Quote of the day

A sister in my ward said the funniest thing today. I wanted to write it down so I'll always have it to either use later or remember the good laugh.
The quote:
"It OK to be late to the Golden Gate, but not so swell to be on time to Hell."

random

It is officially Tracy's Christmas vacation. We are planning some fun stuff, but mostly we'll be getting ready for Christmas and his parents visit after Christmas. Can't wait to finish our Christmas shopping. James is sure getting spoiled this year.
Yesterday Tracy got news of a grant he applied for to go to University of California campus in Berkley to look at their fossil collection. They have a huge track collection that he needs to go through for his thesis project. He went there last May on the same grant and just went through the tip of the iceburg of what they had and it was just to get some basic info for a paper he wrote. Now he's going back to get data for his thesis and they also want him to be a guest lecturer.
Since I don't have a job I have to try to take time off for, we get to have a little family vacation too. I'm excited to go explore San Fransisco area. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!
Lately I've been feeling a bit down. Not sure why exactly. Maybe part of it is the crazy stuff going on in the news. Maybe because it has been cloudy and rainy for most of the past week. I don't know. It is nice to have something to look forward to. Well that and going to Salt Lake on Christmas Eve.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas.
Also if you feel so inclined to send us a Christmas card this year our address is:
720 El Cerrito Dr. #9
Riverside, CA 92507
If you would like a card from us, hopefully we get one together to send out soon, send me your address to aliciasuethomson@gmail.com.

An update

As I sit here reading blogs on my tablet. I realize it has been a few months since I posted about what we've been up to. Even though I have to post via email on my tablet, I'll get to the why in a bit later maybe, I'll still give you a bit of an update.
So, after our move we jumped right into life here. Tracy immediately started his first term at UCR and I went right into being a full time mom.
Tracy has been enjoying his classes and his advisor is really great. He recently submitted his second paper for publication in the New Mexico Museum Bulletin. His first paper is currently with the editor of Cretaceous Research waiting for publication. He spent his summer doing the revisions on it, on top of writing his second paper and doing Calculus II. He's been a busy body and is looking forward to his Christmas break. He calls it his Christmas Vacation.
I have been enjoying setting up our home. It feels nice to actually have space to put things, plus extra room for stuff to grow into. I spend my day keeping up house. I'm not too good at it though, I get distracted too easily. I also have to keep a two year old entertained. It took me a little while to get use to the fact that I don't have to keep office hours and I'm no longer on call 24/7. Nothing bad would happen if I left my phone at home. I actually had a mini panic attack on day while we were out cause I couldn't remember if I had any appointments and I didn't forward my phone. Then I remembered I'm not working that job anymore. Any way, see I get distracted easily. I have also enjoyed meeting new friends. Which isn't coming easily but I have made a couple.
James has become my little chatter box. He'll talk non stop for hours. It is so fun to hear all the fun things he has to say, but man sometimes it is nice to have peace and quiet. He also went through a bit of a rough patch when we moved. He had new territories, new schedule and new bedroom. We had a couple of weeks of bedtime/naptime struggles. Which resulted in a sleep deprevation with all. Now things are much better. I'll have to go into more detail in another post. James is loving being able to play outside everyday and actually have space to run, walk fast in his case, around and a playground to play on. He loves to pack up a bag with cars and balls. The cars have to go down the slides too. The balls he likes to kick them around the basketball court. We have fun every day either here or take a walk to the shopping center to the splash pad. Though right now there's a Christmas tree on the splash pad, he still love to go see it. Sometimes we even get ice cream. Such a lucky little guy.
As a family we have taken trips to the beach every few weeks. We have also explored the area. We have found some neat sights and some fun places to go, like the Rootbeer place in Temecula, the house Tracy's mom lived in when she was a teenager and the downtown area.
I wish I could post pictures. I'll for sure get some up once I have a computer again. Which brings me to some of the not so great things. First our cat developed an unpleasant infection in an unpleasant location. She had to have a surgury to remove a blockage that had caused the infection and a drainage tube put in for a few days. She healed up fine and glad she still has many more years with us. Second my computer crashed. It was 6 years old so I guess it was time to get a new one. We just weren't ready to have to get one so soon. With it went a lot of my files, but a cousin might be able to recover those so hopefully not a big loss. Just if you have a felling you should back up certain things, don't ignore it or think you'll get to it eventually, you will probably regret it later. Yep, follow those feelings. Now I'm computerless for awhile till we can buy a new one. Makes doing certain things challenging. I'm just thankful Tracy bought me a tablet. As a be-lated anniversary gift/ thank you for supporting him through his Bachelor's. Aww.( I'm sure that just went through all your minds.) And the third thing the tail pipe on our car came off. Not a huge inconvenience, we can still use it. Just makes us sound like one of those annoying people with loud mufflers and it will cost us to get it fixed. Darn cars always costing money.
I think that about covers all our going ons for now. Till next time I get up the urge to type a bunch of stuff on a touch keyboard or I have a computer. Have a great day, week, month.

