Goin' back to Cali

Oh yes LL, I think so. Not for your black Corvette or the Sunset strip, but certainly for a "real good time."

It all started back in the spring when Brian was offered a different position with the Ensign Group that would bring us back to the motherland. After a lot of prayer, we decided it really was time to leave the Rio Grande. For Real? It was strange to think we would be leaving everything and everyone we'd clung to over the last four years in what seemed just the blink of an eye. One day we were there, running through our routines, and as soon as school let out in June, we found ourselves on a plane bound for LAX.

I think part of the reason I avoided mentioning anything on the blog at that moment was because we were waiting for Ensign to send out a formal press release (per their directions). It turns out they opted against the press release, so all my anxiety of breaking some classified code turned out quite anti-climactic indeed. It played out for the better since my husband is not one for any sort of pageantry. One could conclude this about him based solely on his conviction that shorts and Rainbows should be the official uniform for life.

So work took him to Cali in May while I and the fam stayed back on the Texas border until June. And although I was alone with the three children and prego, I can't tell you how smoothly it all went (seriously). The children were complete angels (not kidding) and even helped keep the house pretty immaculate for realty showings. Oh no, we've all digressed to our normal messy selves since then, but it was blissful while it lasted. Probably never to be witnessed ever again by the human eye. Ah well. Plus, I was in the very good hands of very good friends.

Of course, time got away from me before I blogged again, not to mention the fact that I was trying to prepare our entire house for packing and moving. And then we were in heaven when we actually got to California, what with ALL of our family so close. The kids have so enjoyed spending every possible minute this summer with their cousins. It has made such a huge transition into a joy and an adventure. And have I enjoyed it? You betcha. It's like the kids would disappear for a good chunk of time before I wondered if they were OK. How could I not enjoy that while so over-preggers during the summer of heat waves? The big bonus -- I actually get to see my nieces and nephew grow up in front of my eyes instead of occasional updates on blogs and such.

The original plan was to stay with Grandma Nae (Bri's mom) for just a couple weeks while we sold the Mission house and bought out here. But plans changed when the sale of the house took a little longer than expected (bummer) and the realization that Bri is gone most of the time and we've a baby on the way. So we extended our "vacation" at what the girls like to call Nae's Summer House or Nae's Hotel, and are here for the fall semester. The girls LOVE going to their Dad's old school and they never tire of childhood stories retold by their aunts. I couldn't be more grateful that there are so many people around to look after our family while Bri is away, and now that the baby is due any day, I know I've got a ride to the hospital and my big kids are well cared for.

Going through this summer has helped me realize just what we've been missing out on while so far away from family. A few times a year just isn't enough. Hopefully after Foursie is born, we'll be able to get out to BNG more often and the kids can get reacquainted with that crazy clan. There's a lot of fun to be had with all those cousins!

It seems our little family has always thrived on change and how it forges us together. I'll always be grateful to Texas for that. I'm hoping we'll be just as blessed with this move. Hopefully the Lord has work for us to do and that we can actually rise to that call. And it isn't such a terrible thing to love being home again. It's been a long time coming.

Ch-Ch-Changes

"Look out you rock 'n' rollers

Pretty soon you're gonna get a little older..."

It seems changes really are taking the pace of what we're going through (and yes, I am fully aware that I have not updated the blog in almost 4 months, so the changes sound all the more whirlwind). I will desperately attempt to cover an entire summer, marked with changes so that our children, and our children's children, and our children's children's children (you get the idea) will not look back on this time as the summer that never was. Knowing the attempt to be futile, I continue to chant (only in my own mind, of course): "Something is better than nothing." That way, I feel less of a loser for not documenting fun and also important steps in our family's life.

Day One

First day of school for these girlies was harder for me than for them. I kept running through all the obstacles they'd be facing (like a new school in a new state, fifth grade girl drama, etc...) and hoping neither would come home in tears. However, it was I who left the school in tears, though I held it all in until I got to the car and half way down La Paz before I exploded. Brian, from the driver's seat, just sort of looked at me as if my body had now been inhabited by an alien being -- perplexed and curious. He was probably wondering what my reaction would be come the high school years. Maybe he'll be conveniently be out of town on business that day.

