A Visit to San Diego

Our first visitors to San Diego were Kammie, Rhys, Gavin and Katie. Poor Kammie and Katie had to sleep on the couch, while Gavin and Rhys got the second bedroom. It was the first time Rhys and Gavin and slept together so it was an interesting experience for everyone. All in all I think everyone had a good time.

Rhys decided that he wanted to check out MeMaws computer instead of sleeping one night and we found him playing a coloring game while standing in Gavin's pack-in-play. We truly thought putting the pack-in-play in front of the computer would keep him from getting to the computer. Oh how we were wrong! Gavin slept right through all the fun of having Rhys climb all over him and it was pretty funny. What I can't figure out is how Rhys knew how to get to the coloring game in the first place. I didn't even know I had one on my computer and have yet been able to find it. Why does that not surprise me! Other than that little incident, Rhys and Gavin seemed to get along just fine sleeping in the same room, and I think Kammie and Katie managed on the couch without any complaints.

We took Rhys to the beach and he loved it. He chased the seagulls and the waves with the help of Aunt Katie and Mommy and I sat on the sand with Gavin. It really was fun to see him running after those birds trying to catch one. He was so little that when the waves would come they would have to lift him up so he wouldn't get all wet. It will be fun to come back in the summer when he can actually swim and enjoy the sun.

We took a trip to the Mall because I hadn't been yet. It is pretty funny actually because from the outside it looks really small, but you go inside and it is huge. Three floors and every kind of store you can imagine, including a Brighton Store which I love. It has a little train that you can ride on with the kids that goes all along the bottom main floor. I was like in shock! I feel much better now knowing that I have shopping so close! I know that sounds silly but everyone should live close to a nice Mall!!!! You never know when you need a little pick-me-up from a good shopping day at the Mall.

Rhys really liked going to the hot-tub while Poppa watched Gavin. Of course that didn't last very long before Gavin realized that his Mom had deserted him. Rhys was not too happy that he had to leave his own little pool to go back inside but we finally convinced him that he would be able to come back another day.

I was happy that they could come for the weekend, and Rhys now calls this MeMaw's and Poppa's little house. I can't wait for everyone else to come for a visit!

Looking for a Home

Well we have been in Escondido for 3 months now, and apartment living is acutally O.K. It is so much better than when we moved to Seattle and we had 5 people living in an apartment with one bathroom and no furniture, we learned our lesson with that one. So other than it is small and I do miss some of my stuff as each day passes we are doing well. We have some of our own furniture, and two bathrooms and it is very cozy, we are in Honeymoon mode!

We have been searching for the perfect home and since no one wants to sell us a home contingent on us selling our home we are kind of at a stand still. We know that someone will find our home in Seattle perfect for them so we thought we were playing the waiting game. Then we ran into a builder who said they would accept a contingent offer and we are so excited.

HERE IS THE DEAL: There was a builder who bought some land and developed it and built a model home, then went bankrupt. The land has been sitting there for a while and a Builder named Centex Builders came in and bought it. They are going to put 30 homes there but are waiting until they sell most of the homes in the subdivision they are working on now. They think this will happen the middle of February. So we have to wait until they release this new subdivision and then hope we can be one of the first ones to make an offer on a home. They will be willing to take an offer contingent on us selling our home in Seattle so that would give us approximately 7 or so months to sell our home, which we are sure will happen. That will give Lolly and Josh time to figure out what they are doing and let the perfect buyers find our home!

So we are very excited and can hardly wait to get the call from Centex letting us know we can come in and put an offer down. I am trying hard not to think about the things I miss that are sitting in my home in Seattle but looking ahead to an amazing future in a beautiful new home.

I just wanted to let everyone know where we were at and I took some pictures of the model home so that you can all see what it looks like so you can get excited for us too!

The Corelle Store

The day after Christmas shopping is always a big fun adventure for the Sheas, and this Christmas we hit pay dirt! We started out going to Walmart and Target but the real find was when we went to the Super Mall. Now the Super Mall is huge, in fact my sister-in-law was a pilot for United Air Lines and she told me that pilots use it as a point of reference from the air because it is so big. They call it "The Mall Approach".


