After three months in our new ward and almost being sad about not having a calling, I was asked to be the Primary Music Leader and lead the children in Singing Time. What a new experience this has been for me! Besides substituting in Primary a couple times, I haven't spent time in Primary since I was kid myself.
I'm having to relearn the old Primary songs, quickly catch up on new ones and all of the coordinating hand movement, learn all the kids names and figure out how to control and entertain each of them. It is exhausting but so fun at the same time. Good thing they are so forgiving for my mistakes. Any suggestions would be wonderful :)
I find it challenging enough just to stop myself from laughing at all of the funny things that the kids say. Luckily my mom has been a huge help since she has had the same calling for the last three years. Each week she helps me come up with an idea of what to do during Singing Time.
I am having the hardest time connecting with some of the older kids but that's probably because I am the last person they see before church is over. I'm good but I don't know that I am better than their home and food.
Along with my time in Primary, I have also been helping to put together and lead a ward choir for Christmas and Matt and I were asked to co-chair the Ward Christmas Party. On top of that, the bishopric asked me Sunday if I would help put together and direct the upcoming Road Show skit for our youth.
What a joy it is to be busy with some meaningful causes again - even if it does make my Sundays quite long and busy now. The best part about all of this has been getting to know more and more people in our ward and making new friends.
Thanksgiving
We spent Thanksgiving with my (Keri's) family in Fairfield. Since we usually travel far to visit family for holidays, we were so happy about being able to stay in the Bay Area.
We started the celebration with the annual Adams Family Thanksgiving soccer game with my cousins, brothers, aunt and my mom playing. For the first time ever, we played indoor soccer this year due to the rain. We have played in water and puddles before but never while it was actually raining. So I talked my dad into letting us into their church building to play.
We were asked to bring rolls for the feast and since I have never been able to get homemade rolls to turn out, I decided to tackle the challenge again. The last time I tried, I had bought a box of Lion House Rolls mix and after a day in the kitchen with only dense pucks of rolls to show for it, I was ready to be done. But my Grandma Goss heard the story and encouraged me not to give up.
Since Matt loves baked bread so much, I've been buying him frozen rolls. On the instructions for these, I learned a new trick for getting my bread to rise which is always where I go wrong. A - I have no patience and don't wait long enough before cooking them and B - I do everything they say to but still can't get my bread to rise the second time. The tip listed on this packaging was to turn the oven on the lowest setting for five minutes, then turn it off and put your dough in.
With this new knowledge, I decided to try a roll recipe of Matt's great-grandmother that Kathy had emailed to me. I made the dough the day before and then I took it up to Fairfield and used my brother, Josh's, oven to help my dough rise.
In a true Thanksgiving miracle, my rolls turned out wonderfully. My bread manic husband was SO happy!
I also had a fun time putting together some table decorations for our feast, along with my mom and my niece, Jayla's, help. I was able to use my little paper turkeys for Primary singing time on Sunday which made the time I put into creating them more worth it.
We stuffed our faces, we played some games, Matt watched lots of football and enjoyed our time with family.
We started the celebration with the annual Adams Family Thanksgiving soccer game with my cousins, brothers, aunt and my mom playing. For the first time ever, we played indoor soccer this year due to the rain. We have played in water and puddles before but never while it was actually raining. So I talked my dad into letting us into their church building to play.
We were asked to bring rolls for the feast and since I have never been able to get homemade rolls to turn out, I decided to tackle the challenge again. The last time I tried, I had bought a box of Lion House Rolls mix and after a day in the kitchen with only dense pucks of rolls to show for it, I was ready to be done. But my Grandma Goss heard the story and encouraged me not to give up.
Since Matt loves baked bread so much, I've been buying him frozen rolls. On the instructions for these, I learned a new trick for getting my bread to rise which is always where I go wrong. A - I have no patience and don't wait long enough before cooking them and B - I do everything they say to but still can't get my bread to rise the second time. The tip listed on this packaging was to turn the oven on the lowest setting for five minutes, then turn it off and put your dough in.
