I love my job!

Walking up to the front door

 I came to the stunning conclusion today that I love my job! My title is SAHW.... translation you say.... "Stay At Home Wife". For all of you who wondered if I would get bored "not working"- I am working very hard and loving it. I actually have time to get projects done around the house, garden, cook, and take care of Dave :).  When I was working part time I never felt like I had time to get everything done and as Dave became busier in his job I tried to do even more. Well, now I have time to whip this house and yard in order. I also love Sunday nights because I know I don't have to get up at 3:50 AM the next morning. I have time and more patience and I happily tell Dave that yes I think he should go golfing. He is working very hard and deserves to have some play time.
  I thought I would take you on a tour of our yard. There are a lot of pictures and this isn't even everything in the yard! So here goes....

Our beautiful fountain that calls you to sit down and relax!

Approaching our courtyard 

A favorite place to sit for lunch to bask in the sun and listen to the fountain

Rose trellis gate at the far end of our front yard

"Bottlebrush" bushes along our sidewalk

Looking down at our house from the upper flower bed. FYI- I found out you need to be part mountain goat to walk on that slope to weed it! The dead looking tree to the right is 1 of 5 trees called "Liquid Amber"- they turn a brilliant red in the Fall and shed their leaves. So we will have Fall here!

Familiar faces that won't get planted next year- they need too much water

Love all these in our yard!

One of 13 palm trees of various types that we now own.

California pepper tree I believe

What I see from the kitchen window

I call this the "Daisy Tree"

The "daisies"

Grapefruit

Lemon waiting to ripen. We also have an orange, tangerine, and figtree

The baby fig tree

Even pine cones!

I recognize these flowers- geraniums grow like weeds- often on the road banks

Yucca

Smells like an evergreen but has little purple flowers

That was just a sampling of our yard. You gardeners are excited and the rest of you fell asleep about 3 pictures into the tour. I have been adding plants already: Mandeville, Jasmine, and 3 huge flats of ice plant. Dave asks me immediately, "How much water do they need?" And my frugal self is pleased to answer, " They are succulents and very drought tolerant. " So on we go with this CA life!

I have surfaced from the chaos!!!

I had to laugh when I was unpacking my spreaders... from snowmen to  tropical. Just like me!

   I am back... that 2 week hiatus form the blogging world was due to extreme fatigue from 18 hour days. I believe I am in CA and this house for life because I DO NOT WANT TO MOVE AGAIN!
  We closed on the house on March 7th and moved in on the 9th. The nice guys with the huge van brought all of our stuff from Wisconsin and carried it all in our new home. The nice guys also put together all the many items they had disassembled for the long journey including but not limited to: dining room table, all the end tables, bar stools, floor fan, bikes, Dave's fancy desk.... I have to say the only things that have small issues now are the 2 floor lamps that they weren't able to take apart and the journey was hard on them. My fix it guy, Dave, took care of the issues. The nice guys did not help me figure out where to put all the stuff in a new house without a basement! They spell words differently out here.... basement is spelled g-a-r-a-g-e. You may laugh but until you try to go from a house with a full basement to a house without you have no idea! Now I know why Dave was insistent on a 3 car garage. I also understand why there are so many storage businesses here. My friend Jane was the greatest help since she was Midwestern born and had to cram 5 people's stuff into their CA home when her hubby ( Linda D.'s older brother who she loves dearly most of the time!) was transferred here.  Jane kindly explained that I could not fill 2 shelves in my cupboards with cookbooks unless I wanted my dishes down the hall by the bedrooms! So I chose my most used and stashed the rest in the hallway space.  It is a bit amusing to see what is in the sitting room's built-in bookcase lower cabinet.... games, serving platters and tupperware!  Whatever works! I must brag about said garage... everything is put away in a cabinet or on shelves and all the boxes are gone. Not bad for being here 1 week. We have a corner on Rubbermaid bins.

The kitchen looked like this for about 5 days. Those dish pack boxes had reams of paper in them.   While unpacking them I was thinking longingly of our 1 bedroom apt in Carlsbad with the 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 mugs, etc.  The simple life! Saturday brought with it lots of friends to welcome us. First came that lovely family ( Dave and Jeannie and  their adorable children that live nearby bearing homemade cinnamon rolls.  Next came our friends Duane and Verla bearing citrus and avocado offerings and their guests from ND. Then Ross and Marilyn and clan arrived bearing sweet breads. Finally, my lifesaver Jane came and brought us lunch and stayed to unpack boxes and give much needed advice.

I heard the mower start and in less than 15 minutes Dave was done mowing our grass.  Green grass is great but we are glad that most of our 0.6 acre is in stone. Water is precious here. Today it is really raining which is like watching $$$ fall from the sky. Our water bill will be less!

This is a common sight- iceplant grows in mounds and as groundcover. The slopes are ablaze in magenta

Myrtle Creek Nursery- heaven in earth! I only bought 6 plants- not bad. Very tempting and only 3 miles away.  The jasmine will be awesome on our fence!

Our neighborhood.

Driving down the road to our house

And we are home. More pics to follow in future posts

We did it! 2 hours at the DMV and $$- we are registered CA drivers. Well all for now- Dave is waiting- we have a date for pizza with IA State basketball game. 

Relatives, friends, sunsets and dolphins....

