This is the Life

Pictures: Gabbi and Reuben with Disney Channel star Bradley Perry; Angela, Kim, Gabbi and Reuben; Mandy, Kerry, Cam and I having fun in Mexico; Lyle and Reuben splashing around; the Golden Gate on a foggy day; chillin' with the in-laws; three Shapansky boys.

It's been a while since I've blogged but here's what we've been up to since I last wrote:

• Cam and I enjoyed 5 days in Mexico with Kerry and Mandy at their new condo while our kids enjoyed staying here with Kim and Angela Penner



• We also got to spend several days with Kim and Angela when we got back



• Gabbi and Reuben finished school on June 10. They both passed!



• We loved having Lyle and Wenda (Papa and Nana) with us for 10 days. It was nice to relax around the pool and enjoy good family time



• We went home to Ontario for 9 days. It was a busy time of work, seeing as many people as we could, getting our visas renewed (sorry, yes, they renewed them), and returning in time for the 4th of July



• The kids spotted 'Gabe' from Good Luck Charlie (http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/goodluckcharlie/) at the Toronto airport (see photo above)
  


• Davis pulled off a very impressive 4th of July fireworks show



• We leave for 2 weeks' holidays to So Cal with some friends from Sweden

Here's a list of the top 10 things we enjoy doing in and around Davis (not in any particular order)

1. Going to market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings (http://www.davisfarmersmarket.org/)


2. Biking everywhere: school, doctor, grocery store, church, soccer games, swimming lessons, piano lessons (http://californiabicyclemuseum.org/)


3. Wine tours to Napa Valley (http://napavalley.com/wineries/)


4. Wine tours to Amador County (http://www.amadorwine.com/new/pages/home.cgi)


5. Swimming in our backyard pool


6. Shopping at Target (my fellow Target lovers get it and support me on this one)


7. Visiting San Francisco. We've been there over a dozen times now and it's always something different. There's still lots more to explore (http://www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com/)


8. Hiking at the Headlands in Marin County, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge(http://www.inetours.com/Bay_Area/Marin/Marin_Headlands.html)


9. Enjoying a good burger at In 'n Out Burger (http://www.in-n-out.com/menu.asp) and eating frozen yogurt at Cultive (http://daviswiki.org/Cultivé_Frozen_Yogurt)


10. Dining out at some of Sacramento's coolest restaurants

It's not that bad. We're handling it. It could be worse.

Too busy to blog

Life's been busy of late.

We had a great visit with the Dale Cressman, Brenda Martin, and Hannah family and a little after that another great visit with the Dennis Flaming, Jana Papke and Devan family. In both cases we took one day off during the week and spent evenings and weekends with them, leaving them to do day trips and exploring the area on their own the other days.

This weekend, well let me tell you, it's a litle crazy. Friday night, after soccer, Gabbi and Reuben prepared us a great dinner and Cam and I exchanged birthday gifts. Saturdy we went to the Bay area to have lunch at the home of fellow Blue Norther Mat Thomas and his wife Jayana and their kids Asher and Julia. After lunch we explored the Berkeley Hills with them seeing great views of San Francisco across the Bay. Saturday evening we were supposed to go to other friends for dinner but it fell through. Sunday Reuben is off to a UC Davis baseball game with his best friend in the neighbourhood along with Cam and Rick, their adult chaperones. Later in the afternoon we're having another family over for dinner. Man, it's a busy weekend but strangely it's starting to feel more normal.

Lacking the time to do a full-fledged blog I'll throw out a few other events and details:

• I ran the American River Half Marathon last weekend, suffered through a leg injury and dehydration in unexpected heat but still beat my personal best time by over 2 minutes and finished in the top 10 percent of runners in my category - go me!!


• We know we're settling in to Davis when going somewhere rather than saying 'let's take our bikes it'll be fun' we say 'why would we take our car?' The car tends to sit in the driveway almost all week.


• We are looking forward to 4 days in Mexico with Kerry and Mandy next week. The kids are looking forward to Kim and Angela Penner coming from Ontario to look after them while we're away.


• The Amgen Tour of California rolls through Davis while we are away next week. Lance Armstrong, team Radio Shack and all the other big boys will whiz by about 750 meters from our house - very exciting.


• Gabbi is singing a duet at the Spring concert at school on Monday night, we're looking forward to that performance.