Thankful week 4

Day 22: I am thankful for holiday breaks, so we can spend more than the weekend as a family.
Day 23: I am thankful for public transportation that takes us to the beach without having to fight the weekend traffic.
Day 24: I am thankful for ward families. No matter were you go you have instant friends and people ready and willing to help you.
Day 25: I am thankful for being close to a shopping center. Without a car during the day it is nice to be able to just walk to the Ralph's, Rite Aid or the other specialty shops.
Day 26: I am thankful for online shopping. We were able to find a book and a specific toy for James that you can't find in stores. I also love the convience of doing shopping online.
Day 27: I am thankful for mail, not so much bills or the junk mail, but packages and letters.
Day 28: I am thankful that I can be a stay at home mom. I am loving having my only main responsibility is to take care of my home and family. It is extremely nice that I no longer have to be on call 24/7, keep certain office hours (I can actually go and do things during the day) , or clean up other messes that aren't created by me or James.
Day 29: I am thankful for live Christmas trees. We had gotten rid of our tree prior to moving. Just didn't want or have the space to move it. We decided to get a real tree this year. I love the pine smell.
Day 30: I am thankful for the Christmas season. It is a great time to remember our Saviour and to give service to others.

Thankful week 3

Now that I figured out a way to post without my computer, I will now finish my thankful lists. Week 3 now and week 4 tomorrow.
Day 15: I am thankful for Hulu and Netflix that provide me with TVs entertainment for cheap.
Day 16: I am thankful for nice carpet that seems somewhat stain resistant and for fabreeze. Both are great during this potty training time.
Day 17: I am thankful for a child who sometimes sleeps in which means I get to sleep in too. Awe, so nice.
Day 18: I am thankful for apps for kids and a tablet for the apps. They provide some much needed entertainment at times.
Day 19: I am thankful for a nice place to live that has a playground, basketball court, and pool that adds a little extra fun for outside play.
Day 20: I am thankful for sweet treats like donuts and hot chocolate.
Day 21: I am thankful for some great people who invited us to join them for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thankful Week 2

Day 8: I'm thankful for the internet so I can stay connected with family and friends.

Day 9: I'm thankful for a nice neighbor who provides adult conversation while our kids play together at the play ground.

Day 10: I am thankful for my ability to sew. I don't get to make stuff as much as I would like, but I really enjoy it. Even though sometime I make stupid mistakes, like unpicking the wrong seam.

Day 11: I am thankful for the gospel in my life. I don't know where I would be with out it. I am grateful for the opportunity to teach the primary class of 10-12 year olds. I hope they walk away learning something new.

Day 12: I am thankful for sunny weather and that we live close enough for adventures to the beach.

Day 13: I am thankful for delicious frozen yogurt and that there is a frozen yogurt place a block away. What better way to treat yourself when you are having a rough day.

Day 14: I am thankful for my pets. Nothing better then waking up to one snuggling next to me. Well, waking up to Tracy snuggling next to me is the best, so cat snuggles are the second best.