One of the coolest things about moving in with Grandma Nae this summer is that when the fall came, the girls got to register at Dad's old elementary school. In fact, all the Hulse aunts and uncles went there. What a treat. And come to find out, Mrs. Stratford, Marin's reading teacher was also Aunt Amy's fifth grade teacher! That sure was a delight for us all.

I'm so glad these girls have had each other through all these girlhood experiences.

Oh yeah, little guy wanted to come along with his very own lunch box. Poor thing thought he was actually going to stay for school. It has not been easy for him to be separated from his sisters for so long. He often goes to the door and asks if it's time to get the girls. He sure enjoys the attention when they come home. I suppose Aunt Squirts and Unkie Chrisses will have to do. And maybe a few visits from Woody too.

Disney and the Dudes

Being back in California certainly has it's advantages. Bri took the day off and he and little boy went to the big D. He's at the perfect age to be in complete and total awe.

Date Night with Brian

I surprised Brian (Hulse) with tickets to see Brian (Regan). I love Brian (Hulse) and I know how much he's been dying to see Brian (Regan). It was one of the most hilarious times I've had with Brian (Hulse) because Brian (Regan) was so gosh dang funny. Brian (Hulse, and probably Regan too) has been a little stressed and deserved a night out. It was such sweet relief to see him (Hulse) let go and laugh. I love the Brians.

Wicked Awesome

The girls and I saw Wicked in San Diego. What a treat! Dad was working and Abram was too little, so it was just the three of us. It was such a fun girls night out. I hope there are many more to come. Thanks girls for always being willing to try something new. And thanks for all the endless renditions of Wicked you've performed since. I haven't seen musical theater like that since the KMQ one-gal shows of Joseph at M2. Good times.

Good-bye House

We closed on the house today (8/12/2009). It was bittersweet because we were, of course, relieved to have sold it in such a terrible market, but saying good-bye to our first home pains me a little. Although we only lived in this house for 4 years, it held lots and lots of memories. So many good times with family and friends (and missionaries) at this house that I don't want to forget. I hope that we can look back on these pictures and it will conjure some of these memories.

One regret I already have is not taking a picture of the playroom. How could I have forgotten? I'm thinking Marin and Santi will remember it well enough, but it would've been helpful for A-boy to have had a picture. Ah well.

Good-bye entry way. Will you children remember standing here and handing out Halloween candy to the droves of kids that came by to trick or treat? Or coming home from school and opening the door to see little brother waiting for you?

Good-bye front living room (AKA home teaching room, AKA Kevin Lindsey and Russ Stevens' parlor). The piano and musical instruments were always played whenever kids came over. This is the room where we put up the Christmas tree and where the children always opened their presents. The place where I could find Marin sitting and reading in one of those chairs. And also one of the rooms Abram loved to wheel into with his walker when he was learning to walk. I'd hear the little wheels all around the downstairs as he'd explore room to room.

Good-bye office. And good-bye office furniture because the buyers insisted on having you. Kinda sad since you were only with us about 6 months. Not even a scratch on you, which is very uncharacteristic of us indeed.

Fortunately we took with us all the things that mattered in the office including our volumes of Church books, albums and other fun things.

Good-bye kitchen where I cooked many a meals for our family and friends. This I will miss. So many a spread was served there on that bar. To me, this area was always better filled with lots of friends or missionaries. Right now names of friends and menus from different parties are flooding my mind. I'll miss having our annual Christmas Caroling FHE here. I LOVED all the food and fun.

Oh, and good-bye balcony from which Abram could not help but to throw things down onto unsuspecting bystanders below. You can see my attempts to curb this behavior with that netting there. Nope, it didn't work.

Good-bye ceiling fans in every room. I really will miss that. Why isn't every house built with ceiling fans? And a very sad farewell to those drapes that Melinda Smith made me. I still held out hope that the new owners wouldn't want them and would agree to send them to me, but no such luck. It truly breaks my heart. Now I regret not having taken them down before showing the house.

Good-bye spacious laundry room. Though I never truly enjoyed using you, it was better than a tiny room.

Good-bye girls' room. This was probably the cleanest it ever was. The tooth fairy visited this room often, and the sound of Santa's jingle bells sounded here every year. Girl time after lights out always lasted a little too long, but now, I'm glad for it. I'll have to remember that that will never change, wherever we are. And this is also where the Gospel Word started, just in case you kids ever wonder.

