Pigtail Princess

After 3 years of trying to do Danae's hair, I had almost given up. She has the thinnest, curliest hair on Earth! The first year she had no hair at all....she was bald. And now her hair has slowly been growing and finally it's long enough to look cute...however I've had no success at putting pigtails in her hair. When I was at work on Friday Leroy & the kids came to visit after I got off and low and behold Leroy, by some magic got her hair to stay in pigtails! So now she is my Pigtail Princess :)

I was also feeling crafty today so since I'm now obsessed with cupcakes and glitter (Martha Stewart crafts is now at Wal-Mart!!!!) I thought I'd make this card. It came out ok, I just should have added a frame around the cupcake, it looks so plain with just the white. You can't tell but the whole top pink frosting is colored with clear glitter. It looks so much better in person but the camera doesn't do it justice :) Not too shabby for a spur of the moment card.


And a special HI to everyone just reading this blog! That means you got our change of address card and checked us out :)

Can't think of a good title :)

Halloween is almost here! After discovering that there are much fewer choices for boys than girls, Derrick has decided to be a Hot Wheels racing dude and Danae is going to be her favorite princess Cinderella. After being nagged 5 million times a day on when Halloween is....we made a countdown calendar and there's only 9 days left!

So far we are all good here, we've been taking advantage of living near "activities". We went to the beach and had a blast! Leroy finally got Derrick in the ocean splashing and kicking the waters butt. Danae wanted nothing to do with the water and was content helping me make a sand turtle. She did however love to see the surfers out there. It's her "new thing", she wants to surf all the time. We come across random things on our adventures, and one thing this past weekend was hot air balloon rides! We were on the 126 headed to Ventura and right there smack dab on the right side of the road....a hot air balloon giving rides above the valley.



We only have 11 months to go for my one year "contract" that I have to stay in Fillmore! It's horrible when you just want to get out of a place. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to basically fight to get hrs every week, but it makes it so much more worse.

I finished our Christmas cards! All 41 of them, made by hand, each one embossed and cut by my own little hands.....I refuse to support Hallmark when I can make cute cards too :)




Some things we've learned while down in SoCal:
~Like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home"
~You can't make a u-turn at intersections down here, it totally sucks
~Drivers seriously don't know how to enter onto a freeway going highway speed in Ventury Co.
~Fresno has the best craft stores in the world
~You can find more Hot Wheels in the central valley rather than LA
~You never know how much you had till it's gone


Well, I think that's all for now....at least all my brain can think of :)

SoCal living

Well we did it, we moved 202 miles away from the Central Valley to Southern California! I've finally gathered enough time to update this "daily/bi-daily" blog....ok so I'm a little behind =) Get ready for some reading, 'cause here goes.......

We made our big move on September 21 and are finally settled in. Most of our stuff (400 boxes or so) are in storage since we have a much smaller place here. We moved to a small apartment complex, 20 units and it's been an adjustment to all the little noises. We hear the neighbors upstairs and outside...needless to say, we miss having a house. The biggest adjustment besides the space, is that the kids share a room. Leroy & I thought it was going to be tough for them sharing space but it really hasn't. We are going to have to get a bunk bed set though just to give them more play space.




We live right in the middle between Magic Mountain and Ventura Beach, which is nice but we have to drive everywhere. It's like living in Firebaugh again, nothing is close. We are really missing the convenience of the big city. The nearest Target or Walmart is 20-30 minutes away. We have to plan our trips now since it's nearly an adventure to do anything. It is much prettier than the valley down here though, there's mountains everywhere. And speaking of mountains, according to one resident, there's some unknown volcanic activity in one of the mountains here. There is steam coming out of a crack in the mountain and the ground keeps rising in temperature. Scientists don't know what it is but hopefully it won't turn out like the movie Volcano!

I'm based out of Fillmore, although I spend most working hours in Simi Valley, which is a bigger town 18 miles away but a 40 minute drive. I have to drive this big winding mountainous road to get there. The first time I drove it I was scared to death, now it's not that bad. On my days off we usually take day trips to Ventura beach or this past weekend to Whittier for a Hot Wheels show Leroy always heard about.

We lived in the city and always considered Fresno huge, but living in SoCal is like living in a completely different world! Everyone is always in a hurry, no one cares about how they drive, if your in the way they will run you over...scary at times! Right now there's a fire down here near Porter Ranch, we actually saw it on our way to Whittier, it was really surreal.

We are looking forward to when the kids get a little bigger, they always see Magic Mountain when we drive by it, yesterday Derrick said he wanted to ride the rollercoasters and we told him he could when he got bigger. He said, "Yeah I gotta be 40 feet tall to ride, 'cause then I will be tall enough" It was too funny! He was so adament on this height to ride the rides.

It's definatly a different place here, I do miss "home" as I call it. Leroy keeps reminding me that SoCal is home now, as true as it is I don't think I'll ever feel at home down here.