Anyone want to Tango?

Here is the new Trailer!

This past week has been insane. Johnny is working his 6day/10hr shift now so we only see him Saturday night to Sunday night. He met me at the trailer place to sign all the last minute docs and then my dad drove away with our new home while Johnny and I drove to AZ. Yep, we had to meet our insurance guy at the flying J in Blythe to sign the new life insurance docs or they would not be vaild. It was nice to have time to talk (face to face) and hold hands. After a ticket in my parent's truck for expired registration we made it back about 1am.

Monday was Sea World. Great fun but not as good as Lego Land (I know some people hate me for saying it but it is just not as wonderful as everyone was building it up to be, especially due to being one of the most expensive parks in CA). The boys liked the Shamu show the best and the little kid rides in the Sesame Street area. Sorry no pics, prego brain!

Tuesday I made the 5 hour round trip drive again to see my new doctor. During the 3 minutes I was in the room he told me everything looks great (except for the 3.5 pounds I gained in the same week I trekked the LA Zoo and Sea World; maybe it was the chocolate cake, or the COSTCO cookies, never mind it makes sense now...). I was positive (again) for group B Strep. This means I will have a lovely extra day at the hospital once little Wesley is born and I am supposed to be on penicillin while in labor. The highlight of the day was the amazing Thai food place Johnny found for dinner before I drove back to Hemet. I might be stoned for saying this, but it might even be better than the Thai House in Mesa.

These are some pics of the kind of towers Johnny is working on. He is feeling much more comfortable climbing the steel towers now. They are about 200 foot towers up on top of all of the rolling hills in the Palmdale area. The towers he is assembling don't have the lines run yet. Another crew who comes in after they have moved onto the next tower will bring in the lines. He is not going to be "going Hot" (working with any live wires) until his 4th step (about 4000 hours) into the program.

Wednesday was awesome. We went to the Fingerprints children's museum which included a real ambulance and police car, two police motorcycles, and a grocery store. There was also a Dr. office, bank, TV studio, dinosaur excavation area, and much more.

Kudos to Crystal for introducing us to this place. The boys were in HEAVEN. We followed nap time with a trip to the Aquatic Center out by the Dominigoni reservoir. I think it is safe to say Wednesday was darn near close to perfection.

Tomorrow we move to our new home, the KOA! Anyone planning a visit to Magic Mtn. in the near future can pull up some fold down couch space. We are only a few minutes away but I am too prego to go enjoy the rides.

Living it up in LA

I had to make the drive from Hemet out to Santa Clarita to see my new doctor this past Tuesday. It was not bad considering my sister's house in LA is less than 45 minutes from Santa Clarita. I dropped the boys off with her, went to see my new doctor, then spent the evening with Johnny. We had to complete some paperwork for our trailer loan; so it all worked out perfectly.

It was so strange to spend an evening with Johnny. It was like an awkward first date. I found myself all giddy and shy around him a few times. It is nice to know he still gives me butterflies, but I really don't know what my problem was. I will blame pregnancy hormones. I will also blame the pregnancy hormones for my constant water works this week. It started when Johnny took me to the trailer park where we will be living until he is transferred to the next location. What can I say other than it is a camp ground. I guess it is different than what I was picturing in my head. I was at least thinking pavement, nope, this is dirt, just DIRT! It is embarrassing but I have added roll out grass to my shopping list. There is a really nice new playground and pool at the site surrounded by large grass areas, but all in all it is a camp ground. Ever since then I have been tearing up at random times for no reason at all. Mostly I think it is just because I am a little scared. Talking about living this way is different than actually doing it.

The next day, Wednesday, my little sister Diana and I took the boys to the LA Zoo.

The LA Zoo was better than I expected. At the Phoenix Zoo everything is bigger which means the animals are far away. They are probably happier in their large habitat but at the LA Zoo everything is smaller and the animals are so much closer. The Gorillas were right up next to the glass and the Giraffs could have sniffed my boys if they felt so inclined. They also have some cool animals that Phoenix doesn't, such as a Jaguar. I was having contractions about every 45 minutes at the Zoo, but they were nothing to worry about. It was just from all the walking.

