So, we got to our new home (yes yes pictures to come)and actually got everything unloaded the same day. Our new roomates are very very nice! We all get along really really well, I think the living with other people situation will work out just fine! :)
What may not be working out as planned is living in this house....after we got all moved in and mom left us to do our planned out yard work a police officer showed up at our front gate. Great timing on her part (the police officer) because Kael and I were literally on our way out to go buy grass for the side of the house we were fixing up for maddi...she saved us a lot of money!! Here is how: turns out our landlord built the room we are using now for a tv/video game room illegally. It used to be a car port and he turned it into a fourth bedroom and second bathroom both of which are definitely not up to code. Apparently our landlord has been dealing with the city's code enforcement officers for several months and has not cooperated...cooperating being either a. tear down the 4th bedroom and convert it back into the car port that it was or b. following city guidelines bring the room and bathroom up to code. We highly doubt he is going to do either...sounds like he is a bit confused at the whole thing. Icing on the cake-for us- is that the reason the cops know about this illegal build is because the former tenants here called the cops on our landlord for coming onto the property late at night and hanging around ect. Creepy. He is an old I think Greek guy, but we're not sure of his exact ethnicity and at first glance you kind of feel bad for him...but then you realize that the officers have been trying to help and he still hasn't made any progress towards legalizing his property.
So the saga continues. We paid 1st, last, and deposit when we moved in...all $1600 so we are just going to let him know in the next wk or so that he can use the deposit and last month's rent for the months of July and August and we will be out of the house by the end of August. We definitely are not paying a dime more to this guy. SO the house hunt will be continuing once again. Joy. Looks like there is a lot of good properties on the market right now though so hopefully there will be similar pickings in August. Positive thoughts.
So far today Kael and I have just hung around the house, its pretty chilly, to us anyway, and gloomy. We did discover the local dog park which is not far from the house so we took Maddi there today. We'll try to get her out there a few times a wk at least...now that we don't really have a back yard for her like we had thought. (since its all just dirt and the fencing is shotty) Oh the joys of renting.
There are lots of pictures on my Facebook of my trip to Minnesota and North Dakota if anyone is interested...also a few mobile uploads of the side of the house and the front of the house...kind of...but i'll upload pictures here of the house one of these days! :) I am kind of hoping for a sunny day to do it to be honest, but I may have to give up on that!
Until next time,
Much love,
Me
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Settling In
Now...where was I??
So we set off to California the day after I got home from MN which I believe was June 2nd. The day started off early, since we had a 12 hr drive ahead of us we wanted to get an early start. We planned to meet my cousin Olivia at her place at 8:15 to pick up a bike she was going to sell me. Already there were so many things wrong with this plan. I really should have gone the night before to get the bike. 1. because I needed to get cash out from the bank and 2. because she had to leave for work at 8:30 so if we were at all late due to traffic our window would be tight. And guess what...our window was tight. I didn't actually make it to her house before she had to leave, which, no one realized meant I wasn't able to give her her cash that had made me late in the first place. Kael got there, got the bike loaded in the Uhaul and mom and I turned around, went to Starbucks to pee and got on the highway right behind him...or so we thought. Mom and I were driving along the 202 out toward California and for a few miles couldn't see Kael. We kept thinking, he couldn't possibly be that far ahead of us could he??? We were on Interstate 10 West before we thought to call him. Turned out he had pulled over to shift stuff in the Uhaul and didn't tell us he stopped. We pulled over and he caught up to us and so the day goes on. Driving 55MPH I was dying. I feel bad for my mom who had to listen to me wine. 55MPH does not bode well for someone with a lead foot. At some point we stopped to shift around stuff in the Uhaul again because it was swaying on Kael a lot. Mom and I looked in the Uhaul to try to help him and I asked him where my new bike was..after all I hadn't seen it yet...and we all thought maybe it just shifted forward and was burried. About 30 minutes later Kael came over the walkie talkie and goes "uh...Sash? Remember how you asked about your bike....I don't think its in the Uhaul..." I will skip the exploitatives I yelled at him and just say that what happened was Kael took it out back on the 202 to shift the weight around in the trailer...turns out he left it on the side of the road. Irritated to say the least.
