The Aftermath

As my last post said, our house in Arizona was broken into and the copper wire was stolen. Because of that my husband is staying there till we sell the house. We've moved most of our belongings to California so he went out and got a few things like a bright blue plastic gingham tablecloth for the brown folding table that is in the dining room and a cheap flatware set from Walmart. It is surprising in that it is such a colorful set. That is what I tend to go for, not him! I decided to paint the flatware in my journal to remember his choice later on.

I asked my husband to scan it in for me and he did - after he got the scanner working. It was being pretty stubborn being on wireless and my husband wasn't in the best of moods because when I tried using the disposal after dinner it made terrible noises and so to top everything off lately it seems we now need a new disposal! We go to sign papers at the realtor tomorrow putting the house up for sale so the timing was not good. Ah well, life does go on and later this will just be part of our "moving to California" story. We will laugh about it then.

Note:The whole picture doesn't seem to be showing. Hopefully you can click on it and see it all.

Lookin' on the Bright Side

Life was pretty rosy when my husband told me to buy the California house. I've been having fun decorating it and planting flowers and a few veggies.

  But, we have to deal with the house in Arizona. We went back to clear some more stuff out of it and do some cleaning. When we got there the back door was swinging in the wind and the glass was shattered. A piece of skirting (it is a mobile home) was off also. Well, we looked inside and the electrical panel door was off also. We were trying to figure out what happened. I looked around inside while my husband looked outside. The thieves (yep it was thievery) didn't take the appliances, TV, furniture or any of the stuff like generators and pumps that were in the garage and out buildings. What they did take was the power wire running from the outside electrical box on the power pole to our connection inside the house. We are all electric so that was some pretty heavy duty copper. That's all they took but by doing so they smashed our door's window and everything in the well-stocked refrigerator was spoiled (boy did it stink). My husband is staying there now until the house is sold to prevent any more of that. So yes, we are putting the house and property on the market. From a high of $350k just before the market crashed, the realtor now says we'll be lucky to get $70k on the sale! That's just over half what we paid for the whole thing! So we are having our ups and downs right now.

  I am looking for the humor if I can find any and otherwise just trying to adjust, to my husband trying to "solve" the crime by deciding which of the nearby people would be the most likely culprit, to moving on with whatever comes ahead. I don't think that was a very good sentence but basically we are dealing with the stresses the best way we know how and I think this page in my journal which I started before we found the theft fits with the way I want to move forward. Bad things happen and good things happen. That's life. I want to concentrate on the good things. It seems to make all of life better!



On a lighter note, this is our new puppy. I saw him on a list of dogs that were facing euthanasia very soon. I called the shelter and they said it was possible as of the next day so we went and got him. He's 4 months old and needing housebreaking but he is already learning from the other dogs. In the last pic, he found he could get the big dog to play today. She needs the play as much as the little dog does. My cat is not thrilled to say the least and has attacked a couple of times (thank goodness she doesn't have her front claws) but we are hoping she'll come around to accepting him or he'll learn to stay well clear of her)

Getting Some Things Done

 

I've been busy going from one house to the other working on both either cleaning up to sell the one or planting flowers and veggies in the new one.  I'll be leaving for a week to the old one again and sure hope the plants can handle it without being watered.  I have taken some time to do some journaling though and these pics are what I've done.

You've seen the first picture already.  I only posted it so you could see the difference with the finished version which is the second posted picture.

The grapefruit page is one half of a spread.  I finished this half but still need to paint the tangelo half.

The last picture is a spread I did when my grandson enlisted in the army.  He looks so young!  I remember dating sailors his age and thought they were men!  I was all of 16 at the time but now at 59 I am seeing things quite differently.  Although I personally didn't want him to go into the military since we always seem to be at war anymore, I am happy for him as it gives him a direction to go for his life and college was not working for him - he does not do standard education well (he consistently gets D's and some F's yet scored extremely high on the military admittance test and has tested well on California state tests - he just can't do the paperwork for the classes). My brother-in-law, a retired Army officer says the army uses words, sight and hands-on teaching so my grandson will do just fine.  He wanted infantry and has a cousin he could find himself serving under perhaps which could be good and bad so we'll see what happens if it even comes up.  My dad was in the infantry during WWII so we now have a 3 generation tradition going (not that just being in the military isn't one for my family already with my grandfathers in the cavalry, my mother and sister marines, my husband retired from the navy and my brothers-in-law and son retiring from the army or having served in the navy). I just hope he likes it.  Actually it makes a great career path for him as long as we stay peaceful as a country for a while!

