Forgot all about vacation this year! Rancho Oso

Here are a few shots from Rancho Oso! Neat camp ground and when we actually get a good snow we will go back for fun in the pools.

 This was Sweety. She's pretty neglected by her owner that boards her at this campground which pissed me off! She has burs in her mane like crazy! Wanted to horse-nap her!!!

 Dakota...wanted to take him home too but his daddy wouldn't let me

Portraits of me

Going through a few albums I found some decent pics of me that I figure I'll post.

These are all done by my hubby! He did a great job with this shoot. We did learn some things though, like bring a reflector.. 

These are a bit more current!
This one self portrait with hubby...yes that is his smile unless you make him laugh.

 Me and the kid! My mini-me and business partner

 Self portrait with cell

 Kid took this one!

 Self Portrait with cell

 ditto

 Again...loving the timer setting

 Photo by a co-worker

Catching Up 2013

It has been awhile again since I last did a blog post! It seems that a million things have been going on and not one of them included time to sit and blog. Since this is my photo blog I will have to admit that I haven't been doing much as of late with my camera. Poor thing probably feels neglected!

Anyways there have been a few opportunities for photography in my travels! Here are just a few. HAHA ok more than a few! Who can pick just a few to load!

Wyoming:

Reston, VA:

Houston, TX:

My lovely dog Shiva:

 Old pic of Shiva but I love it

Long time away

Well I hope that everyone who had been reading my blogs hasn't totally lost faith in me. I  have been away for what seems like a long time. In all honesty it's been almost a year. Wow where does time go?

Back in August I had blogged about my son breaking his knee cap in half. After a lot of xrays (I think he glows green from radiation every now and then) and Dr. appts his knee is 100% completely healed. No surgery and no physical therapy needed! Guardian Angels and Healing Hands have helped along the way. :)

Life still has it's curve balls in store for me. Hubby is STILL unemployed! This is no fun for any of us. He did not receive calls for the Engineer position but with a TON of prayers maybe a call will come through for Firefighter II position.  Unemployment is stressful, depressing and just down right CRAPPY. Tensions are much higher and life over all seems more stressful. However, my Hubby decided to take on a good amount of Firefighter courses! Here's to hoping that those courses and a revamped resume may catch someone's eye and rank him better then before.

I have had fun time working in my position as Client Service Manager. While that doesn't mean a lot to anyone outside of the company the fun came to an end not but a few months back. One of my dear accounts have tragically come to an end. I think someone could write a mystery novel with all of the suspense and issues they had in their program. Well this particular incident really became the pin to my happy lil' bubble.While working with this account though I had the wonderful opportunity to show my talents in training folks. With that came an opportunity that just makes me smile. I just can't wait to get all set up and going in this new position.

Photography for me during these stressful times also came to a halt. Sadly, when something I enjoy so much and should be used as stress relief I just let it go. Well I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'll post some pics in another thread. So watch for those pics to start rolling in again. Oh and of course it's baseball season. My son is back to playing ball and there of course are the Angel games. Watch for those pics too!

Good to be back!

Labor Day Weekend...

Here I sit once again today thinking about how I'm going to spend my weekend and Monday off. Well what exactly does labor day mean. Why do we get a day of the week off for it? So I did a bit of reading on this. For some it signals the end of summer. Well that doesn't mean much in CA since many schools have been back in session for about a month now. The other reason is to pay tribute to all the working men and women. Now there is an idea. To quote TLC Family: "Labor Day is a day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women. It has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States and Canada since 1894." Again this being the economy that our dear Mr. Pres. has decided to jack around it holds little meaning to many. So many are out of work, living on the streets, living in other family members homes just trying to get by.

Why am I rambling on about this..? I really don't know.

I guess since so many things are going on between my husband being laid off  and my work being incredibly busy and stressful right now. One point of burden is that since the State would rather hire a firefighter with zero experience and book work vs. keeping the trained (but not a degree) experienced Firefighter who has well over 10 years of experience. The State ranking system is a joke for Firefighters to get hired permanently. The rankings are secret, you don't know where you stand, you don't know why you stand where you do and no one will explain. Last I checked the State doesn't know how to budget it's own money, has a "management" system for training, hiring yet holds no one accountable to make sure that all firefighters on staff already are adequately taken care of with updated trainings and signing off the necessary items to prove they have had the training. The "system" is BS.

So what am I going to do about it? Well other then annoy the crap out of my husband to be more pushy not much I can do. (Sure as hell don't want to Gov. this state of a mess).

Instead I'll be spending my Labor Day weekend with my loving husband and amazing son sitting in the HOT So. Cal sun watching Americas all time favorite sport! BASEBALL!!! I can live in this dream world all weekend and Monday. Then someone will have to give me a good hard swift kick in the pants to make me walk down the hall to my office and begrudgingly turn on my laptop.

Just a few 2011 pics of baseball games we've been to so far. More to come on Tues...or Weds...

 Patience is a virtue and my son has it down. Doesn't scream out the players name just waits his turn.

 He was making fun of someone who was asking over and over for an autograph

 Mathis

 ...and stretch... You're up next batter get ready

Not a bad pic... would have been better had it not gone straight up... >.<

Have a safe Labor Day weekend and be grateful that you...yes you have a job in this whacked out economy!

As of late...

Life and work defiantly, as of late, are on this insane roller coaster for me. Life has its challenges on a normal basis but with all things considered in the month of August life pretty much has taken a sharp turn down hill...Broken knees, loss of work, lack of management, back stabbings, needing to thicken my skin, crutches, illness, struggle....

I'm not one who typically gets sad or wallows in the mud or throws "pity parties" but good grief there are days when I can feel depression, stress and an overwhelming sense of tears waiting at the backdoor. Waiting for that one small crack to come barreling in or heck for someone or something to leave it open for a millisecond too long.

I'm typically not a night owl and am in bed by 8pm. Rather the early bird who is out catching the worms with the sprinklers on. Smiling, dancing, laughing and enjoying the peace and quiet before the hot sun or the storm. One who has always needed a serious 10-12 hours of sleep to "play nice with others" which means 6 am I'm ready to get the day going. However lately it's been a dragging chore for me to open my eyes that early let alone make my body move out of the comfort of my bed. The bed who doesn't care if I stay there all day. The bed who won't "fire" me because I sent a how to guide instead of doing a live "touchy feely" session on how things should run. The bed who doesn't wonder why I put make up on to go to the grocery store. The bed who hugs me when I lay down (totally have a temper-pedic bed and yes they hug you. There is nothing but warm and comfort laying in bed. The world can rear it's ugly head and just be ignored by laying here...sleeping...dreaming...reading...living in an imaginary world where I'm happy all the time.

I  know there is a light at the end of every tunnel but this one feels like it's a labyrinth of twists, turns, mountains (not grains of sands here folks) which all have their up sides (walking barefoot in the snow both ways) and their down sides (walking away holding your behind because it feels like you've been kicked by a mule).

I will get through this and keep the smile and laughter but there are just days, as of late.....that get me down.

Oh Deer

While in Yosemite we stopped at the usual tourist spots. One in which I will forever remember because this hike was sure to KILL me. Upper Yosemite falls is an insane hike and not one to just plan on doing on a whim. A different day I'll post those pictures. While we were walking back to our car from the hike we discovered that the deer love apple trees along with the squirrels.