The Christmas Letter Blog!

Dear friends and family,

This year, we got our Christmas cards a little later than expected, so many of you will still receive the card in the mail after Christmas (provided we have your address. If you're not sure, email Jen at jmbperry@att.net). So we decided to go ahead and do a card through the ever-wonderful blog!

There have been a lot of changes over this past year: new jobs, new moves, and it looks like 2010 is going to be just as crazy!

Just before Christmas of last year, Jeff started working at Gap in NewPark Mall in Newark. After being there only a few weeks, he was promoted to an assistant at the Gap Kids in Los Gatos, and was there for about 6 months. When we were certain about our move (more on that in a bit) he decided to transfer out and be closer to where "home" would be, and so he is now the assistant manager at the Banana Republic in Brentwood, CA. He is also still plugging away at his undergrad courses online. Right now he is taking a few courses through Colorado State University until everything begins to settle down.

Jen has also had an exciting year. She is still working for Stanford, but now in a different department. At the beginning of December, she moved to the Child Health Research Program and is currently working in the Department of Pediatric Oncology, in a study that examines how a specific drug used in chemotherapy may cause heart problems in patients. She is also still working on her second bachelor's degree so that she can get her Master's in Speech Pathology. Originally, this spring was supposed to be her final semester. However, this past fall, she had been having a lot of migraines, which forced her to drop out of a few classes and set her back. Her new graduation date is for the end of Summer 2010.

2009 has brought us many adventures. We traveled to Las Vegas 3 times (that we can think of) for Jen's work, as well as to Sequoia National Forest, San Francisco, Monterey, Lake Tahoe/Squaw Valley and the ever-glorious... FRESNO!! We also reached a milestone: this past November, we celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary. We had a blast touring San Francisco (on a Tuesday in November, so it was extremely peaceful!) and finishing it off with a dinner at Ruth's Chris on Van Ness. Now we anticipate the next holidays and adventures: Christmas, New Year's, Jen's birthday and (possibly) Valentine's in Las Vegas. What can we say? We love it!

We are still in the process of moving. For those who didn't know, our offer was accepted on a house in Tracy at the end of July, and the house was finally put into escrow in November. However, the current residents were putting up a fuss and not cooperating with the brokers, the inspectors, or anyone, and so, before we lost our deposit, we decided to rescind the offer. Now we are back on the hunt for a house and are looking for a rental in the meantime. Right now we are staying in Jen's parent's house, but we are eager to get into our own place (and to get our things out of storage!)

We are hoping that you all have a wonderful Christmas season and hope that the New Year brings you and your family all that you want and more. We love you all.

Love, the Perry People

PS - A sneak peek of what your Christmas card will entail this year :-)

Life of Brian

It's been a bittersweet weekend. This morning, Jen got an email saying that one of our guys, Brian, had died on Friday.

Brian was our white and black chinchilla. For those of you who don't know the story, Jen found four chinchillas at a garage sale. They were sitting out in the sun last summer during a horrible heat wave, which is deadly for chinchillas. Rather than leave them, she made an offer on them and the cages and took them home. We didn't know anything about their history, and the woman who owned him said they guessed he was about 2 years old, but then again, this same woman said that his cagemate Stewie was a boy (she's not!) and that the other girl was sterile (again, we proved that one wrong as well). We honestly weren't sure if the four would even make it through the weekend, but with some love and care, they did survive and grow to be healthy chubby little guys. After we rescued him, we took him to the vet, where we did discover he had a heart murmur, a very common ailment with chinchillas, but it never stopped him from living a full life.

Although a small boy, he was very mellow and overall a friendly guy. We guess that he was at least 5, making him one of our oldest boys, but our unique boy as he only had a half-black tail and dark ears.

Fortunately, Brian passed on his wonderful traits to his two babies, a little girl named Boo and a little boy named Scout, who also has his white coloring, but is beige (like his mother) where Brian was black.

We have both enjoyed having Brian in our lives for this past year. Although we wish he had stayed with us a lot longer, we are glad that he did not suffer, and rather, was found cuddled with his little boy in their chinchilla house. He died peacefully in his sleep.

RIP Brian. Hopefully we'll see you on the other side.

