Melissa Was Here!!!

Maybe I should put in a picture of me when I was Melissa's age so we can know I was not always so wrinkled!!!  Melissa has the most amazing skin and teeth and eyes and hair, I was not nearly so pretty or gifted with such amazing looks so just as well not.  I have earned those wrinkles and scars though, believe me.

I so enjoyed having Melissa here for two days.  For some reason we can carry on a continual conversation until she tires of talking anyway.  But I always enjoy our conversations and usually learn many things I did not know.  She is so smart!

We ate out a couple times and I cooked a dinner for Saturday night and then Sunday afternoon she needed to get down to Sacramento in time for supper and fly home the next day.  I am so glad she took the time to come and see me though.  And I learned something I need remember always.  She has lots of decisions to make about what she wants in life and I wish her well.  I am sure she will continue to be exceptional in whatever she chooses.

After we had discussed some frustrating things about working with others and in an office and our own needs not being met, etc.  I must have had it all on my mind because the next morning I woke up and said, "I have had and epiphany!!"  All these years I have resented Richard wanting me to learn all about mortgages and then having learned too much it became my career for the next 30 years and so much of that time I hated it!!!  He said to me once, "How can you hate something you are so good at?"

What was the epiphany?  Richard didn't ask me to learn all about brokering conventional loans.  He did not know anything about that.  He asked me to come down and be an office manager and do a few private loans if I wanted to.  Yes, I needed my real estate license to do that but...It was I that learned all about the business of brokering loans to other lenders, it was I that spent hours with the Beverly Hills Loan Specialist to find out how to do it, that invited other lender reps and brokers to our office to teach us, that got us approved with so many lenders, that got us educated in processing and getting loans and understanding adjustable mortgages and etc. etc. etc.  It was I!!! Not Richard.  I chose to learn it.  I chose to do it.  And why?  Because there is something in my personality, and Maria's personality and Melissa's personality that if we see a need to improve a situation we are in, we research and learn and figure out what can be done and how to do it better...to improve continually.  How many times did I organize and reorganize everything in our office...

Maria says if  you work in a job like hers, that kind of drive gets you promoted!!  And she was recently promoted again!!!  And Melissa was promoted a while back, too.  She also said our weaknesses are our strengths and our strengths are our weaknesses.  I see now the secret is learning how to manage it.

You need to learn how to harness this drive to where you don't spend all your time trying to make everything better and forget to take the necessary time for yourself.

In a letter that I wrote to myself  many years ago when I was trying to figure out why I hated my mortgage life so much I had decided it was because I never had time for myself.  I never "took" the time for myself though.  I did not make it a priority.  Everything to do with the job was a priority  and yes, there was always things to do better, things to finish, things to start.  These things were always more important than myself.  I did emotional eating,  I was stressed, I was frustrated but I did not learn how to manage my time to have a balanced life.

When I worked for SBA it was much better but I still was spending a lot of my time developing charts and lists and etc. etc. for the good of the whole but having to take my 'own' to do them instead of spending that extra time on my own needs.

Anyway Maria says if I processed that all in my mind so I can stop blaming others for my own choices then I really did learn something and she is right.  And now I have it down in black and white so I will always have to accept the responsibility for my own choices and not blame anyone else (Richard) etc.

Mitch and Bahia

Mitch and Bahia are living in Ocean Beach, San Diego!!

 They were recently visiting Bahia's family in Lincoln, north of Sacramento.

I will enjoy seeing them both when I winter in Del Mar this year!!

Septic Solution for Another Seven Years!!!

This picture of Matt and Maria on Instagram reminded me that I never wrote down the Septic Solution!!  Greg L. never did come and put the covers on the Septic tanks, even though I talked to him, etc. etc.  He never sent me a bill for the digging his guys did either!!

So when Matt and Maria came in the spring the septic tanks were still unfilled holes just covered by the boards that the handyman put down.  Matt was looking for work and I was happy he was there to do it.

I decided since Westwood Sanitation said it would be 7 years before the septic would need to be cleaned again that we should just cover them with dirt the way they have been since the house was built.  It would save money in the long run and Matt understands the grading that would have to be done.

So Matt did an excellent job, took a long time, but he uncovered the tanks, covered them with dirt and then graded the dirt so there would not be any problem with drainage.  It is hard to find a handyman that can do that kind of work and do it well but as I say Matt understands all things outdoors.

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Maria, Mitch and Bahia Surfing at Ocean Beach

Ocean Beach is the first beach I became acquainted with in San Diego.  We stayed at the Ocean Beach Motel while we investigated San Diego for teaching.  I loved the white sand.  Later when we came to the beach every Saturday this and Mission Beach were the beaches we came to.  This is when I was single.  When Richard and I married we lived at Pacific Beach the first year or so and that was our preferred beach.

This was Bahia's first time.

Love the colors in this pix, very nice.

Catching Up with Maria's Family

 Always classy Melissa shopping in Ralieigh, N C.

Big news is that Mitch and Bahia are now in San Diego, living in the Ocean Beach area!!  Here they are at Maria's favorite House of Blues.

Hiking at Torrey Pines and Bathtub Rock!

Johnny's parents at Wind N' Sea

Maria meets Charli

Shots of  Melissa in North Carolina

 Melissa with Co-workers

Melissa visits California

Johnny and Maria at the Beach Again!

Melissa and Maria Celebrate Valentines Day in San Francisco

Early Christmas

All Maria's family but Matt came for an early Christmas, so Melissa, Mike and Dave flew in from North Carolina and Bahia and Mitch drove up from Fresno, and Maria and Johnny drove up from San Diego.

No snow which made things a lot easier and these are some pictures from my back 40.