Johnny made the drive to LA that night so I was spoiled and saw him twice this week. The boys LOVED playing with Johnny and petting my sister's chickens. Overall we are having a great time.

The next day due to Jaxon's fascination with dumping water I took a bad fall on my parent's purgo floor. While I was cleaning up the first water mess he emptied the entire gallon jug of water from the refrigerator on the kitchen floor. Jaxon and time out are becoming fast friends. My tail bone is sore but other than that the fall was not a big deal. That was until today when Daniel dove off a blow-up chair in the pool and kneed me on the lower portion of my sternum. Poor Wesley is having a rough week. I think my sternum is bruised.

Our new life...

Wow, so much is happening so fast and it is all because I am so darn indecisive. It has been busy but we have been having a ton of fun. We have been to the beach every week since we have been here. First it was Bolsa Chica in Huntington and then Manhattan Beach where my cousin has an apartment. My tan boys are getting very dark no matter how much sun block I use. We also swim in my parent's pool every day and I have finally convinced Daniel to get in with me without the Barbi life jacket. Progress! My mom told the boys not to pee in the pool or the jacuzzi so they have decided to pee just outside of it on the brick border. We are working on that!
This week I think we are going to skip the beach and go to Sea World. I want to take the boys before the new baby comes or I will not be up to taking them for quite some time. Nursing a baby at amusement parks is difficult. So, we will go before the baby comes.

We went to Johnny's mandatory lineman apprentice BBQ at an amazing park in Ontario, CA a week ago. The park was huge and we didn't know anyone so he asked me how I thought we could locate our group. I told him I assumed we needed to look for large trucks since most of these families live out of travel trailers and they would need something to pull it. At the very back of the park we found two HUGE rows of the "manliest" trucks you have ever seen and what seemed to me a scene from an Ultimate Fighting Championship. These guys are ripped! The have to be they climb power poles and steele towers for a living! Most have full sleeve tattoos and designer clothes. I was very self conscious but I found a really nice girl to talk to who has two kids and lives in a trailer. They have moved all over CA/NV for almost 4 years and she calmed a lot of my fears about what to expect from our proposed arrangements. At the end of the BBQ Johnny took the boys out on paddle boats at the lake. They loved the boats. Staying at my parent's home has been relaxing. I feel like I am on constant vacation. But, one major issue I have been having is that it is NOT baby proof in any way. This picture was after Jaxon pulled a discarded ink cartridge out of the garbage in the office. My mom has lost an expensive pair of reading glasses to Jaxon's quick hands and thanks to Daniel there is now a Dr. Pepper stain on the floor of my mom's walk in closet the size of a small country.
One of the big highlights from last week was that my baby sister Diana came home Monday the 14th. She has been living in Nepal and India (Southeast Asia for the people who are starring at the computer screen with a confused look on their face; think Himalayas) since last September. I missed her so! This is the first picture the three Percival girls have had together in a long time! She has lost a ton of weight, looks amazing, and talks funny!Finally, what the heck are we planning on doing? Are we living apart? Where am I having this baby? This is where my indecisiveness comes in. I found a doctor in Redlands to take me and I was planning on delivering at the Redlands Community Hospital. All was fine and dandy until I went to the first appointment and was not that impressed. Also by that time I had decided I am much too attached to Johnny to live apart from him until the middle of September after the baby is a few weeks old. He is working 6, 10 hour days which is great for over time pay but also means he would most likely not be here for the birth of little Wesley. I am not okay with that option. Daniel and Jaxon are having more extreme behavior issues (sweet Jaxon now calls everyone "Stupid head"; guess who taught him that one) and they really need daily contact with their daddy. So, I begged and pleaded with a doctor up there to take me and have found a hospital under 30 min away. Johnny located a trailer park that is very nice with a pool and two parks for the boys to play. Last weekend after the BBQ we bought a new 32 foot travel trailer that will work for our family and we pick it up this coming weekend. I have been frantically working on the loan, car and trailer registration, new DLs, changing addresses, etc. so that we will be ready to move to Palmdale by the first weekend in Aug. Until then I will make the 5 hour round trip drive to see my new doctor once a week. Now that I know I can't live without Johnny I am pushing for us to be together again ASAP. My sister in law Lydia lived without her husband Michael while he was in the Navy for 3-9 months at a time. I am a wimp I know. Call my crazy but I am nuts for Johnny and can't stand being apart every week. I cry before he even leaves again (darn pregnancy hormones). So that is the plan. Make all the trailer park jokes you want just don't sing that annoying M&M trailer park girls song; it has been going through my head for days.

