It's Hard to Believe!

Over the past weekend Tim and I went to the Paso Robles Home and Rec show. I was excited to go but Tim was dragging his feet wondering what on earth we needed for our home. I just wanted to browse the different vendors and sign up for all the contests. Every home show has tons of contests. So the grand prize contest was a 4 day trip to Vegas in some fancy hotel. We of course signed up. We filled out our ticket stub with our name and phone number and took the other half of the ticket, in which they mentioned that we should be sure to keep in case we won. Well, I put Tim in charge of the multiple tickets that day for all of the various contests we were entering. (Some of you can see where this is going)

Well, we waited for any phone calls after the drawing on Sunday and didn't get a single one. No big deal, I have never won a contest in my life. Didn't think this would be the one. Well on Wed afternoon they called and left a message saying that we had won the grand prize Vegas trip! I was so excited! If you know me, you know how sometimes when I get excited I have these loud outbursts of sheer joy! I would have been one of those great radio winners that goes crazy on the other end of the line while they are on the radio.

Well there was one small detail. The message said for us to call the lady back so we could redeem our prize. So, my next question for Tim is, "where are our tickets we were supposed to save?" We need to redeem our prize. Tim then mentions that he didn't think we were going to win and it had been 4 days so he threw the tickets away! My outburst of joy quickly turned into an outburst of "you've got to be kidding me!!!!" Tim quickly replied that he knew exactly which trash can he put them in. My next response was, "oh you mean the trash cans that were emptied last night and the trash man took away this morning!!!"

So we debated all night. Would they give us the trip? I mean they had our name and phone number.. They had to give it to us right? So Tim's job this morning was to convince the lady that tickets or no tickets she had to give us the trip. I was anxious at school today to find out the answer.

At lunch time I walked into the office at school to find flowers sitting on the counter waiting for me. This was a great surprise and I had two things running through my head. Number 1: either these flowers were from Tim saying he was extremely sorry he did everything he could but we needed the tickets he threw away, or Number 2: We were going to Vegas!

I opened the card in anticipation and it read:
Pack your bags! We're going to Vegas!

Whoo hoo! Now I can never say I havn't won anything again. The funny thing is people are starting to tell us that they are hearing our name on local radio stations congratulating us.

The Landscaping is Done!

Here is the updated version of the front yard. It's nice to be done!

Personality Differences

Just looking at these two pictures crack me up. It is so obvious to see the differences in personality between Tim and I. Tim thought it would make a cool picture if I layed down in the wildflowers. At first I refused and but then gave in after some more pleading. Do I not look terribly uncomfortable in this picture? All I could think about was what insect would bite me, what might get in my hair, or what snake might wander over and wonder what I was doing on this level. Tim on the other hand had no problem being amongst the wildflowers and probably could have been quite happy taking in the view for ten minutes or so from down there. What I wouldn't give for that laid back, no stress personality. It is something I have to work for on a daily basis...acutally an hourly basis. I really don't think I will ever achieve it. I'm so glad my better half makes a great compliment to all the stress in a day so nicely.

Wildflowers

Tim and I took a Sunday afternoon drive out to Shell Creek Rd. to check out the wildflowers. They were pretty incredible and so close to home. It was about a 30 min country drive and was totally worth it. If you have the chance to take a drive and check them out, I would highly recommend it. I think there only a couple good viewing weeks left. It was a pretty popular destination. I was surprised at the amount of people out there picnicing, biking, and walking through the fields.

Joshua Tree

We took a roadtrip out to Joshua Tree for the last extended weekend of spring break. We saw lots of wildflowers, did some hiking, climbed lots of boulders, and braved some fierce winds. This is where Tim grew up. Enjoy all the pictures.

The Beginnings of a Spring Break Project

We decided that after five months of being in our new place, it was time to begin to tackle the landscaping. Having bought a bank owned home, it was apparent that no one had done anything to the yard in quite a while. The grass was being taken over by weeds and most of it was dead. In this picture the lawn actually looks pretty good because it was just watered. The hillside is another beast that we are going ot have to tackle.

The city was offering a rebate program for those saving water. They gave us $500 to tear out our lawn and do a dryscape. We didn't want to water all of this lawn all summer here anyway with the extreme heat, so we took them up on their offer.

Tim built this really cool rock wall as a feature. We will also be building a couple more on the side of the house. We planted an olive tree in front of this wall.

We also went for the river rock dry bed feature. I was extremely sore after helping Tim put all of these rocks in place.

The best part was heading to the nursery and going on a shopping spree for new drought tolerant plants. (grasses, sage, lavender, breath of heaven, agapanthas, etc.) We will keep you updated on the finished product. Next step, lots of bark!