Thankful Week 1:

I know several people have taken to posting on Facebook one thing they are thankful for each day in November till Thanksgiving. I figured instead of filling up my Facebook page for everyone to see and for me to just eventually forget about. I'll post them on my blog, so I'll actually look back and read what I wrote. For those who really care what I'm thankful for can read it here. Instead of a post everyday I'll compile my list and post it weekly.

Day 1: I'm thankful for all the prayers that were said on our behalf leading up to our move. Our move probably won't have happened with out them. Everyday for the past month I feel incredibly grateful that so many people cared and that the prayers were answered. With the Lord's help our move was made possible.

Day 2: I'm thankful for Tracy. I sometimes take for granted having him around and it is those times when he isn't here that I realize how lucky I am for such a great man as a husband. I really don't know what I would do with out him.

Day 3: I'm thankful for nap time. Nap time is one of my favorite times in the day. I didn't realize how much I needed that time to myself when I almost lost it.

Day 4: I'm thankful for music. There is so much good and uplifting music out there. It is nice to just throw something on when you are feeling down. I also love that James loves music too. He always has a request of what he wants to listen to.

Day 5: I am thankful for Skype. I not only can talk to my husband who is on the other side of the country but see him as well.

Day 6: I am thankful for the freedom to vote for our government leaders. We live in a great country with so many freedoms that people from other countries are trying so hard to come here.

Day 7: I am thankful for my sweet little guy. He cuddles with me every morning and we have fun together all day long. Don't know what I'd do with out my buddy.

A little bit about James

The other day when James and I were outside playing I started reflecting on all the new things he has accomplished recently. Then it hit me that he has accomplished a lot in the past year.

A year ago: At the beginning of October he had just barely started standing on his own and walking while pushing a toy.

In November after not making any further progress with standing and walking, his pediatrician recommended a gross motor skill evaluation from a development specialist to see if he needed any extra help. After a couple of phone calls to the appropriate people at the U of U clinic, I was referred to DDI Vantage for an Early Intervention program. They came to our house for the evaluation and found that his Gross Motor skills were at a 11 month old, he was 21 months at the time. A huge gap that needed to be addressed. The rest of the things they tested him on (fine motor, cognitive, expressive language, receptive language, social/emotional and self help) were at or exceeded where he should have been. So we began physical therapy twice a month.

Not even a month into physical therapy we started seeing him do this:

Just as he turned two he started taking steps on his own:

Then he over the next couple of month he was able to do more and more, like walking while carrying various toys, throwing balls while standing and crawling up and down stairs.

In April his therapist did another development test and he was now at an 18th month level for his gross motor skill. He had progressed some for the other areas and was still at the appropriate level, except self help. Which his therapist said was normal for kids who are also behind on gross motor skills, plus the test also has potty training/toilet readiness on it. Some kids just don't potty train or aren't ready to potty train till they are 3. So I wasn't to feel worried about self help skills too much.

Through out the summer we focused on walking up and down the stairs and on to running, jumping, squatting and walking backwards and the self help skill of removing socks and shoes. Which he did master all except running and jumping prior to our move.

His Therapist did do another evaluation on him prior to our move and he was now at a 22 month level. Being able to run and jump were the only things keeping the score low.

Since we have been here he has gotten even better at walking up and downstairs. Probably because he has to in order to get to and from his room. He also can sort of jump. Meaning he jumps really well while holding onto something and gets a tiny bit off the ground when not. Just last week he mastered going up the ladder at the playground.

He still can't run but is getting closer every day. And slowly but surely we are in the process of potty training.

I just love my sweet little guy and am so proud of everything he has learned to do this past year. I also can't believe he'll be 3 in just 3 months. He definitely is not a baby any more.

James's Jungle Themed Room

We're slowly getting James's room how we want it. It is fun to be making the transition from not only our old home to our new home, but from a baby room to a big boy room. We had an old couch that we disposed of before we moved. We decided to keep the cushions since James had fun playing and sitting on them. A friend of mine gave us an idea to make a reading corner and use the cushions for a place to sit, relax and read. That is what we have planned to do. This week I've been sewing covers for the cushions, so far I have 1 almost done. It is turning out great.