• All of our visitors are causing us to discover great new day trips. Before we leave we'll write a book 101 great day trips from Davis CA.


• Thanks to some new solar heating panels, our pool is warming up nicely and the kids have already been swimming a lot.

Gotta go, got too many friends around here to be spending any more time at this. We just got invited to a neighbour's for dinner on Tuesday night too. I gotta get someone to help us manage our social calendar. :)

It's a cool, rainy spring in Nor Cal

Unlike the balmy weather we would be experiencing in Ontario, we're getting our fill of rain, wind and cooler temperatures. With each session of rainy days, people say, oh this is likely the last rain we'll get. Then it rains again. However, we know that it will soon warm up and before long we'll be so stinkin' hot we'll be reminiscing fondly of the cool, rainy days.

Fortunately when my brother Bruce, his wife Diane and their boys Craig and Evan visited during March break, we had a week of perfect weather. Maybe they brought it with them. Diane and Evan enjoyed some golf, we did a wine tour to Amador county, played lots of cards and we all participated in a family recital which included 6 piano solos and an air guitar solo by Cam.

I do have to say though that Spring around here is beautiful. The nut trees, fruit trees and other flowering trees and bushes have really brightened up the scenery. Spring flowers have been blooming since February.

We have just come through Spring Break. It wasn't a huge party like the images that get conjured up in my Canadian mind whenever I hear 'spring break' (too many bad movies, I guess) but instead a chance to do some exploring of things we hadn't yet done in 7 months. We went to the Sacramento Zoo - a small and quaint zoo, Explorit - a hands-on science discovery facility for kids here in Davis, and the Davis library of which Gabbi and Reuben are now official card holders. Cam got regular updates as he wasn't able to join us on any outings. He was in Ontario in the rain and returned in time for the next rainfall here.

We continue to enjoy the fresh produce here and just discovered white beets the other day. They're just as sweet and delicious as the red, pink and yellow ones. The sad news is the oranges are almost finished. That was a great winter treat. But, we're already into strawberries. Never a dull moment on the eating front.

We have some friends and family arriving in May, a short getaway to Mexico for Cam and me, some summer vacation in So Cal in July and swimming as the pool hopefully starts to heat up, pending that warmer weather.

Oh, and on the friend front, we do have a new spider that's living on our dining room and kitchen ceiling. The other day when the kids asked why we don't kill it, I said it's like a new friend. But unlike friends, if it gets too close I may have to smack it.

Pictures: Our hotel room Christmas tree, San Diego Zoo, Monster Jam, Go Canada!

Go Canada

Watching the Winter Olympics in California is a completely different experience from watching them in Canada.

• First, I'm sure many people are curious as to why we have a big Canadian flag hanging from our orange tree. There are a lot of Americans who don't watch the Olympics at all. That's hard to believe especially for those of us whose lives stop when the Olympics are on. (Kidding Brent, we're still working.)
• Second, Canadian coverage is blocked in the US and NBC coverage has been disappointing. Vancouver is in the same time zone as California yet for some reason they delay the coverage by three hours. That makes for very late nights if we want to actually see who won the medals.
• Third, American media broadly announced how Canada was confident they would 'own the podium' and even used this to motivate their own athletes. And now our Canadian Olympians aren't doing as well as they cockily said they would and we feel like the few Americans who are watching the Olympics are looking at us and snickering behind our backs.

Even though the Canadians aren't doing well, we remain proud of our athletes and the Vancouver games. We loved the opening ceremonies. I love how Cam summed up the Canadian vs American athlete so well: "When an American underdog is in a race you know they'll find a way to win. When a Canadian favourite is in a race you know they'll find a way to lose." Keep going Canada, we're behind you all the way. At least we're better at laughing at our shortcomings than boasting about our victories.

So, friends... we just told someone recently that we don't have a social life but we do have TV and on that TV is HBO. Thank goodness for that. But seriously, we have had two families over for dinner (that's right, 2 in 5 months) and yes, I'd call them our friends. One family might be more "our neighbours" and the other family might be more "our French tutor" but we're going to call them our friends.

I have made one truly close friend. In fact she's become an extension of my body. Yes in fact Sally is nearly the most important thing in my life right now. Sally is my blackberry. It's amazing how Cam and I used to put our blackberries away in the evening and enjoy family time. Now in our world without a lot of social interaction we both set our 'friends' beside us in the evening and watch for the green light to turn red, telling us we have a message from a real live person. They no longer feel like an intrusion, they feel more like a lifeline or connection to a variety of friends back home. All that is to say - keep sending messages.