Good-bye Abram's nursery. In this picture I see that little frog wind thingy hanging from his window. We named him Buddy, and Abram would say "Night-night" to buddy for every nap and bedtime. Do you remember A-boy? We'd also play peek-a-boo with him. And every time we'd spin buddy around and you'd see his big, round cartoon eyes, you'd give a hefty belly laugh, with your two fingers still in your mouth of course.

I'd rock you to sleep in this room and would say so many prayers thanking Heavenly Father to have another baby in the house. I'm overcome just thinking about how happy I was here.

And the little space between the girls' room, Abram's room, and the kids' bathroom was where Abram first learned to kneel and pray. We'd have family prayer there and then he would teeter on into his room for bed.

The kid's bathroom where Abram had his imaginary swim meets and the girls took marathon showers that drained the hot water heater.

Good-bye Master. It was pretty cool having french doors and balconies on both the back and the front of the house off the master. Except during hurricanes, and lightening storms that struck so close they set off the alarm.

Good-bye double shower heads fixed to the ceiling. So wishing you were here. I'm sure Brian (at 6'3") misses you more.

Good-bye to the palms we transplanted not more than a year before we sold. That was a pricey project. Why? 'Cause we had to do it twice. Thanks to the not so stellar work ethic prevalent there in the RGV, the original guy did a terrible job and never came back to set it right. One of the palms fell over after it had rained for a few days. Thankfully the palm survived the fall. Phew!

Good-bye backyard fun. I will miss that pool and all the fun we had as a family -- the impromptu nighttime swims, the easter egg dives, the end of the school year luaus. Speaking of luaus, I remember frantically trying to stain that deck for the second luau. It was crazy hot, I was still nursing Abram, and Brian was out of town until the day before the luau. Good times.

Or during Hurricane Dolly and again Brian was away (by law) at the Nursing Home, and I had to run out in the middle of the night in hurricane force wind and rain to backwash and drain the stinking thing so it wouldn't flood the back of the house. Now we're really talking good times.

Looking at the back of the house reminds me of the backyard movies we had on several occasions. Thanks to Brian, we enjoyed pizza and popcorn under the stars of a big and bright Texas sky.

But a house is just a house. I know the significance comes from within and from what we make it. I do hope that we'll be settled in Camarillo longer than we were in Mission, but I'll have to keep in mind that the memories and joy are from my husband and each one of my children. Which is why I won't allow anyone to move out after they grow up. I'm selfish, I never want my children to leave my home. Seeing how that's impossible, I hope they come home often so we can sit around and talk about these old days.

Showtime

Santi's Big Show was a few weeks back (It's tragic just how backed up Mom is on the blog). We all had a great time and had been looking forward to it all year long. Santi's level only performs once a year at the school's annual recital (which is plenty enough for me), but it's difficult for such little ones to wait so long to see the payoff for all their hard work.

Above is one of Santi's studio recital pics. You can see why we sprang for Garmendias instead of these, so much better. But I wanted to at least document one of Santi's costumes from this year.

Dad giving Santi a good luck hug before she entered the chaos that is "backstage."

Marin really, really (I mean really) wanted go with Santi backstage this year. Her eyes were wide with surprise at all the hustling and bustling of bobby pins flying nearly poking out an eye, clouds of hairspray floating about like theater apparitions and lipstick, lipstick, lipstick. Santi didn't bat a fully mascara-clad eyelash. She was feeling it. I think Santi did appreciate her big sister's attention and you could tell Marin was extremely proud of her little sister. I hope that lasts.

As a side note... do you like Santi's eyebrows? I've never penciled in eyebrows before and Santi needed a little bit of help in that department for stage-worthy makeup. She was so patient while I made a few attempts.

Santi with a couple of her peeps. All these girls are performers, boy. If they sensed the ready light to a camera flash, they could whirl around and bring out those stage smiles in a mere split second. I thought it was hilarious. The stage moms seemed a little annoyed with the distraction, so Marin and I took our cue to exit stage left and take our seats.

