Our First Day in Sacramento

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my mother-in-laws this year. My husband's parents, like my parents, are divorced. Last year, we spent it with my father-in-law. We've been alternating it between the two of them each year.

Louise has five children. Oliver, my husband, is by far my favorite, but the others are pretty cool too. The children who visit her for Thanksgiving, play a game of football in the street every year. This is followed by a feast of the usual turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, and pumpkin pie. Then they play board games for hours.

This year we had my son with us and he joined right in on the football game. He ran off with the ball, actually, and refused to share it. Good thing we had another one on hand!

There goes my boy!

He didn't have the patience for the sitting and eating, or the hours of board game playing either.

Toby, with the second football he took off with:

Oliver and I took turns chasing after him - chasing him chasing the neighborhood cats through various neighbors' yards, watching him organize lines of garden snails in train-like formations, and trying to keep him from breaking Louise's ceramics or knocking down her alphabetized towers of books, DVDs and CDs - a sport in and off itself.

Oliver's older brother Alastair (Uncle Al) locked his keys in his car, and had to have a locksmith come out. He's not even related to me! (AAA saved the day).

It was a long day - but a good one; a happy thanksgiving.

Hope yours was happy too.

We saw a praying mantis at church today.

The Bishop also visited this morning.

Toby was baptized, I was confirmed.

Then we spent the rest of the day driving back and forth between Fresno and Sacramento moving more stuff into our new place.

Part of me still can't believe all this happened in just one day!

Giving Thanks for Spare Keys and Understanding Apartment Managers

I locked my keys in the car with Toby inside today. My wallet and cell phone were in the car too.

I ran to the apartment managers office and told her what had happened.

She let me use her phone to call Oliver to tell him to come meet me with his spare key.

He was in court and it went strait to voicemail.

My back up plan was to call a locksmith, and if it took to long, I was planning on breaking one of the windows - one of the windows we just had to have replaced a week or so ago when someone vandalized the car.

While I was leaving a message for Oliver, I remembered that I had another spare key in the apartment. The manager lent me a spare key to the apartment and called one of the maintenance workers, who is also a friend of ours, to watch the car while I ran to get it.

I got the car key, got Toby out of the car, and came back to the office before he even had a chance to met up with Toby at the car.

The whole thing took place in the course of ten minutes, maybe less.

The apartment manager says it happens all the time, that she had done it herself, and that another mom had done it the week before - but, she said that she was really impressed by how cool and collected I was about the whole thing.

"You didn't panic. You knew just what to do and you did it!" She said.

I don't know what she was talking about, I was shaking, out of breath, and dripping with sweat in her office - but okay, I'm good under pressure, she says.

"Your mom is smart," she told Toby.

"No," he says.

"You have a smart mom," she says.

"No." Toby says again - and then repeats it a few more times just to rub it in a little more.

"What can I say," I tell her, "He's two; 'no' is his favorite word - and if I had been so smart I wouldn't have locked him and the car keys in the car in the first place!"

Today, the week before Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for spare keys, and understanding apartment managers.

Let's hope that she will be as forgiving of the apple juice stains on the carpet.

Sacramento; Our New Home

My mother-in-law watched Toby yesterday, and we started moving into our new place. Oliver is still working in Fresno for another week and a half, but we went up to sign all the paperwork, do the apartment inspection, unload a car's worth of boxes, and have lunch with two dear friends of mine who just moved to Sacramento five months ago. One of my best friends from high school is doing his medical residency at Davis, and he and his partner of 15+ years!, also my friend from a million years ago, are living in our neighborhood. It was really great to see them - and like no time had passed between us at all.




Our new back yard:

A park with a path that goes to a bike trail that goes along the river, and another path that goes down to the river. It's beautiful. Really beautiful. My crappy camera does not do it justice at all.

