Monthly Archives: June 2009

Stern Grove Music Festival

After lounging around all morning, Jessie and I made our way to the Stern Grove Music Festival that takes place every Sunday afternoon during the summer. We got there after it had already started, so it took a while for us to find a spot to sit. The music was pretty good, it was just so incredibly hot and crowded that after drinking some wine and eating some yummy snacks we decided to head out. But we’ll definitely be back this summer when Kevin’s here and we get there earlier!

The hoards of people enjoying the sunny day in SF!
Me and Jess loving the sunshine!

My first visitor!

Lots of people have told me and Kevin that they’ll be making their way up to San Francisco sometime to visit us, which couldn’t make us happier! Yesterday I had my first visitor, my past co-worker Claudia who I used to work at the Girl Scouts with. With her new job she had a conference up in San Jose this weekend so we decided to meet up during one of her breaks! I couldn’t believe the timing of it all when she told me she was planning on being up north this past weekend. It was so great to see her and spend some time with her (even if it was only for an hour during her dinner break from the conference!)

Claudia and me in front of Togo’s (I know, not the prettiest backdrop!)

So let us know when you’re planning a trip up here…we’d love to see you and show off our new city! 🙂

"She works hard for the money…"

I thought an update on work might be nice so I took my camera in today and took some photos to share:

The building where my office is, Alliant Int’l University has half of the 1st floor and all of the 2nd floor, there’s an art university and another company that shares the building.

Good ol’ Pier 39, directly across the street from my office (it’s still exciting to me…I’m afraid all the tourists might get old pretty quick though!

Here’s my office! Not much to look at yet, I didn’t bring much of my decorating stuff with me, so it’ll be a few weeks before I get it looking more like “home” 😉

I’ve pretty much just jumped right into work, they’ve put me to work pretty quick so I’ve been really busy my first three days there! What we’re working on heavily right now is going through all 4 years worth of credential student’s files and streamlining them into one clear format. So it’s basically paper shuffling right now 🙁 but this process is going to make my life a lot easier in the future!

Our new apartment!

My sister and I looked at six apartments over the weekend, but there was one that I really liked and I applied for. Today I got the phone call from our new landlord letting me know that we got the offer! 🙂

It’s an in-law unit (basically the basement of someone’s house that’s been made into an apartment) that has one bedroom, a full kitchen, living/dining room, full bathroom, and a yard…and the absolute best thing about it…we can have a dog!! We’re going to wait to get our new bundle of joy until Kevin gets a part-time job, but I’ll definitely keep you in the loop.

The neighborhood it’s in is the Portola District in southeast SF. It’s not the prime location, I’ll be honest, but the more I read about it and drive around the more I feel like it might be the perfect location for us to get our feet wet in SF.

Here are some photos of the new place!

The main house is the dark brown one in the middle,the entrance to our apartment is just to the right of their main staircase

The outside of our apartment (the black gate is the entrance [goes into the kitchen] and the window is to our living room)

The living room/dining room (the window looks out onto the patio)

The bathroom
The bedroom

The back patio (not much to look at but the landlord says they don’t use it often so we might do some gardening and
put a table/chairs out for get-togethers!

Drive up to SF

I left at 6:30am this morning and having never made the drive up north on my own, luckily it was a lot better than I was expecting! A little traffic here and there, but it was mostly smooth sailing until the Bay Bridge.

Feeling much more awake after a little Starbucks/Pleasant Valley State Prison, anyone?

Traffic?! I thought I was far from L.A./A view of the Bay Bridge

I got into the city around 1:30pm and met Jessie and her boyfriend Kindrid at Dolores Park.

What do people do with a sunny day up here? Head to the park!/Jessie and Kindrid

Jessie’s apartment (they’re on the top floor)/Her bedroom (isn’t she amazing??)

We went to check out one apartment near Golden Gate Park but it wasn’t what we’re really looking for. So Jessie and I spent the rest of the afternoon in her apartment, listening to old records and blogging! Tomorrow we’re going to hit some more apartments and have dinner with our dad who’ll be visiting. Then Monday I start my new job! 🙂

Sisters blogging away the afternoon

Edmonds family send-off dinner

My last night as a Southern Californian was yesterday, so to celebrate the whole Edmonds gang (plus the Rotty family) went out to dinner to Sweetee Thai in Cypress. The food was delicious (as always) and we had a great evening together.

Wor Wonton Soup/Katelyn checking out the menu

Me and Brianne

Joshua & Judith/Thai decorations

Me and Katelyn/Katelyn and her lemon slice pet (don’t ask!)

