Our first trip back to San Diego

'twas the day after Christmas about 8 in the morn.  I hauled all the kids out to the car with a yawn.  The car was all pack by yours truly, you see and to stay one more second was not ok with me.  

I struggled through Christmas Eve and Day all alone.  It was high time that our Daddy was home.  Not home, but with us, as we traveled down south.  In search of family, direct sunlight, and Mexican food that makes happy your mouth.

We picked up said daddy from work on our way.  All of the boys shouted hip, hip, hooray.  "Mommy is grumpy.  I'm tired of driving.  Are we there?," were all common phrases that tripped through the air.  

We drove and we stopped and we drove, drove some more.  "Geez, this is taking too long and I'm bored!"

We drove and we drove.  From morning till night.  After 14 LONG HOURS we saw Grammie's house lights.

Unload and sleep was the first thing to do and all of the rest came in a slew.

We first went to Sea World it was crowded, but fun.  The kids got to play and the shows?  We watched one.  

It was good when I got to visit my Pure Fitness Pool crew.  Everyone thought that Lucy was really cute too.

We visited Jesse's family, a first meeting for Lu.  She handled it well.  She smiled and cooed.  The boys climbed a hill and opened some presents.  Christmas extended!  I heard no objections :)

Sunday was special.  We blessed our sweet girl.  She looked so beautiful in her dress.  Flower with pearl.  My treasure: my family.  I know I can't do without.  It is now complete.  I have no breath of doubt.

Dropped Dad at the airport.  Work calls him back home.  Thank goodness the rest of us have more time to roam.  

Sister time!  I wish we could make it last longer.  All our goofy ways make our bond that much stronger!

We spent time with more friends and hiked a mountain (well, the boys anyway).  We relaxed and we played and they wanted to swim one fine day...

It lasted two seconds!  My kids yelped as the cold seeped into their hide!!  So they settled for playing outside the water, with a hose and water slide.  

All to quickly for me, our time came to an end.  We had to pack up the car and say farewell all over again.  Thank you everyone for making our trip so great!  We will be coming back soon.  I really can't wait.

Our vacation in verse.  I really can't believe I did that... on my phone even.  Writing about our travels back is a post in itself!

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It's about time to introduce this little girl

Lucy Louise Wattson was born at 12:30pm on october 5, 2013.  I know this post is long in coming!  I don't think I will be sharing my birth story quite yet.  It was pretty intense!  What I can say is we are happy she is here.  She is cute as can be and yes she also has a sensitive stomach.  BOOO!  Did I really think this one might be different?  We are learning what works for her and what foods are taboo for me.  Until I am ready to post my "bringing Lucy into the world" story here are a few pictures and a little of what is going on.

Getting some fresh air

Sporting the sparkly kicks

Hangin with mama

Family day at Natural Bridges Beach

She's got those baby blues

All my boys.  They are getting so big.  I have the grocery bill to prove it.  I wish I had the energy to type more but things are getting better so we will be blogging more soon.

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While we are waiting

(I started this before Lucy Lou was born)

So, it is a day after my due date and I am ready to be done.  While we are waiting for angel girl how about a post about the happenings around these here parts.  I really am loving it here.  Mountain living is growing on me.  I found a pool!!  There is a YMCA less than 10 minutes from my house with a masters swim program.  I am no longer without water!  Thanks to awesome neighbors I have been able to go a couple of times to get the weight off my body and enjoy some me time.  The boys love their school and their teachers.  Being the crazy mom I am, I volunteered to arrange yearbook pages for each of their classes.  I want to be involved where I can.  

I am so grateful for our home, even with its problems.  We moved in and I noticed it smelled like pot.  Apparently, the last tenants were growers.  Ugh!  Our landlord did his best to get rid of the smell but it was still pretty strong. After a few air fresheners, disinfectant, odor neutralizers, and some paint things are getting better.  Our next problem was a broken heater!  Thanks to my awesome brother in law we got the correct part for a great price and got it installed.  My boys are grateful to not have to sleep with three blankets or a 0 degree sleeping bag anymore.  

Unpacking has been a process... An ongoing process.  On Thursday I got some pictures up and hung some curtains on the living room.  Jesse comes home and says, "Who did all this?"

 I was so annoyed I almost smacked him.  "Who do you think," I retorted.  

"This is a lot.  I just didn't expect you to do this."

