A long awaited update...

Sorry about the lack of blogging, but we have been busy doing other things...mostly improvements to our house.
Easter weekend was the start of our marathon of house projects, since we both had Good Friday off. I took the time to repaint our half bath downstairs, as it really needed to be painted. At one point, we were planning to redo the whole thing, but decided against it-at least at this point in time, thus it desperately needed a new coat of paint.
We then picked up our massive order of tile from Lowe's and put in the garage after a few trips to get it home. We started ripping up our old flooring and much to our dismay found an adhesive on our cement slab. We both knew it had to come off, and we bought some tools to do it. Neither one of us realized what a challenge that would be and a huge road block. That first we weekend, we only got the adhesive scraped from half of the living room.
Last weekend, Nick started laying the tile on the clean part of the cement slab. He had to divide it into sections so we could have a place to walk and sit while the tile was setting. We have come up with some interesting arrangements!
This past week, we have taking sections of the adhesive off in the living room so we could finish tiling this weekend. I think the hope is to get all of the whole tiles down and probably start cutting the custom ones. I'd be surprised if we started grouting this weekend, but as that's an easier job, that can wait.
Needless to say, as happy as we are to get the tile down and the old floor gone, we will not be in any sort of hurry to move onto the kitchen. I cringe just thinking about it. It is going to look very nice when it's all finished.
Everything else is about the same. Work, go home, relax and repeat. Next weekend is Nick's birthday and we plan to take some time off from our house projects to take Sierra to the beach. It should be a fun time!

Recharging the batteries

Sorry about the lack of new posts lately, but I have been pretty busy.
Last weekend, I traveled to Minnesota for Lisa's wedding. I had a wonderful time and Lisa made a beautiful bride. I enjoyed seeing so many friends and family, but I had very little sleep while there. This, coupled with an airline journey, equaled me getting a cold this week. Yesterday (Saturday) I slept on and off the whole day and today I feel a bit more human. This week is a four day one, as the clinic is closing for Good Friday. Since this is not a paid holiday, I am making up the hours in the other four days we are open. It should be a long week, but it will be nice to have Friday off. We have no plans for the Easter weekend at this time. We have ordered our tile from Lowe's and are awaiting its arrival to start our much anticipated project. I am also planning on painting the downstairs half bath before we tile in there to make every wall in the house have a fresh coat of paint. The whole project will be a lot of work, but will be nice when it's finished!

March Blahs

March has been a fairly uneventful month for us here. My time has mostly been spent relaxing and working on a quilt panel for a friend (see photos below). I just sent it off today, which was nice (Congrats Brandi and Steve!). We also have been paying off some debt with a portion of our tax return as well choosing a tile for the downstairs (we finally have a winner!). That project will be starting within a few weeks, whenever the tile comes in. Work has continued to be busy, but the pressure has decreased as two of our aides FINALLY passed their license exam for physical therapy assistants. That, and another therapist will be starting in a couple of weeks has really helped things at work. This week is only one of three days, which is exciting, as I am leaving Thursday for cold MN (of course, the cold comes when I am going to be there) for Lisa's wedding. I am really excited to see everyone and have some fun celebrating. That's all for now! I can't believe we are already looking at April! Time sure does fly!

Hot Weekend

I can't believe this is the last weekend in February! We have had a gorgeous weekend here that has been borderline hot at times! I hate to complain, but there it is.
Saturday we went to the Wild Animal Park in Escondido, which is almost into San Diego. It is a part of the San Diego zoo, but it tries to make the environment more "wild." Nick got free tickets when he was at a conference there on Friday, so we made the trip on Saturday. It was fun-lots of things to see-but I underestimated the heat and was beat by 3 PM. It's a huge park and we made it to most of it, but both of us were ready to call it a day. We missed out on a few of the gardens, the elephants and the gibbons. We did take the "Journey into Africa" which is a "bus" ride around the "wild" portion of the park. It was a fun day, especially since the tickets were free. I don't know if it would have been worth it for the two of us paying $45 a ticket. It was also a birth control moment with all of the kids running around being brats!
Today, we have taken it easier. It has also been beautiful here today again. I did some work in the yard, ran a few errands, took Sierra for a walk, and went to Starbucks at the town center for cooling a drink. It's hard to believe that it is winter everywhere else when it's been so nice here.
This week is a four day one for me, but long days. One of our therapists is at a horse physical therapy class in Florida for two weeks, so I've been covering the clinic for a lot more hours since she's been gone. She is back Friday, so I have the day off. Nick is also off Friday because of the furlough. It is supposed to be more seasonable temperatures by then.
Here are some photos of our Wild Animal Park day-enjoy!

