The New Place….

Starting July 1st, this is going to be my view out my front window. There is a nice big window that I plan on putting a comfy chair in front of so that I can always just go sit and look out here when I need to.

 

 

We went out on the weekend to take some boxes from our current home and to store them in the shop. Our renter won’t be out until the end of June and my house is so small that all the boxes are starting to get in the way. We thought it would be easier to slowly start bringing them out. So while there I took lots of pictures to share with you all. That’s Mr. Sandra’s shop behind the truck there. Used to be a two door garage but he has all his wood working equipment in there and the well house is inside. He’s excited to get back out there and start making things.

The house is about 30 or more years old and needs some tender loving care. Repainting, windows replaced, roof and fascia work but all in all it is in pretty good shape. I have tons of dreams of decks, gardens, flower gardens, rock gardens and firepits. But it is all going to take some time because all of it is a cost and a LOT of work.  This picture is taken from where we store the trailer looking towards the house. I took close ups of it but not going to share them all here. Will use them as before and after pics .

This was my garden about 6 years ago. It hasn’t been used since. I’ve got some cleaning up to do.  My plan is to actually make this into a Chicken coop area and raise layers and maybe some meat birds. I love love love fresh eggs – especially when I know what goes into the hens . I feed them healthy stuff and keep them free roaming. As much as I can with land that will have bird dogs running around and coyotes I suppose as well.

Mr. Sandra has a mile long list of things to do but building the chicken coop is at the top of the list.   So my new garden plans are to have a raised garden, like the square foot gardens, in a tiered fashion. All with a fence around to keep the deer out. I can’t have a huge garden because I just won’t have the time so until I’m ready to have a big one, the smaller square foot type will suit me just fine.

This was a fire pit area the renter put in but I like where she did it and will be creating a new space there.

 

 

 

This shows the back of the house. There are no decks anywhere around this home and I really want to build something nice and cozy back there. and out front. Eventually I’d like a hot tub cause we are going to need it after a day of working out there. That’s my little man Mr. Aiden who I had over the weekend. He hates bugs and there were a lot of mosquitos out and he eventually ran back to the truck and stayed in there. I’ve got toughen up that little man.

This is the view towards the fire pit. We own a bit more on the other side of those trees. Altogether we have 10 acres.

 

Winding road out of the place. We have a tractor that will clear it of snow in the winter. Otherwise, it might a tough drive out.

 

My biggest concern is that I still work full time in the city center. I’m going to have a 75 minute one-way drive each day. I’m not going to mind it so much in the summer as I know a ton of shortcuts through the country to get back and forth but in the winter I’m going to hate it. I know that now. And I can’t take any of the shortcuts because it won’t be safe. I’ll have to stick to the well travelled roads. Since I am in IT, I can work from home if I need to but my boss won’t like it if it becomes a habit. However, living in the country is something I love and as long as I don’t stress over the amount of work to be done and the drive, I will LOVE being out there again. Difference in my life this time compared to the last time I lived out there is that Mr. Sandra is retired and can help out around the place. My Ex, worked with me in the city center but when we got home, he didn’t do anything.  It was really tough on me.

My current home in the city is going to be taken over by all my kids. My son, his GF and my lovely little Lilyana, along with my daughter and her BF will all be sharing the home and taking care of it. So in the winter if it does storm while I am at work, I will always have a place to stay.

I’ll keep you updated on the renovation progress of this place. Can’t get inside yet to see what it looks like but I know the renter has painted it and tore out most of the rug and put down hard wood. I know she painted it pretty dark so will see what needs to be done (if anything) when she vacates. Hopefully we can just move in with little work.

Look who else I got to see on the weekend.  That is her daddy behind her. She is standing but not walking yet – time flies doesn’t it…. She is a daddy’s girl and when he is around there is no one else in her world. In this picture she is looking at Katie. She makes strange to me still, even though they come over every weekend so that I can see her and she gets used to me. I can hold her now but as soon as she see’s her dad, she wants him and if she can’t see him she cries. They are going to have issues this little family….

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

ttyl

Sandra

Goal Setting … Again

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.”

- Michelangelo

Oh how true that statement is for me. I’m pretty sure that my problem these days is that I don’t have any goals. At least nothing concrete that I’m sticking to. They are too wishy washy and have no substance and therefore easy to break.

How am I going to get where I want to go if I don’t plan on how I’m going to get there?

I know what to do, I know how to do it, I’m just not applying the knowledge and taking the right steps towards getting  there.

Setting goals is going to help me get there.

I need to ingrain these goals into my subconscious so that they become a natural thing. I think I’ve been sabotaging myself enough that what goals I thought I had, I’d never reach because… well because I thought I’d never reach them. My negative naysaying and putting myself down has done a bit of damage over the years.

Last night was a perfect example. I put on a two piece bathing suit and had Mr. Sandra take pictures of me (100 Days to 50 personal challenge). All I could think of was “is he looking at my fat belly” where he was thinking “Man she looks sexy in that bathing suit”. I didn’t believe him when he said that and immediately tried to make it negative. I really need to learn to take a compliment and I need to really stop the self damage thoughts.

Unless I change my attitude and drop the negative talk, I will continue to sabotage myself. The negative programing in my subconscious mind is determining my behavior/habits. It doesn’t know any better. It just accepts what I tell it. If I repeat something enough times,that is what is going to be the outcome. You know the definition of insanity right?

