Moving... and all that stuff

March 29, 2011

I am going to take a friend's advice (Miss J. Amaryllis) and Blog even though my camera is out of service.

We moved! That's big news.

The house is Mint Ice cream green with white trim and has a lot of character. It is on 10 acres and comes complete with a pond, barn, citrus trees for the winter and fruit trees for the summer. It also comes with a phantom cat named "Red" that eats all of the food we put out for it but we've never actually seen. The kids are happier, I'm happier and Cory is only 10 minutes from work! The house is twice as big as our previous place and the property is 100% bigger (considering we had no yard before). Every day last week and so far this week we have been outside picking oranges and tangerines for eating and twice lemons for making lemonade. I heard a commercial on the radio today that was advertising Oranges for $.42 a pound. I thought to myself how lucky we are to have them growing for free in our own backyard.

Connie, Alison and her kids drove up today and I realized how much I missed them. When I saw Connie for the first time in almost 2 weeks I hugged her and didn't want to let her go. I'm glad they like our place as much they do... they're sure to visit more often. The plan is I drive down once a week every other week and Connie drive down once a week the opposite weeks. That sounds possible...

We miss all of our friends in Bakersfield so much. Please know that we love you and will treasure the friendships we've made there forever.

Love, The Randalls!

Dinner at PF Cheng's

March 11, 2011

We used another one of our gift cards tonight and had dinner at PF Cheng's with Randy and Amber Cola. The wait was over an hour but we hardly noticed because the Boys chatted and the Girls chatted until we were paged.
We followed the host to our table and Amber had a ornery idea... Cory and Randy sat down in the horse shoe shaped booth first and scooted toward the middle leaving Amber and I to sit on each edge next to our spouse. Instead of sitting next to Randy she came over to Cory's side to slide in next to him. Well, Cory basically panicked and had an expression like, "I'm trapped! How do I get out of here?" Amber got up and we all laughed. I kept thinking about it during dinner and couldn't help but laugh to myself again and again.
Since Amber and I apart we were forced to listen to our husbands talk about really boring stuff. When I couldn't take it any more, I got up and went to her side, sat down and we talked about more interesting things...like poisonous spiders - she found a brown recluse in her kitchen last summer and the new earrings she got at Target. I know... funner!

The hairdryer makes her sleepy

March 9, 2011

Caleb is not a big vegetable eater. Correction he is not a big "variety of foods" eater. I brought out the Sugar Snap Peas at lunch today and said, "Caleb you have eaten something white, purple, yellow and orange so far. Now you need to eat something green." I broke one in half and expected him to nibble the tip of it and then gag. Instead he liked it. He asked for another and another. Wow! Hannah only ate the peas inside of it and then made a silly face with half of the pod.














We spent almost the entire day inside packing and organizing. At 4pm I literally shoved the kids outside and we walked to the park.

I put Caleb in the shower and Hannah in the bath when we got home and then I started making dinner. After her bath Hannah fell asleep on the carpet while I dried her hair. Even though she was asleep I continued to dry her hair and then gently brushed it smooth and straight. She never budged. So sweet!

Bono was right, it is a "Beautiful Day!"

March 8, 2011

Today I decided the next moving item would be to label everything in the garage, "Garage." Last Sunday I called our new Bishop and told him we were moving up there on the 19th and would really appreciate some help moving in. He said of course and that made me want to be even more prepared knowing this would be our first impression of each other. I'm not saying I want to be "Perfect." I just don't want to be nuts.














Caleb and Hannah played outside while I, "labeled away." They had their rain boots on and splashed through the water. Caleb and Hannah still managed to fill their boots with water and soak their clothes anyway. But they had fun. We took a short walk together around the lake and came back home for lunch and a bath. They of course were very relaxed after having their bellies filled and bodies cleaned. While they sat and watched a movie on the couch I did a little more packing.
At 3:45pm we walked to the Park to meet Trish Neville, played until 5:30 and then walked back home. After a quick dinner and books read the kids were in bed at 7pm. LOVE IT!

