First Week of School

Well the first week of school started off with a bang! I'm so glad it's over! There has been so much going on, I didn't know if I'd be able to keep it all straight.
I have a really strange school schedule, I'm not sure if I'm going to be enrolled in one of my classes yet, I had to get use to my new work schedule and only working a few hours and my husband had two band practices and two shows this week that I'm helping out with.

On the first day, I was kind of in denial that school was really starting and that I didn't have to go to work. I was worried about all the logistics of getting through traffic to get to the campus on time, finding a parking place, taking the long walk from the parking lot to the classroom, finding my classroom and finding a seat.

Well everything went fine and I had a great first day. I was so happy to be there. It's now the end of the third week and I think I have a handle on my schedule and everything that I'm suppose to do. I was patient (because I knew it was yet another lesson in patience) and I was added to the Statistics class I was waiting for. I'm going to have to be reading constantly to keep up with my assignments. It's all good though.

I was going to write more details about the first week, but I've kind of forgotten them by now. It was pretty euphoric, but now I'm feeling more realistic. More realistic about a lot of things I guess. I don't know how much I'll be able to update my blog during the semester. Even now I feel guilty, like I should be reading!


Here is the view across the entryway to the building called "The Bell Tower" where all of my classes are held. I've come out here after class on a number of occasions to call my husband on my phone. In this warm, muggy weather we've been having it's the coolest spot on campus!

"Senioritis"

I remember in high school a condition that existed among the Senior class called "Senioritis" that hit during the last 6 weeks of school. You were so close to being done with school, but not yet done so you got really antsy to have it over with!!

Well that is what I'm feeling at work right now. I have one more week of full time work before I got back to school again. So I am now antsy to GO to school? Yes!

After school starts I will work very, very part time at this job on a week by week basis. I am so excited and happy to be making more progress on my dream!

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to make money for school the last five months. It felt so good when I wrote the check to pay for my first semester tuition with money that I had earned myself.

Last week, my sister went with me to the college so I could get my student ID, parking permit and the ever important T-shirt. It was really fun to show her around, it's such a beautiful campus. While in the bookstore, my sis saw a really cute keychain of the school's mascot and I got it for her as a thank you for coming with me. We had to do a little photo shoot with "Splashy" as I named him. (Pictures to come soon.) Then we went on to my Gram's for a nice visit, haircuts and grocery shopping at my new fav store "Fresh and Easy"!

The last couple of weeks I've been in an incredibly good mood. I forgot what that was like! I think I have indeed found "sunshine"!

My Vacation

This post will make no sense right now because it needs to be reformatted completely! I entered all the text and uploaded the pictures at home using Mozilla, but I can't make any changes at work using Internet Explorer. So I'll just let you try to figure it out until I have time at home to move things around.









As I wrote before, it looks like we won't be going anywhere this summer on vacation, but I did manage to have my own style of vacation.
While my brother and sister-in-law were on their trip, I volunteered to house sit and as mentioned before kitty-sit.
I started on Tuesday when I stopped by during lunch. I got some food from Burger King and then stopped in to see how Addy was doing. I ate my lunch and played with her a bit. It was kind of strange to be in their house without them being there, but I could tell it was going to be a fun time! After work my husband came with me to the house and played with Addy for hours, while I made dinner. They would chase each other around the house. It was really cute and funny and I don't know who got tired out first, my husband or the cat! That night I was looking for the can opener, only to figure out that my brother had taken it with them on their trip! After dinner and ice cream, my husband went home and I put on a DVD, Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version). I played with Addy for awhile until my sister arrived. She spent most nights with me. We had a great time, catching up during the week and watching Disney movies we've been wanting to watch for a long time and of course eating lots of ice cream! My brother and his wife had left 3 almost full containers of ice cream and "demanded" that we have them all finished before they got back!
So the first night, I slept the best I had in a long time. It was so quiet on their street and in their house. It also felt very peaceful. Addy seemed to adjust to us being there and it was good. The rest of the days were pretty much the same. My husband would stay with me for awhile to have dinner and to play with the cat. Then he would go home and my sister would come over a little while later.

Some things I also loved about staying there was having some time to myself, not having any TV and being only 10 minutes away from work instead of 25.

On Friday, Addy the kitty came to work with me for the morning. My co-worker really wanted to see her. After exploring the entire office for a few hours, she took a nap in my chair, so I had to work standing up of course!

The one Saturday that we were there, my husband came over in the afternoon and we took a walk to the beach and then over to downtown and back again. We also explored this aqueduct structure that is above the mission. I had never been to that spot before and it was like seeing the city in a whole new light.

