July Jubilations & the beginning of our build out

On Monday July 19th they started tearing out all of our grass. They cut it up into sod strips. Normally they take the son to "Green Waste" and dispose of it there, but this time Outdoor Resorts wanted it. As it turns out they are using it across the pond from us to fill in where they had to dig out the fountain's pump system. It has been an eye sore ever since we have been here. Now, not only is it filled in nicely but we get to watch our grass grow over there!

Tuesday they started gradeing the whole thing, digging out for concrete. They also dug up and moved 3 of the Queen Palms. They were lined up down the side and now they are grouped together at the pond end. It looks really nice. We also had a water softner installed. The water is super hard here (360 when National average is 100). So that will be nice.
Wednesday they continued digging and grading. They are digging the slope the goes down to the living room and digging out the living room.

July Jubilations

So July has been fun!

We went to a really fun dinner party on Friday the 2nd, They had a Chili cooking contest and free margaritas. We drove around to the 20 participants and tasted their chili and drank whatever concoctions they were serving. It was alot of fun. On Sunday they had a golf cart parade with probably 25 decorated golf carts. We were going to make ours look like a Huey helicopter but we never got around to it. Oh well, maybe next year.

When I went to the orthopedist I asked him what I could do for exercise with my knee. He said no more running. Bikeing is fine (but not crashing), swimming. He said I could swim right now. So I am. I have put my Personal Training certification to use and am now teaching water aerobics on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Also, on Tuesday and Thursdays I have two clients whom I am working with as their personal trainer. It is alot of fun and I am at least getting to do something.

One of the awesome things about living here is that we have wonderful wild live that come to visit. We have ducks with their ducklings, blue herons, white cranes, egrets, sand pipers and even a few road runners have been spotted. We have bunnies, squirrels and tons of other birds that I have not found out the names of.

Through out the month we have continued to work toward starting our build out. We finally got bids from Eric the general contractor, chris the roof guy, and Gred the electrician. We never did get a written proposal from Fred so we went with Eric. We finally gathered the three contracts and gave them their start up money and we are on our way.
We have also been getting to go to all kinds of dinner parties with various people and I have gone shopping and wine tasting with a couple friends.

June Joys

June was a fun month. We left the Resort on the 10th, in escrow on our new lot. We traveled in 2 cars up to the Fresno area. I dropped the rig in Visalia and hoped to finally get everything taken care of. Then I drove on to Dad & Barb's. Rob met me there.

On Friday I went to Dad's rehab with Dad & Barb, then we had dinner at their house. Mom came over as well. It was very nice.

On Sat we drove up to San Francisco. Anne, Dan, and the girls are out from Boston. We met them at Liz' for dinner, along with Sarah, Noel & Liam. It was alot of fun.
The next day Dan, Anne, the girls, Sarah, Liam, Rob and I spent the day hiking in Great Basin State Park. It was so fun. We had a blast with the kids and everyone. We all went back to Liz's and had left overs from the night before. It was much more relaxing since the food was already cooked and Anne, Dan & the girls had a good nights sleep and were no more operating on fumes. We only had to warm up the food and so we were able to spend alot more time visiting. It was fun.

Dan & Rob

Sarah & Liam

Anne, Cat, Grace, Lauren & Liam

Monday we drove around and took in the sights in San Francisco, we visited Bloomie at he & Miranda's new home and then met everyone at Ches Panise, a wonderful restaurant in Berkeley. We had a great meal, wonderful wine and the whole eve was amazing.
The next day we drove back to Fresno. We left YumYum and Dad's in the care of Barbara. She took very good care of the Yumster.

Wednesday Rob drove down to LAX. He has his annual training and part of it is in LA & part of it is in Seattle. I stayed in Fresno while he was gone. I had a wonderful visit with my Mom, Dad, Barbara & my Brother.

We had to leave the Rig in Visalia for an extra day and guess what. It still wasn't all finished. We'd had enough tho and decided that anything they did not finish we would have done in the LA area. They did fix all of the damage from the blow out. They were pretty much under the gun since it was an insurance deal the the insurance company was threatening to send us else where if they didn't get their act together. Some of the original warantee work from way back in January still didn't get fixed.

We arrived back at Rancho on the 22nd and got to go to our own lot. We settled in very quickly. We had moved all of the flowers, vegies, and bird feeders to our lot before we left. We had hooked up a drip system on a timer to everything and all the plants were quite happy and blooming when we returned.

Our New Abode

Rob's birthday (47th) was on Friday the 25th. We played golf and went out to dinner. On Sunday he wanted to go rent a sail boat at Camp Penelton and go out into the ocean. Unfortunately on Sat Rob suggested we get some exercise and decided he would run up the forest road and down the horse trail and I would do the same with him on my mountain bike. I am getting stronger and in better shape everyday and thought it a great idea. All was going great until about 3/4 of the way the horse trail, then I crashed. I crash often on my mountain bike so no big deal. Unfortunately this time I did the classical ski, knee, twist injury and thought I was dieing. I believe my foot stayed attached to my peddal as I knee and body went down front right. I could barely walk on it, but couldn't ride up hill on it. So I hobbled on the uphills while Rob pushed my bike, then rode on the flats and down hills until be made it home. It started swelling immediately so we started icing it immediately, 20 on, 20 off. By this time I couldn't tolerate moving it and definately couldn't put any weight on it for sure. The crash was around 1 pm and by the evening I called the advice nurse to find out if I should be putting any heat on it as well. She told me to go to the ER for X-rays, good anti inflamitories and that perhaps they would want it in a certain position to heal. So we went. According to them no broken bones. They gave me a brace, percocet for pain and ibuprophen to try to get the swelling down. They also gave me crutches. So, there I was. Rob told me next time I am afraid to go sailing in a small boat in the ocean I should just tell him rather than try to kill myself. HaHa

Monday I went to my Dr. in the am and she ordered an MRI stadt. I asked her if she would order the MRI on my R knee as well and both knees have been bothering me for a long time.

On Tuesday morning (very early) we drove to Hemit and had the MRI done on both knees.
On Thrusday we went to the Orthopedic Surgeon in Temecula. He informed me that I have arthritis & bursitis in both knees on the outsides. I have torn meniscus both vertically and horisontally in both knees and the cartlidge is very thin in both knees. The left knee in addition has several miro fractures in both the femur and tibia condyles (where they come together) and fortunately they have not collapsed. Sooooo crutches with no weight on the left knee for 6 weeks to allow the fractures to heal and keep it from collapsing then come back and we will see what to do from there. YUK So far I have fallen twice on the crutches, I am brused on my ribs under my arms and my under arms are bruised. I can't carry anything and if I stand for any length of time I get a cramp in my right butt cheek. Wine, wine, wine, wine! Pray 6 weeks go by quickly.