So I put my Mom’s house up for sale and went house hunting in mid January. I found the perfect house on the first day and could not wait to show Sean. He saw it 2 days later and really liked it. My Mom’s house sold in just 5 days, so as I was signing the sale agreement I turned in the offer on our new place.

It’s been a wild and crazy ride this past month and we have just been so busy. I still have some major packing ahead of me this week, but I just have to keep telling myself it will all be worth it in the end.

Oh and we got a new family member….This is Lola and she is the prettiest, sweetest, craziest kitty I’ve ever had. I know if Mom were still here she’d love to have one just like her. Ragdoll cats are supposed to be very calm and docile….well Lola didn’t get that message and thinks she rules the roost and loves to chase the dogs.

So I will keep everyone informed if we are going to have a big BBQ at the new house.

Went to the Santa Paula Hot Air balloon Festival on Friday night and Saturday morning. Friday was great, lots of people and glowing balloons, yummy BBQ. Saturday morning we met up at 4 am for the drive out to Santa Paula. The balloons were scheduled to go up at 6am but they didn’t go anywhere due to the fog and mist. So we all got up for nothing and at 8am we decided to hit the road to go get some yummy breakfast in Fillmore on the way home. At least it was a good breakfast!

So here are some of the pictures I’ve gone through so far.

And how can I end a post without showing a couple new pictures of Jake and one of our puppies.

So that’s it for now!

This is Ruby who was my Mom’s dog for about a month and a half before she passed. My Mom always wanted a corgi, and I found an ad for a litter of puppies for her when I was shopping in a local petshop. Ruby is hyper, but so funny and she has the best personality. She tries to pretend that she doesn’t like to be cuddled, but when I’m in my chair at night she likes to come and sit with me and get scratchies. I love this dog!

This is Molly. She is our lovebug, and is the happiest dog in the world if you just let her sit in your lap. She gives sweet little kisses and just like our other two dogs, loves Jake to no end. When I go wake him up in the morning she is usually the first one in the door and like a flash of lightning she jumps into his bed and wakes him up with kisses.

Then of course our son Jake. He is a cuddle bug, with a crazy side and a temper that would scare the crap out of others. His lastest thing is to go put on his underwear, some pants or shorts, but run around without a shirt. He’ll put one on if we leave the house, but he’ll take it off when we get home. Our weather yesterday was cloudy and cool so it’s not like he is hot, just a little strange. But he is a boy and at least he’ll keep his pants on.

So that’s it for today. We will be off to the zoo soon. Oh and leave a comment if you like my stuff, if you don’t and think I suck let me know that too. LOL

So Jake and I had our pictures in our camera club contest and neither one of us won anything, but Jake was so excited that he got a green participation ribbon.
He entered this photo he took of himself at the San Diego Zoo. I thought it was pretty creative.

I entered these ~

I also entered another one of a plumeria flower but it’s on my other computer and I’m too lazy right now to go and find it, but it was pretty.

I almost entered this one ~

So yeah a busy last couple weeks. Jake had his 4yr physical and had to get a couple shots. Well one was for chicken pox, and all was well until he went to bed the day after. He had a huge red welt on his arm where one of the bandaids was from where he got the shot. So I gave him some Motrin cause he said it hurt. He comes into our room around 2:30am saying his arm hurt and he wanted some more ice water. We got him some water and some more Motrin and he slept with us for the night. Well he wakes me up at 6:45 saying his arm hurt. I look at it and it was really red, hot and nasty looking. So as soon as the doc’s office opened we went down there. He needed to go anyway because they had to check his TB shot, but when I showed him the other arm with the red they rushed him right into a room and got the doc in there.
So she said it looked like he had some pox but they were under the skin, but he did have a staph infection from the shot. She was really concerned with the area the shot was given, because it was not in the right spot they give shots in. I knew this because of my years of giving shots to people, but I wasn’t concerned at the time of the shot and didn’t pay attention to the nurse giving him the shot 2 days prior. I was holding him so he wasn’t too scared, just being a normal mommy and making sure he feels safe.
So the doc puts him on some antibiotics and told us to come back in 2 days to see if it was just the infection or the combo of the pox and the infection. Lucky us when we went back on friday 2 days later, it was the combo! So he got to stay out of school for yet another week which sucked because it was to be his last week of school till the end of summer.