Marin and Daddy picked out flowers for Santi girl. And of course we staged some after show pictures. See how much Marin is enjoying being coerced to kiss Santi on camera? See how much I love it?

Santi was a smarty pants and brought a change of clothes, but that meant we didn't get pictures in her costumes. Ah well.

Below are the videos from the rehearsal. I KNOW the quality of these videos is horrendous. I only had my little camera. We're not allowed to tape the actual recital. They're not kidding, I saw a grandma escorted out of the recital. Yikes! They really must want that $40 they charge for the DVD.

OK, I totally get that the extensive video coverage is targeted at the grandparent audience. You have to invest a little in order to track Santi across the stage.

Santi's first number was her tap routine (which was my favorite). She starts in the back row and comes in the second from the right. The routines are choreographed so all the kids move toward the front for a little bit. Good luck following her in the different dances. Sorry.



This is Santi's Ballet number, her least favorite. None of the girls liked the song choice and had a hard time getting into it. 

She starts in the back row and ends up being the last one on the right when they come to the front. She's the fidgety one. I noticed she fidgets a lot on stage when she's super excited or nervous.

The following video is of Santi's Jazz number. This may have been her favorite one.

She comes out last from the left in the front row. Of course they change up and she goes to the back. I hope you can follow her. Look for the one who can really move those hips. We love it.

This number they performed with the younger level ones who come on stage after Santi's group exits the stage. Then Santi comes back on as the first one after the level ones leave the stage. You can see her get pumped up in the wings before she comes out. That's my favorite part and the real reason I posted this video. The video after this is the second run-through of the same number and she actually dances better.

the second run-through for the jazz number (also the moment Abram decided that all of this is now nonsense):

This video is Santi in the studio practicing the tap number. I'm outside the class, so you can hear a bunch of Spanish banter from the other moms behind me. You can still sort of hear the music. I thought Santi would like to see herself.

And now we're all relieved that weekly practices are over for the year and no more last minute trips to Target to replace pink tights with holes and runs. Woohoo!

You belong in the ZOO

Santi's first grade class took a field trip to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. Compared to San Diego, it's very quaint and small, but I was so grateful for a simple trip. It was made even better because both Brian and I were able to volunteer. Santi enjoyed having us there, but she made it quite clear that she would be hanging out with her friends. For a while, we tried to keep up, but then decided to give her some space. She really liked hanging out with Mrs. Thomson, her teacher, whose daughter Madison is also in Santi's class. 

Enter: Little brother. We intended for Abram to be the tag-along-kid (as usual), but with this being his first real trip to the zoo, it made everything so much fun to see through his eyes.

To feed the birds, it was a dollar a popsicle stick instead of "toppins a bag." Inflation. Santi and her pals liked getting up close and personal. I was grateful she was wearing a hat in the aviary.

After trying to eat the birdseed stick, Abram got the hang of holding still for the birds.

It's so nice to have Daddy around when you need a little boost.

Santi actually enjoys having a "big, white dad." Her dad is quite the anomaly and the kids like to gather around him and he loves it. He's so good at being silly with them, to which Santi sometimes replies with a roll of her eyes and a playfully exasperated, "Oh Dad!"

Santi with gal pal Julianna. And that was pretty much the last we saw of Santi until lunch and at the gift shop at the end. Hmmmm....

FLAMINGO

Pronounced by Abram in variations of: "faminingo," and "fanego," and "famingooooo." 

Dad and Abram taking a breather. Thank goodness. I had quite a time keeping up with them.

It certainly is amazing how quickly this...

turns into this...

But there are already plenty of Monkeys here. So Abram was out of luck. He had to come home with us.

This bear looked like I felt. As the day grew hotter, I became less and less interested in any animal, however rare or majestic. Abram never tired of seeing the next exhibit. And everyone within hearing range can attest that he never tired of repeating animal noises ad nauseam. But that's what it's all about.

I love this picture because Abram is saying, "Cheese!" He kills me every single time he does it. This picture is also indisputable evidence of where he does get the cheese in his smile and the chub in his cheeks. Notice that was not a definite admission.

The video below is of the tigers playing and wrestling like kitties. It was such a treat for Abram. We ended spending quite a bit of time watching them.

And that was the end to a nice long day. The best part is that Abram fell asleep in the car on the way home.