Replacing things....

Hey all,

I must say...this is the year for replacing things in my home. I got all new computer stuff that I mentioned how cheaply I got it....had Jeep repairs last year and now new tires...now my 2 year old dryer quit (didn't renew the warranty cuz my landlord is in process of buying the house and didn't wanna spend the money if i didn't need to....needless to say...I have now added warranty to the washer but you must wait 60 days before making any claims...lets pray it hangs in there!), new tv at Xmas time, water line breakage at New Year's and then Kalyn's graduation stuff, medical bills, etc....are we done yet?? I'm hoping this is it now....with the evacuation (and finding out my home owners policy doesn't cover any of it!!) I'm almost tapped out here...I am just very thankful I had money saved to do this and have to praise God for that blessing!! I did find an organization here, Self Help, that is helping me with the 10 hours of work I missed from working at the gym and also with the dryer purchase!! I won't find out until Monday what they can do, but at least they CAN do! whew...

Tyler is finally employed! He got two job offers...one for Servicemaster and then another as a waiter/busser at Amavi (downtown SF)...he is gonna take the restaurant one, i believe! Hallelujah for Tyler! I was getting worried there.

Kalyn is getting nervous about her October 1st departure to Minneapolis!! I don't blame her, but this will be a good experience for her! She will do just fine.

I'm working at the gym today and getting back into the swing of life again after the fire. I've got the Courtright's to clean for this week and also Keith needs help with his place too. He is government subsidized so they inspect his place every so often.

I've got my flight booked from Minneapolis to Baltimore to Albuquerque!! Very excited to come see everyone in October!!

Reuben leaves in 3 weeks for Washington. He is getting sad about leaving now and we are sad to have him go. I think it will be a good opportunity to have some breathing room and seek other opportunities for each of us. He's such a great person and I wish him well!! We will still keep in close contact and he wants me to go up and visit him and see that part of the country. Never been up there except for the airport, so that will be fun. Maybe in November over that long weekend, I will go.

So, that's about all for now...very thankful no one lost their homes during this fire!! There are still little fires all over and they are still fighting a big portion of it, so it can get smokey here at times depending on the winds etc. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts too!! Until next time....

HOME!!!

Hey all,

Made it home just fine after being evacuated from town for almost a week. Very scary to have to go through and we did it 11 years ago also...didn't think that would ever happen again in my lifetime!!

The first night, I stayed with my co-worker Kathleen down in Santa Fe. We rode together to work the next day also. Kalyn stayed with our friend Dana (she worked with me at McD's, when she was a teen!) for that first night. Then, while I was working, I called hotels and especially the one right next door to the bank, to make it easier for me to get to work and also so that Kalyn would have access to me during the day. I got a room booked for 6 nights at the Hotel Santa Fe...very nice place and we ended up only staying 5 nights!! Sasha did really well there and I think we all enjoyed ourselves as best we could. Kept a close eye on the news for any indication that we could go back home!!

We got to come home today and only had to stay 5 nights at the Hotel, so that was a nice surprise on my pocketbook. I have put all my things away, did laundry (had to drive to someone else's house to dry the clothes, as my dryer quit working right before the fire!!) and now I am settled for the evening to relax. What a week!!!

While we were in Santa Fe, I took the Jeep to get the tires rotated and I KNEW they were gonna tell me I needed new tires!! Well, of course they did and of course I got 4 new tires. They kept the spare on the back cuz it was the best looking one and boy oh boy can you tell a difference with these tires!! They actually have TREAD!!! So, that was my birthday gift to myself, I suppose. LOL I'm gonna keep the Jeep for awhile and it was long overdue for new tires, so what the heck huh?

Reuben did an amazing job with the house! He had it all clean, the cats actually looked plump, the yard was all trimmed, watered and mowed!! It looked soooo green and amazing when I got home today!! He did a wonderful job!! I told him several times too!! He missed all of us and Sasha really missed him!!

