Oscar & Paige's Summer 2009

Oh My.... a few days ago someone I sent an email to said they were going to check out my blog because they saw the link in my signature. It dawned on me moments ago that it's been MONTHS since I updated my blog.... Crazy

So I thought I would sum up the summer before making the attempt once again to keep my blog updated at least every few days.... laughing quietly at myself......

Camping was the travel fun choice of the summer. We started June with a Jarquin Family camp at Winter CA Putah Creek campsite in a friends RV. Oscar's brothers with families, Mimi & Papi and special family visit from nephew Andrew was really fun. The creek is frigging cold so swimming was off my list but the less wimpy relatives went for a dip! I definitely love RV camping.

I know this because July brought camping with the Ewers family near Fort Bragg, CA and it was COLD! In July...COLD. This also happened to be Winter's first camp adventure as she and Justin joined us for the 5 day trip. The first night Justin's mattress deflated so the next 4 nights we all huddled in our tent. Winter got her first shiner on this trip when she fell down a short incline and bonked her head. Scraped up nose and a decent goose egg on the forehead to show for it! The food on this trip was great.... I had my first experience with baking in the great outdoors, I used left over eggs from Kristen & Charlies french toast breakfast and some goodies I found around the campsite. A little to brown on the bottom but tasted really good. We took our bikes on this trip and that was fun.

In August we made 3 trips. One to Sand Diego to see Jonathan's ship come back from it's tour and a camping trip with church friends in Winters again and a very fun houseboat on Lake Oroville. The trip to SD was a fun drive our first stop was Redondo Beach to see my dad for lunch and a quick visit. Then we stopped in Long Beach to stay the night with Oscar's brother who took us out to dinner for my birthday. Then next stop was SD where we spent the next few days at my brother Butch's house. We got to meet Elise, Jonathan's new girlfriend and of course greet Jonathans ship. That is a story in itself... maybe in a few days.... the ship not the girlfriend! Winters camp trip was a very relaxing time... it was nice to do nothing except spend time with friends. Going on the houseboat with the Mansell/Alexander family was an excellent time. Friends that know how to eat great food & wine and have a good time are always high on my list.

In between the travels there were picnics, volley ball challenges (which we lost badly but we are good sports), birthdays, a visit from Peg - Suzy's mom, a visit from my mom, my niece had her 3rd baby.... another boy!

The not so fun parts of life... I'm still unemployed and really wishing I had a job already. Oscar didn't get the opportunity to go on the Tiger Cruise with Jonathan because of a flu outbreak on the ship. However these things seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things!

The Winter update....

Walking, talking, dancing and wrecking general havoc in our lives.... But all done with the cutest smile, a devilish grin really! She is mostly talking gibberish but you can tell she has something to say! We spend lots of time in the back yard in her little wading pool, going down her slide and playing in the ball pit. The very cutest thing she is doing this past week is grabbing the car keys, waving and saying bye-bye and heading for the door. She holds the key exactly correct in her hand and try's it on every door to "open" it like we do on the car....

I'm sure I've left many things out but that's the gist of it. In a few days I'll post about Jonathan's visit home, Jason our former exchange student that has come back for a visit and the labor day weekend in general.....

Hugs to everyone

Hanging with Amy & Crew

On Saturday 4/9 Amy brought the whole crew for a visit. It's incredible to see how much the twins have grown and what a great big sister Molly is. During lunch she would get up and run over to see what was wrong, every time the twins made a sound. It was so cute to watch her give them their Bobo's, at one point she made sure they had the correct one, Garreet needed blue and Paige needed pink, I had mixed it up but Molly fixed it for me!

We went for a walk on the greenbelt at the end of our street, down to the park where Molly played on the swings and slides while Amy and I took turns feeding the twins - it was their first picnic. 

Everyone knows what a baby hog I am and Oscar was seriously cutting into my baby holding time. It was very fun to watch him though. He kept saying "when Winter was this small" and "When Winter first started bottles", it was obvious he was having Winter withdrawls since she is off with Suzanne in MI for a week visiting her Grandma Donia. 

25 years ago today......

It was 25 years ago today that Oscar and I married. Well depending on who you ask, the title of this post could have been "25 years ago tomorrow", because Oscar thinks we were married on April 4th not the 3rd as we have celebrated the previous 24 years. 

Here's a little history...........

We had an original wedding date of March 16th, 1984 in Redondo Beach, CA. The Marine Corps decided to practice the old saying "if we wanted you to have a family, we would have issued you one in your seabag" by not getting his new orders to him in time to come home.  We canceled an entire wedding in just a few days, got all the necessary paperwork and blood tests done and bought a plane ticket to North Carolina for me to wing my way east on March 16th. 

