Taking A Deep Breath

The scent of pine trees is one of my very favorite scents in all the earth. I love being surrounded by trees, tall and looming. For me, there's a sense of intimacy in a forest and a closeness with nature that I feel nowhere else. Although I've spent at least 90% of my life no further than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean I've never been much of a beach girl. The mountains call my name and the trees whisper of God's peace and majesty in my ear.

Today was a day where I felt "at home" among the trees. We drove about 30 miles away from our house and, almost by default, ended up in the midst of a beautiful forest, towering over the San Francisco Bay. It was quiet and calm and soothing. I'll be back soon.

Playtime!

One of the best perks to being in our new place is that Nolan has LOTS of room to play. Our great room is huge and he has more than half of it to himself! He spends hours on the play mat every day and has tons of fun spreading all his toys out. Nolan is very much into "pretend play" these days and makes all sorts of cute noises as he "feeds the animals" and "zooms the cars." I just love the stage he's at right now! His vocabulary is really taking off and Todd and I have the sweetest "conversations" with him. When we're not indoors playing on his mat you can bet that we're either out on our patio blowing bubbles or "painting the house" (with a bucket of water, of course!) or running around at one of the many parks in our area. Our new town is very "kid friendly" and we are grateful!

Our Not So Neighborly Neighbor

We've got a doozy of a nieghbor. I have yet to meet her, or even see her, but oh man! I have HEARD her! It seems that our neighbor is an aspiring opera singer. She sings at all hours of the day, but primarily in the early evenings when she (presumably) comes home from work. I am not an opera fan, but I can appreciate opera as an art form and know that it takes immense talent to perform. However, our opera singing neighbor is NOT even remotely talented. Think Edith Bunker attempting La Boheme. I can't help but cringe.

Occassionally our opera singing neighbor practices later in the evenings. Once it was even as late as 10:30pm. Last night, however, her clock must have stopped working because she STARTED singing at 11:45! At 11:50 my royally pissed off husband was at her door. She didn't even have the decency to open it. Instead, through closed blinds (on her OPEN window!) she asked "Too loud?" in broken English and added "I sorry, I sorry, I sorry!" Yeah lady, you're gonna be sorry the next time you open your sick-sounding soprano trap at 11:45!

This is NOT how we wanted to get to know our neighbors.

Stroller Strides

Now that we're pretty settled in after the move it's time to once again give exercise the place it deserves in my life. Although our neighborhood has many trails I thought I'd give Stroller Strides a try, in hopes of meeting some new people that Nolan and I can befriend. Stroller Strides is a national fitness program where moms can exercise, primarily through power walking, with their little ones in tow. Or so I thought...

I was so psyched when I signed up for a free week (3 sessions) of Stroller Strides online. Nolan and I arrived at the meeting spot 15 minutes early, ready and raring to hit the trail. The only other people that showed up were the instructor and her little boy, but I was kind of excited thinking that I'd have a good chance to get to know her since it would just be the two of us and the little guys. Well, let's just say we didn't "stride" all that much. Power walking is NOT the focus of this class, public humiliation is.

After walking a mere 100 or so yards we stopped and did some light stretching. After this initial stretching we walked maybe another 100 or so yards and got into some "heavier" exercises. Over the course of an hour we MAY have walked half a mile, but I had performed lunges, push ups, crunches and a myriad of other "booty bearing" exercises LITERALLY in front of the many people who were driving down Main Street. At one point we stopped smack dab in front of a sidewalk cafe where about a dozen people were enjoying their morning coffee...until I was forced to stick my tush in their face. I must admit that the idea of Stroller Strides is great and I got a good workout, but please! Couldn't we have walked more and done the exercises in a park or on the trail that was just a few yards away?

Needless to say, we will not be attending another Stroller Strides class, free or not. Even if I had the body of an Olympic athlete I just don't want the general public in my brand new town to wonder who the "exhibitionist" is! Dawn, my dear walking buddy, you are missed!

Our Town

Not the stage show, people. San Ramon, California.

A few interesting tidbits I've learned about our new surroundings...

• San Ramon has more parks per capita than any other town in Northern California. If I'm remembering correctly, there are 19. We've visited 7 or 8 so far and I'm very impressed! They're even better than the "master planned" parks in Irvine!
• San Ramon is known by locals as "the mini Windy City" or "the Windy City of the west." It seems like the wind is always blowing! Should we buy a kite?
• With the wind, my allergies have been INSANE! I have a medicine cabinet full of Benadryl and Claritin, but I probably ought to buy stock in both of their respective pharmaceutical companies.
• Northern California is not as crunchy as I expected. People drive gas-guzzling SUVs, have "vote for McCain" stickers slapped on their vehicles, and eat "real food" (as opposed to vegan-soy-tofu-wheat germ crap) at restaurants.
• Northern California has no clue what Mexican food is supposed to taste like. I miss my favorite little hole-in-the-wall place that's simply called "Mexican Food" in Encinitas!
• Maybe it's both of our imaginations, but Todd and I both swear that the lanes on the road are not as wide as they are in Southern California. However, we both love the fact that you can get in and out of the carpool lane on the freeway whenever you choose since there are no yellow lines!
• We see cows on the side of the road regularly. It's so refreshing not to live in a concrete jungle! The hills and the trees are beautiful...and undeveloped!
• With the cows come the rodeos. There are two within fifteen miles of our home. Yeehaw!
• The Bay Bridge is a toll road when you head into San Francisco. Too bad we didn't know this until AFTER we were stuck in traffic and had a hard time wiggling out and trying to find an ATM in a town we know nothing about.

