puzzled

All through the rains and during Dom's "mandatory evacuations" I REALLY had an itch to do a puzzle while being stuck in the house. Well, that itch carried on even after the evac had lifted and I checked a few grocery and drug stores for one but had no luck. Finally, I found a decent 1000 piece box...the picture being a big field of flowers with a lake in the distance in front of mountains and a pinkish sky. Once I get going it's hard to stop! I think one morning I sat in bed and worked on it for 3 hours straight!

Dom didn't know what I was doing when I started out by separating the "edge" pieces from the rest. Doesn't everybody put the outside together FIRST???

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