all in the day

We have spent the week working on the house trying to remove two years of grime and get it ready for all our treasures to move in. I actually called my two bfs on Wed to tell them how much I love this place and my heart is so full of joy to have found a home. Thurs morning while still in our pjs my mom backed into our car. She seems to have trouble remembering that we are visiting and has done this before to our  other cars. It is pretty upsetting when your car is still somewhat new and pretty but what can you do? I am baffled she never backs into my brother's truck which no one would ever notice.
The day continued on a downward spiral after that... you know when you have one of those days nothing goes right? We thought we would begin the painting process with the garages so they are neat and clean from the get go. Do you know how difficult it is to paint in an oven? Seriously it was 107 outside so with the doors closed it felt the same inside. Poor Jerry....We have also realized that these very high ceilings while they look amazing will be a nightmare to paint. We made the executive decision to hire a painter because we seem to be in over our heads. No pun intended...there are plenty of other projects we need to tackle so why not get help.
We have also been attempting to find a refrigerator since ours was given to the gardener for his services. I don't know if its our age or what but we cannot seem to agree or commit to anything. After several visits to appliance stores I told my man we were not leaving without one. I could only imagine what our sons would do when they arrived with the moving trucks and there was no cold beer. Its not a pretty thought for sure and honestly we just need to check a few items off of our list. Well we did it and it arrives on Tuesday...today we are going hunting for a washer and dryer. Hopefully this wont take quite as long...
I would post a few photos on here but its very difficult to notice the absence of dirt so nothing really has changed except how we feel about the house.
Last night the three of us (Gracie=pool pup) went swimming before dinner and then walked downtown for frozen yogurt. It was the first evening where it cooled down enough to be pleasant outside and not just sweaty hot. We were surprised to see downtown was packed with people strolling and dining in the outdoor restaurants. There was a resort-town-weekend-party feeling in the air and it made me remember how much fun the desert can be. I am looking forward to sitting outside in the evenings with candlelight listening to our waterfall and chilling.

Begin again

I have been feeling badly that I have not updated lately but my life seems so boring now. We left Alexandria on Friday and drove 1900+ miles in three days to Palm Springs without a hitch. Buster and Grace were the perfect travelers but we were all very happy to get out of the car! We are staying at my mom's while we tackle our new house in La Quinta. It has been abandoned for probably two years so you can imagine the dust, dirt, cobwebs and grime. My man's day was in the garages cleaning and hosing them out so we can paint them before all our stuff arrives. My day was in the house cleaning every surface and cupboard and trying to make it livable. Jerry had set off bug bombs the night before so I had quite a few bodies to vacuum up. They call them date beetles in the desert and cockroaches in NY...either name they are gross and plentiful.  We have had several bumps in the road like having to rekey locks, no mail box keys, one of the AC control boxes was stolen since we bought it so no AC in bdrms, most of the fans are gone~ you know the usual move in issues. It reached 109 yesterday and I will admit I struggled with the heat and looked a bit tomatoy red. Hopefully it will begin to cool down soon and October will be beautiful.
The very best news is Rande and Timothy have both offered to help us move! So I have been buying airline tickets and coordinating getting them all in the same place at the same time. I am over the moon that I will not be the chick in the Penske truck driving down the coast. Today I am driving over to Fallbrook where we left the Westy full of possessions and leave keys for Timothy to bring it over. It feels like things are coming together but its definitely a different move from any other. I am anxious to begin again and wake up in my own bed not wondering where I am today.

Our new address is 48140 Big Horn Dr
                                La Quinta CA 92253
Come see us!

Ok so nevermind...

I don't know what to say except Jerry sent an angry email telling everyone to blow it off and we now own a house in La Quinta. I am so sorry for all the confusion and ups and downs for the past 7 months. Its been one helluva journey and even tho I have cried a lot we have also had a lot of good times being homeless. I highly recommend everyone try it sometime... as for me....I am ready to go home!
If you show up at 48140 Big Horn Dr the drinks are on us. We should be there sometime next week and the 'fun' will begin!

last week of lake life...

We are so happy we stayed another week..the weather has been perfect and we have had lots of good times. Some friends called up Friday at 930 telling us to be on our dock they were on their way. They had been lake partying for a few hours and decided they needed us along. We floated out amongst the stars and full moon until almost midnight. When we were finally slipping into bed they called and said "get back outside! northern lights!"  I cannot recollect seeing them before and its a rare opportunity I hear. Simply amazing to be out on the dock in the middle of the night watching a light show provided by nature. Awesome night!

Nervous nellie in the boat.

The captain of my ship

I had to include a shot of our old house still so adorable to me!

So cute all grooming themselves!

We have our lovely fishing boat for the week and we have been doing serious lake cruising. Its just a wonderful day to putt along looking at homes, boats and waving to friends.  Also just beginning to see

the fall colors coming out and its absolutely beautiful~We also had the great pleasure of boating by 14 loons in one trip! Lu lu lu luuuuu! (I am famous for my authentic loon call!)