The New Casa de Perry

So, it appears to be 99% official. We will be moving into a house. Specifically, this house!





For those who didn't know or haven't heard, we have been looking for a home on and off for over a year now, and have had a lot of tough luck with this. Overall I believe we put in offers in nearly 40 houses, came close to getting a few of them, but never got the whole deal closed, until now. It has been a long struggle, but it is seems to be done... at least, the house hunting part.







This is a 5-bedroom, 3-bath house in Tracy, about an hour east of where we are currently in Fremont. It will add a bit to Jen's commute, but on the bright side, she won't have to drive. The ACE train will take her from Tracy to Fremont, and the shuttle will take her from the station to her office at Stanford.







Overall, it's a great house, but needs a bit of work. We have to paint the entire interior of the house because there are a few holes that need patching as well as some odd colors that we would like to change (two bedrooms are bright blue throughout, and one is Pepto pink). A good deal of the flooring needs to be changed as well, because the previous owners had allowed their animals to mess them up. Also, the master bathroom is carpeted, something that baffles Jen, and so we would likely tile that bathroom instead.




We've also got to redo the back yard to make it nice and comfortable for Chris. It's pretty much dead grass and gravel, but there are a lot of fruit trees which give us some much-needed shade in the Tracy heat.

The only scary part is the brief period that we are nomadic. Our lease in our apartment expires on the 15th, so in about a week, we will no longer have an address until we move into our new place, but because the paperwork is in the last-minute detailing, we will likely be homeless for a week, until we move into the new house.

So, if you don't hear from us for a while, we're either not with internet or we're buried in the fixer-upper stuff.

A long-awaited update

As one of Jen's favorite coworkers would say, "Holy Schnikies!" (and my apologies for not spelling that "correctly" in advance!)

It has been an INSANE summer to say the least! Between work, camps, school and everything else, there has been no time to blog! Although, many do get an interesting treat from Jen's FaceBook updates. One of the most recent had to do with her having the Fraggle Rock theme song stuck in her head. "Dance your cares away..."

Anyway, for those who actually follow up with us this way, allow us to divulge the 411.

Jen has been pretty busy with work AND school. She completed her first semester online for her degree in Speech Path, and it wasn't easy! 15 units (five classes), PLUS work PLUS house does not make for a relaxed Jen, but she still managed to pull off her desired B-average! Next semester she's aiming for higher!

Also, nearly every weekend there has been a Diabetes camp that needs her attention, so we have traveled throughout California this summer, to camps as close as San Jose to as far away as Sequoia National down by Fresno, and all of them (at least the ones requiring some actual travel), Jeff was able to come along. This last weekend was the last of the camps she has to attend for a while; Camp De Los Ninos, put on by the Diabetes Society in Boulder Creek. Coincidentally, it was also next to Camp Harmon, the camp for Easter Seals, her LAST job! Overall it was successful. Jen's boss brags that their screening numbers were up 600% this time! Yeah, they only screened 6, but it's definitely better than the 1 from last year!

The quiet won't last for too long, however; from the last week in September through November, there will be the JDRF walks to attend. This time, the work will take us to exotic places like... Modesto... and Las Vegas!

As for Jeff, there's been a lot going on in his world as well! He also finished his first semester online. Although he lucked out and only took two classes, it was a bit time consuming for him as well. It was a good warm up for the fall, where he will likely be taking more classes.

Luckily, he will be getting a job closer to home. Recently, Jeff applied for a transfer from GAP Kids and Baby to another store in the same company: Banana Republic. If everything falls into place, he will be an assistant manager at the Banana Republic in his hometown of Brentwood.

"Wait", you ask, "How is Brentwood any closer to your place than Los Gatos?" Well, here's the biggest piece of news for last: WE'RE MOVING! Although nothing is 100% finalized (unfortunately), we recently put an offer on the house. Ours is the only one accepted by the bank and we are waiting for the final ok before we start our moving.

Moving will be a bittersweet experience for us. We have been together about 5 years now, and we have moved Jen from her apartment in Colorado to married housing, to Jen's parents and now to where we currently live in Fremont. We have been in this apartment for over two years, the longest we've lived anywhere since being married. But the two of us and our menagerie have gotten too crowded for this place, we have gotten tired of paying rent, and Chris (the dog) is tired of only being able to "visit" and not stay with us in our apartment. Plus, paying rent almost equivalent to a mortgage payment is getting ridiculous!

