Things I Love About the City

As most of you know, I love in Northridge. Technically, Northridge is a district of Los Angeles meaning I live in Los Angeles. It is quite different than living in the actual city of Los Angeles but still city life all the same. Too often Ryan and I talk about how great things will be when we can move from the city. On multiple occasions we have expressed to each other how much we hate it here and cannot wait to leave. So this post is coming to you for many reasons. First, after a talk with a friend I realized that there are so many good things about the city I wasn't choosing to focus on. Also, hopefully by counting the great things about the city I can more fully enjoy my time here. Really we have no idea how long we could be here. Just because Ryan graduates next Spring does not mean we will leave then! So here, in no particular order, are the things I have grown to love about living in this city.

1. Culture- I really wish I took advantage of this a lot more. There are so many museums, exhibits, galleries, shows, and all manner of cultural venues and events in Los Angeles. A couple weeks ago Ryan and I were able to see the Great Wall of LA. Something right here in the Valley. Most things are in downtown LA but even those things are really not that far and should be taken advantage of!

2. Food- Before living here I'd never had food from a truck. It is probably the coolest thing to go to a food truck gathering and have so many different kinds of food within a small space. Like a mall food court but so much better! Also, in about a five block radius of our apartment there are so many kinds of food. Thai, Sushi, Mexican, Italian, BBQ, and all kinds more. we sadly haven't been able to enjoy a lot of these places but having the options is awesome! And, if I wanted to, I can drive for about twenty blocks and hit at least three McDonalds.

3. The Beach- I love the beach, Ryan loves the beach, so far Dax likes it well enough. The beach we like to go to is still about an hour away but there are ones that are closer. Taking a beach trip doesn't have to be a big affair that we plan a month or so in advance we can just go on a nice day and usually it isn't even that crowded.

4. Driving- Really this is something I hate too. But living in the city has made me a better driver. You'd think the opposite right? Well before moving to the city I had about zero driving experience. This was only made worse by the fact that the only car we had for the first year and a half of being married was a stick shift truck we couldn't drive. Before I would never turn right on red, I only changed lanes when there was no one even on the road with me and my first month or two of yeild lights I'd let a couple cycles go by before turning. Now I am a little more aggressive, in a good way and I can mostly navigate my way around the freeways in the city. That's another thing! When I first started driving to school, I'd take surface streets. It took me forever to get to school! Now I can get to school in about half the time and I know about six different ways to get there.

5. The Library- Where I grew up and lived my whole life before moving to Northridge was Apple Valley. In San Bernardino County there are 33 branches of the library. Not to shabby right? Los Angeles county has more then 70 branches. I'd gather this has something to do with the population in the two counties. You might wonder, why does that matter? Well first, there are about ten branches that would take ten minutes or less to get to, depending on what time you go of course. This means if I'm tired of the selection of kids board books at the branch just up the street I can head to another one that might have a bigger selection or if I really wanted to I could probably hit multiple toddler story times in one week. Also, if I put a book on hold usually there are a good number of copies in the system so even if I do have to wait it's significantly shorter than I had to wait for a hold back home.

6. The people- For one thing the is so much diversity here. For another the wonderful people I have made my friends have made the city a pleasant place to live. Ryan and I have been able to meet some amazing people with all different kinds of backgrounds who have all helped us in one way or another. I know you can find good people wherever you go but in this large city it could have been terribly hard to find them.

There are many other things I like about Northridge, the parks, the hiking trails, The Apple Store, the farmers market, just to name some but I feel like the things I forget about too often when I start to complain about the layout of the streets or getting ANOTHER parking ticket. I hope if you live somewhere you don't really want to be that you can find things that make it a great place!

Valentines Day!

I love Valentines day! I honestly can say I've never had a bad one. Even when I was single I didn't resent all the love birds around me. My family has done a Valentines dinner for some time now that I love doing. Usually we get each other something, have a special meal and my mom does some kind of awesome dessert. Which is what we did this year as well.

Last year I made my mom, mother-in-law and all four of Dax's great grandmothers Valentines. This year I wanted Dax to help me so to Pintrest I went searching for a perfect little craft. I found an idea where you use a toilet paper roll shaped into a heart as a stamp. It seemed easy enough for Dax to help me with so we tried. After making the six I originally planned on Dax seemed to be enjoying himself so we made almost thirty more! And really I only finished off about five of them for him. Here is one finished product though because my mom hasn't gotten her valentine yet I'm only posting a picture of one of the extras we made.

