Monday Night Football!!!

Above are some photos of the house with a few settled in areas, finished yard, and our new art piece.

Eagerly waiting the start of tonight's Monday Night Football game between Minnesota and Green Bay. Still not sure who to rout for. Dad's from Minnesota, Mom's from Wisconsin, and then Aaron Rodgers is a Chico boy though he went to my high school rival, PV. I've more routed for the Vikings through the year and am leaning towards routing for them tonight. All in all should be a good game.

Tootles,
Sarah

Hello Fall!

Fall is here. I can't say Fall is my favorite season, I don't think I really have a FAVORITE season. I just love the changing of the seasons. I'm usually tired of the old season and ready for the climate change. Fall is fun because I get to decorate the house for all the holidays that come with it. And while the first week and weekend of Fall brought 100 degree weather, between Monday and Tuesday this week, we've seen a drop of about 15-20 degrees and have had some chilly nights. Tonight we even had some rain, lightning and thunder. We had to take the comforter out of the dry cleaning bag. And with October started, Halloween decorations have made their way out of storage and into our decor.

In other news, we still have a ways to go before we're totally settled in the new house (I'll decorate around the mess:)) but we are almost completely done with cleaning the old house - just a quick sweep of the garage tomorrow and our walk-through.

We have completed our backyard renovations. We had cement poured and stained, and sprinklers and lawn put in last week. We even extended the driveway a little so I'll be able to park on it versus the street. Yippee! Above are some pics before the cement was stained. The camera is low on battery power and I haven't found the charger yet to take the final finished picture.

Today, Lynde, Cameron and I headed up to the Auburn Home Show. Cameron and I were on a mission to find a painting for above the fireplace. We originally had purchases a painting on canvas hung by a wrought iron bar, but it's just a little too big and looks better in our bedroom any how. We went straight to the building that had the art at the last show. Sure enough, the art section was still there and still at the low low prices. We found what we wanted in 10 minutes. It's even already above the fireplace and we've even picked out the colors we plan to paint the room. In trying to hang the canvas painting, Cameron made some dents and holes, which has been a blessing because I cannot wait to paint and now I need to to fix his boo boos.

Stay tuned for more pictures as things progress.

Tootles,
Sarah

First Bubble Bath

We're in the new house! And I have officially broken in the new master bath tub with bubble! Yesterday was my company's annual marketing offsite in Santa Cruz. With all the unpacking and moving that went on over the weekend, I was too tired to head down Monday night, so I instead went to bed early and work up at 5 AM to head to San Jose. I had to be in San Jose by 9 AM to catch a ride over the hill. Just barely made it thanks to traffic on 680! While the meeting was supposed to finish at 4, we didn't get out of there until 4:45, so we weren't back over the hill until 5:30. Luckily, traffic was moving nicely and I was back in Elk Grove at 7:30 or so. Needed to make a stop at the old house to get some of the last items we have there. By the time I got home at 8:30, all I wanted was a little dinner, a glass of wine and a bubble bath. After a quick sandwich, I was soaking it up upstairs and unwinding. May need a few more before weeks end.

The big move was last Saturday and the movers were done in under 6 hours. Of course, we just had them place boxes in the garage, so we've been busy moving boxes into the house and unpacking. Just a few pictures, cleaning and gardening supplies remain at the old house. Guess what we'll be doing this weekend ;).

I'll get pictures up of the new house unfurnished soon and once we're settled, will get final pictures up.

Tootles,
Sarah

Busy Busy Busy

So I'm sitting at my computer and tried to remember the loast time I posted here. I had to check and am shocked its been well over a month. Then again, August was a bit of a blurr for me.

The weekend after our anniversary, Cameron's brother Alan and his son Christian were in town for a visit, so a bunch of the family got together for a BBQ. Our nephew Christian turned 3 in July and is just the happiest little guy I have ever met! It was a ton of fun to see him and Alan again, and we were happy Joe, Vicki, Alan and Christian made the trek down to Rancho to see the house at the time. I think the tile was just going in.

The next weekend kicked off all the festivities around Matt & Lynde's wedding. First was the bridal shower, then the bachelor party and Lynde's pre-bachelorette party. followed by their wedding. The wedding was wonderful, the bride gorgeous and the groom looked dapper in his tux and spiffy shoes. Forget what the style was called, but the shoes were cool for sure. We spent a bit of time up in Chico for their wedding, catching up with friends we don't see often who had come in for the wedding as well as sneaking in a dinner with Gene and Bonnie Moffett.

Then, last Thursday, my parents flew in for Denise Johnson's wedding, which was Sunday. Friday, my dad finally got to see the new house - during our pre-walk through. Did I mention its all done. The prewalk through was just to go through and make sure it was up to our standards. The builder has had this last week to fix all the little things. My biggest concern is just making sure the granite tile on the island is smooth - I'd found a few rough edges during the walkthrough. Denise and Jon's wedding was lovely as well. It was held at the very same location as Matt & Lynde's! A bit of deja vu for Cameron and myself. Cameron got to meet a lot of people from my childhood that I haven't seen in years. My parents and I had a great time catching up with all these people. Denise looked stunning in her dress and I got quite the kick out of Jon walking in to the Mission Impossible theme song!