Aside from the Olympics, here's a quick list of what's been going on:

• When we drove to LA and San Diego over the Christmas holidays, our original plan was to go to Disney on Christmas Day. Cam said there would be no one there. We checked online only to find it's the busiest day of the year. So instead we went Christmas Eve Day and there were no crowds. The weather was perfect. It was great.
• I enjoyed a get away to San Antonio, Texas with my friend Marianne Hiff.
• Gabbi and Reuben are progressing nicely with French and piano.
• Reuben still loves biking, doing jumps on the driveway, tearing around the BMX track and accompanying Cam on long runs.
• Really, the short winter here has been a little unpleasant. We went six weeks in January and February without seeing the sun, no day above 55 degrees and got 13 inches of rain. Last week felt like a glimpse of spring with 70 degree weather and sunshine. Now we're back to rain and cooler weather for a couple more weeks.
• We became rednecks for a day as we attended a Monster Jam truck show in Sacramento.
• All is quiet on the rat front! (Gnaw on wood.)
• It's been a quiet three months on our own and we're looking forward to visitors coming in March and April.

Christmas Greetings

Pictures: hiking with Tim and Joyce, hiking in Muir Woods-a redwood forest, Rusty the Rat Tracker showing the kids the rats' injuries, Rusty and Cam proudly displaying the catch of the day, birthday time.

We've been in California now for 4 months and we've seen lots of changes - especially in the weather. It's gone from really hot to really quite cool. For those of you who still think we're in shorts, sandals and sitting on the beach, those days are long gone and there's never been a beach nearby. It's now long pants, long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, sometimes coats and gloves and occasionally hats. Two weeks ago it was the coldest it's been in 35 years. That said, for those of you who think I'm complaining, bike rides and runs on a 12-degree day in the middle of December aren't all that bad.

We live in the Central Valley of California. It's a strip of prime agricultural land that is as flat as a pool table and runs down through California between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Coastal mountains. On a clear day on the edge of town you can see both ranges. In the winter the Sierra Nevadas, which are up to 9,000 or so feet, get a lot of snow. So as a result, while we sit in relatively comfortable winter temperatures there is great skiing within two hours. Right now there's a seven-foot base of snow two hours away.

We thoroughly enjoyed our long weekend with Tim Snider and Joyce Richardson. We did a great hike atop cliffs overlooking the ocean just outside of San Francisco. They got to spend a day of x-country skiing near Lake Tahoe. A number of our neighbours are avid skiers and ski every single weekend throughout the winter. We didn't bring our gear but hope to get out with the kids at least once this winter.

Cam ran the California International Marathon the beginning of December. We're thrilled to say that he achieved his goal: to break four hours. He did so with a whopping 9 seconds to spare. As I was getting updates on his time I thought that something had gone wrong (for those of you who understand such things I was getting clock time, not chip time reports) but then the kids and I saw him about a quarter mile from the finish line and I knew at that point that he was going to do it. He felt great, albeit really sore, and thoroughly enjoyed the well-organized run. He has since been nursing his black toes.

So, yes, the rats. I'm happy to report that five of them have left the premises, thanks to Rusty the Rat Tracker. After our first rat man shrugged his shoulders and gave up, and we thought we were now dealing with squirrels, we contacted the city and they told us if we have a really bad problem we needed to call Rusty. Rusty is a bit of a local rodent-catching legend. He seems to have a bit of a pied piper effect on rats. We had sleepless nights listening to the scampering, gnawing, furniture moving above our heads and in the walls, and then the odd bang and squeal as a rat got too close to the bait box. Believe it or not as Rusty removes the day's catch and shows us what he's got we've actually come to the point of seeing them as cute little DEAD things. Fingers crossed, we're sleeping like babes again.

Reuben had his sixth birthday a couple weeks ago. Lyle and Wenda joined us for a skype dinner and they even had candles in their dessert. We had a joint birthday party for Gabbi and Reuben a week later and invited a few of their friends from school (yah, they have friends, but we still don't). For the first time since we've been here, we had neighbours over for some wine and cheese, which was fun. We've also got a great French tutor for the kids. Elisabeth is from France, her husband is from Portland, Oregon and they have three children - the oldest of which is in Reuben's class at school. We don't want to speak too soon but we're thinking of inviting their family for dinner when they get back from France and then we may actually be able to say we had some 'friends' over.

