Brianna's First Day

January 6, 2025 After 13 years, Brianna has made her way back to the Central Valley! I'm so happy to have her home with me--quite literally for a time, since she and Leslie the Puppy are staying with me for a couple of months until she moves into her own place. She started her new job as an E.A. with State Center Community Colleges. Now we have three of us who work in the district in various capacities--Bree at her job, Lisa as the VPI at Fresno City College, and me as an adjunct faculty member at Clovis Community. All in the family! Although Bree's day got off to a rough start, she jumped in and started learning the ropes in her new role. Since she has lots of experience as an E.A. (Executive Assistant), I'm sure she'll be up and running in no time. Her rough start, by the way, didn't come from the job itself, but the act of getting to the office. Bree has been living in Seattle, and prior she lived in Washington D.C., both of which have great and easily accessible public transport. Because of this, she hasn't owned a car for the past few years. Moving here will necessitate having a car, and until she makes that purchase, she is borrowing Lisa's second vehicle. Bree wanted to give herself plenty of time to get to work early this morning, and it's a good thing she did. Not being accustomed to warming up a vehicle on very cold mornings, she went out and found that the van's windshield was frozen, and nothing she did-defroster, water on the windshield, etc.--helped make the windows safe for driving. That's a frustrating way to start any day, but even more so on your first day at a new job. She kept calm though (I probably would have been in tears!) and called herself an Uber. Because she was leaving so early, she had built in enough of a time cushion that having to wait for the Uber didn't put her behind. She made it to the office just a bit early and got ready to check in to the new job. I was pretty impressed that she didn't let the situation frazzle her!

Life Is Better When You're Laughing

January 3, 2024

This is the perfect house-warming gift from Carrie and David, with whom I have spent many long days and late nights in love and laughter.

It's Feeling Even More Like Home

January 9, 2021

Today was devoted to house projects.  I spent time putting away more of the Christmas decorations. (Yes, I know...we're well into January. Don't judge.  Of all years, I will not apologize for hanging on to a little extra Christmas cheer this year.)  I also continued to unpack more boxes in the garage, and put together some bags to donate to charity.  My biggest priority, though, was getting my photo canvases up on the walls.  These were easily the biggest canvases I've ever had made, and I was so happy with the quality of detail that my photos retained being blown up that big.  They would have been really unwieldy to try to put up by myself, so I'm really thankful that Mark was so helpful and willing to do most of the heavy lifting.  Afterward, we celebrated our productivity with sushi and dancing in the living room, so I'd say it was a successful day!

Much Needed Respite

January 9, 2021

It's been an exhausting week.  The pandemic continues to ramp up, and there was an attack on our country's capitol.  In addition, I started back to work this week (although the students are still zooming in from home), so that also meant a mental and emotional shift.  We got word Friday that our students' return to the physical classroom will be postponed for yet another two weeks, something many of our district's parents will be vocally opposed to as well.  Everything seems to be so contentious, so fraught with stress and anxiety.  I am so thankful that after many years of absolutely detesting my master bathroom, I have finally moved into a place where I can find my zen--my escape--in the form of a beautiful candle-lit bubble bath, accompanied by a lovely fireplace.  Sometimes you just have to get away, you know?  And even during this seemingly never-ending pandemic where we can't actually get away, a mental escape is the next best thing.

One More New Piece

September 27, 2015

Doug and I have been searching for a new coffee table for the living room for a little while now, especially since we got new furniture for the study.  Today, I think we found the perfect piece! I can't wait to see how it changes the look in the front room. Our house is small and often messy, but little by little, we're making improvements here and there.

Sofa Shopping

September 5, 2015

We have finally decided to replace our sofa and love seat in the living room.  We will NOT be replacing them with this highlighter-yellow/green sofa.  How is this even a thing?

Clearly, Not a Universal Rule

October 9, 2012

I can't quite explain it.  There's a strange phemonon that occurs within my four walls.  Things multiply, expand.  For example, there'll be a couple of dirty dishes in the sink.  I'll walk out of the room and then come back in later for a snack, and suddenly, the pile of dishes looks something like this:

 While working to contain the mess in the kitchen, the laundry pile will suddenly start expanding from a couple of stray socks to this:

 Sigh.  Containment on the laundry issue is definitely a labor-intensive endeavor. When I'm finally finished, I find that the book pile in the study has managed to author several new novels, and they're strewn about everywhere, like this:

 While I reshelve the mountains of books, the seemingly never-ending supply of paperwork--children's artwork, essays to be graded, magazines and junk mail that make their way into the house, and of course, bills--grow into a nearly insurmountable obstacle:

 Why, oh why, does my oh so tiny pile of money not multiply like the rest of the objects in my house?

New Housemate

 April 29, 2012

On Saturday, Danielle was out in the back yard doing a little weeding to set up our flowerbeds to transplant our little garden experiment.  When she walked by the side of the house, she was a little startled by a bird swooping down in front of her.  When she looked up to investigate, she saw that one of the neighborhood birds had decided to build her springtime home on top of our ladder, rather than the more traditional approach to nest-building in the trees.  The bird was not particularly amused that we were spying on her and her family.  She apparently doesn't like the paparazzi.

Make Over

April 29, 2012

Our home got a little bit of a make-over yesterday.   After waiting more than three weeks longer than the original delivery estimate, our new blinds came in and we finally got to set up an installation date for blinds for the study, the dining room, and the back patio door.  Our old blinds were the thin, plastic white ones that were probably put in when the house was built, and they had definitely seen better days.  Kelly had even managed to break off a couple of slats in the front room to give her a better kitty view on the window sill.  I imagine she'll be less than excited to find that she'll have to find a new vantage point to do her bird-watching.

We couldn't be happier with the new look of our home, although Doug and I were pretty amused to walk in and find this on the coffee table.  It didn't inspire confidence that the installer--the owner of the company, no less--left his "How To" instructions out for easy reference.  To be fair, we didn't actually see him consult the directions, and the finished product looks great.

Tulip Tree

March 25, 2012

While I was gone to Sacramento again this past week, Doug's parents came over again and left me another little surprise--they planted a tulip tree in the front flowerbed to go with the smaller bushes they planted the last time I was in Sacramento. It really dresses up the front yard! I love the flowers on the tree, and am excited to see it grow and thrive there. Danielle, too, was especially excited to see this new addition to our home. All of these little improvements we're making are really adding up to a noticeable upgrade in our home!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

March 9, 2012

While I was gone one day, my in-laws came over and planted these in our front flowerbed. What a lovely surprise to come home to!

A Lovely Roof Over Our Heads

February 28, 2012

When I bought my house several years ago, it was already pretty old. The house was mostly in good shape, but I knew that the roof wouldn't last forever. Over the past three years or so, the roof started giving me oh-so-subtle hints that it was ready to give up on its primary purpose in life. Every time a storm blew through, I prayed that the roof would hold. Mostly, it did. However, there were three spots in the ceiling inside the house that showed just how ineffective our roof was becoming--one in the girls' room, one in the study, and one in the dining room. Eventually, we couldn't ignore it anymore, as the ceiling in the study began to bubble and fall apart in strips. It was time to fix the outside roof that was causing water to leak in and cause the water damage to the inside. Now that the roof is fixed, I can't even express what a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Thank goodness we had such a mild winter that there weren't a lot of stormy days, but now...bring on the rain!

The ceiling in the study, pre-repair. I'd put up an 'after' picture, but it would just look like a plain white ceiling. Not much to see, which as far as I'm concerned, is what a ceiling is supposed to look like.


Pictures from inside the garage as they stripped off the old roof.

Project complete.