February Flash

It's been a busy and fun last few weeks here in Riverside. My parents came for a week leaving last Tuesday. I was off most of the time, which made it more enjoyable. Unfortunately, we only had one nice day before California decided to have some "winter weather," which consists mainly of wind and rain and "cold" temperatures. Not exactly the escape from Minnesota winter that my parents had been planning, they still had a nice time. Our best day was in San Diego and La Jolla where we really enjoyed our one nice day.
This weekend has been mainly about getting the house back together after the parents' visit. Yesterday, on Valentine's day, we went out for lunch at Quizno's, ran errands, and had supper at Chipotle with an evening movie, "Taken." We also took the dog and walked up Mt. Rubbidoux, which was a beautiful light hike on a beautiful winter day. I even managed to squeeze in a trip to Kohl's. Nick gave me a new ipod shuffle since my old one went through the laundry. It will be nice to have something to listen to at the gym again.
Today we did the usual grocery shopping and also a trip to Home Depot for this and that. I was looking for some tile, but didn't find anything I liked. I have three options from Lowe's that I will choose from. We hope to start tiling the first floor within a couple weeks or a month. It shouldn't be a bad job, because it is mostly one big area, but since it is the area we spend the most time, it will be somewhat inconvenient.
I am posting some photos from San Diego from my parents' visit. We saw a world class (World Cup) racing "boat" (for lack of a better term) out for "practice" and had a beautiful visit to my favorite southern California beach in La Jolla (yes, I am standing in the water-it was that nice and the water wasn't cold, just nice). Have a good week everyone!

A Quick Update

A quick update here from sunny and warm California; yes today is supposed to be over 80 degrees.
Last weekend I had a blast at my course in Salt Lake City. I don't usually expect to have so much fun at a course, but so it was. I also learned a lot of great information and the women's health program at the clinic is ready to be up and running. We already have 5-10 referrals, which is great. I just hope that we get some non-HMO patients, so we actually can make money on them! I am going to see how things go and hope to complete the second course this summer or fall, which will be more on pain disorders and rectal examination....mmmm.
This weekend we have been cleaning up a storm. My parents come in Tuesday night and are staying for a week. I am off starting Wednesday and go back to work on Monday, so I only will be working one full day while they're here. We are planning to do some tourist activities including going to San Diego. A lot will depend on the weather, as it is supposed to start raining on Friday. We are happy for the rain, but my parents are hoping for more 80 degree days!
I can't believe it's February already! This year is already flying by! I hope everyone has a nice weekend watching the Superbowl, if you so choose. We are off to Josh and Erin's party, as Erin is a die-hard Steeler's fan, since she is from Pittsburgh. I am sure I will be very full by the time I got to bed! Cheers!

80s club

temperatures that is, not age!
We've had unbelievable weather this past week, making me feel hot at times. Sierra has especially enjoyed being outside when I see her at lunch and after work as the light of day dwindles. It's pretty hard to enjoy the weather completely when you think about how large of a drought we are in and that this is technically our rainy season (supposedly going through March). As much as I enjoy the warm weather and sun, I would be happier overall if we would have at least two days of rain in the week.


Despite the drought, we still have quite a bit of green from the moisture we got before the new year. The wilderness park is quite green as well as the mountain outside our window. It is a nice change from the brown we see most of the year.
This past weekend was uneventful as I have been reading several articles in preparation for a class I'm going to in Salt Lake City. I am going to a continuing education class in pelvic physical therapy/incontinence management with another therapist from our clinic. It is the first in a series of three, which I tentatively plan to complete to get my certificate in pelvic physical therapy. Our boss wants to beef up our women's health program and get some concrete education behind a few of us. It should be an interesting class, but I'm not looking forward to the COLD temperatures! Think of me freezing in SLC next weekend! =)