We're trying to get into the Christmas spirit but it's not coming easily. We have a Christmas tree made out of construction paper - it was created for the pin-the-star-on-the-tree game at the birthday party. I have to say it has been nice receiving so many packages at the door and lots of cards from home. We're planning a road trip over Christmas to Disney and the San Diego Zoo. Apparently it's the busiest time of year so we're not too impressed about the lineups we'll have to face.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday and wish we could be there with you to celebrate in some small way.

Other tidbits of info:

• Gabbi got her hair cut off - Cam now calls her "Bob"
• We're finally close to hiring another employee here in California - this will relieve Cam of much stress
• Reuben spent a frustrating, tearful evening learning to tie shoelaces so that we could go back to a 4th store to finally buy him shoes he liked. He's still a very 'determined' child
• We're still enjoying our bikes
• We love the weekly trip to the farmer's market and all the local fresh and exotic produce
• While I am feeling somewhat disappointed by the lack of fashion sense in this little granola town, Cam is feeling newly liberated and actually leaving the house in sweats and Crocs. . .

It's been a while since I've posted something and on the eve of American Thanksgiving I thought it would be appropriate to say what we've been thankful for since moving here.

• We had a good time with Jay (Cam's sister )and Gail Black a Blue Norther in October. We picked them up in San Francisco after seeing our friend Robin Kalbfleisch finish the San Francisco marathon. How exciting was that!


• We have heat in our house and electric mattress covers that nicely warm the beds before we get in. The temperature has really cooled off and being here reminds us of our time in Egypt where it was warm outside during the day but cold inside and freezing at night. It's not as chilling but there are similarities.


• We continue to do lots of biking around Davis. Reuben is now biking with no hands just like a lot of the university students do. We're thankful he's not talking on a cell phone at the same time. He's recently discovered a BMX park nearby and gets his thrills for speed, bumps and jumps there.


• My dad spent three weeks with us and was a most accommodating and easy-going house guest. We even got him on a bike as he was up for everything and anything. He really enjoyed being here and being around family and it was a very special time for our family to be with him.


• Our friends Tim and Joyce are coming to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us. This is good because Thanksgiving is a REALLY big deal here and it feels good to report that we have plans!


• We're heading into orange season. The market now sells mandarins. The orange tree on our front lawn keeps turning brighter and we've enjoyed some of the early crop.


• Gabbi and Reuben seem to be doing well in a fairly competitive school system. They recently got their report cards and we had parent-teacher conferences where both teachers thought they were doing just fine. Whew.


• We have finally gotten ourselves set up and going with French tutoring. We had a late start and then had to switch tutors but we're in a routine now and hopefully Gabbi and Reuben will be able to keep up with the French immersion when they return to Canada.


• We're getting better sleeps at night as the wildlife seems to have changed a bit. No longer do the rats wake us up. We think they've moved on to a better life. Instead, it's squirrels that are playing with their nuts early in the morning. So is Cam, but that's not quite as noisy.


• We live in a really safe community. We often don't lock the house when we're out for a short stint. We see lots of runners at night with barely any reflective or lit gear on them. We've changed from shaking our heads at these crazy people to admiring how safe the traffic is around here.


• Cam is down to the last 10 days before his marathon. I was able to be his camel for two of his long 32k runs. We look forward to seeing him cross the finish line in downtown Sacramento on December 6.


• We have a family doctor here and we think we have medical insurance. That's something we're still working on (several hours a day for the past three months - Cam has said if he hears anyone else criticize the Canadian system he's going to send them to the hospital). After this experience, I don't think we'll ever take the Canadian system for granted again. The US is a mess in this department.


• We love the palm trees, nice warm late fall and early winter days, short drives to great local destinations - Napa, Tahoe, San Francisco to mention a few.

Yes we've had our struggles, but please don't feel too sorry for us here in paradise. We're thankful .

Oh Rats!