When I arrived everything was smooth except in NC you need a full physical and not just a blood test to get a marriage license. It took two weeks to get an appointment and the certificate signed off. One afternoon I was sitting there and said to myself... "today seems like a good day to get married" so I grabbed my dress and a change of clothes for Oscar and went to pick him up from work on base. It was very late when we arrived at the local magistrates office, like he was trying to head home for the day, but he was gracious and stayed a few more mintues to marry us. We then went off with Kim & Randall Love, the couple also waiting for orders that agreed to be our witnesses on the spur of the moment, ate Chinese food and went home. 

That happened on April 3rd but according to our marriage license that we ordered a copy of about 5 years ago, it happened on April 4th. I know it was April 3rd because I remember thinking how weird that my parents anniversary was April 1st, my sister's April 2nd and now mine on the 3rd without even trying. I think what happened is the magistrate wanted to get out of there so badly because he was running late that he didn't write it in the log book until the next morning. Oscar says I'm just crazy and it's the 4th. 

So this year we celebrated both.... what woman wouldn't love to have TWO anniversary dates!?!

What have I learned in the past 25 years? I can tell my husband anything and he will still love and respect me. Sharing a life is so easy when you sincerely respect the individual you are sharing it with. It doesn't matter where you live, a trailer park in North Carolina or a 5 bedroom house in Natomas.... the house is much nicer and easier to live in though..... There is always enough love, time and money to do whatever it is your heart is truly committed to accomplishing as a unit. The most important part is that God is the center of our life together.

Today I am more in love with the man I married than I was 25 years ago.... no matter what day it happened on!

"We are Track Homes and Vacation... not Restoration Projects"

Those words are little pearls of wisdom that fell from Becca's lips while she & I were driving the moving truck from our 1920's craftsman's bungalow to the new place in Natomas. How she manages to encapsulate an entire complex situation in one small phrase has always impressed me. We were talking about how owning a house that is almost 100 years old requires so much more work and attention then Oscar and I were willing to give it in this season of our lives and she made the statement above, it really does reflect where we are at in life. 

And.... here we are in the new track home, planning a vacation (sort of... it's actually a conference that Oscar is speaking at in Oklahoma City and I'm tagging along for the free hotel) and loving the lack of water seepage, plugging in more then two items at a time and water pressure... lovely water pressure! Who knew we could be so happy about such simple things!

Because it's been a while I'm going to do another "sum it up" post for the month of March and try to be more current going forward.

The move is finished and there are no boxes in sight, as of yesterday at 4pm in the afternoon. This unpacking was longer than normal for us but I had so many options on where to store things, I guess I just wanted to savor the experience. I still need to hang some pictures but over all I'd say we are done. The best part is the garage... we can walk through it once again and park a car. Mostly due to the hard work Joe put in the last two days, he was my "heavy lifting guy" as I sorted through and put stuff away. 

Oscar is really getting into his new GIS position in IT. One big downside to the move to Natomas was his easy commute and he was mourning the loss of the light rail at the end of our street on 48th. He found a bus route fairly close by but it's not very convenient and required rides and/or long walks to the bus stop. Then our new neighbor told him about a shuttle that picks up at the end of our street and drops him off about a block from work, it has 3 runs in the morning and 3 at the end of the day, not a great as the light rail with trains every 15 minutes but much better than the bus solution!

I'm still gainfully unemployed and starting to get bored with the novelty of having lots of time off. It's not that I'm "not busy", I have Winter on Tuesday & Thursday while Suzy goes to school and I've been able to spend time with friends during the day, especially time with the van Riessen's.... Amy still needs a bit of help with new twins and a very 2 year old Molly. I wouldn't be able to spend this time with people, if I was working full time so I fell that is a blessing.  I easily fill my day with house chores, life errands, babies, family and friends but the need to do something professional is poking it's head to the surface of my thoughts. I have finally started my job search in earnest and the market is much less friendly then I've seen in years. In the past, I've sent out my resume been to one interview...two max... and been offered a job. Not so much this time, on the last call back the interviewer said they received 1000 applications.... crazy!

I did get away this past weekend for a Girls Weekend in Sonoma with 4 other lovely ladies, this is the first one I've ever been invited to and I had a great time. One was a very fun sweet person that I had never met before named Katy... She reminds me of well.... me. Usually I don't get along with people who compete with my talking time but she was just so funny that it was hard not to find her side splitting funny. We had some fantastic meals, went wine tasting and shopping... I definitely need to learn to drink slower and they went for nice walks while I sat and read books. I finished two of them in the 3 days and it was heaven! I'm especially grateful to our mutual friend that planned the weekend..... mucho mucho thanks Miss Kristen. 

The neighbors here are very friendly, spend lots of time outside on the weekends and there seems to be many kids playing outside. A few have come over to introduce themselves, I've met more people here in our first 3 weeks, then I knew at the old place after 3 years. 

