Great Day!

We moved!!!! Ok... so we only moved across the pool. But, still, we MOVED. What a great day! After dealing with water damage in our studio hotel room for the last two weeks, complaining nicely, having blowers in our room, workmen trying to fix the problem etc... we finally said "enough is enough" and were rewarded with an upgrade to a room twice the size of our studio. It is like a castle in here! We no longer have to move TJ's crib in order to access the kitchen and there is actually some room to sit down to watch TV or play with toys or read somewhere other than the bed. I tell ya... it is like heaven.

Also, Brian was contacted by a ServePro in Boise that he had randomly sent his resume to last month. Turns out the owner wants to "retire"- or cut way way back on day to day operations- and is looking for a replacement. It is the same business as Brian is in now. So he is meeting with the guy next week in Boise. His phone interview with Farmers Insurance went great and he is being flown out for an interview soon. I guess his talk about karma is true. He has been so kind and overly accomodating to many during this transition and good stuff is happening. I think it is great that he may get to choose which job he wants instead of just having to take whatever comes along.

I returned from Outdoor Ed camp on Friday afternoon. It was a fun time, but it was good to get home to my guys. I talked to Jake each night and on the last night he told me that he was "eating ceral with marshmallows for dinner in the bed".... I figured it was time for me to come home! Seriously, though. Brian was a champ dad and the boys had a great time.
Let's hope I can do as well when Brian leaves for five days next week!

Jake's Post

Jake wanted to post about the hotel:

We have a new room. We have a new fridge. We have a tennis court. We can play tennis and I hit it so high it almost went in the hoop. We have our new computer so I can watch movies in bed. I like breakfast, I have pancakes, waffles, blueberries and yogurt. I like that JoJo is here in the room.

We played this weekend outside at Grandma's in Tahoe. We played in the snow. I played with Abby, I had fun. I played with Gram. We left Milo there with Gram for a little bit. I get to sleep in the bed with Daddy. We have pizza.

Bye.......I miss Mommy........

Our New Town

Everyone who is secretly thinking, "Why BOISE?" might enjoy this site. See what our new town has to offer!

downtownboise.org

These also might be fun to look at:
hiddensprings.com (our new community)
foothillsschool.org (where I will be working)

Life in the Marriott continues to go well. I actually am kind of enjoying the free breakfasts, dinners, and house cleaning :) It feels like we are on vacation a little bit. I am sure it will grow old, but for now it is much better than I had feared. It is clear that home is where my boys are (all three of them!) as the room truly feels like home already. The boys are doing great with it- Tanner apparantly likes sleeping in the kitchen and Jake is thrilled to be sleeping on the floor next to our bed! We have already established a daily routine. I'm not sure we will know what to do with 2700 square feet next month! Love to everyone.

What I've Learned...

I've learned that pregnancy and moving have a lot in common: They both cause heartburn, indigestion, weight gain, slight but constant nausea, exhaustion, niggling worries of "What are we thinking?" and "Are you sure this is the right thing to do in our lives right now?"; they both require a sense of adventure, a release of control, teamwork, and a willingness to explore the unknown; and they both produce something wonderful at the end of a lot of hard work.


Our first night in the hotel went seamlessly- we ALL slept from 8:30-6:00 without interruption. After breakfast at the hotel, I headed back to the house to meet the movers. Miraculously, they arrived on time. Although they all look like they recently made an escape from the local prison, they seemed nice enough. I guess I just have faith that the things they are loading up won't end up on the black market somewhere. I couldn't watch them load all of our stuff so I went back to the- clean- hotel room (Boy, having a maid clean up after us every day for a month is going to be NICE!) to relax a little before picking up TJ for his six month appt.

More updates as things happen. For now, both Brian and I can be reached on cell phone only.
Love to everyone.

Technical Updates

A couple of new things with regards to the blog:

1. I figured out, I think, how to remove the "you must create an account to comment" annoying feature. You still need to do the "type in the code" thing to prevent the site from being spammed. But now you can leave comments as anonymous and it should be much quicker.

