A So Cal Girl in the Desert

Where is the time to blog? Where is the time to sleep? Where is the time to eat? Where is the time to catch up with friends? I thought I was busy when I had the 9-5 job. Being away from the house the majority of the day...only having evenings and weekends to do personal stuff. Now that I own my own business, there seems to be fewer hours in the day. Maybe I just need better time management skills, though I've always considered that one of my strong points. It's tough to find the balance when my days are woven with personal and business, as are most of my relationships. Is it a fun social gathering where I can toss a few back and relax, or is it a networking opportunity in which I need to be in top form? I'm not complaining...I'm happier than I've ever been. Just making an excuse as to why I haven't posted for over two months.

I could probably write for hours (if I had the time) about all the thrilling stuff that's been going on in my life, but I won't. Instead, here are a few choice tidbits to summarize...

My business is finally booming. Looks like it's going to be a profitable summer. While that makes me so, so happy, I'm also getting a bit stressed and feel like I need a break. I haven't had a day off in two months.

Which brings me to the fact that hubby and I are going to take a break and go to Rocky Point, Mexico during the middle of the week at the end of the month. I found someone to help me with my jobs for a couple of days. I'm REALLY looking forward to it. Little B will be in CA visiting his grandparents, so it will be a grown-up trip. Muy bueno!

Tivo is one of the greatest inventions of all time. We just got it when we moved in. Ever since it came out, I thought I didn't want it. I thought I watched enough TV, and if I had Tivo, it would just make matters worse. That is so not the case. Now I can watch my favorite shows when I want to. Duh. Not like I have to tell you. Everyone on the planet has known this forever. So now I get to record all the Dog Whisperer episodes I want, watch American Idol after my evening jobs (though what's the point, now that Chris Daughtry is gone), and watch Big Love after the little one is in bed.

I am obsessed with the Dog Whisperer (and Chris Daughtry). Cesar Millan is a king, and I'm trying out all his moves on my clients, even though it says not to try his techniques without a professional. I'm a professional, right? His techniques are totally working. I got a major puller to walk nicely next to me, and now we can enjoy our walks together and I get the respect I deserve. Hail Cesar!

My doggies graduated from preschool! We had a teacher come to the house, and now they know how to sit, lay down, lay down on a mat ("place"), target my hand, come when called (when they want to), and stay. Now we're building on the skills we learned in school and I'm teaching Kermit how to roll over and N.A.S.H.A. how to walk on her hind legs. I selected these skills because Kermit has a natural talent for rolling on his back and exposing his belly for rubs, so why not take it a step further? N.A.S.H.A. is pretty much naturally like a circus dog, so she should be balancing on a ball and jumping through hoops in no time.

The dogs are loving the backyard as much as we are. The pool is now hovering around 80º, and it's so, so nice to swim in. Since the weather has been in the triple digits lately--and will only rise--we've been spending most of our free time in the pool. The evenings are nice, too...we use our grill all the time and enjoy the sunsets and warm nights in our backyard.

We're going to buy our first lawn mower today.

Can't wait to enjoy the backyard with visitors that will be coming soon. My mother-in-law will be visiting next week, and then some good friends of mine are coming for a weekend. I can't wait!

We gave out the first MWIB scholarship last week. It was $500.00. A great feeling. We're already on our way to raising enough money to give away a larger scholarship next year.

When I have time, I'm reading a book called "Don't Know Much About HIstory." It's a entertaining summary of American history told from colonization until the present. I love history, and it's been great to freshen up my knowledge.

Last night I spent $50.50 on a tank of gas. The first time I went over the fifty dollar threshold. Yikes!

I just completed my first ferret job. They are fun, but stinky, and one of them had diarrhea, so that totally sucked. I had to scrub it off the walls and the corners of the cage. They are a hoot to watch, though, so it was worth it.

I finally saw Brokeback Mountain. I really liked it, though I think I waited too long to see it, because those "most talked about" movies never live up to the hype. Awesome acting, I thought.

Oh, and the most startling news of all...I turned the big 3-0 on April 5th. I'm officially old.

Well, that's all the news I can come up with for now. Until next time...which could be tomorrow or six months from now...I like to keep 'em guessing.

We're in, safe and sound! It's been a week now, and we LOVE our new home. My back hurts, my heels hurt from standing on the kitchen tile for days unpacking, and the house looks like a box bomb went off, but we're still happy.

Just about every day someone comes to repair something or deliver something. Right now the pool company is here installing the trim tile, the pool alarm company should be here any minute to install the pool alarms, and the closet people are coming this afternoon to replace one of our closet doors. The dogs just love all the strange visitors! Ha!

It seems like when I unpack one box, two more appear. I always think the unpacking will go quickly and I'll be all settled and comfy inside of a week, but that's never the case.

I'm ready for more money to start coming in and less money to be flying out. We purchased our home theater system--a 50" plasma TV with all the trimmings--this past weekend, and it's scheduled to be installed next Tuesday. Then on Monday we signed with the landscape company, so there goes another ton of money. Aside from a couple of small things, I think we're done spending money. We better be!

One of my favorite things about the house is the view. In the morning, the sun lights up the mountains to the west, and they look purple and crisp as can be. You can see every ridge, and you can see the moon set behind them. Then in the evenings we watch the colorful sunsets from anywhere at the back of the house. I climb into bed at night and look out the window and see stars and lights from houses across the wash. They are near enough to where you don't feel isolated, but far enough away to leave your windows open and not feel like someone is staring at you.

