Update

Since it's been so long, here's a brief update on a few things.

HOUSE

It has been a fun few months of finding out about all the different aspects of owning a house, like how the greenery doesn't just stay nicely pruned all by itself.

We won't be doing that again unless we have a hedge trimmer. It took Michael forever to individually clip each little branch. Several months later and a lot of it looks dead anyway. I am seriously contemplating cutting the whole tree down and replacing it with an orange tree. Why have a tree that requires care and yet doesn't give you anything in return? Not on my land!

Speaking of trees that give back, we also picked up several fruit trees. Ever since moving into this house, we've had big dreams of turning our front and backyard into a luscious fruit and vegetable producing machine. Now I am sure this will remain mostly just a dream, but we felt there was no harm in making a first attempt. We have several phases. In our first phase we got two cherry trees, two apple trees, a pink lemonade lemon tree, and an almond tree. Despite making sure all of our trees had low chill hours, since we live in sunny southern california, we have had several people share their disbelief that any of the deciduous trees will ever survive or produce. We can only hope they aren't speaking from experience.

If we thought it was going to be as simple as planting and waiting for magical bunches of fruit to appear, we were very, VERY wrong. Just digging the hole turned out to be a big endeavor. Oh the first few inches were nice and easy, but then we start hitting some serious clay. Luckily, we had Michael's dad to help us out. 

And if just digging a hole in a new location wasn't hard enough, removing a bush we wanted to replace with the almond tree turned into a several day hacking, chain-sawing, pick-axing adventure. 

At least it will all be worth it in a few years....right? That's if we can figure out proper irrigation, pruning, fertilizing, and insecticide/fungicide care. It seems we have found ourselves a new hobby.

As a side note, some of the trees already had fruit on them, but since they were just newly planted we were told to take off all the fruit so that the tree would focus on growing roots. 

For some reason Michael had the hardest time with this. He was determined to at least let one apple live. We held out as long as we could, but when we finally had to cover the tree with insecticide it was time for the apple to go. The above picture is of the apples final moments. What you can't see is the sadness on Michael's face.

In the wake of our fruit tree/garden dream, and because we were told that roses are a lot of hard work, we decided not to care too much about the roses we have in our backyard since we plan on replacing them anyway. Much to our surprise, and despite our lack of fertilizing/pruning/watering, they produced a beautiful bunch of roses. Maybe our fruit trees will turn out to be just as hardy...

We had a fence built around our side yard.

We figured instead of caring for a useless side yard, turn it into more backyard. It was amazing how much it opened up and extended the backyard. Although again we underestimated the size of the project. After applying the first coat of paint by hand we decided it was money well spent to just rent a paint sprayer. Lesson learned. 

Other than that we have also slowly been working on filling and organizing the inside. Craigslist has been our best friend.

A couple of the indoor projects we finished include putting a mantle and t.v. above the fireplace, sanding and staining some free benches we got off craigslist with our table, and installing the rest of the blinds. It feels good to look back and see what we have accomplished, although there are still so many more projects to go. 

PETS

Some news in the pet department. We picked up a new addition while I was working at the animal hospital. (We all knew this was inevitable...I'm surprised I lasted that long). 

His name is Riley. We were going to change the name but were too lazy and figured since he's older it's probably better that we don't. When we took him in he was skinny and had hardly any hair left on the back half of his body. We were only supposed to have him for a short while but as is usually the case with these things, we ended up keeping him. He's very affectionate and likes to cuddle, unlike another spoiled cat we know (ahem, Lily!). 

When Lily and Riley first met Lily was totally crazy and would hiss and bat at Riley. Riley would just sit there and ignore it. Now they are best friends. 

CHICKENS! 
Along with our fruit tree dreams, we'd been tossing around the idea of getting a few backyard chickens; apparently it's all the rage right now. We were planning on holding off until after the baby, but one Saturday it all just sort of happened. 

We got a coop...and then we got some chickens.

Like everything, it's been quite the adventure. So much so that they will need their own post at another time. Just know that it has been almost a month and we still don't regret our decision, so that's a good sign.

JOB

Sadly, I had my last day at Rancho Mesa Animal Hospital. It was the best job ever and one I will remember fondly, both because of the nature of the job and because of the friends I made. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to work at my dream job, even if it was for such a short time. I will miss the satisfaction of hitting a vein perfectly, seeing the before and after of a dental, and making sure that the cats were equally loved. On too the next chapter of my life...now if only I was as unaffected by baby bodily fluids as I am by animals' excrement; it's just not the same.

Here are a few pictures I found of some of my patients.

This puppy was so small when it came in it had to be fed every 30 minutes to keep his blood sugar levels up. 

This was an awesome Great Dane that was so big his head was above the counter. 

And this is a picture of a pomeranian I took for Michael. He wants one because they always look so happy. Little does he know they are also crazy.

Well that is enough for now. More to follow hopefully soon.

Oh and we made some Fall crafts and carved pumpkins this year.

Mine is the wreath to the left.

Michael made the awesome large pumpkin and I made the small one. Of course, as is tradition, by the time we took the photo the pumpkins were already filled with mold.