Recent happenings (from 2 wks ago)

I was looking for some shelves to frame our fire place and in the end, I ended up buying some cheapy ones from a store that starts with "Wal" and ends with "mart":

I hope these shelves are able to take all that weight.   Also bought a smaller one as well.  This seems to fit all my cooking books and magazine quite well:

Also bought a couple more other little shelves on wheels.  I had an idea of buying "old style" library carts.  Wow, I couldn't believe how expensive those can be!  These will have to do for now.  And can't figure out where to put that vacuum cleaner.  It needs to be charge so I can't hide it in the closet. Maybe once I hang some drapes, it will "disappear" somehow!

We don't have pets but this vacuum works really well!!!  The only thing I realized now is that it doesn't have a hose to use with those Space Saver vacuum bags.  Nonetheless, it's versatile and the boys are able to handle it too :-)

"Momma's chair" and our kitchen table finally arrived. Hooray!!! We opted out of a recliner this time, even despite having electrical outlets in them now.  Seriously??! Anyhow, very happy with this style of chair and print, especially with the matching ottoman. Can you see me smiling??? :-D

And hooray to no more standing during dinner time!

I love LOVE this table!  It is a bit higher than a regular dining table.  It can actually double as a kitchen island - with a removable leaf in the middle. And there are lots of extra shelves, drawers, and even a section for wine bottles and wine glasses. So far, no stains on the chairs.  Fingers crossed it stays that way but that's really wishful thinking, isn't it?  I am just glad our dining room doesn't look like this anymore.  YIKES!!!

Speaking of love, discovered this popular Chinese restaurant in a mall.  Thankfully the boys love the food too:

It means even more when Graham will eat it!  And Charlie will eat almost anything I eat, except for noodles.  How can anyone not like fresh, homemade Chinese noodles??!!!

We also discovered this French crepe restaurant about 15-20 minutes away from the apartment.  All the servers speak French and they have the yummiest latte! And breakfast was delish too:

We decided on the waffle instead of a crepe for the boys.  As yummy as it looks, Graham and Charlie were not exactly thrilled with it.  Guess we should ordered the crepe!

It's a nice street to walk along.  Lots of good deals on clothing :-) Thought we had moved away from cacti/succulents as we are no longer in Arizona, but seems that there are lots of them here too in California:

And lizards.  We spotted this one on one of our other walks on a trail near the apartment.

Charlie kept saying how he wanted to try and catch it, but he would scream as he tries to catch it.  So of course, the lizard would run away!  We obviously need to work on his technique :-)

Here's a view of the resort that is close to our place in the backdrop:

Who knew the location of the resort was actually a place called "Marineland" years ago.

It's a steep slope down! Graham is so fast where as Charlie was a tad scared so I made him go on his bum down the hill:

I thought it was funny how I looked like I am living back in Abu Dhabi with this scarf.  It was cold so I sort of wrapped it over my head during our walk that evening. And coincidentally I had a black sweater one.  Too funny!