With this new knowledge, I decided to try a roll recipe of Matt's great-grandmother that Kathy had emailed to me. I made the dough the day before and then I took it up to Fairfield and used my brother, Josh's, oven to help my dough rise.
In a true Thanksgiving miracle, my rolls turned out wonderfully. My bread manic husband was SO happy!
I also had a fun time putting together some table decorations for our feast, along with my mom and my niece, Jayla's, help. I was able to use my little paper turkeys for Primary singing time on Sunday which made the time I put into creating them more worth it.
We stuffed our faces, we played some games, Matt watched lots of football and enjoyed our time with family.
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| Not a feast without the bubbly |
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| Paper turkey place cards I made for everyone the night before. Jayla helped me draw in the eyes and legs and write everyone's names. |
Books To Read To Become a Better Writer
In one of my recent interviews, the hiring manager I interviewed with asked me how I work on improving my writing. I was stumped since I have never really given much thought to this. I feel like in writing you either have it or you don't. And I decided years ago that I don't but I can do an okay job in relaying a story. My boss at Primary Children's was an amazing writer and could elicit strong emotions in a simple letter. I would love to be able to come even close to whipping out masterpieces like her.
This hiring manager got me thinking about taking time to to find ways to improve my writing. And since most of the jobs I'm applying for here in the Silicon Valley are writing intensive, I turned to one of the college textbooks I've been lugging around. The book is called The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William Blundell. I found it way more fascinating than I ever did during school and the author illustrated well the need to for writers to constantly improve. He shared that he started as an okay writer but through time has found his own style which has made him much better. He gave me hope to be able to grow my own skills, and now has never been a better time to do so.
In the back of the book, he mentioned several books and authors to read to learn from. I made a list of these and decided I would share for those of you out there who might also be interested. I've been able to find most of them at the local libraries. I'll keep you posted on my progress :) Enjoy!
Books To Read
This hiring manager got me thinking about taking time to to find ways to improve my writing. And since most of the jobs I'm applying for here in the Silicon Valley are writing intensive, I turned to one of the college textbooks I've been lugging around. The book is called The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William Blundell. I found it way more fascinating than I ever did during school and the author illustrated well the need to for writers to constantly improve. He shared that he started as an okay writer but through time has found his own style which has made him much better. He gave me hope to be able to grow my own skills, and now has never been a better time to do so.
In the back of the book, he mentioned several books and authors to read to learn from. I made a list of these and decided I would share for those of you out there who might also be interested. I've been able to find most of them at the local libraries. I'll keep you posted on my progress :) Enjoy!
Books To Read
- The Art and Craft of Feature Writing - William E. Blundell (Plume/Penguin)
- Understanding and Using English - Newman and Genevieve Birk (The Odyssey Press, New York)
- Understanding and Using English Grammar (4th Edition) by Betty Schrampfer Azar and Stacy A. Hagen (Paperback - Feb 23, 2009)
- The Elements of Style - Williams Strunk and E.B. White (Macmillan, New York)
- On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Non-Fiction, 2nd Edition - William Zinsser (Harper & Row, New York)
- Chapters - Simplicity, Clutter, Style and Words
- Technique in Fiction 2nd Edition - Robie Macauley and George Lanning (St. Martin’s Press, New York)
- Art of Fiction; Notes on Craft for Young Writers - John Gardner (Alfred A Knopf, New York)
- Chapter - Common Errors
- Joan Didion
- Gay Talese
- Truman Capote - In Cold Blood
- Tom Wolfe
- John O’Hara - his short stories, not most of his novels (except for Appointment in Samarra)
- Margaret Craven - I Heard the Owl Call My Name
- Graham Greene
Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay
Matt has been having to travel to San Francisco for work more lately so I decided to accompany him for a day. He didn't think I could go the whole day without shopping and spending money (except for lunch)... It was rough but I came, I saw and I conquered. I proved him wrong! I walked right by my favorite seven-floor Macys complete with Cheesecake Factory at the top. I closed my eyes when I passed H&M and and only stared at Zara but I knew if I went in, I was toast. I felt a thousand retailers screaming. But I actually had a wonderful day exploring areas of San Fran I never even knew about.
