Monthly Archives: September 2011

Spending a Day with the Animals!

Good evening!

This evening I am going to share a bunch of pics of a super fun day we spent over at Wild Life Safari! It was quite a lovely day, and seeing that it was in the middle of the week, we pretty much had the run of the whole park!! 🙂

So without further ado, here you go!! 😉

Wild Life Safari is located in BEAUTIFUL Winston, Oregon.

Left to right: Austin, Jennifer, Gavin, Trina, and Jason, getting ready to go in.

We were very fascinated by the pink flamingos. It was my goal to get some of their interesting and unique feathers for collaging, which we did finally manage to do!! Whoo! Hoo!

We all had fun feeding the little goats. Gavin kept saying he was getting goat kisses whenever they licked his hand. LOL!! It helped that he kept refilling his hand with goat food! 😉

Jason had SO MUCH FUN with this little monkey. It was like they were long lost cousins.

It was so much fun to watch them mimic each other. This little monkey was so entranced by a weak light that Jason had in his pocket! 😉 But NOW, he wants a small monkey as a pet – I THINK I HAVE CREATED A MONSTER!!! 😉

Here is Gavin mimicking his Auntie Jennifer, she is just off camera!! 😉

We all took some time out to play on the children’s playground equipment. 😉

and after a few false starts, Gavin finally made it all the way to the top!! What a BIG boy!! 😉

Larger monkeys in another area of the park.

Koi the size of small sharks!! 😉

Then we took some time to feed some ducks, and geese.

Don’t they look like they are having fun?

I am not sure if this was a crocodile, or an alligator, but I would still hate to have found this guy on my street.

Here are the “boys” playing!

I really do love this man of mine.

Jason and our youngest sister, Trina! I LOVE this pic! 😉

And here is one of us near the end of our outing! Jennifer, Jason, Gavin, and Trina. We were all really tired, but really happy!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Dinner with Family!

Good evening!

I am having such a WONDERFUL time hanging out with my family down here in Roseburg, so much so that it makes long to have us all living in the same city!!!

As soon as Jason and I got into town we went and picked up my second to youngest sister, Jennifer, from work, and next our youngest sister, Trina. As soon as we had all gotten together and said our hellos, we met up with our dad, and his wife Trudi for dinner over at Red Robin! 😉

I have FINALLY gotten pictures of all of us, and I am very happy to be able to share these with you! 🙂

Here is myself and my dad! Do you know how hard it is to get a normal picture of my dad. He is ever the big kid who automatically plays whenever a camera is pointed at him – it really is just too funny!! 😉

Here are my troublemakers!! Trina, my youngest sister, Jennifer, my second youngest sister, and Jason my love and sweetie! 😉

See what I mean about my dad and a normal picture – I took 5 pictures of my dad, and his wife, Trudi, and this was the best one of them all!! I am glad that these two make each other so happy – that makes me really happy too! 😉

Ok, so back to my girls!! You see our mom died when I (being the oldest of 5 girls) was 24, and my youngest sister was only 8. Even before our mother passed away, I really did my best at mothering these two since we were 10 and 15 years apart. So, I have really grown to call these two “My Girls”! and since Jason and I do not have kids of our, it has kind of become true!!

I have always referred to Trina and Jennifer to my friends who do not know them by two labels. Trina is lovingly known as the “Know it all” – because she has always seemed to know weird facts about all sorts of EVERYTHING! 😉 and Jennifer has always been the “Comedian” because ever since I can remember she always has a quick retort to anything that is going on, and you are GUARANTEED to end your conversation with her in tears from laughing sooooo much!! 😉

I am just so glad that I was able to get these candid and very real pictures of how it is to be around these two! When these two were younger, they really NEVER got along!! Matter of fact they always claimed that they would NEVER love each other, NO MATTER WHAT!! I knew that would change as soon as the older of the two moved out of the house; and sure enough it did!Matter of fact, now, as adults, they live together now, with Jennifer’s husband, Austin, and they are closer than ever. Their joy with each other is infectious, and I just LOVE the energy that all of us have when we are together!!!

What a GREAT evening we had together!! I will make sure to share more pictures of some of our adventures tomorrow!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain!

Good afternoon!

The house is clean, the laundry is done, camping stuff is FINALLY finished being put away, and we are ready to go visit family down in Roseburg for a couple of days. We have a couple of get togethers planned with various family members, and will be staying with two of my younger sisters and one of our brother-in-laws. I can not wait to get there!! I am so excited!! Other than a couple of dinners, we really don’t have much planned, seeing that we usually play it by ear while we are there, that should be fun! I am hoping to have a ton of pictures to share with you! Especially of our two nephews, Aaron and Gavin, who I am sure are growing like weeds!! 😉

Our two four-legged girls, Fay and Sophie are going to be staying home this trip. Our friend Don is going to be coming over and keeping them company – I hope they don’t bark at him too much. For some reason he is fine as long as he is sitting down, but as soon as he stands up, Sophie starts barking at him like CRAZY!!! It is kind of funny!! 😉

Anyway, as you can tell this is going to be a short post! I have got to get on the road if we are going to get there on time!!! WHOO! HOO!

