BIG CHANGES have taken place since I've last posted a blog. Wow!

Since May, we put our house up for sale. By June 12, we thought we had a buyer, but he backed out. So, the waiting game began. However, I decided to go up to Washington and try and find a place to live and put some money down on a place. I found a place! It's right down the street from where mom and dad live. Imagine that. It's a good thing. I never thought I would say that! But, I guess maturity happens in one's life!

So, when would our house sell? We finally got a buyer around the 6th of July. Escrow would close on the 4th of August, or by the 10th at the latest. So, we made plans to move the weekend of Aug. 5. We got the movers to come. We had it all planned out. Then...escrow wasn't going to close until possibly the 17th! Oh no! What to do, what to do. Well, here's what we decided. Tom would stay in California until escrow closed. The furniture would be moved out on Saturday as planned, and I would drive up to Washington with my friend on Sunday. Perfect! She would fly home on Monday, so she could be back to work on Tuesday. Then...another clitch...the movers couldn't come until Sunday! Oh no! I had to be there to watch them load the truck! How could I miss that? But, if I wanted my friend to go with me, the only choice we had was to leave on Sunday and hope the movers would load everything correctly. I wasn't completely sure I trusted Tom to oversee this. As it turned out...he left a lot of stuff that should have gone in the truck. So, he had his car loaded to the gills, along with our cat! But, he got most everything moved. I'm still not sure about a few things. But, se la vie (?)

So, I got up here, Tom got up here, and we managed to throw my mom an 80th birthday party at my house on the 19th of August! We had 39 people here. It was a lot of fun, and everyone thought it turned out great.

Then, life began...again. In September I sought out substitute teaching jobs in the private schools around here. I happened to be in the right place at the right time (thank you, God!) and the first school I went to, the lady in charge of all substitutes for the private schools was in the office, so she put me on the sub list for all schools! I subbed about 3 days a week for the first month, but now, I haven't been called in over a week. I hope I can get some more jobs soon!

I'm also pursuing my scrapbook business. I've had a class at my house, and have approached the private schools about doing after school scrapbooking classes for kids. I hope they will let me do that at all four schools! We'll see... I'm also planning on a monthly crop in the clubhouse where we live. I hope to get interest up in that. The manager is all for it. My friend has also said she would have a class for her teacher friends!

So, that's my life since May. I'm still having to TRUST...which is a good thing, albiet hard at times. But, God is always faithful, and for that I am thankful.

Until later...

Getting Ready to Move

Well, here it is May 1, and you may be wondering what I've been doing lately. (As if there's anyone besides me who actually reads this!). Well, I'm still teaching Music one day a week, and working in the dental office two-three days a week. On Mondays I clean house, walk, and try to pack stuff.
We're getting ready to move. This is the biggest move we've ever made. I think it's because 1) it's the longest we have ever lived in any house since we've been married, 2) it's the biggest house we've ever lived in, and 3) it's the first time we've ever had to sell our house, since this is the first house we've ever owned. There is so much to do to make sure the house is ready to sell. We spent the day today taking a bunch of boxes and some shelves, and our entertainment center to a storage unit. It was quite exciting as I had to drive a big truck that we rented for a few hours to get all our stuff to the storage place. Thankfully, Tim and Todd helped me load and unload all the stuff.

One of the hardest things about moving is leaving my friends. It is so weird, because I sometimes feel that if I moved, no one would really care. But lately, several of my friends have indicated that my moving is really upsetting to them. I feel terrible, because I know how it is for friends to move away from me. Inside, I feel like saying, "Ok, I won't move!" But that is not really my heart's desire since I have never felt like California is "home", and I've really wanted to move back up the the northwest in like forever. I cannot believe I've lived down here 28 of the last 30 years! That's mind-boggling! I mean, how can I be that old! LOL. And now my parents are in their 80s (ok, Mom will be 80 in August) and I really want to spend as much time as possible with them at this time of their lives. And, I am really looking forward to having a nice manufactured home with a room for JUST ME to have my scrapbooking in! And even more importantly, Tom can have HIS OWN ROOM for all his baseball cards and stuff he's selling on EBay! Woohoo!

Another hard part of us moving is...Tim and Todd will be staying down here. This is very sad and somewhat upsetting to me. As much as I would want them to move out and get on with their "adult" lives, I really don't want to be so far away from them. I just hope and pray that they will find success in their jobs and in life in general. I really worry the most about Tim, because he doesn't seem to have any direction in his life and I don't know how he's going to make it. I just have to pray and pray and TRUST!

Well, that's all for now!

Well, here it is almost the middle of April! Time sure does fly! We are beginning to get into gear to getting our house ready to sell. Very scary! But, exciting too. I have started to "declutter". I have been inspired by www.flylady.net. Every day I get emails to motivate me to do something. Even though I don't follow her exact zone cleaning schedule, it gives me ideas on what to do. I have gotten the habit of dressing to my shoelaces every day, and I am keeping my sink clean (and the dishes done) pretty regularly, and I make my bed every day (but I was doing that before April--this was April's new habit to form. There is one more habit I was supposed to form, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is! But, I'm sure I'm already doing it LOL!