I had a couple of nights to myself and surprisingly felt very safe. One of those nights, I went for a walk to the beach.
When it was over, I did have a little hard time letting go and getting back to my life. I knew that there was still craziness around my home. I stayed until the travellers came home and helped them unload their car and hear a little bit about their trip. They were so glad to be back home and I don't blame them.

That night my parents were out of town, so I spent the night at their place to keep their animals company. I kind of got use to living out of my bag and not being at home. It kind of gives one self reliance and keeps you from identifying so much with your home.

The following week, my sister was house sitting for someone else in her town, and I was able to spend the night with her for one night. We had a little pool party earlier with my brother and his wife. It was interesting to go from one kind of home, that was small and neat and tidy to a completely other kind of home that was large, under construction and normally full of wild children. It kind of gave me a balanced perspective to come back to my home. I could see the positive and negative of my own situation a little better.

Thanks to everybody who let me escape at their homes while they were gone!

Something cute and cuddly

So the other day I was looking at the updates for blogs that I follow and ALL of them had photos of little cute and cuddly babies and kids. It was a tiny bit overwhelming for me and I got a little jealous and wished I had something like that in my life. Then I realized that I do have something to blog about that's along the same lines.

I've been house sitting and kitten sitting for my brother and sister-in-law for the last 10 days while they were away on vacation. Little Addy, their kitten is just a few months old. It was fun to have a little creature happy to see you when you come home and follow you around the house wanting you to play with her. Also to feed, clean up after and to keep you up at night! Sounds familiar, right?

My sister stayed at the house too and had a few kitty photo shoots, which I'm borrowing these pictures from.

Addy loves to play with this hat and on the first day I was watching her, she strategically moved it into her "bed" and slept IN it every day. Must have been like a comforting "baby blanket" to her. I love how her colors match the colors of the hat perfectly. The day my brother came back, she moved it off of her bed and onto the floor.

Somebody is watching you! Addy kept doing this while my sister and I were watching TV. It was so cute. At least she couldn't attack us from behind the lamp!

I had the best time at the little house with the little kitty and my little sister. It was so nice to take a break from my own life for awhile and get a better perspective on things. I have made some goals to help make my life more peaceful and make me less grumpy! It's also good to have everybody in my family back home again.

I am so excited!

It's been a great last few days and I think my mental health is improving from it! Part of it has to be anticipation of my little mini "vacation" that starts today! Funny I should say that, since I'm at work right now and will be at work the whole time! (Actually work is a vacation too since the boss is gone and things are very slow.) After it is over, I will explain what I mean.
I am looking forward to having something to care for everyday and to see things from a different perspective.

I don't have any pictures from this weekend, so I'll just write it up.

This summer holiday season has been a little different from times past. Everyone in my family did their own thing and we met up together here and there. On July 3rd, both my husband and I had the day off so we took a drive and a hike in the mountains above our area. Somehow we avoided all the bad holiday traffic on all our travels. That evening we met his family for dinner and had a good a time. We also stopped in a bugged my brother and sister-in-law and their kitten on the way home. I visited a good friend on Independence Day and enjoyed her company and the peace away from the crowds in my town. My husband went hiking and the rest of my family had a BBQ together. The next day on my way home from there I stopped at my folks place and just stayed for a several hours, letting the Sunday beach crowds disperse before I went back to my place. My parents went to Disneyland that day for my father's birthday.
Yesterday was my brother's birthday and we all met together in the evening for an impromptu birthday party at his house for him. It was a fun, relaxing gathering.
It's been so nice this weekend to not have big plans and expectations for everybody and to just go with the flow and enjoy ourselves. I think and hope that everybody had as good of a time as I did.
I read something yesterday that really hit home about families that is a truth everyone can benefit from. It said "The beauty of being a family, is that you can be yourself."

Just pictures

I haven't been feeling very inspired lately, which explains the lack of postings! For now I will post a collection of pictures taken mostly on my cell phone over the last two months. That might kind of catch up on what has been happening in my world lately.

April 15th at the Tea Party protest. The lady in pink was suppose to be dressed like a pig. Interesting note, my computer locked up right after I wrote the words tea party. My name is going on some list with Homeland Security I suppose. I'm such a radical!

Beautiful sunset on the evening of April 15th on an evening walk. Funny that I don't remember taking a walk that night!

In May, the parking lot was torn up and repaved at my work. I thought this looked cool.