Here is the old, stained couch cushion:

Here is the cover:

Cute, uh? I think so.

Last week we received his new bedding:

And yesterday we purchase a table lamp for his room:

I haven't taken a picture of it yet,
but this is the one we bought.

Once the whole room is complete then I'll post more pictures of it.

Baking Bread

I've been wanting to try my hand at baking bread. Never got the courage since I was always told it was hard and time consuming. Plus, in my tiny kitchen I never could bring myself to do extra cooking/baking then necessary since I didn't have a ton of space and had to wash any and all dishes by hand.

Now I have a great kitchen with a dishwasher. Saturday I decided to bake some bread. James was playing great by himself. Tracy was gone for the day. Perfect time to try, if I messed up no one would know. I had always helped  watch (steal some dough) my mom bake bread. How hard could it be?

It actually was easier then I thought and didn't seem to be that much time consuming. Just had to make sure to keep an eye on the clock, so it didn't rise too much. And it turned out great.

Without any self control I would have eaten the whole loaf, but I stopped at 3 slices.

Pictures of our new home

Here is a picture tour of our new home.

Entry way. There's a half bath opposite the stairs.
I just didn't take a picture of it.

From the entry looking into the living room.

From the living room looking into the dinning room and kitchen.

We decided to make the dinning room into James's play area.

The kitchen and our dinning area. Do you like our tiny fridge?
Maybe sometime in the next week we'll have a bigger one.

From the table looking back. I am loving all the space and dish washer.

From the middle landing on the stairs looking toward the top.

James's room.
We're going to make that corner by the window a reading corner.

James's new bed.
We still have to order the bedding we want for his bed.

Our bedroom.

The other half of our bedroom. We are loving the space.
(My dresser had a rough trip and the drawers are falling apart.)

The upstairs bathroom.

The view from our patio.  I especially love watching the sunsets.
In the distant you can see downtown and at night the city lights light up the sky.

The apartment is almost twice the size of our old one, which was what we wanted. A place to fit all our stuff and have room to grow in. The complex is really nice. We have a playground, pool and fitness center and lots of nice neighbors. There is also a great shopping center nearby.

So who wants to come visit and see it in person?

Our move

Where to begin.... It all came down to the very last day and the very last min. If you read my previous post about the Calculus class then you have the background of the going ones.

The week of our move:

Monday
We loaded up the moving van on Sept. 17th. Poor Tracy did most of the work while I kept James entertained.

One form of entertainment was playing in the moving truck.

There were a few precious hours when James was napping that I was able to help. That is when we loaded some of the big stuff. Then Tracy's dad came for a little bit after work and helped with the even bigger stuff that I wasn't strong enough for. We are very grateful to have wonderful parents/in laws who do a lot for us.

Tuesday
In the morning we separated ways. I went off to meet my friend and drop the pets off at the in laws. Tracy went off to take the final for his Calculus class. After I met my friend, Sara, we headed for CA. My little sister, Kandace, came along as well with some friends in her car for their own little vacation. First stop Vegas for the night. With a little kid it is much easier to split the drive into 2 days.

At the hotel in Vegas. He decided this bed was his.

Wednesday
The next morning we made our way into California and onto San Diego. We all, Kandace and friends and us, met up at the hotel room I had gotten for us all for the night.

At this point Tracy had received a C in the class, but he had failed the final. Since BYU Independent Study requires a passing grade on any final in order to pass a class, he hadn't actually completed the class. Luckily he had a great advisor at the U who was going to do all he can to make that count and let him graduate (all came down to the higher ups). However Tracy had the option to retake the final, so he set up a time to do so the following day.

Thursday
Kandace and friends had wanted to at least spend a day at Sea World, so that is just what we did. Each party did pretty much our own thing at Sea World, though we did meet up a few times for some fun.

Kandace and friends just waking up.
Yes, all three shared a bed.

Looking at the sharks

Waiting for Shamu

We sat extremely close, second row right in front.

Yes, we got very wet.

Enjoying some yummy juice.
I just can't remember what was in that tank.

The Sea Lion show is awesome.

