So, it is kind of late at night (around midnight) on a Sunday. I’ve got a late day at work, and Jeff’s off, so we thought we’d toss out all that has been going on.
First off, we have been plugging away at school. This term we have managed to keep up with the homework and assignments, and now Jen has to add observation hours to one of her classes. She is trying to see if anyone at Stanford would be willing to let her help out and let her sit in, and she is waiting to hear back from some people she has met at Packard.
February was a pretty nice month for us. For Valentine’s Day (well, the day before) we took our three nieces and Jen’s older sister, Myra, to the San Francisco Creamery (which, oddly enough, is actually in Walnut Creek). Before that, though, the 6 of us went to the movies to see (surprise) Valentine’s Day, which turned out to be a pretty funny movie. After the movie, we raided the creamery and ordered a sundae known as The Kitchen Sink. We saw this sundae on the TV show, Man Vs. Food, a favorite of Jen’s, and thought we would attempt it!
This thing is a lot bigger in real life than this picture shows. It consists of 8 types of ice cream, 8 toppings, whipped cream, and cherries. Ours had a ton of toppings, including gummy bears, M&Ms, and, much to Sarah’s delight, a cookie. We only managed to get about 2/3 of the thing eaten, and yes, we’ve still got some in the fridge!
That Monday we did some volunteer work with the rescue that is currently housing our chinchillas. So we headed to Adobe Animal Hospital in Los Altos, CA to help them out for the day. In addition to getting out little pals taken care of, we helped check in and answered questions for the families. Although we had the most at 12, there were many who had multiple chinchillas, and the rescue even brought in 8 of their own, and their partners brought in another 2 dozen! Overall, we ended up having the doctors see approximately 135 chinchillas in an 8-hour day, of which only one had been slightly ill (but treatable) and our guys came out with a clean bill of health: great teeth, good weight, no heart murmurs and NO SURPRISE PREGNANCIES THIS YEAR!!
The next big thing: both of us are looking at moving up in our jobs. Jen’s assignment with CHRP technically ends this week, but they have not said one way or another if they plan on keeping her on. They have made more accommodations for her, like giving her a real desk and talking about her taking on more studies, but nothing official has been said by her team or her temp agency, so she interviewed with two more research teams at Stanford, both in cardiovascular departments, but for two different teams. If none of these positions pan out, the temp agency has stated they will find her another temp position, but of course we are hoping for a more permanent spot.
Jeff is also looking at new positions. The commute to Brentwood has been hard on both of us, Jeff’s school work and our cars, so Jeff is considering a transfer in the company. He has applied to both GAP and Banana Republic stores closer to Newark, and has had a few phone interviews so far, so again, we are very hopeful. It doesn’t hurt that the GAP manager that he is going through is the same one he had when he was working in Los Gatos!
You’re probably wondering why we keep talking about being closer to “home”. Well, after a long hunt, we FINALLY found a home!
We are moving… down the street in Newark!
We tried our hardest to buy or rent a home in Tracy, but nothing panned out. We were outbid, someone else rented the house before us, some people drove through the garage (that was the house we almost bought!) and so we thought we’d try again to see if something panned out in Newark, and with one try, success! It is a cute little 3-bedroom home with a nice yard and everything is pretty much new (the rugs, windows, paint, etc) so little to nothing has to be fixed. We have to put in an air conditioner for the chinchillas, but aside from that nothing! It is not too far from the lake – cross the street and we are there – so that’s a definite perk for Chris. We got the keys on Friday and are slowly moving in our stuff, so hopefully by next week we should be pretty well moved in.
So that’s the latest from us. Hopefully as we start packing we’ll snap pics (I know, promises promises!!) and we will keep you posted.
And if you never hear from us again, it’s because we’re buried under boxes, DVDs and chinchillas!