My little Benjamina ficus plant, I plan to take home with me when the job is over.
This was inside one of the buildings at University of Idaho. Lionel Hampton went to school there! I had the pleasure of seeing him perform at Disneyland with my father when I was 5 years old, although I had no idea what it meant at the time!
Shadow of me, in my tree.
My brother's sweet little sleeping kitty on my sister-in-law's lap.
Beautiful view on one of my walks after work
In May on our 16th anniversary we drove up to the top of Frazier Mountain and enjoyed this beautiful view.


Another neat looking sunset on one of my walks

Beautiful roses off the mini rose bush my Grandma gave me years ago. There were so many blossoms, the bush was bending over from the weight.
Along a river on a quick walk my husband and I took on a local bike path before going to my folks.
The reflection pool in front of the library at my new university. This was taken the day I registered for classes!


First Beach Night of the season. Someone put the tomato/cucumber salad on top of their chili dog. Can you guess who it was? Hint: it wasn't me.

My poor excuse for a dolphin picture. They were leaping out of the water like crazy, I'm just not fast enough.

The sun sets on our first beach night.

Towing the jet skis after a fun morning of skiing last Saturday!

My father's fence art on the new backyard fence

Playing, or attempting to play croquet on Father's Day.

That about sums it up for now. Just two more months until I start "real" school!
My plans for this summer are to have no plans and no expectations.

What an Adventure!?

WARNING...THIS POST IS FILLED WITH SARCASM!

Well the Disney Company is pretty smart and during the Spring they have a special called a "2fer Ticket" that allows you entrance to both Disney parks for the price of one ticket. The visits have to be on two different days, within a 30 day period. As I mentioned in a previous post, we went to Disneyland in mid-April, so exactly 30 days later we came back to go to California Adventure. None of us particularly like that park, but it's a free ticket and there are a few good features of Cal Adventure that kind of make it worth the trip? The smart part about it, is that they get you back in there "for free" so you'll spend more money on parking, food and some merchandise that isn't offered in Disneyland.
So we headed out in the late morning on a Saturday and our first adventure was hitting quite a bit of traffic. I had "fun" using my brother's hand held navigational device to try to find side streets to avoid the freeway. We did it for a few miles and now we are very familiar with all the street names of the offramps South of Disneyland.
The second adventure was to get off the freeway at the original Disneyland exit on Harbor Blvd. We tried to recreate our youth a bit. Surprisingly it still had a some of the same feel as it did years ago. This is how I remember it. We drove on all the streets around Disneyland and found an alternate parking area, which I hope we can use the next time we go.
So yeah, just over the hedge in the background is the parking lot! I was just so excited to know that one existed. The main parking structure is a little creepy. We ended up parking there anyway this time though, because we had already driven in circles around Disneyland and didn't want to take anymore time driving around.
Finally and reluctantly we made it inside the park and we saw all kinds of exciting things.

More baby ducks! I wonder how many generations have been born here?
Monterey? I lived in Monterey and sorry, there's no bridge that crosses the bay there. Maybe this is suppose to be the Bay Bridge in S.F.? There are lots of mysteries in the park like that.
The Drive-through tree or I mean walk through tree. This is a one of the nice parts of the park, with lots of trees providing shade and peace. Hopefully the redwoods will survive there.

Yellowstone ...in California? Still is pretty cool though.
Devils Postpile Monument...with a waterfall. I guess I don't need to see the real thing now.
My grandma's backyard fence? What? Seriously, my brother took this picture in the redwood area somewhere and I didn't even notice it when we walked by.
Las Vegas construction. This was so strange, they are working on a water show there, but had the construction completely exposed in most places. That is so not Disney!

Our tired feet. We are all wearing the same shoes as we did to Disneyland!


A Hollywood restroom straight from the 1930's! Wow!
A Disneyland stray cat. This is the fourth one I've seen in 3 years. Yet again, I wonder how many generations of cats have lived in the parks? Poor kitty, we kept following him so we could get a good picture.A sign outside of the Bugs Life Land. Thanks to my brother for this picture too. I thought it fitting.
All in all, I'm glad that we went. It's all about spending time together anyway, even if it's not our most favorite place...just NEXT TO our most favorite place! :(

I learned things from this last trip though that I need to remember.

1. Always get a Fast Pass for rides where people tend to be annoying in line i.e. Tower of Terror. (Or just bring a bodyguard along with you to the park.)
2. I'm getting too old for staying until (and after) the parks close and driving all the way home the same night.
3. If I do stay until the parks close and drive home the same night, then I better leave myself the entire next day to recover!
4. I need to take some more time between visits to Disneyland so I can appreciate it more and see the "magic".

My next post will have more Sunshine in it, I promise!