After Sea World, Sara, James and I had dinner with her uncle who lives in San Diego. Kandace and friends headed on home. Back in Utah, Tracy received a C on his final retake. The Geology department was going to get all the paper work together to expedite his degree and show that it was actually received in August. All he had to do was sign them and take them to the registrars office the following day.

Friday
Sara, James and I headed up the coast to Oceanside to spend the day on the beach. I made a few phone calls to arrange for our move in the following day for our apartment and to set up the necessary utilities. Then Tracy called me and said that our move may not be happening after all. The only person in the registrars office who could approve his paper work for his degree was at a funeral that day and wouldn't be back to the afternoon and he was told it could take up to a week for the approval. So back to limbo we go after feeling so close to actually making the move.

While at the beach, I tried to enjoy myself as much as I could with everything going on. We did have a fun time.

James playing with his cars in the sand.

Sara's boyfriend have some family that live in Oceanside, so we met with them and had lunch on the pier at the Ruby's Diner. James had had enough of this vacation by then and wasn't very good company at lunch. He really missed his favorite person, daddy, and was tired from not having a consistent nap/bedtime schedule.

After lunch we drove up to Riverside, while on the drive Tracy called and said everything had gone through and he had officially received his Bachelor's Degree. The move was a go. He would be arriving sometime the following morning, possibly very early. We got a hotel in Riverside that night and slept. Well, I tried to sleep, too much to think about to sleep. (Will him and his dad drive safely through the night?, I feel like it is Christmas eve., and so on)

Saturday
Tracy and Tracy (father and son) arrived (6 or 7 ish) after driving through the night. We made our way to the apartment complex and signed for our apartment. Then we quickly unloaded everything.

A few pictures of what our apartment looked like after everything was unloaded from the truck.

We then went downtown and enjoyed the weekly farmer's market and some lunch. Tracy (the elder) and Sara then headed on back to Utah. Tracy (the younger) and I started the unpacking. After marveling that we actually made it. We had really truly moved to Riverside.

Now we just need a fridge.

We made it to Riverside. It was quite the week last week. Many ups and downs on whether we'd actually be moving here or not. More on that later when I actually have my own internets. We are slowly getting settled in. Thanks to all those who helped make our move possible.

When life throws you curve balls...

...don't just stand there and strike out. Do your best to hit a home run.

7 more days till we move and one full work week left and still waiting to know for sure where we will live. It has been an incredibly stressful the past couple of weeks and this week probably won't get any better. We just keep getting curve ball after curve ball through at us. Why can't everything just fall into place nicely so we can move on?

To explain our current situation better I'm going to have to go back a few month to April. In April Tracy went to register for his last and final class Calculus II that he would them be taking during the summer. He had taken it before but got a D but needs at least a C to graduate. We had saved up our pennies and he planned on taking it as his last and final classes. In order to register for the class, the system was requiring him to put in an add code in order to register for the class. He contacted the math department for an add code and received the reply that they were not going to give him one because his prerequisite had expired and he therefore would need to retake Calculus I. They had started this prerequisite rule in 2010 that all prerequisites expire after two years. There was just no way we could afford both classes. After a couple of fail attempts at appeals we started looking at taking the class through a different college. Westminster became an option till we found out it would cost $4,000 just to take it from there.

We soon discovered that the whole state of Utah had some sort of prerequisite time frame rule through Utah System of Higher Education. One school, can't remember which one, only had a one year time frame. It is suppose to be beneficial in helping bring up the percentage of those passing math classes. I guess they figure if you take your math classes closer together you do better.

After narrowing down our options it came down to BYU being our life savor, but their summer semester class was full and had a pretty long waiting list. Doing it through their independent study became the only option.

So here we are today, Tracy's been working on the class pretty much every day and plans on taking the final on Friday. He's been able to get the U to work with him on transferring the grade so that he can have his degree cause with out it they won't let him start at UCR on the 24th unless the degree is posted even if all his classes are completed. Now he has to get the professor of the Calculus class to do a rush grading and send his final grade to the U.

