’ve moved to is really nice though, so I’m thankful for that.  Also, the apartment manager has been really responsive and patient, which helps because there’ve been a lot of little issues with the place so far.

The Good:
1. Starbucks (duh)
2. Target, Trader Joe’s, Ikea (you know, all the stores that I haven’t had access to in the last 5 years)
3. The ice cream truck has SOFT SERVE and SPRINKLES and WAFFLE CONES instead of pre-packaged ice cream bars
4. NYC is a hop, skip, and a jump away
5. The girls have played outside every single day, and made loads of new friends
6. Lots and lots of trees

The Bad:
1. The apartment has electrical issues
2. The kitchen has a *total* of two drawers. ARGH.
3. The bathroom has one outlet, and no cupboards
4. My commute in to work is uglier than I thought (and the asshole lady at the MTA put me on the wrong train home my first day)
5. The apartment has no blinds. Yeah.
6. NJ drivers are mostly (but not all!) asshats. Way worse than SoCal.

Bryan really really loves it here, though.  Like, a lot.  He’s hinted that we should buy a house in this area.  I’m still ambivalent, and getting adjusted.  I don’t do well with big changes like this, and I’m still getting used to leaving my family and going into the office to work.  It’s been really stressful and strangely emotional for me.  I find myself crying sometimes for no reason (I think just pent-up anxiety).  It really caught me off guard.

Pictures to come soon — I’m mostly excited that we were able to find some pretty nice furniture for dirt cheap at Ikea, and that we’re getting our space set up and organized.  The sewing room/office is a little cramped, so I haven’t been able to set up my machines yet, but I hope to get that done this week.  Yay!