Allergy season has hit Sacramento with a vengeance and while I normally do not suffer, I have been hitting the medication with the rest of the family. I think poor Oscar has it the worst!

Jonathan's journey continues and we have learned that he can only tell us "where he's been" not "where he's going", last stop was Qatar, which is located in the heart of Arabia. I looked it up on Google and there is some very beautiful places there. He did write home several weeks ago because his 50 cal team pulled a "dangerous" duty shift (read scary for the parental units) and he asked for prayer. I love that we can talk to him so often and get email updates on his status... I can only imagine how awful it must have been for mothers of those who served in the past when you had to wait weeks and sometimes months, for word on your child serving our country during war time. 

Not much new in the world of Becca... she is working, going to school and working...... Justin & Suz are the doing the same. Joe had his truck stolen over the weekend from the parking lot while he was at work. The police found it yesterday which was kind of a bummer for Joe..... he had been hoping for new wheels.

Of course there's plenty of updates on Winter. Biggest news is she's walking! Started about two weeks ago, taking a few steps here and there but on Saturday she really took off. Now she can go from sitting to walking in the middle of the room. It's cute now but in another week we will be wondering if she will ever stay still again! She has also discovered that throwing food on the floor while eating lunch attracts the dogs and she loves the dogs! I thought she was just eating more until I figure out that half her snacks and meals were being tossed down to her adoring fans Frankie and Jack.  It's kind of cute to watch her giggle when the dogs take food out of her hand and gross at the same time, I'm glad we are not germ squeamish in this house! It's been lovely that she has such a happy disposition, she also loves to look you straight in the eye smile and do exactly what you just said "no touch" too..... Chase is becoming a favorite past time. We are trying to teach her to go down the stairs safely.... she really likes the heads first way instead. She has started giving people stink eye and loves to scrunch up her nose, breath heavy and fast.... it's adorable to us of course. She plays Where's Winter when you hand her a towel by hiding her face and loves clapping her hands when we say YAY really loud.

Sad news in March..... Linda & Kevin, friends and pastors at our home church Sanctuary, have resigned for the financial health of the church. While I respect and support their decision, I'm sad they are stepping down. For now they continue on here in Sacramento but we are praying hard God directs them to a new position right here locally so we can continue to see them often!

All & All... it's been an excellent month in The Jarquin World

new stuff happening all the time....

Well our house that we put on the market early December is in escrow and we now have less than 30 days to find a new place to live, pack the house... both of them.... and move! I'm excited! Okay not really, I'm more nervous than anything. I envisioned a nice long escrow and not moving until May... now bam here it is in my face! I guess I thrive on challenge so I best stop complaining and get my butt in gear.

Just to make things easy I'm also looking for a job planning a birthday party for my mom making several trips with Oscar out of town over the next few months. Oh yes, I was going to stop complaining. 

I gave up writing multiple long posts about my trip. I will do just one in the next week or so. 

Jonathan called from Guam and is having a wonderful trip although he is anxiously awaiting the girl scout cookies to be shipped.

Oscar and I are now hosting the life group in our home while Steve and Amy take a hiatus for the birth of twins Garrett & Paige. For the first time in my life I like me own name.... Thank you Amy for bringing it to my attention. The twins are little beauties with a capital B. Of course we know the van Riessens make good looking little ones... Molly of course is also a stunner. 

Winter is moving fast these days. She says ma-ma-ma-ma and then looks for Suzanne so she is making the connection! She crawls like a speed demon for the dog water dish or food dish and then dazzles you with her chubby smiles before you can get the word "no" out of your mouth! Suz has started putting two little pigtails on the top of her head ans I swear she looks more like an elf than ever.... cute beyond description! She even has her own facebook account now with more friends than I have... I think that says something but don't' really want to take to close a look at that. We are hopelessly behind on her purple bunny monthly pictures. We took them I just haven't posted them!

Becca is still loving her new apartment although the lovely skunk spray odor from Blu has been a  pain in the behind! Last week he decided that skunks were fun to bark at....until he got hit right between the eyes! The house is smelling better but Blu does have a distinct lingering odor about him. Oh yes... best stuff on the market for skunk smell removal is BON-CC-41, available only online and a bit pricey but works the best so far! It's much less expensive than throwing away all of Becca's clothing and bed linens that had a light spray of wet skunk oil that blu shook off in her room after the first bath with only shampoo! 

Justin is off to work out of town for the next 3 weeks... between school, moving and single parenting Suzy will be tired for sure! Hopefully he will be back in time to help load the truck. 

I'm happy to be home this craziness is what I know and love....