Fast forward 4 hours later and we crossed into California FINALLY. We decided not to stop for lunch however until we got to Palm Springs. When we got there around 2pm we had lunch, took Maddi on a nice long walk to Petco and got a heavy duty tarp to re cover the mattresses and kitchen table in the bed of Kael's truck. Literally a mile down the road the tarp was flying all over the place...so we pulled off and tried to fix it. Got back on the road and again, a mile later the tarp was a gonner. So we pulled off the road to take it totally off. After a detour out of the gas station we were off again. Poor Kael was exhausted from moving our entire apartment down three flights of stairs and we'd already had a long day at that point. We made it through Los Angeles but not much farther than that. Daddy booked us a hotel room in Bakersfeild.
The next day went much smoother. Just a quick 4 hour drive to Monterey!! haha We were ecstatic to get to the house. I'll take lots of pictures to show you what we walked up to it definitely was underwhelming. The yard is all dirt no grass with a shotty fence that will absolutely not contain our wild pup. However, despite the ugliness the outside the inside of the house is quite quaint. The paint could use some work, but nothing that a few posters and picture frames didn't cure.
This is a long enough blog. I am sure if Stacy is reading this she is thinking "ok this is too long, I don't have all day to read one post" Right Stacy?! haha
Until next time, which I promise wont be a weeks time....
Much love,
Me
So we set off to California the day after I got home from MN which I believe was June 2nd. The day started off early, since we had a 12 hr drive ahead of us we wanted to get an early start. We planned to meet my cousin Olivia at her place at 8:15 to pick up a bike she was going to sell me. Already there were so many things wrong with this plan. I really should have gone the night before to get the bike. 1. because I needed to get cash out from the bank and 2. because she had to leave for work at 8:30 so if we were at all late due to traffic our window would be tight. And guess what...our window was tight. I didn't actually make it to her house before she had to leave, which, no one realized meant I wasn't able to give her her cash that had made me late in the first place. Kael got there, got the bike loaded in the Uhaul and mom and I turned around, went to Starbucks to pee and got on the highway right behind him...or so we thought. Mom and I were driving along the 202 out toward California and for a few miles couldn't see Kael. We kept thinking, he couldn't possibly be that far ahead of us could he??? We were on Interstate 10 West before we thought to call him. Turned out he had pulled over to shift stuff in the Uhaul and didn't tell us he stopped. We pulled over and he caught up to us and so the day goes on. Driving 55MPH I was dying. I feel bad for my mom who had to listen to me wine. 55MPH does not bode well for someone with a lead foot. At some point we stopped to shift around stuff in the Uhaul again because it was swaying on Kael a lot. Mom and I looked in the Uhaul to try to help him and I asked him where my new bike was..after all I hadn't seen it yet...and we all thought maybe it just shifted forward and was burried. About 30 minutes later Kael came over the walkie talkie and goes "uh...Sash? Remember how you asked about your bike....I don't think its in the Uhaul..." I will skip the exploitatives I yelled at him and just say that what happened was Kael took it out back on the 202 to shift the weight around in the trailer...turns out he left it on the side of the road. Irritated to say the least.
Fast forward 4 hours later and we crossed into California FINALLY. We decided not to stop for lunch however until we got to Palm Springs. When we got there around 2pm we had lunch, took Maddi on a nice long walk to Petco and got a heavy duty tarp to re cover the mattresses and kitchen table in the bed of Kael's truck. Literally a mile down the road the tarp was flying all over the place...so we pulled off and tried to fix it. Got back on the road and again, a mile later the tarp was a gonner. So we pulled off the road to take it totally off. After a detour out of the gas station we were off again. Poor Kael was exhausted from moving our entire apartment down three flights of stairs and we'd already had a long day at that point. We made it through Los Angeles but not much farther than that. Daddy booked us a hotel room in Bakersfeild.
The next day went much smoother. Just a quick 4 hour drive to Monterey!! haha We were ecstatic to get to the house. I'll take lots of pictures to show you what we walked up to it definitely was underwhelming. The yard is all dirt no grass with a shotty fence that will absolutely not contain our wild pup. However, despite the ugliness the outside the inside of the house is quite quaint. The paint could use some work, but nothing that a few posters and picture frames didn't cure.