The whole gang!
(L to R: Thomas, George, Kevin, Dorothy, Joshua, Sarah, Judith, Katelyn, Brian, me, Lisa R., Brianne, Judy)

The surprise of the evening came as we were standing around outside the restaurant. George (Kevin’s dad) started lining everyone up and passed out little pieces of paper. On his count, the whole group started singing a song that George had made up the lyrics to that went to the tune of “California, here we come!” This was such a surprise and one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for us. As you can see in the video below, it was a really great send-off! 🙂

Packing it up

Kevin and I have been really busy these past two weeks packing, packing, packing! Because I’m not going to be there in the apartment the last two weeks that Kevin’s there, I wanted to help out as much as I could. So we’ve packed up about 10 boxes with things that he wouldn’t need (some kitchen stuff, photo albums, sheets, etc.) We got really lucky because we have an unlimited supply of moving boxes from Yamaha (where Kevin works), hence all of our boxes with their logo on the side.

Maybe 1/10 of all of our stuff!

Yesterday I made four trips to my car to pack up all of the “junk” we wanted to donate to Out of the Closet…it sure felt good to rid ourselves of unnecessary things before our move!

My car all packed up with stuff to donate

The adventure begins…

Wednesday, June 3rd was the day that our adventure began! I got a phone call from a job that I had interviewed for in San Francisco two weeks prior letting me know that I got the job! We immediately called family and friends and sent out a mass e-mail letting everyone know the good news. And it truly has been a whirlwind in the days since…

Thursday I put in my two week’s notice, so I have only two weeks left of working for the Orange County Girl Scouts! So many co-workers and volunteers who got the news that day told me wonderful, heartfelt good wishes and it was so nice to hear all of those great things. I will definitely miss the people that make up the OC Girl Scouts.

Friday I got to work on cleaningcleaningcleaning the apartment! It took two hours to scrub, mop, vacuum and dust the whole apartment, it had been a while since we did a thorough cleaning! Knowing that I only had two weeks left in our wonderful apartment made me get started on the moving process right away to make it as stress-free as possible.

On Saturday, Kevin and I got started on the cleaning/sorting process early and spent a whopping six hours going through files, closets, drawers, and cabinets getting things in order and getting rid of so much stuff! It’s amazing how much stuff can accumulate in only three years. We’ve got a major pile started of things that we’re going to donate to Out of the Closet just down the street.

Yesterday we had a great day with Kevin’s family…we had a delicious waffle breakfast at his parent’s house and then spent the day at Central Park in Huntington Beach for Judith’s birthday (Kevin’s sister). I will definitely miss the family get togethers, it’ll be hard not being able to be a part of all of them anymore.

Thomas, Katelyn, Sophie, Judith & Luke

The deeeelicious carrot cake Kevin made (he’s quite the baker!)

Judith “blowing out” the candles (it was so windy we couldn’t light them!)

Our niece Sophie (Thomas’ daughter), she had us cracking up the whole day!

Me taking a walk with my girls

So today begins the countdown of days left working at the Girl Scouts…8 to be exact! 🙂 I’ve got a lot to do before I leave, to ensure that my co-workers and my volunteers are prepared to take over for when I leave, but I’m up for the task!

So what’s the job that I’m starting on Mon. June 22nd? I’ll be the Admissions & Registrar Coordinator at Alliant International University in San Francisco (the school is right across the street from Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf!) I’ll be working with their School of Education, admitting teacher credential students, helping them through the program, and helping connect them to jobs in the local school districts after they complete the program. So it will be a great stepping stone for me as I prepare to become a public school teacher myself in the next few years.

I’ll be staying with my lovely sister Jessie for two weeks or so as we look for apartments up there. Kevin will be holding down the fort in Long Beach for a couple of weeks after I leave since we’ve already paid rent through that time. Then on Fri. July 3rd since I have the day off, I’ll be flying back down to Long Beach and we’ll hopefully have our going-away party that evening (save the date!) That weekend we’ll be packing up the moving van and saying goodbye to Long Beach as we make the drive up north to our new home! Hopefully we’ll have found an apartment by that time so we can move our stuff directly to our new apartment. Kevin’s plan is to get a part-time job and go back to school to earn his Aircraft Mechanic License (he’s looking into two programs right now) which I know he’ll do so well in!

So that’s the plan…pretty crazy huh? We are both sososo excited to be starting our new adventure in life after a few months of talking about it. It really hasn’t hit me yet, though, that I’m really leaving my hometown in just under two weeks. Already I’ve had a couple of friends get teary on me but I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I think I’m still just in that excited mode and it hasn’t sunk in. But I know when that time comes I’ll be a complete mess! I was born and raised in Long Beach and almost all of my close family and friends are here. Southern California has been home to me for my entire 25 years and saying goodbye is going to be so, so hard. But I know deep down that this is absolutely the best decision for us. And I know that we are going to grow as individuals and as a couple so much in moving together to a brand new place. So it will definitely be a bittersweet next couple of months…but luckily at this moment all I’m feeling is the “sweet”. 🙂

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