Earthquake on the East Coast

Last night I was at work, sitting in the nurses' station working on some documentation when all of a sudden I felt an earthquake...the computer monitors were shaking a little. It was SMALL, compared to my usual California quakes! I immediately went to find some other people to talk to, thinking everyone was going to be freaking out because that was so unusual for this area, however most people either didn't even feel it or didn't really know what it was. I guess it was a 4.0 earthquake in Maine. It was quite a conversation topic for everyone last night - kinda a big deal for New England. Just thought I'd share this story with my fellow quake-experienced Californians. :)

Approximately 1 more month!!

Our baby is due in 1 month - we are 36 weeks today and we will now start seeing the doctor every week. We are super excited and just had a good trip to Babies R Us to get the last few essential items. We are still getting the room together and waiting for the furniture to arrive, but feeling more and more ready every day! [We just had a little set back - I was just finally starting to feel like the room was ready, we bought a nice rug, measured out where the crib and dresser will go, etc...but then maintenance came to fix the boiler/thermostat. On Monday, they worked in both bedrooms and had to cut holes in the walls. They had moved all the stuff in the baby's room to the middle of the room and covered it with a tarp (thankfully!), but we are basically back to square one with possibly some dirt on the rug. :( We were pretty bummed but are moving forward and getting things back in order]. Here I am at 36 weeks!

Visit #3 back home

  

Baby Shower @ Pam's

We made our 3rd trip back to California in September for a little baby shower with some church friends and my niece's baptism (surprisingly there was no wedding to attend!). Since we saw most of our family and friends in April and June, Brian and I were able to spend a little more time actually "vacationing" a little - we did some shopping and spent some time at the beach. It was nice to have some time to relax and not be rushing from one place to another. We had lunch on Saturday with Brian's family and then dinner with friends at Dee Dee's house.

Valentina's baptism was on Sunday in South Orange County. Brian & I are her Godparents - such an honor! She looked so beautiful in her dress and was such a good baby - so mellow and content with everyone and everything. What a blessing! It was a gorgeous warm California day spent with family and friends. 

We had a lovely, but brief, visit home - it's sometimes hard to believe that the next time we go back we will have a little person to tag along with us! :)

A lesson in Carbon Monoxide

Last night I was sitting at the top of the stairs working on the computer and Brian was downstairs reading and cooking. All of a sudden the carbon monoxide alarm started going off - it was alarming "move to fresh air" - it wasn't the battery light, it was the alarm. We, naturally, started to panic a little and immediately opened all the windows and turned on the fans. We called the emergency maintenance number and the guy told me that it was probably the battery and instructed me as to how to take out the battery. He then said he would come by in the morning to install new detectors. I wasn't completely satisfied with this response, so I called my brother-in-law, Luis, since he has worked in maintenance at apartments. He basically said the same thing, which made us feel better. While I was on the phone with Luis, I noticed that we had another detector downstairs, in the living room - which wasn't going off. Interesting...made me think it was probably the battery too. Then, I was reading the back of the detector, which said to call 911 or Fire Dept if alarm goes off. So, I called the Boston Fire Dept and asked them if taking the battery out was the best idea. The man wasn't very nice on the phone. He told me to put the battery back in and that he was going to send some people over to check things out. Of course the alarm stopped beeping once the battery was back in, making it look like it might have just been the battery. Brian and I were waiting and within a few minutes we hear the sirens approaching - I didn't think the sirens were necessary. Three fire fighters came in with all their gear on, one carrying the CO detector. Brian showed two of them the alarm that was going off and the other was with me downstairs checking the stove. They said the detector probably wouldn't pick anything up now that all the windows were opened (I was hoping for a little more praise that we did ventilate the rooms!). They only stayed a few minutes, made sure we were feeling okay and said to call them back if the alarm began going off again. One thing we learned from them was that CO is heavy and that the detectors need to be placed low to the ground. Ours, like everywhere you usually see them, are high on the wall. One of the guys said to Brian "you would die in your sleep by the time it reached a detector that high". We told the Fire Dept that we would let the maintenance person know that when installing them. So, when maintenance came early this morning we let him know, but he said he has never seen it low to the ground and that they are always installed on the wall, a little lower than the smoke detectors. We tried. I was telling Brian that it needs to be a better known fact to have CO detectors near the ground because I am sure these are improperly installed everywhere! Perhaps they are placed high for aesthetic reasons, but it seems like an important enough device to install properly. Anyway, we learned a lot from this experience and are thankful that it wasn't anything & we are okay.