It has begun...

March 7, 2011

It's "Z" week for Preschool Here's what were up to...
Monday: Animals - Zooplankton and Zebra
Wednesday: Social Science - Zambia (Africa)
Friday: Art/Craft - Make a Zebra by printing out a white horse and putting black yarn on it.
Scripture: "Zion heard, and was glad" Psalm 97:8
Bible Story: Zachariah (Father of John the Baptist)
Music: Concert Zither














My Mom came over this morning and the packing has begun. I am trying to be as organized as possible. I have put neon labels on top all of the boxes telling what room each goes in and then below listing it's contents. Next week (after we get the key on the 15th) my Mom and I are going up to the house to walk through it and put up signs labeling each of the rooms and then also make a layout for each room. Like where the bed, dressers and couch go. Then we will tape it to the door of each room. I'm doing this because I am trying to make "moving day" less stressful. When I thought about the 19th I imagined 20 different people coming up to asking me, "Where does this go?" and then after 30 minutes I saw myself in the laundry room hiding or crying or both. Yikes! Hence the "plan."

A lot to say without pictures

For some reason I am not remembering to being my camera... anywhere. We have done some fun things the first week of March...

March 3, 2011
My Mom watched Caleb and Hannah so I could meet Alison and Amber at CPK for lunch. Afterward we walked around Target and ooegled the jewelry and T-shirts. Then we came back to reality and put diapers in our carts instead.

March 4, 2011
Cory and I went out on a dinner date to BJ's. We have this terrible habit of not using gift cards. So we decided to use one (given to us for Christmas we still have one for PF Cheng from 2009 Christmas - lucky for us it doesn't expire - we'll use it, We promise) tonight. The wait was an hour but I couldn't remember the last time we had 1 hour to ourselves without distraction (I don't even mean the kids, I'm talking about after they go to bed... laundry, dishes, clutter, blah, blah, blah). We grabbed our "pager" and went back to the car and listened to more of Cory's book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (she also wrote Seabiscuit) on cd. This book is amazing. AH-Mazing!

March 5, 2011
We caught up on some things at home...

March 6, 2011
We Told our Church friends that we are officially moving to Porterville as of the 19th of this Month.
We are sad to leave. Honestly I try not to even think about it. It feels like I'm living someone else's life when I talk about moving. They are the ones leaving, not us... it's only a rumor.

Preschool at our house

Feb. 18, 2011

Today was the last time Preschool will be at our house. It was a little sad for me. I like having the kids come over and play at my house. I also really like teaching them. It was all about the letter "W." Usually the first thing we do is put together puzzles. But last time I could tell they were bored with the puzzles. Instead I put on the Leap Frog letter factory movie and they loved it.














Before the kids were picked up we went outside to enjoy the "w"ind (one of our W words and it really was a very windy) and play in the bushes. They loved being outdoors... who doesn't? When the weather is nice, I want to be out in it. I love to be outside!

Handpuppets make them Happy

Feb. 17, 2011

No matter what Connie's doing she always plays with the kids when we come over. So Caleb and Hannah love to come over... a lot!














After the hand puppets were too tired to play and they said they needed a nap, Caleb sat down at the piano and began composing. He said, "Listen Mom, this is the song for when Jesus was on the Cross." He played a slow, downward scale-ish song. Then he said, "and this is when he lived again!" He played a happy, higher pitched song. I clapped of course and was genuinely impressed that his understanding was such that he could connect a sad experience with an appropriate sad sounding song and vice verses. I mean you wouldn't necessarily play "I've got Sunshine in my soul today" at a funeral.

Jump up, jump down

Feb. 15, 2011

We spent the afternoon with the Cola's.














p.s If you didn't know... Amber is way fun!

Valentine's Day... oh yeah...

Feb. 14, 2011

Caleb had preschool at Sister Ricks house today, so the day was filled with candy, chocolate and play. He loves being at Sister Ricks house. She is loving and fair and patient.




























