Hello world

Looks like I took an unintentional break from blogging! I've been enjoying the last few weeks of summer by hanging out with friends, scrapbooking, and running. We celebrated Memorial Day with the traditional pot-luck BBQ. Check out those ribs...yum!

Of course, I jumped in the pool with this cute little thing whom I've known since she was cooking inside her mama. She's quite the little water baby and enjoys spending time in the pool!

Just a few days before our BBQ, wildfires began to burn throughout our area. Actually, I wouldn't call them "wildfires" since that implies a natural event. These fires were set my mentally unstable individuals who have cost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage, displaced hundreds of people and animals, and caused the death of at least two firemen. It's been a sad time here, but we're fortunate that the fires only caused minor disruption to our lives. We had smoke blow over us for a few days making my evening outside runs impossible. Normally when I run, I have a gorgeous view of some rocky mountains right next to our house. (Note: these are NOT the mountains with the fires.) This is the view I see as I start my run.
As I head back home, I usually see the much larger mountains in front of me, the mountains that are still being devastated by fire. To show you how bad it got over here, I snapped a few pictures of the smoke blowing in one evening. You can see the enormous cloud of smoke making it's way over the house (note the blue sky to the right of the picture).

Turning around 180 degrees, you can still see the smoke cloud moving toward us from the southwest (the smoke was moving from right to left in the picture).

Just a few minutes later, you can really see the contrast between the sunset sky and the dark ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon. The silhouetted mountains are in the range of the large Station Fire that has burned nearly 161,000 acres, and is the largest fire in this area in recent history. As of the time of this blog entry, the fire is 93% contained and is expected to reach full containment by Saturday evening. All of this caused by one individual. Sad.

Remember in my last post how I said I had done some scrapbooking recently? I finally snapped some pictures of my layouts! I'll share them over the course of the next few posts. This first layout is about one of my favorite parts of my trip to the San Diego Zoo last year with my BFF - the birds.



This past weekend, my mom and I attended our town's first annual Fall Festival. The town provided a bus tour of historical sites which was really a lot of fun. They had vendors of all sorts and live music. Unfortunately, by early afternoon the wind had picked up and we were baking. At least my feet got tanned this time!

Lastly, I want to share my movie-BFF's new blog: Staci Layne Wilson's Kix & Flix & Pix. Like movies? Like shoes? If so, this blog is for you! Staci is an entertainment reporter who happens to l-o-v-e shoes. She combines her two loves into one fantastic new blog. Seriously, who wouldn't want a pair of leopard high heeled shoes? (Yes, that skinny little thing is none other than Staci herself modeling her fab shoes.)

And you have to go check out the story behind these bad boys.

My weekend is jammed packed with errands to run and stuff to get accomplished. I WILL be back in a timely manner to show you the other scrapbook layouts I made as well as share with you an endeavor that's been months in the making. That post will include a giveaway that you won't want to miss! Blog at you soon :)