This is a long enough blog. I am sure if Stacy is reading this she is thinking "ok this is too long, I don't have all day to read one post" Right Stacy?! haha
Until next time, which I promise wont be a weeks time....
Much love,
Me
Friday, June 3, 2011
The long haul
Well it will be hard to type out the WHOLE story on my phone but boy has it already a long trip! We are in Bakersfield, CA which is just north of LA and about 4 hours south of Monterey! We left at 8:30 am from Phoenix and got here around 8pm last night yikes. We had a few bumps in the road...Kael losing my bike, windy terrain ripping our tarp, a detour, and having to drive a whopping 55 mph the entire trip which of course drove me bonkers but I did get GREAT gas mileage!! Haha
We are about to head out to Monterey and I will explain all the highlights I just mentioned in detail!! We are just very excited to get to our new home!
Until next time...much love,
Me!
We are about to head out to Monterey and I will explain all the highlights I just mentioned in detail!! We are just very excited to get to our new home!
Until next time...much love,
Me!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
It's so hard to say goodbye
I am pretty sure I said "Goodnight Finn, I love you!" 5 times when I put him down for his snoozer (for those of you not in the Thomas/Walsh/Brown clan that means nap time) today! My bestie is just the cutest...and no I am NOT biased! Maybe him and my first born will be soul mates ;-) haha
Anyway! I am sitting in the Minneapolis St. Paul airport now waiting for my flight back to arizona. Earlier today Kelsie came over to spend my last morning with me and Finn and we had quite a morning! Stacy, Jim, Korri went to Korri's well child appointment so Kels and I were babysitting Finn. (for more details on Korri's appointment see Stacy's blog short story is she is a healthy but little peanut) Finn, Kelsie and I made a mess decorating the t shirt we tie dyed for Finn last Thursday so now he has a shirt like our scrubs! I will upload photos here when I get my laptop from home but if you want to see a couple, check out my Facebook!
It has been such a fun week!! I am so glad I got to make it out! Such a busy 2 wks and it's only half way over! When I get back to az I'll be having dinner with mom and friends, spending the night with kaels mom, and well be up bright an early tomorrow for our 12 hour drive to Monterey!!! So glad I got this nice vaca in before chaos begins with summer session Arabic. Yikes!
Well I am going to snag a snack then bored! Until next time,
Much love,
Me!
Ps: Stacy tell the babies I love and miss them already!!
Anyway! I am sitting in the Minneapolis St. Paul airport now waiting for my flight back to arizona. Earlier today Kelsie came over to spend my last morning with me and Finn and we had quite a morning! Stacy, Jim, Korri went to Korri's well child appointment so Kels and I were babysitting Finn. (for more details on Korri's appointment see Stacy's blog short story is she is a healthy but little peanut) Finn, Kelsie and I made a mess decorating the t shirt we tie dyed for Finn last Thursday so now he has a shirt like our scrubs! I will upload photos here when I get my laptop from home but if you want to see a couple, check out my Facebook!
It has been such a fun week!! I am so glad I got to make it out! Such a busy 2 wks and it's only half way over! When I get back to az I'll be having dinner with mom and friends, spending the night with kaels mom, and well be up bright an early tomorrow for our 12 hour drive to Monterey!!! So glad I got this nice vaca in before chaos begins with summer session Arabic. Yikes!
Well I am going to snag a snack then bored! Until next time,
Much love,
Me!
Ps: Stacy tell the babies I love and miss them already!!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Tis the Season
To play baseball! As Kelsie says "what's with you singing Christmas carols all the time?!" I am not really sure to be honest with ya but what I know is that we are at the first Rox game of the season and hoping we avoid a storm.
It is sunny and warm now but that's without saying it's bloody humid and windy and theres a dark cloud in the distance! We are all checking our phones every few minutes for weather updates...should be interesting.
