My journey to finding a babysitter.

Last week I needed a baby sitter for the first time since Evey was born. Besides once or twice being left with immediate family, she has never been left with anyone. I wasn't looking forward to it, and even with a few weeks notice I was still unsure how to go about it.Paul came home from work with  bad news, shortly after I gave him my school schedule, telling him the nights I needed him home, he found out he was going to be gone for an entire work week. Not that big of a deal, I can miss two days of school. Wait.... Nope.,... Midterm that week. If I miss it, it can seriously negatively impact my grade.

Panic set in. What am I supposed to do? I need to go to class? First I asked my teacher if I could bring my daughter to class with me. HA HA HA! Yes I'm crazy. I can barely even get homework done with her around, let alone focus on a midterm. My Professor (obviously) said no. I was very concerned. I don't have many contacts here in California. I knew my parents were coming to visit the weekend before, but I didn't want them to delay and screw up their vacation by asking them to stay an extra 4 days.

So I turned to Facebook I know how crazy that sounds, and I didn't post in an open forum "hey what stranger wants to watch my kid". I have a group of ladies I really trust, we have similar parenting styles, and they are local. So I asked for recommendations. Right away I had a girl recommended to me. She is a Marine Wife, she previously worked in child care, and she was really close, like I could walk there close. Also she has her own baby, so Evey would have someone to play with. 

I had her come over for an interview, I let her play with Evey and she told me about herself. It actually worked out perfect, she showed up just as my washing machine started to vomit foam, so I was able to see her occupy Evey so I could handle the disaster in my laundry room. Okay, maybe that's not perfect. But it worked out anyway. I really like her, and I could even see us being friends, because we both have similar parenting styles. So I scheduled her in. 

The week of babysitting was stressful, not only did I have a heavy workload for school, and a midterm, but Paul was gone from Monday morning to Friday night. But despite all of the stress and anxiety, Evey's first (and second) babysitter experiences went off perfectly. Neither of us cried. I really didn't expect her to, but I was pretty sure I would, if I hand't been so distracted by school I probably would have. And I am going to schedule Evey for a few more days, during the day, for weeks I have papers due, so I can focus without her getting into shit and distracting me. We are also probably going to have a play date so Evey doesn't think every time we go the sitters house she is being left there. Only time will tell, but I may have gotten a friend out of the deal too!

just click the link to vote- 

My thoughts on college as a 30 something

I have been in and out of school as an adult for about 7 years now. Since we left Okinawa in 2010 it's been strictly online. This year I decided to complete some lower level classes at a local community college, to save money and to get a face to face learning experience. Especially with languages, I need someone talking to me, no way can I do that online.

So this semester I walked into a classroom, at a community college, as a 30 something. My first thought was that I was the oldest person there, even older than the teacher. "OMG I am older than the teacher" I think is was the text I sent my sister after I took my seat. Although this ended up not being true, she is the same age as me, and there is also one student older than both of us, at 35. Still I feel very old sitting in a classroom full of 19 and 20 year olds. I also found myself looking at some of the students and just shaking my head, "who would wear that", or "gosh you are so immature" are some of the thoughts I have frequently.

My class, Japanese 101, is mostly full of first year college students, who don't quite know how to behave in a classroom, but my teacher has to shhh! the class numerous times a day. Also they frequently interrupt the teacher or speak out of turn. Many students have a basic idea of Japanese culture from anime, and lots of students make anime references in class. I try to not sound pretentious, but there is so much more to Japanese culture than anime. I usually keep to myself in class because I don't want to stick out as the older student that thinks she knows everything.

So far things have been going well, I have my first of 4 exams tonight, which I should be studying for, but instead I am writing about. At least I have my oral portion memorized:

Hajimamashte Alana desu. 

_school name omitted_ diagaku no gakuse desu.

san nensi desu. senku wa rekishi desu. 

sanjuni sai desu. Yoroshiku onegoshimas.

can you read that? I introduce myself, state I am a college student at _university_, I am a third year student, and my major is history, then my age and nice to meet you. At least that's what it's supposed to say. I hope that's right.

My other two classes are online, both history classes, one is world history since 1400 and the other is historical methods, learning about why history is important and such. The methods class starts Monday and has it's first paper due Friday. The other one has a paper due this Sunday, and I haven't even started thinking about it. This is going to be a long weekend. Plus I need to find a back up sitter for when Paul has to work and can't be home when I need to go to school.

