Cohen's End of School Activities

Cohen's pre-school visited Irvine Regional Park at the tail end of school. He was super excited to hang out with his buddies Jayden and Kyle. He has loved school this year. I only hope he is that excited to start a brand new BIG school in a few weeks.

Then came his class circus. He was super hush hush about this one. I don't think he liked acting like an elephant or a monkey trainer one bit. He was very shy and wouldn't crack a smile during the performance. He was very serious - but oh so cute. Check out the mustache!!!

Back to School Night

Ethan had an amazing teacher this year, Mr. Henry. He loved going to school every day and would come home with stories about his awesome teacher that loved Tron just as much as he does. He is even type-1 diabetic which relieved a lot of my fears. Ethan was in a combo class this year which had only eight 2nd graders in it. Five of those are in his church primary class so he was loving the group he was with.

For Ethan's back-to-school night/ open house this year he had to prepare a speech about a famous person or inventor from history. Of course he chose something about Lego's. He researched the creator of Lego's, Ole Kirk Christensen. Yes, Christensen. I didn't get his whole speech on tape because there were about 100 other 2nd graders all standing around him saying their speech at the same time, but I filmed a little bit of the interview Mr. Henry had with him.

The Office

Eric with Dr. Sato. He's such a sweet man - I really pray his cancer isn't as serious as it seems. He's only 65 and wasn't planning on retiring this early in life. His patients have been amazingly loyal. Some of them come in telling stories about how Eric is now their third dentist at this location, that they have been going there since the 40's.

Dr. Ishizuka - the original dentist at this location. He still owns the building!

WOW - can you believe the sight (or lack thereof) of our building? This is how it looked from the street at the time of purchase. Dr. Sato must have gotten used to it after a while. How did patients even know where to go to find his office?

This juniper was a disaster.

Oh my gosh - there's a building behind all of that greenery! It took two and half days and a full crew to rip it all out.

Here's a picture after the mulch and plants went in. They better grow quickly - they look so little right now. But, it's a definite improvement. NEXT PROJECT: paint the exterior...

The awesome logo Martha designed. Now we need to have signs made to put out front.

Moving Day - Take One

These pictures were from the first load we brought up at the end of April. It was a beautiful day! We are renting the home from three siblings who inherited the house over a year ago from their parents who had passed. It's a 1920's Spanish style with hardwoods throughout. I am struggling with the dust balls! Who can I pencil in as our next visitors??

Shell Ave

We kind of have an amazing view

We also have an amazing bird population that inhabits our roof...

AND - a pesty neighbor...

Changes

A lot has happened in the past two months that I have been away from this blog. A lot of life changing decisions have been made. A lot of changes have taken effect. A lot of money has been spent. A lot of tears have been shed. A lot of boxes have been packed. A lot of miles have been driven. A lot of hair has fallen out (mine). And a TON of prayers have been said. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this new life would be the one I chose for myself. I always pictured myself in Southern California. Even when Eric and I were researching practices in Breckenridge, Seattle, Jackson Hole, and Monterey, I always assumed we would end up finding our practice in S. Cal. I even told Eric this past February that we need to stop looking elsewhere. We need to make it work in RSM. I was uprooted a lot as a child and I didn't want to do it to the kids now that we had been settled for three years. The boys had great friends, a sweet school and a strong ward. They had both sets of grandparents close and even great-grandparents - so I was resolved to stay put. I knew that ownership wouldn't be immediate but I was willing to wait it out. Oh how ideas change.

March, a call came in from the Monterey Bay Dental Society secretary that a doctor was looking to sell due to health problems. We had looked at two practices in Monterey a few months back but both just weren't the right fit. We were kind of on the fence about going up there to investigate it. Mainly because I was OVER it. Eric did anyway. Turns out the doc was recently diagnosed with liver cancer and needed to find a buyer pretty quick. Eric met with the doc and the broker all while suffering from the flu. He had to add an extra day to his hotel reservation because he was too sick to drive. Oh and the practice was solid. Uh oh.

A week or so later we drove the kids up to see for ourselves. A week or so after that we were securing funding. A week or so after that we were negotiating the purchase price. And a few weeks after that we were in escrow. All of this happened by the first week in April. Unfortunately, we were on the doctors closing schedule because he needed to start cancer treatments ASAP. This meant that Eric would need to commute for a couple months until the kids finished school. So, it left us with a couple weeks to secure a place to live and get partially moved in. We started boxing up the things that could sustain Eric until we all got to town. Eric and I took a trip up to look at rentals. The search was frustrating. We wanted to live in Carmel because of the schools and the ward. However, Carmel is filled with a multitude of vacation rentals but only a few long term rentals. Our search turned then to Pacific Grove, the town between Monterey and Carmel. We found an amazing house close to the beach and our search ended.

The week of our move to get us to Eric's first day, May 2nd, started on Monday, April 25th. Eric was in town to meet his new staff and sign on the dotted line. The staff seemed solid. They were all comfortable (or so they made it seem) with Eric and excited for him to start. They were definitely in shock about Dr. Sato's diagnosis. Wednesday, April 27th, I turned 34 and picked up a moving truck. Thursday the 28th, we packed up the truck with our stuff from Grandma Bishop's garage, etc. Friday, Ethan's baseball game at Tijeras Creek, under the lights. Walking to the field Eric gets an email. An email. Dear Dr. Brown, blah blah blah, I am truly sorry, blah blah blah, have decided not to make the transition with you, blah blah blah, I have worked for Dr. Sato for 20 years and have decided to retire as well, blah blah blah, I wish you the best of luck. BLAH BLAH FREAKING BLAH.

