We officially went into MLS on Friday. Still waiting for the virtual tour photos, but here are some that I've taken of our handiwork. More to come, and maybe a gallery of before and after, since looking at these I see you can't really tell what's been done!
So, anyone want to buy a house? Wait, I take that back How about: Anyone want to buy some land in Texas?
So we finally got to go to the festival! Check out the ACL (Austin City Limits) website for all the details on the event. We went by ourselves Friday, and Anna came on Sunday.
It was sooooo fun. And yes, hot. But only on Friday ... by Sunday, a storm had blown into Austin and brought cooler weather. It was amazing - the rain pretty much soaked all of Austin EXCEPT the festival location. We got just a couple of sprinkles. When we got home (to Anna's) that night we got the full force of storm - thunder and lightning like you wouldn't believe unless you're there to witness it. (Anyone who has experienced thunder storms in the south would know).
Theivery Corporation
Then we went exploring around Lake Bastrop which is about 10 miles from our property. We can't wait to get jetskis! We had only been to the north shore of the lake, so we drove around to the south side - and were completely dumbfounded to find ourselves surrounded by PINE TREES!! That's right -within minutes it felt like we were in Foresthill, long-needled pines creating a canopy over the highway. Unbelieveable. What an amazing surprise. Awesome campgrounds too.
We are in Tx again. Now chilling with Jamie and Debbie. We are having a nice relaxing time. We are taking lots of pics', but we dont have a good internet conection... so we will upload them all in Austin.
This is a picture of the view from the house and the salt water pool.
-m
CHECK OUT ALL THE PICS
As I think everyone knows by now, we're MOVING TO AUSTIN! If I've said "we're thinking about it," or "maybe" --- well, now it's really happening! The property is bought, and we have one sister there already!
If you want to know all about this journey, visit our Austin Blog. You'll probably find more information than you ever wanted to know. It is very exciting though.
Now Michael and I are working our fingers to the bone trying to get this house ready to sell! We're aiming to have it on the market before October 1. Somehow, nearly two years has gone by here, and the work has continued to pile up. But we're making good progress, and between hired help, and my family - we're getting there!! After slaving away to put their house up for sale, my parents are now devoted to getting our house ready! I don't know where they find the energy - but thank you thank you thank you!!! We'll soon have lots of before and after pictures for you to enjoy, but everything is still in progress now.
Here's a shot of mountains of brush and trees my parents cleared out, so now when you come down the driveway you can see clear down the canyon! It's gorgeous!! (Hard to capture the full effect with a camera, so you'll just have to come over and visit!)
We're heading back to Texas on Tuesday (Sept 12.) We're going to visit Michael's uncle and aunt (Jaime & Debbie) the 12-14th, then going to stay with Anna until the 18th. We bought tickets earlier this year to the Austin City Limits Festival - we're very excited! A nice diversion - and a much needed break for poor Michael!
I wanted to let everyone know we're planning a work day/party on Saturday September 23.
If anyone would like to help out - we'll work in the morning and we'll provide BBQ and beverages for lunch. Then we can party! Many of you have mentioned you'd be willing to help Michael over the years - so here's your chance ;) A last hurrah before the house goes up for sale! I'll post more details later, just wanted you to get it on your calendar.
Be sure to check back soon for more pics. We have a whole crew here this week doing drywall and finish work. I can't WAIT til it's done!!
Turns out they're not retired (or dead ha ha). Michael and I went to the concert with Jess, Paul, Julia and an empty seat for BOB since it was his birthday (LOVE YOU BOBBY! :) More funny than anything else, it was rad to rock out to the best of the 80s power ballads.
Michael's cousin Jason turned 30 August 15th. His wife Tiffany and her family threw a great weekend celebration for him at their fabulous cabin in Pioneer. Like the forgetful people we are, we didn't take any pictures of their amazing place. But we took a few shots at the lake where even Sharon went Jetskiing. It was a very fun day! Thank you very much Tiffany, Mike & Lisa for a very enjoyable weekend! You are so hospitable (and your food is delicious too!).
Here are a few photos of Connie's visit here in August. We made her do yard work and then took her to the lake.
Click here for photos.
We all met up at Claim Jumper on Thursday to start off Anna's non-stop party weekend. She is loved so much that we had to have 3 parties just so everyone could say good bye. Friday night we all hung out at our place - BBQ, camp fire, Midnight river hike, and I even slept on the roof. (by myself). Thanks to all her friends that showed up and helped out. 