But then there is the sadness part. We will be moving further from most of Jen's family (her brother, however, will be down the street) and all of our friends. Also, her commute will be a bit longer and require a train ride to work (thank goodness for public transportation!). And then the actual act of packing, especially the books is enough to change our minds.

There are some more things we wanted to share with you all, but it will likely have to wait for another time. Until then, hopefully sooner than three months!

ONE LAST THOUGHT

As you can see, we've only added a few people on our blog list. Not because we hate our friends, but we don't know everyone's blogs! PLEASE email or Facebook or something so we can post it, because, honestly, that's how we keep up with everyone's blogs (we won't think to go seek them out on our own).

Much Needed Update!

Hello all!

Wow! It's been almost 2 months since we've updated you. It's been a busy 2 months for us. Although April was uneventful, May has been crazy to say the least.

First off, Jen is back in school! She is now in grad school at Utah State through their online degree program. It's basically getting a second bachelor's before getting her Master's. She has about a year to get the prerequisites done for her Master's. She is on her third week and adjusting to school. Anatomy is still difficult for her but she is enjoying her other classes, especially Sign Language, which she is taking with the help of her web-cam.

Second in line is Jeff. He has been fighting tooth and nail trying to get his transcripts transferred over but has finally been admitted into Colorado State's degree completion program in the field of Human Development and Family Studies. He is getting ready to start classes during the summer term and is very excited to be back in school! Jeff is also working full time at a Gapkids & babyGap store in Los Gatos as an Assistant Manager while going back to school. He really enjoys his job and is happy to be out of the food industry!!! And last on Jeff's list, he has also taken up the hobby of raising Marine fish and other Marine/aquatic life.

At the beginning of the month, Jen was given an invitation to the Hope Gala. It was a black-tie affair at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. Her supervisors were nice enough to give us the tickets to attend, and it was wonderful. We got to meet with a lot of wonderful people, eat in a huge dining room, and dance in the ballroom at the Ritz!




A few weeks back we celebrated Mother's Day. On Saturday, Jen went out with the girls and her family. Her mom, her sisters, her auntie, her grandma and her niece met her at Cheesecake Factory in Pleasanton. Jen's family has always had the tradition of eating together the day before, because Sunday usually is too hectic for the family. The ladies thoroughly enjoyed a man-free lunch and some shopping afterwards.





On Sunday, we went out to Tracy to spend Mother's Day with the Perrys. Jeff's brother, Ryan, drove home from Rexburg to surprise his mom, and the five of us went out to eat at Famous Dave's, a BBQ restaurant in Tracy.



The following weekend, we made a road trip out to Las Vegas. Jen had another event out there, so we decided to drive. Granted, we spent more time in the car than in actual Las Vegas, but it was worth it. We returned to the Coca Cola store as well as the M&M store :-). Because there were so many conventions, the only hotel we could book was the Paris on the north end of the strip, and we stayed on the 29th floor. We didn't venture out too much that weekend; the temperatures were around the 106-degree mark!



We had left Violet, our black chinchilla, and her daughter, Emerson, with the rescue organization we've worked with that weekend because we suspected Violet was pregnant again. We were right; the Tuesday we returned, we took her into the vet because we were concerned that she wasn't gaining weight, and on Thursday, she gave birth to two babies. Sadly, one of the little girls, a grey Jen named Walden, was just too small to survive, and died at birth. Her sister, Poe, was quite a bit bigger, and is doing very well. They are still in the maternity cage, but Poe, Violet, and big-sis Emerson seem to be adjusting well.



On Monday, we took two of our nieces, Sarah and Amy, to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. There was no real reason behind it; we had the day off and wanted something to do! So after touring the factory and buying a lot of candy, we left the factory at 1 and hit the mall for a while. We still got home early (about 4) so Sarah brought her DVDs and we watched The Office as well as Blue Harvest (the Family Guy version of Star Wars). All in all, an eventful day.





