Victorville

Tomorrow, Eric and I are signing a bunch of papers to finish the process of refinancing and adding me to our mortgage. Part of that process involves having a list of all the addresses that we've lived at over the past 10 years. Seriously? That is a big feat. I could find some address by sorting through old emails. But one address in particular was difficult to find - my address during my short stint in Americorps. I really had no idea what my address was - it was forever ago and not a super pleasant memory.

So I decided to hop on Google maps and search for a high school in Victorville, CA. Luckily, I recognized the name Silverado High School and the street view definitely helped me recognize that corner in the high desert with the Hostess Wonderbread store on the corner - that was where we turned into our "neighborhood"!

So, I clicked along the route and turned onto Aster Rd. (definitely remembered it once I saw that name, but would not have remembered it all on my own). So this picture shows my little home in Victorville. We were in a duplex that butted up to another duplex, so it was a quasi-four-plex. Ours is the far one that can't really see, but there is a nice, big red truck sitting outside of it.


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Funny thing is: I still don't know the exact address, but I can at least say it was on Aster Rd and it started with 133 and was 5 digits long. :)

It's crazy to me that I lived there for about 8 months. The rent was so cheap - 4 of us in a 2-bedroom for only about $160 each/month. No wonder I was okay living off $700/month stipend! Yikes...what a crazy time in my life.

The thing I remembered most as I was clicking along that google street view: all the runs I used to go on with some friends along those dirt roads. Those were some good times. We would try to talk while running, which was hard because it's the high desert, so the air is thinner. And some of our neighbors had dogs, horses, chickens, etc. So I would greet the animals as I ran by.

Oh Victorville, I wonder how you're doing today...

Freecycle

Have you heard of Freecycle? If not, you must check it out. I have been part of this group for a few months now, but I've never gotten anything or given anything away just yet. I've mostly been a silent observer who sees things and then other people would always snatch them up before I could even write an inquiry email.

Until today!

This morning, I changed my membership info so that I receive emails for every post instead of one email per day. With the one-a-day thing, I was missing out. After changing my info, I received an email about a desk, wrote an email back to the poster about the size of it. Within about an hour, I received all the info and a picture:

So, tonight, I will be the proud owner of this beautiful desk (cat not included).

I'm excited to turn this thing into a beauty and use it for sewing, crafts, etc.

Now, I'm getting excited about posting some things that we need to give away soon. At the top of the list are 2 tvs and 1 tv stand. Any takers?

Kid yoga

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I had to find an image to go with a new blog post by the director of the Center for Spirituality & Healing today. It's about yoga's growing popularity with kiddos.

This is perhaps the best photo I've ever found for work-related stuff. My babies will do yoga with me just so I can try to snap pictures like this. Maybe I should start doing yoga again...NOT because I am currently expecting! Just to prepare for the future, people!

(Picture source: istock.com)

Where in the world?

Happy belated Halloween from the Stones (Carmen, Waldo and Indy the Italian soccer playing dog)!

Here is Waldo getting ready to go out. He quickly discovered that bar patrons were not yelling F%$# you! at him. No no. They were yelling "Found him!" as in they found Waldo. It was a little confusing for poor Waldo at first.

Here is Carmen before heading out and accidentally leaving her sunglasses in a bar bathroom. Oops... You may recognize the hat from my high tea shower last summer. I removed the flowers that were glued on and stapled on this old black nylon lovely black band.

While we were out, we ran into Cookie Monster. Are you not impressed with my cousin John and his homemade costume! All made with some Walmart blankets, staples and some styrofoam balls. Amazing.

We also ran into Carrie. Cousin Jess takes her Halloween costumes very seriously. She has been the Chiquita Banana Lady and Mrs. Butterworth, among other amazing characters.

Maracas!!!!

Here is Finley practicing for her new band. This was pre-puking episodes.

Highs and lows

This has been a busy week! Here are my highs and lows:

Highs:

• Giving my presentation in class on Thursday - felt so good to get that over with, and the prof said I did a great job!
• Baby-sitting Finley last night and watching her play the maracas (video to be posted later)
• Turning in my two patient reports, which brings my practicum to a close
• Meeting an old co-worker (Deborah) for lunch on Monday and catching up with her
• Going out for Halloween last weekend as Carmen Sandiego with Eric as Waldo - we were a hit (pictures to be posted later).
  

Lows:

• Working all day Wednesday and half day Thursday on school and practicum assignments - being holed up in the basement and staring at a computer screen and lots of papers was no fun
• Driving to campus Thursday to give my presentation and realizing as I got to my exit for campus that I forgot my jump drive with my presentation on it at home. Had to drive back for it and get to class 20 mins late. Luckily, my professor is super nice - no big deal, just stressful at the time!
• Getting puked on by Finley and then watching her puke on her mom about 30 minutes later. Poor gal! Turns out she has an ear infection. :(

What were your highs and lows of the week?

*Little-known fact: In my friend Emily's family, it is a tradition to share your highs and lows of the year every New Year's Eve. True story. I even got to participate with the whole fam when I visited them in college. Her brother would come up with one high/low for each month. :) I think it's a great thing to ponder year-round.

Multiple personalities

If you've visited my blog several times this week, you may have noticed my experimentation with different blog backgrounds. I may or may not stick with this one. Stay tuned... Hope it's not driving you crazy!