My Life.Feeding 3 dogs & 11 fish

We landed in Sacramento at at 10:30 AM after another wonderful vacation in Kauai, grabbed our luggage and within a half an hour we were in the car and on our way to see the kids. Sheryl and Heath were in Napa to attend a wedding and Alyssa and Vince drove down to babysit for Hirsch. They all stayed in a lovely apartment that was part of the Timeshare that Alyssa and Vince own.

So although we were very tired from having flown all night long, we could not miss the opportunity to see the boys, (Blake and Hirsch) and their parents. It was a fabulous 24 hours of family time.

The boys are growing up right before our very eyes. They are walking and talking and making their wants and needs quite clear. Blake wanted me to pick him up whenever possible and he made his intentions very clear. Hirsch was a little shyer and when his parents were not around, he wanted to be held by either Vince or Ira.

Luckily the resort had a wonderful room service menu and ample eating space both inside and outside. It was so much more comfortable visiting the kids in the home away from home atmosphere of the apartment.

It was also interesting to be in the Napa- Vallejo area as we lived in that area, actually in close by Benicia, for the first ten years of our life in California. We spent the night in Vallejo across the street from the Six flags theme park which was our home away from home when we lived in the area. In those days it was called Marine Wold Africa USA.

Check out on Sunday was at noon and we all headed out for home. Alyssa, Vince and Blake drove south to Corona and were home by early evening. Sheryl Heat and Hirsch drove west to Oakland and caught a plane to Seattle and we headed east for our relatively quick trip home to Lincoln.

As always, the dogs screamed when we pulled into the garage but quickly settled down when we walked in the door. There were three dogs and two humans who were very happy to see one another. At last, there were once again three dogs sleeping in our bed.

The fish survied as well. They were fed by our pet sitter but we were a little concerned about Algae clogging the skimmer and shutting down the pond pump. The fish need the pump for their source of oxygen. I was so concerned that when I heard the pump starting to slow down, I went outside in the middle of the night and cleaned out the algae.

This morning I am at home with the dogs and we are all listening to the sound of the saws. I thnk that since I am missing my morning exercise classes...I will take a second walk with the dogs. It was a wonderful tri to Kauai but as Dorothy says....there is no place like home!!  Namaste...Eileen

It is a beautiful Saturday morning here in northern California and as I look towards the kitchen it looks like nothing ever happened. We paid the bill yesterday and confirmed that every detail of the build was to our satisfaction.

This July marks the third anniversary of moving here to Lincoln Hills and the first time in almost ten years that we have lived in a house for more than two years. Trips to Homegoods are simply not necessary as there are no knick knacks that needed updating.

Watch out for what you wish for.... I needed some excitement this summer and wow..did I get it. It has been an exciting (LOL) two weeks but humpty dumpty, or should I say JDL construction put our house back together.

It turned out that the tab was on us, as the previous owners had improperly hooked up the refrigerator water line when they replaced the flooring. But,we are mold free,the refrigerator is properly hooked up and sitting in the kitchen, back where it belongs.  I have a whole new perspective on longevity, when it comes to living in one place for more than two years.

Before this interesting blip in my summer, I was on a clean out binge. I spent the summer cleaning out draws, cabinets and closet. The last three moves have been company moves. The movers packed and unpacked the entire house. Movers have a tendency to pack everything, sometimes even the garbage in the garbage cans.

By the time I got to the stuff,the exhaustion of putting Humpty Dumpty back together took over. I did the best that I could at the time and just putting everything (except the garbage) away in some closet or cupboard. My goal was to move on and live in our new home.

We still have some unopened boxes in the garage and some of those boxes belong to the kids. Since Sheryl hasn't lived at home since around 1995 and Alyssa since 2000, that means that we have lugged their stuff up and down the state for many years.

This entire experience woke me up to the fact that I am experiencing a shift in my life. I am cleaning out the old things, the things both inside and outside of myself, and focusing on moving forward. Forward in the peace of my home that will remain my home for many years to come, forward in my writing, forward in my fun activites, and forward in my work as a volunteer, and move forward into my training as a Life Coach.

I let go of all that has dragged me down and know that although I learned a great deal from the experience, now is the time to focus on me and my writing. As they say in my Yoga class..Namaste..peace be with you... It is with me always!!

I desperately want their stuff to live with them in their homes but even when I opened the boxes and sorted through them, I was left with several smaller, yet heavy boxes that would cost a fortune to mail. I promise you... next time they come for a visit they are going to go through these boxes!

We were just on our way out the door to catch a flight to Southern CA to visit Blake and his parents when Ira opened our coat closet door to grab his camera bag. We were horrified to find the closet filled with mold. We left the camera bag and the camera and headed out to the airport.

After the usual airport routine, park the car, cross the street and head through security! (Sacramento Airport is a dream to fly out of!) we sat down and whipped out the I phones. Before we even took off, we had booked an appointment with a Mold Specialist.

We had a wonderful weekend with the kids. Blake loves to be held and this time I was a bit more careful about how I picked him up. I am happy to report that my back remains intact and painless! aLso, Blake's "pick up person" was most definitely Ira.

I flew home on Tuesday and was able to convince the Mold Specialist to come Tuesday afternoon. The good news is that the mold is not airborne and is concentrated in the closet and on the walls etc that surrounds the closet. The bad news is that the wall etc. is soaked about four feet up and that doesn't happen over night.

