I can't believe we've had our house for two months already. On the one hand, I feel like we just moved in, but when I sit back and think about it we are remarkably settled in and well on our way to making this house into our home. The weekends we haven't had visitors we've been busy with home-owner type projects. After many days of hard work (and much cursing) Zac has finally got our sprinkler system working. Hopefully with the newly installed drip lines we'll be able to be water-conscious and still grow some of the vegetables that Zac so desperately wants. He's a farmer at heart, and he's happiest when he has a garden to tend. Me? I get fresh produce out of the deal so he's free to play in the dirt as much as he wants. I'm more focused on becoming a cactus/succulent propagator extraordinaire. I've become mildly obsessed with cacti and succulents since moving here. They come in so many shapes, colors and textures that they just captivate me. If I was a wealthy woman, I'd have a pretty amazing drought-tolerant garden.
Zac's brother's family visited last weekend. That included our three-year-old niece and five-year-old nephew. They're great kids and, all things considered, they were very well-behaved. Even before Zac and I knew we were moving to San Diego, Zac's brother's family was planning a trip to Disneyland for our niece's birthday. So after spending two and a half days up at Disneyland and a chill-out day at the beach, Zac's brother's family came down to spend about three days with us. I don't know about you, but after 2.5 days of Disneyland I figured that my niece and nephew would be totally fried and burnt out from the excitement and over-stimulation. Let's just say that Zac and I set the bar pretty low in terms of what we were expecting in terms of the behavior of two kids that have had their sleeping and eating patterns severely disrupted for a number of days. But, like I said, the kids were actually great. There were a couple of meltdowns, sure, but overall they were a hoot to have around. They loved our house and our citrus trees and pestered the dogs.
Poor dogs, they didn't know what to do having the kids hovering around them the whole time. The dogs were great, very patient and accepting with the kids, but I know they were a little relieved when they left. And poor Toivo, he was referred to as "the stinky one" all weekend, as my niece was having a hard time telling Toivo and Zoe apart. "Is this the stinky one?" she'd ask sweetly. "Yes, that's the stinky one," I'd answer. "I don't like the stinky one," she'd state. I'm pretty sure Toivo was a little indignant.
We got to see a few more San Diego attractions with Zac's brother's family as well. We spent one day at SeaWorld and one day at the San Diego Zoo. Both attractions were a lot of fun, but I'm constantly amazed at how expensive it is to visit some of these attractions. Zac and I usually get discounted tickets because Zac's active duty military and I'm not sure I'd be willing to visit some of these places if I had to pay full price. It's fairly ridiculous. Plus, once you're through the gates, you face spending $15-20 for lunch per person. Not for anything special, mind you. You practically need to take out a loan to feed a family of four.
The last full day of their visit was just hanging around the house, trying to get the kids to mellow out a little bit. Zac and his brother worked for hours on the sprinkler system while my sister-in-law and sat in the living room, catching up. The kids took a much-needed nap and it was a nice, relaxing way to finish their visit. This weekend is a weekend off and on Friday my folks arrive for a short stint. Then we have a weekend off, and then Zac's sister is coming to visit. It's ridiculous how much company we have. This means we will have had family here every other week for eight weeks. Again, we love our families. It's just a bit much. Thankfully my sister is saying that they may not be able to visit until September. I'm totally okay with that.
We finally are set to have our kitchen remodeled, starting in a few weeks. I went out the other day to pick out counter tops and back splashes for the new kitchen. I can not wait until it is completed. I know it will be a huge improvement over our current kitchen. I know it will be a pain in the butt cooking-wise while it's being remodeled, but we've got a grill and a microwave so I think we'll make it through just fine. Zac may be going off to another school in Indiana during some of the work as well, so for part of the time it will be only cooking for one. I'll have to use great restraint in order to not just go over to the local taco shop every night for dinner. So easy, so tasty. I think I should go celebrate Easter with some al pastor tacos. After all, I never was a Peeps fan . . .
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