Love It

Chris & I

Disney 2008

Loved The Disney Pixar Parade!!!

Buzz Continued......

Buzz Lightyear!

This is the other ride, we went on this once....nothing like the Astro Blaster ride where you shoot the Buzz gun

Waiting in line....................................

Mickey Mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Happy couple in Toon Town

Hugging Donald, he loves that Donald lives in a boat

Mickey's Toontown Morning Madness

All of Jackson's new friends sang and danced, he was in awe. I think he's favorite character is Goofy now.

A Blast!

Disneyland was a blast! Highlights: for Jackson was meeting all of the Toon Town Characters and seeing the show for Mickey's Toon Town Morning Madness where he became an honorary citizen. When he was done shmoozing with Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Max, and more; he threw his chubby hands up and said, "Wow! Look at all my friends!". The next best was BUZZ LIGHTYEAR! We went on the ride like 10 times, but we had a fastpass so the line wasn't bad, thank goodness. Jackson didn't understand or like lines. Next, the Disney Pixar Parade at California Adventure was GREAT! Buzz gave Jackson a thumbs up from the top of the float and made Jackson's day. It was a parade with all of the Toy Story characters, Incredibles, and all the characters from the Pixar movies. The whole park filled with bubbles and Woody and Buzz were blasting everyone with giant water guns while acrobats were flying around the float! We also loved the fireworks and the Electric Parade, oh and A bug's Land at California Adventure was cool. It was good times, we have so many pictures I'll probably just put them in a slideshow or something.

A Little Taste.......

Here is a preview of our trip to Disneyland. This was Jackson's fave ride, the only ride we used the fastpass for, and we went on it about 10 times. Here's one of the pics (you get to e-mail your pic to yourself after the ride is done). I don't know who I'm texting, but the ride was really fun, the camera just caught me texting for some odd reason. More is to come...................it was soooooooooooooooooo fun.

Jackson AKA Photographer

Watch out Jana, Amy, and any other family photographers out there! Cause Jackson's got your number! He is right on your heels for photog of the year, and check out his latest model......eh? eh? There were a lot of people he could have chosen....Linda, Chris, Sadie, but NOOO he chose me--pajama clad, roots need to be dyed, beautiful me. Check it out..............our latest photo session....

Pretty good eh? I think so, even though Chris said I look like I've had a little too much of the good stuff, if you know what I mean.
Hef has been calling me to model as well, but I just giggle and say, "who me? naw....."
Jackson added the mist at the bottom of the picture, he said it would make me look more mysterious.

The new "exaggerated" smile, almost a constipated look is really in right now, at least according to Jackson.
He added the two empty chairs behind me as a special effect
Just following directions..............................
Smile Mimi!
Again, the chair was on purpose, and he tilted my head like that

Recovering From a Hard Day @ Work

We made Jackson get a job so he could pay the grocery bill and half the cable bill with us. He's been quite exhausted from all the long hours, so I thought I'd share these pics of him passed out.
Keep in mind people..........he's only two, he only looks like a ten year old boy...
When he sleeps in our bed it's as if four adults are in a Queen size bed! Chris=2 adults, me=1 adult, Jackson=1 adult=FOUR=SQUISHED!

