A “Memorable” Weekend

Memorial day weekend couldn’t have come soon enough! I worked 45hrs last week and I was so exhausted by the time I got off work on Saturday at 2:30pm. I was looking forward to two days off in a row. The best part - my parents came to visit!!!

So I came home to my parents already here and a clean apartment (two very great things in my bookJ) We headed out to Benicia for an early dinner and had a wonderful dinner at “Captin Blyther’s”. The food was amazing and we had a wonderful view of the ocean and the Al Zampa Memoral Bridge (which is a lot prettier than it sounds!). We spend some time wondering around downtown Benicia - can you tell it was windy? after we became tired of walking around in the wind and cold we headed over to Mare Island where Alex showed us where is school is (I still hadn’t seen it either.) Mare Island is so cool with all the old abandoned military buildings!

Sunday we drove out to Ikea and spent the morning shopping–because what’s a trip to the bay area without a stop in Napa??? After the guys took a short nap we headed out for the Napa Valley Wine Train. The food was wonderful and the wine was some of the best I’ve ever drank. It was so nice to see all the vineyards between Napa and St. Helena. We all agreed that it’s so much different in a train because when you’re driving you don’t get a chance to actually see all the vineyards as you pass them. It was fun to walk up and down through the different cars in the train.

Monday we headed to Napa for breakfast at one of Alex and my recent restaurant finds in downtown Napa, than went out to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield where Dad and I were “Bamboozled”. Apparently they have these new Jelly Beans that look like normal flavors but are actually really gross ones, like baby wipes, vomit, and rotten eggs, and they call them there Bamboozled flavors. We didn’t know that, so we spun the wheel of horrors and got to taste those awful new flavors. Maybe a fun prank to play on someone but I’m not that mean! Anyway dad and I got lovely stickers to prove we were “Bamboozled”. The tour was nice but I think we’ll have to do it again on a week day instead of a holiday, so we can see everything in motion.

The weekend was wonderful. It was so nice to see my parents who I have missed so much since moving. It’s like having a little piece of home come here for a few days. A much needed piece of home. Now if I can only get a day off so I can actually go home for a few days and see everyone else that I miss so much…

Mobile blogging...

So guess where I am?!? I'm in the car on the way to orientation in San Francisco (no, I'm not driving - Alex is :) Have I told you how much I hate driving in Bay Area traffic? Also how much I really hate being in SF? And why is it that its required I go to orientation after already working one week at the branch? Interesting....

Anyway, blogging right now is helping me not be a "Nervous Nelly" and drive my husband insane by by backseat driving (is it still called 'backseat driving' if I'm sitting in the front seat? Sorry I ponder some really stupid things when I'm up this early and have massive amounts of coffee in me.)

So we found a church! Its this little Foursquare church in Napa called Napa Foursquare Church (ironic huh?). It is exactly what we were looking for! The church is like one big family. The pastor is great - not afraid to tell it the way it is and the message yesterday was awesome. Afterward we went out to lunch at this amazing restaurant with, basically, everyone from the church. Pastor John's son-in-law owns the restaurant - and it was amazing. Its even Zagat rated! I'm definitely taking anyone who comes and visits us, out to lunch there.

So, we are getting closer to SF and the traffic is getting thicker.... and since I'm blogging I'm not biting my nails - woo hoo!!! I really don't think its fair that carpool lane here is for 3 or more people. I should have brought Audrey with us... she counts right? LOL.

Its cold and foggy-ish up here today - a much needed break from all the heat we had over the weekend. (Can you tell yet that now I'm just trying to come up with things to type so that I don't have to pay attention to the traffic?)

We just went thru the toll to get on the bay bridge... okay I'm not going to have a panic attack, I'm not going to have a panic attack, I'm not going to have a panic attack...

Do I sound convincing?

Orientation starts at 8:30 and its already 8:09... I wonder if I'm going to be late... well hopefully they understand. And I need to pee!!! That was probably TMI.. sorry.

Alex is such a good driver! He handling merging traffic with no problem. Probably from his years driving an ambulance.

Ok, I guess I'll finish this post. I'm sure we'll get there in one piece. and later I'll try to post the picture of traffic I took on my phone.

Everyday is a winding road...

Okay, so, sorry I haven't blogged for awhile. Its been a hectic week since moving and we finally have connection to the Internet again! We just got back from a funeral for my (Janna) Aunt Sis who passed away on Sunday. It was a time of saying goodbye and grieving but we also got a chance to see dear family who we don't see often. As my cousin Daven put it "She (Aunt Sis) had a way of getting everyone together".

We moved on Sunday May 4th without too may issues. The movers were excellent, exceeding my expectations, and eliminating all doubts I had of movers. The apartment is beautiful! It really does feel like a home. The whole complex is only a year old so we have all new appliances, and new carpet and nice features such as neutral beige paint (instead of boring white) and crown moulding. None of those thing are necessary in a place but it does make it feel more "homey". We we able to get everything unpacked accept my cake decoration supplies (I miss my cabinet space!) by the end of last week. Bogey and Audrey are getting use to the routine and the neighborhood. Things are feeling a little more settled now.

Alex had orientation last Thursday and started classes on Monday. He really likes the classes and has made several friends. I started work on Monday, and, well, I think I'll really like my job once I'm actually fully trained. Training is hard and they are short staffed and the branch manager is on maternity leave so its making training a little more difficult than it probably normally is. But I'll get the hang of it soon and I think I'm going to really like working in banking. The irony of our schedule is that for now I'm working from 10am - 6pm and he has classes through the summer from 6pm - 9pm. At least we have weekends together, which is still more than we had when he was working as a medic!!!

I know there is a lot more to post but its been a long day so I going to spare you all the details that I know you want so that I can rest and maybe write a "part two" later.