What we’ve accomplished

Hello, world!

We are taking a minor break from unloading boxes to give you an update on us. Who would’ve thought that it’s so much work to pack and unpack??

We have been here for about 3 weeks now, and so far we’re adjusting well. There are still plenty of boxes to unpack, but we’re slowly but surely getting there. Plus some of the new “toys” like the washer and dryer are making opening all the boxes a little more worth it. :-)

So far, the living room is almost decent, and the kitchen has it’s moments of being clean and then not so much. Our bedroom set is up, but we still have plenty of laundry to clean in piles to be washed. Our library/office/guest room has most of the books set up, with a few random boxes in the room. Then the last room, where the pets and their things go, was set up last night. We stayed up until 3 putting things together like cages, an A/C unit, and all sorts of other stuff. Who would’ve thought pets were so difficult?

Speaking of pets, it looks like we are acquiring a new friend! Jeff volunteered us to babysit a friend’s dog, and she has been here ever since. Fox is a white husky who was found out in Bethel Island by Jeff’s friend, Kati. She took Fox in, but couldn’t keep her, so Jeff graciously accepted her into our family. She’s still pretty young, we think maybe 10 months, but is super smart and very playful. Chris and Mason get along with her great, but we are keeping her away from our other critters. She likes to chase birds and squirrels, we found out, and don’t think she would do well if left alone with our chinchillas and parakeets.

We also got our chinchillas back this weekend! After 6 months, they are finally back under our roof, and we are ecstatic over it all. It is a little bittersweet, as Brian was not able to come home with everyone else, but he will forever be home in our hearts. So far they have all made the adjustment well, although it’s clear that Scout, Brian’s son, does appear to be missing his daddy and cage mate, so we may have to find someone for him to hang out with. Our other boys are either already in pairs or they are too ornery to be with others.

School is slowly plugging away for us all. Jen should be done by the end of next month and Jeff will be finishing this semester around mid May. In the meantime, we are both looking at volunteer opportunities. This week, Jen is volunteering at a speech-language pathology clinic for a few weeks and then doing an observation at Lucille Packard, and both of us are looking into volunteering at the hospital in the summer.

Jeff is also looking for more job opportunities closer to home. Although he loves his work now, commuting to Brentwood is difficult in terms of time, energy, and car wear and tear. So far he has been offered a similar position at the Banana Republic in Los Gatos, and is waiting to hear on some other positions as well.

We hope you are all well, and hope to have you over as soon as our house is more habitable!

So Much Information, So Little Time…

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!

Back to School

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a great Sunday night!

 

WOW!! We didn’t go more than a few weeks without an update. Yay, us! We hope you’ve all had a good holiday, and that you transitioned back to “non-holiday time” easily enough.

 

Christmas was spent here in Newark. On Christmas Eve, we stayed here and had all of Jen’s family over for the holidays. It actually was a pretty quiet night, even though there were 16 here in the house, and the next day, we had Christmas dinner with Jen’s mom, sister, and Jeff’s parents. We got quite a few nice things from our family, including Jeff’s XBox and the photographs of Chris. We also got some gift certificates and gift cards, and Jen’s sister even got them passes for the de Young Museum to see their King Tut exhibit, which is our plan for this coming weekend.

 

There was also a new addition to the family. Just before New Year’s Eve, Jen’s sister decided to adopt a dog. Mason’s had a bit of a rough start. His previous owner moved in with her dad who did not take to Mason, and so, one day, while trying to “shoo” Mason away, he inadvertently hit Mason in the mouth and scraped up his hand.  The man was so angry, he grabbed a gun and tried to shoot Mason, but fortunately missed. Unfortunately, he’ll likely always have the scar, which looks like a part in his head, for the rest of his life.

 

Mason was put on quarantine and not allowed to be held at the shelter because he had a record (the old man decided to charge him with biting) and the family could not take him back because the old man threatened to shoot him again.  So Officer Kristen, the same woman who saved Chris for us, helped Mason to find a home, and he is now the newest Borgen! At first he was a bit shy around us, but not so much anymore. Chris has become his best buddy, so that helps a lot. He’s teaching Mason the ropes… the good AND the bad!

 

Recently Jeff’s been having a bit of bad luck. Just after New Year’s, Jeff came down with a cold. Luckily, Jen didn’t catch it, because it still is lingering. Then last week, while driving home, the tire on our Civic blew out. Fortunately, there wasn’t any damage to Jeff or the car, but it was a little nerve-racking to say the least!

 

The next few weeks are going to be interesting for us. Tomorrow Jen is going to Stanford for some work and is also starting her second semester of school. Originally this was going to be her last term before moving onto her master’s degree, but because of her migraines, she had to drop some of her classes, which pushed her graduation to the summer.

 

Next week it will be Jeff’s turn to return back to school. Luckily, this semester he will be able to get at least 4 classes taken care of. The past few semesters, he has only been able to get into one or two classes, so this will be a big step for both of us: two full-time students working full-time!!

 

Well, we wanted to post some new pics for you, but our older camera appears to be AWOL, and we haven’t started to use the newest one yet! So next week (hopefully) we will get them up for you.

 

Hope you are all having a great week!!