Busy Day

I finally have my scanner/printer at my new home so can upload pictures for my blog easier. I'd tried with my Iphone but last time I had to cancel my post as the pics didn't fit right. I'll get to those pics as soon as I update Iphotos on my computer. In the meantime I have scanned in what I did today.

Today was busy. I went shopping for some natural looking bark and potting soil to plant my new trees before I head back to Kingman for some more moving chores. My back is hurting but my garden looks a bit better and my trees might get to bloom and grow now they are in pots and watered.

My yard is rather atrocious at present. Here in hot Hemet a lot of seniors in the past made their yards non-toil by putting in tiny gravel and having a green spray of some sort cover it all rather like a plastic coating. That is what my back yard is at present except for to long narrow planters so I fixed them up. Hopefully we can sell our old house eventually (not too many people are selling in order to buy what we have which is what was done before the recession when Californians sold homes for great prices and bought desert ranches to keep horses on) and then I can have the yard scraped up, towed away and a patio, cover and a tiny bit of grass for the dogs put in. In the meantime I can enjoy the planter boxes and my potted trees!

I didn't finish painting before it got dark so the one section didn't get done. I didn't wait to post because I haven't had such a good track record of posting lately so took the time this evening to post what I had already.

I've tried to upload some pics from my Iphone photo stream but its not cooperating or I'd show you the real version of what my journal page shows.

I Really Am Here

Hi everyone. I am still moving and don't have my scanner yet. I have done a tiny bit of creating and these photoessays are proof of it. Not a lot but hopefully once I am all settled I will create more regularly.

The stools used to have a green base but it didn't go with the new room they would be in. I didn't want to give them up because I painted them for my dad back in 1994 and he's gone now so I have the stools back. (I am more sentimental than I used to think I'd ever be).

The journal pages speak for themselves. I should have a lot more of them than I do.

I should be getting my red living room couch this month and then I can take pics of what I've been doing to decorate my new home to share with everyone.

Painting Again

It's been a long time since I've done any art. I couldn't resist trying to put my new salt and pepper shakers on this background I had done previously. I don't think I made the colors pop enough but I am pleased with my wonky shakers and more pleased that I got something done!

I am really going red in my new house. I am only partly moved but had to share my new red sofa. My husband is.balking at the purple rug I ordered to go with it though ��!

New House

I have been waiting to do this for a really long time. My husband will probably not be as happy as he has been on this 40 acres of desert but I've had a longing to get back to California. Hemet is 1 hour from my son's house, 2 hours from my daughter's and 1.5 from a sister and some other family down in the Santee area which means I'll be close enough for family get-togethers but far enough away that I won't bug everyone to go out for lunch or dinner every week!

  I couldn't believe it when my husband told me to actually go looking for houses when I was in California last time and I really couldn't believe it when he asked me if I found one and if so, to put a bid on it! He was going to go look at a couple I liked but got a really bad case of sciatica and hasn't been able to go anywhere for over 10 days now. Because of that, I just got to pick the one I wanted most and we've now got the news our offer was accepted. Geez, I am so excited.

  We'll take our time, maybe up to 1 1/2 years to move (although once my husband gets started on something he usually just goes full tilt on it) completely. Maybe the market will start improving where we currently live so we can sell the house we are in okay.

I went out to California for my glaucoma appointment and had laser surgery as the pressure is just not coming down with the drops they have me on. I hope it works and will find out at Christmas time. If not, I'll try giving up coffee and see what happens. The doctor says it doesn't matter about my coffee but my son read about a study showing coffee does affect one type of glaucoma (and I am not sure what type I have) especially among Scandinavian peoples. I come from Norwegian stock and some Irish too (we know how the Norse travelled that area) so who knows, it might affect me. I don't want to give it up yet as I like it and I want to see if the surgery worked. One step at a time! I was also told I have a cloudy build-up on my lenses that replaced my real eye lenses. The doctor was surprised I can see as well as I do so I think some more laser surgery is in my future.

  Not much art at all in this post but life is in flux for me as you can see. I could feel my depression lift when I realized my husband was serious about moving. I didn't think I was letting it bother me so much but guess it was.

  The page I made here was started as part of a lesson months ago and I didn't know where to go with it after playing with the watercolor and gluing on the butterfly stamping scrap. I wanted to make a page about the new house (which was built in 1976 and so isn't really new at all) and this seemed made for it. So don't ever throw away a page you start but don't finish. You may find a use for it later too!