Saturday, August 11, 2012

Old News, New News, NEWS!

We MOVED! That news is so old at this point, it's ridiculous. I don't even want to talk about it anymore. I'm such a beginner at this blogging business that the idea of writing all the great posts that I haven't yet written pertaining to moving would stalemate me for at least a year. So, onward!

It may be close to a month since my last post, but I am happy to say that I finally get to put some stuff up here. For the first time since the moving process began I managed to get all children in bed by 9. By myself. Heck YES!

Instead of boring you with descriptions of the beautiful place in which we now live, which is inhabited by some locals who make it quite clear we are no longer anywhere near a big city (or even town), I will attempt to post some interesting pics of our adventures thus far, and give you some quick pointers of the awesome things which we have thus far discovered.

Awesome pic attempt numero uno:


Untitled

Well, that wasn't so bad. As long as I don't mind converting every photo to html. If you know a better way to put pics from flickr or instagram here on blogger, I'm all ears! I can NOT figure it out, and keep running out of patience whenever I look it up.

Moving on, that was on our first foray into the awesome Redwood forest. This particular hike, accessible in under ten minutes from our house, is in a large area of old growth Redwoods which consists of several different famous groves and backs up against the Smith River. Come to think of it, this town is so small that everything is accessible in under ten minutes from our house, and let me tell you I have been driving on the same tank of gas for nearly TWO WEEKS!! That is amazing, in and of itself.

Here is something else that is just three miles down the road:


Untitled

The Beach!

Untitled

A Lighthouse!!

It's pretty cool. We're excited for now. And something we are learning really quickly is that it doesn't matter how numbingly cold the water is, the kids will still get in it. I am not the prepared parent type of person. I am lucky if there are wipes in my van most of the time as we don't usually go unexpected places with unpredictable outcomes. This is all new to us, and being prepared is not yet my forte, so wet sandy kids, no towels, no swimsuits, no change of clothes....this will be my hard lesson learned one day when it really kicks me in the ass.

Moving on:


Untitled

We had moved to town just in time for the Del Norte County fair. Hurray! I thought. No heat, no dirt, no stinky animals, no gang members, no huge crowds, and no horrendous prices like we were accustomed to in Kern County. And mostly, I was right. As you can see in the picture above, aaaallll those people probably make up about half the county, so when everybody else showed up later, it was only kinda crowded. That's my helpful brother in the foreground. But as far as the horrendous prices, I am saddened to say that the ridiculous cost of taking a family to the fair is universal, and we are not going again for several years, if ever. After admission, some food (most of it is awful these days), and a few beverages, you are easily out more than $100 and still have to purchase tickets for the rides. After seeing the cost of the rides, we swiftly urged the children to pick their one favorite ride, and then left immediately. In short, this fair was everything a fair should be, except affordable for a family.

Shameless Cuteness:


Untitled

A few other exciting tidbits that have made our new home enjoyable:

1. There is a farmer's market twice a week

2. I found a local organic dairy who distributes at some of the grocers in town, but even better, you can drive to their dairy, take milk from their fridge, and leave money on the HONOR SYSTEM. Who does that anymore?!

3. Oregon is so close, and sales tax free, and gas is much cheaper there, AND they fill your gas for you

4.  Fred Meyer is in Oregon. It is like a Target, Walmart, and Kohl's with a gas station. And they have a play area for your preschoolers to stay for up to an hour while you shop. LOVE.

5. I never have to stand in line for anything. Post Office, Library, DMV. It's all so close, and everything is practically across the street from everything, and it's just lovely. Excpetions to this are Starbucks and Wal-Mart - you will stand in line, and you better be prepared to wait.

6. Our new parish, St. Joseph Church. We have a young priest who has only been there for a month, and he is passionate. It's a small intimate parish community. He is trying to get people back to church, and he described the parish to me as 'orthodox'. There are other home-schoolers, they are teaching the religious classes, and they are awesome! This will be my next post. We are already in love with our new parish. 

That's it for me today. Was this too much? It was too much, wasn't it? Oh well, I will get better. 

WANTED

Untitled

I still have yet to find the box that contains my favorite coffee mug. I'm certain it will take us at least until the end of this year to be fully unpacked. 

3 comments:

  1. I still marvel, 2 years later, at being able to go places and not wait in line. I can bring my kids to the post office and no one melts down??? Yipppeeee!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jealous! About everything from the redwoods to the parish to the homeschool.
    Ok, here's my tip on moving pictures from instagram (not sure about flickr) to blogger, easily:
    1. Get a web.stagram account (web.stagram.com)
    2. on web.stagram, when you look at the picture, in the upper right hand corner, there's this: {T|M|L|O} click on the L. That'll bring the picture up in a new window.
    3. Copy the website from this new window.
    4. On blogger, you have the option of uploading pictures from a URL. Choose that option, paste the website in, and viola! Pictures from instagram onto blogger, in less than a minute.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Cari, thanks for the tip! I was trying to do it through web.stagram but apparently I wan't clicking the right thing. I just found out that you can link your flickr account to your blogger and then everything should transfer easily that way...how it works in practice is yet to be seen.

      Delete