"We'll, somebody has got to do it!!" (Please excuse the nesting crazy pregnant lady.)

So now our house is somewhat put together, all laundry is done, linens are changed, shopping is finished, and some dinners are pre-made in the freezer.  We are ready for you Lucy.

The Y pool

Watching Handy Manny with tools

Singing to Lucy... who isn't out of my belly yet.

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Keeping my head above water

So, the car ride up was brutal.  We started off at 10 am and unfortunately did not get there until 9:00pm.  Since my night's rest wasn't the greatest I tried to rest while my mom did most of the driving.  I would just get to sleep and hear Charlie from the back seat "Mom, Mom, Mom, Mommy.." 

"What?!" I would respond and be retorted to with toddlerese.  The gist of the translation: don't go to sleep mom.  No problem kid.

The last leg of our journey was up "the hill".  That is what the locals call it.  We are only 500 ft above sea level.  As we start winding our way up every town gets a little smaller.  We go through a town with one stop light.  The next one doesn't even have a stop light or a store of any kind.  Now I am getting nervous.  We finally roll into Boulder Creek.  Couple of store fronts, one or two grocery stores and the local bar etc.  Almost all are closed down and it is dark.  As we come to the only three way stop in town panic begins to settle in.  "Oh no!  I have moved my family to hickville!!!  Mom, we are in the middle of no where," I whisper/shriek.  In my over exhausted state of mind that is what it looked like.  We go down the road a few more minutes and make it to the house.  The moving van is there and only 1/3 unloaded.  Though my stepdad and stepbrother left the night before they took a longer route and had only arrived an hour before us.  I began to cry uncontrollably and begged my mom to find Jesse and bring him to the car.  Our amazing church members were working to unload the truck and I could not keep it together.  After talking to Jesse my angel mother took me and Charlie back down the hill to a hotel for the night.  Finding a hotel Memorial Day weekend was an adventure in itself!  After a better night sleep (Quality Inn really has amazing beds) we came back the next day.  Things looked less bleak but still small town.  After a crazy two and half days of unpacking and recovery I said good bye to my parents and stepbrother.  Unpacking is still in progress but our house is slowly coming together.  The boys love their new school and so do I.  The town is small but I do have access to most things I need in under 20 minutes.  I have made some friends but have yet to find a pool to fulfill my aquatic needs:). All in good time.  Here are some pictures of our first few weeks.

Boxes make good seats

Checking out the view

Coolest bridge: photo op!!!

Our backyard

Santa Cruz

Some of our backyard finds

Boxes everywhere!

My way to cope...

Charlie is in charge of his wardrobe

Saturday adventure: this little place is actually in Santa Cruz.  It is a satellite exploration station for Monterey Bay.

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It has happened...

The phrase: "Why me and why now?" came to mind once or twice as I struggled through the last week and a half before and during our big move. Moving is no easy task.  Moving with three kids, no husband at home, and almost 9 months pregnant in hot, nasty weather is darn near impossible.  As I was moving things kept going wrong with the house.  First the a/c damaging the office floor.  Fixed it and replaced the floor.  Then, the water heater sprung a leak and damaged the office floor.  Replaced the water heater (ouch) and fixed the floor again.  Sent the husband out the door to get up to the new house and go to job orientation.  Then, termites.... REALLY?!?!?!  When I found out we had an unwanted party underneath our porch and how much it would cost to fix it all I sat down and had a good cry.  A looooong cry.  A headache producing cry.  Then, I went through what we needed to do to fix it.  I really didn't have time for the pity party to last so I gave the go ahead for the work and we agree to pay them out of escrow.  Isn't it amazing how things change?  The next day the exterminator brings over paperwork and tells me they can't be paid out of escrow.  Nice.  The day people are coming to load up the truck with our belongings I am scraping up money to pay for the house to be tented and repaired.  We had to pay out of pocket or the escrow could have fallen through or been rejected because of the discovery.  Ahhh, get everything into the truck already so I don't have to deal with this house any more!  

