Update (05/26/2009): I cannot believe I didn't mention a thing about our 'lovely' move in this post or anywhere on the blog for that reason. Just so we can look back years later and still remember and laugh about it I will write about it. So when we found out that we actually got the apartment (we were at the DMV at the time getting CA registration for our recently stolen and recovered Honda) we were surprised and excited as there were at least 5 more canditates at the showing. We scheduled an appointment with the leasing company to sign all the papers on about July 29th in Santa Monica. After we were handed the keys we decided to stop by our newly acquired apartment one last time as this was going to be our home and so we did. We came there with Andre, looked at our empty rooms, talked about the placement of the furniture, etc - in all that took us about half an hour and we were ready to head back to Claremont to start the packing process so we could move over the coming weekend. As we got in our car, we headed east on Charnock Rd, which took us to Overland Ave, which in it's turn took us to the I-10. Well, as we were pulling up to the before mentioned T-intersection of Charnock and Overland, our car made a loud click and would not move. As stress started to settle in, we lifted our eyes and where the Charnock road would continue, were it not a T intersection there was a car shop - all Jeff had to do is run across the street and ask a mechanic to help him push the car into the shop. Luckily we were only 8 blocks or so away from our apartment, so as we left our lifeless Honda at the shop we headed back to our empty apartment to wait for mechanics diagnosis. I decided to get on the phone and connect all the services as there was nothing of much else to do as Andre and Jeff were just playing in our empty walls. About an hour later the mechanic called and said that it was most likely the transmission and that there was no way he would be able to do anything about it that day. Once again, luckily, right next door to the mechanic's shop was a Rent4Less car rental place. We pulled Andre's carseat out of our car and went next door to rent a car do get home to Claremont. As we were about to rent some sort of sedan, my eyes fell onto a poster with moving trucks. We asked the guy if we had some and he sure did, so we went ahead and rented a truck for 24hours. That meant we had just 24-hours to drive back to Claremont, pack up our completely unpacked apartment, load the truck, drive back to LA and unload the truck. I don't think it was super safe to put Andre in the cab of the truck and we were hoping we wouldn't get pulled over on the way back, we made it to Claremont safe and sound. Thanks to our great friends, Carrie Sharp was able to take Andre that night and the following day, so we could focus on packing. Jean and Stu McDonald came over and stayed past midnight helping us box up and clean up our apartment, they also took us on the 'box runs' behind various stores in their recycling dumpsters and also brought us a Round Table pizza. In the morning a couple of our friends came again to help us- Jean and Stu once again came to help pack and box up- needless to say we were not able to do it all in one night and Dan Sharp and Jay Robinson helped us load up the truck. The truck was completely full. Luckily we didn't have to move out until Aug 1st and so we left a few things behind. Jeff and I drove the truck to LA, were able to unload in in about an hour - just him and I, and return the truck before it was due. We managed to set up all the necessary furniture and then drove back to get Andre. This quick move wouldn't have been possible without our great friends. The mechanic called us later and informed that the problem was a little cheaper than $3000 transmission, that our axle broke and he was able to fix it, and it cost us about $800. That weekend Jeff's Dad had a conference in San Diego, so one day his parents were able to drive up to Claremont, we took the stuff that wouldn't fit previously into the truck into our Honda and their rental car and the move was OVER. Whew!
As you all know we move to Los Angeles a little over a month ago (August 1st). We are in the western most part of LA, in the neighborhood called "Palms". We are liking the weather here much better - it is about 15 degrees cooler here.
Our apartment is 2 bedroom and is twice as big as our old apartment in Claremont. We have a large living room, where Andre can play rather than sqeezing his way through to get to things.
Our living room - we have hardwood floors throughout
Living and dining rooms
This is our new dinette set. A lady in our ward gave it to us for free. Needless to say that it is much nicer than what we had before
Our little kitchen, but at least the appliances are full size (unlike the old apartment)
Our bedroom
Tiny bathroom
Andre's bedroom and my craft room (you can see our old dining table and chairs)
Looking at the pigeons
One of the rare time that Andre is actually playing with his own toys
Notice how the bucket was half full on the previous picture, well he dumped it out on his head. It's a regular practice for him :)
Sand... Who can I throw it at?
Filling up the bucket (notice the sand in his hair)
Enough of playing with my toys, on to better things
Playing with some older kids
Before Church. We dressed Andre in a warmer outfit as it got a bit chilly. He thought the hat was the funniest thing, and couldn't stop grinning while looking at himself in the mirror.
Daddy and Andre - aren't they a handsome bunch? 
Andre's favorite thing to do - push, though he prefers strollers, he is quite good at pushing other stuff: shopping carts in the stores, chairs, people... well, pretty much anything :)
