Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...










Pictures from our zoo here in Fresno... We have two King Vultures...

The following is from Wikipedia...

The King Vulture, Sarcoramphus papa, is a large bird found in Central and South America. It is a member of the New World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, though some believe that William Bartram's Painted Vulture of Florida may be of this species. It is the only surviving member of the genus Sarcoramphus, though fossil members are known.

It is large and predominantly white, with gray to black ruff, flight, and tail feathers. Its head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying, including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The King Vulture has a very noticeable yellow fleshy caruncle on its beak. This vulture is a scavenger and it often makes the initial cut into a fresh carcass. It also displaces smaller New World vulture species from a carcass. King Vultures have been known to live for up to 30 years in captivity.

King Vultures were popular figures in the Mayan codices as well as in local folklore and medicine. Though currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, they are decreasing in number, due primarily to habitat loss.

Happy Journaling...

Wedded Bliss

The boys are off to school, they have been back to school a whole week now... Hubby is off to work... and son1 is off to his grandpa's to work on his car... I am home all alone... well except for the hamster, cat and two dogs.... I have run the dishwasher, am on the second load of laundry, taken pictures of what few roses I have in the backyard, made a to do list, sewn the head back on Danny's toy dog, scrolled around facebook, fed the cat and had cola and popcorn for breakfast cause it's that kinda week... Now I'm watching an episode of Emergency and regrouping... I'm still having trouble getting back into the flow of writing... I think it's cause I have been a bit stressed and my journal is supposed to be my happy place... Don't want to be grumbly but think I'm gonna have to, to get the words flowing again... I had a bit of a meltdown the other day and poor hubby and son2 got the most of it... Hubby's sure most of the stress is from son1 moving back home, but that is only part of it... Being pulled between the boys, the pets, work, the house, and now school starting we've all been snapping at each other and we all have a habit of talking over each other and debating to the point that even hubby and I aren't always on the same team... don't worry there's lots of laughing too but we all snap too easily... and hubby and I have not had much alone time together for years now, lol, so that when we went out for our anniversary lunch and shopping, it took a bit of time for me to relax without the feeling that we weren't getting anything done, lol... hubby's the best we just let life get the best of us and forget about just us... I keep telling hubby I'm having his midlife crisis for him and mine too, lol...


We took son2 and son3 to see GI Joe on Saturday... It was really good... especially where they destroyed half the city trying to get to the Eiffel Tower to save all the people, lol.... Son1 had already seen it when he got back from his road trip... He has been quite the social guy since he's been back, catching up with friends or showing his true self now that he has been moved out of his apartment almost seven weeks... He's been going to the movies, concert, birthday party, I think he has only eaten dinner with us once since he's been back, took Pistol swimming at the river; he did his laundry, but my backyard is full of poop, he hasn't cleaned up the front room or made his bed, I know he doesn't have much place to put all his clothes and stuff but he can at least straighten it up... I told him he was solely responsible for the dogs but I still find myself checking to see if he fed them and given them water... he said not to feed them even if he's late but hubby couldn't let the dogs wait til ten at night so he fed them.... He also traded his car with some guy on Craig's list... they were both selling their cars for the same price and wanted what the other had so just evenly traded... I thought the plan was to sell his car so he could pay off his friend who loaned him the money two years ago... so that is why he is at his grandpa's today so they can put the exhaust pipes back on that the previous owner cut off... and it needs a turn single cover... it has a third of the miles on it his car had... it's a 1991 mustang fox something or other... everyone said he got a great deal... I'll just be glad when he settles it at the DMV and gets insurance... and pays off his friend someday.... he did fill out an application for Auto Zone yesterday... I've been trying not to advise him too much although I'll make a comment here or there not that I've seen him too much but he did live on his own for over two years and I still think he took care of girlfriend more than she took care of him unless together they made a whole person... I just get so annoyed with all my boys on little things that they should know like spelling and filling out forms and not using a purple pen to fill out your pink slip...

Son2 of course knows everything and wants to take college classes in high school but not do anything but play games and watch TV and not learn time management.... With this English class we told him he would have homework and he has but since his classes are every other day he thinks he can wait til the next day to do the homework... argh.... and he has homework on the weekend now... so we try to get him to do it early, he wants to spread it out and get distracted, he wants us to help him when he understands it more than we do, and then he finishes in about ten minutes after hours of us yelling and then he spends three hours on the phone helping his friend write her paper after he gave us all the grief that he needed help... argh... so that was most of our weekend... and him wanting a haircut... and me waiting for him to do his chores... still waiting.... he did bring me his laundry today...

