Roll out the barrel...

I am feeling better this weekend, thankfully. We spent yesterday working in the yard digging up plants and potting them to get them ready for when we move. The soil in our yard becomes clay after the rainy season, so we have a small window between heavy wet clay to solid bricks. It's amazing that anything grows in the soil. The plus of this hard soil is the roots are pretty shallow, even on established roses and trees, so at least we don't have to dig too far down to get most of the plants out.

Today I worked at the winery as they needed some extra help. It was quite busy and the day flew. It's always nice working at the winery because your customers are happy and out to relax and have some fun (AKA "Group Therapy"). The cool part is I was able to pick up some wine barrels for some of our larger plants. Which means I've just signed us up for more digging...

Supressed Immunity

Well the acupuncture I've been going through to suppress my immunity might actually be working. I'm sick, I managed to get a sore throat and the chills and although I managed to make it into work, they sent me home.

It's horrible timing, as we need to use every evening of sunlight we have to dig up plants and prepare ourselves for the eventual move, before the clay soil becomes impermeable. Not to mention all of the stuff that needs to be gone through on the inside of our home. Instead I came home without any energy to do anything around the house.

Since I rarely get sick, it might be a good thing since the acupuncture's intent is to suppress my immunity and encourage a pregnancy. If that's the case, I guess I'll have to get use to succumbing to a virus now and then. I just hope that I'll soon be back to myself again with enough energy to tackle a move and all of the remodeling and yard work that will come with it!

Happy Easter!

It was sunny and warm in Northern CA this Easter. (I guess Iowa had snow!) We spent most of the day outdoors planting tomatoes and peppers. (and some cat grass for the kitties) Tim also worked on digging up a few plants as well.

I had an acupuncture session this afternoon and then came home to try and cook my first rack of lamb. I marinated it with rosemary and garlic, and seared it on the grill before baking it. It turned out GREAT! I added some dry sauteed string beans, rosemary potatoes and snow peas, and a California Merlot. I was so happy with how it turned out, and it looked so pretty on a bed of flowering rosemary from our herb garden! It tasted even better than it looked! The great part is that it was relatively healthy and wasn't a huge deviation from "the cure".

The Easter bunny respected our diet and didn't leave 10 pounds of chocolate this year, which was probably a good thing. It sounded like he did hit Iowa though. I talked to my parents today and they said that yesterday my nephews were over to color eggs. My dad decided to help. He kept pulling his egg out of the cup to check to see how it was coming along. (my mom silently watching the entire process from afar) After about 10 minutes of status checking, he said, "I don't think this egg will ever turn color!" At that point my Mom said "Probably not, since you're dipping it in your coffee!" My dad, who is colorblind, was so embarrassed! My nephews (6 and 3) thought it was hilarious! Poor Dad. I just hope he didn't forget and drink the egg coffee! Yuck!

Home Sweet Home?

The house hunt has been far more interesting that I imagined. The papers may say that it's "terrible news" in the home sales front, but apparently the sellers aren't reading the same papers I am. Almost all have dreams of grandeur. Plans to cash in on the big bucks before it gets worse.

Thus far, we have offered on 10 houses, which included three that were estate sales and two that were short sales. All of the homes needed work. The amount of work required varied from minimal to major.

Guess which repair category this home fell in? The funny part is we not only made an offer on this house, but we countered as well!

Group therapy

Tim and I decided to take a break from the stress of house hunting today, and focus on getting some much needed group therapy...

We went out wine tasting. It was absolutely gorgeous out, and we were able to unwind a bit. It was just what we needed after barely surviving a hectic week of work and house hunting.

We stopped by the winery I used to work at to say hello and taste some new releases. Tim mentioned to a new pourer behind the bar that I used to work there. The pourer thought he knew everyone who worked at the winery and you could tell he didn't believe Tim. I let it slide as they were quite busy, and we were just there to do some tasting. The winery was a bit short staffed and before I knew it one of the owners came over and asked if I could help out for a bit. The next thing I knew, I was behind the bar pouring. (The disbeliever was visibly shocked, which was pretty funny.) I quickly fell into the routine again, and had a ball. It was great to be needed. I also got the cutest shirt to commemorate our therapy day.

It's hard to believe our weekend is almost over and it's back to the grind next week. Hopefully we'll be able to go out for some more group therapy soon.

Tiny needles

The house hunt has been crazy. I think the hardest part of the entire process is the waiting when we have an offer out! It's as if we're in limbo at this point, we don't want to do anything to this house as we don't know how long we'll be here. We're getting anxious to find a home of our own. The market is absolutely crazy. It's fun looking at all of the houses, and thinking about what we can do with them, and of course, how I'll have to upgrade our mailbox to match the "new" house.

I am continuing with my weekly acupuncture sessions, and it is going pretty well overall. I've gotten used to the M0xa smell, and my doctor is great about trying new things. I recently starting breaking out, and it was driving me crazy! I mentioned it to my Dr, and and she said "ear needles will clear that up". So last week I wore mini-bandages with little needles in my left ear for four days! Amazingly, my complexion seemed to be get better! (Although answering the phone and sleeping took a bit of coordination.) Tim just laughs at me, but if it works...