Arboretum

Yesterday, Dom took me on my first trip to the Arboretum. He's had a year pass that allows him and 4 other guests in for free and yet for some reason we have yet to go! Silly, really. I had a great day with him walking through beautiful landscapes, gardens and by ponds and peaceful scenery. Comfortable shoes are a must because there is a lot of walking..hmm I prefer strolling. You also must bring some old bread to feed the ducks and geese. There's Dom on the bench, and it's blurry but the bottom pic is me feeding one duck that felt very comfortable eating from my hand. Their "QUACK" was more like a "HONK."

This red-eyed guy was very set and focused on scoping out the fish in the pond until he found just the right one to swoop down on and EAT. Peacocks also populate the grounds. They're crazy beautiful.

I stumbled into a mess of bamboo (I think?) trees to hide from Dom while he was in the bathroom. I discovered that almost all of them had names and messages carved in them from couples in love. It was really sweet. Some had been carved 5 years ago, and I wondered where all of these lovebirds are now, and if they're still together, and do they still carve their love on trees.

I love water. I love lakes, ponds, pools, oceans, WATERFALLS. It's soothing to me. I also love how my new camera captures moving water.

Bird watching. And feeding the rest of our bread.

This brought back memories from art classes at San Diego state where our class would be out on campus by ponds or by other interesting settings. I loved drawing what was around me and this made me miss doing it.

Dominic was just getting over being sick and my feet were starting to hurt so we didn't make it through the whole park, but it was a beautiful day to be enjoying nature and each other's company.

Girls' movie night

A few nights ago, I spent the evening hanging out with the girls. Kasia was house sitting a nice place in Pasadena so she invited her sisters, Nichole and I to watch the movie All About Steve. Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper star in it. It was surprisingly funny! We all liked it, and I especially liked getting to see little miss Victoria (Kasia's bebe). I don't see her nearly enough as I should or want to. We also had pizza and salad for dinner and made popcorn and brownies after. Calories were obviously not a concern.

She's so precious. I very much look forward to being a mommy someday :)

HEART art

(Here is Jim Dine's "Imogen" that we viewed to copycat)

My Kindergarten/1st grade students learned about primary, secondary and complimentary colors. I also introduced them to watercolor painting and to the American artist, Jim Dine, and some of his work. I LOVE Dine's art. This was the first time I've attempted this project with my students and they did a fabulous job capturing Dine's style. I'm so impressed with the outcome, I can't wait to begin hanging them up in their classrooms tomorrow. They will then go home as the cover of their Valentine letters to Mom and Dad :)

a little work done

My mom said she's been wanting a nice walkway and little rock wall for her garden for about 10 years! Better late than never, I guess. Dominic was given the green light to do his stuff and beautify the land. In my opinion (and my parents) he did an amazing job. I used to walk up the driveway to get to the front door, but since the work's been done I choose to walk up the stone path. It's so much more a pleasant walk that way AND it makes me think of Dom :)

a wet sunset

Rain clouds are good for lovely sunsets. These were taken at Dominic's front doorstep.

..to get out of the rain, Boom! Boom!

YAY, another rain free day! Dominic, his neighbor Jason and his "wife" Sylvia and I (AND the dogs, Roxi, Bonnie, Biscuit) went for another stroll to give the dogs some exercise and get all of us out of the house. We all first walked through the Montrose Farmer's Market where I bought a bag of roasted peanuts (LOVE peanuts!) and some lunch. We then went to a little trail/road by JPL to get our nature fix. We could only go about a mile before we had to turn around because the road was closed due to the rain. There was a lot of water down what I think is normally a small creek. I've never been walking here before so I'm not sure. It still made for a nice day and some decent pictures :)

Hey good lookin' ;)

There Roxi goes AGAIN...digging away.

Sickness & RAIN!

It rained last week, is an understatement. It came down for 3-4 days straight, pretty much. My mister lives up the mountain by some burned areas from some major fires that hit a few months ago so there's been high concern around his neighborhood and others much higher up every time it rains. His street was actually put under mandatory evacuation last week for a few days due to the dangers of mudslides. I practically lived at his house for 5 days because I was SICK and out from work all week. I was light headed, small fever, COUGHING, sneezing, night sweats and cold in the day. When I heard I could get onto his street before the cops locked it down I headed over and neither of us could leave until it was lifted. My sick self was stuck on the couch with blankets, soups, teas, meds and movies. Dominic watched over me...he had nothing better else to do :) His dad was recovering in the hospital during all of this so it was just the 2 of us and the pets.

This pic is on our "first day out" once the skies cleared and the evac was lifted. We drove around to scope out the "damage" in the area and took a little stroll through a disc golf course in La Canada. Roxi went nuts digging in a gopher hole. She kept going...a digging fool. It was pretty funny...I guess you do crazy things when you're pent up in a house for days :) Love that pup...and the beautiful skies after it rains.

AND I LOVE THAT CRAZY BEARD ON MY HANDSOME MOUNTAIN MAN ;)

William Heise Campground

I had a 3-day weekend two weeks ago (Monday off from work) so Dom and I decided to go camping! We tried out a new campsite for us near Julian. Dom's friend Hippo and his gf, Rana, planned most of the get-together and invited 3 other couples...although Reno and Ryan only stayed the first evening. All good company.

Dom and I headed out on Saturday and stopped by the Julian Pie Company on the way in (and on the way out) because Dom had heard so many great things about it. I've NEVER had a better piece of pie! On the first stop we tried Peach Apple Crumb and Boysenberry Apple Crumb, on the second stop I tried Apple Mountain Berry Crumb and bought a whole pie to bring back to my family. They LOVED it, too. I'll definitely be stopping in town again for more.