My 29th Birthday

 

After working 6 days in a row (which I had never done), we headed back to California for my niece's baptism and a little shower with some friends. We left Boston early on my birthday and arrived in Cali late afternoon - I got a couple birthday wishes at the airport and we got to board with the families on Southwest, which allowed us to sit together thankfully! So, I like to think that was my treat for flying on my birthday. :) Once we got settled in, we went to dinner with my mom's side of the family at the amazing Woodranch. Unfortunately my mom wasn't feeling too good, but it was just nice to be able to spend my birthday with family! We saw all the parents that first night in California!!! :)

Enjoying Summer

As usual, on nice days (when I'm off of work) we like to get out and try to go somewhere new. One afternoon we went to Castle Island/Pleasure Bay in South Boston for an afternoon walk. It was quite windy with a little rain, but otherwise a beautiful day.

Hurricane Irene ruined my Cape Cod birthday plans last year, so we decided to use our hotel credit this summer. We drove down to the Cape and wandered around Chatham for the afternoon. One of our favorite things to do is walk around little unique town shops. After exploring Chatham, we drove to our hotel in West Dennis, MA. It was so nice to just relax and enjoy being near the beach. We saw our first East Coast sunset! Then we watched some of the Olympics (which we were pretty into this summer) and then went to dinner at The Ocean House. The food was amazing - Brian, naturally, got lobster and I got a steak. We slept in and then read a little out on our little cottage porch, then checked out and headed to the other side of the Cape to explore and shop. We headed home in the late afternoon and had a nice phone chat with Angie to catch up while driving home.

Our Cape Cod Cottage at the Lighthouse Inn

 Dinner at the Ocean House

The young crowd at work requested a night off work so that we could all go out for dinner. We sat on a rooftop in downtown Boston on a lovely summer evening. My co-workers in this picture are (from Left to Right) Merideth, Jill, Kristen, (me), Lauren and Rosalind. We had a great time, even though we still talked a lot about work  haha.
 
Dinner at a friends house for his birthday. The Kelly's on the left and the Jones' in the middle. These two ladies will be throwing me a little baby shower here in Boston in a couple weeks. :)

Brian and I went to a farm one afternoon to pick our own vegetables. We picked green beans, corn, tomatoes, and apples. We used all the veggies for our next two dinners - they were all yummy!! It's super fun to go farming and we plan to do lots more of it!

After coming home from the farm, we stopped by the little summer festival that our apartment complex was having. They had a BBQ, games and activities for the kids, tons of bounce-houses, and a little petting zoo. We didn't stay long - just enough to check it out...and get some free water haha.

That's a little of what we have been up to on my days off! :)

Our New Place

We are finally settled in to our new place - only a few small things left to do and then the baby's room. Here are some pictures of our new space!

The Kitchen

 

The Dining Room

The Living Room

 

Top of stairs, Brian's desk

 

Bathroom

The office/nursery/guest bedroom for now

Our bedroom

Taste of home

I spent one afternoon skyping with my niece Valentina - she was only about 7 weeks old at the time, but she maintained pretty good eye contact. It was lots of fun. We did it again tonight and she was exceptionally good - such a content, happy baby!!  So thankful for this technology!!

At the end of July we met up with our friend Dan from back home who was in Boston for work. We met him at the amazing tapas place in the South End, Toro, and then drove over to Harvard Square for some dessert at Finale. We also checked out some bookstores and took a late night stroll on the Harvard campus. It was so wonderful to see him again here in Boston. We love visits from our CA friends & family! :)

The Bump

 The baby bump at 23 weeks - just a couple days before the movers arrived.

The bump at 25 weeks - settling in to our new place!

Moving

We've moved, but this move wasn't quite like the last (CA--> MA). We only moved about 10 minutes away, a little outside the city. It's a nice area with some hiking trails, tennis courts, and a small shopping center all within walking distance. There are lots of trees and shade, providing us with a nice summer breeze. Our little townhouse apartment is much more spacious than the last and we are enjoying it very much here.

These are a couple pictures we took the day we got our keys, which ended up not working in the door! It was a Saturday afternoon, so there wasn't much anyone was going to do - it was a good thing we didn't have a moving truck there ready to bring things in! (Because we wouldn't have been able to lock the door when we left). We did a walk-through of the place and were a little disappointed - the previous family had marked their childrens' heights with marker in the bedroom, in a spot where no furniture would go and there were markings in other places throughout the apartment. So, it was clear they didn't paint. There were a few other little things that we weren't happy with, so we wrote it all down for maintenance and then brought our complaints to the office (which was closing in just a few minutes). Since we weren't able to leave stuff in our unlocked apartment and because they were hopefully going to be painting soon, we decided to head down to Ikea and get some furniture. By Sunday, we had new keys and by Tuesday, the place was painted and all our complaints were repaired. We were completely 100% satisfied and happy with the results and promptness they delivered in getting it all done.