We had planned on being in Utah as of this writing, but, alas, that was not meant to be. Despite not having actually consumed a Jelly Belly, Jen came down with a horrible stomach flu. She spent most of yesterday asleep, and woke up today long enough to get some homework done for class (a high 78 on a test she didn't study for, and a high B on an ASL test... Way to go!). We still think we might try for an outing this week, but we don't know when, or what. It all depends on Jen and how she's feeling.


We've also got a birthday party to attend. Our nephew, William, is turning 4 on Friday, and we'll be celebrating his birthday on Saturday at a water park. It should be fun, and we're looking forward to a day in the sun (especially Jen, since she's been cooped up in the house for 48 hours!)

Well, here's hoping that our next post isn't as long, gang!

Busy Busy Busy!

So, if you are unable to tell by the lack of posting, we have been super-crazy busy here in Perry Land! Most of the updates are small, but we thought we'd throw them out there for SOMEONE to enjoy!

Jeff has actually been the most busy Perry. Earlier this month he participated in a sleep study at Stanford. He's gotten through half of it so far (the overnight sleep study) and now he is waiting to hear back his results. If he qualifies, he will be subjected to a hot-cold test without and then with anesthesia. That one will be fun; Jen gets to take off early to go get him!

Jeff also had his police exam. A few weeks ago he had the written and passed that no problem. This last weekend was the physical agility, and he probably would have done better, but his back had been acting up again. We'll try to get some photos, but there are quite a few bruises on our poor boy!

In animal news, we came to discover that our 10-gallon tank only had 3 of our tetras in there! Rather than waste the space, Manny, Moe and Jack were transferred to a smaller 5-gallon tank where our phone used to be. This got us thinking; what to do with another tank? Originally we were thinking of either frogs (the really colorful ones, not the lumpy weird ones) or turtles/tortoises, but thought a 10-gallon tank would be too small for more than one turtle, and Jen didn't want to have to feed live mealworms to another living animal again (at least, not now). So we reverted back to our original wants.

Back when we were living in Colorado and first got married, we had wanted a saltwater tank a la Finding Nemo. However, the expense, the cost and the sheer size were just not going to happen (at the time, it was highly discouraged to have a saltwater tank under 35 gallons). Well, recently we read about people actually making the 10-gallon tanks work, so Jeff set out doing that. After a week and a half, he was ready to add our two newest fish to the family: A yellow-tail damsel named Leon and a stiped damsel named Donovan.

In addition to these wonderfully colorful fish, Jen also acquired a small betta fish, Hagrid, who hangs out in the bedroom on the dresser as a sort of "night light" to the room.

So, we ended up with three more pets, bringing our in-house total to 22!

There are some big things coming up for us as well. In May, Jen will have to go to Las Vegas again for work, and Jeff has his mission reunion at the end of May, so there looks like some travel will be in the near future. Also, we are still trying to coordinate a way to get to the east coast, since Jen will not be going with her coworkers to DC this year.

Well, back to the grindstone. I promise, pics are coming!!

Field Trip!

Well, sort of.

Myra, Jen's sister, is a paraeducator at one of the elementary schools, and she talks up Jen's chinchilla babies to all of her students. This past week, Myra asked if Jen could bring some of the chinchillas into the school because the kindergarteners were learning about animals and conservation (they were also doing projects involving wood, and since our critters love to chomp on the wood, we thought we'd bring some before-and-afters for them!).

After much thought, we decided on bringing only half of the Perry 12, but brought a good mix: we brought Mommy Violet with Baby Emerson, Boo and Scout (on their first solo trip without mom) and Calvin and Hobbes. All of them did very well with the kids, and with the exception of Scout having an accident while Jen and another student were holding him, it went off without a hitch.

What started out being a small task ended up being quite a bit more! At first we thought it would be a few minutes of passing the chinchillas around, but it turned out to be a bit more. Originally it was just the three kindergarteners. In all, we saw 7 different classrooms and spent between 20 and 30 minutes with each class, answering the student's questions about the animals. The best questions were "How do you know a boy and a girl are different?" and "Why are their poops so small?" Jen's answers: "You look at their bottoms" and "Because they have small butts". Both were sufficient for the kids.

It was so much fun going to the class with some of our gang, that we hope to one day be able to do the same thing again. It brought back Jen's memories of wanting to be a teacher and to teach little ones, so she may keep going with that someday.

