Happy January 2010

Hello from Fremont. We are currently experiencing loads and loads of rain. We have a little bucket in our backyard and I have registered about 7 inches of rainfall in the last 10 days. (Its my imprecise measurement, but I've been amazed at how full it's gotten) It makes me laugh when I hear all about the beautiful sunshine in Seattle :)
The biggest news in our family is that we are in limbo. Darryl is officially transferring with KPMG to Sacramento starting in February, but we don't have a house yet and no really close prospects on a place to live. We are doing the waiting game. We have made 8 offers on homes and we have a few more in the works. We have run the gambit on responses. We've been out bid by a cash offer; we were told that we were days away from an approval from the bank and we have been waiting 3 weeks; and now we are in 1st position on a home I totally love and it might be 3 months away from approval. Massive frustration. The one good point is that we get to stay in Fremont just a bit longer. It will be very hard to leave this area. We love it and have made some of the best friends of our lives.
January has been busy with this and that. Darryl had a lasic eye surgery revision done last week and he now has as close to perfect vision as possible. This last weekend Darryl went camping with the boy scouts for their winter campout. They drove to the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe and camped in tents on top of the snow. The rain in the bay area also brought loads of snow to the mountains, so this last weekend was packed with travelers, traffic and several feet of fresh powder. They stopped at In 'N'Out Burger on the way there, so they finally set up camp about 9:30 pm and the boys played around in the snow. Of course they were cold and wet overnight, but Darryl slept warm and dry. He brought all of his military gear for cold weather and it worked great. The next day the boys went sledding and played in the snow for the morning then they all came home tired and happy.
Tanner has been a happy big guy lately. He tells everyone that he's 4 now. He loves preschool and last week they had a California snow day. The school ordered a whole pile of shaved ice from the local ice company. It was enough to make a big "snow" pile. The kids got out their snow shovels and mittens. They climbed all over the pile and threw a few snowballs. They also read a bunch of books about snow and penguins and winter. Tanner loved all of it but recognized the difference in snow at school and snow in Utah.
A funny thing happened this morning that made us laugh. Tanner found a pair of size 4T underwear on the shelf and pulled them on. They came up to his chest but he was so proud of them, he had to show his dad. They had such a funny conversation, it went like this T: "Dad, look what I have!" D:"What do you have?" T:"New huge underpants!" D:"Congratulaions" T:"They're huge but they fit and I like them that way."(Tanner did some spin moves in the kitchen in just his underpants to show them off)
Parker is a character. He is such a climber. He can do pull-ups on the table and his latest move is to climb up the step stool and swing from the cross bar. He now has 6 teeth with 4 of them coming in within the last week. It's been tough for him at night, but for the most part he is a very happy kid. This week we went to the pharmacy to pick up some things and I had Parker in the front pack. As we walked past an older man the guy looked at Parker and said, "Hi" Parker responded with ,"UUUUhh-Huh". The man wasn't expecting a response and started laughing out loud in the store. This just made Parker laugh and it brightened everyone's day.
Parker is very close to walking. He will walk on his own between things, but has fallen a lot lately so we've noticed that he has gotten a lot more cautious. One of our favorite games is racing down the hall. Tanner will give the ready, set, go and we will all take off running. Parker now wants to hold my fingers and he tries his best to keep up with Tanner. We have a good time.
I have been busy with interpreting and dancing. I'm trying to tie up the loose ends and finish all of my jobs here in Fremont. Not an easy task. Luckily I will have a bit longer to wrap things up. For fun I have been reading a lot. I just finished the first 3 books in the Eragon series, and I re-read Mindless Eating and presented that book for our book group. I only wish I had time to read more!(aside from picture books)
Our life is full and fun. We hope the sun will come out tomorrow!