Well, that is all for tonight...just wanted you all to know we are home...I get to deal with the insurance adjuster next week. He told me I have a $600 additional living expenses clause, but only if the house burnt down.....WHAT?? If the house burnt down, I would have a totally different coverage!! What is he thinking!? Of course, they don't wanna give up money, but come on...I've paid my payment every month on time for how long now?? You've got to be kidding me...this guy isn't gonna know what hit him when I'm done with him!! :) Until next time....

Working Saturday

Hey all,

I'm cleaning my house today and then later work at the gym!! Fun times!

It's been very hot here! In the 90's which is a bit unusual. The weather this year has just been weird. Very very cold temps in the winter and then we jumped right to summer with record high heat! We also still have fires burning around us and it is so, so dry here. We are hoping for rain soon!!

Still no word on the house. I called Greentree the other day and the guy told me that the pictures we sent in, haven't been "imaged" yet. I said, does that mean you got them? He said, "probably" and to "call next week". Ugh....they are being so so slow on this. We've been working on this since March. I'm getting to the point that I just want to stop paying on it (which I can) and then see how quickly they move! As long as they are getting payment, I'm sure they don't care how long this takes! They tried to tell me that before it can sell, the payments have to be current..well that is not true cuz this place was written off in the bankruptcy and I do NOT have to pay them anything, but I do. :)

A friend of Tyler's helped him pay his rent for June and the check she wrote him came back "insufficient funds"! They had to put that check against my account cuz Tyler had no money in his account. I'm so furious with that lady. I've been talking with her since Thursday about this. She got paid yesterday, but "couldn't get to the bank, cuz of an incident at work" and now today she tells me they are at a "basketball game all day"...I finally texted her and told her to get to a Western Union and either send me the money that way (plus fees I have incurred) or get a money order in the mail asap. She was gonna wire the money to my bank account yesterday, but couldn't get away from work. She promises to do it Monday. This is just crazy...if it were ME...I would have gotten this done right away. So, she stopped responding to me now via text so I probably made her mad, but it's like geez!!!

Kalyn is healing very nicely from her wisdom teeth removal! It's been a little over two weeks now. She is working alot also. Works just about every night of the week and she is saving all her tips for a laptop. I may sell her mine since I don't use it that often plus I have the smaller Dell mini that just needs a new memory system cuz only having 1GB on there makes for not much of anything to be put on there, but I like it cuz it's so tiny!

Tyler may have to move back home if his job situation doesn't perk up here. He's still job searching after all this time (April) and I'm gonna have to put my foot down and tell him by mid July if he has no job, he needs to come back here. No one is gonna be able to keep helping him like this. Another situation I'm not happy with right now.... LOL

My happy news...I got a new printer for my computer!! it's an HP and it prints photos and everything, if you want it to. I got it on sale at Best Buy and it's very nice. Our other one was very old and would not feed the paper anymore...you would have to hold each slice of paper and guide it along for it to grab it and you would have to do this for EVERY piece of paper you wanted printed!! LOL I finally got so frustrated and figured it was about time for a new one. So...I've gotten a whole new system (CPU, monitor and printer) within the last year and a half for about $370!! Not bad!! The CPU is a rebuilt HP and the monitor is an Acer brand. Love it!! My other happy news is that my trip to Baltimore, etc is all booked!! Kalyn and I drive to Minneapolis on Oct 1st (in her car) and then we will get there probably evening of the 2nd. We plan to head over to Wisconsin on the 3rd (maybe later in the day) and see Jenni as it will be her 40th birthday!! We also plan to spend time with Wisconsin fam and then I fly out of Minneapolis to Baltimore on Sunday Oct 9th. to see Mom and Jon and his family until the 14th when I fly back to Albuquerque. Really looking forward to seeing everyone (or almost everyone!) while I'm there! Woo!

My jobs are going well...I have one cleaning job now for the Courtright's and it's whenever she calls and needs me...I work only two nights a week at the gym now and then full time at the bank. The bank changed it's Friday hours to 5pm now, so no more staying until 6pm! Love it!! I'm very grateful and thankful for my jobs!

