April
So I'll try to sum up our life in April, though I'm sure I've forgotten many of the things I wanted to post about. Oh well, I'll just comment on the pictures :).
So we were officially inducted into California-ism when we got our licenses and cars switched over. Holy cow, was it an awful experience. Literally took five trips there to get everything squared away, and I calculated about 8 hours of our time. We had gone online to make sure we'd have all of the paperwork, but when is the website ever accurate? We had the smog check certificate, but we didn't have the truck weight certificate. I had my birth certificate, but didn't have my marriage license to show proof of name change. Jason had the paperwork for the car filled out with only his signature, but he needed mine as it's in both our names. Then different people said they needed different paperwork to show the lien was fulfilled. We had the same exact paperwork for both vehicles, but they took the car paperwork and not the truck. Said it needed to be notarized or something stupid. So I went down there and was pretty curt with the person I got. After spending some time with his manager, he finally gave me the plates. Idiots. Our tabs had expired at the end of March, so we were kind of in a hurry to get them switched over. Otherwise we might have waited. I'm so glad we don't have to deal with that anymore.
Jason started looking for a job in Redding, about three hours north of here. Turns out the unemployment rate is worse there than the national average, at about 9-10%. Not really the best time to be moving. He's spent a few days up there dropping off resumes, but a lot of places are just slow right now. To date he's turned down a few interviews because they just weren't anything that would work for us - either not enough hours or no upward movement. So we're trying to be patient and hold out for something that's going to make him happy. We've talked about him getting a part-time job here in town, just for something to do and money to cover at least the groceries. He just gets so bored - some people are made to stay home, some people are not. And then there are the people who can do either and just cope with it.
In the meantime, Paul got us a membership to the Oakland Zoo. We went there one weekend with him and decided we'd probably come back frequently. While I like the Louisville Zoo better, this one is still pretty neat. We've been there several times, and Z really likes the animals (and the kids). It took me a while to understand, though, that this zoo is the same, if not closer, to us than the Louisville Zoo was to us in KY. It just seems bigger here.
I don't think much else happened over the rest of April - Paul and Maggie were still pretty busy with cycling, so we didn't see them a whole lot. And Paul works some intense hours, so Z doesn't get to play with him much except on the weekends.
We did have an interesting time trying to baby-proof the stairs - an ordinary gate wouldn't do as the railings it would attach to are wood and angled. And we didn't want to drop a heap of money on something that would be super fancy. So we have a permanent (cheap) gate at the foot of the stairs and then one upstairs we only put up if Z's upstairs. Jason spent some time with some tubing and zip ties trying to get the thing to stay. But it works out well. Actually, Z hasn't even attempted the stairs. I keep telling him that he needs to have help, otherwise he'll go "ouch, ouch, ouch." He listens pretty well - we had several days here before the gate was up.
Here are some pics of J and Z washing the truck. Zach actually really likes it. Or just likes playing in the water. He was soaked by the end of it.
But he'll help wash every now and then.
One day we took a little drive down to Santa Cruz (which as of a few days ago was on fire). It wasn't super warm, but Z enjoyed the sand well enough. At one point he actually ate some. We still had some smoked black pepper white cheddar cheese from Tillamook, so we snacked on that with crackers. That cheese is so good. Tasted better than the sand, I'm sure. We walked down a pier and got some food at a restaurant there, which was just okay. The more I cook, the more I am unwilling to pay money for something that I can do, but I also appreciate the time it takes to make said meals. It's just a trade-off.
We also found Zachary a new hat, which has a brim all around to keep the sun off of his ears and neck. We saw several before finally making a decision. And we also bought a little backpack with sand toys in it. I had seen it in Lincoln City and thought it was just the cutest thing, but apparently I wasn't very clear with Jason about wanting to buy it. So when we saw it in Santa Cruz (they only had one left), we snatched it up.
One day J took Z out to play in the car while I did something - probably something with food. It takes a lot of effort to prepare all of Z's food! But he since loves steering wheels.
Zach was playing with my robe one day - he actually thought it was a blanket. So I put it on him. He's so cute.
Rock Band!! We had been trying to get together with Luke to play Rock Band, but it hadn't worked out until the last weekend of April. Apparently Paul has an X-box while Luke has the 360, and the game only works with the 360. So he'd have to bring all his crap over here. So we ate some tacos and went to town. 'Course we couldn't crank it because Z was in Luke's bedroom (well, closet, to be exact :)) and he does live in an apartment, with a downstairs neighbor with small children. We don't want to be that guy.
I think it took 'till the end of April for Z to be accustomed to all of the changes. It took him a while to get used to Maggie, but he was just so interested when she did her yoga. At one point he was actually squatting down with his face just inches from hers.
While Z understands that he needs to sit on his bottom while in his chair, he tries to get around that by sitting on things that he puts on the chair - in this case his little basketball. I think he had a tennis ball back there, too. Anyway, we thought it was cute how he was all sprawled out. You might notice the little license plate on his car - J got that in Texas and attached it.
