Motivation

There is one good thing about the slow economy... I am not delivering as much mail... which means I am getting off early enough each day to go to the gym! I started going to a new gym about three weeks ago. I am really proud of myself for my consistency so far! I'm already seeing results, so it makes me more motivated to keep going. The more I go, the more I want to go... I think this is how motivation is achieved. You always just have to begin! Anyway, my goal is to get skinny enough to swim... because soon it will be REALLY hot and miserable... and swimming is the best exercise when it is baking outside!

Easter!

On Saturday night I went to the Easter Vigil Mass at my church. It was a really beautiful service with the blessing of the fire and the candlellight procession into the darkened church... and the incense! I took this picture Sat. with the clouds... I think the mood was perfect for the coming celebration!

Then... on Sunday morning at the crack of dawn, me and my parents hiked up Mt. Rubidoux for the sunrise service! This is right before sunrise!

This is right after... It doesn't look like it, but it is A LOT colder here then it is right before sunrise... Freezing!

Then we went here! I thought I would stick to the skyline theme! They have REALLY good pancakes!

And finally... to close out a very happy Easter weekend, me and my dad planted this tree yesterday! I think it was very fitting for the holiday to plant life! I love to plant trees! I'm so sad I'm out of room! This is a Redbud... It doesn't look like much now, but if I take really good care of it, it will someday look like this. I hope it is very happy in my backyard!

The Brat Pack!

Shelby, Sam, Bella, and Tahoe

Vacation

I mostly vacationed at Lowe's and Home Depot last week, but I did manage to get out and do a couple of things! Me and my parents went up to Idyllwild last Sat. We had a fun day enjoying the most perfect mountain weather! It was warm enough for a t-shirt, but there were still patches of snow! We went hiking on the Ernie Maxwell Trail after havin' some pizza. Here is my dad... showing you the trailhead! My mom hates when he points...

Oh yeah... We brought the puppy! He was suppossed to be in this picture, but he wasn't cooperating with the camera. I think he's getting tired of havin' his picture taken, so I cropped him...

...But I got this one of my parents hiking with their granddog!

Here I am in the trees on this gorgeous day! I was telling my dad that sometimes I have to take 20 pictures of Tahoe in order to get 1 good one. Pet photography is REALLY hard! Here is my 21st picture of my snow puppy... He got to wear his patriotic bandana that I bought for him at The Walk With The Animals. He is such the cutie dog!

Me and Jerome also went on a bike adventure to the San Bernardino Asistencia. It was used as a ranch outpost to the Mission San Gabriel in the early 1800's... Kind of like a sister mission, I guess. Anyway, we rode our bikes here from Fairmount Park. There is a new stretch of bikepath that runs from the park to Waterman in San Bernardino. We then huffed it up a couple of pretty big hills to get here... Well, at least I huffed it! Jerome rides bikes regularly. I've been slackin'! We figured it was over 30 miles roundtrip. It was a quiet and peaceful mission. We were the only ones there on a Tues. afternoon.

Well, we were the only ones, except for this cat. We were in one of the buildings looking at stuff, and he came right in with us. He was very sweet. It didn't take us long to figure out why there was a mission kitty...

Mission gopher! Jerome took this picture. I was too scared to get this close! He had very large teeth!

After we got back, we went on a short hike... I'm thinkin' my last of the season 'cause I saw a giant rattlesnake the other afternoon! Jerome took this awesome shot of us with the mountains in the background... I like this picture! Poor baby dog always gets sleepy eyes when the sun shines on him!

Walk With The Animals

Me and Tahoe participated in this walk at Fairmount Park to benefit the local orphans at the Riverside Humane Society. I read in the paper today that more than 1000 people showed up with their pets! Here is one of the orphans...

We got a bag of free stuff when we registered. Here is Tahoe rummaging through it to see what was in it for him! He was happy with his ball!

...Although the highlight of his morning was when he got to meet a goat! This is what that looked like...

April 1st!

Since I don't know any fool worth quoting, I'm gonna celebrate April Fool's Day by quoting someone REALLY smart! The world seems inundated with fools, so on this special day, I want to contrast the foolish with the wise! I don't feel the need to put a fool side by side with someone wise because they are everywhere... You can just look around you! I also want to just continue my little trend of quoting smart people because it is fun! The smart person I have chosen for this occasion is C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia.) When he was young , he was a staunch athiest but went on to become one of the greatest defenders of Christianity of the 20th century. He died in 1963. I have read many of his books. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?"

"Looking for God -or Heaven- by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters."

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."- C.S. Lewis

Oh yeah! One more smart person quote for this special day...

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year!" -Mark Twain

Old Pictures

Me and my mom went through some old pictures last night. My grandfather was a Master Sergeant in the Air Force. He actually worked on a barge off the beach in Normandy on D-Day! I like these 2 military pictures, especially the one at the desk. He looks like he is doing some important and official work... I wonder what he was working on. Maybe he was just posing for a picture that would look really cool some 60+ years later to his granddaughter! This just got me thinking today... I had lunch with my dad this afternoon, and I was asking questions about granddad and how and when he met my grandmother. We figured out that he was 51 years old when I was born.

This seemed kind of weird to me, because I realized he lived this whole other life for all that time that I don't know too much about... So many experiences he had that helped to shape who he was. I only got in on the later part. Here is a picture of what I remember... Nanny and Granddad with me and Jennifer. My mom told me this was Christmas. I didn't remember that it was Christmas, but I do remember standing out here taking this picture. Me and my sister loved going over to their mobile home on Loma Solo, especially to spend the night! I remember these times clearly, and they were a big part of my childhood! My grandparents were always really good to us when we would come over. I can remember these times like yesterday. I hope that if I make it to 88, these memories are just as clear!