Kevin has rhubarb growing in his yard, so I had him cut me some and last night I baked 4 little loaves of the bread and then 2 small cake pans of rhubarb crisp!! ohman...they turned out YUMMY!!!! I promised to take Kevin some goodies, so I've got all that ready to go. He's never had rhubarb anything!! He said he threw alot of it out cuz he didn't know what it was and it was irritating him! LOL

Well, I must go now...gotta mow the lawn and get ready for work here shortly!! Kalyn is still in bed and Sasha is running around outside!! Until next time...

Saturday in Los Alamos

Hey all,

I am working at the gym, so thought I would keep you all updated on my life!

Today was Chamberfest in downtown LA, and for once, I didn't have to work the gym booth!! The owners are usually out of town and so they recruit me and another worker to man the booth. This year, they are in town, so they decided to do the booth themselves! I had another job this morning, so it worked out well. I had to do the Courtright's two-level deck this morning. First I round up the hoses, then I connect the hoses, then I figure out if the hoses I have connected will reach the longest point of the deck, then I turn on the water and make sure there are no faulty hoses and then I can begin!! Whew...I always bring my own sprayer and then this year I wore my water shoes so that my shoes would be ok. I have worn flip-flops and you end up sliding all over the place in your wet shoes and then with tennis shoes, you hate getting your feet soaked. It is a propanel type material so its slippery, but the water runs off nicely. She has me do this once a year in the Spring and also Kalyn would typically join me, but she is still getting over having her wisdom teeth out and can't really be doing any kind of strenous labor yet. It only took me a 1/2 hour more than usual, so not too shabby!! I got home just in time to get ready to work here at the gym. :)

So, we discussed vacations at the bank yesterday. We were trying to figure out between the four of us, what everyone needs to take off before the end of the year. I will be taking the first two weeks in October off!! I will be driving Kalyn and her dog Sasha to Minneapolis in Kalyn's car on October 1st!! We plan to take two days to get there and then we will go over to Eau Claire and visit peeps for a few days!! I will then go back to Minneapolis and fly to Baltimore to see Mom and then fly back to New Mexico after visiting for a few days. I am really excited to see everyone on this trip and to help Kalyn get settled. I plan to get back home, regroup and then start a cleaning frenzy!! I want to have the couch cleaned after having Sasha around and things like that. It will be different not having anyone at the house with me, except for the cats, but it will be a new chapter in my life. And as Tj so brilliantly put it, I need to get a life!! LOL

Reuben is leaving Aug 1st to go take care of his Mom for awhile up in Washington state. He plans to be gone for several months, so he will be missed around here and in town. Everyone loves his massage work!! Hopefully he finds the answers he needs while he is up there. He said the hardest part will be leaving me behind. I told him you never know what can happen!! We are keeping our hearts and minds clear. We still do things together, so its been going really well. Last night, we went uptown and listened to music (Gordon's concerts on Friday nights) and then ran into friends down there and also went to Smith's to grab a couple of groceries. We enjoy each other's company very much.

Tyler is hanging in there, but needs a job desperately!! Hopefully he finds anything soon!! I mentioned to him that he COULD move back home and save money and get a job up here. He is "thinking" about it and really wants to be in Santa Fe for his music scene and stuff.

My landlord called me yesterday!! He said he called Green Tree and they still were in process of having pictures taken. Bruce, my landlord, told the guy at GT that "we've heard this before and have been waiting since March for these so called pictures to be taken"...the guy understood and said "well, I suppose you could take your own pictures and email them to us"...DUH....that's what we kept asking them!!! ugh...so Bruce had me take pictures and I sent them to him via email yesterday on my lunch break. Bruce responded today saying he got them and they were good pics and that he would forward them to GT. I had called GT earlier into my vacation and the pictures had been "cancelled" for some reason....so the lady I talked to ordered them up again. I don't know what they are doing, but I'm glad Bruce called them and is getting the ball rolling!! I have to sign a year lease once we get this done. I'm very excited to be rid of the mobile home. I just don't want to be financially responsible for it. It's been a great home to us for 13 years!! I don't plan to move out of it either unless I have big life-changing plans or decide to move out of town. Bruce told me he would charge me a little more a month, but not more than what I'm paying on the lot and the payment right now, combined. He said it would come out less than what I'm dishing out now. Very sweet of him!! The maintenance guy put a latch on our house by the gate now so we don't have that piece of wood in front of the gate anymore for the dog. Our little gate had no pole to attach to, but it would stay put, but we had to blockade it so the dog couldn't get out OR have another dog get IN the yard. Now with this latch, the gate won't move either way unless you lift up one piece of the latch. VERY nice!! Now Sasha can't get out and any kind of other animal cannot get in. It's about time!!!