Pictures top to bottom: Celebrating after my duathlon with "celebration salad"; Big Sur on route to Santa Barbara; Marianne and Brian Hiff on their Davis rented bikes; Marianne and I shopping in San Fran (thank goodness for husbands' Blackberries); Cam and Brian; Marianne and I; Outdoor dining in Davis; Marianne performing our new bedroom mirror trick.

We have been introduced to a new kind of rodent that we're not so familiar with in Canada. Cam and I kept hearing sounds in our bedroom wall during the night and throughout the morning. We have very active squirrels around our house so we figured we had a squirrel getting in between the walls. I quickly resorted to the yellow pages for rodent control only to find many companies that deal with rats - roof rats, wood rats and the likes. I also discovered that many companies have bi-monthly plans (that's every other month in this case. If you're into grammar like I am, you know that bi-monthly can mean every other month or twice a month.) So we had the "Rat Tracker" come and play sleuth around our house. At the end of his inspection he looked at us and said, "Yup, you've got a rat problem." As a result we're now on the bi-monthly rodent control plan. Cam has been amazed how calm I am about it. My response is: they are extremely common, they should be gone in a week or two and I can't see them. He's not as calm about it. His response is: how do I sleep when I have rats in the wall 18 inches from my head? I do admit it's quite disgusting. We've been warned that because they're being baited they get thirsty and we may find some in our pool.

Thankfully we had vacation time scheduled and are currently enjoying some time in Santa Barbara. We're at the same place that we were at one year ago and it feels wonderful to be back here. The weather has been cooler but that is ok with us. Our day usually starts with homework for the kids. They are on independent study plans while we're on vacation otherwise the school loses funding due to their absence. We brought our bikes and have enjoyed biking along the ocean front. I took part in the Santa Barbara Duathlon which involved flat running and very hilly cycling. It was a small race of about 100 people so I didn't win any great prizes but it felt great to finish and to do better than I expected. Cam planned a celebration meal for me after the race. My choice of a meal was salad, so he made this amazing "Californian Salad". We dubbed it the "Celebration Salad". It had avocadoes, crab, fresh dill, peas and other items in it. Let me know if you'd like the recipe and I'll send it to you. We bought the crab off a boat down at the harbour. We're enjoying wonderful fish and all the fresh organic fruits and vegetables that are grown in this area. There are eight markets Tuesdays to Sundays in the Santa Barbara area that we can go to.

We had a great time with Brian and Marianne Hiff a couple weeks ago and were sad to see them go. We kept a fairly rigorous schedule including several scheduled workouts of cycling, running and listening to rats run the wall. It was great to have my workout partner back with me for a few days.

Our medical insurance seems to be finally resolved but our fingers are still crossed. I got wonderful responses from our family doctors at home when they suggested that I could fax them the required insurance forms and the doctors would fill them out - they do that all the time. I faxed the forms and then naively assumed the forms were being filled out until I called 2 weeks later to find out they were just sitting on the doctors' desks and they would be done when the doctors had time. After that I called everyday, sometimes a couple times a day, only to get the response, "As an employee I can only let the doctor know that you've called AGAIN." For the most part we are thrilled with our Canadian medical system but this was one area where we became so frustrated and disappointed. In a panic our forms were picked up at our docs' offices and couriered to the insurance company in California only for us to find out by email that we missed the deadline and our applicaton was now on hold. But now, it seems that they got the necessary info and we're now actively insured - or at least our fingers are crossed.

It likely seems that life here is all sunshine, palm trees, surfers, and relaxation. The truth be told - we have found the settling in period much harder than we anticipated. From rats to medical insurance to drivers' licenses (we both passed our driving tests) to worrying about how our kids will do in school (they make many kids repeat Kindergarten and they allowed us to put Reuben in grade one) to starting a new business in a foreign country (I won't even start naming things on that list) to putting up with the heat and now the cold that will soon be upon us to... still not having friends...The list goes on.

But, before you start feeling too sorry for us, we're in a land of beautiful surroundings, plentiful and exotic organic and fresh food, great fitness opportunities and a more relaxed pace of life. It is good to be in California - a place that we enjoy and love to discover. We look at this as an experience our family will benefit from in many ways.

In the upcoming weeks we look forward to seeing our friend Robin Kalbfleisch from Toronto win the San Francisco marathon, having Cam's sister Jay and a Blue Norther Gail Black come for a few days and having my dad come the end of October to stay for a few weeks. We hope you had a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving. We have lots to be thankful for and hope that you do too.