For Ryan this year I decided to do fourteen days of Valentines. I was actually gone on the first so I had to hide his first one and tell him where it was. All the days except actual valentines day were corny sayings that went with a treat. Some them were a little bit of a stretch but I thing Ryan enjoyed getting a treat every day. Heres a list of the sayings and the pictures(minus two) to go with them.

1. I'm NUTS about you and love you BUNCHES.(Honey Bunches of Oats w/ Almonds)
2. We make a great PEAR. (canned pears, or any pears Ryan just likes the cans better)
3. You're COOLER than the rest.(Capri Sun Pacific Cooler)
4. You're my BIG HUNK. (Big Hunk candy bar)
5. You make my heart FLIP.(Flipz chocolate covered pretzels)
6. Of the guys I could CHEWS my choice is PRIME.(Gatorade Prime Energy Chews)
7. You're EXTRAodrinary.(Extra gum)
8. I don't care if your RIPPED or have ROLLS I love you.(Rip Rolls candy)
9. You're outta this world(Milky Way)
10. HONEY, I love you beary much(honey in a bear container)
11.You make me BANANAS.(Banana)
12.(You're the APPLE of my eye.(Apple Juice, or any Apple but ryan likes juice more then regular apples.)
13. You aMAZE me.(A maze)

Number thirteen was what I was most excited about. Even more then what he actually got on Valentines day. If you didn't know, Ryan likes to make mazes for fun. It has been a while since he did one other then my moms Christmas present but he has a three ring binder full of mazes that he has drawn. He told me once that he draws the path first and then fills the rest in so I used a piece of his fancy engineering graph paper and made a maze. Ryan's mazes take me a minute or two to get through but Ryan got through mine in about ten seconds but he still liked it!

Originally, it was my plan to finish a photo wall collage as the big last present for Valentines day but it didn't get done. However by random luck the first thing that I got to go up on the wall that wasn't a picture or something we already had came last Thursday so I put it up while Ryan was at class on Friday. Here it is! I'll keep you updated on the pictures that start to go up around it!

Like every year Valentines Day for me was full of love and fun. As a kind of closing I'd like to share a quote from my good friend Phil who I think hit what I feel the true meaning of Valentines day is.

"Valentine's Day might indeed be a "marketer's holiday", but if even one person that you know or love gets a little joy out of it, isn't it worth it? I'd like to think so." -Philip Clevinger

Biscuits and Gravy!

This is just a short post of triumph! I got some grands biscuits at a decent price and was thinking of all the cool Pintrest recipes for pull apart bread or doughnuts but then I thought "I want to make biscuits an gravy!" Now I've never made gravy, an usually with something that other people consider easy I really mess it up. (I'll tell you about pancakes later.)

So I was kind of aprenensive about trying. But then the stars alighed and sausage was on sale for a really good price so I knew I had to try. So tonight that's what I did. About a half hour later we had biscuits and gravy, and Ryan had eggs, and aside from the gravy being a little thick from sitting it was really good! I kept telling Ryan that I was so happy I didn't mess it up! Now I just needed to find a biscuit recipe that I like and can actually make:)

 

What Went Down In January

I've heard there are a lot of people that dislike the outcome of Groundhogs day this year, or a lot the don't even know the outcome because the Superbowl was the same day. Anyways I'm actually quite happy for six more weeks of winter because it is starting to actually feel like winter here! Mostly though I'm excited for it to be baseball season.

Aside from the weather I feel like there is a lot to update on. Since Dax's first birthday, he has started sleeping through the night most of the time, started drinking only whole milk, and is completely using a sippy cup instead of a bottle. He already walked everywhere pretty well but now he goes up and down stairs, with a little help, and climbs on top of things he isn't supposed to. Also, the cutest thing is he knows how to pull his little wagon behind him. Its pretty adorable. And lastly in this past weekend he learned how to knock on the door when its closed and has nearly perfected signing the word more when he's getting fed.

He he is last night right before heading out to get Frozen Yogurt. Fro Yo is definitely his favorite treat.

Today marks the half way point in my current pregnancy. I'm so excited to have two little boys come June! Ryan and I had hoped for a girl but in the back of my mind I was pretty certain we would have another boy. I've been the only girl in my family before and I'll keep being the only girl for a while longer. I'm really excited to see how Dax reacts to a baby. 

Ryan has started school again this semester which is so nice. Durning vacations from school he has almost no regular schedule for work and it kind of drives me mad. Now, for at least four months, I'll know his schedule. I start back to school in about two weeks and that will make things that much more predictable scheduling wise.

This past month I've done a few projects that I'll be posting. I made a birthday wreath and some skirts that actually turned out exactly how I thought they should. Also, this months projects are turning out well even though its only the fourth.

I hope you have great February!