Son3 has jumped right back into routine of school and not having video games during the week.... he's still liking his teacher... hubby has done homework with him the past two days, my turn today... it's a good thing we went to back to school night so we know a bit of what's going on with the homework... he's already passed his 2x multiplication test and had his first AR test for his library book he read... still trying to figure out if the spelling homework he brought home is his actual spelling words for the week.... He loved the GI Joe movie except for too many kissing scenes, lol.... he brought his Duke GI Joe action figure and he sat in the cup holder between us.... Being in third grade now I also took some chores away from son2 not that he was doing them, lol, and passed them on to son3... so now son3 is in charge of taking out the recycables and garbage...



Two Emergency shows later and I am still writing.... We finished Season 5 of Buffy... will have to wait for season 6 and 7 for Christmas... The new Fall shows will be starting next month, yay, no writer's strike this year.... Work has been crazy as usual... at least we don't have any visits coming... new procedures coming though... lost some associates from the department again and have some new ones... tons of boxes coming in so between setting the ad and opening boxes I don't get much more done.... and we had our big back to school weekend, not as bad as last year, but still as bad as the day after Thanksgiving... We're losing control of the backyard... so wish son1 hadn't taken on another dog... I wish he would change his mind and give him back, it's only been a month or so... hubby hasn't been able to spray for weeds and the grass is turning brown... I only go out for maybe five minutes a week, my roses barely have any buds on them this summer... maybe when it cools down they will think it is spring again... we're waiting for son1 to step up but he may be seeing my wrath soon... I'm trying to treat him like a grown up but he's not been acting like one much... giving him a bit of grieving time for losing his apartment, job, girlfriend... but he's not worrying about me making sacrifices for him.........
Well have I rambled on long enough... if I get back to doing this every day won't be so much of a ramble... just never enough time in the day... like now, only an hour til I pick up son3 and start homework and think about dinner... so better go eat lunch and take a look at my list.....

Happy Journaling...

Summer's End...

I have started this entry several times since the end of July and have just not been able to put words down... Of course I don't seem to have any trouble playing games at facebook... So maybe now that school has started we can get back into routine around here... The summer has been go to work, play on the computer, eat dinner, watch movies, play on the computer, sleep.... I did not get any of my projects done that I wanted to... clean out closets, drawers, organize cards and papers... read and study with son3 before third grade started... clean out my kitchen cupboards... exercise... get a suntan... I did open my trunks that I have not opened for over ten years full of cards and letters and mementos from younger years... I even found journals I had written, lol, and don't even remember writing some of the entries, only read a few of the entries.... We watched all of season 1-4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are half way through season 5.... Went to a few movies: Ice Age 3, Up, Harry Potter, Night at the Museum, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Transformers and maybe GI Joe tomorrow...



Of course son1 moved back in with his two dogs and a hamster... He's been moved back in for six weeks but for four of the weeks he went on the road with his dad who drives big rigs... His chance to see the world from California to Texas... Now he has to start his next venture of finding a job... The company that he had just started working for folded due to the economy....
Son2 enjoyed his summer of laziness and video games... And a week in Disneyland with his best friend's family... It was son2's first time to Disneyland, but he made up for it as they were there five days from morning til night...
Sun2 enjoyed his lazy summer also of video games and swimming... although he didn't get as much use of the pool this summer as I was working so much... The pool came down a week ago already...



Now school has been back in session three days already... Time to get all our brains back in working order, lol... Time to get back to blog writing... and homework with son3... this year we will have multiplication, cursive and chapter books to read... we went to back to school night and met his teacher, this is going to be a good one... Even son3 came home on the first day and said she was the his most wonderful teacher ever and he wanted to have her forever... of course he came home on the second day and said she was a bit bossy... and then he came home today and said when she gets mad it's not even as mad as you mom and dad... lol... She has a very structured class with rewards and discipline and said the only way to academics was with class management.... Son2 had homework over the summer for his accelerated English class that he finally got done before he could go to Disneyland... and had to write an essay this week and has another to do this weekend... So he's already tired after his short week of three days back to school.... His schedule is Geometry, PE, Spanish 1, Psych/Sociology, Computers 2, Mod. Wld History accelerated, English 2 accelerated and Biology...


