Life On The Central Coast

Have you ever stopped to think how complicated we live? We probably create most, if not all of our daily stress. As I look around lately, I feel like I'm living in the middle of a cluttered house and life. Clutter I created! Too much furniture, too many clothes, too much food on my shelves... too much stuff! My dresser drawers barely close because of all the clothes. Most of those clothes are out of style, too small or ones I'd never wear again yet I can't seem to convince myself to part with what I'm NOT using. We have puzzles and games we haven't taken out since the kids left home. There is so much food in the cupboards and on the pantry shelves that it's going to have to be thrown away just from being outdated. I'm not spending my time doing the things I love to do, rather I'm spending time maintaining all this other stuff I no longer even want.  I wrote a few weeks back about going through my Yoga collection and moving it along through our local Free

January 26th, 2009 ushered in the Chinese Year Of The Ox. The Ox sign symbolizes prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Those born under the influence of the Ox are fortunate to be stable and persevering. The typical Ox is a tolerant person with strong character. Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness that the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task. Ox people work hard without complaints at work or at home. They know that they will succeed through hard work and sustained efforts, and do not believe in get-rich-quick schemes. We had to honor the New Year by having Panda Express for lunch today. So what is your favorite Chinese dish to eat? I think mine would have to be Kung Pao Chicken; hot, spicy and the little surprise of the peanuts...yum! I usually get that and Pot Stickers or Shrimp with hot mustard. Yeah, I'm a spicy kind of gal! Just for fun, I think I'll run a poll in my sidebar to find out what everyone's favorite chinese food is. P

Check it out... we are finally able to start decorating the bathroom! We made a huge decision over the weekend in mirror area. There was a GFI wall outlet in a VERY wrong spot over the sink. We were going to have to either move the outlet or decrease the size of our mirror. After much discussion, we decided to do the job correctly and move the wall outlet. Everything went fine and now it is in a much better location. Found some GREAT "Beach" decorations in just the right colors at Michaels and a shower curtain, seashell shower curtain rings and toilet tissue holder at Marshalls. We still need to hang the towel bars and rings, some Beach pictures and candle wall sconces and Wes says by this weekend, the entire bathroom will be complete. The bathroom looks 100 times better, more modern and after living here for nearly 14 years, I'm no longer ashamed to have people use it!

Wes spent today working the outage at Diablo Canyon, so I decided to try a matinee. After looking through the paper, I settled on Gran Torino featuring Clint Eastwood. The movie opens with a funeral, Walt Kowalski's wife has died and we attend the service and wake with him. His two sons feel he is no longer able to care for himself and should consider taking up residence in an Active Senior Living facility. They feel he no longer lives in a safe neighborhood since it has become run down and filled with "Hmong people." He is no way interested in changing his way of life and ends up throwing his own children out of his house for even suggesting it. Troublein the neighborhood begins almost immediately after that. His garage is broken into and a "want to be" gang member tries to steal his Gran Torino as a gang initiation. Walt eventually ends of befriending this young hoodlum, his sister and their family saying he feels like they are "more like family than his

Looky what came yesterday! My Word of the Year Necklace created by Lisa Leonard ! As the New Year approached I decided to choose a word that would define my upcoming year and I chose Gratitude. Around Thanksgiving, I set up my new blog, " I Am Thankful For..." and started keeping a daily journal of all the things I have to be Thankful, or Grateful for. Each day I would review my day in my head and list at least 5 things I had to be Grateful For. It has changed the way I approach each day tending to look for the positive instead of the negative in what life has to offer. If you'd like to find your word of the year, visit Christine Kanes' website  and pick a word of the year for yourself. Then I'd hop on over to the Lisa Leonard site and pick a wonderful necklace stating your intention for the year!