What's a-going on, Kristi Jo?

Hey, all out there watching our blog with bated breath, waiting for the next posting! It's been about three weeks since our last post, but a lot has gone on during that time.

The last time we posted, Jen was about to start her weekend birthday, and it was great! She was spoiled rotten with a lot of gifts from her family and friends, and even a few surprises. On Saturday night (her actual birthday) we stopped at our house before hitting Barnes and Noble for more presents, and she happened to notice one of our chinchillas had a bit of a bald spot on his nose. Thinking nothing of it, we went shopping and had fun and, before bed, Jen decided to feed the chinchillas (they're nocturnal). As she was feeding Violet, our black chinchilla, she heard the familiar peep we heard from our babies... except the peep came from Violet's cage! It turns out, sometime during the day, Violet gave birth to a baby girl on Jen's birthday. We've named her Emerson, and she is the sweetest little baby. After being with Boo and Scout, Mr. and Miss Energy, Emerson is a completely different baby.

After Jen's birthday, Jeff started his new position officially at GAP. He is now the assistant manager at GAP Kids and Baby in Los Gatos. It's a bit of a commute, but it is more money and hours for Jeff. Plus, unlike the mall stores, this one closes at 8 on the latest days, so usually Jeff is home by 9 at the latest. He seems to like it, except for the commute, but in 90 days (early May we think) he will get the option to transfer to a store closer to home.

After being at the store for a week, Jeff opted to have his first vacation (plus, Jen had acquired extra hours and needed to take the time off!) so we decided to go to Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe. We drove up Thursday and left Saturday, but enjoyed the time in the snow immensely. There was a good snow fall, plus another foot fell while we were there, so there was plenty of fresh powder to play in, which would have been great normally, but when you're taking the beginner classes in snowboarding, it's sometimes a little tricky! But we enjoyed the time in the suite, playing in the snow during the day, and relaxing in our room with the fireplace burning in the evening.

When we returned from our long weekend, we had to go through animal health day. That Monday was Chinchilla Health Day in Los Altos, put on by the chinchilla rescue that we adopted four of our boys and who helped us with getting aid for my roadside babies and the newborns. In addition, this is when we had Chris' comprehensive annual exam. The chinchillas came away fine, and aside from a small possible ear infection, Chris' visit went well also. Just a lot of fluffy happy fur-babies!

Unfortunately, we can't say our time recently has been full of happiness. Last weekend, Jen's grandmother passed away at the age of 91. She hadn't been doing well the past few years, and was recently in the hospital due to breathing complications, but she fortunately passed quietly early Friday the 13th. The services were held this past week, a viewing and prayer service on Wednesday, and the burial on Thursday. The family has been holding up well, and now are moving on from the sad day.

Hopefully, tomorrow for FHE we will be uploading all the photos we have of our babies, our vacation, and everything in between. Until next time!

PARTY!!! PARTY!!!

In Jen's family, everyone is born by a holiday. Her brother is two days shy of Christmas, one sister is the day before New Year's Eve and the other is the day after the 4th of July. But Jen has a special holiday by her birthday: Super Bowl Sunday.

It's been somewhat a tradition for her to watch the SuperBowl on Sunday and cook whatever tailgate food she wants; usually burgers, but she's gotten really good at steaks and other stuff too. But this year it might be different.

There is a four-month streak of events for us: November is our anniversary, Christmas in December, Jen's birthday in January and Valentine's Day in February. Usually we do well the first two, have fun on her birthday, and then just relax for Valentine's. But this year, since we had a somewhat lean holiday season, and because her birthday falls on a Saturday, we're switching things up a bit.

We started our celebrations yesterday. Since Jen put a lot of OT in these last few weeks, and since she refuses to claim it to avoid the wrath of the money-counters, she took off early yesterday and met Jeff at the California Cafe, a really nice restaurant between Stanford Medical and the shopping center. It was a pretty nice restaurant that has a slightly elegant feel to it, especially considering Jen had a burger ;-). But it was a calm way to start off the festivities.