Tomorrow is hubby and mine 17th wedding anniversary so I took a day off from work today so hubby and I could have a day alone with the boys at school... So we went to Lowes and finally found a kitchen garbage can, we have been needing a new one for months, lol and then we went to Borders and Barne's and Nobles just roaming among the books... And then we went to Mimi's Cafe for the first time... It was really good... Hubby had the turkey wrap and I had the BBQ pork sandwich... Then it was off to the grocery store to get some basics and pizza for the boys... Got the boys from school... Fixed the pizza... Started to watch a movie: The Mutant Chronicles, wasn't very good so we didn't finish it... Then we put in I Love You Man, hubby wasn't interested so will watch it later... So we put in Buffy, lol.... Now we are going to make some banana splits and watch another Buffy episode and then it will be time for bed....

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...

First day of school shirts...







Happy Journaling...

Back to School Today...

Son2: 10th grade...




Son3: 3rd grade...

Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...

Cowboys and Indians in the pool...















Happy Journaling...

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...





Birthday Streamers...

Happy Journaling...

Birthdays...

Son1 and son3 celebrated birthdays last week... Son3 turned 8 on Friday and son1 turned 22 on Saturday... Son1 is still off on his road trip with his Dad, on his bday they were in Vegas, today they are in Wyoming and then Oregon...
On son3's bday we all had the day off so we went to see Transformers 2, what an intense movie, lol, it was good, but wow can those big metal guys really destroy things... Then it was off to the grocery store for an Oreo cookie bday cake and fixings for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner... Then son3 wanted to watch King Kong but we forgot it was three hours long so only made it two hours, he finished it the next day... It was a good but fast day! Pictures in the slideshow below...

Make a Smilebox slideshow Happy Journaling...

Pets again...

Haven't heard from son1 for a couple of days... but I'm sure he's having a great time on his road trip... I hope so cause when he gets home, it will be buckle down time and look for a job and take care of all his pets... See that white fuzz in the ball... That's WeeMan, son1's dwarf hamster...


Son2 has been wanting a hamster for a couple of years now, so he got to practice yesterday and clean out the hamster cage and rearrange it how he wanted and add more tubes... Of course he forgot to put the hamster food away, put the towels he used in the wash and empty the vacuum from all the bedding he vacuumed up, but he got to take care of a hamster... lol... Holly went straight away to check out the hamster ball but I accidentally stepped on her foot trying not to step on the hamster and she took off scared, so don't think she will be checking out the hamster again... she hasn't noticed his cage at all up high on the bookshelf... and he's quite noisy in his wheel in the evening...


Nice clean cage... He's sleeping on the ledge on the left of the yellow wheel...


Hi Danny... I can't tell if he misses son1 or not... He has latched right on to me and hubby... Son2 too... Son3 is too hyper for his taste so he avoids him as much as possible, lol... I'm really not a dog person... I'm strictly a cat person... Even Holly and her prickly self... Danny follows me everywhere... He will sit with anyone on the couch but he sits so close that he is almost on the other side of you... He has no patience for Pistol so won't stay outside except to do his business... Unless he is behind the couch hiding from Holly... We try not to give him snacks as he did so good on his weight loss but ya know we gotta... Except then he is even more of a moocher staring you down when you eat even when he has food in his bowl... A cat you can feed and they'll go off and bathe for an hour or two....


And yes Pistol is too cute but he jumps all over you and needs his nails cut.... He has sit down, no problem, we're working on no jumping and stay... He chewed through the wires on the sprinkler system again even with it being covered by the box... The box is still intact, somewhere I guess the wires show just a teeny bit where they attach to the pipes that can't be completely covered... We keep him cool by tossing him ice cubes in the afternoon and playing in the hose, although we are working on, don't bite the hose... I'm thinking I'll need a new hose soon too.... We're already losing the grass in the backyard... And he eats like you are going to take it away from him, can barely get the bowl to the ground and it's already all gone... Got him a big bag of chew bones at Costco yesterday... So we have to remember to put away his bowl when he is done eating or he will chew it all up too... See that white thing on his butte in the picture... that is his bowl that I forgot to put away last night... He was keeping it safe for breakfast, lol... Yes, he's too cute....

Happy Journaling....

Color Carnival

To Play Visit Martha...

Wildflowers in Kings Canyon National Park...
















Happy Journaling...

More Pictures

Since everyone was asking for pictures of me on the Kings Canyon hiking trip, I went through hubby's pictures and I found a picture he was able to get of the deer and a couple pictures of me...










Happy Journaling...

Hiking and a Picnic

Happy Journaling...

Make a Smilebox slideshow