Friday afternoon we kicked things into high gear.  Thanks to an amazing friend who picked up the moving truck for me among other things, we were loading by 3:30 and finished by about 6:30.  I had many helpers and trying to coordinate this myself got to a point where we decided just get it all out of the house and into the carport area then the loading guys took it from there.  By 7:30 the floors were swept and the house was locked.  I eagerly headed to my moms where my boys were waiting.  Once arriving at Grammie's house all of us decided one last swim was in order.  The day had been so hot the water was barely cool enough to be refreshing but it felt great to get the weight off my feet and let the kids have fun.  I finally got the boys in bed by about ten and myself a little before midnight.  Knowing we had a long drive the next day it was an unwelcome surprise to have my two year old crawl into bed with me at 2:30 am.  At one point I got off of my edge of the double bed to slide him to the other side.  He promptly rolled towards the middle and kept snoozing away.  "Lovely!"  I thought as I made my way into the other room where my older boys were sleeping.  I attempted the roll to a side move with my oldest and slept on the full bed with him till the morning instead.  Remember this:  I am pregnant, stressed, and seriously sleep deprived at this point and we still have a 10 hour car ride ahead of us.  Yippee.

I made my way over to the house one last time to wipe down the kitchen, clear any last minute items, and give the floors a last once over.  Another friend helped me with that.  I really have some amazing friends and family!  You don't realize what dirty people you are until you move.  I vow to do better every time.  This time will be different!  Right... With everything done I locked the doors for the last time and took the last bag of trash to a neighbors trash can.  Ours were packed and I had been using all our neighbors trash cans to chuck stuff all week.  We had really nice neighbors or neighbors out of town.  Both were useful.  I looked at the house and just felt relief.  I was not sad to be leaving this money sucking leech.  I was only sad to see a place with memories be left behind.  I got back to my mom's and we hit the road around 10am.  The road trip will have to be another blog post folks.  I don't want to pack too much good stuff into one.

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Identification Please

It is interesting as we go through life we identify ourselves differently. 
        When we were in high school it was "I'm in ASB, I'm in band, I am a football, basketball, baseball player."  By identifying yourself you naturally fell in with a certain group of people.  If you were involved with many things you could move from one group to another and still have something in common with your peers. 
         When you move to college you identify yourself with your major.  The classes of majors are usually grouped close together.  You run into those people over and over again.  Same teachers. etc.  You have stuff to talk about because you all are going through the same thing.
       When you get married you start to identify yourself, in a woman's case, with a new last name.  This new last name and joining the ranks of the married folk can be difficult for young women.  Some older women do not know how to relate to the younger set.  What are they to talk about?  They all have kids.  What are you to talk about?  Many don't have an outside job.  Their kids are their job.  Talk about the men ladies.  Ya'll got one of those. 
       When you get pregnant you identify yourself by how far along you are.  People will open up and share horror stories with you if you are in your third trimester.  Watch out!  Then the child comes and you start to identify yourself by your child's age.  "Oh, I have a 13 month old and a 3 year old."
        As mothers, we naturally identify ourselves by our children.  I have gone through all these stages and found none of them to be surprising or weird.... until PTA.
        Oh, PTA is a different beast my friends and they identify themselves in a whole different way.  At the first PTA meeting we had to stand up and say our names, what committee we were on (I had yet to join one) and what grades our children were in/how many children we had.  Seriously, it is hard enough to keep track of how old my kids are now I have to announce their grade?  I sat there, waiting for my turn, rehearsing what I was going to say.  Oop!  I'm next: "Hi, I'm Rachel Wattson and I am not yet on a committee but I am here to help whoever needs it.  My children are in second grade and kindergarten."  I sit down.  Did you see my first fail?  I forgot to include that I had a third child!  Way to go me.  Anyway, it was over.  I wouldn't have to announce that again and if anyone remembered what I said and saw me with my 15 month old they could figure it out.  Fast forward a month later at the Book Fair I am helping with.  First off, I was not acknowledged by anyone in casual conversation.  Most likely because I did not have the chance to introduce myself when I got there.  The second day I came to help was not as crazy and during a lull I say "By the way, I'm Rachel." 
"Oh, hi, Sandy 5th."  In my head I am thinking excuse me?  Then I realize she is identifying herself by name and her student's grade.  Okayyyyy.  So I guess this is a regular thing then huh?

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One

He's one!  I have come to the conclusion that the more children I have the faster that first year flies past.  It feels like only yesterday that I was nursing him and praying for more than 4 hours of sleep.  So, here is to year number one my little Charlie man!  I love your smile, your laugh, and your budding personality.  Your sweet chubby feet and thighs make me smile.  I love how you walk around the house quacking like a duck and think it will get you out of trouble when you are suppose to be sleeping.  It usually does.  Happy birthday son:)!

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