The entire weekend was pretty chilly since we were expecting a big storm to come through. This gave Dom and I a chance to finally break in our new 4 season tent we purchased together from REI. It's supposed to withstand all extremes of weather and it held up nicely in the rain that came in on the last night we were there. It comfortably sleeps the 2 of us along with Roxi and her bed. It doesn't allow you to fully stand up in it though, since it's meant to be small and light to easily carry on overnight hikes. We also got to try out our 0 degree and 20 degree mummy sleeping bags. Everyone else at our site was FREEZING through the nights, shivering. Dom and I were nearly sweating in our insanely warm bags. How rad is that? Roxi and I woke up happy, cuddly campers :)

HIPPO! We all definitely needed our gloves. My hands are always cold. Hippo and Rana brought their new addition to their family, Oliver. He's an adorable little puppy.

Dominic and I spent Sunday afternoon on a leisurely hike up the mountain. Click the photos to get a closer look. The trail was interesting...since there was a big fire in that area years before. Many trees were charred and weak so they had fallen with the strong winds. It seems the vegetation is trying to grow back and I'm sure the recent rains helped a lot. I liked the reddish colored dirt along the path. We took our time on this hike since it was fairly easy and we were in no rush. It was nice to explore a little and just appreciate the scenery.

We both liked this campsite, but it's more family friendly since it has an 11pm curfew on fires and they prohibit hard alcohol (we brought some anyways). I did like that the bathrooms/showers were nearby us and the showers were warm..no HOT! That's always a plus.

OUR eyes, only

The scene:

Man laying on bed, woman snuggling up to man with his arm around her, dog cuddling up on side of woman, cat resting by man's feet.

(Enter "mental picture" here)

Man says:

"Aw...ALL of my girls are here with me on my bed. Aren't I a lucky guy."

Woman:

:) and <3

A dirty desert New Year's

So after contemplating a few ideas for New Year's (Tahoe, Big Bear, San Diego) we finally decided on accepting our friends Jon & Noelle's invite to the desert. They rented an RV and we headed to Dove Springs on Wednesday night along with their baby, Chase and their dog, Zoe and Dom's pup, Roxi. A huge group was to be expected and they all showed up randomly on different days. This was my FIRST desert camping experience and I had a blast. To pass the time, we played horseshoes...another FIRST for me. My arm was sore after a few games.

Staring at baby Chase passed the time, too. I could sit and watch him for hours. I'm pretty sure I did. He's playing with his new Christmas toy that a friend gave him there. Dom spent some time making him smile, too.

Friends, Jesse and Alex playing with their son, Kyle. He's a little firecracker :)

Another FIRST for me was riding a quad. Well, this one is Kyle's quad so it's not as big, but was plenty for me. Noelle borrowed one, too. Later in our trip, I even learned to ride a dirtbike..with a clutch! Sure I only made it to 2nd gear but I did it, thanks to Jean.

Roxi was right by our side (I should say, Dom's side) the whole time. I know she loves me, too but man she's like his shadow. She was freaking out a bunch over the loud sounds of fireworks that the camp would randomly set off. She's so purdy.

Another "fun" way to pass the time is to go off-roading in a Jeep. Dom's a great driver and I trust him, but I was on edge going over bumps, hills and down steep hills. I've tried to drive stick shift a few times before, but Dom really took some time to teach me. We were warned from numerous people at camp to not let your "significant other" teach you drive stick but of course, we didn't listen. Wow, did we have some fights! He'll tell you that he was just fine the whole time and that was all me....but it takes two. His teaching methods and my learning methods aren't exactly in sync. I tried quitting a few times, but he didn't let me. Thanks for the help, Dom. I do appreciate it.

Here are the Florians. Tim and Andrea have been friends of Dom for a long time. Mom and Dad are lots of fun and they have such sweet kids.

There's Dom, fueling the fire. He made it his responsibility to make sure it was going strong for all of our trip.

Great family photo of the Mouldens :) Love that Chase face! ...and his super cool John Deere stroller. I want one.

Dominic is such a great uncle to Chase. He looks so handsome with him in his arms.

What a man. The beard helps the man thing, too ;)

Campers being...campers. Mingling, enjoying each other's company. Hmm...maybe except for the 4 below. Smile??

As the night continues, so did the drinks.

(Top left) That's our campsite on the top of the hill. Pretty big group. (Bottom right) Noelle, Andrea, Mikey and I took the Jeep out for a late night desert romping. Noelle and I took turns driving stick while Andrea instructed us. Whoa, BUMPY ride.

Mikey and I riding in the back of the Jeep. And below, that's Tim giving Mikey the ultimate wedgie. Torn panties! There were a few wrestling matches in the dirt between Tim and...everyone else. Even his wifey :)

We all rung in the new year with the shooting of our roman candles into the sky. Of course, I got a big drunken New Year's make out session from Dom. Haha XO! I had a great 3 1/2 days with my special guy and our friends. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. It was a perfect way for me to start 2010.

To Victoria, With <3

I had the idea to make a quilt for the daughter of one of my best friends (Kasia) about, hmm...10 months ago?! Yeah, she was still in Kasia's belly being that she's almost 10 months old now. I finally finished it and gave it to little Victoria for Christmas. Her baby colors are pink and brown which explains the fabric choice. I picked pink with polka dots and white with polka dots for the front and a brown fabric with very tiny white polka dots for the back. Kasia loved it and so did her very Polish dad (strong accent). Kasia left me this message on Facebook:

"Um obviously the quilt is adorable and amazing...but you should have seen my dad..."Wooow. So cute! oh my God how cute. Victoria look how cute. Oh my God." For 10 minutes:) I love my dad, he cracks me up."

There's Victoria and her grandpa :)

And here's her quilt