Saturday, September 25, 2010

We Walked...

A LOT! Does it bother you when people smash "a" and "lot" together to form...alot. ???? Yeah. Totally not a word. I remember the moment I learned that alot it not a word. It was 4th grade. It rocked my world. Seriously. I felt like I had been dooped. That I had spent all almost 5 years of my primary school years as an ignorant person. Yep. I'll never forget it.

Any whooooo...

So, Jason and I had a great day. FIRST...brace yourself. It was SUNNY and HOT. Yeah. I was shocked too. Gosh. The even better part is that supposedly...it's just going to get hotter. Or more hot? What's the proper way of saying it? Baaah. This whole "Jason in grad school becoming an expert on the English language" thing is really throwing off my speaking groove. I find myself second guessing everything I say.

So, we started the day by doing some work outside. There's something extra fulfilling in working outside. I have no idea what it is. Maybe the same feeling that a farmer gets. Not that I'd ever want to be a farmer for a living. My dad's stories of his Minnesotan farming days has kicked that desire swiftly out of me and yet...I love working outside, getting dirty, gardening, and etc.

After work we played. We went to a bakery that had homemade pizza and pastries. I loved the pizza. Jason didn't so much. I am a HUGE fan of sourdough while he isn't quite so fond of it. We didn't know it but the pizza crust is sourdough...making me a very happy camper and him...content with the pizza yet not in love. Oh well. You never know till you try it.

After the bakery...we hit some Blue Bottle which is THE BEST COFFEE ever. Well, sort of. It turns out there is a coffee drink on their menu that I'm not a huge fan of, it's called the "New Orleans style Iced Coffee". We wanted something iced and so I decided to get it. It was tweeker coffee to the max. So strong. I added a ton of sugar and half & half to it and still could not finish it. Blak. I'm sticking with the latte's. Oh well. :)

Once our (or my) coffee was chocked down, I mean drank...we decided to walk to the Embarcadero. It took a little over an hour each way. We were in our Rainbow's...which we haven't worn much lately and we both ended up with blisters. It was bustling with tourists and actually was rather unappealing. Not sure why. I think we know more of the real SF now and so it just wasn't as fun as exploring the places that the locals go to. Oh well. We got to be outside, with each other, and get some exercise.

Overall it was a fun day. It was nice to spend a whole day with Jas where there was no homework, grocery shopping, cleaning, and other such responsibilities to separate us. I think we all need those days every so often. Tomorrow though...it's back to business. ;)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Weekend and a Gas Pumping Story

Well, there was very little playing done this weekend. Honestly, it was about time we decided to be grown-ups and act like we have some actual responsibilities to do...like MOVE-IN! hahaha.

Our living room/kitchen/bedrooms are just about all put together. Jason is putting the last finishing touches to a jewel of a table that his lovely aunt gave us. She's into the shabby/chic antique look. She had this super cool wooden table and had left it outside for a long period of time to give it a "worn look". I totally liked it the way that it was. Jason though...Jason saw more. He decided that he was going to sand down the whole thing, take it all apart and re-glue it, and stain it. Well, the table turned out to be mahogany. It's super cute and we stained it an ebony which turned out A.MaZ.Ing! The kid is such a "fix-it" home do-it guy. So, I think by this next weekend we will be dining on our lovely kitchen table...making our kitchen/living room area complete.

This weekend, since the weather wasn't all that lovely I decided to finish up some looming projects. So I...

-Finished our couch pillows.
-Took a really hideous beige blanket and added a row of cute fabric squares to each end making it about 602 x's cuter.
-Finished the curtains in Jason's study room.
-Hung pictures on our really naked walls.
-Ordered pictures of Chile to finish/start our Chile book.
-We put new windshield wipers on the truck (holy cow, I didn't know such clarity existed). Fantastic.
-Made a sewing machine cover for my sewing machine...because the house we live in is SOOOO dusty. Seriously. It's dusty. And I'm tired of taking it in and out of the box it came in.

So, the weekend was productive. Thus, we voted that next weekend be WAY more fun. We can only handle so much of this responsible behavior you know! ;)

Oh, and now for a story....

