This is the Life...

My cousin Christine only lives a few blocks over from me. She has a pool in her back yard and gave me a key to her house so I can use it whenever we want. Being as we're there every other day, I really thought I needed to post some pics. I LOVE being in the sunshine and water and the Vitamen D has done us good!

Bye Bye Baby curls :(

I took Toby to get his hair cut yesterday. Robb has wanted me to have it cut short for a while since it is so hot here right now but I just could never bring myself to do it. Yesterday, after debating back and forth for over ten minutes while Toby was sitting in the chair at the salon, I finally decided to leave it up to Toby. I asked him if he wanted it cut short so it wouldn't be so hot and in his eyes and I told him it would be like his friend Carter's hair. That sealed the deal. His eyes lit up and he said that's how he wanted it. The hair dresser dude reminded me that it's just hair and it will always grow back if I didn't like it so we did it!

I think it's super cute and shows off his cute little face but this morning when he woke up and came to snuggle with me, I got sad. I'm already missing his long curls and it makes him look so much older too. Oh well, what's done is done. It will be good for summertime at least. I figure we're in a new place so why not try something new? I'm headed in there next with my big mop which is WAY overdue!!

I know he's always looked like his dad but now it's a little scary! He's a mini Robb!

4 am, Cops and a Man in Black

At 4 am I was awake laying in my bed with my baby boy waiting for him to finish pooping so I could change him when I heard what sounded like a knock at our door. Robb was down the hall sleeping with Toby in his bed. My first thought was that is was just one of my cats making a noise that sounded like a knock. Then the doorbell rang. I jumped out of my bed and went to get Robb. When I got to Toby's room he was getting up having heard it as well. It rang again and then a persistent knock. Robb was going to be getting up at 5 am to go to a training so I asked him if someone was maybe picking him up for that. He said no and threw his shirt on to run down the stairs to see who in the world was knocking at 4 am.

He flipped on the porch light and looked through the peep hole. There were two younger kids (maybe around 19 years old) one boy and one girl. He opened the door. They told him they were out walking and saw a guy dressed all in black that had broken into some cars just jump over our back fence into our back yard. Robb almost left the door wide open to go check but I was standing at the top of the stairs and immediately thought that they could all be in on it and walk right in so I told him to close the door and lock it before he checked. I went to get my phone to call 911.

As I'm calling 911 Robb is trying to see outside to see if he can see anything but because our back lights don't work he couldn't see a thing and I didn't want him to open the door or try to go out there. The police were at our house in less then two minutes because apparently they were already in the area trying to find this guy. They pulled up with their lights shining on our house and got out their police dogs and let them loose in our back yard. Me and Robb were inside peeking out the window. They never found the guy, at least not in our back yard. Whether or not they did after they left here I guess we'll never know.

I told Robb I guess it's time to look into getting our alarm set up. The house is already wired for one. Either way, I feel like in some way or another we are now initiated and officially Californians.

Wine at Walmart, and other things

Well we've been here in Bakersfield for almost a month now and I've been so busy just getting unpacked and settled that I haven't had a whole lot of time to check everything out yet but I am really excited to do that. I have been out a few times just running around and from what I've seen I really like it! I feel like I'm 10 minutes from everything and we live in a really nice area with lots of green trees and all the shopping areas are clean and nice and there are a lot of smaller shops that I want to check out as well.

I'm excited because I literally have ONE box left to unpack and then I'm going to clean my house from top to bottom and then I will feel like I will be able to relax completely and start enjoying just being here.

So far, these are the things that are different then back home:

The grass.
It's weird. Different from home. It's really thin and when you walk on it without shoes, it's kind of poky. When I have time I'm going to try to find a lawn sprayer dude to see if they can help improve it in any way.

The trees.
Love them! There are these small trees all over the place that have giant pink blossoms all over them and look like big bouquets of flowers and from what I can tell, they stay that way. I also love the palm trees. Every time I see one it makes me smile and reminds me that I'm no longer in Utah!

The People.
People here are SO much more friendly then back home. (sorry to my Utah peeps, but it's the truth!) Every time I'm at the store people stop and talk to me about my two boys and their ages and names and I literally have full on conversations and feel like I sometimes leave the store with a new friend! Oh, and did I mention the different races of people? I live around people of all types and from all backgrounds. I haven't got to know any of them yet so I will blog about that when it happens. One of my next quests is to meet some neighbors!

Coffee Everywhere!
Yep, it's true. There are Starbucks everywhere and we went to a really cool movie theatre here and they even served coffee there! Payson, where I lived, a Starbucks finally opened up only to close again after a year and a half.

Churches
I came not only from Utah, but Utah County and any one that lives there knows that it is mostly Mormons that live there and there is a Mormon church on every corner. Nothing wrong with that if you're Mormon but because I am not, it wasn't the most convenient thing. Here there are Christian churches all over and I've already tried out two and this Sunday I am going to a different one until I find one that I feel like I want to become a member of. That is awesome to me!

Pre-Schools
I just started researching preschools this past week and they are about THREE TIMES the cost of the ones where I lived! WHEW! The cool thing though is that there are a lot of Christian schools here so the one that I will try out first is a Christian pre-school which we did not have back home. How cool will it be to have Toby going to a school that not only teaches him his ABC's but also is centered around God every day?! I'm not sure how we will afford it yet but I know God will provide a way so I'm not worried. He starts the first of August!!

Wine
Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a big drinker of any kind but I do really like an occasional glass of wine and back home I would have to go to a specific liquor store (and there weren't many) to get a bottle of wine. Well not anymore. Here, they sell it at Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, pretty much everywhere and it's a lot less money too. I'm not drinking any wine at the time because I'm nursing but let's just say, my wine rack is finally starting to fill up again and I can't wait to have my sisters all here for a little wine and cheese party! Who wants to come?

Okay, well those are the obvious things that are popping up so far. I know there will be lots more and I'm excited to discover the good, the bad and the ugly about living here! I want to keep my posts A LOT shorter then this one but I had to get all of this off my chest. He he he

The Move!!