Me, with My Daughter Maria and three of her children, Mitch, Melissa, and Mike.

Mother and Daughter Picture.

Three Generation picture, Melissa, Maria and Me.

Bahia and Mitch, Dave and Melissa and Mike (in back) with Sadie, Johnny and Maria and Me.

So happy they came to spend time with me.  Love my little home here.

Mitch, Bahia and Matt

Mitch, Bahia and Matt didn't get here until early Saturday morning, it was almost and all-nighter for them.  So they were really tired on Saturday.  I really like Bahia, such a lovely girl, she and Mitch seem to enjoy one another's company so much, I am glad they have found one another.


They went to Rec 1 and Rec 2 in the afternoon and Mitch bought me the rest of the things I needed for supper.  We had Karen Price's Chicken Enchilada outside with muffins and they really liked it.

Sunday I fixed them my gluten free waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon and then Matt and Mitch started on the wood and got quite a lot done.  They went fishing and brought back a Buffalo Chips Pizza, two, in fact and I had my quarter of Jalapeno Popper.  So good. I also had a loooong nap, I get so tired, especially my feet.


 Bahia showed the boys she could chop would, too!

Sadie loved having Bruce here.  Bruce gets really nervous when the boys are gone.  For awhile she sat on the side of the house watching for them, then the front of the house, then inside at the door, looking for them. He was so excited when they finally came home.  I suppose he thought they had left him.

Anyway they had to get out of here by late morning so we never did have out taco meal.  I finished the day watching Park and Recreation.  I don't know why I did not watch it when it was on...I did not realize who Amy Poehler was and how funny she was.  It was very enjoyable, Mitch got me on to it.

I so enjoyed having the boys and Bahia here, Mitch found his Magic Cards, surprisingly enough, they do not have much left around here but they were in a backpack.

Mitch Surprises Me

Mitch surprised me in early May, I knew he was coming but I did not know when.  He looked so good and he is tall!!!!.  He traveled from Asheville, N C up to Michigan and stayed with his grandparents for a bit and then traveled on through the northern part of the U S, even went through Glendive. 

He was driving a truck he bought for $500 and his Dad helped him fix it up and they put a camper roof on top!!  Really works well.

 

One of the first things I told him was that I was on this special diet to heal my digestive system and he said great, he was having too much heartburn anyway.

 

So he was my judge of what tasted good and he liked it all and said he didn't have any heartburn while he was here.  He said he would do any of the work I needed.  Wow, that was music to my ears.

 

So while he was here, he did an amazing job.  There were about 90 bags of trash and he decided to undo his truck, load it all in and haul it to Waste Management.  I was happy to pay the cost to get rid of it all.

 

There was a huge stack of branches from the winter storm and he chopped all that up and tucked it into my bins.  He worked on the watering system, changed burned out light bulbs.  Always lots of tasks around here for tall, strong guys.

 

And he finished bagging some waste I hadn't finished.  The yard looked super by the time he was done.  In the meantime he would go back and forth visiting his friends in Susanville and even drove down to see his girlfriend and haul a friend back and forth from Sacramento.

 

It was delightful and extremely helpful to have Mitch here!!

 

Later I captured a pix of Mitch and his girlfriend when they went to San Diego to visit Maria and Johnny and Matt and Destiny.  He started work for the Forest Service where he was last summer on May 18th...hope he can save that money to finish college!!!

Melissa turns 26?

Happy Birthday to Melissa on April 4th, 26???!!!  I missed it in here but sent her a birthday card!

Melissa is loving her new job at the Community college near her house.  She goes to work at 7:30 and is finished by 4:30 and knows exactly what her job is and works with lots of people and busy all the day.  So happy she is not working at home anymore!!!

She also thinks Asheville is such a great place to live, very much alive with lots of eating places and activities going on...and so beautiful.   So happy she is happy there!

Melissa is always fun to talk to and just calls to chat.  I was just looking on Instagram at her crazy cat making noises on the mirror with his paws while standing up like a person and I was laughing when she called, I told her that I think her cat needs something, not sure what, so funny.  Evidently it is his way of trying to get her attention?

She is also my go-to person for questions about my music, my computer, all that techy stuff she knows so well.

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Matt, my rock, my friend, my grandson, how I love it that Matt lives near and can  come see me sometimes.  Not a boy anymore, Matt is a man, and such a hard worker and so dependable.  We all count on Matt.  I loved that he took me back and forth and spent so much time with me on my birthday week and was always so kind to me.  Thanks, Matt for being so patient and Happy Birthday!

 

!!

 

Fun at UTC and More

From the skating rink we went to ride the train.  UTC has a lot of new attractions and makes it a fun place to bring the family.  Matt was a big hit with Keira and Eden and they went on the train with him.

 Next we went to the "Egg" which was amazing to me, large rattan eggs with comfy lining--how fun to have one of these in your back yard.

Eden is a "monkey see, monkey do" so when Keira starts sticking out her tongue so does she!

Now you can see how really nice they are inside.

Keira does pretty good at the hula hoop.  We ended up playing on some play equipment right in back of Macys and stayed there for a long time.  Keira made some friends and loved running around with them.  It was a fun afternoon!

On Wednesday I walked on the beach in the  morning.  So beautiful, I do miss the beach when I am away from it.

Then I met Camber. James, and Jimmy for at a Pizzeria and had wonderful pizza for lunch.

In the afternoon I dared to get in the Jacuzzi and had some fun conversations. 

Wednesday afternoon I stopped over to Linda's and Kristi, Brynn and Molly were there.  They had come down to see Frenchie.  I enjoyed playing with Brynn.  She is a very talkative and friendly girl.

Kristi looks as beautiful and calm as ever.

I have been following my no eating carbs all month and I think it shows.