So, I cursed. Yep, loud and clear for all to here. Then I tried to fix it by saying "I mean, oh shoot" To which the old man next to me pumping his gas said with a laugh, "Yeah, you better clean up that potty mouth." :) Well, you know. Anyways, what was the occasion that the lovely word referring to fecal matter came out of my mouth?

I will tell you...

I went to get gas. I fill the tank once a week and it will get me through from Sun to the next Sun. But it has to be full. So, I had a little gas in the tank already and decided to put in $27 cash (that's what I had). I pumped the gas and it didn't click off on it's own so I figured that it still needed more. I then swiped my card and put in some more gas. Well, it stopped at 42 cents. Nice. So, annoyed that it was only 42 cents I decided to go up to 50 cents...you know, make it at least a somewhat round number (I know, "topping off" is bad). To my great surprise (obviously since I busted out some sailor talk) gas began to pour out of the truck when I took the nozzle out...I mean, like all over the place. Thankfully, it had rained and so you couldn't tell that I had just destroyed the SF table water with my gas spillage. Anyways, some how, by 8 cents, I overfilled the truck with gas. From my little bit of auto shop I knew that such a thing was not a good thing and thus called Jason to make sure that the truck wouldn't explode when I turned it on or something like that. He assured me that it was fine and that I should step away from the car with the gas all over...since I was on a cell phone. (hmm, yeah, that's right.)

Anyways, so, my truck gas gauge has been PAST the full line for quite some time now which means that I either broke it...or overfilling your tank and dumping gas all over the parking lot does have some sort of benefit after all...a full tank for a very long time! ;)

PS. Being that I HAVE driven away with the gas pump still in my car I believe that I have now experienced most all "do NOT's" when getting gas. Nice.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Where Did the Weekend Go...and some added pics?

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday. aaaah. The only bad thing about a 3 day weekend is how short the next regular length weekend feels in comparison. Oh well.

Anyways, I have a few pics to post but I will have to put them up later...too lazy to upload them to this computer (**I actually just added some to the bottom. Not so lazy after all eh?). Last weekend Jason and I decided to ride to the Golden Gate Bridge from our house. It was such a beautiful, warm day. The ride ended up being about 25 miles though. haha. I definitely felt it considering I haven't exercised in quite some time. It was so beautiful out though and we had a great time zipping and weaving through the busy traffic of SF. Those drivers probably hated us. hehe. Oh well. The bridge was awesome to ride across. We got to witness some kite surfers while there. It's so windy in the bay that they can catch the wind out to the middle and surf off the wake of the boats. I'm pretty much convinced that this is my next sport to try. It was soooo cool! Anyways, we never brought the camera so there are no pictures of that.

As for this weekend....not too much was done...just the regular "get ready for the week" thing. I lOvE me some opera and there was a free concert being put on today by the San Francisco Opera in Golden Gate Park. The plan was to go but by the time we got out of church the place was packed out. We would probably have had horrible seats. It just didn't end up being enticing enough for us. Oh well. Maybe next time.

I think we may be settling down into a church. It looks like we will be joining a small group. Kind of cool. It's all tentative...in the sense that we are still feeling the church out. The best way to really get a feel though is to continually go and also get plugged in. I honestly didn't love the church the first time we went but...I've warmed up to it and I was actually pretty excited to go this Sunday. If you want to check it out it's called City Church. Here's their website! :) I LOVE their worship. I will say that! They mostly sing hymns but they have a contemporary twist. The lyrics of hymns are so...God lifting. I feel like some of our more contemporary Christian worship songs have more to do with the way WE feel about God then about God Himself and His greatness. Not that this is necessarily always bad...I just love hymns! :)
Anyways, that's all for now. Pics of our weekend to come...and my curtains and bed skirt I made, house, etc! :)

