Working Hard For Her Money, Er, Bone

Moyo loves sticks. No I don't think you understand she Loves sticks. The bigger the better. None of those whimpy sticks. Basically, it is not a stick to her unless it is big enough to be called more than a stick... branch, limb, log... you get the idea.

So Friday afternoon Stan, Tammy, and I took Moyo and Kona to the trails for some unleashed romping and an early evening walk before dinner. It was a beautiful evening, complete with pink sunset and balmy breeze. The dogs did great, even Kona who got his first off-leash walk! On the way back Moyo found this giant branch that was longer than she was. This is pretty common for her, and she will usually carry it for a few minutes until some other fascinating-only-to-a-dog type of thing comes along to distract her. Well, this time she got into her mind that THIS stick was the ultimate stick and she was absolutely determined to carry it the entire way.

This feat required a lot of stopping, because well, have you ever tried to carry a stick longer than you and six inches in circumference, in your mouth? So yes, lots of stopping. Stopping involved rolling in the dirt to cool herself off, sort of like you imagine a pig doing. She carried it the entire way back until we got to the trail head where she promptly dropped it and did not look back. Of course, being the person I am, I read all kinds of wonderful doggy lessons into this walk with my dog. Here they are:

1. Playing and Working are not that different

2. Work with a smile on your face, even if said work involves sweat and dirt in your mouth

3. Work with a smile even if in the end, you don't get anything to show for it.

4. When the work is done, don't look back.

She was so incredibly proud of herself! (I was proud too, in my dorky dog-loving way :-)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

When we were kids my Mom used to bundle us up in the Suburban and we would take off for a camping trip- girls only. We did not make reservations, we just loaded up, picked a lake on the map and drove there with our fingers crossed. Looking back, I have no idea how my mother had the courage to do that with three kids! But my Mom is great that way. As we have grown up, moved out, and acquired our own families, it has been 15 years since just us girls did a trip like that. So we decided my graduation would be a great occassion. We picked Big Sur, loaded up my Subaru and hoped for the best. We got very lucky because it was not quite the busy season and we found a campsite that was repairing the bridge used to get through its main entrance. We flagged a woman down to ask her about directions or something and she graciously said that we would be welcome to camp at her campground and gave us directions to the back way in! This meant that we got to camp along Big Sur River in a Redwood campground that was occupied by maybe 5 other families. We were only there for two nights but we had a wonderful time. It was typical weather for our area, foggy and cold, the first night and half of the next day, but around 2pm the sun came out and we got warm weather the rest of the day and until we went home the third day. Of course we went to the beach which was stunning as always and thats where most of my pictures are taken. We also had dinner at Nepenthe, which is something I make a point of doing anytime I am in Big Sur (thanks to my good friend Artana!). It sits 800 feet above the water so you can imagine the view. I took about 125 pictures just at the beach so I will try to be selective in picking just my favorites here!

Summer Part One: Hurling Through Time and Space

Well I have not blogged in months...
I have friends who blog basically come rain or come shine. I have avoided blogging much in the same way I have not been journaling or working on any of my artwork. But its time to get back in the process because frankly, there is too much to process and life is speeding by like a freight train-hurling through time and space at dizzying speeds. Such hurling leads to a lot of adrenaline and laughter as well as the occasional bout of white-knuckled motion sickness. This has meant a continual reminder to breathe deeply, love slowly, forgive as often as possible, overlook momentary lapses in judgment (mine and others!), a lot of perspective, even more patience and of course a reminder to keep the faith. So my goal this weekend is to make a few posts about what has been going on in my life in the last few months, (pictures included!). Apparently I missed an entire season! Where did summer go?

Well, it went to...
A camping trip; another camping trip; an unfinished thesis; Mom's breast cancer; preparing for my sister; a week in WA with the family; moving my sister in; living with more animals, a trip to New York and Ireland; volunteer training for CASA; and of course all those little mini-adventures in between (you know-work, eating, sleeping, blinking :-)

So stay tuned...

Milestones

Graduation is one of them, but it was not the only one on the horizon in my family, who all joined me to celebrate. My nephew Alexandre, I cannot believe it, is 17 and will be celebrating his own graduation next year as well as the Big 18. My nieces, Sarisa and Kianna, are growing up too, both are teenagers now and working hard at that tough thing called middle school... balancing school and friends and sports has been tough for them but they are getting the hang of it! I am so proud of all three them and I have no words for how much it meant to me that they were here. We had an interesting weekend which consisted of stuffing 5 adults and 3 teenagers into our little two-bendroom house (with one bathroom none-the-less!). We had a good time though and everyone had fun with the cramped quarters, including those who 'got to' sleep out back in the tent. It was sort of like musical beds as we figured who would sleep where depending on what was going on the next morning. Good thing we got that new fridge for our wedding to fit all that food!

This is Kianna in our kitchen, she has never liked having her picture taken. I told her it was for me, not for her, and that I love her and want to see her when she is not around. So she was gracious the rest of the weekend and let me get a couple in, what a sport :-)

The day before graduation we went in to San Francisco so the kids could do the touristy thing. We went to Ghiradelli square and ate amazing ice cream sundaes and then went down to the water to put our feet in. The kids wanted to set up camp and spend the rest of their weekend right there!

The first picture (on the left) is me in the foreground, Tammy who is my oldest sister on the left and Korina who is the middle sibling (the three kids are Korina's) on the far right and Alexandre behind me (wearing my Mills Cross Country sweatshirt!). The second picture is Alexandre trying to get his mom (Korina)... I think he had ideas of throwing her in the water. In the last picture are my Mom and Sarisa. Stan is not in most of the pictures here because he was the gentlemen who went to feed the meter (thanks!)

Here is Alexandre upholding a family tradition :-)

Then Alexandre and Kianna getting into a big water fight which resulted in both of them being sopping wet up to the waste. We had to look through the back of my car to find extra clothes for them so we could go out for Chinese food afterward!

This last little series of pictures was just something I found amusing in the moment. Our feet! From start to finish: Kianna, Tammy, Alexandre, Korina, Sarisa, Stan, Mom, and me.

The kids were here from Thursday until Sunday, while my Mom and two sisters came on the same day but were staying longer so we could do an all-girls Trew Camping Trip (pictures coming). So the kids had a great time- it was the first plane ride and trip to CA for both of the girls and I would say they had no complaints! This last picture about sums up how we all felt by the end of the weekend...

(Yes, he actually fell asleep like that... for at least half an hour!)

Graduation

I did it! Here are a couple pictures, more to come from the whole weekend with my family but I wanted to put a couple up before we leave for our little mini-camping trip.