Tomorrow is church and then we have two picnics to go to. My friend Catrina's mom turns 50 tomorrow so she is having a big bash at one of the little parks in town and then at 6 at the same park, our church is having a cookout. I think we plan to go for a little while for both. Maybe catch the tail-end of the party and then have the cookout.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Keep in touch and until next time...

June!

Hey all,

So, Kalyn graduated...everyone left....house is clean...now what?? LOL I'm enjoying my last week of vacation by getting some errands done, finishing up paperwork/filing, etc and spending some time with Kalyn and Sasha! Last night, Kalyn and I went to the movie "The Hangover 2", it was pretty funny. Kalyn is also having her car fixed this week. The mechanic said whomever had the car previous to Kalyn, took excellent care of it! Since it has over 203, 000, he suggested she swap out the water pump and the belt and then 3 tires needed to be replaced. He said other than those couple of things, all is great with the car. I've never seen Kalyn so happy in her life!! Car should be ready to pick up tomorrow!

Kalyn is now beginning to pick up more hours at Home Run Pizza. She worked Monday night and again tonight, tomorrow night and her usual Saturday evening shift. Her plans are to leave in September for Minnesota! She's very excited to have a lot of family around her too.

Graduation and all that went with it, went wonderfully! It was a great day!

Tyler is still job-hunting, but doing well. We got to see him a lot in the past week so that was nice.

I go back to work on Monday the 6th at the bank. I work at the gym this weekend.

Love to all...until next time!

Memorial Weekend

Hey all,

So, Friday, me and Mom hung out here at the house for quite awhile, then headed up town to Smith's to pick up Kalyn's grad cake and some lettuce. We came back to the house and waited awhile before we left again and went to visit my friend, Keith. He always likes to see Mom and see how she is doing. He gave us $11 to spend, cuz he knew we were going to Gabriel's to dinner, so he told us to each have a margarita on him!! So, it was a very relaxing day around here on Friday. Did some watering of the lawn and took care of Sasha cuz Kalyn was gone spending time with her Dad and then went and had her nails done down in Espanola with Gram Diana! I think Kalyn was also showing off her new car!! :)

Friday evening we all headed down to Gabriel's!! Our group of 10 was, Kevin, Kalyn, Dani (K's friend), Tyler, Gramp Tj, Stephanie, Shane, Diana, Joyce and myself. We had a great time and took pics! The food was wonderful too! Yum!!

Saturday am, we got up bright and early and got ready for the graduation! We were/are so proud of Kalyn for getting all her online stuff done and achieving this wonderful goal. I'm so relieved she finished!! We got to the High School early and got our seats. Me, Mom, Tyler and Reuben all sat together and then Diana, Tj, Shane, Steph and Kev all sat together a little further down from us. We took pics after (all pics are on Facebook) outside and it was so nice, weather-wise!! When Ty graduated, it was a downpour of rain!! Then, we headed back to the house and Carrie and Kent from the gym came over with a tent/canopy, tables and chairs so that people could sit and eat outside too. That really helped out alot!! Shane came over to eat too, so that was nice. Stephanie thanked me for inviting them. I really appreciated everyone coming over and having a good time! We served Frito pies, with homemade chili, homemade cookies, cake, chips and homemade salsa, fruit salad and pasta salad made by Aunt Jill, and punch to drink. We had about 24 people in and out and finally the crowd fizzled right around 3. I got everything put away and cleaned up and then later Reuben and I packed up the tent, tables and chairs and took all those back to the gym. We did good!!! :)

At 6pm, me, mom, Reuben, Jill and Tim all headed down to Buffalo Thunder, aka Buff T, and ate at the Turquoise Trail restaurant and then did a little gambling. I had a $1 bill, so I popped that into the BIG machine by the restaurant and ended up cashing out a $22 ticket!! Then, I had $8 credit on my Buff T card (from gambling previously) and cashed out another $23 ticket!! Then Reuben gave me some cash to spend and ended up cashing out another $5.22 or something like that so I left with a $50 bill!! Not bad!! Jill and Tim ended up ahead too. I think Mom lost $5. We had such a fun time!!

