Starting to Love the Fall!

I always thought fall was my least favorite season. Mostly because I love spring colors and the clean, cool air, vacations and tans in the summer, and Christmastime and cold weather much better. And since I hate the color orange I sort of assumed that meant I couldn't like fall. But I have realized in the past weeks that an orange t-shirt is not the same as a big orange pumpkin or orange leaves on the ground. I can still dislike the t-shirt, but the orange in nature is beautiful!

So with my new discovery of liking orange (at least for some things), I realized I love the fall! In fact for the first time I have decorated my house with fall colors and spicy scented candles. I even changed out our Glade plug-ins for a fall-ish scent of apples and cinnamon.

Last year I dreaded the fall and the cold weather that was coming, because I was worried about our November outdoor wedding (seriously, who plans an outdoor November wedding?!), but this year I say bring it on! I’m ready to bust out my sweaters, turn the fireplace on, and cuddle on the couch with a blanket, book, and my husband!

In keeping with my sudden love of fall, Jose and I went to Avila Valley Barn. We only stayed long enough to pick out our cute, tiny pumpkins, buy fresh squeezed apple juice, eat homemade pumpkin ice cream, and walk through the hay maze.(By the way, I won’t go through the maze ever again. Thank God for the kid who helped us get out because I thought I was going to have my first ever anxiety attack if I didn’t get out of the stuffy, claustrophobic nightmare soon!).

To complete our Fall weekend, we (at least Jose) watched football (GO CHARGERS!!) while I made two kinds of pumpkin cookies. Yum! In case I haven’t mentioned it, I love the fall!

Jose's Wisdom Teeth removal

This past week Jose took his turn to get his wisdom teeth pulled. Our experiences couldn’t be more different! When I awoke from the anesthesia, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. I was compliant and calm. Jose on the other hand, greeted me with a funny smile and a thumbs up when I walked in to the operating room.



Apparently he asked the nurse for a piece of paper to write the question “Did I say anything dumb?” but instead only wrote scribbles. He then attempted to tell the nurse that he didn’t need a wheelchair. They forced him to be pushed out in a wheelchair, because even though he thought he was fine, he was wobbly and unsteady! I couldn’t stop giggling when I saw him! Part of it is I giggle when I’m nervous, but the other part was he was so funny!

We drove off to get his medications, and he attempted to talk to me the whole way. I felt bad laughing at him, but I couldn’t help it! His mouth was stuffed with gauze so everything sounded like he was saying “Waa wa, waaa wa, wa wa.” I dropped him off at my parent’s house so I could go get the prescriptions. Once there he insisted he needed to drink water. His mouth was very numb and stuffed with bloody gauze, so the majority of the water (if not all) proceeded to come out of his forced open mouth. His shirt was soaked, water (bloody water) was on the floor, and then he coughed and sprayed water everywhere. You would think he would learn the first time, but he tried it again in the bathroom. I had just finished wiping up the living room water mishap, and now I was doing the same in the bathroom! (And I left out the kitchen sink incident too!). I don’t do to well with blood, so this was a challenge.

The funniest thing is he thought he was completely lucid and capable, but he was bumping into everything. As I was walking out the door he begin making weird burping noises, so we gave him a trashcan (in case he puked) and left him to sleep.

When we returned, his burping noises had not stopped! Turns out they were hiccups, and would stay with him for FIVE days! I don’t know about you, but I hate the hiccups even if they last for 5 minutes. Imagine four days of incessant hiccups! Poor Jose got the ab workout of his life, and also a raw throat and very swollen face (from clenching down).
On top of that he couldn’t sleep for days (except for short times when the Vicodin overcame him), and I couldn’t sleep either because he shook the bed with each hiccup. We tried every remedy we could think of. Even his family tried helping. His grandpa came over and out of nowhere tried scaring Jose (I was the only one who jumped), and his sister called asking Jose about a made up conversation she said they had in attempt to distract him. It only made him think he was crazy for not remembering, and did nothing to help the hiccups.

One night when we couldn’t take it anymore, I searched the internet and found that hiccups are a rare post operative, an effect of inflammation in his throat. His doctor didn’t care, and said to wait until they go away. Finally yesterday, five days after surgery, the hiccups went away.

Joey and Katie

I recently wrote about checking out blogs all the time and reading their friends blogs. I'm not the only one! My husband does the same thing (come to find out), and in a series of following links, found a blog of some great friends of ours. In his words this is how it happened:

"Look what I found! I went off the Connely's blog to another one then saw a name I knew and clicked on that blog and on that page there was a link to the Hill's blog!"

Tell me that we are not crazy!

But crazy or not, I am so happy that we have found the Hill's blog because Joey and Katie have played a HUGE role in our lives, and in Jose coming to know the Lord. As we were reading their blog, we came to their November post and it was about us! Check it out
http://joeyandkatie.blogspot.com/2007/12/marlene-jose.html

It is a funny, exciting feeling to discover a blog that we are mentioned in. But it has only reinforced my love for blog stalking.

It also definitely reminded me how much Jose and I need to make an effort to keep in touch with Joey and Katie.

By the way, my wedding flowers were AMAZING, and exceeded my expecations. And I didn't know the large vine ball that is still in our house used to be a pumkin!

It's not looking good...

We heard that there are 9 other offers submitted to the bank for this house! And we know at least one is higher than ours... so it doesn't sound to promising, unless the other people fall off the face of the earth. Or have weak credit.

Continuing the house hunting saga

We've found another home! We were so disapointed when none of the Arbor walk homes worked out, but it forced us to look in a new area. We have found a home that WAY exceeds anything we have looked at, for a better deal! Please pray with us that it works out. We're submitting what we think is a very strong offer, and we are praying that no one outbids us. Our pastor spoke about discernment this morning, and we are praying that we are hearing God and have discerned that this home is right for us. We should have an answer this week (praise God it is not a short sale!!).

