Mountain Festival 2010

Yay for the annual Mountain Festival!!!!!

Saturday started off with a local parade - followed by visiting the arts & crafts booths

Festival food is always a plus - alas, there was no funnel cake :( and I had been looking forward to that!!!! Don't worry though, the root beer float made things better :)

Here's Joseph watching them cook meat!

And Joseph is somewhere in there! Watch out Kong, Joseph will give you a run for it!

There were some fun carnival rides too......


And then Sunday morning, we went to church at the park followed by the Thunder on the Mountain Car Show - Joseph loved this one! We took many pictures of cars that he's going to find a way to do an album or something with. Here were some of my favs:

Here's a 1930's hearse in the "specialty" category

School Begins!!!

Joseph and Derek started back to school today -- I kind of feel left out because I'm the only one in the house not going to Golden Hills elementary school each day!!!

Joseph had a great day - got a good score from his new teacher, Mrs. Kostal -- and I got to fill out more parent paperwork :) I think tomorrow starts homework -- keeping fingers crossed :)

Finding a New Groove

Many people know that Derek and I have been wanting to be foster parents - it's been about a year since starting on the paperwork/training journey. This last week or so, we met a wonderful young man, Joseph (age 9), who as of last Friday is living with us! So we're all getting to know each other in all different ways and with that is the three of us trying to find that new groove! Old habits of course die hard, and change (even the best of kinds) can be overwhelming and exciting... so for now we are all on the learning curve together and looking to see what the future brings :)

Our Mighty Protector

As he is king of the backyard with Shasta inside recuperating, here are some action shots of Monkey "protecting" us from our "vicious" neighborhood deer!!!

Summer Project

One of Derek's summer projects was installing a new living room fan to give an updated look - doesn't it look awesome!!! He did a great job!

An Inside July 4th

Well, this year's 4th of July was different as we have been mostly stuck inside taking turns watching Shasta who is recovering from her TPLO surgery. But because Derek has been away and with Michelyn's work schedule, it was great to spend time together! So while there were no firework shows on our schedule...we did have some grilled steak, homemade mashed potatoes and fresh corn on the cob for dinner - and that sounds pretty American to me!!!

Tent Trailer is a moving

Derek got to take the tent trailer out on it's first official voyage since we got it -- he and a couple of friends went on their 'man-trip' and it the trailer held up and everything worked -- yay!!!! I can't wait for my turn to use it!

Big Bear Memorial Day Weekend

New Toy

Camping anyone? We are equipped and ready to go!

Concert Night!!!!!

Derek & I had a wonderful time last night at a Daughtry concert here in Bakersfield! Great music + great husband = special date night!!!!!

Celebrating Birthdays

Always a wonderful thing to spend time with family!!!

Finally, Uncle Derek had to take a turn at the pinata to get that thing to open!

April "SNOW" Showers

I'm sure hoping that April snow showers still bring May flowers. Of course, the snow is always pretty and Derek loves a snow day now and then, but I'm in gardening mode and snow/frost is delaying my planting time!!!

We have our own squirrel tv channel! I'm watching to see if I can't get this little guy on video - he loves to climb up to my bird feeder, hang upside down and try to literally shake seed out of it! It's like you can see his little biceps work!

Birthday Time

BEAUTIFUL flowers (delivered to work!), a card that makes you cry, dinner out, and upcoming tickets to see Daughtry live and in concert in just a couple of weeks!! My honey did good for my birthday -- he is an awesome man, friend and husband! I love you, honey :)

Pigless

As of today we are pigless. My third and last piggie went to piggie heaven. She was my baby pig and actually quite sweet. She did love to chew on non-food items like towels and plastic bags :) Here are some pics of when she was a baby...

She went peacefully and lived actually longer than the expected life span (over 5 years) - she was a good pig! We will miss her and another life chapter comes to an end...