Things to do this summer...

Since the last few months have flown by so quickly, I don't want the summer to fly by as quickly without doing a ton of new things in our new town!  A list to check off makes it all the more accomplishing!

~Take swimming lessons again (Check! Signed up today for next Monday, eeek that's soon!)
~Go to the zero level fountain downtown
~Bike through Bidwell
~Blow bubbles
~Paint outside
~Start our garden
~Start our compost
~Date night with Donnie to his first sushi in Chico
~Have camping guests
~Discover a signature popsicle recipe for our house (one for adults and one for kids)
~Take pictures in an orchard
~Have a picnic
~Take a trip up to the ranch
~Draw with chalk on our driveway
~Go to a story time at the library
~Walk through campus
~Finally see Avatar
~Run out to get an ice cream from the ice cream man (and have my camera charged this time!)
~Visit the winery in Chico (going from many wineries to a select few, we have to check it out)
~Bake a treat (or 2 or 3!)
~Learn to grill vegetables really well & try to grill pizza or a side dish
~Swim with cousins
~Make a craft (or 2)
~Eat lots of watermelon
~Make ice cream sandwiches
~Play bocce & Yahtzee
~Have a sleep over for Jackson (2 planned!)
~Host lots of guests

Last Week of School!

Last week of work! And this week has flown by and tomorrow is the last day of students.  For a long while, weird. Everyone at school is so excited for our move, so many people love Chico. We've started packing up the classroom, so even the kids know what's going on now. My 9 year old's moms stay at home, so they're excited for me too. Too funny.


My last day of school is Friday and then Donnie and I are celebrating on Saturday by going to Sting! I think this is Donnie's first live Sting.  I've seen him many times and we'll be the youngest couple there for sure. This is the first time he's been with the Philharmonic Orchestra though, that should be good.


And Sunday is the big final move! Even though all of our stuff is already up there, there's still a lot of last minute things to cram in our cars. Crib, dresser, patio furniture, TV, etc.


How did summer come so quickly?

Slide Honors

And Honors for the first to go down the water slide, goes to.... Nicole! Janet didn't even have to pay her $5, we were able to give her the honor of forever being able to say she was the first to try out the slide. She even went down a few times and said it was fun! Next time Donnie and I will try. I did go swimming to cool down after painting this weekend, but it wasn't quite slide weather for me :)

Couldn't Resist

Since we'll have to be much more frugal with only one of us working, we figured we would be spending a lot more quality, cheap time at our new house.  So, when we picked our new house, one of the real reasons we picked it is because of the outdoor living space.  No, actually more clearly in my head I remember us walking through it and Donnie saying, "We have to have this house," with wide-eyes when our realtor couldn't hear us.

Here is it with the previous owner's furniture in March and lots of dead plants around which we have been pruning,

For the most part our new outside living space will be pretty neutral, tans, black iron pool furniture with tan cushions, and a little sunbrella green.  Somewhat of tiki tones minus the tacky tiki things. 

Except one.  We couldn't resist, and it's soooo tacky.  Gotta love ebay.

Whirlwind Weekend

We had a whirlwind weekend, and yet another bad camera weekend.


Friday we head to Carmel for Nicole and Jeff's wedding day.  Congrats Nicole & Jeff!  So much fun, I was so sad that day when our camera died right in the church because everything was gorgeous!  I thought it was charging every time I would download it to the computer.  When it actually hadn't been for months, so I'm really surprised it did last as long as it did.  Il Fornaio, A.W. Shucks, Jack London's, Piatti, and  shopping.  Including finally being able to buy lots of stuff at Lush for our tub at the new house after lusting at the store for years in Santa Monica.  And best of all, great friends!  We stayed at the adorable Cobblestone Inn (with a beautiful river rock fireplace in our room amongst red rose wallpaper, lol), and it was a great mini vacation.


Sunday we headed to Auburn for the Auburn River Festival to see a friend and coworker demonstrating swift water rescue.  Donnie and I are joking that it should be called the "Auburn River Gathering" instead of a festival, but they are trying to get there and it was still fun to support and another mini road trip.  I'm just as bummed that we/I forgot the camera, but it was one of those times you're just a little too far when you remember than you really want to turn around for.  Sunday morning before we left, we were all laying in bed.  Jackson was trying to turn on a bedside lamp with a turning on/off switch.  After trying forever, he finally was able to turn it on, threw up his arms and said, "I did it!"  I was laughing as Donnie said, "Oh no, you didn't just say that!?"  Possibly a fluke, but I'd say the kid is fine.

Giants Box BDay

Happy Birthday Troy!  Thanks so much, we had the best time!  It's going to be hard to go back to a game regular-people style anymore, but I guess we'll have to try :)

Housework

Jackson's room after Donnie and Aaron ripped out the damage.

The machine that got out all of the moisture.

And finished and waiting for paint! We worked it out with the contractors that if they just painted the ceilings white (they used to be tan), that would be fine with us. Now I can paint the walls whatever we feel and not have to do ceilings, which I loath.  Although now I'm debating just painting it back the same tan, but I am so glad for a white ceiling out of it.

All this from one tiny slip of a few roof tiles! (These shown and a few more.)

At least Donnie had a little more time for his fence project.  Just waiting for the gate to be made.

Survivor Thursday

Yet another Survivor Thursday and my watching buddy is in Chico.  That's okay, we've (okay I've) cut out Panda Express Thursdays anyways in anticipation of pool season! 

I have a feeling it's going to be one of those bad blogging months.  Not a bad month, just bad at keeping up.  Super chaotic right now.  Jackson's room is getting fixed, plans every weekend, moving/packing, last 4 weeks of school.  Only 19 days minus the 3 I have to take off for weddings and plans = only 16 days of work!!   Once we're in the new house I hope to have some good before/after pictures.  And more pictures in general since our computer will have Internet!

Some Snaps

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Here are a few snaps from a few weekends ago.


Jackson's first sight of the new house,

Little deer in headlights.



Yup, I'd say the pool man was worth it.  Once I'm up there, I will be taking over the pool cleaning duties.



And of course some sort of fence around the pool was necessary.  Thankfully there is an nice iron dog run in the yard.   So, we can just move it and not have to buy a lot of the fence new, since we wanted the fence to be big.  Not one of those fences that are only 5 feet from around the pool where there's barely any room to lay out.  We're a big laying out family!  We know, it's bad, but ehh.





Nothing hotter than the sight of your husband working hard building a fence around the pool for his child because he's concerned for his safety.  Nope, not much.

Hello Mr. Captain

Say hello to Donnie's new title!!  So excited and proud of him!

It was definitely a stressful week.  After his exhausting, nerve wracking, and draining interview last week, he went up to Chico only to find that after a small rain & wind storm last week, a teeny, tiny shingle slid in the roof, leaving Jackson's new room leaked into and mold starting to form.  The sheet rock had to be torn out, a moisture specialist had to come out, a roofer is being called.  Thankfully insurance is covering it, although at first we were freaking out about how this could've happened.  Had it been happening for a while?  How did the inspectors not catch or the owner not disclose this?  Only to find out that it actually did happen just this last week.  Why couldn't it have happened during or before escrow, who knows.

I'll post pictures once Donnie gets back, he has the camera to document the work.  He's stuck up there dealing with the drywall, roofer, and insurance to get it finished because supposedly it's supposed to rain again next week!  Jackson's room looks a lot worse than it really is, and thankfully we caught it quick.

So, especially this week, to get this kind of call, is FABULOUS news!  Again, I'm so proud of my new Captain.