Happy Birthday Toby!!

Our "big" guy turned 6 today! I will post a current picture of the birthday boy later when we celebrate but wanted to share the news. His grandparents flew in the the event (and to help us move) so we are celebrating big tonight. Rumor has it grandma is making a cake...

Moving to Houston...

...road that is!

Sorry that was a very cruel joke to some of you.

Our new address is:

The Spruiells
1595 Huston Rd. (pronouced "Houston")
Lafayette, CA 94549

I don't know if this is the official pronunciation of our new road but it will be for all Spruiell household members, family, and friends. I made Mike promise he would pronouce it this way (versus like the "Hudson" river). After a lot of 'my wife is crazy' talk and 'i'm not pronouncing it that way' he actually DID on the phone to the Comcast guy...I heard him! Good boy....

My dad is also excited b/c Lafeyette is one of our favorite towns in Louisiana that we pass through just before we get to Baton Rouge (cue Garth Brooks) so he's pretending he's back home (aka "God's country") every time he visits me as well. Sorry Papa, no swamps in California. But I can probably find ya some fried food, alcohol, and people with crazy accents....but no good football teams. Geaux Tigers.

BOO!

Don't be scared!!! In case you cannot tell, that's Sandy under there showing off her Halloween costume (and her mom's first effort at making anything remotely to clothes). At one point I told Mike that I needed a sewing machine. I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. I almost had to call my good friend Jen in New York for some tailoring advice...she's a successful student in fashion school and made Jerry's favorite dog bed (amongst many clothes, purses, and Rosemont quilts).

As you can tell, I'm getting a LOT done during our move. Who says a move should ruin the holiday spirit?? Not me!

As for Jerry, well, Mike said he would worry about Jerry's costume so I'll keep you posted... (I bought another white sheet just in case.)

And no one is getting a costume on Toby. Do you think we are crazy?

What would we do without Toby?

Moving is going well. We are making good progress and actually rented a U-Haul yesterday to move some of our things over by ourselves in an effort to save some money on the actual movers we hired to come next weekend.

Toby is working hard too.

Off to pack some more....

Meet Miles!

This is Miles.

Don't worry, contrary to what you may believe, I did not adopt another dog for us.

Miles is a dog we rescued and reunited with its very relieved owner just a few doors down. Until we could locate who his owner was, we let him hang out with us for a bit. He was so big he made Sandy look tiny!

Made me realize that maybe we COULD handle three dogs....

Race for Grace!

It was our turn to race in memory of my grandmother Grace. Mike and I participated in Race for the Cure a few weeks ago in San Francisco and had a great time. We ran with Team Chevron!

We're selling out...

....and moving to the 'burbs!

Lafayette to be specific. It isn't San Francisco but it'll do.



Lafayette is just past Oakland through the Caldecott tunnel in the East Bay. I mention the Caldecott tunnel b/c that is pretty much where the temperature drops by at least 10 degrees from one side to another. San Francisco tends to remain around 65 degrees (give or take) all year round, while the East Bay is much warmer during the summer and much colder during the winter. That will present more of a challenge for me who will live in one and work in the other...hence why layering clothes is so important in the bay area. It's all about the micro climates out here!



The good news is that we were able to find a place to rent in or around the area that we are hoping to buy in next year. The dogs will have a really big yard to run around and I've got a pizza place just down the street! Plus many of our close friends live out there so we'll be able to see and hang with them more! And to be fair, even though I feel like we are moving to the suburbs, my total commute time will only increase by about 10 minutes while Mike's will decrease by about 45 minutes...so all in all, a good decision.



The downside, we lose our view. For those of you who didn't visit us when we lived in the city, here's what you missed...



View from our balcony (straight ahead) of Downtown San Francisco, the Bay Bridge (and bay water), The Mission District, and Noe Valley:





View from our balcony (to the right) of Giants Stadium, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, South Bay, Noe Valley, and The Mission District:




View from our balcony (to the left) of Noe Valley and Diamond Heights:




You cannot beat these views! We spent many mornings and evenings just staring out our windows. Sometimes I'd play games with myself and pick out all the pink houses, or yellow houses, or blue houses...or sometimes I'd try to focus on the trees or the streets or the fog rolling in and taking over the city. There's nothing like the fog that rolls over the city by the bay. On July 4th or January 1st (or when the Giants win) we could watch firework shows from our balcony. And this weekend when the blue angels were in town, we didn't have to fight traffic to the marina area for the show, we just sat on some chairs on our balcony!


I will truly miss living in San Francisco. Who knows...maybe we'll find ourselves back in the city at some point. A girl can dream right?

D-Day: October 25th.

Tea for three?

There's this great place called Lovejoy's Tea Room down in Noe Valley that is walkable from my place that I had been dying to try out! It is a quaint place that has a very home-y feel to it with mismatching table cloths and cute china that makes for a perfect tea party. Naturally, Lesley, Marisa, and I had to check it out. They bring you sandwhiches cut into triangles, salad, scones, and sugar cookies to compliment your tea...and it all comes out on this tri-level platform thing in the center of your table. and to top it all off you get tiny plates and forks to enjoy it! And did I mention the bottomless pot of tea??

Obviously you can tell nothing from this photo other than we drank tea. We have empty plates and our food is no where to be seen. Probably because we basically inhaled our food...it was that good! We promise to take more pictures the next time so you can get a real idea of this place...it was so cute!!! You'll have to take our word on that...or just look at our smiling faces.

I promised you pictures...

Well you are getting one (until Erin sends me more)...

This will make your heart melt!!

Remember Tyler Jackson? Well, he's a whopping 5 weeks and 4 days old today...clearly he has enough experience in the world to know he is the cutest baby ever! If only he could speak...what would he say?? Maybe something about how his brother Herbie is his new best friend or how he's got the best mommy and daddy in the world!