2. I have it set up where I get an email whenever anyone leaves a comment. So if you can't get a hold of us while we are in witness relocation, just comment on the blog and we will get it and get back to you.

3. The posts will probably be without photos for awhile as all of the picture stuff is on the other computer which is somewhere in a moving truck....we will posts the photos after the fact. Trust me, you will die when you see pictures of the little hotel room we are all living in.

Talk to you all soon,

Brian

Give our regards to 6th Street

So we are out of the 6th street house and into our hotel for the month. That house meant so much to Marisa and I, as it was our first house/home together, the house where we brought the boys home from the hospital, the house where we fought until we learned to talk, and where our relationship grew to the point it's at today, where we can take on something as terrifying as this adventure knowing that we will come through it just fine. 6th Street was the house that put the faith into our marriage. Some great memories from that house for me:

1. Marisa screaming from the hallway and waking me up to come get her, in the middle of the night our first night there because she couldn't find the bathroom and was afraid of the dark.

2. Marisa realizing, in the middle of our first major renovation, that the hole in the floor under the toilet was supposed to be there because the toilet has a drain in and it doesn't work by magic.

3. Jake learning to crawl admidst the dust and construction debris in his room (which was the dining room at the time)

4. The steel that major construction can put into the backbone of a marriage if you can survive the three month, 1500 different option- search for bathroom sconces.

5. Debating whether Jake was too young and it was too late at night to walk down and watch fireworks at Robertson Park on the fourth of July last year, doing it anyway and realizing how wrong we would have been to have not done it. (Still one of my top ten experiences in my life).

6. Meeting great friends (Nikko & Shannon) because Nikko was the foreman on our addition/remodel job, and staying friends with them since. Every Saturday, breakfast @ Nations.

7. The great "paint parties" that we were able to host, both when we moved in and our friends couldn't believe how much paint the old walls and ceilings could soak up, and after the addition, when they could believe that every room was going to be a different color.

8. Learning the life lesson that planning on replacing the kitchen floor (or doing anything really), waiting for three years to do it, and finally getting it done, invariably produces the, "we should have done this three years ago" response.

9. Having the perfect hallway for; soccer, bowling, foot racing, ball bouncing, car racing, sock sliding and dog chasing.

10. The house always, and probably forever, feeling like home.

We'll miss you 6th Street, thanks for all the great years and memories.

-Brian

In lieu of a card.....

Happy Mothers Day!

To all of the mothers in my life....

To my mom whose greatest strength in our relationship is having an opinion, but letting me make my own decisions (mistakes, to some!) and be my own person. She has always supported me in everything I have done. Looking back on my life and some of the choices I have made, she has been a stronger person than I to be able to hold her tongue and offer nothing but support. I love you Mom and am looking forward to seeing you soon.

To my wife and partner....to say that living with me is sometimes difficult is like saying that the ocean is a little damp. She is my best friend and the best mother to our boys that I could ever ask for. She is the patient person that I am not. The objective voice, that I am not. The innocent one, that I am not. She is the best parts of me that I wish I could be better at. She is a risk taker and has the strength of the Incredible Hulk (that part is from Jake!). Honey, I could not imagine starting out on this next phase of our lives with anyone but you. As long as it's you and me, we can do anything together, you make me so happy (even when you are making me sooooo crazy!). I love you more than I thought possible. Tanner and Jake are so lucky to be able to wish a woman like you Happy Mothers Day for the rest of their lives. Like a flower among the rocks, you will thrive even surrounded by boys! We love You.

To my Auntie Sue.. who has always been more than an Aunt to me. Happy Mothers Day! You are the worst casualty of this move for me personally. You love my boys as much as you loved me when I was their age, and if helps you to know how I feel about you, they love you back almost as much as I do.

Happy Mothers day to all. I have to go now, Marisa is dropping off the boys and I am supposed to be painting........


Love,

Brian

One week left on 6th street

Bill found our new house on Google Earth and it seemed like a good way to show everybody where it is in relation to Boise. If you click on the photo it will blow it up larger and you can see that we are a little bit north x northwest of downtown Boise, up in the foothills. One of the things that we like about the town is that when you are there, you really can't see back down into the Treasure Valley, it feels like you are a million miles away from anything.