Then on Thursday, we had movers come and move all the big stuff. The whole process took much longer than we anticipated, but they did a great job - I don't think they made one mark on the wall... and we have some pretty tricky stairs!

We are officially out of our old apartment and just about settled into the new one. One of my favorite things with our new place is having the washer and dryer two steps from the bedroom! It has just been so wonderful to be able to do laundry without having to walk outside! And no more quarters!! One of my least favorite things about the new place is the child next door who screams constantly (I especially don't like it when the screaming takes place outside at 9am on a Saturday! It doesn't matter if the windows are open or closed, you can still hear him!). Anyway, we love our new space and will post pictures soon!!

First 4th of July, Bostonian style

 Last year was our first 4th of July in Boston and I had to work that evening - at least I was able to watch a little of the Boston Pops show on the TVs in the patients' rooms. This year I worked the day shift, getting off at 4pm, went home & changed, and then met up with some friends on the Cambridge side of the Charles River for the big 4th of July celebration. I knew it was a big deal, but I couldn't believe how many people were there for it!! It was a gorgeous day and many people just hung out all afternoon to get good seats. The show started at 8, but during the Boston Pops performing we could see some lightning in the sky. At first we weren't sure if it was someone's fireworks or if it was in fact lightning, but then they announced for everyone to seek shelter for about 20 minutes as we wait for the storm to pass. Tons of people did just that, but we stayed put. We didn't want to lose our awesome spot unless it got really bad, so we stayed there and the rain never came. They started the show back up, but just as it started to get windy and stormy-ish, they decided to stop the music (Jennifer Hudson) and get on with the fireworks. So, about 3-5 minutes into the fireworks it POURED! These were some huge drops of water and they would fall right into our eyes as we were looking up in the sky at the fireworks. Let's just say everyone was drenched by the end of the show. It was definitely a memorable and wonderful Boston 4th of July!! And definitely the best firework show I've ever seen! Go Boston!!!

Trip #2 back to Cali

My sister was due June 5th and we arrived back home late June 6th...no baby yet! So on Thursday, my sister met up with us, I went and got my hair done while Brian and Crystal hung out in Corona. Then us two pregnant ladies went and got our nails done, and then the three of us went to Oma and Opa's for dinner. My dad goes over there every Thurs night for dinner, so he was there too. From there, we went to Kate's new house in South Orange County. We had some dessert while we put the guys to sleep with all our nursing talk. :)

On Friday, we met up with Jon and then drove down to San Diego, stopping at our friend Zach's summer house in La Jolla for a manly feast of hot dogs, burgers, chicken, and more! It was a gorgeous San Diegan afternoon with a nice view of the ocean. Then we got ready for the wedding rehearsal and drove over to University of San Diego. Zach gave us a little tour of the gorgeous USD campus and then we went to the rehearsal & dinner afterward. I went back to the hotel with the girls and Brian hung out with the guys.

Saturday was the beautiful wedding of Megan and Casey, with the reception taking place at Balboa Park.

After the wedding we drove to Dan and Angel's (our Boston friends) new place, about 20 min from the reception site and stayed the night with them. Sunday morning, the 4 of us went breakfast at The Cottage in La Jolla, which is the same restaurant that Brian and I ate dinner at this past Valentine's day (the couple owners are from CA and MA). The food was excellent and it was so nice to catch up with them!

After breakfast, we met up with the lovely Hurwitz family just down the street in La Jolla for brunch (lunch for us). While we waited for a table at the Brockton Villa Restaurant, we caught up overlooking the ocean and seals. Unfortunately, this was as close as we got to the ocean on our trip. We had such an amazing morning in La Jolla and then we headed back to OC for church and then dinner with some friends.

To start the week off, my sister went into labor on Monday! It was perfect timing because we were back from San Diego and my dad and Sandi were on their way home from Vegas. Brian and I got to the hospital around noon and my little niece Valentina was born at 6:55pm. It was truly a happy day! A beautiful and healthy baby girl! I couldn't be more excited that we were in town to be there for this special day!

Throughout the rest of the week we met up with various friends and family, often going from one place to the next keeping us very busy. I ate various meals with some nursing school friends:

We spent our last day in town by attending the wedding of our friends Mike and Corey. The ceremony was at San Antonio and the reception at Astor Classic Events Center in Anaheim, where there were all sorts of old, classic cars and antiques. It was really neat. We had to leave the reception early to catch our flight back to Boston...ending our wonderful visit back home. As always, it was so great to see and catch up with our family and friends!!