At least if it doesn't all work out, UCR will rearrange his aware and he'll be able to start in January. So we'll be moving our stuff to Riverside next week. Depending on the out come of this Calculus class we'll either join our stuff or come back to Utah and live with Tracy's parents for a few months.

Now if we both die (figuratively) of stress by the end of the week, you all will know why. That is if you understood all my ramblings.

runningforbaby.com

Help my friends, Adam and Cassie, raise money to adopt their 2nd child. Read about how you can help by checking out Adam's blog:
http://runningforbaby.com/2012/08/01/hello-world/#more-1

Anniversary Date

A week after our anniversary, we were able to actual go on our Anniversary date. I had happened to hear about the Parade of Homes going on for 2 weeks this month and convinced Tracy that it would be fun to do. We weren't able to find a sitter during the day, so James came along. With a map in hand and a Chinese lunch from Harmon's  we headed out. We had a great time looking at the houses and James did really well with being in and out of the car. We went through half of them in the 6 hours we had.

Here are some pictures we took:

This one originally was built in 1885 and they revamped the interior.

One of the original fireplaces

The Kitchen looking into the Living room

I liked the exterior colors on this one. 

I also loved the exposed beams in the family room.
You can't see very well, but the Kitchen is amazing. A complete Chefs kitchen.

From the loft upstairs looking down into the living room.

The mansion, there's about another half of the house you can't see in the picture.
We didn't take any pictures of the interior as courtesy of the owner who was present and
had pictures of his family through out.

This one became our favorite. We would love to build one like it someday.

The kitchen

The dining room looking into the family room.

We took a few more picture of the interiors of the 3 houses above, but not really of any others. We really only took pictures of the ones we could see ourselves buying someday. (Of course excluding the mansion.) But once we saw the last one pictured above, it just seemed perfect and nothing else compared to it. I could go on and on about what we liked about it, but I won't on here. Maybe another post.

We could have gone all evening a seen more, but it worked out to have a sitter so we could have a nice dinner together. For dinner we went to a nice place a few blocks from our home called Faustina. It is a great little restaurant with delicious food and a beautiful interior and patio. Tracy got the Chef's special for that night it was a Halibut over a Gnocchi pasta and a garlic pesto sauce (there was some other things in the sauce as well but I can't remember everything the waitress listed). I got the Lamb Chops and they were cooked perfectly and were just delicious.  

After dinner we went to City Creek with some friends that were in town from Logan who we hadn't seen in over a year. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day.

6 Year Anniversary!

6 years ago (August 3, 2006) this was us:

An here was are today (well really a couple month ago):

This past year has been a good one for us and we are looking forward to another year of many adventures;
Moving, Grad-School, possibly adding a little Thorr or Agatha*, and so on.

Happy Anniversary to us!

*Note: Not actual names for our future children. Just pseudo names to use on blog.

Pioneer Day

We had a great Pioneer Day. We ended up sleeping in, so we just watched the parade on TV instead of going to it. After the parade we went to the Lion House for lunch. The food was delicious and we enjoyed having lunch in an old pioneer house. Then we headed to the Gateway where Union Pacific was having a 100 year celebration. They had a mini train for people to ride on, a short presentation, some free goodies, a train video game and other fun stuff. We just did the train ride and got some goodies and then let James play in the fountains for a bit. After that we did some window shopping at City Creek. We had a good day. Then I made a Pioneer dinner (tin foil dinner). And that was our Pioneer day.

James looking at the Temple

James enjoying the mini train ride

The mini train

The day of the birthday.

I've had a birthday shout hooray.
I like to sing about my day.
One year older and wiser too.
Happy Birthday, to me.

Last Sunday was my birthday. We celebrated it by speaking in sacrament meeting and Tracy made a very yummy dinner; one of my favorite dinners he cooks Chicken Milanese. Our talks went well. We have received several compliments on them. Which is nice to know people enjoyed mine, since I was a nervous wreck. Public speaking is definitely not a strength for me. Tracy's parents came and sat with James. It was nice that they decided, kind of last min, to be there.

Over all it was a good day. Dinner and cake were definitely a favorite.

And that was the day of the birthday.