Moving is, oh my god, so stressful - especially with a two year old, who is very cute, but most decidedly, a full time job on it's own. I remember looking through baby registries when I was pregnant and thinking, "Oh my gosh, why would anyone need a toilet lock, for example! It's not like I'm going to be lying around doing heroin - I'm going to be there to watch him - all of this plastic crap must just be another marketing scam to get Americans to spend money on things that no one actually needs." Some of that was true, but I also found out how, to my utter amazement, how quickly Toby could chuck a toy train into the toilet, of pee, because Oliver doesn't always flush, and I had to go after it so it didn't get stuck in the plumbing. We broke down and bought a toilet lock - and it worked for maybe a month, until Toby figured out how to break it. And, while we are on the subject of pee, Mom's have to pee. One day, when I was using the toilet, Toby pushed one of our chairs up to the kitchen counter. He climbed up the chair onto the counter, used the toaster as another stepping stool, climbed on to the top of the refrigerator where my husband keeps his diabetes supplies, and when I came out of the bathroom I found him, on top of our refrigerator tossing hypodermic needles around like confetti. He figured out the buckles on his car seat, and that he can get out of his car seat if he wants to, while we are driving. He has also learned that mom has the rear view mirror at an odd angle so I can watch the cars behind me, and keep an eye out for toddler escape artists - and if he does undo the car seat I pull over immediately and freak out. So he usually only pulls this trick on special occasions - but I just never know when that's going to be.

It's a stressful job.

When he is awake, I find it very difficult to do anything else but take care of him, and keep him out of trouble. Oliver just took him out for donuts so I have a few extra minutes to myself this morning to tell you about all this.

The marines say that it's "the toughest job you'll ever love," and I don't know what it's like to be a marine, but I definitely feel that way about being a mom.

Now I am also blessed with being an aunt. My brother's wife gave birth to a baby girl this week. I wanted to go down to see them, but she was born with a heart condition and my brother says he just wants to be left alone. My feelings are hurt, especially since my mom went on about how everyone was there except me and Laurie's brother, who couldn't be there because he was in jail - and so, when my mom told me they didn't want me to come, it sucked - but having a baby is totally overwhelming, even when everything is text book normal, it's overwhelming. I'm trying not to take it personally - and, if you know me at all, you know I don't do that too well.

It's been a really emotional week.

I keep thinking of this quote I read once about postpartum depression, I forget who said it and I'm probably going to butcher it in the paraphrasing but, "having a baby is like getting the best gift you have ever gotten in your life, AND having Santa kick the ever loving shit out of you until you are an inch from your death." I had a really difficult pregnancy, labor, and emergency c-section, so I really relate to that sentiment. My son is the best thing in the world and having him, and continuing to raise him has been the hardest challenge I have ever faced.

The hardest job I have ever had, the deepest love I have ever felt, and the most rewarding thing I have ever done, and am blessed to continue to do each day.

I am also really, really stressed out, crying a lot, and sometimes in front of my son which I HATE, hate doing - and feel terribly guilty about, and getting migraines, etc. It was really nice to have my mother-in-law Louise, watch Toby yesterday - and it is really nice to have Oliver take him out for donuts this morning. And it will be such a relief to get through moving, and all the stress and drama of the holidays, I know, "Bah Humbug," - because then we get to welcome a new year, in a new apartment, in a new city; the city of trees, on the river, in our state's capital - Sacramento.

My Niece, Penelope Pearl

Even Bigger News

I'm officially an aunt!

My brothers' wife Laurie gave birth to a baby girl late last night!!!

Big News

I keep forgetting to tell you about our car being vandalized.

Break ins are common place at our apartments - car alarms and broken glass are heard in between the sounds of the trains throughout the night. I never keep anything in my car except the carseat, and, so far we've been okay... but...

Two weeks ago a bunch of cars in our apartment complex, 7 or so, had their windows smashed in one night. Nothing was stolen, it was done just to do it - and our car was one of them.

The widow's all fixed now, but we are still finding glass fragments everywhere - and, it was really expensive and annoying - but we fixed it, and it's almost like nothing happened again.

I learned that we have 3 police officers living at our apartment complex, one of them left a note on my car reminding me to file a police report (I had filed it online - and I guess he hadn't seen it yet.) The apartment manager told me they arrested one of two suspects, after chasing him down with a helicopter and on foot. Pretty exciting stuff - way too exciting for my taste.

And, moving on...

I have much nicer news to share.

Oliver applied for a job in Sacramento and he got the job!

So we are moving!

To Sacramento.

In a month.

Now we just have to find a place to live, among other things, but it's a good thing, and we are excited about it.

Kinda stressed out right now - but excited.

I just hate moving - but it's a really great move for us.

Sacramento here we come!