So it’s time to make a change, go off the normal beaten track and get my affirmations in place. And I need to make up my mind to get to my goal and focus on reaching each and every one of them. I’m going to develop long term, 90 day, monthly, weekly and even daily goals. Make each day a success by accomplishing the daily goal I have assigned myself.

My problem is that I get bored or easily sidetracked… so I will need to focus on making this a natural part of my day. Redirect any negative thoughts into positive ones, stop comparing myself to anyone other than myself and get back on track!

I hope you are all doing great, and have a FANTASTIC weekend!

ttyl

Sandra

Tired

I am beat today. Worked a 16 hr day yesterday, first half of the day was cross-training with my old team, and the last half was to do a major server outage. As I sit here this morning, I feel like I haven’t left.

I have had no time to exercise lately either and am I ever noticing the difference in how I feel. My energy levels are definitely low. The more I exercise, the more energy I have, the better I feel. I need a Bikram Hot Yoga session but not sure if I will have the energy to go tonight or just go home and get to bed early and hit the mat tomorrow night … 

But why put off for tomorrow what I can do today….

Vacation’s Over :(

The trip was busy and over way too soon. I didn’t take as many pictures as I normally do because I’ve already got probably a thousand pictures of this place because we have been there so much. But I thought I’d share a few with you.

Our room was on the 8th floor this year as I wanted the huge balcony. It looks out over the ocean and I love the view. This picture is to the NW of our hotel.

 

 

 

Mazatlan has what they call the “Gold Zone”. It is basically the hotel portion of the city and very safe for us to wander through. Lots of vendors and shops to buy “stuff” at.

 

 

 

 

 

We went out for dinner most nights and at one of the places they had this young lady walking around singing and then she started to dance and one of the waiters danced with her. They tried to get me up to dance with them but I’m not that much of a exhibitionist - don’t like to get up in front a bunch of people. Not that the restaurant was busy but I just don’t like to get up in front of folks much.

We ordered a banana desert and they made it right at our table. The two waiters put on quite a show and at one point when the flames were high, the young man grabbed the fire extinguisher just to get us laughing… it worked.

 

 

Cliff divers…. I love my camera and I did manage to get him as he jumped from the top to the ocean, so I grabbed a lot of pictures – looks like a motion picture if you go through them fast enough.

 

Fish Market – fresh seafood every single day. It is located in Old Mazatlan and we go down there every year and grab fresh shrimp and take it back to our hotel and cook it up. We get Rice and Veggies from the kitchen and have a feast. We didn’t do all-inclusive this year and cooked for ourselves quite often.

 

 

I like taking pictures of birds and this one flew by pretty close by our balcony.

 

LOVE the sunsets

 

 

 

 

 

We went Mangrove fishing one day. It was about a two hour drive from Mazatlan and was extremely foggy on the way there. Rather sucked as I couldn’t see much of the country and the driving scares the crap out of you. You couldn’t see 10 feet in front of the truck and our driver kept trying to pass the trucks in front of us and there was  a lot of swerving back into the lane because of on-coming traffic. There was no napping on that trip.

So in this picture, to the left you can see a thatched roof – that is a restaurant.  Since our boat did not have a washroom, Pam and I asked if we could use a bathroom before we got on the boat. They took us to this restaurant and as we travelled through it to the back of the yard, I got a good look. First I’ll explain what we found for our bathroom….

It was the top section of a boat – the cabin part. The door had a cloth curtain and inside was  a toilet stuck in the ground. No flushing, just squat and hover as far away as you could. The men’s room was outside around the fence and into a cut-off bleach bottle. The guys had to watch for splash back.

So back to the restaurant, dirt floor (fine – we are in a small fishing village). Bloated dead fish on ground, flies galore, dirty dishes everywhere… not very sanitary. No running water that I saw but they listed prices and served food here.

We then spent the day fishing and caught a ton of fish and I took a ton of pictures. My camera bag was in my beach bag and I had switched my smaller lens with my telephoto one and unfortunately didn’t secure my bag properly. The cabin boy grabbed my bag to get a net and my lens fell out and hit the floor. The impact broke it and it wouldn’t work again. He felt so bad about doing it but it wasn’t his fault – I should have taken better care of it.  But this meant that I couldn’t take any close-up pictures for the rest of my trip.

At the end of the fishing day, part of the trip was to have a lovely lunch at a restaurant by the beach where they would cook the fish we caught. I asked Tony our guide if he actually meant the restaurant where I used the banos and he said “Yes”. And I said… “ah No”. I’ll take my fish back to my hotel thanks. We would likely have gotten a bit sick if we ate food prepared at that place. No running water and if there was running water we couldn’t have eaten or drank anything used in it. Inside Mazatlan, in the Gold Zone, the water is filtered but even then we drink only from bottles. Nice day, and appreciate the different culture, but there was no way I was eating there.

Pepper farm – saw tons of workers out in the fields harvesting the peppers and they would lay it out on these mats and let them dry. There were also big furnaces for roasting them. I loved seeing them.

 

 

All in all the trip was good but we made a decision while there that I am not feeling good about. Our friends and Mr. Sandra and I got suckered into purchasing another timeshare. It is absolutely gorgeous but too good to be true kind of thing. I didn’t feel right during the whole transaction and I should have stayed with my gut and not gotten involved. When I got back to work last week, I did some research and there is nothing but bad press about this company….. Live and learn I guess…  Should have known better.

But I can’t get it off my mind and it’s driving me nuts.

It’s an expensive mistake.

And I haven’t exercised much and need to get my butt moving again. I need a kick folks!

Hope you are all doing well!

Sandra