So we were officially inducted into California-ism when we got our licenses and cars switched over. Holy cow, was it an awful experience. Literally took five trips there to get everything squared away, and I calculated about 8 hours of our time. We had gone online to make sure we'd have all of the paperwork, but when is the website ever accurate? We had the smog check certificate, but we didn't have the truck weight certificate. I had my birth certificate, but didn't have my marriage license to show proof of name change. Jason had the paperwork for the car filled out with only his signature, but he needed mine as it's in both our names. Then different people said they needed different paperwork to show the lien was fulfilled. We had the same exact paperwork for both vehicles, but they took the car paperwork and not the truck. Said it needed to be notarized or something stupid. So I went down there and was pretty curt with the person I got. After spending some time with his manager, he finally gave me the plates. Idiots. Our tabs had expired at the end of March, so we were kind of in a hurry to get them switched over. Otherwise we might have waited. I'm so glad we don't have to deal with that anymore.
Jason started looking for a job in Redding, about three hours north of here. Turns out the unemployment rate is worse there than the national average, at about 9-10%. Not really the best time to be moving. He's spent a few days up there dropping off resumes, but a lot of places are just slow right now. To date he's turned down a few interviews because they just weren't anything that would work for us - either not enough hours or no upward movement. So we're trying to be patient and hold out for something that's going to make him happy. We've talked about him getting a part-time job here in town, just for something to do and money to cover at least the groceries. He just gets so bored - some people are made to stay home, some people are not. And then there are the people who can do either and just cope with it.
In the meantime, Paul got us a membership to the Oakland Zoo. We went there one weekend with him and decided we'd probably come back frequently. While I like the Louisville Zoo better, this one is still pretty neat. We've been there several times, and Z really likes the animals (and the kids). It took me a while to understand, though, that this zoo is the same, if not closer, to us than the Louisville Zoo was to us in KY. It just seems bigger here.
I don't think much else happened over the rest of April - Paul and Maggie were still pretty busy with cycling, so we didn't see them a whole lot. And Paul works some intense hours, so Z doesn't get to play with him much except on the weekends.
We did have an interesting time trying to baby-proof the stairs - an ordinary gate wouldn't do as the railings it would attach to are wood and angled. And we didn't want to drop a heap of money on something that would be super fancy. So we have a permanent (cheap) gate at the foot of the stairs and then one upstairs we only put up if Z's upstairs. Jason spent some time with some tubing and zip ties trying to get the thing to stay. But it works out well. Actually, Z hasn't even attempted the stairs. I keep telling him that he needs to have help, otherwise he'll go "ouch, ouch, ouch." He listens pretty well - we had several days here before the gate was up.
Here are some pics of J and Z washing the truck. Zach actually really likes it. Or just likes playing in the water. He was soaked by the end of it.
But he'll help wash every now and then.
One day we took a little drive down to Santa Cruz (which as of a few days ago was on fire). It wasn't super warm, but Z enjoyed the sand well enough. At one point he actually ate some. We still had some smoked black pepper white cheddar cheese from Tillamook, so we snacked on that with crackers. That cheese is so good. Tasted better than the sand, I'm sure. We walked down a pier and got some food at a restaurant there, which was just okay. The more I cook, the more I am unwilling to pay money for something that I can do, but I also appreciate the time it takes to make said meals. It's just a trade-off.
We also found Zachary a new hat, which has a brim all around to keep the sun off of his ears and neck. We saw several before finally making a decision. And we also bought a little backpack with sand toys in it. I had seen it in Lincoln City and thought it was just the cutest thing, but apparently I wasn't very clear with Jason about wanting to buy it. So when we saw it in Santa Cruz (they only had one left), we snatched it up.
One day J took Z out to play in the car while I did something - probably something with food. It takes a lot of effort to prepare all of Z's food! But he since loves steering wheels.
Zach was playing with my robe one day - he actually thought it was a blanket. So I put it on him. He's so cute.
Rock Band!! We had been trying to get together with Luke to play Rock Band, but it hadn't worked out until the last weekend of April. Apparently Paul has an X-box while Luke has the 360, and the game only works with the 360. So he'd have to bring all his crap over here. So we ate some tacos and went to town. 'Course we couldn't crank it because Z was in Luke's bedroom (well, closet, to be exact :)) and he does live in an apartment, with a downstairs neighbor with small children. We don't want to be that guy.
I think it took 'till the end of April for Z to be accustomed to all of the changes. It took him a while to get used to Maggie, but he was just so interested when she did her yoga. At one point he was actually squatting down with his face just inches from hers.
While Z understands that he needs to sit on his bottom while in his chair, he tries to get around that by sitting on things that he puts on the chair - in this case his little basketball. I think he had a tennis ball back there, too. Anyway, we thought it was cute how he was all sprawled out. You might notice the little license plate on his car - J got that in Texas and attached it.
posted by Jason and Jodee at 9:57 AM
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