We have one week left to finish up everything on the 6th Street house. We move out a week from Sunday on the 21st into the hotel. We have a significant amount of packing and repairs to accomplish between now and then. This weekend the boys are staying with their favorite, Auntie Sue ,on Saturday so Marisa and I can get somethings done. And on Sunday, we are going to Kim & Bills house for Mothers Day to see Cori and Kim, Bill and Abby and newest arrival; Aiden Colby Evans. Aiden was born this week and I haven't had the chance to meet him yet, so am really looking forward to the visit. Congrats to Kim and Bill! Welcome to a higher level of chaos than you thought imaginable....

Once we move out, our highest priority will be visiting friends and family before we make the final move at the end of next month. We already have; my mom, Cori and my Dad and Joan scheduled for visits in Boise. I have also heard rumors of Lisa, John and the girls as well as Lisa, Clark and their kids, but don't have firm dates on them yet. Having all of this family around will really make easing into our new home a lot more fun than going it alone. So if you don't have a trip out scheduled yet, plan on seeing us in the next month as visiting with you will be our main focus (with the exception of the Giants - Pirates game on the 10th of June). Go Giants!

Our Boise Home-To-Be

This is it.... our new home! Escrow closes on May 31st and we will be moving in June 28th or 29th. Things are moving much faster than we had originally anticipated due to several factors. First, our house in Livermore closes on May 24th and the buyers won't rent back to us, so we have to live in a hotel until school ends on June 17th. Second, Brian's job is ending sooner than originally expected. So, rather than hang out, paying 100 dollars a night to stay in a hotel (won't it be cozy with the four of us in a studio??) we decided to head on out to Boise and get this adventure started. Luckily Mary will be joining us for the first few weeks or so to help us with the boys as we get the house unpacked, find daycare, and get adjusted. I am so happy she will be with us!

We will have new contact info to you all soon- new email, new cell phones, new home phone, etc... Step by step we are going to get this done. It does seem a little overwhelming at times, but we are crossing things off our list little by little. Brian has been a packing maniac!

The pictures above show the kitchen, backyard, open space behind our house, and master bathroom. It is a bigger house, by far, but still feels cozy.It is is almost exactly twice as big as our current home and half as expensive. I have spoken to many ex-Californians that live there and everyone assures me that we will love it. The woman who runs the preschool at Hidden Springs (the community we will be living in) grew up in Los Gatos- a stones throw from Saratoga where I was raised.

We will keep you all updated as things happen. Jake and Tanner say hello :)

The Easter Bunny Arrives!

TJ and Jake are doing great. As you can see, they are both growing like weeds. These pictures were taken on Easter morning, which we spent at Auntie Sue's house being spoiled rotten! The Easter Bunny visited her house prior to our arrival and Jake had a blast searching through the house (not outside, as it was POURING!) for treasures. Tanner watched the proceedings from his comfy seat on the beanbag chair. We are having so much fun with our two boys and we love spending time with Auntie Sue. I keep wondering- how did I get so lucky?

Won't Be Unemployed for Long!

Well, after an interesting and eventful 24 hour trip to Boise last month, I have a job! Actually, it is not just a job- it is the teaching job of my dreams! I interviewed at two very different schools- one "back to basics" and one to the far left of center (I call it "The Hippy School). One of the places I LOVED and one I couldn't imagine working in. Can you guess which was which???
I will be teaching 4/5 at Foothills School of Art and Science in downtown Boise. Their focus is on teaching kids HOW to think and HOW to learn, they foster creativity in all its forms, and allow for autonomy of both students and teachers. I hope I enjoy it as much as I think I will. Though sad to leave Sycamore- my home for the last ten years- I am so excited to begin this new professional adventure.