Projects

This summer I had a lot of projects I wanted to start/finish, and especially with school finally over I could tackle them! So, now with a broken refrigerator (the week we leave for vacation) I thought I would post some of the projects that worked out to make myself feel better, then everyone can reply how talented I am and then I will feel better....so, here goes...This is the flagstone I layed-by myself (may I add)-because the husband said it was "too much" of a project for his taste. But I did it anyways and almost gave myself a hernia picking it up and moving it, but I did, and I got a pretty nice tan while laying it too! This is my tree I planted last year, I got it for six bucks from trees for Tucson (they delivered it and everything!). It was quite small but is now growing larger and blooming too! It is sweet success--cheap, AND I haven't killed it!
I felt I needed to add a picture of a blossom up close to maximize the oohs and ahhsThis is my sweet little bush that I just know, with the help of the automatic drip system will one day grow into a big beauty that I will have to trim...........maybe into the shape of a dolphin? Hmmm, still working on that one.This is my planter (yes, I also did this myself--but not recently). Notice the big, beautiful lantana plant that I planted when it was ALMOST dead. A year later it has blossomed and grown so much that I had to put a viney-thingy behind it to tame it's wild ways. All this.....and I don't even have a green thumb! This is why it makes me so happy--I love stuff that works out with little effort!!!I had to add a different view just in case you didn't get the full effect from the above picture, and YES, this is a different picture, thank you.Then I felt the need to add a tropical touch to one side of the yard (no, I'm not copying Amber--well, maybe just a little). I will eventually finish off this planting area with matching river rock, as seen started to the left. Then, when Chris runs power to that side of the yard (maybe...2019), I will put a beautiful "Rose Vase Water Feature", per Home Depot if they still carry them then, in the middle of my tropical plants. I felt this one needed a different view as well but I'm feeling too lazy to go back outside, take another pic, insert the memory card, blah, blah, you get my drift.

R.I.P Roxy

Left: in happier times, above is Thursday before I took her into the ER clinic.

On Thursday evening when I got home from work I fed Roxy and Sadie and then went to play with them outside when I realized Roxy's stomach was bleeding pretty badly. Her massive tumor had ulcerated (broken through the skin) where it became an open, bleeding wound. This was one of the progressions that actually would affect Roxy's quality of life and she would be in pain--it would only get worse from here. I began to realize that a masectomy would do no good at this point because the cancer has probably spread throughout her body and become very advanced in order to start protruding through the skin. I took her to the emergency center where they confirmed my fears. I didn't want Roxy to suffer, especially because it seemed she had suffered enough in her life already. But to look at her sweet face and know that it was the cruelty and neglect of humans that got her to this point was very sad to me. The vet told me that if a female dog is spayed before 2yrs, the chances of this happening are so rare. He also told me that it wasn't only having all of the litters that she had that did this, it was that she was not spayed when she was younger, in addition to her 6 litters, in addition to neglect of the first lumps that appeared (which are very easy to remove if done when they first appear). The hormone cycles of female dogs is what makes them prone to mammary tumors/cancer, and this is why spaying early on is so important. No one could really predict this outcome, how fast Roxy was progressing to death--but it ended up that she had the most deadly, aggressive, and malignant cancer possible. The vet was really surprised that we had only adopted her a month ago and asked why we would adopt a 7 yr old dog? He said most people stay away from "older" dogs and they are usually euthanized anyways. I had thought about this before and also wondered why I was drawn to sicker, older, uglier, or whatever they are labeled dogs, I told him that if I didn't who would. Yes, I could walk away when I'm at Pet Smart and see a rescue group with a bunch of dogs, and sometimes I have to because I can't save them all. But when I can I have to because I've learned enough about life to know that most people either don't care, can't, or rationalize that someone else will do it. I always knew that just wasn't me, even if it's one at a time--it's never failed that they give us great memories and make us happy. Even with only a month with Roxy, we got so much more from her than we gave her. I read a quote once that said, "When we choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own, live in a fragile circle, easily and often breached--unable to accept it's awful gaps--we still would live no other way." My comfort is that Roxy knew love, good food, a cool place to sleep, a soft bed, treats, and lots of hugs before she left this earth. Jackson gave her his truck and stuffed snoopy as I took her to the emergency room and told her to feel better and he was sorry she had a disease (pronounced dizzies, and I imagined him thinking she had been spinning in circles too long). When I came home I told him that Roxy did feel better know (she was euthanized at the emergency center), but she had to go live in heaven with Jesus in order to feel better. He asked where heaven was and said he wanted to go too so he could see her. I told him we can't see her but she can see us and we went outside and laid on the grass, looked up at the sky and blew kisses to her and yelled we love you Roxy! We have since had to do this every evening and morning since--and sometimes in between.

WARNING: Graphic pictures below!!!

Roxy's mangled stomach