It was free museum day at the Exploratorium but not having a car, I didn't feel like trucking across the city on foot for an hour and a half to get there. I brought my bike but I was too afraid to take on the hills and decided to take the time exploring on foot.
I accidentally came upon the Occupy Wall Street SF camp which was crazy looking. I was in search of a bathroom but struggled since I didn't have any coins. I finally found one of the street but then realized that it was the closest to the camp and just couldn't allow myself to use it since the protesters have probably been living out of that thing. I snatched a pic on my phone and then I ran quickly.
I spent the morning walking around the Farmers Market on the Embarcadero sampling things like kale chips and then sat and enjoyed the view of the Bay. While sitting there, I googled free things to do in SF on my phone.I came upon a web page that suggested free city guides at various locations around town including one taking place only a mile away from me which gave me just 15 minutes to get there. It was at the Coit Tower which I had neither heard of or seen, but the description of controversial art sounded intriguing.
I ran down the Embarcardero (literally) and into a neighborhood only to find that I had to climb a million stairs of death with only five minutes before the tour started. I had failed to notice that the tower was located at the top of Telegraph Hill. I tried to run but failed and finally made it to the entrance out of breath, heart-pounding and dripping with sweat. I must have looked like a mess because the others looked at me a little strange.
The tower was pretty cool looking and had an interesting story but the best part of the tour was viewing all of the murals inside and getting the low down on their communist-loving artists who painted these amazing murals about American life in the 1920s. The murals had vivid colors and beautiful detail and told a profound story life during the depression. Our guide also pointed out many subtle images and words that the Bohemian socialist artists mixed in making the murals quite controversial at the time and causing one to be painted over.
A couple old guys in the group got all fired up about the city should restore the piece that was painted over by removing the paint on top. But the guide argued that it was still very controversial since the artists had written the motto of the Communist party and still would probably very much offend some people.
I couldn't believe how upset these guys were - talking heatedly about how they were allowed to have freedom of speech though another gent brought up the fact that it would be like painting swastikas all over or running around with the confederate flag.
I definitely don't think I would have enjoyed the murals as much without all of the intriguing deets from the guide and I would recommend the tour to anyone.
Afterwards I meandered down Telegraph Hill enjoying the cute neighborhoods and row houses. I grabbed some lunch and then headed off to battle another incline - Nob Hill - to check out the swanky hotels. By the time I actually got to the top of Nob Hill, I realized I had Matt's valet ticket and I should probably head back towards the Financial District since Matt needed to be in Cupertino by late afternoon. So back down again I went towards Mission Street.
As I got close to Matt, he called and said he was probably going to be another 35 minutes so I decided to check out the Yerba Buena Arts Center and Gardens. I didn't get much time there but they had a beautiful park and a huge playground for kids that our nieces and nephews would have loved. I grabbed a minute to sit and let my feet rest then walked back to the Deloitte office.
All in all I had a wonderful day exploring places of San Fran I have no been. I love this city and the creativity it exudes and I'm so glad we live so close now. I even told Matt that since he is working up here so much maybe we should move to San Fran :) Don't know if he would love it as much though.
