Easter 2012

Richard and I were so happy to join Tim and Marlene's family for Easter this year. Gabriel participated in his very first Easter egg hunt and also got an Easter basket!

A basket from Marlene.

A basket from Rose.

Hunting for eggs.

Thanks Tim and Marlene for making this a very special Easter!

(■) First week of work

For those of you that follow the blog regularly, it has been a while since I've posted.  Sarah is normally penning our life on the internet.  For those of you that follow (aka stalk) me via Google Latitude, you know that I just got back from Target, Toy's R Us, and Harris Teeter.  Sarah was tasked with putting Gabriel to bed for his nap, and I was sent to continue gathering the items we would need during our temporary stay in apartment life.  Fortunately, we have many wonderful stores close by.

You may have noticed that this post's title includes a solid box.  My ever increasing "To Do" list starts with an empty box in front of every item, and once completed gets filled-in.  I have finished my first week of work, and I'm very excited to say that not once did my tie get wet in the bathroom sink.  Gone are the days of nomex (fire retardant jump suit) and steel toe boots... I'm a slacks and tie guy now.  Sarah took a picture every day before I left from work.  She is chronicling my attire so I remember which tie/shirt/pant combos work best.  And it is also proof that this blog is being written by the "real" Richard Sanders (not the criminal from Rhode Island).

I was a little stiff on Monday.

More relaxed on Tuesday

 

The world was mine on Wednesday

Still in the groove on Thursday

Giving white a try to close out the week.

My new assignment should be interesting and much less stressful than refinery life.  I left my company phone, and thus night and weekend emergencies, back in Cali and picked up a couple research jobs that allow more free thinking.  Dangerous, I know, for an engineer but outside-the-box is where engineers like to live (second to only BestBuy).

Next on the "To Do" list is registering the vehicles and getting a new driver's license.  I'm sure there will be an exciting DMV blog in the near future.  :-)

Moving Update

I finally have the internet! I have been stuck in an apartment along with the baby. We've had no car, no TV and no internet. Richard has been hard at work, which means Gabriel and I are stuck watching the rain. BUT now I have internet. Yippee!!!

Ok, so while Gabriel is napping I figured I would post an update on our move. We had a bad turn of events on our way out here, and it threw us for a loop! It started with the house we had a contract on. The appraisal came in significantly lower than the sale price, and the sellers refused to budge. So we got out of the contract. That was the day before the movers came to pack our stuff. Little did we know, we would be staying in an apartment for months and needed to plan accordingly. So we only packed for two weeks. The next day, it was pouring cats and dogs (which hardly ever happens in SoCal), and well we can't stop the move because of weather. So I am hoping our stuff didn't get too wet when they were loading the truck.

We stayed at Tim and Marlene's house for 5 nights before flying out to Virginia. During that time, I found us an apartment to stay in. The apartment complex called the day before we flew out and said our application was denied, because Richard had a criminal record from Rhode Island. WHAT?!?! "Are you kidding", I asked. But I got a blunt "No" over the phone. Fortunately it took only 24 hours to get that mess cleared up. Don't worry folks, I am not actually married to a criminal. The same day, we found out someone stole our credit card information and tried to charge it with $1300 worth of stuff! Sheesh! So the credit card was deactivated, which meant we were now homeless and had no money. Not a good combination.

I am happy to report that we are now staying in an apartment AND we have money :). We ended up renting furniture, since our furniture was in storage, and it would be too difficult to sort through the boxes and only unpack what we needed. We also spent the first weekend doing a mad dash and looked at every option available on the housing market. After not being happy with what we saw we decided to look into a new development area. There we found a very nice town home within our budget available in August. So, that's where we are at now. We have signed on the new home, which will be staked out this week. The fun part is picking out all the details to the home. Well, I should clarify. It's fun for me, but I think Richard might just be seeing dollar signs.

I will post updates of the house as it comes along. We are very excited to move out of this apartment and into a place we can call home... with our own things!

Moving Across the Country

Well it's time for the big move! We're already in the middle of the hecticness that comes with moving, selling and buying a house. Tomorrow all of our household items will be packed up, and the next day they will be shipped. We are flying out to Virginia on April 18, and hopefully will be able to move into our new home on the 26. Looking forward to this new adventure!

Gabe and Tabe

Danielle and her family were so wonderful and helpful when they watched Gabriel during our house hunt in Virginia. I cried the first three nights I was away from Gabriel, but he seemed to be perfectly happy! Gabriel and Tabor (aka "the twins") were always dressed up the same.

We also had some time with Pa. He would take the boys for walks in the wagon, give them baths and then read to them. They loved him!

During this visit we could really see the difference in personality between the boys. Gabriel is very inquisitive and cautious at the same time. He likes things in their places and doesn't like to get too messy. Tabor is energetic and always laughing and smiling. He loves getting into things and making messes. Sometimes Gabriel would just watch Tabor and laugh. They had a blast together.

In this video, notice how Gabriel isn't sure what to do with the sand, but Tabor is having a blast!


Again in the wood chips.


And again in the leaves.


And here, Gabriel decided to feed Tabor from the high chair! Too funny for words!


The twins are so much fun. I just wish they could be together all the time. So far, I haven't been successful in getting the Touchstone's to move in next door. I'm still working on it!

Gabriel's First Haircut

I finally broke down and gave Gabriel a haircut. I didn't want to, because I didn't want him to grow up. Somehow, getting your first official haircut makes you a big boy, and I didn't want Gabriel to be a big boy yet. But after Danielle bugged me a little and pointed out how long Gabriel's hair was, I gave in.

Before...

After...

And Tabor got his haircut too. Yes, we dressed them up the same. :)

No more baby. Gabriel is a big boy now.

New Home

We're back from our trip! And what a busy couple of weeks it has been! We found a beautiful home in Virginia, and will be flying out on April 18. Here are some pictures I took with my phone. I know I forgot to get a picture of the most important room, the kitchen! But at least you can get an idea of the house.

 
After our time house hunting in Virginia, I flew back to Texas and spent a week with the Touchstone family. I'll blog more about that soon. For now, I'm going to find my long lost friend. His name is sleep.