Phase II

Just to remind you, here is a before shot.
And here are a few pictures of this afternoon's work.
Yeah! I have flowers now! Can you believe it is the end of September and I just planted a garden?! I love California!

I love to see the Temple

This weekend I was able to fly up to Calgary for my mom and Les's sealing. I can't believe that Les has been baptized for a year! My mom and Les had 40 friends and family join them at the Cardston Temple yesterday. We all did a session and then went strait to the sealing room where my mom and Les were sealed for eternity. I have never seen my mom so happy. She was glowing! I am so glad I was able to be there to support her and Les. It was also great to see some familiar faces who have helped out our family so much along the way :)

Ambitious Undertaking

Yesterday I had a whole day off work. I was so excited. You think, like any normal person, I would have a nice relaxing day and watch some TV and sleep in and all that good stuff. Well, apparently not. I must of been bit by the ambition bug because I suddenly decided to put in a path in our front yard. Hmm. What was I thinking?! Who does that?! Well, off I went to our local Home Depot and I stocked up with supplies and got to work. Here are a few before pictures.
After clearing all the red wood chips I started with the edging. Little did I know how skinkin hard the soil is here. Hammering in the stake was so hard that I quickly began to think: what in the world have I got myself into! It didn't take too long before I got a big old blister. Of course, being a rugged Canadian, this did not stop me. I just kept on hammering, even when it popped and leaked blister fluid all over the hammer. I did however stop enough to take a sad face picture.

At first there were a few stakes that I just could not get in all the way that I was going to leave them for Sean to hammer in for me but our local handy man heard all the hammering and stopped by to check out what was going on. He was very impressed and actually offered me a job! He said that he gets asked quite a bit to do landscaping but he never knows what to do. He said that he would pay me to come up with ideas for landscaping. That was pretty cool. On top of offering me a job, he also offered me a heavier hammer. After breaking the first stake completely in half with the new hammer I finally got the hang of it and was able to hammer in all the other stakes.
Then came my round vs square corner freak out. For some reason I did one corner round and then one corner square and I couldn't decide if it looked right.
After consulting with my mother and my mother-in-law, they both confirmed that it looked good. With their confidence behind me, I pushed on.
Next came the soil. I punched through the hard clay soil and mixed it in with some nice top soil.
After that I placed the stepping stones and planted the ground cover and whalaa! A path!
I'm actually pretty proud at how it turned out. I feel like a professional! I also have more big plans for this area so this is officially phase 1. First I have to recover from this ambitious undertaking. This morning I woke up with the blister, a cut on my hand, a few slivers and some very sore muscles. I guess I didn't do too bad but now I plan on taking the weekend off and head up to Canada!

No Dogs Allowed

Yesterday we had our carpets cleaned in the morning which left us with a very wet house that we couldn't really be in. Sean decided that this would probably be a good day to take off from his studies and do some sight seeing. Since the floors were wet we wanted to do something with Bella to get her out of the house so she didn't get dirty paw prints on our nice clean carpet. Why not go see the Red Woods at Muir Woods and do some hiking! Great idea right? Well, maybe not. As we got stuck in traffic on the way there we quickly learned that the long weekend may not be the best time to go to see the hot tourist destinations. Still we drove there to see what all the fuss was about. After not being able to find parking within a few miles of the park's entrance we also learned that there were no dogs allowed! Who knew!? With all the crowds and having to leave Bella in the car we decided that we would save this adventure for another day. Besides, without as much traffic as we faced yesterday, we are only half an hour away. We did get to see some great views of the bay though.

The day was still young so we decided to go to our back up plan which was to go to Golden Gate Park. We didn't really know what Golden Gate Park was but I have heard it on the radio quite a bit so I thought it might be a fun place to check out. It was also very appropriate that we got to see and drive across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time on our way to the Golden Gate Park.

Once we got to the park we were amazed that had not heard more about it! It is huge! I just looked it up on line and it is 1017 acres! It is like Central Park but, get this, it is 20% LARGER! There were tons of gardens, tennis courts, soccer fields, hand ball courts, a museum, a concert hall, 3 lakes, a Bison paddock and tons more. Like I said, it is HUGE! Once we found a parking spot the first things Sean saw a sign for were the Japanese Gardens and this is what he was set on seeing while we were there. It was quite a walk but we were able to do some exploring on the way and we eventually found them. As we went to enter the gate, what did we see... A big old NO DOGS ALLOWED sign. Of course. Well, we'll add that one to our list of places that we need to come back to. So we decided that maybe just the plain old botanical gardens would be dog friendly. Nope. Again: NO DOGS ALLOWED. Even the Shakespeare Gardens did not allow dogs!
I don't think Shakespeare would approve of all this discrimination. Bella was sure not impressed. Oh well, at least we got to see some of the area and make a list of places that we definitely want to come back to. Since we were in San Francisco we decided that we may as well get some dinner in China Town. This time we just left Bella in the car. There are tons of restaurants in China Town but we learned last night that not all of them are good. I guess we need to do a bit more research the next time we decide we want to do some sight seeing. Even though we did not get to see everything we set out to see we really did still have a great day. It is always fun when Sean decides to take a break from his studies and I get him all to myself! It is funny how we can turn situations that could be disappointing into still having fun just because we are together. I sure do love my man... and my dog :)

UPDATES...

Ok, I know I have a lot to update every one so here it goes....

California:
We are now official residents of Point Richmond California.I have quickly learned not to say Richmond because apparently Richmond is known as a pretty shady (dangerous) place. I still haven't actually driven Sean around Richmond but I have told him that if he ever takes the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), he cannot take it from the Richmond station. Have no fear though, Point Richmond is a whole other world on the other side of the freeway and rail road tracks and right on the bay. We are loving life in California. There is so much sun and there is always something to do and see here. It is amazing!

Our Home: We love our home! Our front door is right in the middle of the above picture. Our little piece of home goes from the chimney on the right to the chimney on the left and yes, we do have a wood burning fire place that goes with that chimney. In case you have not seen pictures on Sean's facebook here is just a little peak at the views.

Our front yard with a white picket fence and a purple tree/bush and everything!

Living room

Master bedroom

Sean's study

View right out Sean's window. I don't know how he is going to get any studying done :)

We have marina views from every window! We walk right out our front door and we are on a path that goes around the bay. I cannot even tell you how nice it is to come home and take Bella for a walk. It is like we live in a vacation home. There will be more pictures to follow when we are fully unpacked any settled.

Sean's School:
From what I hear, Sean is definitely loving Berkley Law School. He is enjoying the professors and the classes but most importantly the on campus interviews. Now is the time that he interviews for summer internships which basically end up turning into a full time job once he graduates. He has had about 15 interviews a week for the last two weeks. He has had a few call backs which we are very excited. More to come on that front when we know more.

My Work:
I cannot believe how blessed I have been with my job. It is so nice to be an athletic trainer again. I am working at Sports and Orthopedic Leaders Physical Therapy Clinic. I am learning a lot about the whole rehab side of injuries and I am loving it. Probably one of my favorite parts is just being able to interact with patients and hopefully have a direct hand in helping them get better.

It is so fun to see how things are working out for us here in California. It is like we were meant to be here or something. Now that I have done the big bulk of the catch up I'll try to keep up with the fun little stories more. It seems like I am always thinking about something to write about but I haven't felt like I could until I got this all behind me. Check that one off my list of things to do!