Life On The Central Coast

Artwork is from Kiriko-Moth and is called Rebuilding. Artist's Comments: I wanted to create a piece around the theme of strength, so I started with the iconic tarot image of a woman and a lion. But rather than taming or overpowering the lion, she's the lion's creator. The lion is also female, and represents her strength. Its funny that the majority of my posts have been about the fix-ups we are doing on our house. In a sense, we are "rebuilding" those things we always hated about the house but never had the time or money to fix. It started with the bedrooms (3 out of 4 downstairs bedrooms are completed) and now the bathroom. But I had a real "ah hah" moment the other day when I talked to my sister, Lynn. She called after reading the blog post about my oldest daughter having a baby in the same year as my youngest daughter. She told me, "You are experiencing a "rebuilding" year." Let me explain what that means in our family. My dad pas...

The Bathroom Re-Do continues. Over the weekend the bathroom was basically gutted. We took out the tub, sink, cabinets, toilet, medicine cabinets, old flooring... EVERYTHING! It looks like a blank canvas just waiting to be filled. Wes has been working on the tub plumbing. We are going from two separate knobs to a central knob. One of the best things we are doing is raising the shower head. The kids complained for years about being able to wash their hair with the head being so low. Now that they are all grown, and TALL, we think we will go ahead and raise it up a few inches. The new tub enclosure doesn't come already with a hole, so we can decide and make the hole ourselves. We picked up a s hower curtain bar that is curved to give you more arm room too. It's going to be nice. If we have the money, we are going to add a tiled section around the tub enclosure too. We were looking at the tub enclosure yesterday at Home Depot and wouldn't you know it's on the same aisle as ...

We got one of the best Christmas presents ever! Our daughter, Rebecca, is going to have another little baby! She's 8 weeks along and due the 6th of August. That makes 2 new Grandbabies next year. I told my girls and Wes III, when we found out Melody was pregnant, "I feel like by the end of next year, we will have 3 new babies." No, nothing more to announce.... yet!! I still think there could be 3 but it's not up to me. Little Scotty will have a new brother or sister! It's going to be an exciting 2009!

Looky Here!!! Isn't this a cute baby? He's my grandog Wilhelm. His Mommy & Daddy, my daughter-in-law and son, are busy with packing and getting ready to move this week. I offered to watch little Wilhelm for the week and they let me!! I'm jumping for joy! We took him down to the beach for a walk today with our weiner, Oscar Mayer, chihuahua, Rico and their "cousin" Brisa, a white German Shepherd. We made quite the quartet. Luckily, both weiners kept about the same pace although you could hear Wilhelm barking all the way up and down the beach. I'm sure it was barking with joy! He had the best time! Then we loaded them all up and brought them home. We have plans to do it all over again tomorrow. Kristen and Wes III are moving back to this area from Tracy, CA where they have been living or the last 6 months. They will be living with us for a couple of months while they get their deposits together and decide if they are renting or buying in this area. I'm S...

We are so looking forward to the activities of the day! Thankfully, we are starting slow and easy with just the two of us. I'm putting together Lasagne, a Nucci Salad (greens, rouquefort cheese crumbles, crunchy apples and walnuts with raspberry dressing) and Garlic Bread for later today and just straightening up a bit and doing last minute wrapping. The kids will probably be over around 1:00 and we want to go see this movie as our Christmas Day movie at 2:45. Gosh, I didn't even think to get advance tickets! I wonder if we will even be able to get in?? After the movie we will come back over here and probably pop the Lasagne in and do the gift exchange while we are waiting for it to cook. This year because of the recession, we decided to draw names and then buy as we wanted for Scott and the new baby. Hey, Christmas is for the kids right? We are so Thankful everyone in the family will be able to be here today. That is the gift.... Family.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." ~KJV Isaiah 9:6~

My Friend..... there are no words to describe the absolute JOY I feel knowing you are OK. I am so Thankful for the educated and experienced Doctors that operated and made critical decisions. May those caring for you in the hospital take care of your physical needs and also your healing spirit. I can't wait until you come home!  I'm sure you can appreciate this. I "prayed" the Goddess Rosary for you today. Isn't this just the prettiest Rosary honoring the Goddess? I found mine HERE . The Large Beads are the Our Mother: Our Mother who is within us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits and we let go. You support us in our power and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us. Now and forever. Amen  Miriam Therese Winter Medium Beads are the Hail Goddess: Hail God...