{Finally} Home

And it does feel like home. Sort of. I mean, I've only been here a couple days. But, I'm starting to get my bearings in the "city" {we don't really live in the city, really more like out in the country. But we're pretty close to a WHOLE lot of stuff!}. I'm recognizing street names, and kind of have an idea about the layout of the towns. This place is so cool...for example, Sunday Matt and I were driving back from the city {LA} and decided to stop at Costco on the way home. It being Sunday, Costco didn't open for another hour. What were we to do? Well, I looked at the map, and found Stough Park which looked really cool and wasn't too far to drive. Well, we drove up there, and it was awesome. I wasn't wearing the right shoes, so we didn't hike around, but we looked around and enjoyed the pretty scenery and the wildlife {mainly birds}. Yesterday, Matt and I went Craigslist shopping and decided to go hiking in the afternoon. We went hiking the fire trail in the Verdugo Mountains. I'll have Matt upload the amazing pictures later. I can't seem to upload them. I guess I should upload the pictures from my drive and Mom's visit here. Did I mention how much fun we had? We got in a day early, Thursday, so all day Friday we went sight seeing. It was so much fun. We drove through Burbank, and saw some of the movie studios.

 

  

Can you guess which one this is? 

Then we drove to Hollywood Blvd., walked down the Walk of Fame, and went to the Chinese Theater.

Mom saw so many stars she knew! She wanted pictures by Cary Grant and Julie Andrews. Good choices! Next, we drove down Sunset Strip toward the Santa Monica Pier. Found free parking {Score!} and walked down to the beach. Mom HAD to feel the water :)

 

That's the pier in the background. We decided to check it out. Evidently it is the end of the Historic Route 66!

How fun! 

We didn't try the Ferris Wheel, though. Hmm...Maybe next time :)

After a long day of driving, we decided to go check out the view from the top of our hill. It was a lot clearer than in the morning. (Early morning fog.) But I don't have the world's greatest camera, and here's what I got....

You can kind of see the valley behind Mom, right? Well, Matt will have to take some better pictures some day and I'll post them.

That was on Friday, then we saw Mom off at the airport on Saturday morning, and headed to Vince's right outside Beverly Hills. That evening, after doing some laundry, we ate some sushi and went to a VERY expensive movie theater and watched Valentine's Day. Kind of a Los Angeles "Love Actually." Cute. We had a good time. Sunday was spent with Costco, and a trip out to find a washer and dryer. Which we did. Now all we need is a completed laundry room...

Well, my lunch is ready. I'm off to the post office after and maybe some other errands. I hope everyone has a great day.

Love,

Pam

Amirillo By Morning

Well, I have a few minutes, and thought that I would show you the few pictures of my trip so far. Day 1 was terribly exciting with 2 flat tires. But we made it through: VA, NC, SC, and into GA. We stopped in NC to see Marie and Jody (but didn't take any pics), and Danielle and her fiance. We had dinner at IHOP and paused for a couple pictures:

Then we moved on to GA, but didn't quite make it to Uncle Phil's house. We stayed in a hotel and pushed on to Cartersville on Monday morning.
Monday, after we visited, we got onto the road around noon. We got a new spare tire, and tried to make it to Little Rock Arkansas. Unfortunately, we hit a snow storm and had to stop for the night in Tennessee.
Tuesday was our most productive day. We left TN, entered AR with nice clear roads, and drove for 13 hours. That got us through AR, OK, and into TX :)
Of course, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Little Rock for lunch.

 

  

And then, when I got a little sleepy, around 2 pm, Mom drove for an hour for me. And, here's the proof: 

 So far, we've had a fun trip, and we are still getting along well. Our plan for today is to eat the free continental breakfast, get on the road by 7, drive for about 11 hours, and make it to Flagstaff, Arizona. We'll see what happens. I got excited last night when I realized that I'm only 18 hours away. If I do 11 today, then we can make it to my new house with just 7 hours of driving on Thursday. After being afraid that we wouldn't make it by Saturday, it is good to know that we made up so much time yesterday.

Well, I'll try to take more pictures. Mom and I are really bad about that. We'll be in Amarillo this morning, and all last evening I was singing that song... :)

Later,

Pam

After the Storm

 

  

  

  

 

Well, here's what it looks like this morning. Still snowed in. Doesn't look like TOO many cars have gone down the road. I think that it will probably mostly melt today. It was fun while it lasted, even if I didn't venture out into the snow. I don't have the appropriate footwear for tromping around in the snow. Sneakers don't quite cut it :) I spent the day yesterday hanging out, finishing Kate's scarf, watching movies, and hoping the power didn't go out.  I also had 3 very great phone conversations: my Mom, Rene', and my husband. It was very relaxing, and I enjoyed myself. But, I felt bad about not moving around much, so this morning I woke up and worked out. I tried to do a DVD workout, but for some reason, my laptop doesn't want to play DVD's right now. So...I got onto Exercise TV and did a  Biggest Loser Bootcamp workout. It was decently challenging, and I feel good about getting moving.

