Movie

Hey, see if you can see this, everybody:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6400643177652869030
it should be a video of Ella at dance class.

Nothing new to report, Matt and I (Nate) got totally embarrassed by the 70mph pitching machine at the batting cages, but did decently at the 50 and 60. Less than a month until we leave for Brazil!!!

Same Old

If you didn't know already, the job driving the girl to school fell through, and Shelley is just working at the school district. She is working with a six grader named Devin. She is also working with several children who are being certified as English Language Fluent, and helping them get ready to read something they have written for a special ceremony. Nate has been working at Target, which is as exciting as it sounds. Only a 10% discount though, and you can't use it for credit or debit purchases, so that kinda bites.
Nate has been enjoying staying home with Ella immensely. We've gone to the park and gone on a hike and played with bubbles a lot, saw Uncle Matt and sang lots of songs. She absolutely loves the penguin song that her Auntie taught her, so we have to sing that almost every day. Nate tried to teach her the buffalo song, but she wasn't quite ready for it's greatness.
What she is ready for, and what has been going really well, is potty training. The first day she had maybe 4 accidents, the next day only one, and so far today, none. She's still in diapers for naps and night time, but she has been doing super great going on the potty. She gets a gummi bear and we dance every time she goes.
Other than that, we went to the L.A. Zoo, which is actually in Griffith Park, so Nate's Dad was right. Along with lots of interesting animals, we saw Steve Carrell walking with his family, which was really cool. So far on each of our big trips, we've seen famous people. We also saw two big rams battling it out on top of a skinny wall, which was really cool.
Shelley and Nate have two new favorite shows, Man vs. Wild on discovery, in which a crazy ex-British armed forces guy drops into crazy situations with only a canteen a cup and a knife, and then shows how you would get out of that situation. He is a complete nutjob, but he can do amazing stuff. In one show he tried to capture and ride a wild horse, but he fell off and the horse bolted, and it was pretty hilarious. Another crazy british guy is the Chef on Dinner: Impossible on the food network. Similarly to the other show, the chef is dropped into a crazy situation and has to pull off a huge dinner. In one show he was given six hundred dollars and two Sous Chefs to make a dinner for 50 executive for the Eagles, and he had to get all his food and cooking equipment from tailgating fans at an Eagles game. pretty cool.

The visit with Nate's family was a great as could have been expected. Carolyn, Cameron and Sarah were visiting, and came down with John and Erika so they could go to DisneyLand. But they came to Tom and Cici's house first, and Grauntie Bets was there too, and Matt, and Nick and Paul, so it was a house full of fun. The kids had a blast together, and it was so great to finally meet Cameron and Sarah. Ella was pretty scarred of Paul at first, but she was much less scarred by the end. She fell asleep as we drove home, and when Nate woke her up to go inside the first thing she asked was "Where's Paul?" It was pretty cute. Also, Nate and Tom totally killed Matt and Bets at pool.
Nate had his interviews with Target, and has been offered a job. It won't pay much, but it will be a lot of hours, and it will be in the evening, so Shelley can work during the day, and we won't have to pay for daycare.
We went on a hike yesterday which was fun, Ella had a blast and didn't want to leave. She got to where her hiking boots, and saw lots of cool bugs and lizards. Then today we did an easter egg hunt at a nearby park, which Ella also loved. She didn't love the Easter Bunny though.
There are more pictures up at the picasa site, of the visit.

Sea World

So we’ve been doing well here in Valencia, hanging out a lot with Shelley’s brother Troy, his wife Christie and their son Cody, and Shelley’s mom. We have rooms set up for Ella and for us. When we got here, we had to clean up Shelley’s room, because it was still the way she left it when she left for high school. Ella has her very own big girl bed, with Princess sheets that used to be Shannon’s daughter’s. We have not entirely unpacked everything, and only just finally cleaned up the car. And we only cleaned out the car because Shelley had a job prospect!!

The first solid job that we have will be Shelley driving a sweet 13 year old from Santa Clarita to her performing arts school in Sherman Oaks, about 25 miles away. We both went to meet Cairo and her family, and they were really nice. Cairo is super on top of things, studious and wants to go to school. The only problem is that she has to get up at 4:45 and leave for school by 6:15, and since they moved out to Santa Clarita she can’t get her mom up in time to get her to class, so she’s been getting lots of tardies. That’s where Shelley comes in, as her ride to school that’ll get her there on time. Shelley will start the Monday after Easter.

We’ve both been applying for jobs with some school districts out here, and have gotten fingerprinted and TB tested so that we’ll be eligible for that. Shelley may be able to start with one this week, but for the district that Shelley’s mom works with, we have to approved by the school board, which won’t happen until April 10^th. Nate put in his resume at Target, and a temp agency and took a couple tests, so hopefully that will pan out. We also have few restaurants that we want to apply too.

What else has been going on? We’ve hung out with Matt and at the restaurant he works at. He was hilarious with Ella, playing around at the table just like he used to. Nate tried to hang out with him another time, but he found out he had to work at the last minute, so Nate watched Dr. Who with his Uncle Nick and Paul instead, which was excellent. Ella is taking a dance class at Shelley’s sister in law’s preschool, and is quite cute. She’s learning ballet and tap. Otherwise we’ve just been lazing about the house, and driving around trying to get jobs. It has been so great getting to be with Gabriella all the time, although she can be a bit trying. It’s totally worth it though. Makes us wish we had quit our jobs sooner.

This weekend we went down to San Diego, to go to Sea World. Nancy rented a big old SUV, and we piled the four of us, Troy, Christie and Cody in, and headed south. It was really fun, Sea World is awesome. We saw the dolphin show, and the Seal and Otter show on Sunday, and decided to save Shamu and the Pets show for Monday. Ella loved to see all the animals and the tricks they do. It was pretty hilarious when we got there, though. We had all been talking up the Dolphins and Whales and Polar Bears, but the first thing she wanted to see when we go there was the Horses. Sea World is owned by Anheiser Busch, and they have some Clydesdales and at least one mule, so we had to go pet them first. But after that it was on to the Aquatic attractions, and we saw lots of them. The shows, and running around the park tired her out, so she slept for a long time while the rest of us ate lunch and saw more stuff.

We went back to the hotel for free cocktails! and some relaxation after a long day of walking. In the morning we had some free breakfast! and swam a bunch, and then got ready to hit Sea World again. Walking through all the shops, Nate was reminded of the time his family went there, and Katie got a stuffed dolphin. If his memory serves him, it was named Connie Egbert Dolphin, T.B. the T.B. standing for Truly Beautiful. Ella has yet to develop that creative capacity for names, but she is on her way. She got a turtle shich she named Fo-fo, but we let her take it to breakfast, where it was lost. She did get a Shamu stuffed animal though, and a hat, so it evened out. The Shamu show was actually kind of dissapointing show wise. It was called "Believe" and there was this dopey introduction with a kid reading about whales in a book, and then carving a whale tail necklace, and then seeing a whale, and then turning into one of the trainers. They did some cool tricks, and the whales themselves are beautiful, but after seeing a ton of trained cats and dogs and pigs and ducks (the pet show, which was really fun), it was a little slow and boring. All in all, the dolphins were probably the best show, and the Shark encouter was really cool.
Nate found out today that he has an interview with Target tomorrow, and also tomorrow we'll be seeing Matt, and lots of Nate's family, which is going to be way too much fun to even think about. Also, if you want to see more pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/NateandShelley
This has some pictures from the road trip and Sea World, and Nate will be adding more as time goes by.