INSERT PANIC HERE.







AND HERE.








AND HERE.

20 years the front office manager had worked for Dr. Sato. You can't buy that kind of security, knowledge, or patient familiarity. Ummmm.... stress. Saturday, we hit the road with Ed and Diane in tow. Molly and KC were already in Monterey hanging out with some friends so they came over to help us unpack the truck. It was a sunny day in Pacific Grove, and it was appreciated. Eric was quiet throughout the unloading. I think we were all a little freaked.

Sunday, May 1st we unpacked boxes, ran errands, and checked out the office. 2:00pm, a second email. Dear Dr. Brown, blah blah blah, my shoulder has really been starting to bother me, blah blah blah, I think I might take this time to go back to school, blah blah blah, therefore, I won't be seeing you TOMORROW. BLAH BLAH FREAKING BLAH.

PASS THE XANAX

Wow. That's half the staff. Via email. Eric starts in 16 hours. PANIC ATTACK.

Solution: Ed and Diane take the kids home Monday morning and I stay and work the office with Eric. Not ideal but we'll make it work. We placed two ads on Craigslist for an assistant and a front office manager. Luckily, the hygienist and second assistant stayed on. So we showed up bright and early Monday morning for Eric's first day. What a surreal ordeal. Not only were we short handed, sick to our stomachs, and totally unaware of the office systems, but Eric had to walk into every room and greet unknowing patients. Because the sale happened so quickly a lot of the scheduled patients had no idea they were showing up to see a different doctor so Eric had to explain the situation to every patient he treated, silently hoping they stayed seated in his treatment chair. And wouldn't ya know, he won them over one by one. It was seriously impressive.

The first ten days passed in a blur. Our hiring efforts were thwarted with idiot, flaky people who followed suit with the first two office quitters by sending Eric text messages at the last minute - quitting before they even started. Each time it brought me back to the office and away from my boys. It killed me because our problems created problems for our amazing family members that pitched in and picked up the slack for us. Diane, Ed and Anne were all-stars. Their support and amazing care for the boys is the only thing that got us through this and allowed me to stay with Eric. Not having to worry about if the boys were ok was such a relief. Seriously, so lucky.

By the last week in May we had filled both positions with people we were excited about. We didn't settle. They were set to start in June, and this time, we had a guarantee that they, under no circumstances, would bail at the last minute!! What's most telling about the staff that bailed on Eric in the beginning is that they tried to claim unemployment. They tried to claim that they had been fired by Dr. Sato (which technically is sort of true) and that they had no job to come back to because he was retiring. Such a load of crap. Dr. Sato fought the claims - in between his chemo treatments no less - and he won. Awesome. In the end, even after all the stress and uncertainty that they caused us, I can honestly say I am so glad that they didn't come back to work for Eric. It would have been a disaster with them running his office. And I can only say that because I worked it for a month and witnessed the crazy.

Quickly, a little too quickly if you ask me, Ethan's school year came to a close. This meant it was time for another moving truck, more packing, and lots of goodbyes. Ethan finished school on a Thursday and we left RSM the next day around 1pm. Can you tell how anxious Eric was for us to get up there and keep him company? We pulled in around the boys bedtime on Friday and decided to tackle the truck the next day. What a relief it was when six elder's quorum members show up and did all the unloading for us!! I was on the verge of tears I was so happy that Eric and I didn't have to do it all ourselves. It was amazing how quickly they had everything off the truck and ready for me to unpack. Cortney drove over from Fresno the next day to help out. Surprisingly, we got a lot accomplished! For the most part we are pretty settled. We've had visitors every weekend since we've been here and have more to come this weekend. We love it! The boys look forward to it all week. I still drive around town thinking I am on vacation. It hasn't sunk in yet that I live in Monterey. As in, I changed my address and everything. So weird. Seriously, so weird.

Um, yah, so, I'm behind.

Very behind. Maybe I'll get around to catching up soon... if I can get a break from having to get up every five minutes to stop the constant fighting and bugging and teasing and pestyness that my children now enjoy.

Easter Sunday

I'm pretty sure I didn't get any "normal" pictures from them but I think I'm ok with that.

NEED FEEDBACK

Ok, we all know the majority of people look at blogs for the pictures/inspiration and not for the text, I being one of them.... So, I changed the size of the pictures in my last post and would appreciate it if you could please comment and tell me if the pictures too big and if I should just leave them smaller like the post before it. Personally, it bugs me when I have to click on peoples pictures to enlarge them/open them in a different window. Thanks, the management.

Spring Break 2011

Wow, it's been a long week! Spring break kinda of snuck up on my this year and I was left to throw some fun things together for the boys. There were multiple play dates with friends, a Jump N Jammin outing, baseball practices and lunches with friends. Luckily, Eric took two days off from work so we were able to go to LA to hang out with Anne, Lucy and Martha for a little while.

Anne is always the best hostess. She always knows fun places to go so that we are entertained. It was the same way when we went to San Francisco to visit them last year. We were BUSY!!

Park time...

Light post exhibit at LACMA

Tar Pits

LA Craft Museum - an exhibit made from yarn

LA Science Museum

I want one of these keyboards!

Then off to the Farmes Market at the Grove for dinner.

I'M SO READY FOR THE BOYS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!

Saturday Morning Lego Session

Ethan has been busy this morning. He woke up early and came straight downstairs to work on his new lego sets. See.....when Eric and I go out on a date, and their grandparents are their babysitters, their grandpa is too easily convinced to make a trip to the toy aisle at Target. It's a problem, but the boys LOVE IT!!

The Lego elevator. Ethan lined them all up and kept raising and

lowering the hood vent by the stove.