Check out photos I took on my little adventure:
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| Building I loved the color of |
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| Awesome art outside of the Deloitte SF office. I got in trouble standing on a bench to take this photo by the security guards. Hee hee. |
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| Funny random statue outside of Deloitte SF office. Who thinks of these things? And if this is art, I could definitely create something like this. |
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| The complete funny random statue collection |
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| Occupy Wall Street SF camp right in the heart of the Financial District. Since it was morning there was not much happening here yet. |
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| View of the Bay Bridge from the Coit Tower |
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| The Coit Tower. Many people call this the fire hose and think that because the lady who donated the money for the statue loved firemen that it was made to purposefully look like this. But apparently the architect did not make it that way intentionally and had a liking of this fluted style. |
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| House covered in Bougainvillea I came upon walking down the stairs of death. |
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| Saw this in a residential neighbor and it was the only one of its kind in the area. Thought it looked pretty cool. |
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| The mega slide at the Yerba Buena Arts Center that the munchkins would have loved. |
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| Infinity waterfall at Yerba Buena. |
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| The back of the waterfall - yo waterfall, the back of yo head is ridicalous. |
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| Can you tell I love bougainvillea? I saw this right by the waterfall and had to take a pic with the skyscrapers in the back |
Are credit cards a way of life?
While talking to my little brother the other day about credit cards, he mentioned that he thought he needed to have a credit card to build up credit and buy anything. I used to think the same at his age and I thought that many people might benefit from the following article I got in my email the other day from none other than our fave...Dave Ramsey. Whether you like him or not, this is a great article and a great perspective on credit cards.
http://www.daveramsey.com/article/are-credit-cards-a-way-of-life/lifeandmoney_creditcards/?ectid=1109cnlextra_4
Obsession with doors
I was inspired by a door collage I saw in one of the apartment complexes Matt and I checked out. Not being able to track it down, Sharee talked me into creating my own and this how it turned out. I'm so glad I did - it was so fun to work on and will look great in my living room.
Life in San Jose
We have been living in San Jose for a month and a half now. So far life has been quite different for both of us.
Matt is traveling a ton for work and has been gone almost every week, usually Monday through Friday. He has traveled to Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, New Orleans, San Fran, Dallas and next week will head back to Salt Lake. While he is enjoying his job, he is not enjoying all of the travel. He spends his weekends recovering from his jetlag, fine-tuning his Fantasy Football teams and catching up on his emails.
Since I do not yet have a job, my days and weeks are so different from what I'm used to. Since I haven't been without a job for probably more than a month, it has been an interesting ride for me these last 7 weeks in San Jose. Below is a list of how I have spent my time while Matt is traveling:
Matt is traveling a ton for work and has been gone almost every week, usually Monday through Friday. He has traveled to Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, New Orleans, San Fran, Dallas and next week will head back to Salt Lake. While he is enjoying his job, he is not enjoying all of the travel. He spends his weekends recovering from his jetlag, fine-tuning his Fantasy Football teams and catching up on his emails.
Since I do not yet have a job, my days and weeks are so different from what I'm used to. Since I haven't been without a job for probably more than a month, it has been an interesting ride for me these last 7 weeks in San Jose. Below is a list of how I have spent my time while Matt is traveling:
- Week 1: Moved into our new apartment and unpacked, flew to Spokane for a surprise birthday visit for Sharee.
- Week 2: Playing in Spokane and then more unpacking in San Jose. Excited for the prospects of a new job.
- Week 3: Spent time in Fairfield with my family - came home sick with the flu.
- Week 4: Spent time networking and visiting with local friends (bummed that I don't have job yet). Created a personal professional website at http://kerimcghee.com/. Matt told me to make the most of my time off. I decided to be more positive and spend time doing crafts, sewing, home projects that I won't have time while working.
- Week 5: Spent another week in Fairfield with my fam.
- Week 6: Decided to spend more time on job hunting and networking while still mixing in some fun. Had my busiest week thusfar.
- Met with a start-up job recruiter in San Fran
- Attended a two-day career workshop at the LDS Employment Center and met some great people who learned how to better use Linkedin to get a job.
- Spent a night serving at a private catering event in Dublin. Since I haven't served since my senior year of college, it was kinda fun to do it again. The extra cash was nice too.
- Spent this night and next day with my friend Tif and her four kids in Danville.
- Attended a networking breakfast for the Silicon Valley BYU Management Society with a great speech by Greg Clark, former 49ers tight end for Steve Young.
- Sewing with my AHA buddy, Emily, and then dinner in San Fran with another AHA buddy, Denisse.