Well, even though it is bright and sunny today, I'm probably not going to leave the house until the roads clear. So, it looks like it is another chill day today. In more ways than one! :)

~Pam

It has been...

6 years since I moved here. Kate can tell you that I arrived in a snow storm. Well, now that I'm moving, it looks like there's a snow storm to see me off. I woke up this morning, and got really excited to look out the window. It's SNOWING!!!! Here are pictures.

 

  

  

It is pretty crazy looking out my front door :) Also, the snow is drifting a little. It reminds me of growing up in Idaho. Now THIS is a snowstorm. I don't know if ya'll remember last year's "snow storm." Well, there was a lot of hype and not a lot of wet stuff. Not so with this storm. And the heaviest snowfall is yet to come! In about another hour and 15 minutes it is REALLY going to start snowing. 

Well, I know that Matt would have been able to give you guys some amazing pictures of this snow storm, and I'm sad that he's not here to do it. :( But, you'll have to deal with my amateurish pictures instead. I'll keep posting updates, as long as the power's on!

Love,

Pam

Update

My MOM is coming to help me drive across! I'm so excited. We bought her plane ticket last night. She'll fly into Norfolk, then fly out of Los Angeles. What a great mother I have, willing to drive over 2000 miles with her daughter. I hope we have a good time. I'm hoping to see the Grand Canyon, one of the landmarks of this country that I haven't seen yet. I'm excited! Even if it means sticking around for an extra week in VA. That just means I'll get to hang out with Kate, her kids, and Kristin for that much longer before I leave! :)

~Pam

Does Anyone

Want to see pictures of our new place? Yes, that's right, Matt and I spent MLK weekend house hunting in California, and we were successful! We decided to sign a six month lease. Our thoughts are this: we still have a house in VA that needs to sell. We don't know all of the area around where Matt works, so we don't know what area would be nice to live in. We can't afford two mortgages. So...we found this really nice guest house in a place called Kagel Canyon, just 12 minutes from where Matt is going to work. It is technically still in Los Angeles, even though it doesn't look like it is. I mean, we're practically up in the mountains! There's this creek that runs past the back of the house where raccoons and coyotes run up and down at night. It is so quiet up there! You can't hear the constant, persistent roar of the freeway (which, btw, some Californians find comforting. I dunno...). I'm really excited, and our landlords are really great. They seem like a nice, fun couple. They are a little bit older than me and Matt; they have a 20 year old and a 19 year old. They are both working professionals, and commute about 2.5 hours, each way, every day. I definitely would not want to do that!

Anyways, the rent is really affordable, and the fact that they were willing to do a six month lease was perfect for us.

So...here's my pictures of the house.

Here's our living room/kitchen, with the doors to the bathroom and the bedroom. The view out the window.

Our tiny bathroom.                                                                              The back deck.

 

 Matt, looking down at the San Fernando Valley.

Can you believe this is just about half a mile up the canyon from our house? Look at this view! It is just unbelievable! I'm so excited to be able to ride my bike up there :)

Anyways, that's our house. One bedroom, one bathroom. It will do, for now. No dishwasher, tho. But there is a place for a washer and dryer. So that's good. Most guest houses don't have that.

Our plan, right now, is for Matt to get out of the Navy in a few days, pack all our stuff into the freight box, ship it out, Matt flies to California, I wait a couple days, then head across in the truck with essentials that we will need in the interim, while we find a bigger place. Like a bed, our bicycles, our little tables that will serve as desk and dining room table. THat sort of thing. I'll drive across, by myself, if I can't find anyone to make the drive with me. It will be an adventure :)

Anyways, I think I might be going to the zoo with Kate and family here pretty soon. I'll update you all later, and maybe tell you about our exciting mishap while in California, some other time :)

~Pam

PS. You sure can't beat the weather in Southern California. Until the last day we were there, when it began to rain (a not very common thing), it was about 55 degrees at night, and about 75 degrees during the day. Not too shabby! :)

Know Your Ancestor-Day 5

Ok, so I don't know if you would consider Grandma Pauline to be an "ancestor," and many of my siblings actually knew her before she died, but I wanted to share a story from her life that I found in two different places. One place I read this story is Grandma's life story she wrote sometime after Aunt JoAn had Patty. The other source is from a history of Mary Jane Leek (Grandma's mother) and John Lott Wilson (Grandma's father). The story goes like this:

One summer, when Pauline was young (about 12), Leah Johnson (a neighbor girl) and her cousin came by and an accident happened. The girls all went down to the slough to go fishing. Instead of going across the bridge, the girls decided to go across the Rigby Canal Waste Ditch. Mary Jane (her mother) saw the girls and yelled for them to go around, but they didn't hear her. Leah slipped and fell into the water. Pauline tried to get her, and almost drowned. They found Leah's body about an hour later. This greatly affected Pauline, and made an impression on all. Pauline was sick for weeks because she took in too much water.

 

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I only bring up this tragic story because it was mentioned in two different accounts. More on our ancestors, coming up!