Jake is fine now and the pox never spread from the area of the shot, thank god. I remember having the chicken pox and I was miserable! We are going to head to the LA Zoo on Wednsday with one of his friends from preschool. I guess I’ll have to remember t o charge his camera battery before that morning, if I don’t I will hear about it for days!

I have my prints almost done for the print competition this Saturday. I have till tomorrow at 4 so I guess I do my best when it’s crunch time.

So I was doing some work on my other computer and ran across this picture.

Isn’t he just the cutest! He was so proud of this worm he found while he was “helping” me do some yard work. He must have carried this poor worm for almost an hour. I love how it just shows the curiosity of a child, and of course the dirty chubby little fingers of a boy. I know my fingers don’t look that cute when they are dirty!

Ok off to fight off some more hump day blues. Heck I may even get my house some what clean.
Maybe not.

So I went to our cowboy festival that they hold each year on Melody Ranch and studios. They have filmed tons of stuff there and it used to be owned by Gene Autry. I’ve only edited one photo from there so far and it happened to be the last one I shot for the day. I loved the look of these ol‘ cowboys. Too bad there weren’t many young cowboys…….man I miss those days sometimes. Tee hee hee.

Here are a few more from the Wild animal park. I haven’t even touched the ones from the zoo yet….I have 2 8gig memory cards full from that day too. I guess I have some sleepless nights ahead of me.

Here is the rare and elusive bunny. Now this may look like a cute little bunny, kinda like the ones you see in the pet store. Cute, furry, soft, fluffy…….but do not believe his cuteness. No really they have sabor tooth teeth that are razor sharp, and can spring on you and rip you to shreds in seconds flat!
Ok, ok maybe just maybe this is just a cute bunny, but I still am very wary of how their little minds work. I guess I need to stop watching weird horror flicks.

Back to the cute animals…..

Aww my little guy feeding the lorikeets. He is so darn cute, caring and check out that camera strap around his neck……Taking after his mommy. So next we were onto the flamingos.

These guys know how to enjoy a sunset.

A little dip in the pool……

Playing lifeguard…..

Oh boy that water is cold!!!!

Ducks……

I think they were stalking me. They may even be in with “the bunny” but I swear I was being followed.

Here are the Three Musketeers. They were perched on a rock right outside of the lions. They must have been the dumbest ducks ever! I know I would not want to be a snack just sitting there with lions watching me.

Then after watching the flamingos, I turn around and see this guy. I think he finally got it that I was on to him and his games.

Cheetahs. Beautiful, fast, majestic, and well this one was very lazy.

So Jean (photog buddy) tells me to whistle at it. So I do and it just sits there ignoring my wonderful whistles the same way my dogs do when I want them to come in the house.

So then she tells me to cat call it. Ok………(boy people are going to think I have completely lost my marbles but ok) “Here kitty, kitty! Here kitty, kitty!”

Ah ha I got something!!!

Then……I got a “look”

Then she went back to this.

So hope you enjoyed the photos, my Corona is empty, and I really need to do some dishes.

The exhibit was great and wished it was a little less crowded but I got some shots that I am very happy with.

And just for you Jean. Let me know if it looks ok on your end.

Then I found this cool flower on our way down to the lions.

More pictures to come. Jake is begging me for some ice cream (don’t blame him with our 100 degree weather today) and I have at least 600 or more photos to go through and process one by one.

Stay Tuned!

We will be off to Escondido next weekend to go see the butterfly exhibit at the wild animal park, and then hit the San Diego Zoo. I’m really looking forward to the butterflies this year. I missed it last year because Moms hip broke and I needed to stick close to take care of her. I also owe Jake an adventure because I missed our boat trip to Anacapa Island due to another round of the stomach flu.

So now I’m off to do some laundry, and get ready for our trip this coming weekend. I cannot wait!!!
Oh and here’s a recent picture of my Jakers. Sorry if you have already seen it at my house.