- Ended the week with my mom and Aunt Lori at the Oakland Temple
- Week 7: Two great job interviews and then more time back in F airfield visiting my family. I even talked my little brother, Seth, into staying home from school one day and spending the day with me. We went to the mall, went to lunch and then went car shopping. So funny to have some time with him :)
It has been nice to have so much free time but I am definitely itching to start being productive and getting to work. Hopefully one of my latest interviews will pan out soon. Please keep me in your prayers.
How To Grow a Happy Child in 10 Easy Lessons
I came upon this article in a newspaper in 2007 and just found it while going through some boxes. I love the messages and thought others might enjoy:
How To Grow a Happy Child in 10 Easy Lessons
How to grow a happy child, part one:
If you are married, have a more active relationship with one another than you have with your children. Spend more time in the roles of husband and wife than you spend in the roles of mother and father. Nothing causes a child greater insecurity than the sense that his parents' marriage is not the most solid, permanent thing in his life, and vice versa.
How to grow a happy child, part two:
If you are single, do not be married to your children. Have an active life outside of your role as mother or father. Be an interesting person to your kids. The well-being of a single parent is essential to the well-being of his or her children.
How to grow a happy child, part three:
Expect your children to obey. Expect this calmly, as if you take it for granted. Who is the happier employee: the one who frequently tries to get away with breaking the rules, or the one who obeys the rules? Substitute child for employee and the answer is the same. Disobedient children are not happy campers. Said another way, the most obedient children are also the happiest children.
How to grow a happy child, part four:
Expect your children to be responsible citizens of your family. From the time they are 3 years old, assign them to chores around the home, chores that mean something. Teach your 3-year-old to wash floors. Teach your 4-year-old to vacuum. Teach your 5-year-old to clean the bathroom. Good citizenship is a matter of making contributions. Too many of today's kids have no meaningful roles in their families. They're not contributing. They're just there, consuming, and the more they consume, the more they demand. Demanding people are not happy people.
How to grow a happy child, part five:
Teach your children that happiness is not a matter of how much you have, but a matter of how much you do with what you have. Don't buy them a lot of things that will end up doing nothing but cluttering up their lives.
How to grow a happy child, part six:
Teach your kids that two of the most fun things to do are reading and travel, both of which involve the accumulation of memories as opposed to things. Begin reading to your children early, and read to them often. Every time you think of buying your children toys, consider taking them fishing or camping or to a museum. Spend time, not money.
How to grow a happy child, part seven:
Let television and video games into your children's lives very little, if at all. The happiest children are not found staring at television sets or frantically manipulating video game consoles. They are found in parks, on playgrounds, and in other three dimensional places.
How to grow a happy child, part eight:
Help your children develop hobbies. Few things exercise imagination and creativity as well as a hobby. By the way, a hobby is not an after-school sport. A hobby is something a child can do by himself, eventually without adult supervision.
How to grow a happy child, part nine:
Teach your children good manners. Good manners are a demonstration of attentiveness to and respect for others, and the happiest people are those who pay more attention to others than they want others to pay to them.
How to grow a happy child, part ten:
Hold your children to high standards. You show respect for a child by expecting of the child. Expect the best manners. Expect obedience. Expect your child to pitch in around the house without being asked. Hold your child accountable for his or her behavior. Make no excuses, accept no excuses. The happiest campers always do their best.
If you are married, have a more active relationship with one another than you have with your children. Spend more time in the roles of husband and wife than you spend in the roles of mother and father. Nothing causes a child greater insecurity than the sense that his parents' marriage is not the most solid, permanent thing in his life, and vice versa.
How to grow a happy child, part two:
If you are single, do not be married to your children. Have an active life outside of your role as mother or father. Be an interesting person to your kids. The well-being of a single parent is essential to the well-being of his or her children.