All in all, we are slowly adjusting. But it will be a good while before we're "home."

Favorite Things, Part 4

I love Todd for a million reasons, but here are my top five favorite things about him this week...

• That he'd rather be home with Nolan and I instead of on a business trip.
• That he calls me multiple times a day just to say "hi," tell me he loves me, and to see how I'm doing.
• That he blessed me with a fun birthday in San Francisco and a great new Coach purse and wallet.
• That he truly appreciates a home cooked meal...and helps me clean up when we're finished.
• That he trusts my mothering with Nolan and encourages me in it.

You're the best, Babe!

How'd THAT Happen?

Yesterday I turned 36. As of my next birthday I'll officially be in my "late 30's." In my mind I am a perpetually dewy 25, but my driver's license, birth certificate and crow's feet around my eyes don't agree.

My Mom always told me that my 30's would be the best years of my life. In my 20's I balked at that statement, but now that I'm in the thick of it, I completely agree. I had tons of fun and much more energy in my 20's, but I've done a lot of growing as a person in my 30's...and I'll take growth over "fun" any day of the week. I assumed I'd become a wife and mommy in my 20's, but God had other--better--plans. He always does and for that I am eternally grateful. I can only hope that as I become older I also become wiser and that the lessons I've learned in life will resonate with Nolan and any future kids God blesses us with.

In the midst of mourning "the beginning of the end" of my mid 30's, I had a great day yesterday with my boys. We drove into San Francisco and tooled around at Fisherman's Wharf. Nolan thought the sea lions who make their home near Pier 39 were absolutely hysterical. Todd and I thought Nolan was hysterical as he laughed and laughed and laughed at their "barks." There truly is nothing better than spending your birthday--or any day, for that matter--with the ones you love.

If I Believed In Karma...

...I'd have to admit that it's kicking my butt right now. Apparently I need to learn a lesson about gloating (see previous post, From SoCal To NoCal.)

Nolan is a very sweet boy 99% of the time. But oh, that 1%! We ran a couple of errands this morning and when we were done with the first stop Nolan decided he didn't want to get back in the car. He started to whine. No big deal. The whining escalated as we drove to our second destination and I assumed he really really wanted out of the car so I pulled him out and sat him in his stroller as quickly as I could, snacks and sippy cup in tow. However, I didn't quite dodge the bullet.

True to form, the line at the post office was long...really long. Nolan's whining became crying. The crying became wailing. The wailing included thrashing and throwing things. Just lovely. Nolan has mini-tantrums at home but he has only had one other true tantrum in public (at the park when I wouldn't let him play in the parking lot...go figure! The boy is obsessed with cars!) I was horrified, embarrassed, and practically shaking as I tried to calm my child while simultaneously mailing a package.

So now I'm officially a member of the "Mom Club." It seems everyone has had their child "throw down" in public except for me. Until today. That karma bullet hurts.

Missing Grandpa Already

Nolan's best friend in the entire world is my Dad. Nolan loves spending time with him and talks about him often. This picture rotates through our screen saver and every time Nolan sees it he points and yells "Bampa!" It melts my heart!

The other pictures below are also from pur picnic at the lake last week. It was cold and dreary but we had fun anyhow!

From SoCal To NoCal

We made it! We are moved in to our new place up north and are no longer Southern Californians. All three of us are SoCal natives and I have to wonder if we'll get "flak" from the locals up here for moving north. I've heard rumors that there's a bit of distatste for SoCal "intruders" from NoCal locals, but so far the few people we've met have been nice enough. Just like anywhere there's an amalgam of people there will, no doubt, be some people who prove the rumor true and others who debunk it. We welcome all "nice Northerners" into our lives!

Once again I have to brag about my son. The kid just rocks! The entire drive up he didn't whine once! The first hour and a half he just looked out the window and talked to himself. Then he watched Baby Einstein for an hour, slept for an hour and a half, watched a bit more Einstein, and then just chilled in his carseat the rest of the way as happy as a clam. We've heard from our friends with toddlers that Nolan's car-ride behavior is abnormal and we don't dispute it for a second. Although we'll relish it while we can, we are mentally prepared for a whole different experience once he has a sibling to fight with.

Since Todd's still working down in OC this week my job is to explore our town and its surroundings. I've got the "big three" down already...Target, the grocery store and the nearest park. Nolan and I will do some more gallivanting around and find restaurants (why cook when Daddy's not home?) and, of course, more shopping. As a family we are excited to hunt for a new church and get plugged in, as we know from experience that most of our closest friendships are with fellow believers. Yeah, there's a lot on our plate these days and change is never easy, but we are excited to begin this new chapter of our lives and see what God has in store for us. Stay tuned!