Awesome Kid Review

So at work, we are to write a 'daily report' for each child (I work with 2 year olds, whom my coworker and I potty train every day). They are given to parents at the end of the day when they pick them up and the reports tell about their child's day (i.e. the mood he/she was in, what he/she enjoyed doing for outside play or for art...etc) 

This day my coworker, Lana, (who is amazing by the way) wrote them for the kids. The report reads as follows (with the child's name changed for privacy purposes): 

 "Brad had a good day overall but had a little trouble with gentle hands. Tried to pee standing up today, when he didn't succeed he looked up at Ms. Lana and said, "This thing isn't working!"

 Isn't that just hilarious?! I thought so.

JUNE 1st!!!

HAPPY 3rd ANNIVERSARY TO MY HUBBY KEVIN!!!!!  We were married in the Sacramento Temple 3 years ago and have loved every minute of being married together for time and all eternity!!

                                                                                                       Licking our Ice Sculpture of the Sacramento Temple :)

For our anniversary, we went to an elegant restaurant in Carmel called 'Casa Nova'. We dressed up for the occasion and then drove to the beach down Ocean Avenue afterward to watch the sun set behind the rocks and to watch the sun glimmer on the water. It was blissful! 

Together we have graduated college (December 2009), gotten jobs outside of college (well Kevin got the grown up job at the CPA firm), celebrated birthdays together, traveled to Mexico twice (once on the east side, then on the west side which was a cruise), gone camping with Kevin's brother and family to sail hobbie cats-pontoon sailboats-(where I ended up falling into and tearing their sail!), flown to San Diego for our one year anniversary (even though it was in March) to drive Kevin's brother's car up to Chico to be taken care of (the Honda S2000), went to CA Adventures for free where Kevin wore a Happy Birthday pin to get free tortillas at the tortilla factory, went camping at Fort Brag with friends where we were cold ALL night, went to Canada (British Columbia to be exact) for a week to visit Nan and Poppy (it was a LONG 19 hour drive both ways!!), and aside from all of our trips we've had many other small adventures including moving 5 to 6 times. We LOVE being together! 

The next few years will still be as big and adventurous as the last few. We hope to buy a house next year. It's expensive to live here in Monterey...but the market is low right now so it's perfect! We want to get more toys like Quads and a Hobbie Cat (sailboat) of our own. We have friends in the military and outside of it of course, but some of which are moving to Germany and Italy...hopefully we will be able to visit! Keep your fingers crossed! I am also hoping, and Kevin is secretly, that we will be able to go to the gorgeous Caribbean because we LOVED Cancun, Tulum, Xelha, Cozumel, and Playa Del Carmen...perhaps we'll go to the Bahamas or Grand Cayman???  And, chances are, we'll start having kids...but it's all a mystery!

Carmel River Beach

 

So this is our FAVORITE beach to go to so far.. Some days there are HUGE waves crashing into the sand.. Other days, just a peaceful ocean rushing into the shore.. Half the time here in Monterey, it is sunny (usually the latter half of the day) and the other half of the time, it is cloudy. Fog tends to roll in early morning, but dissipates by mid-morning. It was cloudy this day we went to the beach and the waves were chill. Nothing like laying down and relaxing at the beach!

   

Location Location Location!!!

So now that we live in Monterey... the Oakland Temple is our temple! It takes 2 hours to get there, just like driving from Sacramento to it. We try our best to enjoy the drive and miss being close to the temple!..when we were in Sacramento for a couple months. It's okay though, we live in a great place and love being within close distance to everything! (Aquarium, Beaches, Ocean, and then Santa Cruz, Great America, etc...) Santa Cruz is about 30 minutes from here. Great America is about 1 hour from here. The aquarium is about 5 minutes from where we live. Castroville - the artichoke capital of the world - is about 15 minutes from  here. We got 12 artichokes for $1 a month ago! Gilroy - the garlic capital of California - is 45 minutes from here. LA is 5 to 6 hours from here....the list goes on and on.. Pebble Beach is 10 minutes away (Infamous Golf location).. Oh and Watsonville - 20 minutes from here - has delicious berries everywhere... gotta love Monterey!!!!!

CPR!!!

Yessssss! I'm CPR/First Aid certified once again! I can now save your life, your child's, and your little infant's! Oooo Oooooooooo!!

This was the most fun certification I've ever had. It was from 10-1:15ish. Bam. Done. Badabing-Badaboom. To me, the teacher/trainer looked and acted like "Ross" from the tv show, Friends. All the single girls were flirting/giggling all the time. He was also a firefighter and not only that, but he was single (according to the lack of ringage on his finger), so, they were in heaven. When he said that he would leave his number to let us know when the certification cards were ready, my boss was all, "Oh, I don't think you should actually give it to them, they'll actually call you." Okay, lets back up. There was a CPR certification thing going on today for work and parents of children who attend there. And, I needed to get re-certified and some of my fellow co-workers did too. I couldn't help but laugh histerically inside, shake my head back and forth, and have a smirk on my fiace all at the same time whenever they would start "hehehehe!" when he would say something that had a double meaning or whenever he would demonstrate on them (or vice versa). Holy Manoly. Goofy girls. The funny thing was that he was the only guy with all of us girls. He was a good sport though, and just laughed with everyone. My oh my.. It was fun. It definitely made the time go by faster! lol

Job!!!

I found a job! Wohoo! I'm working at the Children's Creative Learning Center here in Monterey. This is a center open to children: 6 weeks-5 years of age. It focuses on guided learning (aka Constructivism), which I LOVE. Before I accepted this job offer, I was offered a job at a preschool here where I would be teaching little 4-5 year olds and it would have been full time...but the catch was, the pay was less because that preschool was not funded. And also, after praying about where I should be, I was told several times that the CCLC (Children's Creative Learning Center) is the right place for me to be. 

So, for the first few weeks (at least) I will be with 2-3 year olds having a grand ol' time. I am considered a substitute teacher right now, until I get promoted to become a "head teacher". Yet, I will be working 30+ hours a week, which I find great for a substitute teacher...especially for the teaching field in this recession! I can't wait to start (4/14). It will be fun. And, I think the co-workers are already fabulous. 

I am excited to contribute making money for our little family! I think that with me working alongside kevin, figuratively speaking, will speed up the process of saving money for a house! It is expensive here, but with the market being low right now, we'll be able to find something when the time comes. We were living in a 2bd/2bth house in Chico last fall..but, as of now, this little 1bd/1bath apartment is working out just fine. I never thought we would be able to downsize again after that 1 car garage studio in Roseville (maybe 350sq. ft!)... but here we are! Living with nothing but the essentials! It's actually quite nice, cutting through all that crap, hehe! We've gotten rid of a lot of our things, even though there is still a lot of our things up in Kevin's parent's attic. It's amazing how much you accumulate after being married for about 3 years...but we say no more junk! And with that motto... we are able to go out and have fun and spend some play money :)

(This was at CA Adventures Feb 2010)

GO money!!

It is so awesome being grown ups.  Kevin has a real job and is making lots of money (compared to before when we both were not working and finishing school).  I am going to have a job very soon with preschool-aged children.  I might apply for subbing at elementary schools, but we'll see.  Anyway, we love having money!  It is such a huge change compared to not having money.  We've been able to buy nicer clothes, instead of buying random clothing off of the clearance racks, which tended to never match the wardrobe at home!  Go Banana Republic!!  And, Men's Wearhouse!!