Moving Ahead with the Ojai Building Project

Here is the progress on Liz and Ron’s little spot up at the orange grove.  Another hard day of work, but look what was accomplished!  Please forgive the brevity of this post.  I am a little tuckered out after starting very early and ending fairly late.  I hope to get a good night’s sleep so…

Building Project

We are up at our orange grove with Liz and Ron. We are building a little spot for them, or, more accurately, they are building a spot for themselves under Ray’s guidance. I was the tree-trimmer, tool holder and cook. Here are a few pictures of the progress. A busy but satisfying day.

Up in Ojai

Ray and I are up in Ojai for a few days. I have already lost a whole blog post that I spent at least a half hour writing. Ugh. The Internet services are sketchy up here. I will resume posting on my manuscript as soon as I return to LA early next week. Thank you…

Chapter Two Excerpt

“Mom, Jim’s offered me a job.” I stood with the phone up to my ear as I looked out the beveled glass window of our front door, watching our elderly neighbor as she watered her lawn across the street.   Silence. “Mom?”  Only in the last few months had I been telling my mother anything that…

Chapter One Excerpt 2

After taking Rachael downstairs to play with her sisters, Ray and I returned to our bedroom to discuss the pros and cons of uprooting our family of five. “I love LA,” I said, “but we can’t do this. You know how high-strung Jim is.” “What?” Ray reached over and poked my ribs. “You’re not making…

Chapter One Excerpt

April, 1994 That day Jim called I was sorting through boxes in the upstairs foyer of our fifteen-room Victorian, trying to make sense out of the clutter in my life. My two-year-old daughter, Rachael, played beside me as I separated out the jumble of unrelated objects: an Architectural Digest, a deflated teething ring, trim pieces…

A Decision, Finally.

I have made the decision to pull my fiction manuscript out of the desk drawer where it’s been hiding for several years now and shift it back to the memoir it was originally meant to be.  I have already begun the process of changing the names back to the “real” ones and removing anything that…

Night with Grandbabies

I am lying here in bed with a sleeping baby boy by my side. Luna is in the next room with grandpa and the dogs. Normally we would all just sleep in our big California King but daughter Sarah worries about babies and dogs. Apparently she has seen some worrisome things in the emergency room…

Celebration

We celebrated Sarah’s completion of her medical residency with all the family tonight st Sarah and Gregorio’s house. Sarah is officially “off” for a short bit of time before starting her new job. She and Gregorio actually went to a movie today. The first one in a very long time. We ate, laughed and just…

Today is Sarah’s Real Last Day of Residency

It’s been quite a journey, Dr. Sarah Pacheco Beaty, and now your residency is finally over.  Here are a few photos of you from your White Coat ceremony to the day of the “official” ending of your residency.  Plus, the first photo of you and Gregorio and one of the most recent ones of the sweet…