How to grow a happy child, part three:
Expect your children to obey. Expect this calmly, as if you take it for granted. Who is the happier employee: the one who frequently tries to get away with breaking the rules, or the one who obeys the rules? Substitute child for employee and the answer is the same. Disobedient children are not happy campers. Said another way, the most obedient children are also the happiest children.
How to grow a happy child, part four:
Expect your children to be responsible citizens of your family. From the time they are 3 years old, assign them to chores around the home, chores that mean something. Teach your 3-year-old to wash floors. Teach your 4-year-old to vacuum. Teach your 5-year-old to clean the bathroom. Good citizenship is a matter of making contributions. Too many of today's kids have no meaningful roles in their families. They're not contributing. They're just there, consuming, and the more they consume, the more they demand. Demanding people are not happy people.
How to grow a happy child, part five:
Teach your children that happiness is not a matter of how much you have, but a matter of how much you do with what you have. Don't buy them a lot of things that will end up doing nothing but cluttering up their lives.
How to grow a happy child, part six:
Teach your kids that two of the most fun things to do are reading and travel, both of which involve the accumulation of memories as opposed to things. Begin reading to your children early, and read to them often. Every time you think of buying your children toys, consider taking them fishing or camping or to a museum. Spend time, not money.
How to grow a happy child, part seven:
Let television and video games into your children's lives very little, if at all. The happiest children are not found staring at television sets or frantically manipulating video game consoles. They are found in parks, on playgrounds, and in other three dimensional places.
How to grow a happy child, part eight:
Help your children develop hobbies. Few things exercise imagination and creativity as well as a hobby. By the way, a hobby is not an after-school sport. A hobby is something a child can do by himself, eventually without adult supervision.
How to grow a happy child, part nine:
Teach your children good manners. Good manners are a demonstration of attentiveness to and respect for others, and the happiest people are those who pay more attention to others than they want others to pay to them.
How to grow a happy child, part ten:
Hold your children to high standards. You show respect for a child by expecting of the child. Expect the best manners. Expect obedience. Expect your child to pitch in around the house without being asked. Hold your child accountable for his or her behavior. Make no excuses, accept no excuses. The happiest campers always do their best.
South Bay Area Apartment Hunting
Many of you have asked how our apartment hunting went in San Jose (besides the craziness of the car). We realized during our first day of hunting that we were in way over our head and probably should have planned ahead more or planned more time to look. San Jose and it's surrounding areas have so many apartments!
We looked at probably 40 or 50 different apartments, condos, and duplexes in the 3 and a half days we were there. We went with a list of about 25 from Craigslist that I had found before we left Utah. But then we found a lot more just driving around specific areas.
Matt and I went into this adventure not quite sure what we wanted in an apartment exactly, but we came out knowing two things - Matt wanted some kind of air-conditioning and I wanted a washer and dryer or hookups for a w/d in the apartment. I just can not imagine going back to a laundromat style again, especially when we will both be working full-time.
Matt had his eyes opened in one of the first apartments we looked at when he found out they did not have any air-conditioning. I had lived in San Diego in an apartment without A/C so I knew they do make houses and apartments without a/c but Matt had not come upon this yet. Only two of the 40 apartments we looked at had central air-conditioning and several more had a wall A/C unit in the living room.
The best part was the way that each sales person would try to spin it and say things like "but we have the nice ocean breeze here so you really don't need it" or "you really don't need it with the wind that blows continuously through here" or "you can pay $400 more a month and live in our nice upgraded apartments which have the A/C wall unit." First of all, San Diego has an ocean breeze, San Francisco has an ocean breeze, but SAN JOSE DOES NOT HAVE AN OCEAN BREEZE. I just felt like they thought we were idiots when they told us something like that.
Most of the apartments we looked at were smaller than our apartment in Draper now and we were surprised how much older they were. They were all more than twice the rent too! We loved the Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino area but we just could not find a place that we both loved that was in the price range we wanted to pay.