I couldn't get large pictures, but here are small images of it.


The home has everything on my wish list: living room and seperate family room, laundry room, big kitchen, and curvy staircase!


Red is not my color, so we will be doing lots of painting! (I don't know what the former owners were thinking! Downstairs is sky blue, brown and red! ugh!!!)

We got beat up! (aka got a massage)

I think I am a blog stalker. I love reading my friends blogs, and then clicking on their friends blogs (people I usually don't even know). My best example is looking at a friend's sister's blog and becoming obsessed with her adorable baby girl that I have never met. Other times, reading a friend's blog leads me to people I barely know, or haven't talked to in forever.

ANYWAY... I was catching up on our marriage counselors blog (if you are like me, feel free to click on their blog link on the right side of this page- married for keeps), and found a link to another person. I read about the other person's recent trip to Bao-Sheng foot spa in Grover Beach. They described this Chinese massage place as Heaven. I looked this spa up online, saw they had amazing prices, and booked massages for Jose and I.

Last night I didn't tell Jose where we were going (he figured it out though) and surprised him by taking him to get massages. We LOVE getting massages but this was a whole new experience. There are no private rooms, so everyone is kind of lined up in a row. We both choose the 1/2 hr body massage and 1/2 hour foot massage package (only $39!). He absolutely loved both, but I thought I was going to die during the massage. It hurt soooo bad. At one point the lady was literally on all fours on top of me, digging her knees into my kidneys!! I could hear Jose getting his massage next to me being pounded and punched, dreading for that part to happen to me. I asked the lady to do it softer, and she apologized and didn't soften up at all. When I started clenching my hands from the pain, she laughed and slapped them open!! Afterwards I felt loose, but sore! Those tiny Chinese women have so much strength!

The foot massage was amazing though. We sat in deep reclining chairs, had hot tea, and nothing hurt! While we were getting our foot massage though, we both kept peeking our eyes open because this old lady (and I mean OLD) was getting her massage and we could hear them pounding on her frail bones. She made so many noises during her massage it sounded like she was crying, but I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over and we heard her say "that felt so good." Jose loved the pounding and would want to do it again. If I ever go back I think I'm sticking to the 45 min foot massage ($26!).

Adventure in the Bay!

So this past weekend a good friend and wrestling teammate from high school and college, Jeff Owens, got married in San Rafael. Woo Hoo! Another road trip! Luckily Marlene's mouth wasn't hurting as much as it had been. I am usually pretty good about planning road trips and usually give us plenty of time to make a couple stops or to account for traffic. We always make it where ever we are going on or before schedule. And this trip was not going to be different! The wedding was at 1:00 so I figured we would get to the hotel at 12:00, check in, get ready and have plenty of time to get to the wedding which was about three miles from the hotel.

We were in the Hayward area and ahead of schedule until...we got on the 580 and hit some traffic, but even then we were ok. Then we see a Toll Road ahead sign. We, thought, "well that sucks, but oh well. It won't be more than about $6." Then the closer we get on the signs it says "cash or fast track". Uh oh! No where did I see, "ATM or Credit Card" and Marlene and I don't have any cash on us. By this time, we were stuck in the "cash line." When we get up to the toll booth I go to hand her my card, but nope, it's cash only! This lady wasn't going to budge! I tried everything. I asked if there was an ATM or if she could just give us a break. There weren't any signs that said cash only and there is no way to turn around once you are in the line. I even offered to write HER a check. Well, we ended up getting a $25 ticket unless, we were able to cross the bridge find an ATM, come back over the bridge, wait in line and pay our $4, all in 15 minutes! Yeah right! We were still on schedule and could make it to the hotel with plenty of time to get ready so we just took the ticket and headed to the hotel. Luckily when I made the reservation I asked for early check in and our room would be ready when we got there. So we get to the hotel on schedule, go to the front desk to check in...and there are no rooms ready! We asked if there were any rooms clean or not, that we could at least get ready in. The guy said "No, sorry, but you could get ready in the bathroom." I thought, we are not getting ready in the bathroom, we are getting a room, I don't care what this guy says. So, we got ready in the bathrooms in the hotel lobby! I have never had to get ready in a public bathroom for a wedding. It was definitely an experience. On our way out, we went up to the front desk to let them know we would now need late check in because we would be at the wedding. It was a different lady this time. She said, "Oh we have a room available if you guys want to check in now." Oh thanks, where were you ten minutes ago? But we made it to the wedding on time and despite the fact that we got ready in the bathroom, Marlene still looked beautiful! The wedding ended up starting about an hour late, but it was a beautiful wedding and the reception was fun! Marlene and I ended up sitting at a table with my high school wrestling coaches, Tim Cano and Nate Erickson, Cano's date, and Erickson's family. We had a great time reminiscing about how much of a pain in the butt I was in high school and about wrestling, of course. We all had a great time! Congratulations Mariam and Jeff Owens! I am so proud of Jeff!






We ended up leaving the wedding at about 7:00 and decided to go into the city! We went to Fisherman's Wharf and had a lovely evening just walking around.

The next day we slept in and went to breakfast at our hotel. We took our time getting ready and headed off to the City again. We ended up walking across the Golden gate Bridge, walking up the steepest hill ever to get to Lombard St, the crookedest street ever, and driving though San Francisco. We had a great time! I love spending time with my wife, no matter what we are doing! We are so blessed to be able to take little mini vacations like this and I am so thankful to have such an amazing wife to spend the rest of my life with!