News from DownUnder part 1

Day 1 to 4 – 1/14 to 1/18 US calendar

Time Flies when you are having fun or traveling like a mad person. Phone services and internet access has been amazingly difficult to get. The hotel didn’t have access that was reliable and then we have been so busy running from place to place I haven’t had time to sit long enough to write and the other thing is time is really off for me. Sacramento is 3 hours ahead of here but one day behind….. so

The flight from Sacramento to LA was smooth from check in at the curb to landing in LA. Of course meeting up with my family is when the crazy begins.

After being picked up by my sister & dad, we waited around for a bit until my brother Ron arrived from Ohio, we headed off to do a “girls nail thing” with mom and Ron went to spend quality time with dad pulling pork or some such thing. It was nice to be pampered as my nails were looking a bit scruffy at that point. Dinner was some very yummy Carne Asada that Flora my SIL made…. Then it was a mad dash as my mom was still packing at 7pm…. Just 30 minutes before we were to be at the check in.

Tom Bradley (international) terminal at LAX is a mess. They are in the middle of a remodel and the lines were terrible. We had to stand in 4 different liens just to check in our luggage completely. Crazy… but lines seemed to be the order of the day! The flight to Fiji was warm…even for me who is cold all the time! The space was cramped and sleep escaped me for the majority of the 10 hours we were on the plane. Arrival in Fiji wasn’t much better than LAX, fortunately that seems to be the end of the gripe session I’ve been having so far. Our landing was one of the best I’ve ever experienced especially given the weather conditions…. Very windy!

Arrival into New Zealand was very nice, the weather was perfect not hot or cold, bit windy but still very comfortable. We found a cab with a huge trailer to take us to our hotel, all 14 bags! Check in was easy and we had a very lovely 3 bedroom apartment.

In Auckland we took the bus tour around the island the first day and then went back to get some sleep. Auckland was a very clean city and not crowded or gross. Very few homeless and people were very polite. We had a few meals, did a ton of walking and on our last night in port had Thai food that was excellent. On the bus ride to find the restaurant my brother asked the driver ot tell us when it was our stop. The driver replied it will be extra so Richard said “my mom will give you a kiss” The driver agreed and then flirted with my mom…flirted…amazing. When we made it to our stop mom went to give the driver a kiss in the cheek and he turned is head for a full lip lock! We were rolling in laughter….

My brothers did that bungee cage thing were you sit in it and it flings you in the air…. I took a video from our hotel room window…..

The next day we boarded the ship and I was running on fumes for energy. We figured out rooms, went to dinner which was average and then I fell asleep on the couch in our room. Nothing exciting at all happened.

I woke up this morning (Monday 1/19 in NZ & Sunday 1/18 in Sac) and things were very quiet. I laid in the dark because Mom & Pam were still sleeping. It was 4:30 in the morning and nothing on the ship was open. We pulled in early 7am to our first port Tauranga, NZ and on the dock we found a wonderful lady tour guide. She took us on a private tour to a city called waimoto.

Our first stop was the GloWorm caves, these are worms in a black limestone cave that glow in the dark. It was very interesting. We then stopped to at a place called the shear shack where they raise and shear angora rabbits…. Very cool place. They put the rabbits on what can only be described as the equivalent of a medieval torture stretch rack! But this rabbit was so calm the whole time and seemed to almost fall asleep during his haircut. Angora wool is so soft and fluffy, when shaved we got to pet the rabbit and it was like the softest of down….. Our last stop of the day was a show that did the history of sheep farming and shearing and a sheep dog exhibition… I liked this one but wished the dog part had been longer…. It’s incredible how well trained they are and everything is done on 5 whistle commands. The dog left the stage, went out into a field rounded up 5 sheep and a ram brought them inside a barn and onto the stage… then kept them there and they were calm….. I got to pet the dog and felt brilliant when the commands they used to control them…. Like “leave it” are the same commands I use with Jack….. if only he were so well trained.

Another time I will tell you about our table mates…. From the upper east coast…. It’s made for some interesting dinner conversation.

The even closed with a swim in the Hydro-pool. This is a salt water pool that runs about the same temp as a nice hot bath and has a huge jet system…. It’s the same size as a regular back yard pool…. After a soak in the pool and a shower, I’m jotting down my travels so far and thinking that one more early night to bed may just get me caught up in the sleep department! Slowing down finally has also made me realize how much I miss everyone at home. Hopefully Oscar has either mooched a few meals from family and friends or eating some of the ones I left in the freezer for him. I haven’t heard from Justin and hope his wisdom teeth extraction went well…..

Tomorrow is a sea day so I’ll check in with you all then.

Hugs from the sea!

Checking in....

Sorry folks there's not much on this post.

I got here safely and wrote a very nice updating post on my laptop that now needs to be copied over.... trying to save minutes as access is super expensive.

will post later tonight with some fun stories so far!

love to all