After our extensive search and the car trip home to hash it out together, Matt and I chose an apartment complex called "The Woods" located just south of Downtown San Jose. We were truly impressed with the management and the way they run their complex and were thrilled to find out we could sign a 6-month lease without having to pay hundreds more a month relative to a 12-month lease. So this way, we will have a nice place without being locked in for a year while getting to know the area and spend more time house hunting.
We love the Woods complex which really is a mega-complex of 6 different complexes, five swimming pools, a large theater room, 5 fitness centers, a rent able guest suite and 1500 apartments in one. It is really its own neighborhood and we are able to have a 2 bed / 2 bath with a washer / dryer and air-conditioning. They also don't allow any dogs in the complex, only cats, which we were happy about (sorry you dog lovers) but we have experienced too many people in apartments who don't take care of their dog poop or control their dog's barking.
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| Inside The Woods |
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| Duramwood Village, where our apartment is located |
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| Kitchen view inside our model |
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| One of the swimming pools at the Woods |
We are excited to start over and see how The Woods fits as our new home. And since we will have the guest bedroom we wanted, we'd love visitors :) Check out the following link for a video tour we found on their website: http://www.woodsapartments.com/videotour.php
We love you all and want to give a shout out to all those who have helped us get to know more about the San Jose area (Rachel and Carrie Langlois, Tiffany and Steve Stock, Emily Harris, Brad Moss, Sean Kelly, Peter Chapman, Lane McGhee and others...)
We do know our new address and if you want it, just ask.
Heroes of the Highway
We would like to dedicate this post to the two tow truck drivers that picked us up along our treks to and from San Jose when Keri's Honda, Sparky, overheated twice. One of the tow truck drivers called himself a "hero of the highway" and though in my mind (Keri), I had a million sarcastic ways to make fun of him for saying that, I held my tongue and actually found it quite fitting.
These tow truck driver take their jobs very seriously and really try to make you feel comfortable and laugh about your situation. They were very simple but genuine men and we are grateful for their help.
On Wednesday night (June 29th), we had already driven about 9 hours and were about 2 more hours away from Fairfield when Sparky overheated going through the Donner Pass in California. It was around 1 or 2am in the morning so you can imagine how unhappy we were to have to stop. We had to be towed about 20 miles back to Truckee and should have paid $150 since we had the basic AAA membership which covers only 5 tow miles, but our wonderful tow driver went ahead and waived that for us.
We spent the night at the Truckee Donner Lodge worried about our car and if we were going to be able to make it down to San Jose to check out apartments. We only had a couple days to look as it was. Since the mechanic told us it would take a day or two to fix our car, Keri's wonderful Aunt Lori came and picked us up from Roseville and then drove us down to Fairfield, where we picked up Keri's parents car.
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| Donner Pass, where Sparky first overheated |
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| Truckee Donner lodge where we spent Wednesday night |
Keri's dad drove us back to Truckee on Tuesday, July 5th and we got only 60 miles away before the engine started overheating again. So this time it was about 1pm and we sat for an hour in the hot desert heat in the middle of nowhere (Nevada) and waited to be towed again. Thank goodness we smartened up and Matt had already upgraded our AAA membership just days ago.
Our tow driver, James, was very nice though. He told us all about how he lives at home with his parents again and had to started driving a tow truck after the economy killed his construction business. He spends his days off watching his little down syndrome brother and he worked on the Fourth of July because he felt bad that people would be left out on the highway. He is one that said he feels like a "hero of the highway".
James towed us 30 miles back to Reno where we waited another day for them to fully inspect the car. We checked in to the Sands Hotel for only $30 a night and it was really only worth that. We found out on Wednesday morning that Sparky's head gasket was blown. We had to bid adieu to Sparky until we can pull her back to San Jose with us in a month and we rented a car to get home. The rest of the trip went smoothly but we feel quite beat up and stressed out after such a long week.