Thursday Night
Friday Night
Sunday's pictures a coming soon.
-michael
I thought I should point out that you can turn off the music or scroll through song choices using the buttons at the very top in the light gray bar. Also, the music will stop each time you open a new page. So if you like the song you're listening to, be sure to open pages in a new window.
We'll update the selection periodically. Any special requests?
We spent all day Monday at Schlitterbahn. It was a blast!
We only got a few pics with our digital camera. We bought a water proof cam and took pics all day with that. We will post those when we get home.
We drove back out to Elgin, out to Bastrop and back. We took lots more pics of the property, even brought out lounge chairs and had a nice relaxing evening in our own personal forest. We left the chairs for any future sojourners. Sunset from the community park was a sight to behold.
I'm now completely convinced - I want to be here - NOW!
Muchos kudos y felicitaciones to Dave & Karen for finding the most amazing property in Texas.
You really have to see, stay and and experience to believe. We're so excited to GET OUT OF CALI!!
If you have any urge to buy property, especially in the Arbors, do it NOW! They only have 15 lots left. If you visit here, you must stay at least a week, because it's taken me that long to fall in love.
Tomorrow - it's Schlitterbahn - the #1 Waterpark in the country!
We just came back from Barton Springs. We spent about 3 hours floating around this giant natural swimming pool. It is a little cold, but perfect for a hot day like today.
See pics.
Today we met up with Sarah and Charity again and drove out to Lake Travis. (But first stopped for some authentic breakfast tacos - a favorite here, fabulous!)
The lake is huge, and the drive there is gorgeous. We went to Volente Beach, a very small Waterpark right on the lake. It's similar to SunSplash for you Roseville folks, but overlooking the water. We had a nice relaxing day in some awesome weather. Check out the pics. Tomorrow we plan to check out Barton Springs Pool, a natural spring on the river, then back out to Elgin to spend the day exploring.
We met up with my cousins Sara and Charity to hit the town. We saw live music, hung out in mellow bars and even got to see a hoodlum get maced. Check it out.
-michael
I Added music to our site yesterday. I thought it would be nice to have a sound track while reading about our life adventures. You can always turn it off if not.
Comment on this post and let me know if I should keep it.
-michael
All summer long, they have live music at the plaza in front of the civic center. Today Ter'ell Shahid was playing, it was a great show! After that we hung out in the 2nd street shopping district and had lunch at a great little place. Michael was just excited because there was a half a dozen wi-fi signals to choose from. We think we'll bring our clients here ...
Austin has bats.
"In 1980, while reconstructing the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, bridge engineers had no idea that new crevices created beneath the bridge would make an ideal place for a bat roost. Even though they had lived there for years, it was headline news when bats suddenly began moving in under the Austin bridge by the thousands. After the novelty of this unusual occurrence had worn off, the public began to react in fear. Many activists within the Austin community began petitioning to have the colony eradicated. "
Then...
"About that time, a group now know as Bat Conservation International, stepped in and began an educational process about the bats. They educated Austinites to the fact that they are gentle and incredibly sophisticated animals, and that they eat from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects, including mosquitoes, each night."
I got this from http://www.io.com/house/batstory.html
As always, we took lots of picture and movies.
Last night we visited Lucy's in the Sky - a little restaurant/bar out over Lake Austin. It's very reminiscent of Sacramento on the river. We saw lots of wildlife, including cute little turtles and a swan. We watched the sun set, and took pictures of our own version of "Miles away from ordinary ..." (You know the Corona commercials.) Very relaxing. And hot, but good. The funny thing here is most locals wear jeans! After we left the restaurant, we ended up driving around Austin's best hills (on accident, we got lost.) It's exactly like the Hollywood Hills, at least what I think they would be like. Beautiful, unbelievable mansions, and gorgeous winding hills. When we retire as millionaires I wouldn't mind living there!!
We spent the morning driving around downtown again, had breakfast and walked a bit. The weather is nice, not as hot as Sac, but humid - you get used to it very quickly.