I haven't gotten around to taking pictures, yet, because I can barely manage to look at the mess, myself, but I'm sure we'll have everything unpacked in the next couple of hours (um...yeah), so I can post something soon.

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted. I've been super busy with the details of moving. Though extremely exciting, it's also stressful and time consuming. Calling all the utilities, then confirming. Having them give you a new phone number, and then changing it on you. So and so trying to sell you cable when you want DirecTV maybe. Who knows? The last couple of weeks have been a blur, and if we weren't in middle of the final countdown for the move, I wouldn't even know what day it is. Tomorrow will be filled with youth sports and two parties we couldn't say no to, Sunday will be devoted to the last of the packing, which means B will enjoy an entire twelve hour cartoon marathon. Good thing he doesn't mind a bit. On Monday morning we go to the title company and sign all the paperwork, then go straight to pick up the U-haul. Monday afternoon and evening will be spent loading the U-haul, then on Tuesday morning we drop B off at school and go straight to the house to do the final walk-through! Yahoo!!!! We'll get the keys. Yahoo!!! And then Mr. and Mrs. D are going to come over and help us unload the truck. We'll spend the first night in the house on Tuesday, and then the movers show up with all our long lost stuff on Wednesday morning. That will be the best part! Like Christmas! Our new mattress and washer and dryer will also be delivered. We'll be enjoying our stuff and unpacking all day, and then on Thursday the alarm company and painter come.

Wish us luck! Signing off until after the move!

Another house update! Today they installed the blinds and built the rock waterfall for the pool. Take a look...

Here's the dude building the waterfall. They brought a bunch of big boulders and then broke them up into medium and smaller-sized pieces on-site. Kinda cool. It's not pre-made or anything...they just sort-of improvise as they go.



Here is a cool shot of the living room with blinds on the lower windows. We're leaving the upper windows bare.



Here's the family room with blinds...



And here's how the pool looked at the end of the day today...

I'm so excited about the house, I can't sleep. I've only had two hours of sleep, and I have to wake up in a little over two hours (I mean, if I was asleep, I'd have to wake up in two hours). You know when that sense of panic sets in and you know you won't be able to function the next day? That's where I'm at right now. They always say you should get up and do something else, so here I am. It's not working yet.

We met a landscaping contractor at the house yesterday morning, and while we were there, they started spraying the pool. Yes, spraying! I had no idea how a pool was made until I saw it with my own eyes. You've all seen pictures of the metal rebar shell. Well, a guy gets in the pool with a fire-hose-looking thing and sprays wet concrete up and down the sides and bottom of the pool until it fills in behind the frame and buries it. Then these other guys come in and shape the steps and the areas around the light and filter, etc., and smooth the surface. We watched the whole thing from our walk deck. The guy that has to spray the stuff has to be really strong and very skilled. He was trying to teach one of the other guys how to do it, and warned him not to kink the hose or he'd be shot up ten feet into the air and slammed down to the ground, not to mention we'd all be injured by the spraying concrete. No, thank you!!! Who ever knew that this type of dangerous job existed?

Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera with us. I got some poor quality pics with my cell phone, but I don't know how to upload them to the computer. If I figure it out, I'll post them.

Gonna try to get some sleep now...

When I went by the house this morning, the carpet was in! We love it, considering it's carpet. If I had my way, the whole house would be tile and wood, but that costs a small fortune, so we're happy with the carpet. It really looks like a home, now! It's still pretty messy, but the painters will be in today doing touch-ups, and then the cleaning crew comes in. Our superintendent was pressure washing the garage this morning. Oh! And our gas is on, so when I went in the heater was on and the house was toasty warm. I also got to see the fire places lit up for the first time! Yeah! So excited!!!! Less than four weeks now!

Here's the dining area...



And the staircase...



And the loft...

We've been thinking of taking up Geocaching for over a year, now, but when we found out our good friends, the Ds, go Geocaching, we just HAD to start. If you've never heard of it before, Geocaching is an adventure game that involves using a GPS to guide you to a waypoint that has a "cache" in it that another Geocacher has placed. A cache can be pretty much anything, but always includes a log book. The most common type of cache is a sealed container that contains several items. You can take an item if you leave one behind. Geocaching has also been described as "hiking with a purpose." You find the waypoints for the caches on the Geocaching Web site, where you also register a team name and log all of your finds. Our team is "The 'Copa Dog Cachers."

There are also special items called "Travel Bugs" that are tracked through the site. Pretty cool! The Ds, AKA Team Willy Nilly, allowed us to "grab" the "hannah Travel Bug" from them. As a first travel bug, it was great, because it involved looking at pictures of Geocachers' pets, and then adding photos of our own. We placed the Travel Bug in the Team Willy Nilly cache we found on Sunday. There are lots of special items, and lots of special types of caches, but we still have a lot to learn about them before I report on that.

Since we don't have our own GPS unit, yet, Team Willy Nilly let us borrow theirs, and they escorted us, too! They did a good job of letting us find it without giving us too many hints. We had to drive about twenty miles east of Maricopa, off-road through the desert, walk through a firing area (no one was there, thankfully), and then up a rock mound. We found the cache nestled under some rocks in a crevice. It was really fun to see it peeking out and know we had succeeded.

Here's a picture of B with the hannah Travel Bug before we placed it.



Here are Mrs. D and Little D getting set to hike.



Hubby and B with the GPS unit. Getting warmer...



Found it! Mr. D, Hubby, and B.



Examining the contents of the cache and enjoying the view...