It must be here somewhere....

If home is where your heart is,  then in bits and pieces somewhere in all these packing boxes I am finding small pulses of my heart.  We had 363 boxes delivered yesterday, so the scavenger hunt of finding heart warming jigsaw pieces is on!  From little knick knack gifts that were given to me throughout the years, or treasured pictures that must be front and present on the fridge.  These little do-dads of love are slowly warming up this socal home.  Needless to say, after 30 years of marriage a skeleton or two did show up in the closet!  The biggest warmth of all yesterday was my big brudder Mark, he gave us his love and support unconditionally.   Thank you Marky Maypo.

Thankfulness and wonderful memories with  family and friends warms a home; alongside laughter and tears.  It brings the blank canvas of house to life.   Today unpacking each box  I am crying this house to life.  

Tomorrow let's hope the laughter starts! 

 Mattie and Ollie knew just what to do during moving in day....hunker down and take it all in.

Coffee warms the heart too...time for more. 

overheard in laguna beach

As Phill and I were taking in the sunset this Sunday afternoon, we heard something so extraordinary, so explicit, so prolific that we just had to share....

 a little wiggly, giggly 3 to 4 year old girl monkeying around in the sand with her family taking in the sunset said,

"ciao, sol."

What a wonderful way to end the day....out of the mouth of babes.

SHakE RATTLE!! AND ROLL......

Most of you know that I had my Nonni's pasta pot for my earthquake helmet.  That life saving pot is in storage right now.  I had to use a emergency back up earthquake helmet.  

Yes, boys and girls. We had an earthquake tonight.  How do I know? The couch was shaking, and shaking and shaking. I looked at Phill and he had the same "oh crap" look in his face too!  

I I ran and got out from my luggage my wind up flashlight and my wind up radio.  I am now prepared.  

I also did the proper emergency technique and got under the table! 

Obviously these pictures are all staged, but the quake, rattle 

and roll was not!  Honestly it was the same feeling during a horrific thunder and lightning storm.  Just waiting for that final KAPOW!!

My heart is a little a pounding, and am pretty sure I am going to go eat that full box of cookies I bought at Trader Joe's today.  If I am gonna go, I am gonna go on a full stomach of Trader Joe's Jo-Jo's.

This probably measured a .5 on the Richter scale, but to me it was huge. I hope I sleep tonight!!!

UPDATE!!  THIS WAS A 4.5 RICHTER SCALE SCARY!!

HuCkLe BuCkLe BeAnStAlK.....

as young kids my brother, sister and i would play huckle buckle beanstalk. if you never had the most thrilling enjoyment of hiding something from others and waiting for them to find it, you haven't lived!  the joy of the game???  is to find that pesky whatnot and yell at the top of your lungs, "huckle buckle beanstalk!!"  i have fond memories waiting in a room and running out looking everywhere for the old maid deck of cards my brother hid.  it was a rainy summer day....we finally found it in the kitchen oven.  too much fun!  

so finding a place to live in socal has been like hbb...some places you are sure the golden gem of home is hidden in the walls, and some when you run out as fast as you can so you don't gag had no golden gem hidden in it at all. traversing and traveling far and wide huckling and buckling looking for that pesky golden gem of home.  this is the ultimate grown up scavenger hunt of all time. somewhere i have lost my childlike giggle while i huckle buckle.  while i am on this all out hunt for home, i am ever so grateful for those little yappy dogs that live rightside so very where near the huckle buckle golden gem of home might be hid.  i am pretty sure the yappy barks are subtle hints to run as fast as you can....

possibly as early as tomorrow phill and i will be yelling, "huckle buckle beanstalk". this will certainly in turn scare our new neighbors, or maybe start a new game in the neighborhood.  i am ready to scream my lungs out!  

california bump and grind.....

it's not what you think. not at all. 

look at lil' blue....   phill was so upset he ran and got the scrape fixed.  he thought he must of hit something.  i arrive in caly and phill finally tells me what happened.   

oh no not again! 

  

would you believe it?   it seems someone in the parking garage where our temporary housing is had scraped my car. we approached the head of security, and his reply was do you know how expensive that bmw is that hit you? 

what????  we are now in the process of trying to contact mr $$ bmw to see if he can $$ us.  man oh man..

oh the show continues .... yesterday driving to costa mesa heading out on my own for the first time lil' blue and i get rear-ended by a teenager.  he accuses me of stopping short....well let's see if was driving in traffic and the road had a lane closing for repairs...driving carefully and slowly....nope didn't stop short.  well i take that back, i stopped short when my car was hit from behind and my head did one of those back and forth bobbles we all try to avoid.  needless to say, i was very shaken up.  needless to say the young man has some years to grow up.  

mr little man's mom promised me as i had to talk to her on his cell phone, that they would cover all repairs.  i called the police after little man left, i felt that was the proper call to place.  it seems little man's family called police and stated i was the cause.  nope.  the repair for my car shouldn't be to much...it is even hard to see in the picture.  but most definately i probably will stay off the road today.

ROSE BOWL PARADE FLOATS!

So today we head out on an hour or so north journey to see and smell the "Rose Bowl Parade Floats!" Being rather excited, and juiced up on advil (still fighting my flu like symptoms) off we buzz up the road.  Using our cell phone gps's (I am being accused of holding mine upside down), and reading road signs where to go...we get off the floral splendor track.  However stopping at a local donuts shop, we figure out  we were not on track! Somehow my phone map was upside down...go figure.  So finally we arrive in beautiful Pasadena.  You can see the crowds milling towards the gated entry at Victory Park.  Finally finding a parking spot down a steep hill, we slowly make our way to floral fantasy!  

Upon getting to the gated kingdom we are told that no more tickets are being sold today.  What???? I tell the young man that we came all the way from New Jersey to see the floats.  He then responded that some have come as far as Vegas! Yes, in my Jersey Girl head I wanted to teach him a lesson on maps and distance from Jersey to Vegas, but alas I was considerate of his map disability and said, "Oh, okay."  I had to ask though, "can you smell the flowers?" "Only in the early morning," my map mismatched guardman replied.  With hunched over shoulders, and dreams blown away like the fuzz on the front yard dandelions we walked back downhill to our awaiting car.

Did we feel like bimbo's?? Maybe.  

This misadventure put us on a new road towards home ~ Freeway 605 to Seal Beach.  What is Seal Beach? That is the mystery....it is near the Navy base (hence...Seal Beach) we think.  But, it is also close to LEISURE WORLD!!!

Not sure what you do at Leisure World, but some day in the not to distance future we might just find out.    p.s. 9000 retired guests live right at the moment in Leisure World! 

I do think that our next floral fantasy drive might just be right here:

2009 smoke and mirrors kids......

back to the instant replay, back to the video tape....the ball drop here in socal was a rerun!! we called "home" at 9p.m. our time, and celebrated on the phone with the fam as the ball dropped in nyc/jersey.  we searched tv here, and no luck to see it drop. magically at 11:45 socal time the smoke and mirrors show appeared on tv! 

we did celebrate twice though.  everyone saying good riddance to 2008, and a hearty hello to 2009. bang those pots and pans~wake all in whoville and raise the voices for all to hear!

let's hope 2009 is alive with promise, and prosperity.