We're headed out to Elgin now ... we'll keep adding photos. :)
Well, we made it safe and sound. My back did ok for the trip - it helped that we had 3 stops along the way. It's 1 am here - we decided to check out the town right away, mostly because we were hungry. Downtown is AWESOME!! It's Tuesday and there are all kinds of people and live music all over. It's fabulous. The air is definitely humid, but not unpleasant. It really feels like Hawaii. There was a nice cool breeze as we sat outside and had burgers. Much more pictures to come tomorrow, time to call it a night!
We took a trip down to the river Sunday afternoon. The water was cold, the current was swift, but it was beautiful! I'm glad we had the doggie life vests; so are Sam & Bear. They understand the way the water works though, and didn't venture too far down the river before coming back. Quite a workout though! (For them, not us, unless you count the hike down there.)
We're off to Austin tomorrow. We'll be sure to post lots of pics and updates! Check the gallery for more pics...
I had my appointment with the Medtronics rep yesterday. I forgot to mention earlier that I did fire up the juices last Friday, in case you were wondering. It's all fine and dandy, but I just really don't know if it's going to help permanently. It's going to be a big waiting game.
I'm very 50/50 about this whole thing. Half of the time I just think to myself "I've made a huge mistake..." When my pain is really bad, there's just no way this can even touch it, and even sometimes makes it worse.
The other half of the time I think "You know, I may just really get used to this thing after all." If my pain is at a lower level, then the tingling definitely does provide a distraction. The best case scenario, I'm hoping I just keep it on all the time, whether I think I need it or not, and magically (or more like miraculously) I'll wake up one day, turn it off, and find out the pain is gone.
The scars are healing nicely, but still pretty ugly. The battery pack beneath my skin (on the right) is beyond annoying, but it has gotten more tolerable even over these last three weeks, so I hope in time I won't even notice it anymore.
I am stuck in Dallas, TX. My 7:30am flight was canceled. Ill be here all day!
:(
I was here for the Global Day of Prayer.
By the way - I should have mentioned I have NOT turned my new system on yet. (If you're just tuning in, read the post below first).
I have everything I need, and it should be ready to go, but I'm too scared to turn it on yet. I feel pretty torn up inside from the surgery, so I'm not thrilled about cranking up any electrical currents yet. I have a long training dvd yet to watch as well so I can learn all about it.
I plan to wait until I'm off the morphine, and moving around a little better. Maybe a few more days.
I have a follow up appointment with my own personal Medtronics rep on June 5. We will spend a few hours together so she can set up multiple "programs" for me. It's so crazy, you can have multiple settings (called programs) to use based on your current activity - sitting, standing, sleeping, exercising, etc. Although the system is permanent and bolted in place, so to speak, it does move with your spine, so the stimulation effect and intensity varies based on your position.
Also important to note two things:
1) This will not eliminate pain completely for me. A good result is 50% reduction. My prayer is that it provides enough relief for me to get off of pain meds.
2) It will not be immediate by any means. It may take more than a year to have any lasting effect.
My latest surgery was last Tuesday (May 16). If you read an earlier post, I talked about the trial spinal stimulator cord I had implanted. Well, it seemed promising enough to go ahead and "install" the permanent version. I thought I'd post an update since I'm able now to hang out on the computer for a little bit at a time (thanks to my friend synthetic morphine). For your viewing pleasure, Michael took a pic of the incisions; I made sure to include a familiar sensor since this is a family-friendly site ;)
People are sometimes confused over what my exact situation is, so I'll do my best to explain my history later. But first, what did they do to me this time?
The vertical incision you see is a little over two inches tall. This is where they implanted the stimulator itself. The stimulator has a little lead attached to it, which has a paddle on the end that sends out the electrical impulses. Once they have the positioning right, they suture it to your bones. They cut a small hole through my spine so they could go below it and position it correctly. They wake you up during surgery so you can tell them whether or not they have it right. Tough to do under heavy anesthesia, let me tell you.
The second incision on the right is about four inches long, where they implanted the battery pack which connects to the stimulator. This one is slightly more painful. Modern medicine is beyond amazing. This battery pack will last for 10-12 years, and I have an external recharger that I will use every couple of months to re-juice. The stimulator itself will last a lifetime.
So, you ask, what the heck is a spinal cord stimulator and why do you need it?