The Super Mall is shapped in a big oval, so you can go around the whole thing and end up where you started. We started at Burlington Coat Factory, we particularly liked the millinary shop where we had to all try on hats. After that little adventure, we made our way to The Childrens Place, The Game Store, and Dress Barn. We finally made it to the food court where we saw THE CORELLE STORE. Now Kati had wanted some dishes from that store for months so I told her to go and see if they were on sale. She rushed back with the grand news that EVERYTHING in the store was 50% off because they were closing that store. Fifty percent off was just too good of a deal to pass on so we all marched into THE STORE.We felt like we were little kids in a candy store. After about a half of an hour Kati had to be taken back home to a party, so I bought the few things that I had picked out and told everyone that I would take her home and come back and meet them wherever they ended up and we would finish going through The Mall. So 45 minutes later I arrived back and called them to find out where they were. Yes they were still at the Corelle Store. Kimmie had finished purchasing what she wanted and was sitting outside the store with Mazie, Aftynn and Anna. I looked at what she had purchased and found something else I wanted that she had found so I went back into the store searching for more treasures, which of course I found. Lolly then found Kimmie and I outside the store and found that we had something else that she wanted and Lolly had found something Kimmie wanted. This was when I stayed outside with the girls and Lolly and Kimmie went back in to scope out all of the other things that they had missed. Scott and Mickelle had found a cart and piled it high with many wonderful things and were sitting in a corner trying to decide just what they had to have, so Betsy came out to play with the girls.

At this time we had been at the Corelle Store for over 4 hours. We were all hungry and tired and had only made it a fourth of the way around the Mall. We decided to go home and come back the next day. That was a great plan until we all got home and saw what everyone else had picked out and realized that we all had to have something else from the wonderful Corelle Store. We had to send Kati back to pick us all up something that we had forgotten that we desperately needed to have. Kati was a sport and returned with many more treasures for us all and a few that we had missed for herself. Of course, when we saw what she had found we knew that we had to go back the next day.

We all had our lists of what we just had to have as we marched back into the Mall the following day, and low and behold they had even more stuff, yes things that we had missed and things that they had brought out from the back room. It was Christmas Morning all over again. I don't even remember how long we stayed in that stupid store, but we all left with several and I mean several bags of goodies. Lolly told me she was not allowed to go back into that store, in fact I was to keep her out of all of the stores at the Mall altogether.

Scott and Mickelle had spent the day in Seattle and when they called to see where we were and I told them we were back at the Mall they were excited to join us. At this time Kimmie had gone back to Portland and Lolly and Kati were ready to go home, so I met Scott and Mickelle and we then made our way back to, you guessed it, The Corelle Store. I was sure that there was not a thing in that store that I had not looked at and that I was safe in going back with them. Oh how I was wrong. Again I left with more stuff and was tempted to tell Scott and Mickelle that I was not allowed to go into anymore stores in the Mall, but Victoria Secret and giving away free lip gloss and how could you not take advantage of that.

I have to say that I was rather pleased with all of my purchases, and yet as I am sitting here in San Diego, they are all in Seattle. There was no room for them in my suit case. I was so sad to have to leave my wonderful found treasures behind. In fact I went to make some mini muffins the other day thinking I could use my new pans and remembered that I didn't have them with me. Lolly had better not try to steal my mini muffin pans.

Now the thing that made me laugh about this whole adventure is when we all got back to our various homes, Mickelle wrote a comment on her Facebook that I absolutely loved and still smile at as I think about it. She wrote, "How many of you got home and realized that you needed something else from The Corelle Store, and how is that even possible?" The real Kicker is that we all replied with "I totally remembered something else I should have looked for", and to quote Mickelle, "How is that even Possible?"

The truly funny thing is that we never did get all the way through the Mall. We got stuck in that one little corner and I am sure that we missed many more great deals. How sad is that, who knows there could have been a 75% off sale going on somewhere else that we totally missed out on. Oh it breaks my heart to even think about that possiblity! But of course there is always Next Year!!!

Christmas in Seattle

Okay I tried to find a picture of Mike and I from Christmas and there wasn't one. I am very distressed about that. It has finally come to that. We are more concerned about the grandkids and kids then being together. I know that sounds stupid but I am very sad that there isn't one picture of us together, so anyway at the risk of offending any of my other children I decided to put Katie and Mike up of which Katie is going to hate and then I just realized I should have put one of the grandkids up, so that will be the next picture. Sorry Kammie that Rhys and Gavin are not in the picture, that would have been so cute. We really missed you guys and not just because of Rhys and Gavin.
So three and a half weeks away from Michael was hard and I missed him a lot, but we did have fun. First of all Katie, Lolly, Anna and Olivia and myself all got to go to Portland for Mazie's Birthday. We all had a lot of fun playing games and the cake Kimmie made was amazing. We then went to Chuck E Cheese for pizza and fun with the girls. We didn't get to stay as long as we wanted though because there was an ice storm on the way and I didn't want to get caught in it going back to Seattle, but it was fun and we knew we would be seeing the Kimmie, Mazie and Aftynn in just a week so saying Good-bye wasn't so hard. Just as a side note here I did win the prize for getting the most balls in the ball trapper. I know you all think I am very competitive

but the truth is that I just like to win prizes! I thought the Party hats were a nice touch! And Mazie and Anna had so much fun together.


















