i am writing this in my panties

*josh told me to title this blog as it is. it is true, though*

okay, so our phone line has FINALLY been hooked up, and i have FINALLY found a spot of time in which i can blog! was actually planning on taking a nap, but josh had the tv on and i can't find my earplugs in the mess of our not-yet-unpacked-belongings, so that was the end of that. he also is baking a cake and i find it very hard to sleep when there is something yummy smelling in the air.

so...it has been a very long time. jamie and cherie arrived safe and sound late wednesday night. the next day the two of them dropped me off at work and went to the zoo together. the next day we awoke super early to drive the 3 hours it takes to get to six flags magic mountain ( i always thought that six flags and magic mountain were two different places. i am smarter now). we had a great day there. josh had gone on the website the night before to check out what time it opened, and he noticed that there was some sort of hallelujah jubilee thing going on. but we didn't find out until we got there that a bunch of christian bands were playing that evening, including the newsboys. all 4 of us really like their music, so we were completely stoked. the roller coasters were great, especially goliath. managed to go on that one twice, but all of the other really popular ones had line ups 2-3 hours long, so that was a little disappointing. if you'd like to read a very detailed discription of goliath (including what our faces looked like), go to cherie's blog--the link is in the sidebar. the newsboys were great. during their song about your worries falling "like a million raindrops falling from a blue sky, kissing your cares good bye" all of a sudden, a million pieces of ticker tape started to fall down on us! it was brilliant. i kept a few pieces in my pocket, since i have a tendancy to worry about anything and everything, and this was a really neat visual reminder that God really wants me to STOP doing that!

we didn't get home until 1.30am, partly due to a very necessary stop at in-n-out to show my brother and sister what the fuss was all about. and the next morning we were up early again to pack and move. the entire weekend i felt like i was jet-lagged. come to think of it, i still feel that way. it was wonderful to sleep in our new place saturday night, with the faint sounds of bullfrogs outside instead of ear-shattering hip-hop music from the cars driving by. i am completely in love with this place! there are more cupboards than we can fill! and yes, aunt lil, it is a modular home. the owners bought it after their house burned down a year and a half ago in those awful fires down here. they lived in this modular home while building a new house on the same site as the one that burned down. their house is newly finished, so they decided to keep the modular home and rent it out! their new house is right next to ours. they're really cool people with 2 kids.

so on sunday we had a bbq at josh's folks house with the whole family. poor rob had been stung by a bee the day before and his hand was swollen so big and was really hurting him. he ended up going to a hospital later on and found out that he is allergic! yikes. jamie and cherie flew home on monday and i have been working since then and also getting our old house spic and span. moving is a gigantic pain in the butt, but its so worth it to be in this great place. today josh and i had fun putting all of our plants and flowers out on the front porch and now it looks all pretty. then we took a walk around the pond (me paranoid of rattlesnakes) and then took a boat out and spotted a gargantuan bullfrog on the other side! its so peaceful here, i love it so much. its so bright and open and has windows everywhere. for awhile, josh and i felt like we were housesitting for someone, but its really beginning to feel like home.

tonight my hubby and i are going to eat fabulous chocolate cake and veg. yummy.

bye
--heidi

this is me, josh, jamie and cherie (my brother and sister) at six flags last friday. 

ta da! our new home. 

this is the view from our front porch. there is a pond down the hill with canoes that we can go paddling on! 

this is kaylee and her dad, rob, getting ready to go out onto the pond in the canoe. 

kaylee was a little worried about the prospect of going onto the boat, so the rest of her family paddles away, while cherie held her. 

so, it was just decided about an hour ago that we will move into our new place THIS weekend instead of next weekend. oh my goodness. my brother and sister are arriving late tomorrow night and our house is in a disastrous state. josh has to keep telling me to STOP stressing out. which i am trying really hard to do. so i just had to post this little one to let you know why you probably won't be hearing from me in awhile.

that's it.
~heidi

earthquakes and spiders and snakes...oh my!

hooray for a day off! i refuse to complain about work anymore because everyone has to work, and i am thankful for my job and all of that. so, suffice it to say, HOORAY FOR A DAY OFF! today i have one yucky thing to do. i like to do the things that i don't feel like doing first thing in the day so they're not hanging over me all day. today i have to quit my job at the library. there is just no way that i can work 40 hours a week, and then be available to work at the library on my days off. my Scary Boss-Lady at the library called me yesterday and asked me to work every saturday for the next 2 months! when i told her i'd get back to her once i found out my work schedule, she said, rather rudely, "well, just tell them that the library needs you every saturday!" AS IF!! and so i am quitting. this will be the 2nd job that i am quitting in only one month.

after i quit my job i get to go shopping for a bit and pick up groceries so i can make josh a great big feast tonight to make up for the last 2 weeks of not making any real meals at all. i am making chicken chow mein (my mom's famous recipe), fried rice w/veggies and lettuce wraps, which are to DIE for, if i do say so myself.