Today we are going to church. Mom is coming with us. We will eat first at the Coffee Booth and then church starts at 10:30. Jill and Tim want to "tour" Los Alamos, so we will do that afterwards and then they plan to leave town, with Mom in tow, around 2pm. We had such a wonderful, relaxing week!! Loved having Mommy here!! Kalyn is sleeping today as they had the Senior Appreciation Night last night. She got home about 3:30 am.

For Memorial Day, the church is having a hike up the ski hill, so in the morning, Reuben and I will be doing that until about noon. I still have this next week off, so I've got a few things going on. Dentist appointment on Wednesday, take Kalyn's car to the shop to get all fixed up with new tires, etc and then I work at the gym at the end of the week! Kalyn's wisdom teeth surgery is June 9th, so I will be taking that day off to drive her and take care of her!

That's all I've got for now...until next time... :)

Mom is here!/Graduation!

Hey all,

So, Mom got here just fine on Tuesday! We picked her up, as planned, at the downtown train station in Santa Fe. She enjoyed the scenic ride from Albuquerque! Previous to us picking her up, Kalyn and I (and Kalyn's friend Dani) had some time to shop and also to go to Kalyn's wisdom teeth consultation. Kalyn only has 3 wisdom teeth so the VERY nice surgeon told us that SINCE it was going to be cheaper for Kalyn's parents to pay for this...Kalyn deserves to buy a new pair of jeans with the "extra" money her parents would now have...I told him, "shh...thanks alot"!! LOL Crazy dentist!! Kalyn's surgery is scheduled for June 9th. :)

Kalyn also got a car this week!! Been busy getting it, having it inspected for any issues, licensing it, etc. Been quite the week with everything! The car is great! It's a 2001 Honda Civic, 2 door coupe. She absolutely LOVES it!! The mechanic said whomever had this car, has taken very good care of it. It needs new tires, plugs and a new belt/water pump. He said after all that, it will run for quite awhile. He said the engine is great!! The tires are really bald on the rear, so we are taking the car in next week for the tires and then the week after that for the other work. I've never seen Kalyn so happy between graduation and getting her own vehicle!! :)

Yesterday, we had lunch with Mom at Quizno's and then did a little shopping here in LA downtown. We headed home and then did some things around here and then decided to go uptown again and get all the party food, so that we were done with all that. We got home and then it was time for me to work at the gym.

Today, I got up bright and early (after staying up REALLY late last night watching the DVR version of American Idol and also the last Oprah show) and got in line at DMV to register Kalyn's car in both our names. Reuben and I went to breakfast and then I came home and Kalyn and Gram Joyce were getting ready to go to Santa Fe with me! We drove down and hit the Ross store so that Gram could find a nice/cheap outfit for the graduation...she had success and I also bought 2 new tops for work. Then, we headed downtown SF and hit a couple of souvenir shops. Gram was looking for t-shirts for the little grandkids and stuff. Then, we finished up there and headed over to Horseman's Haven for a late lunch with Tyler! We drove immediately back to LA, as Kalyn had to work tonight. Long, but good day! Tonight we are chillin', cookin dinner here and then I'm going to whip up the chili for the party tonight and hopefully get some rest tonight. Reuben plans to come over and have dinner with us too.

Graduation is Saturday am, so really looking forward to that. Shane will be here to see Kalyn, which will be really nice. Also, Tj, Diana and Kevin will join us too! Tomorrow, we are picking up the graduation cake and having a wonderful dinner down at Gabriel's with the whole family!

All in all, everything is going really well...lots of fun spending time together! Take care all...will post pics when I have some...Until next time...