So after our visit to Portland things were pretty low key until Kimmie came to Seattle a week later. I worked on Christmas Books, which I still hadn't finished we did a little bit of shopping, and we tried to keep the house clean, just in case someone came by who might want to look at it. Of course no one did and we finally gave up on trying to keep it clean, and by the time everyone came and we had Christmas it looked like a hurricane had blown through there, but it was all put back together by the time I left. One of the best times we had was going to Koolon Beach on a Monday Night to see the Christmas lights. Anna and Viva were so cute. We had clam chowder at Ivars and then walked through the park at looked at all of the lights. There were some lighted Dancing Clams which Anna did not like, she said they were scary, and I have to admit they were kind of freaky looking, but all of the rest of the lights were beautiful. It was really a fun time and I wish everyone could have been there with us.

We did have a fun shopping day but we had to take the girls with us, so that put a bit of a damper on the shopping experience, but Josh did watch the girls after he got home from work and we got to go out for a nice dinner just the four of us. We really did miss Mickelle and Kammie though. It was wierd not having them with us. Hopfully in two years we will all be able to leave those babies behind and all six of us spend the day together and not come home until midnight. One can always hope!

We had lots of fun making chocolate covered cinnamon bears (which I did dip in the famous Lockhart Chip Dip just to see if what we have always suspected was true) which is that everything tastes better with "The Dip" on it. Strangely enough the cinnamon bears were pretty good dunked in a little bit of Dip. Everyone thought I was crazy but hey, how will you know if you don't try. I have to say though this was a very strange Christmas. All of us are on diets and so we decided not to make a lot of junk. So we only made one batch of Fudge. I refrained from making caramels even though they are my favorites. Of course I have to admit that I probably would have made them if it hadn't involved getting the Caramel Microwave from the Garage which is hidden behind many, many boxes. So anyway we had fudge, cinnamon bears, the famous DIP and cheeseball, so we really weren't hurting for things to eat. But I am proud to say that most of us did not gain any weight over this Christmas Holiday and those who did know who you are! And I have to say that every Christmas we make all this candy which Michael likes but his real true love is cookies, so we made a couple of batches of Sugar Cookies which all of the girls loved helping with, and Poppa loved eating.

As I am typing this I realize that I could write pages and pages of stuff and that really wasn't the point to this, but to just keep everyone informed of how we are doing. Christmas was fun and sad. It was good to be home with most of my kids, but we truly missed Kammie, Steven, Rhys and Gavin, and it was hard knowing that it would be our last Christmas in our Home in Seattle. Lolly did a good job of decorating but it wasn't the same as all of my 35 boxes of Christmas decorations, which was probably a good thing in the long run because keeping those babies away from the just the presents under the tree was quite the ordeal. So it was fun to be with family but sad to know that another part of our lifes was coming to an end.

I was so glad that Scott, Mickelle and Betsy made it safe and sound and it was fun coming down the stairs to find Betsy sitting on the floor saying MeMaw! Scott said, Christmas Eve, as we were getting presents out and ready that this was a very PINK Christmas. All of those 5 grandaughters, with all of their baby dolls and strollers and pink and lavender blankets what a sight it was. It was a PINK Christmas.

Christmas Day was very fun as we opened presents then stopped to have breakfast and then continued opening presents, then stopped to put babies down form naps and then continued opening presents. It was the Christmas that never ended, and it wasn't because we all had so many presents because we didn't, we just all seemed to be enjoying the day and I was enjoying each moment and trying to engrave it in my memory. I think that a wonderful Day was had by everyone, I know that I will always remember our Last Christmas in Seattle.

WE MISSED YOU KAMMIE!

Here in San Diego

First off I have to make a disclaimer. I am a terrible speller so please do not judge me by my spelling. Thank you! Oh yes I also like to capitalize everything, it makes it seem more special, so don't laugh at me, Okay!

