Back at WLAC One Day a Week

West Los Angeles College called yesterday and said they have one evening a week (3 hours) available until the end of January. This will be good because I can leave a little bit earlier than I did when I was working two days a week. This will help me to not be stressed about time while driving over there. Plus I'll have more time to do what I want to and I won't pay as much for gas as I was when driving two days a week. I'll be able to keep up on student requirements and won't feel lost by being away for so long. And the extra money doesn't hurt either. :)

Spinning Woman

This website is really cool. The woman who is spinning never actually changes, but it looks like she does. You can see her going both clockwise and counter-clockwise if you look at her in a certain way. So far I've only seen one person who was not able to see her spinning both ways. Let me know what you see.

http://www.switched.com/2007/10/15/the-trippiest-optical-illusions-on-the-net/

Also, sometimes it helps to look away and then look back again, or maybe try to not look directly at her to see if you can get her to change directions.

Alex's Bike Riding Injury

This weekend Jake, Alex, and I decided it was time to step up the bike riding, so instead of going to the park, we rode to the riverbed and rode on that for awhile. Alex was doing really well and was going up and down the parts that go under the street. He was even able to get up the far side without stopping almost every time. We rode down the riverbed quite a ways and decided to turn around to come back home. Everything was going really well and we were having a good time.

Then... disaster struck. While going down a particularly steep hill, Alex lost control of his bike and fell HARD. I was quite impressed with his skinned hand, elbow, hip, and knee. He didn't move for quite a while, was screaming/crying. It looked like it HURT.

So we then spent the next two and half hours in the emergency room to get his arm x-rayed. Of course, part way through our wait he was using both hands to play his game boy, but there was no way we could chance sending him home with a broken arm, so I suppose it was necessary.

So, anyway, poor Alex was probably hurt more badly with us this weekend than he's ever experienced in his 12 years of life. And I'm wondering if we'll ever be able to get him back on a bike again. It's too bad considering it took us so long to build up his courage to ride in the first place. Oh well.

But I assume he's doing fine, and of course his arm wasn't broken. He got banged up pretty good, but he'll hopefully be recovered pretty well by next weekend. Good thing he was wearing a helmet too.

Laid Off

Well, they finally did it. West Los Angeles College has not been giving hours to part time counselors. The new important person in charge at the school has decided that she doesn't want any part time counselors working. I'm not sure if this will be forever or if we might get a few hours during the busy times, but any way you look at it, it sucks for me. What's especially unfortunate is that I think she went about this badly. Ideally, she should still have a few part time people working for a few hours a week so that we retain some of our knowledge. Instead, if we are able to get some hours in a few months, we're all going to be straining to remember certain things. Of course, there might also be changes during that time that we know nothing about. How frustrating.

I suppose I understand that they're trying to save money, but for me, I'm losing money by not working. I guess that I should try to use this time wisely and enjoy the fact that I'm not driving to West LA two times a week. I think I'm going to save about $100 in gas by not making the drive.

So there is my sad story. I delayed blogging about it for a few weeks because I was hoping that they might have us come back, but so far no luck. :(

Bike Riding with Dad and Susan

On Sunday we finally had the opportunity to show Dad and Susan the Fullerton Loop bike ride. They had asked a few times about seeing where it is since they actually live in Fullerton and might like to ride it every once in awhile.

We had a really good time, and to be honest, I was very impressed with how well they did. We actually finished in a decent amount of time and although they were tired, they stuck with it the whole way. So good job to them. Now we'll just have to see if they liked it enough to do it again.

We also went over to their place for dinner last night. Afterward me, Dad, Randy, and Dan all played Euchre. I forget how much fun that game is (even if I did lose :). I hope we have a chance to do that again soon.

My First Appt and Serious Nausea

Until yesterday, I wasn't really entirely convinced that I was actually pregnant. OK, I suppose I'm exaggerating, but it didn't seem quite real. But then they did the ultrasound which I have posted below and confirmed that it's true. I really do have a blob growing in me. They even let us listen to the heartbeat. It could hardly believe that only about 5 weeks after conception it would sound so strong. It was at 160 beats per minute.



To confirm matters even more, I was closer today than ever before to actually throwing up. I hung around in the restroom for about 5 minutes trying to decide if it was going to happen, but luckily I think I'm getting over it and am currently eating as I type to try to get my stomach settled.

One last thing, my due date is May 13th, although the second one based on size is May 17th. They say if it's not more than a week off, they stick with the original one. So let's see what actually happens. :)

The Fair

I really need to get some pictures from Susan. All I had were a couple pictures on my phone, and obviously they didn't come out very well.

I took the second picture because Jake's name is on the Rabbit Hut. You can't really see it well in the picture, but Susan's shirt says "I Love My Hubby". She got a few comments on her shirt from people at the fair who thought it was funny.

Some highlights of the day were the animals, a squishy thing that splats on the the ground and slowly pulls itself back into it's original shape, and spending time with everyone: Dad, Susan, Caiden, Vanessa, John, Steven, and Matthew.

