Back in the saddle again

Ok, I'm going to try to restart this whole blogging thing.  While we start school, juggle a new job and other responsibilities, and slowly work on updating a house...

So.....

We've been in our hometown of Ripon, California for about three and a half weeks now.  We arrived in a cloud of excitement/frustration as we had car issues on the way down from Seattle which required us to spend an extra night on the road, making a 14 hour drive take about 3 days.  

The excitement came from the fact that as we neared the homestead on Highway 99, the back door of our trailer opened and items came tumbling out.  We confirmed that it was one roller skate and a few books as Jason heroically dove into the weeds on the shoulder of the road to retrieve them.  I'm sure there were a few more things that fell out, but, we've decided that since we can't exactly remember what specific items they were, they must not be super important to us.

We've moved into one of Jason's grandfather's houses out in the country. We're next door to Jason's childhood home and a mile away from mine.  We both grew up outside of Ripon in the almond orchards and we're excited that the kids are going to get to have a similar childhood.

Right now we're still settling in and unpacking.  With four little ones (one only being 10 weeks old) and starting 1st grade and pre-K, things are a little busy.  But we have our kitchen unpacked and the bedroom unpacked. 

 

So hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this blogging thing as we transition back into life in the Central Valley and do exciting things like install new electrical panels and re-wire the house.

What the living room looked like after we arrived. Awesome setup, no?

And here we go....

So it's been a little while since I posted on here.  Like seven months.

Life has been busy with three little people, lots of activities, playing, schooling, and then when you throw major morning sickness in there from Halloween until Groundhog Day, you might understand why I haven't been on here as much.

But I wanted to write on here again because we're about to go on a little adventure.  Well it may not seem super adventurous to move back to your hometown, but for me it is.  Any change for me is something that I need a long time to process and plan.  I like to fill out forms six months in advance for activities the kids are doing.  We've been talking about moving, oh, just...the entire time since Jason graduated from college, but we finally decided just to go.  So we're jumping off and moving back to the central valley.

When Jason talked to me this winter and told me he really wanted to just go this summer after we had the baby, I was not super happy at first to be completely honest.  I love it here in Moscow.  But as with all ideas, if you give them time to sit in your head, you start to get excited about new things to do, places to go, and adventures to have with the kids all exactly where you and your husband grew up.  So now I am on board...as evidenced by the fact that my living room already has boxes in it as I am starting to pack and sort through our stuffs.  Come the end of July, we will be hitting the road for the golden state.

To be sure, I will probably be a basket case when we actually leave Moscow.  And by basket case, we're talking a recently post-partum lady (yikes).  But over the last few months I have been praying to have peace about leaving the friendships and community that we have here and to look forward to all there is to come.

I will really miss Moscow though.  We will be leaving a lot of very dear friends. As much as we like to complain about living in a small town in the middle of the Palouse hills, I am very lucky that I can do all of my shopping within a 5 minute radius of our house.    Moscow has a wonderful community, both our church and the city.  Our wonderful farmer's market, the parks, the co-op...oh man, don't even remind me that I will be leaving our co-op.  I guess I will have to start perfecting my own pesto roll recipe.

The other strange thing about this whole move is that we're going back to our hometown as fairly different people than we were when we left it.  I know most everyone changes as they get married, have kids, and start making life decisions about how to raise their family, but it does seem strange to move back to our hometown with a different way of looking at life.  

But the most important thing is that we will be closer to family so that we can help out and the kids can spend more time with at least one set of grandparents.  We'll be much further from Seattle of course, but now we only have one side of the family to visit and they'll have lots of places to stay with friends when they come down our way.  I remind myself of these positives when I think about the fact that our car registration fees will be three times as expensive and utilities will be twice as expensive...which by the way, everyone in the northwest should be thankful for our hydroelectric power.

So my children will be sporting One World Cafe t-shirts and Jason and I will wear our moccasins with pride as we move back to the land of tract home sprawl, malls, and lovely, lovely almond trees.  And please, can someone tell me where to find a good coffee shop in Modesto?

Extended Family

 Here are some of the family pictures we had taken down in California with Jason's family.  

Grandma Julie and Grandpa Clarence with all of their grandkids and great-grandkids.

First in the birth order, Aunt Cheryl, and her family.

Next in line, Sharon and her family.

Then, Shelia's family (minus Shelia and Ron).

Jason's mom, Shellie, and her family. Us, Jason's sister Liz, her husband Jay, and their two boys, Mason and Micah.  Then Jason's youngest sister,Sara, husband Mark, and their two boys, Kenny and Isaac.

And then the baby, Shar, with her family.

 All of the great-grandbabies.  Though one isn't a baby anymore (at the wise age of 6) and there are 2 more babies due this year.

Hazel and one of her favorite puppies.

 

Hazel and her great-grandpa.

 

You'll notice that there is a theme here.  Basically the easiest way to get Hazel to cooperate and smile was to let her hold the puppies during pictures.

Trip

So these are completely out of order, but I'm lazy and not going to re-order them for you.  And I actually have more pictures of our trip to California, from taking family pictures, but they're on a disc.  Maybe next time.  But as a summary, we got to see all of the Schuiling extended family, played "spy" with cousin Kenny, visited a friend in Sacramento, then it was on to Poulsbo, Washington and the Space Needle.  We opened our New Year's gifts.  The harmonica and cowboy hats were a big hit.

In California Jason had a great job interview at a large organic farm in Watsonville.  But more on that later....