Long story short - I've tried virtually everything else I can think of to eliminate or at least improve my pain. This is the next and hopefully last thing to try. Neurostimulation has come a long way, and is truly a fascinating method of pain control. Here's a quick medical description from the Medtronics website (the manufacturer of my stimulator):
How Neurostimulation Controls Pain
Neurostimulation delivers low voltage electrical stimulation to the spinal cord or targeted peripheral nerve to block the sensation of pain. One theory, the Gate Control Theory of pain developed by researchers Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall, proposes that neurostimulation activates the body's pain inhibitory system. According to this theory, there is a gate in the spinal cord that controls the flow of noxious pain signals to the brain. The theory suggests that the body can inhibit these pain signals or "close the gate" by activating certain non-noxious nerve fibers in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. The neurostimulation system, implanted in the epidural space, stimulates these pain-inhibiting nerve fibers, masking the sensation of pain with a tingling sensation (paresthesia).
The blue objects are multiple controllers and the battery recharger. (All external.) The pink circle is around the battery pack that is now inside me.
Check out pictures from cousin Jamie's wedding in Foresthill on April 29. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day!
(I must point out I did the bride's hair :)
GET DOWN HERE YOU BIG FAT RASCAL!!!!
Well, it's been a very long week for poor Bear. We took him back to the specialist for more tests yesterday. He does have kidney and bladder disease, called "glomerularnephritis and ulcerative bladder disease". Ha - look that one up in the medical books.
So, it's on to some experimental drug treatments (an immunosupressive therapy) to see if we can minimize what's going wrong in his kidneys . We'll keep you posted, but it's gonna be a long while.
Next post will be cheerful, I promise!
Looks like it may be early stages of kidney disease, he'll see another specialist next week. Keep praying!
I'm just so clever I can't stand it.
Bear's home now, and doing fine. I was a little shocked by the 14 inch incision on his belly - I was under the impression it would be much smaller. He's ok though, able to get around pretty well and stuff. They gave him some of the same pain meds that I take, how funny. I get them in bulk though - if only I had known! ;) No word back on the biopsies yet.
Well, as some of you know, Bear's been a sick little doggie! I noticed blood in his urine about a month ago, and since then he's had all kinds of tests and cultures done, and no one knows what is causing the bleeding. He's acting perfectly normal, so that's encouraging.
We finally had to take him to a specialist in Carmichael. After x-rays, ultrasounds, and many many blood and urine tests, the only thing they felt was abnormal was a little growth on his bladder. So he ended up needing exploratory surgery - to check out his prostate, kidneys and bladder, and to remove the growth.
He had his surgery this morning, and all went well. He's recovering fine and will be ready to go home tomorrow. They removed the sack on the bladder, and found that the right kidney is most likely the source of the bleeding. They took samples for biopsy of the kidneys and bladder, and we will hear the results tomorrow.
It is most likely "idiopathic", meaning they don't know what the cause is, and there is likely no cure for it. It sounds like we will just have to continue monitoring him closely for the rest of his life, and will take him in every three months or so for blood cultures and urine samples to make sure he is not anemic from the blood loss, and to check for infections. They're also slightly concerned with pancreas but that is also a wait-n-see kind of thing.
We should hear back on the cultures tomorrow morning. Thanks for your puppy prayers!
Jess, Paul, Michael and I went to Reno this past weekend to see one of our fav bands Death Cab for Cutie play at the Hilton Pavilion. Franz Ferdinand opened, who were also fantastic. I bullied my way to the very front somehow, in the second row - just behind two really short girls so I had a perfect view! Michael was not quite as pushy, so he was a couple rows back and Jess and Paul were a little further (trust me, it was more than claustrophobic, I don't know how I managed, but it was sooo worth it!)
Death Cab is above right, Franz to the left. Check out all the pics on our gallery.
A totally great show. Fun time in Reno, except for snow storm on the way home.
Our cousin Jamie is getting hitched, so she had a bridal shower.
Shawna hosted at her house. Check out the gallery.
Jess and Paul came up Friday night and we got snow! So they spent the night and we took some pics in the morning.
Check 'em out.
So, who deserves to be celebrated more than Jess? Nobody! (except maybe me, ha ha - seriously just kidding!)
We threw a surprise party for Jess' 30 birthday Saturday Feb. 4. Her real birthday is the 16th so she was ultra surprised! A very fun night. Thanks, Jess, for being such a great sister and friend. We all love you!
View the Pics!
Check out pics from the show at Arco Arena! It was so awesome, I can't even tell you. What a fun night! We got floor seats, so we were up really close. This is the third time we've seen Coldplay and they are always so great!
