All is well... just busy.

Right now there is a wildfire raging in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Thankfully our home is safely many miles away from the fire, and not at all in the fire's path. The high winds we have been experiencing the past few days are making the fire difficult to fight. I pray that no one gets hurt. Thank you to those who have commented and called to make sure we are okay!

We are well. The end of the school year always seems to accelerate as baseball season is in full-swing, end of the year recitals and concerts are scheduled, birthday party season starts, and school itself has Open House, field trips, and the end of the year parties. The kids' birthday is coming up next month and we're going to have a party for them on Friday the 13th. Good thing I'm not superstitious (knock on wood). Oh, there goes our black cat across the yard....

The garden is in and growing. I'll get some pictures up soon. I turned over the first three boxes the day of the vlog, and then you didn't hear much from me after that because I was such a wreck it took me a week to recover before I could do another three boxes. And then another week before I could finish the final two. The kids planted their seeds, and then I planted mine... a week later it was all coming up! We've had some problems with hungry bugs mowing down some of the seedlings, but otherwise we're off to a good start.

But my back still hurts. I went to an over-zealous massage therapist who gave me a deep-tissue massage and left me bruised for a good week. Then earlier this week I went to a new yoga instructor down in Santa Cruz with a friend and for one pose he had the whole beginning class resting on their necks, shoulders and elbows with their feet in the air. I balked because I could see myself as a crumpled mess of herniated disks lying on the floor if I tried that! The instructor came by, saying that my fear was getting in the way of letting him help me, and before I knew what he was doing he had me on the floor upside down with my feet in the air and his foot under my back. I didn't know he was going to do that! An instructor that's supposed to encourage respect and awareness of the body had manipulated me into doing the exact thing I thought was wrong to do. My friend had a similar experience... we are going elsewhere next time. My back and neck still hurt... but it felt better yesterday when I used a different pillow, so I'm back to that pillow tonight, and taking my NSAIDs. I know it will get better, I just hope I can do it without having to sign up for physical therapy.

Good news! The probate examiner finally approved my Petition for Final Distribution! After three tries I finally succeeded in satisfying her requirements for the Petition. It's a huge hurdle in the probate process. But she still needs a revised Order. I am current printing out 5 copies of the Order right now (slow printer). I hope they are satisfactory. The Order is the court-certified document that shows specifically how the assets are to be distributed, and is used for changing title on the assets. This has taken up a good chunk of my time this spring. I am anxious to be done!

So, end-of-school, birthday party coming up, probate, heavy-duty gardening, no referral yet, and husband out of town for a week... no wonder my back hurts. Ha ha!

I received a wonderful gift from my husband for Mother's Day. Last year he got me, I mean himself, a handheld GPS for his new geocaching hobby. This year he made it up to me by getting me a new camera! It's a fancy Canon digital camera with an extra image-stabilizing telephoto lens. It takes such great pictures that I don't want to go back to our little Powershot. I have to learn how to use all the manual features. It's so great... I love it! Thank you, Kevin! Look forward to some great photos.

The printer is done. Back to work....