Meanwhile, I spoke with my wonderful neighbor who is an integral part of our Neighborhood Watch organization. It seems that we have a ten year warranty for this issue. She steered me in the right direction. This is an ongoing problem with homes in our neighborhood. The pipes run through the ceiling and they leak and cause the mold. My neighbor provided me with an email address that connected me to the builder and I have already made contact and await an inspector from their organization.

This solution is a lot less expensive (free) and they are expereinced in dealing with this problem. I also emailed the activities director here in Sun City and mentioned that us resale owners, are not as well connected to the builder when it comes to contacting them about problems.

Need to get to work on Schools stuff!! 

I haven't taken the time to write on this website. Why?? I have been busy and I am a creature of change and so I have a not so good habit of changing my focus when I should be focusing on my self.

It is summer and I am no longer busy volunteering in the wonderful Lincoln Schools. This leaves me with a huge gap of time. So my focus has been to fill my time with activity.

My friends and I are creating feild trips. We take a day and explore our area. Our first field trip was lots of fun. We took a ride to Benicia, my California home town and toured the studios of the glass blowers. Then we walked up and down the main street, enjoying the shopping, the eating and the cool breeze of the water. Other field trips are in the que!!

Today I worked on some paperwork for the SCHOOLS group (Sun City Helping Our Outstanding Lincoln Schools). The focus was wonderful. This week I played Mah Jong, Bridge and as ususal attended some wonderful exercise classes. It has been a long time since I have had the summertime blues that teachers often experience. But before I know it, school will be back in session and I will be as busy as ever!

Meanwhile, I have to get back to my SCHOOLS work..phone calls to make, data to gather!  Have a ownderful and hot summer!!

My biggest task of the summer is to get my writing published. My writing class is over and I have had wonderful feedback from my instructor. Now it is my turn to break into print.

I am back in the Saddle as I am once again writing for the Lincoln Newspaper. It was amazing how many people asked why I was not writing for the paper.

We landed in Los Angeles at 5:00AM Saturday morning after a sleepless night on the airplane. After a two hour lay over, we boarded the next plane for a short trip to Sacramento. Within a half hour of landing, we had our luggage, retrieved the car and we were on our way home to greet our three screaming dogs.

I had kind of a feeling that there was something up with the dogs but I had not acted on those feeling by calling our wonderful pet sitter. Well, it was nothing but my poor pet sitter had a bit of a problem. On thursday, he went out to walk the dogs and our front door lock jammed. He is a resourceful guy and he and our neighbor attempted to unjam the lock. But after that failed, he found a way to get into the house that was very resourceful.

Now if he had called me, or I had used my intuition and called him, I could have made life a bit easier for him, but as I said, he did very well. Wait a minute, I have to make a call to a Locksmith!!

Done, appointment made!!! 

Hawaii was wonderful as usual. Kauaii is our favorite Island and this is our fourth trip in four years to the Island. We bought a time share at the Marriott to years ago and it was almost like going home. This time we asked for and received a ground floor, garden view unit that allowed us to sit outside and watch the people and birds pass on by.

Did I say birds?? Yes and the majority of the birds were chickens. In 1992 Kauaii was hit with a severe hurricane and I have heard several reasons why there are so many chickens. One was that was a great deal of Cock fighting and as the hurricane approached the breeders protected their prize birds and left the others to fend for themselves. Another is that the chickens are raised "free range" and with no natural enemies they were and are free to range.

There are chickens everywhere and having a ground floor unit was a great opportunity to visit with them up close and personal. Every morning we sat outside on the patio and fed the birds as they multiplied exponentially. One turned into two,two turned into four and soon we had sixteen or more birds and chickens. The Roosters were a bit agressive and tended to chase away the smaller birds. So my son-in-law asserted himself and the rooster stayed away.

We spent our days swimming at the pool and the beach, walking and just plain relaxing. Other than our three trips to the grocery store and an occasional lunch out, we cooked and ate at home. The resort has banks of barbeques and at dinner time they are full of men who wait their turn to grill their dinner.

There are many beautiful sights on the island of Kauaii but this being our fourth trip, we had already visited the Wiamea Canyon three times, once by helicopter and twice by car. We also had sailed to the Napali Coast on a Catamaran and we visited Hanalei on the other side of the island.

I also celebrated my birthday on Kauaii and in honor of my birthday, Alyssa and I spent the afternoon of my birthday at the Hyatt Spa. It was amazing as always.

The best part of the trip was time spent with the kids and Blake. He is adorable and so grown up at almost seven months. His smile traveled with him wherever he went and kept us all smilling away. Everything made him laugh especially when we sneezed. Looking at life through the eyes of a child made me realize how simple life could be if we lived in the now, like babies and dogs.

I am still very mixed up with the time and I didn't even realize that it is five o'clock, time to feed the dogs. I think that my time will be even more crazy as I head out to New Orleans on Thursday. Three hours behind in Hawaii and I think two hours ahead in New Orleans. I will never get the time straight.

Meanwhile I savor every moment of our magical trip to Kauaii! I only have to look at the sunburn on my body (ouch!!) to remember standing at the beach as the waves washed over me. Until next year..ALoha Kauaii!!