Just Kidding. Here are the pics now. So, here are my curtains. They have quite a bit of color. :) I'm more into neutrals with pops of color usually. The room was just soooo...white. That and the continually gray sky showing through the windows....I decided some color was needed.After the curtains I decided that a bed skirts was definitely needed. The box spring was showing and these plastic things were falling off of it...making it look a little...um, ghetto. Thus, with my last $20 from my birthday I decided to buy some fabric. I didn't use a pattern. (seriously, I have used a pattern once or twice and it never turns out fantastic. My confession is I'm terrible at reading them). Anyways, the things not perfect but it's better than before. It's a brown and white pattern...similar to the curtains but a little different.
And...here's our house below! Yep, that WHOLE thing. In the city of San Francisco. We're rich don't you know!?! Ok, so maybe not. Basically our door is next to the garage...which you can't see. It's broken up into a downstairs and an upstairs. The people who own the upstairs don't live their permanently. Apparently they live somewhere else in the city and come to this place once in a while. So, it's like we have the place to ourselves practically. We are free to garden the backyard, use the washer and dryer, and use part of the garage for our stuff. Nice! When we get more of the inside of our house put together I'll take pics of that too! :0)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

This and That

Well, Jason and I are still enjoying our life here in SF. I have found that I really enjoy the big city. I'm guessing that it will get old eventually but I actually like the fact that there are SO many people, haha. It's interesting. Driving back and forth from work though...mmm, not certain that's my favorite thing in the world. Overall I'm not an "angry" driver but I would say that I definitely get annoyed. Mostly over simple things, like merging. Not sure why that's such a difficult concept for some but...apparently it is. At least there are a lot of good radio stations up here to listen to while I drive. There's one particular morning talk show that has me laughing pretty much every morning. Then again, the morning commute isn't so bad. It's the evenings when I get off at 6pm (3 days/wk) that it takes me about 50 min. to go 18 miles. Nice. Oh well, what can you do?!

Last week was my birthday and my birthday gift was $$$. Wohoo. I got to enjoy some SF shopping...including shopping at one of the best Marshall's ever! So fun. I also went into a place called Nordstrom's Rack which is apparently Nordstrom's, discounted. That place was INSANE. I'm pretty sure that more than half of SF's female population was there. My gosh. They had things like True Religion jeans for $90. hahahahaha. Sorry, I would never in my LIFE pay $90 for a pair of jeans (though I would certainly take them as a gift :) ). Those things are $250 normally though so I just couldn't understand why you would go to Nordstrom's to buy them for $250 when you can buy them at The Rack for $90. hmmm. These things I ponder.

I'm also about done with some curtains that are literally the happiest curtains in the world. They brighten up the room a ton. Since there won't be much sun shining in to brighten up the room I figured some bright happy curtains were the best solution. **Note: We STILL have boxes to unpack in our house, haha. Maybe one day...**

Hmmm...what else...

Ah, my future. So, I've been thinking and praying a lot lately about a possible career for me. Jason is the priority right now. I'm working and getting him through school. Yet, there is a part of me that would like a "skill". One that can be used in the work force. I know that when some kidd-o's come around they will be my number one priority but what happens when they go to school? (I'm thinking we will not be a homeschooling family. Especially if we are living abroad with Jason's work. The kids would be in school with other native speakers of the country). Anyways, I've been kicking around some ideas in my head...and with Jason. I'm leaning toward something that can be done through a community college with minimal debt. It also needs to be something that is usable abroad. The medical field is very intriguing to me and I've been leaning toward nursing or radiology. We will see...

Anyways, I know there's the "stay at home mom" vs. "career woman mom" debate. I'm a bit in the middle. Especially when the kids are little pre-kindy age...I want to be home, caring for them and molding their little brains into what Jason and I want. :) But, once they go to school...esp. when they're gone from 8-3...I feel like, knowing me and my personality...that I'm going to want something to do outside of the home. Honestly, I really love working. I mean there are days when I would surely rather sleep but overall...going to work isn't hard for me. I like interacting with and helping people. I also enjoy a paycheck every now and then. I guess there are other thoughts behind all of this too. I like the idea of having my income as a backup. It's funny because I always envisioned that if I did work we would try to not use much of the money for day to day use. Invest it, save it, use it for retirement, give it, use it for kids college education...awesome family vacations. Weird yeah? Anyways, these are some thoughts of mine. So, I'm praying and seeking the Lord. Trying to see what's of "me" and what's of "Him".

Well, that's all for now. I will say that we are very much looking forward to the three day weekend. Yay. Plans for the weekend...maybe a trip to REI, unpacking and settling more into our house, a trip or two to some thrift shops, RUNNING. There's The North Face Half-Marathon Trail Race in SF that I would like to compete in this Dec. We will see. :)