And to add more to our plate, we've been busy with the final preparations of the new house and moving! We get the keys tomorrow. While I know the process seemed to take forever, I can't believe the day is almost here that its ours! We have the final walkthrough just to confirm all was fixed tomorrow at 1 PM. Then it will be recorded with the city and we should have our keys between 3:30 and 4:30. We'll get a little time in the house before Cameron drives me to the airport for Lynde's bachelorette party. We're headed to San Diego for a weekend of girl fun and teh Dave Matthew's Concert.

The big move will take place next weekend. Until then, Cameron wants to seal the garage floor and fences. We also have someone coming to give us an estimate on sealing the grout and tile counters and floors Saturday, which we then hope can be completed before the big move. Also crossing our fingers that the blinds arrive and that we can get them installed before then as well. Luckily, almost everything here is boxed up, so we'll be ready for the movers and will be able to transport fragile and odd shaped items through out the week before.

I'll get the final photos up as soon as I get back from San Diego Sunday!

Tootles,
Sarah

One Year and Still Going Strong

Cameron and I celebrated our 1-year Anniversary last weekend. He surprised me with a weekend getaway to Fort Bragg. He had told me a surprise would arrive mid-afternoon Friday. We had also been talking about going out to a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Then Thursday morning after asking about a pair of pants that were in the ironing basket, Cameron asked me what I would be wearing for our dinner. Not too surprised, assumed he was just making sure he didn't need those pants or something else ironed to coordinate. But he then asked which shoes I would be wearing. I had too much on my mind at the moment to really think about it. It was during my washing dishes by hand that night after he had loaded the dishwasher that I thought about the shoe comment and realized he would only care about my shoes if he was packing for me. So by bed on Thursday I knew where we were going.

We packed up the corvette and headed to Fort Bragg around 3 pm Friday. We stopped in for a bathroom break at Granzella's in Williams before getting onto HWY 20. The place burnt down a few years ago. It was good to see the rebuild kept the same charm of the old building but improved areas that needed improving including a women's bathroom with several stalls and sinks versus 1.

On to HWY 20 and the winding road. Cameron sure had fun driving the vette on this road. We could have done without the crow that tried to attach the car along the way. On the way home we saw a crow limping on the side of the road - we like to think it was the same crow that got too close to another car. Of course, then on the way home a sparrow tried to attack the car as well! He would not have won that battle.

We stayed at the Pine Beach Inn that has access to a private beach. It was foggy when we arrived, but still light out, so we headed down and wandered a little bit, but our hungry tummies got to us soon after we hiked down there.

After a little perusing of the local magazine guides and Cameron on the computer, we settled on the North Coast Brewing Co. in Fort Bragg for dinner. Between the garlic waffle fries and beer battered onion rings, not to mention the burgers we had, we definitely had our share of grease that night. After dinner we stopped in at Safeway to grab our breakfast (two diet pepsis) and a bottle of champagne. We couldn't remember if our hotel room even had real glasses or plastic, so we also picked up some plastic glasses - they ended up being a better option than the hotel plastic glasses. So classy! We seem to find ourselves drinking champagne out of plastic cups when on vacation - guess its a tradition.

Saturday we headed to glass beach. We went to the wrong beach at first so we took a walk along the cliffs and enjoyed the scenery. Once we got to glass beach we began the beach combing. The poor beach has been picked through quite a bit as compared to previous visits years ago. Cameron had fun finding and playing in the tide pools as well. For lunch we headed into Mendocino, settling on Bayview Cafe which has gorgeous views of the ocean. After lunch we ended up shopping a little and purchasing a bottle of wine for Lynde, since she and Matt were watching Mel for us and a magnum of J champagne to be opened when we move into the new house. We also picked up a Christmas tree ornament. We have a tradition of getting a Christmas ornament any where we go on vacation that represents where we went. It makes decorating the tree that more enjoyable as we remember each trip together.

After an afternoon nap, we headed to The Cliff House for our special dinner and then drove up the coast for a little while before it got too dark. All in all we had a wonderful and relaxing few days away on the cool and foggy coast. Sunday we got up early and headed home. We didn't want to miss the BBQ at Matt & Lynde's. The Fosters came with their two dogs, Bella and Guinness as did the McGraths - between the four dogs and Kaley running around, it was pretty funny. And both families walked over to our house with us to see the progress.

We're only about a month out from getting our keys! We went by yesterday - tiling is started and cabinets are in! We can hardly wait!

Tootles,
Sarah

Anniversary Trip to Fort Bragg, CA