We've been in Roseville, California for close to three weeks now.
I will definitely say that our move out West has been a
mostly gratifying experience. I miss my adult children and grandson back on the east coast tremendously, and I miss all of my friends in Pembroke. Some days when the grounds crew is outside working with their hand tools I miss the quiet of our home back in Pembroke. Sometimes I miss just being able to let my dogs out in the yard without a leash, especially now that it's been cooling off outside. On the overall, though, I think we've made a pretty good decision. We just have to get over a few bumps in the road.
My husband, Ron, was out of work for a couple months before we made this move out here. This put a little bit of a pinch on our finances. In addition to that, we made TWO cross-country trips in the process of getting him started with his new job and then finally moving our family out here. To top it off, moving into our new home here came with a pretty hefty security deposit, not to mention all the immediate expenses we had to worry about.
We made a decision to sell or give away everything we owned in Pembroke before moving to California. Our motto was, "If it didn't fit into the back of the pick-up truck, it wasn't going". We decided it seemed more economical to do this. But now that we're in California we are having to start over, pretty much from scratch. We've already had to buy new dishes and silverware, new pots and pans, and we bought ourselves a new mattress and box-spring. Needless to say we have a
long way to go to a fully furnished home. Our kids, for the time being, are sleeping on "blow-up" mattresses. Our living room is still as bare as the day we moved in, no TV or couch, and no dining room table. The kids have to
stand at the counter to eat a meal. It's slightly pathetic. Being as this is the time of year when three of our children have birthdays and Christmas right around the corner, it may take us some time to get those other things we want, but we'll get there... a little bit at at time.
So let's get to the enjoyable parts of our "newbie" status here in the area. We didn't waste any time getting into the swing of things out here. We started attending
Bayside (Granite Bay Campus) Church and joined a small group. Our kids started going to the middle school ministry group. The friends we are meeting are great and we're already learning about fun activities and even volunteer opportunities for us to get involved in.
Being brand new in the area right around Halloween, we had NO IDEA where our kids could do their trick-or-treating. Thankfully,
Bayside holds an annual truck-or-treat event at the nearby mall. There must have been well over 100 cars, "cutsied" up for the event. Our kids came away with nearly 10 lbs of candy (no joke) and had plenty enough fun to satisfy their greedy side.
I found a wonderful homeschooling group in the area. We have met up with them a couple of times already and have had a wonderful time!! I'm filling in my calendar with seemingly "fun-to-be-had" adventures and learning experiences for us to participate in.
One week after our arrival I had a new job at
Target as part of their seasonal flow team. My second day on the job resulted in me being "recognized" by my trainer (which is sort of like a public pat on the back) and by the third day I had been introduced to four different departments and asked to stay longer to help out because "I was already catching on and would be a big help". Yay me. lol. As a side "hobby of sorts" I have been working on becoming a mystery shopper for the area. I've signed up with several companies and taken a few certification tests. I have one assignment already to check on a local fast-food restaurant. We'll see how that all goes.
So yea, there you have it! Have a wonderful day everyone!
