The Palm Springs Condo

Back in November, my husband and I purchased a condo in Palm Springs, CA.  It was an exciting time of realizing a big dream for us and we worked really hard to make it our own.

The place was overall pretty awesome and the complex itself was the big draw for us to purchase this particular property.

After all, who could resist this?!

Now the inside of the condo.... well, that was a whole 'nother story.  It was overall in really good shape.  But part of the reason for the great condition of the place was that it was hardly ever used over the past 27 years.  So we called it our 80's time capsule.  And it was indeed a doozy...

First, there was the VERY pink carpet, which the pictures just do not do justice to- yes, I said PINK, the heavy drapes, the lovely pink and blue furniture, the over use of ugly fake plants and the overall 'brass and glass' feel to the place...

Then, of course, who could forget the floral bedspreads and raspberry pink towels to match- all folded like fans and everything?!

It was truly a sight to behold!   And a mess to be dealt with immediately!

First things first, we completely emptied out the place and had the carpets dyed brown.  Yes, you can do that!  And with carpet that had hardly any wear and tear, it was the perfect choice.

Next we moved on to finding all different living/ dining area furniture.  This consisted of finding some used, some IKEA and some stuff at the local furniture dealers.  Remember that we were working with this being Thanksgiving week and had only two weeks to get what we could get done before we wanted to be able to use the place and have friends be able to use it for the season!  It was a crazy time!  The local thrift stores were amazed at how many times we showed up to donate and we did manage to sell some stuff on Craigslist as well.  I also installed new kitchen flooring as I just could not live with the pinkish stuff that was there. 

We did keep the bedroom furniture as we ran out of cash to do anything about that and with new linens and such it was not so bad after all.  I also figured out that even though the place was hardly ever used, it sure would have been nice if the people had bothered to clean it up once in a while.  Let's just say that all the hard water build up, dust and crud gave me 2 weeks worth of full body workouts that would rival any gym.

Now our place is still a work in progress, but it is so much nicer!

Today, it looks like this:

And right now some friends of ours are there using our Palm Springs condo.  We are thrilled to be able to share it with them.  The email they sent was so full of their obvious enjoyment and it made us so happy and proud and I have to admit- just a wee bit jealous!  Sometime we will join them there when we can all go together at the same time and maybe try to learn to golf!  We just can't wait until we go back to Palm Springs at the end of March!

The Answers And Peace That I Need

As I stared at a blank screen for the longest time, I went back to view my blog and found a new comment on my last post.  The comment was from Loretta and it got me out of my funk and into finally writing this post that really I guess I have just been avoiding and yet I so need to write.

So I'll start with this:  Christmas was probably the best one we have had around here in at least a few years.  There was no family drama requiring a visit from the sheriff- Ha!  We were blessed to get our gifts early in the form of our fun new puppy and our Palm Springs condo.  I even took a chance and told Santa about how much I want to move to Texas.  He made no promises, but hey it never hurts to try!  We also received some of the best surprise news that we could ever have gotten when we found out that my husband passed his latest actuarial exam- which we were totally NOT expecting.  Yes, one of those exams that require study of at least 300 hours of stuff like this:

With the passage of this particular exam, it puts my husband in a very good position to be a real live actuary by November of this year!!!!!!  We never thought he would pass so quickly as this exam is one many people get stuck on and take over and over.  And really, he just didn't have a good feeling about it.  What a fabulous and welcome surprise.  This also means that as soon as he gets his credential, I will get to start those pilot lessons I've said that I am meaning to take!

So many wonderful things....  My heart is just full of thankfulness.  I can't believe how blessed we are during such a time of turmoil all around us- in the world, in our country and right here at home.

You see, I don't want to seem ungrateful.  I strive to be content and yet grow in life.  I know we ought not dwell on the things that are not as we would like and that many things are out of our control as human beings. 

And yet some things are too big to ignore. 

My sister is still in jail.  I have discovered that she is in need of more help and rehabilitation than I ever imagined.  She is addicted to every form of bad behavior and wrong choice that there is.  She is a very sad and sick person that has destroyed so much for so many.

She has been offered a combination of incarceration/rehab/work release of 3 years and is otherwise facing 5-10 years in prison.  She still believes she can somehow 'beat the system' and has refused the 3 year deal.

I am trying hard to swallow the fact that I actually agree with her in that she should not take the 3 year deal.  I don't think she should take it because I feel that she needs a lot LONGER in custody to keep society at large safe and to give herself any chance at all of actually changing her life for the better.

I can't help feeling like a big ol' bitch of an older sister who has so much in this life and yet would wish her little sister such a tough row to hoe.  I don't mean it that way and I know in my heart that people understand that. 

I need to look at this as an opportunity to expand my vision of what positive change can be. 

And I will. 

In time, I will accept whatever is meant to be for my sister and I will put it all into proper perspective as soon as my heart allows. 

Image found at: posterenvy.com

Robin, This One Is Especially For YOU!

Hi all!  I'm finally gonna' do some catch up here in blogland.  Soooo..... without further ado, it's time for that cutesy dog post I promised.  You've been warned.

On the day we got Tanner, he looked like this:

 

He was a little tan fur ball with a white blaze on his chest, white back toes and green eyes.

On his very first night at home, our dog Hailey was already willing to share her favorite spot with him.

He made himself quite comfortable.  I thought even his little backside was cute.

 Tanner got to meet our nephew Nathan the very next day as we were already on our way down to Palm Springs to close on our condo.  Obviously, Nathan thought Tanner was pretty cool.

We ended up waiting in a motel for days while the kinks were ironed out with our seller.  Tanner proved to be a pretty mellow fellow through it all.

Hailey and Tanner made themselves comfortable in the condo right away.  

They didn't mind the 80's furniture one bit.

When we checked out the dog area at the condo's west wall, we found out that Tanner wanted to help take Hailey for a walk and that he would hop like a bunny to keep his feet from getting wet in the the long grass.

Tanner's ears were flopped over for about the first week that we had him.  He looked like a little teddy bear.  Many people mentioned that he seemed a lot like a 'live' stuffed animal.

 Then one night he had one ear that was starting to go up.  The next morning he looked like this:

He was really starting to look like a Chihuahua!

There was a lot of work that needed to be done in the condo and all that being held in one hand while my husband or I would clean and scrub and move things around with the other hand was exhausting for Tanner.

But he found a really great place to rest!

 Hailey is sweet and will put up with almost anything from Tanner.....

 But when she's done, she's done.....  everybody has their limits!

(This is one of my absolute favorite pictures!)

 We have had so much fun with this little guy.  He is super easy to train and really made this Christmas time special for all of us.  It was a little tough because I took on extra work and then I was also surprised to note how challenging it was to have a big family holiday without our dog Parker this year.  Many people mentioned that they had so many wonderful memories of our Parker and also told me how much they really like our new little dude.  I would never want to put any pressure on a pet to heal a hurt, and yet Tanner has been just what we needed, just as he is.

......and it looks like the green eyes are here to stay!