4 Paones

I get home a few days back after being gone for a few weeks and what do you know… my two year has learned to argue! Of course, I should have expected that sooner rather than later being as being Paones, it was just a matter of time before they started to partake of the family tradition of huge debates at every family barbeque or gathering. So I’m putting my kids to bed and my daughter ticked her brother off somehow.  His response?

Him: “I’m going to break your clothes!”

Her: “If you do that, I’m going to lock you out of the room and rip up ALL your clothes!”

Him: If you do that, I’m going to hit you with my bat!”

Her: Then I’ll hit you with the light saber”

Him: “But my light sabre is lost.”

Her: “Then I’ll hit you with the piggy bank”

Him: “Then I will poop on you.”

This is when I realized this was just going to go down hill and corrected them for being mean to each other. Anyways… so much to look forward to.

I visited Casa De Dona Lupe” yesterday with some friends.  Casa De Dona Lupe is a beautiful little family owned winery in Valle De Guadalupe, Ensenada, that makes organic wine, home made jams, breads, cheese, hot sauces and the best pizza in Baja California. Dona Lupe is the grandmother who grew up on a ranch, the eldest of 12 children, learning how to make everything from scratch — including lye for the soap they made. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend that you stop in and check them out and spend a few minutes to talk to Dona Lupe and her family.

So we’re in their little store, chatting away with Dona Lupe as we browse through their essential oils and beauty products. My friend decides to ask her the secret to how she keeps her skin looking so great at her age (late 70s), wondering which of the products she uses. Well… guess what she uses?

Sun screen!

My 2 year old is going through that phase where he revels in anything that gives him a little more power over everyone else. Right now that just happens to be door locks. He will run ahead of you into a room and quickly lock the door. He’ll sit on the other side and “play” while we try every trick in the book to get him to open up. While visiting family in Austin last week, he pulls his lock trick just as we’re packing up and trying to get on the road. Justin and I tried everything we could think of for about 10 minutes. The only thing that worked was when I call out to his sister… “You want to watch a video?” He immediately threw open the door not wanting to miss out. My daughter just cracked up that the technique worked and kept going on about how smart I was… heh. (Yes, I’m enjoying it while it lasts)

Anyways, so fast forward a few weeks. My mom now how a litter of newborn puppies which she’s keeping in her room for safe keeping. Well, what do you know, Jude decides to lock himself into her room to play with the puppies. Justin and my mom are freaking out, again trying everything. My 5 year old strolls up and offers to try. She call out… “I think I’m going to go eat all the Cheerios!” Sure enough, the door flies open within a few seconds. My smart little girl. We’ll see how long this tactic lasts.

My travels are usually fairly problem free. Sure, they’re usually well planned, but in general, you get to the airport, go through security, make your flight, voila.
So yesterday, I figure, give it an hour for a domestic flight, no problemo. I arrive at the airport to a slightly longer line than usual, thanks to the recent Continental/United merger, but, still, no problem. I have 45 minutes and should be “close,” but fine. Until the nice lady who goes through the line to find out if you’re in the right line tells me my flight is actually a US Airways Flight, not Continental, which leaves from another terminal altogether. I take off running down two flights of stairs, catch the shuttle and am standing at the US Airways check in, 10-15 minutes later, only to have the attendant tell me I only have 3 minutes to check in before my seat is given to someone else. I am feeling very lucky as I breeze through security and make it safely to Phoenix where I have an hour and a half to kill beforemy next flight. So I buy a latte on my way to the right gate where I sit for the next hour (and a half) before I realize, my plane is still not there. I finally ask when my plane is expected in, only to be told that the gate has changed. I race to the new gate and find the gate already closed. Thankfully, they let me in anyways and I miraculously make the flight to San Diego. :p. Anyways, I am finally here in San Diego, chilling and hanging out with friends before I head further south in a few days. I will, in case you were wondering, be taking my travels much more seriously on the way home. And… California weather is Heaven!!! I’m sure you already knew that.

My mom’s dog had a litter of nine, beautiful, red goldendoodle puppies yesterday — well, minus the one white one! So my kids are helping grandma socialize the pups and, in the process, helping to name them. We’ve been watching some of the classics we enjoyed as kids with our little guys, like Superman, Star Wars, etc. So, today, in naming the puppies, my 5 year old immediately dubs her pup, “Princess Lea.” My son, not to be outdone, picks up the one white puppy out of the red bunch and calls him… “Darth Vader.”