The Craziness Continues

Update time! After having our house on the market for a month or so earlier this winter with no luck, we pulled it off while we were making the decison to stay in CA or move to ID. Since we put an offer in on a house there, it was time to put our house back on the market here so we could remove the contingency on our offer. Within 10 minutes of signing the paperwork, we got not one but two offers! Both for what we wanted, and both from people who looked a the house a month or so ago. We accepted the better of the two offers and have sold the house! The only bad thing....we have to be out by May 21, and we won't be moving to Boise until July 1st at the earliest....so, can we use your couch?

We started packing boxes right away, and while packing, Marisa got two phone calls for potential job interviews in Boise on Friday. So she flew out tonight, is interviewing with one school in the morning and one in the afternoon and meeting the realtor after that to get into the house and take some photos. Despite the fact that she is really nervous about the interviews, she will do great. She is such a good teacher and represents herself and her desire to teach so well, that I will not be surprised if she comes home with two offers. Good luck honey, we're all pulling for you here.

The other big news is that Jake got a visit from the "night-night" fairy. This visit was prompted by a visit to the dentist, who told Jake that the "night-night" was starting to hurt his teeth. So Jake put all of his night-night's on our dresser that night (he didn't want the fairy to actually come into his room!), and the fairy brought him some new super hero "guys" and an Emporer Zurg figure. He was very excited, but is having some trouble getting to sleep without his night night and keeps saying how he misses it, but is doing a great job getting through it.

Auntie Sue flew back from her road trip with Mom to MN. Marisa and Jake met her at the airport. Of course, she came bearing gifts and now Jake has even more stuff, but he missed his Auntie Sue. Marisa and the boys are heading to our friends Anna & Geoff's Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, while I work on the house, and then we are off to Auntie Sue's on Sunday for Easter Brunch.

Happy Easter Everybody and we'll let you know how Marisa's interviews went ASAP.

New House!

Hi Everybody -

The latest update...this is our house. After much trial and error and soul searching, we decided to buy a house in the development that we like that is being re-sold as opposed to buying a brand new house.

Not only does this save us some money, but it's ready to move into now (not that we are ready to move into it!). We have a 60 day escrow and if all goes well, it will be ours May 31st. Our plan is still to move out (hopefully with jobs!) in the beginning of August. We are still not sure what Marisa will do, as the school year starts there on August 9th, so that might be a little tight, but we'll see. So many things go into every decision, in this case, we need healh insurance, and she can get it quicker than I can.

So now we need to sell our house. We do have some off-the-market interest, so we need them to step up or we will need to put the house back on the market here very soon. Resumes are going out, along with daily checks of Monster.com and Career Builder.com, so hopefully we will start to get some return phone calls.

Things are starting to get a little scary....as Marisa says, " We bought a house, so I guess we're really going?". That's pretty much it.....Yikes! Everybody needs to come for very frequent and very lenghty visits.

Talk to you soon.....

Idaho Photos

Here are the aforementioned photos of Hidden Springs, Idaho. As an update, we have now tried to buy, and have lost out on, five separate houses in this development. They just keep selling out from under us. This is the most sought after development in the Boise area (mostly by expat Californians it turns out) so we are having a hell of a time trying to make decisions via email, looking at floorplans, site plans etc.

We are now trying to put an offer on a house that is being re-sold up by the entrance to the development that we looked at on our trip there. We'll let you know how it goes......

Happy 3rd Birthday Jake!

Right before all of the stuff with moving and buying and selling houses and looking for new jobs happened, it was Jake's 3rd Birthday.

Marisa did a great job planning everything right down to the Lion King themed underwear that each child was given to wear so that everything was coordinated (just kidding, but not by much!). But she found a great place in Dublin for the festivities. A new party place that has a really cool playroom with blow up giant slide and everything. They take all the pictures, the ones here included, coordinate the event and here's the big kicker for the parents, CLEAN UP EVERYTHING AFTERWARDS. A GENIUS idea and worth every cent.

Jake had a great time playing with his friends and opening his Midas-sized haul of birthday gifts. You can tell when your child had a good time by the amount of the fit that they throw when it is time to go to bed, so he had a REALLY good time, and was exhausted after all was said and done.

It's so hard to believe that he is three already! He is getting to be such a big boy. He is a crack up on a minute by minute basis, a character of mythic proportions and just the love of his Daddy's life. Happy Birthday Buddy, Daddy Loves You (hang loose dude!).