Okay, good night. This post is becoming very long winded.

Swim Lessons

I didn't have a chance to post our swim lesson pictures earlier this summer but they were so much fun. Daniel is a little fish and Jaxon loved the water. He would much rather me NOT hold onto him which made the Mommy & Me class a little difficult, but I think they both learned a lot in the short 2 week session. At least they got a good start before being in my parent's pool almost every day. We are going to miss summer swim lessons at Taylor pool with Ella & Ashley and Janelle & Isaac.

Welcome to CA!

We left AZ Friday morning (a day earlier than planned). Despite the 7 potty breaks for Daniel we made good time and were able to unload the last of our things in the storage unit that night. We really appreciated all of the help we received loading and unloading. Thank you so much! We are mostly situated at my parent's house. Daniel is happy to have some of his toys and books back and we moved Jaxon into a twin bed. He is just barely 2 so I wanted to keep him in a crib but he was begging for a bed like Daniel's. We made the change part of the move and he is happy as can be. Despite being unable to locate one of my 3 bags of clothes everything turned out as expected.
The 4th of July we enjoyed being together as a family again, swimming at my parent's pool and taking much needed naps. The boys enjoyed glow necklaces and a CA snowball fight (pantyhose filled with flour) at the park. The boom of the fireworks scared Daniel at first but he settled down after a few minutes. Jaxon enjoyed moving from lap to lap. He wanted everyone to hold him.

It is strange to me that I planned for the 4th of July weekend move for so long that I kind of forgot to plan for anything after that. My mom and Johnny ganged up against me and want me to stay here in Hemet with the boys while Johnny works until after the baby comes. That means I only get Johnny on the weekend for at least 8 more weeks. Then I know I will not be up for moving to Palmdale right after the baby comes so I guess it will be more like 12 weeks. Ugh! I am really not liking this plan. I feel like they want me to just sit here and grow a baby for the next two months. That is totally not my style.

To avoid the feeling of being a baby oven I went with a good friend to Bolsa Chica beach yesterday. I LOVE the beach. Daniel and Jaxon loved it too. Daniel especially loved wearing his Barbi life vest and telling me the water was "juicy". We were cracking up. Jaxon loved the water once he got used to the idea, but still would not relax his death grip on my hands. As you can tell Jaxon also loved the sand: eating sand, rubbing it on his face, licking it. Yuck! He will eat anything!

We had so much fun! I also found out moms from my new ward go to Oceanside beach every Tuesday. We are all going to have amazing tans this summer.

Just an FYI: Johnny and I had to switch cell phones due to his coverage area. If you want to reach one of us keep that in mind.

Tehachapi/Palmdale, CA

Johnny will be in the Palmdale/Tehachapi area. We don't know the exact location yet. I have been through there before. While driving with my family up north I remember driving next to miles of railroad tracks and windmills. While it technically is in the desert it is in more of a pass and valley. I remember lots of wind but that might just have been in the area we were driving through. My grandmother lives in Santa Clarita about 50 miles away. It is about 3 hours from Hemet where I will be with living with my parents and the boys until after little Wesley comes. We also are moving forward buying our new home...a 30 foot travel trailer. I want to be with Johnny and it seems that is the easiest way. Until then he will be working during the week and with me on the weekends.

Does it snow when it drops to around 30 degrees? I am looking forward to an average temperature below 100 degrees in the summer but I have not yet wrapped my mind around the idea of snow in the winter. I have never in my life lived in snow and I wouldn't mind keeping it that way!

Assignment #1

Tehachapi, CA. Middle of the Mohave Desert. 200 foot towers. Linemen working from helicopters. Huge power project in the works. Count us in.