natalie maed

What a beautiful city, oh, how we love SF!

Cruisin' down the highway on our way to Santa Cruz,some fun and games..

before we knew it we arrived.

House number one,

cute, pretty nice yard space, yet it just didn't feel big enough.

House number 2..

definitely bigger, but...

lack of yard space, and a bit on the darker side(lots of close trees)& very close neighbors.

:::Sigh::::

...so the search continues, and we're off to deliver resumes to any and everyone in town.

Little did we know the drama that was in store for us later in the day.

We're doing pretty well passing out the res. as we now call them ;) crossing the various lucky businesses off our list, and we actually only had a few left to deliver when...

the car starts making a strange noise, yes people, four kids and a small dog, and car trouble.

So what are we to do?

We drive for a bit and decide that we should pull over and access the situation further. As opposed to just continuing on as if everything is fine, can you guess which idea was mine? Anyhow, a little prayer and let's just drive a bit further,and who would have guessed it but there is a park on the very next block, and what? an available parking space so we parked and played, yes, a very much deserved and needed temporary escape from our current reality. But, no dogs, so little Yarno and I did laps and Daddy led the little ones through their

super exciting new park adventure.20 minutes give or take and it's back to the car, and to what to do next.

Call dealership service dept., no help, but here is a close service station, drive there on pins and needles with fingers crossed, oh, they only service Japanese cars. So now onto the third stop, previous shop called ahead, they are closing but will wait to see us, Thank You!

So we pull up and by now our car is knocking, and smelling strange, I'm thinking okay this is all happening for a good reason, this is just what we need to experience right now, breathe.

First guy comes out takes a look,or listen,(Yarno stop barking this guy is here to help)

Could be this, or that,no you shouldn't drive it, let's call for a rental car($$),...stay overnight.($$$$), I'm hearing the cash register, and the kids are in heaven, a hotel, YAY!

So, after a few calls no one has a 6 passenger car, then the most amazing thing happened,

Others may only know him as Jeremy, but to me and my family he is our hero. On his way home for the day, taking a last minute phone call, he overheard our plight and offered to take a look.

Well don't you know that he fixed our car in a matter of minutes and TOTALLY saved the day!

Now we were of sound vehicle, but what to do about a car full of heart set on a hotel kids?

Not to mention the remaining res. recipients on the list, what if one of them could be THE one?

Oh the pressure, stay or go...so being as indecisive a couple that we are we let the cost of the hotel room and the available work for the next day decide.

The work could be picked up on the following day, so all that was left was the hotel,by this time we had pretty much been warn down by the roar of tired children that spent way to much time in a car, so any price seemed reasonable(well almost)

The hotel that we have a members card with had just opened up a new hotel, and we were the lucky guests to stay the first night! What fun, on a rather strange side note; the woman at the front desk just happened to be the granddaughter of our neighbor a few doors down! The world feels so small sometimes.

With no fresh clothes and trying to save as much money as possible, while I bathed the kids in the tub I just threw in their undies with them and they had the best time "playing" wash the clothes. Let me tell you, that brand new hair dryer had everything dry and toasty in no time, and a good thing too I was beat!

DAY 2

Started out normal(familiar theme?)

Deliver remaining res., get lunch, pretty normal walk on the dog friendly beach, until we spot a woman with a bird she has rescued from being pummeled by waves in the rocks.

So we call wildlife rescue, they are of course closed. Let's just set it down by the rocks, everyone is leaving, but we just can't leave it there, with the night approaching, the dogs all around, and with it just looking so tired and hopeless (a bit like us I must admit) We stood there unsure of what we could do, I watched twice as people just stepped right over the spot where it lay and thought if we don't help this bird I don't know that anyone else will. Then it hit me there must be a 24 hr vet or animal hospital, maybe they could look after the bird til the morning when the other office opens. After calling wildlife again we get the address and number for a wild bird rescue a few blocks away,HooRaY!

Wonderful bird rescuing woman, helps get the frightened bird into a reusable grocery tote and we're off!

Long story short, bird was safely rescued,and we arrived home safely.

No word yet on the job front but we return again to look at more possible homes, fingers crossed!