New Home

No, our house isn't put in order entirely yet. We still have boxes in places, and we're struggling to find places for things inside those boxes. There's plenty of space, but it's about finding the right places for stuff.

But I do have a nice, quiet Sunday afternoon to catch up a little. I have also had a few minutes to catch up on my friends' blogs too. My life is showing signs of quieting down... at least today anyway.

We live in northern Los Angeles, in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, and a stone's throw away from Universal Studios, Warner Brother's Studios and Disney Studios. We already knew several people in the ward (church) we go to, which is about a 5-minute drive from our house, including some of our dearest and closest friends in Los Angeles. And we have definitely been received very warmly here.

Some of our responsibilities as apartment managers include communicating policies from the management to the residents, leasing open units, keeping a close eye on needs of the building, scheduling maintenance and answering needs and requests of residents. We are told are told our responsibilities take minimal time on down times, but we stepped into some issues that have consumed quite a bit of our time even before we moved in. In addition, there's a bit of a learning curve with every new job. It's been frustrating at times, but I do have an underlying feeling, sortof like a current beneath the surface, that tells me things are going to calm down soon, and everything is going to be okay.

Work
I am juggling a few freelance clients, and I still have an open-ended contract gig with a retail commercial real estate company near LAX. It's an hour-long commute each way. Not awesome. I'm going to try working from home this week, and see how much I can get done with a high-maintenance (but adorable) toddler begging for attention.

The husband has done a few short-term production gigs in the last months, including a gig with the Food Network. He came home with some sweet stuff from the cooking competition after the shoot was done:

We had several "hiccups" the week prior to our move and the week of our move, (including three car accidents, a broken brand-new humidifier spilling about 2 gallons of water over brand-new carpet, no brake lights so we needed to return to the auto shop so they could actually hook up the wiring after doing the body work, returning a fridge that was too large for the space, living without a fridge or fresh food for five days, and pot smokers all around us), but those hiccups were all peppered with blessings too. Here are a few blessings:

Meet our first major appliance:

(This one fits... barely)

Not only do we have patios extending the length of two sides of our apartment, I have a beautiful tree outside our bedroom door. (It may not seem like much to you, but we live in a large city where apartment views often consist of freeways, alleys and busy streets.)

The Costco near our house is not half as nuts as the one in Venice/Culver City (nearest to where we used to live). AND they sell Island Way Sorbet. These are straight from heaven. I could never find them in the one in Venice/Culver City.

And the #1 blessing with our new place:

It also may not look like much to you house dwellers, but I seriously look forward to laundry now! I thrill in hearing the hum of the spin cycle or buzz of the dryer when I'm doing other things in the house. We have been using coin-operated, external, shared washer and dryers for nearly our entire marriage of 8 1/2 years. And at our last apartment, I carried our laundry down three flights of stairs, down a hill, in between cars and past the dumpsters for a load. That is not easy carrying a heavy toddler too. 

There are many more blessings to count. More coming soon!