Do you know anyone with a missionary background who is heading back to school? Let them know about this scholarship program — The In Recognition of Service Scholarship program. Very nice!

Today was one of those days. It started off by waking up to no water. The neighborhood had decided to work on the water and hadn’t bothered to tell anyone. So no water till 3.  My sister comes in saying the ice maker’s not working properly, followed by Justin discovering that the car may have some problems we need to get looked at. Follow that up with a dousy like… Oh, the water heater valve springing a leak in the attic.

So Justin had been running from one emergency to the next and had saved the day by spending a few hour on that leak in the attic. It’s 9 p.m., kids are down, the day is *almost done.* I bring out the can of beer I’d stuck in the freezer, and yep… it’s frozen! Justin’s sitting there half dead, looking at the beer and finally asks… do you think I can just stick this in the microwave? We all broke out laughing. What else could go wrong?

Old Republic Home Protection has repairmen in our home today covering yet another home repair, so I thought I would do a small promo on their behalf since I have been very happy with their service thus far.

To give a little background, our realtor inserted a clause in the purchase agreement requiring that the seller purchase a Home Warranty as part the sale. He obliged and thus began our coverage with Old Republic Home Protection Warranty for our new (older) home.

Within the first 2 months, our upstairs AC/Heater/Blower had broken down. They paid for the repair/removal and replacement. They estimated the cost of the unit at about $3K, not to mention the code upgrades and labor. Our fees were $60 for the initial diagnosis.

Within 6 months, our water heater went out. It took them a little while to get the right unit, but they eventually got a new unit installed and we were set to go. We would have been looking at another $1-1.5K with that repair.

A month later, enter our 25 year old microwave. The unit stopped working. After a checkup, Old Republic gave us a check to buy a replacement unit, now installed and working beautifully.

I was hoping that this would be the last repair until the new year rolled around, but a week ago, our main AC/Heater stops cooling our Texas home right at the start of summer. We call the repairman and find out that our nearly 30 year old unit is giving up the ghost and needs replacing.

So here we are, 9 months into the warranty, the repairmen are upstairs working on installing the new unit. The old blower unit is all rusted out and corroded. The AC unit itself is frosted over in several places and also corroded. The repairman says a unit like this one typically costs approximately 8K, although I’m sure Old Republic can find it cheaper. By now, our allotment for code upgrades is gone, so we are having to shell out $700 for “non covered” items (ouch), but all in all, it seems a small price for everything that HAS been covered.

Thank you, Old Republic. And I can’t stress enough how important getting a Home Warranty is if you purchasing an older home. Things may look great and, in our case, the previous owner told us he’d replaced the AC units (and the condensers did look new), but you just never know.

One of my favorite blogs,The Mysterious Blog, by my husband, Justin Paone is back online after a year or so hiatus. Although I enjoy blogging about my family and our journeys and things we learn along the way, here on the Paones.com, Justin’s blog and posts are usually very insightful, unique and varied. Whether it’s about investing in silver, world events or the location of Eden, there’s always something new to learn.

Another blog I find very interesting is Justin’s father, Ken Paone’s, The Weather Alternative blog. I’ll have to keep an eye on his long range weather forecasts for Hurricanes this year as I hear we are in for an especially active season. Now, if only Justin hadn’t given away all our plywood.

And finally, a newer favorite is EndTimeInfo – The Future Foretold, a newer blog/website by an old friend of mine, with podcasts, blogs on current events. He looks for news and articles you generally won’t find on the front page of CNN (at least not the US version) and links it with Bible Prophecy. Pretty cool stuff!

Keep up  the good work, Justin, Rick and Ken! Keep those posts coming!

I got home from work today anxious to see my little guys. I miss them when I’m gone all day. As I’m driving up to the house, my sister meets me to tell me a little 4 year old girl who lives a few homes away had gone missing about 10 minutes earlier. Sure enough our entire neighborhood is already out looking for her, searching the woods, yards, in pools. The police come blaring into the neighborhood. I took right back off driving around to help with the search. Everyone I met was so anxious. Our neighborhood is small. A little girl would be easy to find if she had just wandered outside. I was starting to get all teary eyed and praying hard as I drove out to start to search beyond the neighborhood when my sister calls to say the little girl was found in her home. I was beyond relief. I drove straight home and hugged my kids all evening long.