Nobody really likes this but......

....we are moving to Boise. Yes, Idaho, that Boise. I don't really even know where to start. Moving out of state has always been a topic of discussion anytime that we have come to a new stage in our lives since we've gotten married....can we afford to move to Livermore, or should we look at moving out of state; can we afford to have a baby here, or should we look at moving out of state; can I afford to take a cut in pay to lower my commute and stress level, or should we look at moving out of state, so while this may seem like a snap decison, it's been a long time coming.

It's too easy to say that we can't afford to live here anymore, and I think that is a problem that we have had. We have been trying to distill our reasoning down to what is logical and black and white. Both to make the decison easier to explain to our family and friends, as well as make the decision easier on us to make. Without going onto all of the reasons (which we would be happy to do, if you would like, just call us and ask), we have made a very hard decision to move from the Golden State to the Potato State.

In trying to keep this post upbeat, I'll just concentrate on what we found when we visited this last weekend. A disclaimer up front...these are just opinions, not condemnation of anybody else's likes, dislikes, lifestyle etc. My website, my opinions, no offense should be inferred.

We really loved Boise. We flew in Friday night, it was dark so we couldn't really see anything of the area, but the airport seemed nice enough. What really struck me was that, when we went outside to get our rental car, it just smelled clean. It was crisp, but not really cold. Once we found our POS Kia rental, it was a very quick and easy drive to downtown. We got to the hotel about 10:00 PM. At which point Marisa wanted to go back out and drive around and begin exploring the city. I tried to explain that it was dark and that most things would be closed, but she would hear none of it, so out into the night we went.

We drove around downtown, which was easy because there was no traffic. We found the dark spot where the Boise River is during the daylight, found a couple of areas that we were quickly able to rule out as possible relocation spots (I am NOT living there!), but mainly just drove around lost for a couple of hours. We got back to the room and to sleep @ midnight.

We got up early on Saturday and drove around to several of the surrounding areas just to see if we could get a feel for the towns and see if there was anything that we could rule out. We met with the realtor and spent all of Saturday looking at houses in various areas. We really liked an area called Hidden Springs in the foothills of Boise, www.hiddensprings.com is the link if you want to check it out. We are trying to get a house up there right now.

We met with a guy who is the moderator of a Yahoo! chat group for Californians who have moved to Idaho. Marisa found the group before we went to visit and we made arrangements to sit down with Mark and talk to him about the area and his experiences. There are so many Californians moving there, it's a whole underground community. Everybody moving for more or less the same reasons; money, commute, traffic, the rat races, the outdoors etc.. It is nice to have a group of people with a shared experience and knowledge to bounce things off of.

But we had a very nice time and really loved the place. We arrived home Sunday late afternoon, exhausted and missing our boys. We will update with what happens next and will post some photos as soon as I get them downloaded from the camera.

The Happiest Place on Earth?

