The pictures are all out of order so that's why I gave the overview.
Z and A at the only remaining creek in the area.
Christina and I had to make baklava...she had promised to teach me how to make it back during Christmas time but since I was leaving, we had to make baklava in the middle of July. Yummy!!
Her daughter is the one who is deaf. She has her cochlear surgery September 15th so all prayers are welcome!
Loading the truck...we got the biggest one they have and though we packed incredibly well, had to leave a couple of the girls' outdoor toys behind.
Sammy needed a break. It was somewhere between 105 and 111 degrees that day. Conflicting reports on the actual temperature are irrelevant since, suffice it to say, it was HOT! Thanks to the guys who came to help us out and Nana and Poppy who cleaned and Auntie K who took the girls, it went really well and actually rather quickly. Quickly enough, in fact, that we decided to drive the three hours to Bakersfield that night (to get out of the LA basin before commuter traffic started the next morning). It made the second day so much shorter!
We are in escrow in a small ranch in Redding and all everyone makes fun of me for is the number of flies we will have to deal with (there are horses on the land)...really? I have lived in Banning for five years. Horses got nothing on us. This was just one box in my kitchen after the doors were left open for the packing.
M said not to take too many pics since we don't own the place yet, but this would be the view from our living room, if it all goes well. Don't worry, when we close, I will take pics. The house is older but the land is very well developed and has a horse-boarding business on it that is already running and doing well. I would run the business...when I learn a little something about horses. The man who owns it has agreed to train me in before he leaves.
We did set up at Nana and Poppy's house for the interim.
The pools don't compare? Really? It's a close second, anyway.
The day Jini watched the girls.
The girls and their cousins the day Auntie K watched them all.
There were actually six. She took six kids to the movies! Good thing she has a van! :-)
The most bitter-sweet of all!! Early in the morning on our 13th anniversary I took my hubby to the airport to send him back down south to finish out his time at his other office. He will permanently move up here with us August 23rd. I was quite emotional about this departure; not because it was our anniversary but because we have always done all the big stuff together.
Sure we do trips and are apart for periods of time all the time, but all of the hard times, all of the tough transitions, we have done all of them together. It was really hard for me to see him go. I felt very alone. It is good I have my parents here right now or I might just fall apart. I left all my friends and all my kids' friends, moved, and now I am looking at learning how to run a horse business when I don't even know what horses eat. It's a huge learning curve and without M, it seems so much bigger. Thirteen years we have been doing this life together. And we have done a LOT...hard, hard times and great, wonderful times, but always together. He will be here soon, I know, but on this day, that was hard.
There are so many things changing right now, please pray for the girls as they deal with all this in their little minds. Nana is doing awesome keeping them busy and having fun but she goes back to work tomorrow and they are already making pictures for their friends and asked me to start a mail pile so I can mail them later in the week. I have planned a trip out to see my sister to break up the time while Dad is gone and we bought a ticket for him to fly up for a day and a half in two weeks, but already today K asked me, "Mom, when is Dad coming to live with us up here?"
Thanks for your prayers! Please pray for my friends in socal. It is always worst to be left behind and I left precious sisters down there, each of whom I admire and love and will miss more than they will ever know or understand. God bless!
