Bummer. Big big bummer.

This is so good.

Since my stint at Teachers College and being a reading specialist working with upper elementary/middle school students, I love love love reading "young adult" literature. It's quick (I can usually get through a book in an afternoon), engaging (hey, it's written for 12 or 13 year-olds!), and I really love stumbling on something that my students will love to read as well.

Laurie Halse Anderson is one of my favorite young adult authors. She's gotten a ton of book awards for her books "Speak" and "Fever 1793" and I've used her books to teach reading because students love her as much as I do. So, imagine my excitement when I found her newest historical fiction novel at the SF Public Library last week!

I didn't get around to reading it until yesterday and I just finished it. And it's so good. Like, make you want to not have conversations with your husband because you're reading kind of good. Make you want to cry kind of good.

The big bummer is the end of the book. The story is unfinished; it stops right at the climax of the plot! I have to wait for the next volume to find out what happens to Isabel and Curzon. Which is just a big big bummer.

Our new apartment (part 2)

So here's the next installment of our new apartment. Jonas's bedroom is actually a really large closet that we're using as his room. The bathroom doesn't have great lighting and isn't super interesting, but I included it in our tour anyway. Our walls in the hallway are white (not yellow, like they appear in the video) but the bathroom is yellow. 

(The very beginning of the video shows Jonas on a typical morning, standing and trying to jump on our bed, though he quickly sits down when Jeff tells him to. :) )

Our new apartment (Part 1)

So here's a bit of our new apartment. In the video, you'll first see our kitchen (still needing curtains and things on the walls), then our bedroom, then our toy-cluttered living/dining room (also still needing things on the walls, especially over our dining table.) Fun things about our house to note: we have lots of windows, our kitchen has a breakfast nook area, our bedroom walls are lovely in gray and we were able to fit a study/work area for Jeff and a sewing table for me, and our mid-century dining table and chairs were a lucky find from a junk store in Ventura (table + 6 chairs for $60!)

Up next: Jonas's room, bathroom and fun little corners of our home...

Our Neighborhood

There are many perks to our new neighborhood. Good Chinese food. Great neighbors (the Kurths live a block away!). Lots of quiet.

One of my favorite things about our new neighborhood is the Land's End Trail. We're just a few blocks from one end of it. It is 1.5 miles of natural beauty right in our own backyard.



Some of the best views of the Golden Gate are to be had from there.



Finally, a decent reason to get some exercise.

We're here.

So much in the past month... 

A quick update:

-We LOVE our new apartment in San Francisco! Apartment-in-progress tour coming soon...

-I got a job! Praise the Lord! I'll be working four hours a day (half-time = half salary = yes~!) at a school in San Mateo as a reading specialist. :)

-Jonas really likes blueberries (seen eating the freeze-dried kind above). So much so, that if we encounter things that he doesn't want to eat, I can stick blueberries on the spoon and trick him to eat pretty much anything.

-It's July and today the high in San Francisco will be 61 degrees. 

-Adjusting to life in the city... still trying to find the best places for groceries (especially looking for a place to buy grains in bulk and a good Korean market) but so far have found an awesome pizza place nearby, a good Chinese place for lunch specials that's one block from us, and a cozy little cafe (down the street!) for free internet, good coffee and some time away. 

Updates with pictures of our new place and of Bonus Jonas coming soon (just for you JoJo!)