 

Although I am excited about having a permanent residence again ( house closing this week), I will miss living 2 miles from the ocean.  Some days I walk my 3-4 mile route along the beach in the morning and then go again at sunset with Dave. It is such a hardship to walk along the ocean in the brilliant sunshine!  Friday we tried a new beach- Oceanside. This pelican was strutting and posing like a pro!

Oceanside pier with Ruby's Diner at the far end. It is a 50's style diner . We had coffee and hot cocoa while gazing over the ocean.

    Saturday morning we took our 1 1/2 hour hike to the top of the world and then cancelled out all that calorie burning.....

 Our friend Dave P. told Dave about Peterson's Donut Corner in Escondido. It is a little take out joint with the most amazing donuts. Cake donuts, raised donuts, bear claws, vienna cream, cherry turnovers, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cream cheese pockets, maple glazed.... You get the idea!

Saturday evening we had dinner at Alan and Fe's home. Alan is Dave's first cousin who he has not seen since the 1970's! A wonderful couple who welcomed us warmly and fed us a delicious meal! 

And we met their son Alan Jr who is a California Highway Patrolman. Always good to be related to someone in law enforcement....

These are my new good buddies: Kenny, Kaitlyn, and Katrina ( girls are twins) . We were at their house for  meeting and stayed for lunch. They live 6 minutes from our Fallbrook house. They have an adorable little sister who wasn't sitting still long enough for photos!

My lap was in high demand as I read books to them and the girls read books to me.   Luckily that moving van has lots of books and toys for just such visitors to our new home.

We finished off the weekend with a beach walk at sunset while watching dolphins right off shore!

Heading back to sunny Cali

   Well, the time has come to go back to my new Cali home.... I have decided it is okay to have 2 "homes". After all a lot of people have 2 homes. We are feeling quite special that we can keep our lifelong Midwest friends and have an entire group of new friends in CA. I have to say it has been great spending time with forever friends in WI. I wish I could have seen more peeps but next trip maybe. I am longing for CA since I left my husband there and soon we will have a real home there. I miss my CA friends also.   It is difficult to feel like it is home while living in temporary housing.
   The Garners have scattered.... 2 in CA, 1 in NE, and 2 remain in WI. Good thing for airplanes! We feel okay with this move because the kids are doing well and all will be gainfully employed soon ( except me :). One  "scenic tour" with Marilyn, lunch with those special children  and off to the airport and home. So long Wisconsin land of my birth!

Door is back open!!!

Well you have all seen this house before! So I boarded the plane Monday for my 6:45 Am flight back to my Wisconsin home.... I had finally resigned myself to the fact that we would be house hunting once again.  One of my favorite double cousins, Marilyn picked me up at MKE airport and delivered me to a very quiet, lonely townhome. Tristan had moved out while we were gone to start his Architectural career in Lincoln,NE. My wonderful daughter in law came over to help me prepare for the movers.  My phone rings and it is our realtor who proceeded to tell me that the sellers changed their mind and would sell the house to us for our original offer! Apparently they found a house that they wanted and knew another buyer would not be along anytime soon. Tuesday brought the news that they had signed the offer and we were up and running again! Yeah!! I now began to proceed with the move with enthusiasm!

My "no pack zone"( closet, office, and hanging out zone) for the next  2 days. Anything that wasn't in this room was going to get packed! Day 1 involved 2 guys who packed non stop for 9 hours.

Day 2 involved 4 guys there for 12 hours! A 53 ft truck that had one small load headed for San Francisco already on board. I have never seen so many things taken apart and wrapped in so much paper, moving pads, saran wrap, etc.

That truck was packed to the ceiling- every square inch was filled.  It rumbled away at 8:30 PM headed to CA. After finishing the cleaning I moved into the lovely guest suite at another double cousin's house ( Joyce and Anders). I had always joked that I wish I could stay there some day. Well that some day had arrived :)

   So now I am socializing and enjoying the beautiful snowfall. A photo especially for all my CA friends who had 78 degrees and sunny today. Luckily I remembered to put my boots in the "no pack" zone!

Well that door slammed shut....

Our hosts for the evening- Keith and Jane

 That door slammed shut quite decisively.... the appraisal on the house we were in the process of purchasing came in very low. Since the seller couldn't come down in price enough and we weren't interested in paying well above appraised value the deal is dead. It was very disappointing and I had a good sulk for a few days but I am now being adult about this.... Seems like it could be a very difficult market out here. Now while I am in Wisconsin getting the move done Dave will be frantically finding us a place to rent.
  On the brighter side we have had a very full social life this weekend! Golf for Dave on Thursday and Saturday! Thursday night supper out with Dave and Lynae (friends for YEARS) and Brook and Jeannie ( new friends). Friday night this lovely couple who have roots in WI and IL hosted a potluck to welcome us to CA. A wonderful evening was had by all and we know even more people now. We are so blessed to have such welcoming friends in our new area.

Ross and Marilyn, Karissa

Brad and Gena

John and Julie

Ann and Joel

Corey and Kim

Jeannie and Brook, Jane and Keith

While Dave golfed on Sat in San Clemente I lunched with my friend Terri (sorry no photo). Then I headed over some foothills on the Ortega Hwy. Very twisting and scenic route! Ladie's craft afternoon and supper in Murieta.

The stunning view of Lake Elsinore

Bill and Sherry- the wonderful couple whose house we go to on Sunday morning. Once again we stayed for lunch- calamari stir fry. They have welcomed us with open arms and open hearts.

After gospel meeting we had supper at Brook and Jeannie's. Lynae, Meredith, Jeannie, and Marissa.