So Busy, No Time to Write

Well, it's been a while. Jeremiah and I have been extremely busy these past many months and it hasn't really slowed down. In December, we started our preliminary searches for a house. In January, we celebrated our 2 year Anniversary and seriously started looking for a house. In February, the house hunt continued and I was heavily working on sewing a Civil War outfit for Jeremiah for an event in February (which we ended up not going to after all but not because his outfit wasn't completed). January and February were also fun because Mandi, our sister-in-law, was out visiting from Guam while Josh, Jeremiah's brother, was deployed on a ship for 4 months. (She even helped with parts of the Civil War outfit which was really nice.)

As a Christmas present from my parents, they took us to 3 different plays throughout March, April, and May. We had a really good time going with the family to these plays. Our favorite one was called Hay Fever and it was set in a British country house in the 1920s. It was a cross between a high farce and a comedy of manners and was very entertaining.

March was a very busy month as we stepped up our house searching and joined forces with a realtor. On March 15, we found out we were pregnant...and we were very happy! March 21 was a combined birthday party for Jeremiah (turning 30) and Debbie (turning 55) and we had tons of family over and it was a lot of fun. (I'll try to post pictures of the day later.)

On March 25, Jeremiah birthday, we celebrated at Disneyland - although we didn't go on as many of the rides as we had a baby to think about now. But it was still a lot of fun. (Pictures to come later.)

On March 26, my Grandpa Thelin passed away from the cancer he had been struggling with for the last 7 months. It's hard to not have him anymore especially with the new baby coming, but I'm really thankful that he is in Heaven and that he isn't dealing with the cancer any more. We had his burial on April 3rd and his Celebration of Life on April 4th. My sister and dad put together these great photo boards of my grandpa for the service and it was really neat to be able to see all that my grandpa did during his life. It really was a great way to Celebrate his life.

Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've been dealing with morning sickness and other "fun" pregnancy things. It has really slowed me down in what I have been able to do and I have spent many an hour on our couch as I just haven't felt well enough to do much of anything else. My Bookkeeping business also picked up during this time (ah, Tax season) which was nice for the extra work, but hard when you just don't feel well.

April was very busy, again with looking for a house and with my business. Jeremiah's work has also been very busy, which is good because they really need him there but it can be stressful as well.

The house search has just seemed to drag on for an eternity. We had no idea it would be this hard to buy a house. It's not that there aren't lots of good houses out there that we like, it's just that there are a ton of buyers out there as well. So it often happens that you go into a bidding war with all the other buyers or an investor comes in with an all-cash full-price offer and snatches up the place before you could even fax your offer in. It's just been really frustrating but we are trusting that God still has the right one out there for us. (My aunt has recently been helping us search and she has found some good ones so we're hopeful that something might happen soon.) Obviously, we would love to be in a home before the baby comes.

On Mother's Day, we announced to everyone that we were pregnant and that was a great gift to give to everyone. On Mother's Day we had my family, including my Grandma Thelin and aunt come over to Jeremiah's parents' house where his grandparents came over as well. So it was really fun to have everyone there and tell them all at once.

This month has still been spent looking for a house as well as just being busy with other things, like work and building new computers and fixing computers and spending time with family. I've kept busy with my Bookkeeping still as well as work for Cloak & Corset as I have my first product being released next month!

I'm still not feeling great, unless I'm constantly munching on food (which is hard for me as many foods simply do not sound, or taste for that matter, appetizing anymore).

On Saturday, we went to the Strawberry Festival Parade in Garden Grove as well as the Festival itself and we enjoyed walking around and getting some yummy treats to eat. Then we went back to my parents house and played some cards (I think I took a nap at some point as well - pregnancy sure makes you tired), ate dinner, and talked afterwards. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we took the time to do it.

Today is Memorial Day and we are both excited to have the extra day off work. We're not sure what we're going to do today yet but we want to do something fun and out of the house (especially as we were stuck in the house yesterday with me not feeling well at all - hopefully today will be better).

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I can get some time to post some pictures of our adventures over the last few months soon.

Christmas 2008

Christmas Morning at our Apartment:

Christmas (later in the day) at my parents':

Gingerbread Houses 2008

It was quite the ordeal to make the pieces to the Gingerbread houses from scratch but boy were they fun to put together and very tastey to eat!

Christmas Letter Blunder...Oops!

This past Wednesday, I was able to mail out our Christmas Letters and that night my in-laws came over to have dinner with us before they left for the Grand Canyon the next morning (celebrating Peter's birthday and their Wedding Anniversary).

I decided not to mail their Christmas Letter but to give it to them that night and allow them to be the first to read it. While I was cleaning up a few things in the kitchen after dinner, my mother-in-law read the letter. Towards the end of the first page she looked up confused and a little concerned. (I was afraid that she would find some spelling or grammar mistake that I had missed but I knew there wasn't anything I could do about it.) Instead she said something out loud along the lines of "Did I write Happy 25th on her birthday card?". Then she asked if I had turned 24 or 25 this year, and I said 25.

Apparently, in the Christmas Letter, I said I turned a year younger than I was and neither Jeremiah or I caught this! Debbie then said, "Are you already trying to fudge on your age!?!" To this, we all laughed and thought of ways that I could, from now on, "accidentally" write the wrong age in each subsequent Christmas Letter and continually "slow down" my aging process so that by the time I'm 40, I'll be telling everyone that I'm only 30!

(Debbie then told us about Papa Fabiano (Peter's sister's father-in-law) who actually told everyone he was 10 years younger than he was when he immigrated to the States from Italy and that no one knew this until a little before he passed away. (I'd love to hear the whole story of how you found out some time, Uncle Jerry.))

