Home Sweet Home

There has been some inquiry as to what our apartment looks like. I attempted to make a video, but I was having too many technical difficulties and decided to just take a few interesting snapshots. Besides, this is just a sneak peek into our home. If you want to get the full experience, you will have to come out and visit! Upon entering the front door we have the dining area to your left. This table and chairs was given to us by Juli Madison. It used to be a white-washed natural wood color that was chipping away. Just before we moved out here Adam chemically stripped it, put a new laminate top on the table, and we painted all the pieces black. I think it came out pretty nice for our first DIY project. On the wall is our favorite quote from Abraham Lincoln. We find it to be good marriage advice.

If you look to your right you will see our living room. It is a cozy little place where we spend a lot of time. The above photo reveals many things about us. We have a busy office area and cork board plastered with all of hopes and dreams for the future; and staying in touch has become somewhat of a fire hazard with all of the cable and electrical cords strung everywhere.
Also in the living room, we have the most totally awesome couch in the world. The missionaries are always trying to get us to "impart" of what we have by trading them couches, but I could blog all day and all night on this couch, hence, the computer is on the coffee table. (The computer is also there because we can only go 2 or 3 days without watching old episodes of Star Trek on CBS.com--I heart Spok.)

Here are the master bedroom and bath. As you can see those dark brown curtains just don't do the job of keeping the bright, California sun out, especially at 5 am on an eastern-facing window...grrr.

Directly in front of the dining area is the kitchen. All the white cabinets and countertops are something I just love to hate. However, I do like how it is nice and bright and open.
Even though the rent on this place is more than some peoples' mortgages, I am thankful everyday that I have my own washer and dryer and that I don't have to drag my dirty unmentionables to the laundromat or share with anyone anymore. It may seem laughable, but I don't take it for granted. (Oh and the soda? Buy 2 get 3 free sale...moment of weakness.)

This is our guest bathroom. If you haven't noticed by now, I'll let you in on a little secret. Somehow we were lucky enough to get the handicap accessible apartment which means all the light switches are lower, hallways and doorways are wider, there is a strobe light on the fire alarm, and as you can see there are handles around the showers and toilets. We are livin' the good life now baby!

This is the spare room aptly called the "junk room". My first reaction to shooting this photo was, "there's nothin' to see here folks..."as if a tragic accident had occured here, but upon closer inspection it actually reveals a lot about us. Bikes, treadmill, giant ball, boombox, primary lesson manual, enrichment craft project box, rubbermaid bins full of things that never get used, but for some reason cannot be thrown away...if the lens had been wider the list would have been longer. At any rate, if anyone wants stay in this spare room I would be more than happy to clean it out--just for you!

You got like 3 feet of air that time...

A shout out to all those who wished me Happy Birthday yesterday. Thank you very much for remembering me even though I am out of sight; out of mind. Adam did me proud yet again. He cooked me a delicious dinner of barbecued tri tip beef, citrus pickled beets, vegetable medley in a vinaigrette, and fresh mozzarella salad with ice cream bars for dessert...mmm...This year he got me a new bike! This is the first new bike I have had since I was 8 years old. I always settle for the eclectic creations that my dad put together after scavenging at the local landfill. I was always satisfied back then. I just couldn't imagine waisting a Christmas or Birthday wish on a brand new bike when I could have something awesome like the latest New Kids on the Block cassette!


















Anyway, Adam also got a new bike because we thought that it was time we became more active and this was something that we could do together. So when I first got to ride my bike it was sort of a Napoleon Dynamite moment.




Napoleon Dynamite: What kind of bike do you have?
Pedro: It's a sledgehammer.
Napoleon Dynamite: Dang! You got shocks, pegs... lucky! You ever take it off any sweet jumps?





I have yet to take it off any sweet jumps, but we do have some really sweet trails here. There is an entrance about 3 blocks from our house to the San Francisco Bay Trail. It is said to be 500 hundred miles of trail all the way around the bay. I don't know if we will be able to see all of it on our bikes, but hopefully I can write about our future adventures. Our test ride had down for a couple of days with the classic excuse, "it hurts me bum", but we are determined to develop callouses wherever necessary.

Name Dropping

So, here I am surfing the web this morning and I see that someone has finally won a million dollars on Deal or No Deal. I'm not a huge follower of the show, but I have watched it a couple of times so I clicked on the headline to see who the lucky winner was...

I was so shocked to see that it was Jessica Robinson. When I knew her she was Jessica Simmons. She lived right next door to me in the Summerwood apartments in Orem, Utah. I was in the Relief Society presidency in my singles ward and she was one of my teachers! Adam and I were both living there when she met and started dating her husband Ross. What's even crazier is that we have photos of her brother, because he and Adam served together in the Charlotte, North Carolina mission. The world just keeps getting smaller. That's my claim to fame. It couldn't have happened to nicer people.

Sausalito

The summer fog has finally decided to subside. Adam and I decided to take a little strole into the picture postcard we like to call home. All of this is just a couple of miles from our apartment in Suasalito. Here are some of the things we saw along our way:

As we got down closer to the water we saw this guy who was entertaining the tourists by stacking rocks in amazing ways.

Now that the Bay is so clear we can see all the way across to San Francisco and the Bay Bridge.

This is Bridgeway St. and just hiding behind that hill up ahead is the Golden Gate Bridge.
I hope this entices some of you to come and visit. It should be 75 degrees all winter long and we here at the Madison Bed and Breakfast can't wait to see you!

Labor Day Weekend

We finally managed to leave our house. With Adam having to work such long hours it is difficult to find the time to get away, but we took advantage of the three-day weekend. Saturday we went up to Sacramento to visit some friends. I'm so glad that the Boices let us be part of their family for the day!

I bet if Adam made a list of his favorite people to hang out with, first of all it wouldn't be very long, but 4-year-old Aidan would be near the top. They are both in Jedi-training and they both tell really silly jokes that are only funny to one another.
They showed us around Old Sac and we got a taste of the wild west this weekend. It was pretty authentic down to the 95 degree temperatures.

What would a wild west experience be without the Mormons? It was nice to see that they still take their rightful place in history. What I love most is the feeling I get whenever I see something familiar. For instance, when I saw this Mormon Batalion banner I immediately felt a kinship for the people there. The gospel gives you those familiar connections no matter where you are in the world.