Hi Everyone,
Well, we embarked on our first official road trip in the BBV (Big Blue Van) on Thursday, February 24th. We set Jake up with many a movie and even more snacks and set out to San Diego to meet with the owners of Brian's company to talk about the much anticipated "buy in". The trip down was uneventful until LA at which point TJ started screaming bloody murder, Jake was overtired and overhungry and there was no food or rest stop to be found. We traveled at approx. 2 mph for several hours until we reached Orange County. I tell ya... that little Tanner is one smart guy: He already has an aversion to Los Angeles! We spent Friday and Saturday at John and Liz' house discussing the financials/particulars of us buying in to the company and interspersed our serious conversations with playtime with the four boys. Jake loved swimming with Nick and Joey and really enjoyed playing in their gigantic backyard. On Sunday, with business concluded early, we went to Legoland. It was gorgeous and sunny and perfect for a three year old. I don't know who had more fun: Jake or Brian. We decided to spend the night in OC to get part of the drive out of the way and upon waking in the morning couldn't resist the lure of Disneyland. Despite having been told by numerous people that Jake was really too young to enjoy it, Brian and I decided to give it a go. Hmmmm. Let's just say that at one point Brian turned to me and said, "This is the happiest place on earth, damn it!" At which point we both burst out laughing. Jake was scared of many of the rides, the lines were way too long for a Monday in February, and the weather was "iffy". It started to rain about noon and began a torential downpour at 2- hence, we made the disney folk a bit richer by rushing into the nearest souvenier store and purchasing mickey mouse ponchos. Jake was a tropper, Tanner was blissfully unaware as he was sleeping under my poncho (see picture above), and we quickly ran for the nearest exit ( a good ten minute walk through the pouring rain!). All in all it was quite funny and we are glad we had the adventure and now have learned from experience. I will surely pass my two cents worth on to any other families with children under the age of 6 and say, "Don't do it!" but many will probably not heed the advice and have to learn for themselves that Disneyland is HIGHLY overrated! We drove home that evening. Being highly intelligent people, Brian and I came up with a great plan... we left Anaheim at 5:00 on Monday night, heading through LA. Yes, it took us many, many hours to get over the grapevine and we arrived home at 2:00 in the morning. Luckily both boys slept almost the entire way and we had the IPOD to keep us entertained. I know, it sounds like a nightmare, but in an odd way it was a great time.

Lot's of posts today, sorry folks but when you find some time these days it's a minor miracle. Granted a lot of this craziness is self-imposed. In the middle of both of the boys being sick, Tanner being a newborn and Jake trying to potty train, we have also decided to....sell our house.

That's right, after all that hard work and remodeling, just when we got it all done (literally, I am doing touch up painting in the kitchen this weekend). We have discovered that the one thing that we can't do to this house is add on a backyard. Having a toddler and soon to be two, really made us re-evaluate what we need in a house. So after much soul searching and admitting that I have been right on this for a year now, Marisa agreed to look at moving.

We have put an offer in on another house is Livermore, that, surprise, surprise, needs some work. But it is a large house with a large lot, is in walking distance to an elemenatry, middle and high school, and will be big enough for all of our needs. I blame this habit of mine on my Uncle Rick, who was buying and fixing up houses my whole early childhood. I always thought that it was so cool that if it wasn't what you wanted, you just made it what you wanted. If you wanted a river in your backyard, you made one. If you wanted a hot tub off of the Master Bedroom, you put one in. I have always been able to look past what shape a house is in when I buy it and see it how I want it to be, and I think some of that comes from Uncle Ricks living construction projects that I was always playing in growing up. So thanks Uncle Rick....

We will try to keep the posts more regular as we go forward. But as you can imagine, with our lives, sh*@ happens. - Brian

Our Littlest Man

Here's Tanner (or TJ or Tiege, depending on who is reading this). He is getting so big so fast. He is a joy, truly. Still bald, still sleepy a lot of the time, but starting to smile and "play" much more. I am enjoying my time with him, as I go back to school in 5 1/2 weeks (but who's counting?). Don't tell Brian, but I think I may want a third! (only kidding... sort of!).

Potty Training Success!

Quite proud of himself, Jake poses by the potty for a picture commemorating the fact that he is officially on the road to being a BIG BOY. He has been wearing pull ups for a month now and stays dry all day. I can't tell you how little I miss changing those poopy diapers!!! I have to give a great deal of credit to Miss Julie- she did most of the training, sitting him on the potty every 20 minutes for several weeks. Still, Jake deserves the credit for making the decision to get it done. Not to be too graphic, but it is pretty amusing the urgency with which he tells me he has to " GO POOP! RIGHT NOW, MOMMY!" and the ensuing rush to the bathroom makes me feel like I have joined some sort of Mommy Club. He still resists wearing big boy underpants- despite the fact that we have sbout 15 pair in all sorts of his favorite designs- Bob Builder, Thomas, Elmo, etc.... Our deal is that he can have gum (something he has been wanting for at least a year now) when he wears his big boys and stays dry for a week. So far the bribe doesn't seem to be working, but we'll keep you posted! In any case, I am relieved to know that my son won't go to high school wearing a diaper. Now if we can only get him to give up that binky....