It rained pretty hard toward the middle of the day, so we stayed inside quite a bit, but the booths were fun to see and I was much more entertained then I thought I would be. So that was my day - good times!

Oh My Goodness, I'm Pregnant

So here is the official "I'm pregnant" announcement, just in case anyone who reads doesn't know yet. I'm a little freaked out, but happy. I'm probably only about 4 weeks along and I've got my first official doctor's visit on October 2nd. I'll keep everyone posted.

Another Cute Story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_fe_st/surfer_saves_dog

I thought this was a cute story

It's dove at first sight

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

All together now: Ahhhh

It's a tale straight out of Disney – an abandoned baby monkey, close to death, is revived by the love of a bird.

The 12-week-old macaque was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province, China, after being abandoned by his mother.

Taken to an animal hospital, he was weaned back to physical health but still showed little appetite for life.

It was not until a fellow patient, a white pigeon, took him under her wing and showed him love and affection that he perked up.

Now the two are inseparable, say staff.

They are not the first odd couple. In March, we told how a tiger cub in China was being raised by a sow along with her piglets because his mother didn't know how to feed him.

And in 2005 Mi-Lu the baby deer became best friends with lurcher Geoffrey at the Knowsley Animal Park, in Merseyside, after being rejected by her mother.

Our New Fence - Not Such a Great Idea?

I'm so upset.

Jake and I had a great idea - build a tall wood fence on the side of the back house to make the whole house surrounded by the same type of fence. It would also block out the uglyness of the rest of the street.

We spent over $400 building this fence and it's beautiful.

But then the problems began last week. I guess the neighbors don't like that they can't see over the fence anymore and can't see what's going on in the neighborhood. So they have begun to congregate on the street at the end of their driveway. They talk somewhat loudly, drink beer, and look like gang members the way they are dressed. To be honest, most of them probably are.

I really don't think the new tenants are going to appreciate this, and I feel guilty like it's our fault that they are going to have to deal with it. I don't need this stress right now! And I have absolutely no control over the situation.

This sucks!

It turns out that we

It turns out that we are now moving tommorow. what a pain in the rear moving is. wish us luck.

Mohawk

Micah was stylin' over the weekend when I gave him a new hairdo. Isn't he cute?

We're Moving!

So here's the news...

I still have not had time to fix the problems with the house we are trying to sell - the problem being that the second units turn out to be illegal. I'm working on getting the paperwork done, but it just hasn't happened. I've started looking through everything we need to do, and it seems like a lot! And it might cost more that expected also. We might end up just selling as is if it's going to be too much trouble. I don't really blog about it because it stresses me out and I don't like thinking about it.

On another happier note, we are finally going to move back to Orange County. Here's the story.... We finally decided that it was taking too long to get the second unit ordinance completed, so we put the second unit up for rent and got someone who was going to move in. We were going to then move to the front house, but one of our friends sold their place and asked to move into the front house. This left us homeless and happy because now we get to move to Orange County. We found a very decent apartment in Anaheim about 2 miles from Jake's work which he is very excited about since his commute will decrease from one and half hours to about 5-10 minutes. Good for him. My commute will likely go from 40 minutes to about 30 minutes depending on the traffic, so I'm happy as well. We'll probably save about $300 just on gas. That's not even considering the wear and tear to our vehicles - and our service maintenance is expensive! Anyway, we are moving in on the 15th of September. Woohoo!

On an ickier note, the person who was going to move in to the back unit backed out so we've got it back up for rent. I've got the house listed again and my phone's been ringing non-stop today. So I don't think we'll have a problem getting someone else by the 15th. But this time we're not going to take the house off the market until we get their deposit so that we know they are serious.

Jake and I have been working like crazy to get our stuff out of the front house and the garage. We rented a storage unit for the month to help us not look too cluttered in the back hourse. It wouldn't be a problem except that we have to show the house to people who want to rent, and we don't want the place to look too small.

Tomorrow's project is to build a fence between the neighbor's house and ours. Currently there is only a low brick wall that is easy to see over. I think it will be much more cozy if there is more privacy for the people who rent next.

We've had an extremely full day today and got a lot accomplished. My only complaint is that we've been so busy working that we haven't had an opportunity to go for a bike ride in about three weeks. I think I'm starting to get flabby.

So there it is.... the countdown begins. 21 days to go. And if we had someone who wants to rent before that, we're putting the rest of our stuff in storage and we're moving early! I'll keep you posted.

Long line

This is the line at the ralphs grocery store. they need to get their act together. By the way, you can't tell very well in the photo, but the woman in yellow is in the line and there are two people behind her. Crazy.

Our Cruise

Our cruise was absolutely awesome. i am so disappointed that it's over.

Firefighter hat

We went out to claim jumper tonight. it was fun to get to see the family. a fire truck stopped by while we were waiting for our table and gave firefighter hats to caiden and micah.

It Works

The last two comments were a test of a text message and a picture sent using my cell phone. I haven't quite worked out every kink, but it's looking good. I think it's very cool that I can send a message from anywhere with cell phone reception.

Sushi

We went out to sushi

I just found out that

I just found out that i can blog from my phone. too bad it takes so long to type everything in!