I will talk to you again tomorrow!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye!

Good evening!

Have I ever told you that I have a really hard time with goodbyes? My sweetie and I did something that we probably shouldn’t have done and that was made ONE MORE trip down to Borders before it actually closes it’s doors this week!

It was a little weird being there. Everything was for sale, and I mean EVERYTHING!! Fixtures, counter tops, bookshelves, mixers, chairs, tables, if it was in the store, it was for SALE!! I would REALLY LOVE to replace my cheapie bookshelves up in my office with a wall full of Borders book cases, but I am going to refrain – believe it or not!! I think I just want to somehow keep a piece of Borders alive – sad right???

Anyway, we had told ourselves that we would never go back again, since we had such a bad experience the last time we had gone there since their closing was announced, but they were claiming 70-90% off!!

HOW CAN YOU PASS THAT UP?????

Anyway, we ended up getting something like 20 books for less than $100!!

SHUT UP!!!

No seriously!! 😉

I honestly don’t know where I am going to put all of these little treasures, but I am very happy to be able to add them to my EVER-GROWING library collection!! 😉 I know, I will have to have another intervention with myself about my excessive book shopping, but truly I am working on it!! LOL!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

In Memory!

In honor of it being the anniversary of 9/11, I thought it only fitting to share this touching tribute commercial from Budweiser. It chokes me up every time I see it remembering all of those who risked and lost their lives to help a stranger, that in this moment became brothers and sisters.

May the family and friends of those affected by this tragic day know that even 10 years later, a nation is with you.

With my prayers,

Home Sweet Home!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I are finally home from the coast! I am thankful for the relaxing week we have had together, but I am really also very thankful to get back to our cozy little place in this world. OH, and when I think about sleeping in our OWN BED!!!

Oh Em Gee!

That is gonna be AWESOME!!!

Ok, so it really is the little things in life that are really the B-I-G thing!! 😉

I wanted to share with you a couple of more backgrounds that I have been playing with:

These are both 12″ x 12″ acrylic on wood.

These were created because I have been playing with mixing my acrylics to come up with new and interesting colors, and I have just started using an acrylic float medium to give the paints a lot more playing time before the colors actually dry! They remind me of flower petals, you know – he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…etc. Plus the act of making these is very relaxing, fluid, and fun.

I actually liked the way these turned out so much that I am thinking about making a few of these to display in a grid on the wall in my office.  If I do that I will make sure to take pictures and share that with you too! 🙂

Anyway, I am off to spend some more quality time with my sweetie – our vacation is still officially on for another week! WHOO! HOO! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

I Made Something!

Good evening!

I am happy to report that I am still hotelling at the coast. It is our last night here and we are LIVING IT UP!! Well, as living it up as two old married people can do with two skittish long-haired chihuahuas!! Ok, so we aren’t actually “living it up”, we are having fun watching the tele, listening to the ocean, reading, and I am very happy to announce that I have finally finished another piece!!! YEAH!!!

Creative block is officially over!!!

Who knew I would have to stay at an inexpensive hotel at the coast to get my groove back!!!

Anyway, this piece is 7″ x 7″ acrylic on wood, and I am calling it “Irreplaceable Coco!”

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section! I am have a couple of other pieces in the works, so I am hoping to be able to share some more completed pieces soon!

Anyway, we are on our way home tomorrow, but just long enough to get all of our laundry done and our camping stuff put away, then we are heading down to Roseburg to spend a couple of days visiting with my family!!! That should be fun!! I know it will be nice sleeping in our bed tomorrow evening!! SWEET BLISS!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

It’s a Girl’s Perogative!

Good evening!

A lot has changed in the past 24 hours! Well, my sweetie and I were camping at the Oregon Coast and were actually planning on being there until Saturday. Well, a girl can only take so much, and Jason knew that I was getting more and more miserable, so we had decided to go home.

On the way home, I decided at the last minute that I didn’t want to leave the coast just yet, and my sweetie found us this sweet little hotel that we could stay at. So here we are: hot shower, ocean front view with sound proof windows!!! AAH!!! Bliss!! and to top it off I have been absolutely blocked art-wise! I don’t know what my problem has been, but I have found this GREAT collage book that has re-inspired me, and I am ready to create, create, create!!!

So, we will see what happens in the next day or so!

Anyway, Jason and I will be here for about 2 or 3 days (I am just LOVING this vacation!!), and then we will eventually mozy on home!! Until then I am planning on arting it up, enjoying this view and spend as much time bundled up in the great outdoors as I can handle!! I will make sure to have some pics to share tomorrow! 🙂

Have a  FABULOUS evening! 😉