Enchanting Desert- Palm Springs, California

   

Palm trees are always such a special treat for me.

Day...

Taken at a gas station- can you believe it?

or night...

Did you see the crescent moon?

Peacock Flowers in the afternoon sun:

 

 Poolside beauties:

                      

Bougainvillea- the flower that tells me I'm in a place that I'm about to fall in love with:                  

 The lemon tree in the background sent me home with 

fruit that has become jelly, and I call it 'sunshine in a jar'...

The Palm Springs Art Museum with a polished reflection of natural surroundings 

that contrasts with the modern art hiding inside the building:

 

Hard to believe all of this exists in a hot, dry desert 

where water is scarce and the sun beats down 350 days a year.

Somehow, beauty that endures less than ideal conditions is even more alluring...

   

All Kinds Of Growth

I'm finally seeing some signs of hope that we really will be enjoying some sunny weather here in the Northwest at some point.  The pink rhododendrons at the front of my house have exploded!

They are native plants that grow wild in many areas out here and have apparently benefited greatly from all the rain we have gotten.  I've never seen them bloom so much before!

Seeing this lovely display and reading some of the posts about peoples gardens, such as those at Middle Passages or Faith Love Kids and Me have inspired me to give planting some edibles a chance again.  When I was a kid we never planted any food plants and I always wanted to.  Then when I was newly married I tried a few but didn't have any idea what I was doing and I was not successful at all!  Now I have realized that if I just give the food crop plants much of the same care I give the flowers I do well with, then I'll probably see some decent results.  Yeah, I know- a real epiphany!  

Also, over the past long weekend, I took care of a funny little puppy for one of the people I work for.  She is a hairless Chinese Crested and looks like this:

She feels like an elephant and will only ever have hair on her head, tail and feet- kind of like a pony. 

At first we were a little put off by her appearance as you really can't imagine how different from an average dog she is without seeing her in person.  But within a couple of days I grew to like how warm her skin always is and realized that her personality is absolutely super!  As she got comfortable with us, she showed us how wild and crazy she can be and proceeded to run non-stop and go in fits about the house looking for the next thing she would chew!

On Monday night I got a call from my nephew Nathan's Dad.  He let me know that Nathan was in the Emergency Room because of a bike accident.  Nathan was riding on a bike trail and had just made it down a pretty steep hill when he hit a bump where a tree root protruded up into the trail.  Nathan took a major face plant and came up with a tooth protruding from his cheek!  At the ER it was discovered that he had 3 broken teeth while the doctors superglued his cheek shut!!!  After a few hours of worry and research we figured out that Nathan follows my slow growth pattern and his 3 teeth were only baby teeth.  (Because his Dad only got custody in December, we didn't know for sure.)  Whew!  What a relief.  I'm glad to report that no, I don't have any pictures of this and yes, Nathan is going to be fine and was in school showing off his cracked bike helmet on Tuesday.  A typical boy who says he will be more careful in the future. 

We'll see about that!

There's Still A Plan

I started this blog a little over 6 months ago when I was just sure that my husband and I were on our way to becoming new residents of Texas.  Then a few months ago, we decided that if Texas wasn't having us in any big hurry, well, we would just open up our hearts and minds to the idea that anywhere with warmth and sun would be just fine with us.  This kind of willingness to bend would surely get us to tan lines and high air conditioning bills fast, right?

Here we still are, in the rainy Northwest.  We are in the midst of enduring the coldest, wettest Spring ever on record...  officially.  I finally got the chance to mow the yard when the rain managed to stop for about 36 hours.  There are puddles in places that I never knew would puddle.  My flower pots are actually flooded.  My dogs look out the door when I open it and then look at me as if to say, "Are you kidding?  Would you want to have to go out there to do your business?"  When there is a moment of reprieve and it looks like there might be some sun, the dogs run out to lay on the deck only to return within a few minutes to lay on the floor and look depressed when the sky clouds up again.  We were totally teased by a beautiful sunny 65 degree day last Saturday and then I woke up to rain on the skylights for Easter.  So, yes, I am annoyed.

But then I have to feel like a real horses ass when I complain like this as I have been watching people who are truly suffering with all the tornado and storm damage all over the South.  I have a home.  With flower pots and a deck, no less.  I'm not out searching for my dogs or even lost family members.  So yeah, it is all so relative...

I know there is a plan at work.  I'm just not totally clear what that plan is anymore.  For our part, my husband and I are working the recruiter and ourselves hard, searching high and low for a good job that will allow us to pursue this dream of being where the sun shines most of the time and the cost of living is decent.  My husband is still working hard to fulfill his requirements to become a member of the Property/Casualty Society Of Actuaries.  He knows that within a year he will be at the Associate level.  This should make looking for a job a bit more fruitful. 

In the mean time, we are living and preparing as if we could up and move at any moment.  I am still getting rid of more stuff and making decisions about stuff that I will get rid of the moment I know we really will be leaving.  We are saving up cash.  The house looks great for all the prep work I did last Fall.  And, we are still trying to make the most of what is going on in our lives today, while we are still here.  We will be running another 5k on Sunday and enjoying a get together with friends this weekend.   I am also planning a small event for our neighborhood next week with my neighbor.  Most of all we are both learning that appreciating what you have, even when it's not exactly what you want is sometimes the most important plan of all.

All The Disney Details- California Adventure

Have you ever been to Disney's California Adventure park?  It is right next to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.  It is a smaller park that has had a fairly checkered past as far as some people loving it and others hating it.  My husband and I have always been on the 'love it' side as we have enjoyed the fact that it has been a nice homage to the state of California and a good variation on the Disney theme.  Currently the park is undergoing a huge renovation and I hope that this will make for some more reasons to love it.

There was a lot to love for Nathan as he headed straight for the one part of California Adventure that I definitely do NOT love:  the Grizzly River Run ride.  It is one of the river rafting type rides in which some people get to laugh and enjoy it while others ALWAYS get soaked to the bone.  I'm sure you can guess which category I fall into for that...  Here's Nathan and his Dad yucking it up after just missing being blasted by a huge geyser:

Nathan really proved his love of the wildest rides when we were over in California Adventure.  He even liked my favorite:  The Tower Of Terror.  A lot of people can't handle that one as it is a drop tower type of ride that is actually not just a drop, but is pulled down with so much force that you actually rise up out of your seat!  That is my favorite part as your stomach also does that flip thing, like when you go down a certain type of hill really fast.  It makes me crack up laughing every time.  Nathan was also a fan of the Soarin' Over California ride, which is like being in a hang glider over different scenes of California and he loved California Screamin'- a roller coaster that takes you on an inversion loop and goes from zero to 55 miles per hour in 4 seconds, right at the start.

I like the fact that this park is often a lot less crowded.  It gives me time and space to stop and enjoy the flowers, like these ranunculus that grow wild and beautiful.

I also like the way that the characters in California Adventure are usually dressed in non-traditional outfits.

Nathan seemed to enjoy a day with a bit more of a relaxing pace as well:

 

We finished off the evening with a viewing of 'World Of Color'.   It is a show that involves synchronized water fountains with colors and images projected onto them.  Pretty neat.  Here's a little preview for you:  (You might want to pause the music player.)