Well Kaitlyn set me up with a Blog so that I could keep everyone updated. I figured that this would be easier for all of the family to hear about what is going on instead of me trying to call everyone. So here it is my first Blog:

Getting to this point in San Diego was harder and easier than I thought it would be. I took each day as it came and tried to get through or by each hurdle that presented itself. First we found an apartment. I hope I can figure out how to download the pictures so that you can see it. That was pretty easy. Lolly found it for us before we left Seattle and when we got here we looked it up along with a few others but this one was by far the best choice. I then had to fly to Salt Lake to go to the Christmas Show with my Mom and Sisters, and Kammie and Mickelle and Kaitlyn. That was fun but a little stressful, I knew that I was going to have to go back to Seattle and pack up the things I wanted to take with me to San Diego and I would only have 3 days to do it. But the Christmas Show was a big success, minus the night we thought Kaitlyn had lost her purse, and Scott's car breaking down so Mickelle had to leave early. (Ask me about that later) but overall a fun time was had by all, and a lot of cute things were purchased, along with a lot of samples tasted.

Christmas Show done, check it off my list! Now on to Seattle. When I got to Seattle I found that Lolly had packed a lot of my stuff up, so that she could put her stuff away. That was a big help, but I did spend the three days I was there packing and giving lots of hugs to Anna who kept telling me how much she loved having me there. I was dreading this little adventure but it wasn't as bad as I though it was going to be. Even picking up the U-Haul was easier than I had anticipated, I only ran over one curb getting it home. MANY, MANY, people came from the Ward to help us pack up the truck and to tell us good-bye. It was a very bitter-sweet day as we said good-bye to so many wonderful friends, it is hard to believe that we won't be a part of their life's anymore. We have truly loved living in the Crestwood Ward and serving the wonderful people there.

Packing up and Loading the Truck, check it off my list! Michael and I like to drive so the drive to California wasn't looking like it would be to big of an ordeal for me, but Michael was the one driving that truck and pulling my WOW car behind it. Just as a little note here, you should have seen me drive the car up on the dolly I was pretty proud of myself, but the real feat was climbing down from the dolly, I am sure I looked like a complete idiot or at least a clumsy old woman! But all was good and we started off to California. The drive was uneventful other than one stop were we weren't sure we were going to get out of the parking lot of a Wendy's but we made it out and no one or car was hurt. California here we are!!!

Drive to San Diego, check it off my list! Now all that was left to do is un-pack the U-Haul. I was not looking forward to that. I spent a day unloading a few things by myself, while I waited for Kaitlyn's mattress to be delivered, and then Mike and I started unloading while we waited for some members of our new ward to come and help. After unloading for a half an hour people started to arrive and help. I was a little worried about my bedroom mirror and the TV but all arrived safe and sound except for the missing table legs that went missing for a day. We finally found them hiding in the truck with all of the pads. (I guess they didn't want to move to California) But all was good and it only took me 2 days to unpack and get orgainized.

Unload Truck and Unpack, check it off my list! Now we had to get through Thanksgiving. Kaitlyn showed up the same day we moved in and helped us put her bed togher, and the computers together before we all collapsed into bed. It was fun having Kaitlyn there with us and she was a lot of help. We showed her around Escondido and I took her to Boston Market for Chicken (my favorite) and also to Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt (My other favorite). Michael got to to introduce her to everyone at work and we really had a good time. We checked out the excercise room and the hot-tub and went to Claim Jumper for Thanksgiving Dinner. Michael was a realy trouper and went with us all day on Friday as we gathered up many bargains for Christmas. Then on Saturday we took Kaitlyn to Disneyland for her Birthday. It was such a fun day. Mike and I rode on all of the rides with Katie and we had the famous Monte Cristo sandwiches for dinner. A fun time was had by all! I was very sad to see Katie go back to school, but I could cross another thing off of my list.

Thanksgiving finished, Kaitlyns Birthday finished, check it off my list! Now all of my time was spent on working on Christmas. I made all of the kids a book of Christmases in the past with all of my extra pictures. I had a lot of fun doing it but it took a little bit of time and I was worried that I wasnt' going to get it done, but everything worked out and everyone got their book. I was a little stressed about Christmas because I knew that Lolly couldn't decorate the house without me and I knew that I wasn't going to get their until the 7th and also I hadn't really boughten anything for anyone (other than the things I had picked up during the year) so I was a little worried about how everything was going to come together. I said good-bye to Michael after only being in San Diego for two weeks.

Well I want to write about Christmas but I want to add some pictures and I need to figure out how to do that other than at the top of the Blog if that is possible. Where are all my Blogging children when I need them. So you will all have to wait for Blog number two "Last Christmas in Seattle"