We just completed a two week "Journey" in our lives. A "Journey" with a beginning, middle and end..... and a New Beginning! It's just another example of how life seems to travel in circles and cycles. On the 5th of January, my 2nd daughter, Tiffany, announced she was getting married in two weeks, on January 19th which was the Anniversary of their meeting. That was "The Beginning." We had to find out colors, expectations for size, who was invited, invitations, favors, food, place, etc. It was several days before it really sunk in that she was going through with it and we needed to get busy and make plans.  Enter...."The Middle." Ok, this is the harder part. Who is going to do what? Where? How much is it going to cost? When is enough, enough? How much is it going to cost? Who is going to do what? What's it going to cost??!! He He He. Here is where I would love to thank all the wonderful people who helped make The Wedding happen. First, I

Yesterday, I sat down to play my drum and had a revelation. When I'm interested in a subject, I gather too much stuff and hang on to it way too long.  There I was trying to play my drum in an area filled with way too much Yoga stuff. I love Yoga and have books, magazines, videos, mats, a yoga chair and music all in this one small area. How long has it been since I really practiced Yoga though? Over 2 years! I'm not giving it up just because right now I have no time, but is it really necessary to keep or maybe even to "hoard" as much as I have? No. So I think I'm ready to "let go" of most of it and move it along to someone else that might need it at this time in their life. My "keep" pile was very small and my "letting go" pile was very big and the space I'm left with is heavenly, open and freeing.  Maybe this is all just a metaphor for life. It's hard to "let go" of things..... actual physical things, hurts, emotions

Have you heard about THIS JOB ? If it is a real job, I would LOVE it! SYDNEY, Australia: Position: Island Caretaker. Duties: Lazing around the Great Barrier Reef for six months. Salary: $100,000. Can you imagine staying in paradise for 6 months, living in an oceanfront villa, and making $100,000 for "promoting Hamilton Island" on a blog post once a week?? Let me see, you have "stroll the beach, snorkel and maybe dip in the pool" and post videos and blogs encouraging others to come to the same. We're talking a 6 month VACATION not work. Oh my gosh.... Do you think I should apply? I think I'm going to HAVE to.

Bathroom Update!!! Can you believe the difference? Too bad the first picture didn't include the old floor. Now you get an idea of how the wall was changed to get rid of the cabinet. It looks so much better. The tub is in and about 80% of the room has been painted. Wes started on the floor last night. Originally, he laid it in horizontal rows and had me look at it. Well, it was BORING! Just turning the tiles "on point" made such a difference and now it leads the eye to the back of the room. We'd like to have the room 100% finished by the end of the weekend, but we do have a wedding to put on so it may take just a bit longer. Can't wait for final pictures. While shopping for wedding stuff on Monday night, I ran across an entire aisle devoted to Beach Decor in the colors I plan to use in the bathroom! There are cute little signs, shells, glass jars for candles and all kinds of cute knick-knacks. My husband will say, "it's time to buy stock in Michaels... Kar

There's going to be a wedding! Tiffany and Chris announced they are getting married Monday, January 19th, 2009. The wedding ceremony will be at 2:30 in the afternoon on the beach near the downtown pier in Avila Beach. Afterwards, there will be a reception at the Herrera Hacienda, Nipomo Foothills,  from 3:30 to about 7:00. Congratulations!

Question of the Day? "What do you do with a cat that scratches where it's not supposed to?  Have it declawed? Make it an outside only cat?" First and foremost, please don't have it declawed. This is extremely painful to a cat. Imagine what it would feel like to have all your fingernails removed.  My daughter Melody told me that people would bring their cats into her vets office to be declawed and not even want to pay for pain medication for them. That seems pretty cruel. There are plenty of scratching posts for sale and you can even make one yourself and it's a much better alternative to declawing. Here is the technique we use. First, provide one or more scratching posts for them to use. Place them at or near the area they are already using to scratch. Take a small amount of catnip and sprinkle all over the post. Bring your cat over to the post and, holding its paws, make the scratching motion on the scratching posts while telling the cat how good he is. Every tim

What's wrong with this picture? You see a tub with a..... windchime??? Since when do you find windchimes hanging like that in a bathroom. Well, it's NOT the bathroom it's what's on my front porch right now. You heard me right, that's my front porch. It has to be, there is no room in the bathroom yet or the bedrooms or hall. Work will commence again probably tomorrow and I know Saturday will be a really long work day. Having the tub on the front porch reminds me of the day my husband said the toilet would have to come out while they do the work. "Oh my gosh, what are you going to do with it?" "Put it out on the front porch." "Oh no you're not!" So in a way, I'm thankful it's just the tub enclosure it could be a lot, LOT worse!

Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning * Warning* Men....This may NOT be a subject for you. Harmony and Balance. Everyone wants more of that including me. Ok, here it is, it's only a matter of time before menopause catches up to me. So far, not many symptoms, but I have friends who are well into it. Not wanting to suffer night sweats, PMS type moodiness or lack of sex drive, I thought I would make the trip early... maybe too early! There is an office in San Luis Obispo called Creating Harmony Women's Healthcare and yesterday was my first appointment. Before going in, I had to fill out several computerized forms that discussed everything related to being a female that's ever happened to me since my periods began. Needless to say, it was pretty thorough. I met with Kathi Fennelly, the Nurse Practitioner to go over all the information. Bottom line, I'm not anywhere close to menopause yet. My body is making too much Estrogen which can cause breast cancer and heavy

Yesterday you were treated to pictures of lots of Dachshunds. Today, you will get to see one, my Grand-Dog, Wilhelm. He does this thing where he backs up onto other dogs to get what he wants. In this case, he wanted the blanket his Auntie Brandi was sleeping on. Enjoy!

While shopping in San Luis Obispo today, we stumbled upon the SLO Dachshund Club's "Meet-Up" at Laguna Lake. They meet the first Sunday of each month at 1:00 pm at the group area in Laguna Lake. Today there were probably 35 "Weenie" dogs of all colors and sizes. This is just a sampling of some of the cutest weiner dogs around. These dogs were so friendly and got along so well. Most of them weren't even on leashes and some played with much larger dogs. You may already know that we have a little weenie, Oscar Mayer, but we had no idea this was going on each month. I can't wait to take little Oscar and his "cousin" Wilhelm there next month. Check out their website HERE. Then, while Wes was talking on the phone, I meandered the shoreline snapping pictures of incredible views. I sat down for about 10 minutes just letting it all wash over me and "take me away." At this point, we had been into a couple of stores and both of them had their ra

It's Friday and I'm not babysitting today so I thought I would make somethin' in the kitchen. My daughter, Melody, saw a recipe for Miniature Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake  in my Cooking For Two magazine, so guess what we're making? That's right! Cheesecake! The only problem is, this recipe makes 6 individual size cheesecakes and lets face it, those would be gone in an hour, so we are "tweaking" the recipe a little and making quite a few more. Hey, I have to make some to share!  Crust: 2  1/2 C. Graham Cracker Crumbs 1 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon 1/2 C. Melted Unsalted Butter Combine crust ingredients until "wet". Place a couple Tbsp. of this mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup and pack down with back of spoon.  Place crusts into a 350 degree oven for about 5 min.  Cool slightly before adding one Miniature Peanut Butter Cup to each muffin cup.  Cheesecake Mixture: 2- 8oz. Pkgs. Cream Cheese 1 C. Whipping Cream 2 eggs 1/2 C. sugar  1 Tsp. Vanilla

How did you spend your New Year's Eve? Did you go to a party? Out to eat dinner with dancing afterwards? Maybe you stayed home and celebrated quietly. You'll never guess how we spent our New Year's Eve! Let me give you a hint..... it started with a First Aid Kit. Now, before you get all worried and concerned that maybe one of us wound up in the hospital, I'll confess the truth. We spent our New Year's Eve at the local Longs Drugstore spending the leftovers in our Medical Savings Account. (MSA) Each year, we sign up for an amount that gets withdrawn from our monthly pretax dollars. This past year we over estimated just a bit, and in this industry, you use it or lose it. December 31 is the last day, or in our case, evening, you can use it for the year. What you haven't used goes into that land of limbo funds you will never see again. Wes had his eyes checked in early December and ordered prescription sunglasses, regular ones and safety glasses for work, about $600