After preschool, we headed over to Sister Amour's house and had a lovely visit with her. She showed us her pony and two horses and the kids played with her awesome stash of toys. Right before we left she offered us brownies (and who can turn down brownies?) and then she let us pick tangerines from her tree.
Grandma came by before dinner and brought us all Valentine goodies. We all felt loved by our sweet Grandma.
Side Note: I gave up Chocolate for 2 weeks (the 1st - the 14th). My only gift request this year for Valentine's Day was chocolate. Not the chocolate coins! Something fancy. He came through... See's Candy "Toffee-ettes."

The rumors are true... the snow is cold

Feb. 26, 2011

Dad picked us up this afternoon and we piled into his 4 runner and headed to the snow. We stopped and had lunch just passed the Dam and it was fun. The kids were running around and we were trying to keep them away from the water and put food in their tummies all at the same time. We then got back in and drove the rest of the way and reached the snow.




























After we parked the car both Caleb and Hannah wanted to get out of the car and see the snow... so we let them. Big Mistake! Hannah went straight for the snow with her bare hands and in sweat pants. She got so cold that she cried and cried and had to be thawed out in the car with the heater on. After she warmed up she didn't want anything to do with the snow any more. Well I knew if I could just get her dressed in the right clothes with gloves she would see just how fun the snow could be. After lots of crying she finally realized that the snow bibs and gloves kept her warm and dry. And After that she wanted to go to every spot that hadn't been tromped on by her snow boots. Dad and Cory made a sled run and we each took turns going down. Caleb rolled around in the snow, jumped in the snow and ate the snow. He was in heaven. When it was time to go Hannah cried again. Only this time it was because she didn't want to leave. With in 10 minutes both were fast asleep. We carried them both upstairs when we got home. Caleb slept for 2 more hours and woke up in time for dinner and then back to sleep but Hannah slept from 4:30pm until 6:30 the next morning! Yea for Snow!

Hand over the Car!

Feb. 24, 2011

My Parent's have let me use my sister Hillari's car while she is away at school in San Francisco. It has been so nice, but since they want to sell it I turned in my key today. I felt grateful to have had it these past few months and although I will miss the freedom it will be nice to be "stuck" at home. There is always something to do around the house, inside and out.

Before we dropped it off, I returned everything borrowed from last night and then we went to Big 5 ( a new favorite hang out especially around either the Baseball or Hockey areas) and bought Caleb a pair of Snow Bibs with (hopefully) a few years of growth in them. The weather man says he expects plenty of Snow this weekend and We don't want to miss it. Here's Caleb trying on the pair we bought and posing, soberly, with a bat.

Blue and Gold dinner

Feb. 23, 2011

I definitely know more about Cub Scouting now than I did 9 days. I think if I was asked to help plan another pack meeting or dinner I think it would be easier...








Osiahs Chavez, Nathan and Spencer Delgado














Hilda Wright, Monica and Shelby Munn














During the game "Who wants to be a Cub Scout?" with Host Patrick Power, Cub Ian Prince and Eagle Scout lifeline Stephen Henrie.

Blue and Gold dinner set up

Feb 22, 2011

Jocelyn, Cindy R., Amanda, Linda and I met this morning to set up for the dinner tomorrow night. They all worked so hard and we had everything done in about 45 minutes and left. Hannah and I waited for Cory to bring the plates and cups (and Caleb). We ate lunch out on the ball field and after it was done, the kids ran off to explore together. It was sweet to watch the two of them from far away. We couldn't hear anything they said, we could only watch them holding hands and bending down together to look at something that caught their eye. Maybe Caleb was teaching her about something or maybe she asked him for help... it was just fun to watch and appreciate. Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

A little busy... let's play catch up

Feb. 12 - 19, 2011

The blue and gold dinner prep kept me busy, too busy to think about anything but the blue and gold dinner. We did make the best of though. We had a picnic together at the church and played at Big 5.

































We spent some time with the Moreno's at Grandma's, at Home depot checking out the lawnmowers and had some french fries at McDonald's... all fun and NO SCHOOL!