Yesterday we met up with our friends and rode bikes together for a total of 32 miles. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for improving my distance until I heard my friend rode another 100 today. Go Sally go! My man and I were more than happy to hop in the boat for lake cruising instead! I like to remind myself we are on vacation and need to pace ourselves. :^>

homeless

Ok this is going to be short and to the point...we did not get the house in La Quinta. We crossed and dotted everything asked of us and on the day it was all to close Bank of America (their bank) did not submit the HUD forms. So it did not close even after we wired in our money and have gone to great effort. Everyone involved with the purchase of this home has dropped the ball in some way. It has been by far the most stressful purchase we have ever attempted to do.   Enough. Done. Finito. We will find something else and we will be happy. Thanks to all of my friends for caring and listening to my rants about it. As much as I do not want to be homeless I feel it is more important that we both be happy with our choice. Buying a home should be a joyous-drink good champagne-event and one that makes you smile.

Fall is in the air

This morning when Gracie and I went outside the lake was so still and beautiful. The air has definitely turned colder in the night and you can see the steam rising off the lakes. The water is actually still a very comfortable temperature but I am sure not for long. Now that Labor Day Weekend has passed people have begun the ritual of packing up their summer homes, storing boats and pulling out docks. When we lived here we looked forward to it because it meant a brief time of the lakes to ourselves. Now I just feel kind of sad that summer is ending. We are suppose to have a beautiful week ahead and just could not imagine ourselves packing up the car for the ride home. So we asked if we could extend our stay another week and the owners were delighted. Immediately I began inviting friends over as a last hurrah of deck sitting and visiting.

I have a new friend that has brought rhubarb out of her garden to me twice now. Its just the perfect midwest delicacy so I broke down and bought a rolling pin and here it is just in time for dinner parties! I added strawberries to sweeten the tartness of the rhubarb. Boy I hate to tell you that it ran over the sides because I was outside having a beer and forgot. Shees!

Last night I was in the kitchen making dinner and my man is yelling for me to come outside. What the heck mister~ I am busy?!! He needed a net for a fish he was reeling in and it was putting up a good fight so must be a big one! Well I could not find a net to save my life so I grabbed a laundry basket and seat cushion for a lid and off I went. A northern pike and they are just too scary the way they jump out at you! Did I mention they have been know to bite fishermen in their boats? Well here is where the story goes south...do you see a lure with this fish? Nope. Swallowed it down to its toes and there was no way of retrieving it and releasing the fish. Kind of took the fun out of catching it but who knew?

I am not aware of any photos of me drinking a beer where I look miserable....until now!

"Oh boy honey! Can we go in there?!?"  Definitely!

I forgot to mention we made the trip to the MINNESOTA STATE FAIR last week on probably the hottest day of the summer. It was 95+ with high humidity and I was not a happy girl. It was so hot I didn't want to eat anything and seriously why bother going to the fair then? I did enjoy seeing all the quilts and feeling like my work was more than qualified to be one of them. Lots to see but mostly one food booth after another..and another....

We also had Jerry's brother and wife come visit us this weekend from SW MN so we dragged them to the Maritime Museum like we do all our guests. We absolutely love it there so don't come see us if you are not interested in old boats fixed to perfection. Its what we do here in the land of 10,000 lakes...we look at boats and dream. Speaking of boats...after a whole month here we are finally going to rent a fishing boat for a week so we can go cruising. I personally cannot wait and I am pretty sure Gracie is excited about it too. She had her first canoe ride yesterday and other than me bumping her head every time I paddled it was a big success! She has embraced the lake life as much as my man and I may have trouble getting either of them into the car for the ride back to California.
Oh by the way...we are suppose to close on the house in La Quinta Friday so it looks like an end to our homeless wandering. One of us is looking fwd to fixing up the house and making it our home. I hope to see you all there one day soon.
Thanks for dropping by!

finding happiness

I have these thoughts crossing my mind a lot lately and thought I would see how they look on paper.
I have several people in my life right now making or considering making big changes for their partners. I am wondering how do you know if you compromise your dream for your partner's dream if you are setting yourself up for failure? I just had a friend tell her man she had given up everything for him and there was a lot of resentment in her rant.  How do you keep from feeling this way if you make a significant change to please someone else? It seems if you don't make the move you are selfish and care more about yourself than your person. That doesn't make for a healthy relationship for sure.  However if you do it for your person, will you end up feeling like my friend? Life as a couple is nothing but compromises yet I wonder when is the compromise too much to ask? When does it jeopardize the foundation of your love? Do you keep searching until the change is a compromise as well instead of what one or the other wants? I guess we all have some vision of what will make us happy and sometimes its just being with that person regardless of the cost.
'Every road one travels forces you to choose.'