** Thanks **

We just want to say thanks so much to our family + friends back in Illinois who helped us with meals, with organizing the garage sale/give-away, with packing + loading the truck...we love + miss you guys so much and are so blessed to have you as family + friends! Thanks also to Dad + Steph (pictured here doing wheatgrass shots at Jamba) for helping us with getting there and unpacking. It was so awesome to have familiar faces on this end!

First Night in California

Wow, I can't believe we have been California residents for a whole week already! It has flown by. Some of you may not have heard about my first night here...

So Dad, Kisbey, and I got into Chula Vista later in the afternoon last Friday and Chris and Mike + Beth were there to help us unload the truck while Lyndsey took Kisbey to the dog park to play (btw, thank you guys so much for helping!). We got the truck unloaded, had dinner and then it was just Kisbey + me alone with the box-filled apartment since Katie + Josiah were not set to arrive until the next morning. My plan (since I don't sleep very well when Katie is not there) was to stay up for as long as I could getting as much of a head start on unpacking boxes and arranging furniture as I could. I had been working for about 20 minutes when I realized that I should probably put felt pads on the bottom of the legs of the furniture so the wood floors wouldn't get scratched while I was moving them around. I went out to the garage and came back to find that I locked myself out of the apartment...with Kisbey trapped inside...and with my cell phone dying of course. Evidently the handle locks and I had just left my keys inside cause I was just making a short run out to the garage. I was just about to panic, being that I was on the edge of exhaustion, when I was able to pull myself together and go over to a Mary's, a neighbor that I had met during move-in, to see if there was an emergency number to call...there was not. I called Chris just so someone would know that I was trapped outside and that if he hadn't heard from me in a half hour to come and get me. After many phone calls and talking to a few more neighbors, we finally figured out that the only thing to do if you get locked out during non-business hours is to call a locksmith. I did not want to do that. I had thought that climbing onto the balcony would be a good option except that I had just locked that door right before heading to the garage because...get this, I didn't want someone to be able to get in that way! I did however, open the window to the kitchen to let in some fresh air. I decided that I would rather pay to replace the screen on the kitchen window than pay to replace the locks. So I walked up the sloped landscaping, ripped the screen and climbed through the window onto my kitchen counter. Kisbey was very happy to see me!

Updates coming

hey everyone...i know its been a few days since the last post, but i will get them up soon. things are finally slowing down just a little but i am heading to bed from our home in chula vista, california...still hasn't sunk in quite yet