So, to set the record straight, I'm 25...sorry if you got a little confused as well :)

Christmas Tree 2008

The Day after Thanksgiving 2008

The Day after Thanksgiving, we went to the beach as it was a gorgeous day for it. Yusef, Jeremiah's cousin, and his wife, Emily, were visiting from Oakland as well as Emily's sister, Allie, and her husband Adam (from Orange County). We had a very fun time throwing the football, kayaking, building a sand castle, and just lying about. Here are some pictures:

Sara's 25th Birthday Surprises - Part 3

We made it back! Vegas was a lot of fun. But let me first start with the Chargers' game on Sunday. We had amazing seats (Thanks Uncle Bill) right behind the San Diego goal posts and about 17 rows up from the field! The game was against KC and wasn't supposed to be difficult as KC is having a really bad season. But, needless-to-say, it was a pretty intense game down to the last 30 seconds. Right at the end of the field, we got to watch them battle out the last few game-deciding seconds right in front of us. Fortunately we won and were able to start off our trip on a really high note.

After the game, we hiked the steap hill back to our care (we choose to walk up the hill and farther away than pay the $20 for parking - it's good exercise anyways :) ) and jumped on the freeway as quickly as we could to avoid any jams in the road with all the cars.

We took the 15 North and, once we got into Escondido, found a Rubios to stop at for some dinner. Let me just say, I've never tried the Nachos before then, and boy were they tastey! After dinner, we got back on the freeway for the long trek up to Vegas. I tend to sleep a lot in the car and this was no exception. I snoozed for an hour or two at least and am very fortunate to have a husband who can stay awake a lot better in the car than I can.

After 5 hours, I think, we arrive at the Strip. Well, 2 or 3 miles South of "The Strip" but still the hotel claims to be on the Strip. Our first night we stayed at a place called South Point. It was a newer hotel and very nice. The customer service, on the other hand, was not so nice. It took us over an hour from the time we arrived to the time we finally stepped foot into our room.

After we settled into our room, we walked around the hotel for a bit to see what was there. Because we arrived late, and because of the delays getting into our room, much of the activities we were interested in weren't open any more. There was a full movie theatre, bowling alley, pool, spa, food, and, of course, a casino. After walking around for a bit, we decided to go back upstairs and just relax as we were pretty tired.

The next morning, we took our time and eventually made it down to the jacuzzi for a very relaxing start to our day. It wasn't too hot so we were able to spend a lot of time in it.

When we needed to get moving, we finally got out and got ready for the day, packing our things to move on to the next hotel. Before we left, we stopped by the lunch buffet and ate a ton (that was their way of making up for our room delays the night before). The food was actually really good and the desserts were amazing (yes, we ate more than one dessert!).

Once our tummies were overly full, we headed up the Strip and found our next hotel, the MGM Grand! It was a beautiful hotel and had much better customer service. After enjoying the view from our room for a bit, we headed downstairs and looked at the Lion Habitat - very fun.

Then we headed outside and, after crossing the street to the Tropicana, were quickly pulled to the side to get signed up for a Timeshare speal the next day. Now we wouldn't normally sign up, but we knew ahead of time that we were going to because you can get free show tickets out of them. So we did and were set to see Cirque Du Soleil the following evening, on my birthday.

We walked across the street to Excalibur and then walked through it and the Luxor to get to Mandalay Bay. We thought about seeing the Shark Exhibit, but it cost money so we thought against it. Then we caught the train to take us back to Excalibur - yay for not walking!

We had about 40 minutes before there was supposed to be a show at Treasure Island. We debated driving over there as it is on the other end of the Strip but thought that it didn't look that far to walk so we just walked. And walked. And walked. It really was deceiving just how far away TI was from us. Every time I looked up, I expected to be a lot closer to it than we were. We ended up running a little as the time was ticking down.

We made it just after the show started and, even thought there was a big crowd, we managed to find a place where we could see pretty well. The show was definitely not worth the hustle. It was not what Jeremiah remembered it being when he was younger and in Las Vegas for Taekwondo tournaments. They basically sex-ed up the show to appeal to an adult audience instead of kids.

After the show, we started walking back down the Strip, back towards our hotel. We made sure to stop and look at things we missed on the way up, like the Belagio Hotel's water show and its lobby, which was decked out in Fall decorations and very beautiful.

Eventually we made it back to our hotel and spent the next few hours having fun playing games. We went to bed at some point my birthday morning.

Later that morning, we woke up and quickly made it over to the Tropicana to get on the bus for the Timeshare presenation. We ended up spending over 3 hours there, I think, which was longer than we were expecting. (They sure can make it sound good and enticing, but they also have a way of avoiding your questions when they don't want to answer them.)

We then got shuttled back to our hotel and got dressed and ready for the evening. We went downstairs to have my birthday dinner at the Rain Forset Cafe and on our way were stopped by someone outside a club who asked if we wanted to be on the Guest List for that night. I thought, why not? So we got signed up (although, we never did make it to the club). (Tip: If you want to get on a club guest list, walk by the door of it a few hours before it opens and make sure you look nice, like you have money...they'll probably stop you to ask.)

Dinner was wonderful and my "cake" was Bananas Foster...yummy! We then headed to our car to drive, this time, back to Treasure Island for our show. The show was a lot of fun, and even more fun once Jeremiah switched seats with me so I could get away from the really chatty lady on my left who had to comment loudly about everything!

After the show, we walked around the lobby for a bit and found cheap Black Jack tables. We had fun playing there for the evening until we were ready to leave.

At some point we made it back to our hotel and went to bed. It was a wonderful birthday day. The next day, we packed up and headed back home. It was definitely good to be home and away from the smoked-filled Vegas. It was a fun trip and 3 days was just enough time to enjoy it, but I wouldn't want to stay any longer than that!