School takes up a lot of time, I didn't realize this until I recently, trying to do homework and study with a very active almost two year old, climbing all over me. Who is now waking up from her nap and I still haven't studied, or finished my homework. So I guess I shall sign off for today, I need to try to get her back to sleep and at least finish my homework. Tell me about your experiences going back to school as an adult. I'd love to hear about how you handle time management, especially with a toddler. 

How are we?

I feel like I haven't really done much of an update in a while. So here goes, an update, in mostly pictures

Evey has learned to be sassy and stubborn

"hey, at least i'm not standing on the table anymore..."

but remains cute as hell

We BBQ a LOT, like almost every weekend for the last month

ymmm Ribs

We have started to think about maybe potty training (someday)

We have breakfast with dinosaurs sometimes 

I am cooking much more frequently than in Montana

The weather is pretty nice 

I am still trying desperately to drop a few pounds

desperately

happy mornings (not too early usually, thankfully)

But all in all we are having a good time, and getting along pretty well in cali. 

It's not what we expected, but hey, it's not snowing either, so there's that! 

hiding those roots

Ikea is going to put me in the poor house, good thing it's over an hour away and surrounded by crazy traffic, or I would be there every day.

 I can't forget Little Red! We traded in my beloved Hello Kitty Mobile (Jeep Patriot) for a much more gas friendly Toyota Corolla! Also, Yay for no more transmission problems! (briefly mentioned here)

Oh and I am starting school soon. Gotta finish someday right? Two classes start this month, and one next month, and that's all I've got planned until spring. Wish me luck! 

Daiso Japan!

The day we went to CoCo Ichiban (well, both times, we've been twice now) we also made a trip to Daiso Japan, also known as "The 100 Yen store". In Japan Daiso is a chain of 100 Yen stores that is similar to dollar stores, but better quality, at least in my opinion. And lots of functional things, cleaning, makeup, storage, foodware, decor, notepads and stationary. Some of my best memories from Japan are going out with one of my best friends in Japan to get pedicures, have Sunabe Gyro, and then going to the 100 yen store. 

So of course I was thrilled to find out there was some located in California, and they were promptly added to my "to-do" list. The nearest one is a bit of a drive, it's about an hour north of here, but so worth it.  We make a day of it and also go to Coco Ichiban, and there is also a Japanese grocery almost right next door to this Daiso, so it all works out nicely. It's almost like being back in Okinawa for a couple of hours. 

Walking inside it's like being transported back to Japan, the store looks just like the ones in Japan, they carry all the fun things that I miss being able to get everyday. And just about everything is only $1.50! Some of the larger items are $3 to $5 but I don't think anything is more than $5. 

We had so much fun, and I am already planning my next trip! 

I wish I had taken  more pictures, but the store was very crowded both times (on the weekend) and I think it's a little weird for me to be walking around with my DSLR taking pictures inside a store. 

CoCo Ichibanya!

Before we even arrived in California, I had plans to head to Irvine, CA to go to two awesome places. The first I'll tell you about is CoCo Ichibanya. 

This is a curry joint that we frequented while in Okinawa. I am not sure what the draw of CoCo's is, we used to joke that they put addictive drugs in the curry. A lot of people don't really like it, or at least don't love it the first time, but you find yourself craving it later, and like that you are hooked. While we lived on Okinawa it was usually hangover food, or "i really don't feel like cooking and I want something spicy we can pickup and bring home" 

I think I am the only person who doesn't like these things, pickled radish or something

Cuttlefish Curry
(It's actually squid in the states, but we called it cuttlefish in Japan)

Yummy! 

she loved it so much I couldn't get her to hold still

If you are in the area of Irvine, California, or around the LA area, you should step in for a bite! 

http://www.ichibanyausa.com/location.html

A day at the beach

I've lived here a month now and only been to the beach twice, and once I only got out of the car to take a picture. I think I need to remedy that, and go to the beach again. 

Evey loved it, she loved the sand, the cool water, the sunshine. 

We went over memorial day weekend, while my parents were here. We didn't bring swim suits, we only went so we could say we had gone, and to let Evey have a little beachy experience. 

PCS Adventure Log Part 2

When we last posted, we had just left Virginia and we were on our way back West, working our way towards our new home in Sunny California! 

Our first stop was back in Albuquerque to rescue Aunt Andrea from all the animals! Because 3 dogs and 3 cats, makes her an animal hoarder. 

We then adventured back to Tucson, to spend a couple days with my family before we checked into California! 

Sadly here my camera stopped working correctly and don't really have any pictures until after we got to California.