Every week is different. Two weeks ago I didn't go to Hermosa Beach to work; I subbed in 3rd grade at Light and Life on Wed-Fri. Last week, I didn't go down to Hermosa Beach until Thursday (I was going to go after Tom's physical therapy appointment, but my car had an oil leak, so I went up to Valencia and set at the car dealership for an hour and a half!). This week, after taking Tom to a doctor's appointment and a physical therapy appointment in the morning, I'm going to get together with Joan and Marilee for an early dinner. I can't wait to see them and catch up!

Good news! I have two scrapbook classes tentatively scheduled for the last two Saturdays in April! I just hope they actually happen.

Well, life is going on, and I can't wait to see how it all comes together in the next few months!
All for now...

I've been told I haven't posted in a while...so here goes.
When I first started "blogging" my life was in great transition and I was learning that I needed to trust God for everything. Now, nearly 7 months later, I think I'm learning!

So, what's been happening in my life since my last blog? Well, I have a permanent parttime job now. I'm officially working at the dental office in Hermosa Beach 3 days a week. At least I was going to start working there 3 days a week beginning this week, but there was a glitch in the plan (I'll explain later). But, I am going down there tomorrow for two days. I really am enjoying working there. I'm doing a little "front office" work, which consists mostly catching up on charts, writing when the patient's next appointment is and billing insurance, then I file charts and pull charts. The only part of the job I'm not crazy about, but am learning to do better at is calling insurance compananies to get information on coverage for certain plans. Actually, the worst part of the job is the 32 mile drive on the 405. It wouldn't be so bad, but if you're from LA, you know how bad the 405 is any day or time of the week. It takes me 40 minutes on "good" days, but it's usually an hour and a half. However, on Feb.17 (Friday and rain) it took THREE HOURS!!!! Made me really wish the office was a lot closer. But, I shouldn't complain, because my plan is to spend two nights down there so I only have to make one round trip a week. Many make that trek on the 405 every day, and I simply couldn not bare that. I think it must stem from the fact that I've never really had to drive far to work in my life...until now. Up to this year, the farthest I had to drive to work was five miles, and I did that for 15 years. I have a new admiration for Tom, who drives 38 miles every day to work. Wow!

Meanwhile,I'm still teaching Music on Tuesdays at Light and Life. I quit being the Librarian because I was offered the job of working three days a week down in HB. The Library job just wasn't working out for me.

Now, for the reason I didn't start working 3 days a week this week in HB. On Tuesday, Feb. 21 Tom had knee replacement surgery. He came home the 24th Everything went well, but they wanted me to stay home with Tom for a week. However, he is doing so wel, that the physical therapist said it would be ok for me to go to work. So, I'm going for two days instead of three.

So, my life has been busy, but busy is good! I am learning to trust!

Later....

Well, life is certainly interesting! Just when I am getting myself organized, "life happens" and disrupts my carefully planned schedule! Yesterday, after I finished working in the school Library at 1:30, I got a call from Tom (husband) saying he was in the hospital! Long story, but he started out at Whittier Community and was transferred closer to home. He had had heart palipitations, but seems fine now. But after blood tests, they decided to keep him overnight and have him do a treadmill test this morning. Well, it's almost noon, and I haven't heard if he's had it yet, or not. The last I heard at 10:30, was that he hadn't. So, I wasn't able to go down and work in the dental office as I am supposed to do. Fortunately, it should be ok for me to go down tomorrow, but who knows what they're going to find out about Tom! And, we have his car to get which was left in Whittier. These are the types of things that discourage me, and cause me to give up with this whole organization and cleaning that I try to do. I like routine, and when it gets interrupted, it's hard for me to deal with. Once again...learning lessons in life. How will I deal with it this time? Time will tell.

It's a little late, but Happy New Year! I am feeling very up about life right now...hooray! It seems that every January I feel energized to start becoming a better person. Since we are planning on moving this summer, I must de-clutter...BIG TIME! So, I've determined to do a little each week. Mondays seem to be the best day for me since that seems to be the day I never work. I've also joined a group called http://flylady.net and it's been great so far. It's really helping me to stay on track...but then again, this is only the beginning of the second week. I hope it will last!
I'm also excited because I am now officially working 3 days a week. I work in a dental office on Thursdays. I really like it, I just wish it wasn't so far away. It's 33 miles away, which isn't bad, except that I take the 405, and that's always a pain. But, over Christmas vacation, it wasn't too bad! I hope it will give me the experience I'll need if I ever need to get a job as a front office dental office person. That is IF I have to work outside the home! I'm hoping I can get my scrapbooking business going. It's really hard though. I don't know who to recruit. It seems that no one wants to get in the business, which is sad because it's really a great business opportunity!
Todd is home...came home Dec. 19. I was able to go out to dinner with my two sons and my husband for my birthday! What a special treat that was! All four of us have not eaten out together in ages (not counting the night we all went out before Todd went to DC, when his friends were with us). I'm also excited because Todd has a job! He's going back to Yahoo! which is a real blessing. He starts tomorrow.
I'm also excited because Tim bought a "new" car! It's his first car that he's bought on his own. It's a 92 Integra and it's a 5 speed. I was worried he wouldn't be able to drive it, but he is doing really well! Now, if he could just get a better paying job!
Tom sold a baseball card on EBay today for over $183! woohoo! He sold over 100 items this week, so that's a good thing. I hope he'll be able to keep it up! Meanwhile my house is overrun with baseball cards!
That's all for now...hope my year continues to go as well as it's starting out!