Tonight we are eating out again, this time in downtown Palo Alto. There is a restaurant called Pampas that serves Brazilian churrasco (pronounced something like Chew-hah-sco). They roast different meats on swords with only a little bit of salt, and the waiters go around offering different pieces to the diners (still attached to the swords... the meat, not the waiters!). There is also a very beautiful salad bar with all sorts of exotic fruits and dressings and a bunch of wines and drinks that we won't try, but are pretty to watch everyone else enjoy.

Despite wanting to sleep in, that doesn't look like it'll happen tomorrow. Jen's brother wants to go shooting for her birthday (I think we did something like that the year before) so we're going to a range in Milpitas to target shoot (With all the animals Jen has, there's no doubt she will never try hunting). Then the afternoon will be the family dinner at Texas Roadhouse, another steakhouse. Jen picked it so she could continue with her "Red Neck Birthday" theme, and since it's not too expensive or fussy, she figured her folks would enjoy it as well.

Then, finally, the big event: SuperBowl Sunday. We are still debating on that one. One of the doctors that Jen works with is having a huge SuperBowl party, and that is somewhat appealing, since Jen has never been to his house. Otherwise, if we partied too hard, we'll probably make a ton of snacks and enjoy the game from home. So Sunday is yet to be determined, but it should be a packed weekend regardless.

It's about time!

I apologize. I really do. I am still trying to find out how to add the slideshows to the blog itself, instead of on the side. Oh, well. At least we're blogging, right?

Last weekend was pretty crazy. It was supposed to be my last days home and I was supposed to start work back at the University on Monday. Well, that didn't QUITE happen.

On Saturday, some good happened. Stewie, one of the chinchillas that we saved from the garage sale, gave birth to two babies. The lighter baby is a little boy we named Scout Finch and the dark gray little girl is Boo Radley (From "To Kill A Mockingbird"). Mommy and mini-chinchillas are doing wonderful, and Jeff and I are finding any reason to play with them!

Then, Sunday morning, IT happened. We woke up in the morning to a flood in our apartment! I had woken up at 5 in the morning because I heard the babies making noises, and all was good, but when we got up for the day, we discovered an inch of water in our second bathroom, office, front door, and seeping into our dining area and kitchen! It turns out that our noisy neighbors upstairs flushed things that are unflushable (I'll spare you the graphic details) and it lodged into our shared pipes, and since we are on the bottom, we had the worst of the damage.

The managers of the complex were less than nice about it, and most of them still won't answer when we call (stupid caller ID) but at least the maintenance and rug guys were quick. I ended up missing two days of work because they wound up replacing ALL of the carpet in our place in 48 hours.

I'm sure many of you think it sounds nice. New carpets at someone else's expense, right? Well, it wouldn't have been so bad, except we had to find out where to put all of our furniture. The first day was the hardest because we only had one hour's notice to empty our office, dining room and walk-in closet, and it was raining so our patio was off-limits. Needless to say, with the help of the rug men (who we gave lunch to both days for helping us move it all!) we pulled it off.

The one downer was the office. I had finally organized all of my books (no easy task, mind you) and my DVDs and was about to start our CD collection, but in order to move the shelves, we just took stuff off and stacked it everywhere we could. So tomorrow I will probably finish reorganizing it all. My only day off this weekend, because I went in today to make up for the work I missed the other days. BLEAH!

But on to more news.

Tonight Jeff and I managed to actually spend time together. Lately he's worked nights at GAP and I'm at Stanford during the day, and with all the catching up with the research we've been doing, I haven't been awake when he's gotten home. But that will all change soon. Although he's only been at the store in Newark for a month, he was offered a promotion at another store. I haven't seen the new store, a lot of my coworkers tell me it's in a well-off area in Los Gatos. So I guess that's a good thing.

Well, off to munch on ice cream. If I get the photos up, I'll have to tell you the story about tonight's dinner.

The Final Headcount

It's way late here, but I thought I'd share the newest numbers in our family.

Humans: 2, Jeff and Jen
Dogs: 1, Christopher
Fish: 8 still, we think.
Parakeets: 4, Thing, Horton, Ren and Stimpy 2.
Chinchillas: 11, Andy, Cullen, Fibel, Calvin, Hobbes, Dash, Violet, Brian, Stewie, and now, Scout and Boo, 36 hours old.