my friend miriam (aka goldie carlow) recommended a book to me called "the happy hocky family". i requested it from the library and it finally came in. it's a children's picture book, but oh, is it ever so much more than that! i read it in bed before going to sleep and giggled all the way through, then went right back to the beginning and giggled all the way through it again. and then, (i could not help myself) i interrupted josh's reading of the Serious Kennedy Family in order to read him a few pages about the Happy Hocky Family. josh did not giggle. he didn't even smile. he just said, "but it's a kid's book." how can he not understand?? when i don't feel well, i ask him to read to me from the many adventures of winnie the pooh, or of peter pan and tinkerbell. he complies, but he never really "gets" the stories. i am afraid to ask him to read to me from the chronicles of narnia, because it would be truly heartbreaking to me if he said he didn't "get" those books either. the fact that he is my favourite person in the world is the only thing keeping me from striking him off of my a-list.

we went to go show josh's parents our new place the other day. i was overjoyed to find that the kitchen really was as big as i had remembered it in my mind. the only scary thing about living out there is the rattlesnakes. apparently there are lots of them. i'm getting goosebumps just writing that. i wonder if pepper spray works on snakes....hmmm. i've already encountered my fair share of black widows outside and last night experienced my first good-sized earthquake. it was a 4.0 on the richter scale and woke both josh and i up at 4am! it was quite something.

well, i'm off to give Scary Boss-Lady a call, after which her title will be shortened to simply Scary Lady.

~heidi :)

orange blossom 

day off

am listening to sarah brightman while waiting for my hair to air-dry a bit before going out (it's been doing the frizz thing lately.) today i have the day off! glorious freedom! boy, working full time really makes you appreciate the moments you're NOT working. work has been getting better as i'm finally getting used to being on my feet for 8 hours, and also getting used to the work itself--realizing that not all bookstores are created equal, and so i should stop comparing the one i'm working in now to the one that i used to work in.

it takes me about 30 minutes to drive to work, and the road i drive on goes right through an orange grove. lately, as i've been driving through with my windows down, the most heavenly fragrance has danced through the windows into my nostrils. i had heard of orange blossoms, but couldn't really see them on the trees as i passed by. one evening as i drove home after it was dark, the fragrance was so strong that it permeated my car, even without the windows down! so last weekend, i examined a branch of an orange tree at a friend's house, and sure enough, it was loaded with gorgeous smelling blossoms. i now want an orange tree.

my sister and brother are going to be here in 2 weeks! we've already decided that we're all going to six flags one day--i've never been, but love roller coasters. i haven't seen my sister since our wedding last july--it will be fun to have them here. i hope the weather behaves itself.

hair is most certainly turning to frizz, really must go.

~heidi

happy april!

i was so excited yesterday when i brought a roll of film into wal mart because they said they could put it on a cd for me. so i have been on this stupid computer for an HOUR trying to get these dumb pictures on my blog. the thing is, most of the pictures on the cd are either upside down or sideways, and i CAN'T FIX THEM!! i admit it...i am not a computer genius after all. i posted a few anyway, but had to quit trying to turn the others around before i started to yank my hair out in frustration. ah well.

well, the U2 concert on monday night was fabulous, as expected. the opening band sucked, but whatever. it felt quite surreal to be sitting there with bono singing his lungs out in the SAME ROOM as me (granted, it was a very large room). very cool. monday was also the first day of my new job. its going fine...one thing that i'm bummed about is working evenings and weekends. for example, tonight i work until 9:30, then tomorrow morning i'm up for a morning shift. i did the closing shift on tuesday as well, and came home feeling extremely depressed because i didn't understand all of the closing procedures i'm supposed to do, and also because josh was already asleep, so i didn't get to tell him every little thing and have him empathize with me. i cried a bit. i suppose we've been spoiled for the 10 months we've been married. i've always been home when he gets home from work, and we see each other every day. so this will be difficult to get used to. still, i'm grateful that i am working.

the newest, biggest news for us is that we're moving!! we weren't even looking for a new place, but an opportunity arose that we just couldn't resist. we will be moving on may 1st into a new 3 bedroom home in a very quiet area of ramona. there is a pond with boats right down the hill from our house (providing a lovely view from our window, i might add), a nice big patio out front, and a kitchen that is about a million times larger than the one we have now! okay, so maybe i'm exaggerating a bit, but our current kitchen can hold no more than 2 people at a time. josh and i finalized everything with our new landlords last night, and we are both SO EXCITED!! this also means that it will be easier to have friends and family visit and stay at our house, since we'll have the extra rooms.

well, that's all the news for now. i need to get out and take a walk before getting ready for work...

~heidi

i KNOW this picture is sideways, and i am so frustrated because it just won't turn around! but i had to post it--kaylee, finding easter eggs, with uncle stew following behind so that she could put her eggs in his hat. 

this is josh ahead of me, just starting on our hike. those hills in the background are usally brown, but we've been getting so much rain lately that they look oh-so-pretty-green! 

here is the waterfall--can you see the guys with orange pants at the top? by then they were far away from us, but still staring!