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| Wadsworth, NV where Sparky overheated on the way home |
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| The Sands Hotel where we stayed in Reno |
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| Sparky in her finest days |
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| Sparky's fate now probably |
Fourth of July
During our recent trip to NorCal, Matt kept reminding me to "find joy in the journey" and I'd say that part of my joy was on the Fourth of July. We headed up to my hometown, Fairfield, on Sunday night and got to spend the Fourth of July with my fam.
Mom, Bo, Jayla and I went to the annual Fairfield Fourth of July parade to watch Dad march with the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars). The parade was always a wonderful tradition for my family. Dad started out in the parade when I was in high school dressing up as James Brown and then Elvis Presley and dancing around in the parade. Now he has taken to marching with the veterans. It's probably a little more fitting for him seeing as how a white James Brown just felt a little wrong.
The parade was a little light this year more than I remember but it was still great to be able to come back and be reminded of how much culture is in Fairfield. There were groups of all of shapes and sizes and everyone was just happy to celebrate the diversity.
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| Downtown Fairfield during the parade |
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| Dad, on the end. I kept trying to make him laugh including yelling that his fly was down. He takes his march very seriously. |
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| The VFW (best part about it is that they were right behind the Disabled Veterans float). |
After the parade, Mom, Dad, Bo, Matt and I all decided to drive out to Suisun Valley and hit up some fruit stands. I love driving out in the country especially since a couple of vineyards/wineries have been built in the last few years. Not that I drink but they were just beautiful to look at and it really dresses up our little hometown.
We only found one little fruit stand/bakery open but we had a wonderful time driving around all packed in one car.
We got some great treats at this little bakery, which I had never noticed, including some homemade peaches and cream ice cream.
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| The little bakery we found |
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| Larry's Produce, the fruit stand we were hoping would be open |
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| One of the vineyards in Suisun |
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| One of the new homes built at one of the newer Suisun vineyard |
We ended the night with a wonderful homecooked meal and by watching the fireworks show.
I really felt like this was a nice reminder that Fairfield was not the hick, boring town I thought it was when I moved away. It's actually quite pretty with so much diversity. Though don't get me wrong, I won't be moving back anytime soon.
Bucket List continued... or maybe not
I (Keri) wanted to hike Mt. Timpanogos one more time before we move and had arranged a hiking date with two of my former AHA coworkers. But unfortunately we had to postpone our hike due to the amount of snow STILL along the trail making it completely impassable. And the worst part is... it probably will take at least a month for all of the snow to melt.
I hiked Timpanogos once back in 2005 before I moved to San Diego but it was with a guy I did not know very well and I wanted to do it once more. Mt. Timpanogos is the second highest mountain in Utah's wasatch range and is a 14 mile round-trip hike.
We rescheduled to hike in August but now it's looking like KerMatt will be moving earlier than that.
Instead of hiking Timp, me and the girls decided to do a much shorter hike to Ensign Peak.
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| Keri, Red Rachel, Rachel Seangsuwan |
Bucket List
In honor of our move to San Jose, KerMatt has been trying to make the most of our last days here in Utah. As part of our bucket list, we spent a weekend in St. George with Pikey and Chris and Tori, Bryan and Jackson. Sadly, Keri has not spent much time in St. George besides stopping through for food on a road trip.
As part of our weekend, we spent a day at Zion National Park - another first for Keri. We had a great time and realized now why so many people escape here during the winter. Zion was beautiful in a very dry, red-rock kind of way. We did two different hikes and had a great time with our friends before all of our lives change so soon.
As part of our weekend, we spent a day at Zion National Park - another first for Keri. We had a great time and realized now why so many people escape here during the winter. Zion was beautiful in a very dry, red-rock kind of way. We did two different hikes and had a great time with our friends before all of our lives change so soon.
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| Tori and Keri |
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| KerMatt |
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| KerMatt again - we spent about 10 minutes chucking rocks in the river and seeing who could make the biggest splash |
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| KerMatt, Chrikey, Broriackson |
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| Bryan, Tori and Jack |
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| Baby Jack loved being pushed along the trails |
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| Chris & Pikey (and little baby on the way) |
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| Zion |
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