Happy Birthday

What an incredible birthday! Thursday Don suggested that just the two of us go away for the weekend. The last time we were really alone for a trip was 2002 when we went to Hawaii for Julie's graduation. It was fabulous! We went to Warner Springs, where we used to take the kids. Great food, great room, great weather and wonderful company (Don).

Here is Don lounging by the pools. The hot one was a soothing 104 degrees, the cool one, which we did not go in, was 79. It was perfect weather (low 70's) until we got ready to leave, then the clouds started moving in.

With spring comes lush, green landscape. This is on our walk around the golf course. That's Don in the middle to show how big the trees are.

This is where the water actually comes out of the ground at 140 degrees. Looks nice, but I didn't see anything living in it.

When we got home at 5:00, Julie had prepared a delicious dinner of Chicken Tortilla soup, my favorite. It was SOOOOO good. Sorry about the boys picture, guess they were hungry.

For desert, Julie made the perfect fruit Trifle, with fresh strawberries, pineapple, bananas, kiwi, angel food cake and a yummy pudding stuff. So good. Thank you Julie.

Don also got me a good quality Web Cam so we can see Jeni's family. Can't wait to try it out.
I got myself a Garmin Nuvi (thanks for the suggestion Roger). I'm tired of getting lost in unfamiliar areas, and the lady is soooo nice. She just says, "recalculating" if I don't do what she wants. All in all, it was one of the best birthdays.

This and That

I know the Skinner family is thrilled tax season is over, but so am I! Seems like I stress until April 15 every year, probably a long held habit from when I did do taxes. We always extend anyway, but I do have to have an idea of what to file. My goal is to get them done in February like the kids. Some day.

Here's Tami and Kimber working together in my office. I had an old laptop (1999) that we loaded XP onto, bought a great "Toddler Adventure Workshop" 5 CD interactive learning set at Costco for under $20.00 and Kimber has her own computer with awesome learning tools. She's somewhat impatient with the finger pad, but is learning to "wait for it" to turn on, upload software, etc. If she moves too fast the cursor can't keep up, so she has to be "gentle". She can stay on it, with different games and supervision, for quite a while and feels like such a big girl. She can take it in any room and doesn't have to touch any one else's computer.

Donnie just got the sweetest dog. She is from Craig's list via the pound, is a couple of years old and so well trained!! Even Molly, who is a huge wuss when it comes to other dogs, isn't afraid of her. Her previous owners were training her for agility trials when a divorce happened and the four kids lost their pet. Their loss was Donnie's gain and she is so good for him. They both lucked out. She goes to the beach, on walks, to work with him, gets treats and love.

This house is a family affair. Please notice who is on the ladder working and who's not. I'm sure Donnie and Sean were doing something equally important.

Front door and office window hole (the window was made wrong). They are now done with wrapping for stucco, insulation and drywall. We are choosing granite, tile, paint, cabinets ..... Aagh! Some of you are great at that and love it. For me it's stressful and I don't just "see" it. I do know what I don't like, but have a hard time envisioning what I want.


Family room looking from the kitchen. Can't wait to see how it looks finished.

Trying again

Well, since I couldn't figure out how to delete a blog (not a comment, the whole thing) so that I could reuse the name, I'm going with a new name. Just trying to see if you can keep up.

This is Don's brother Chris, his wife Kim, their son Harley and daughter Hillary. We don't see them very often, but now that we'll live just up the hill, I'm sure that will change. Please notice Kimber's pink goggles. She was happy ;-), so we're all happy.

This is Donnie and his fishing boat. He's had it for about a year, but I thought it was a little boat. When I saw it this afternoon, WOW! He's going to take it to Catalina. It's ocean worthy, has a galley, bathroom and two sleeping areas.

This is me with the beautiful flowers that cover all of the banks at our new house. The poppies were hydro-seeded, but everything else is natural. Can't wait to move in and enjoy them everyday. Hopefully the heat won't have taken it's toll.

We were at the house today and I was so thrilled with the flowers that I didn't take any pictures of it. Now that the subs are working on it, and don't have much else to do, it's progressing quickly. All of the wiring is in, the windows are in, the tile roof is going on and the patios are poured. Here's a picture from last week, but it changes quickly now.


Donnie has been living in the RV at the house for the past three weeks, since the copper pipes went in. We've had a couple of problems, so want to be safe, and he wanted to save on rent and be a hermit for a while. He said the RV is almost too big for just one person and is nice to live in. It only gets hard when Don and I want to go somewhere and take his home. Over Easter we went to the desert and he slept in a tent in the house. He said there was a huge mountain lion prowling around so he ended up sleeping in his truck. The property backs on 3000 acres of open space and a 600 acre monastery - so it's possible.

I just think of Molly, our Shih Tzu, and I out walking and her being bait, and I'm at the end of the line. I'm working on how to avoid being some animals breakfast.