There really isn't anything like small town baseball! What a good way to spend memorial day! Enjoying America's past time seems like a great way to honor those who have given so much so that are able! Today is a great day to not only remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to preserve America's freedom but also think about and thank those who are committed to America's security and prosperity in other ways than just through military action and participation. Thank you to all those who have America's best interest at heart, thank you for your service in whichever capacity and thank you to those of you who are braver than I...those who are willing to put your life on the line for our country each and every day of your service! Americans everywhere should be thankful for our security, freedoms, and prosperity everyday, not just today.
Whatever you are doing today have fun and be grateful. I'm going to go pay attention to the game...while it's still going (update: wind is picking up).
Until next time, much love,
Me
It is sunny and warm now but that's without saying it's bloody humid and windy and theres a dark cloud in the distance! We are all checking our phones every few minutes for weather updates...should be interesting.
There really isn't anything like small town baseball! What a good way to spend memorial day! Enjoying America's past time seems like a great way to honor those who have given so much so that are able! Today is a great day to not only remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to preserve America's freedom but also think about and thank those who are committed to America's security and prosperity in other ways than just through military action and participation. Thank you to all those who have America's best interest at heart, thank you for your service in whichever capacity and thank you to those of you who are braver than I...those who are willing to put your life on the line for our country each and every day of your service! Americans everywhere should be thankful for our security, freedoms, and prosperity everyday, not just today.
Whatever you are doing today have fun and be grateful. I'm going to go pay attention to the game...while it's still going (update: wind is picking up).
Until next time, much love,
Me
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Back to Ortonville
Well this is neat! I am blogging from my phone on our way back to Ortonville, MN from Larimore, ND. No computer necessary!!
We had a really fun weekend out with the North Dakota fam celebrating Dave's (or should I say David M. Brown, MD) graduation from medical school! It is truly a huge achievement and something each one of us is so proud of. And what better way to show him we r proud than sharing some drinks!! :) and good food and company and family time and all that! ;)
Uncle Mike and Aunt Lisa, of course, had a huge feast prepared for the lot of us! Yumm!!!! Nana and papa could both be found helping out of course seeing as neither of them are good at just sitting around! ;)
It was a short trip out since Kels, John, and I had to come out Saturday morning due to work and other commitments and are leaving now, Sunday afternoon, to get back to baseball games, then back to the cities tomorrow.
I am so happy I was able to get out here before I embark on my next adventure since I'm sure I'll be booked up in school now for the next 2 years....fun. Poor Kael back home in AZ tho, he is working 12 hour days and packing up our whole apartment!!! Yikes! He's loading it into the uhaul on wed too! Poor thing! It'll all be done when mom and I fly in wed evening! Haha convenient for us! ;)
Well I guess I am going to get going, this seems long on my phone....hope its not too borin for you guys!!
Much love,
Me
We had a really fun weekend out with the North Dakota fam celebrating Dave's (or should I say David M. Brown, MD) graduation from medical school! It is truly a huge achievement and something each one of us is so proud of. And what better way to show him we r proud than sharing some drinks!! :) and good food and company and family time and all that! ;)
Uncle Mike and Aunt Lisa, of course, had a huge feast prepared for the lot of us! Yumm!!!! Nana and papa could both be found helping out of course seeing as neither of them are good at just sitting around! ;)
It was a short trip out since Kels, John, and I had to come out Saturday morning due to work and other commitments and are leaving now, Sunday afternoon, to get back to baseball games, then back to the cities tomorrow.
I am so happy I was able to get out here before I embark on my next adventure since I'm sure I'll be booked up in school now for the next 2 years....fun. Poor Kael back home in AZ tho, he is working 12 hour days and packing up our whole apartment!!! Yikes! He's loading it into the uhaul on wed too! Poor thing! It'll all be done when mom and I fly in wed evening! Haha convenient for us! ;)
Well I guess I am going to get going, this seems long on my phone....hope its not too borin for you guys!!
Much love,
Me
Friday, May 27, 2011
Back in Minnesota
Re united again with my family in Minnesota and couldn't be happier about it!! My time here has also inspired my return to the blogosphere ... Can't write too much now since I'm on Kelsie's phone in a bar in ortonville and let me tell u, we are raging!! Haha ya right. Either way, in Arnold's words "I'll be back"..
Until next time friends ....
Until next time friends ....
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