Snap! Some dogs love water!

This spring, Clara volunteered at a wonderful animal sanctuary in southern California called Living Free. One of the projects she took on was refurbishing the pond in the "big dog park." She had to clean it out and fill it. She usually brought one of the dogs with her to the park while she did the work, and this one loved playing with the water while Clara filled the pond. I thought these action photos made a good foursome to share with Helena's snap meme this week.

What's Been Going On in My Life

That's a silhouette of my daughter pointing off to the horizon. 
Pointing in a direction away from me. Which is where she wants to be. 
As a senior in high school, she has been straining at the reins. Hard. 
So, we decided to let her go. 
She has moved to Southern California to live with my sister and finish high school down there. She comes back frequently, and I have gone to visit. But our relationship right now is definitely fraught. It's hard to let go. It's hard to breathe.
But I am blessed with a wonderful family that is looking after her. I am a faith filled person who knows believes that everything will work out.
But still.
It is a difficult time
It is one of the main reasons that I chose Brave as my word for 2016.
I have a lot to brave this year.
I need to be a warrior (a brave).
I need to be brave.

Snap x2! Making Friends at the Animal Sanctuary

I've been spending some time in Southern California where my sister lives. Clara's down here, too, and she took me to visit Living Free Animal Sanctuary, a wonderful animal rescue with lots of open space for the animals. On the tour, we visited the cattery, and she made friends with this very friendly cat. I made this triptych for Helena's Snap Meme (a series of one to four photos on a related topic). 
Of course, Clara loves dogs, too. And she spent some time with this  big guy named Ross.

He's very shy, but as you can see, he's taken to her because my girl is such an animal whisperer.
So, that's two different versions of the weekly Snap! because I couldn't decide which I liked best. For more Snap! fun, go check out Helena's blog here.

Me on Monday: Welcome Christmas!

On Friday night, Paul and I poured ourselves a cup of cheer and wandered along Main Street during the annual "Nights of Lights" festivities. It's small town life at its best, and we were happy to see lots of old friends, including this elf who runs the after school day care center where both our kids went from K-5th grade. 

On Saturday night, Clara and her friend Carmen got dressed up to go to a concert (confusingly being performed by The Weeknd). The girls were nice enough to let me take their picture before they scooted out the door.

It was also a getting a Christmas tree and decorating the house for the holidays kind of weekend. More of that in a future post, but I did want to add this shot of the outside because it counts as #3 Outdoor Lighting for the Winter Photo Scavenger Hunt.
How was your weekend? Will you be sharing it over at Sian's blog, From High in the Sky?

Photo Pairs: First Day of School (Past and Present)

Clara started her Senior Year of High School last Thursday, and I created this post for instagram. That's her on the left on her first day of pre-school in 2002 and, fourteen years later, heading off to her final year. This pair shows so much - I'm really proud of myself for taking a photo of her on those stairs every year; really glad we got rid of the carpet and painted the walls; and amazed by how she's grown (while still being so much the same).
Linking up with Helena's photo pairs project. Check out her blog here.

What I've Been Up to Lately

Hey all,
I've been a bit absent from blogland lately, but it's been busy around here. Hope to do some blog reading/commenting today and maybe even write a few posts! The biggest excitement was the start of school for Clara. That's her on the left. We've got a friend of hers staying with us for at least part of the school year. Her name is Carmen, and she is lovely and very low-impact. That's Carmen on the right, top. 
What else?

Went to Cleveland, Ohio for a quick business trip. Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so they had decorated guitars all about the airport. I've actually been quite busy with lots of work matters (finishing a couple of articles, getting my syllabi ready for the new school year - I start teaching on Wednesday, taking care of some administrative matters, etc.)
What else?

Still volunteering at the Kitten Nursery on Wednesday nights and at Guide Dogs for the Blind Sunday mornings. May have to bow out of one of those as the year progresses, although the nursery will start slowing down in the fall as "kitten season" ends.
What else?

Enjoying watching my boy (in the middle) enjoy his summer. He leaves in less than two weeks to return to school. Will definitely miss him!
Hope you're all doing well and hope to get around for some blog visits soon.

Some Angels Wear Airline Uniforms

Last Thursday I dropped my just-barely-17 year old daughter off at the airport. She was scared and excited; traveling by herself for the first time and headed for Peru. The first leg of the trip was a short one - San Francisco to Los Angeles. From there, she would have to get over to the international terminal and get on a flight to Lima. And once in Lima, go through immigration and customs, go to the domestic terminal and find her flight to Cuzco. We went over it many times. I kissed her good-bye and waved as she headed off through security.
A few hours later, she called. She was in tears and just beside herself; filled with panic. She was in L.A. and had lost her wallet, which contained her passport and boarding passes. I tried my best to calm her down. She retraced her steps a bit, convinced security to let her into the international terminal to try to talk her way onto the Lima flight with her drivers license and copy of her passport. No go.
She called again; more panicked then ever because the clock was ticking and she knew she wouldn't make her flight. Just as I was trying to calm her down, the other phone rang. 
It was Laurie from American Airlines. They had found her wallet. She said she would leave it at the American Airlines ticket counter. Laurie stayed on the line while I tried to get Clara to calm down and go get her passport. By this point, Clara was so upset she couldn't find her way out of the international terminal. Laurie heard me on the line with Clara and said, "Tell her stay where she is, and I will bring it to her." Laurie imagined Clara - a 17 year old with a brand new passport, on her first trip, panicked and about to miss her flight - and went out of her way to cross LAX, convince international security to let her in and find Clara. All of this was above and beyond what she had to do. She was truly an angel, sent to help Clara in her time of need. 
Clara still ended up missing her flight and had to navigate her way to an airport hotel at 2:00 a.m. But she managed. And the next day, she returned to the airport, boarded the plane to Lima and then on to Cuzco, Peru.

I'm so proud of my girl for sticking with it and not giving up. And so grateful to Laurie, an angel in an airline uniform, who helped Clara on her way.

Scrapbook Friday: A Sister Visits

I'm enjoying continuing to scrapbook this year. My goal is a modest four layouts a month. I know if I do that, I will do more because I will binge at least once in while along the way. This week's page is inspired by Amanda's April Challenge. If you're a scrapbooker and haven't checked out her blog, you really should! She has lots of great layouts, and I think I'm going to be her guest artist for her May challenge.
For this layout, you essentially make eight little square layouts (I made mine 5.5x5.5, rounded the edges, used a sheet of Oregon cutouts I bought at a scrapbook store there and some Tim Holtz tissue tape). It was a great way to capture the train trip Clara and I took last spring to visit Henry at college (there's actually 12 photos on the layout, but it doesn't seem like that many). In looking at this, it reminds me a little bit of some of your project life pages (just in a larger format). If you're scrapping this month and like the looks of this layout, you can join Amanda's challenge at the link above.

Photo Pairs: Surf and Turf

Last weekend, my daughter's track team competed at a meet in the California beach town of Santa Barbara. The venue is right across the street from the beach, and, after the completion of the meet, we all went down to the beach to play and have dinner. The students very quickly divided into two groups - those that dove right into the water and those that stood on the shore, watching. I'm calling these two photos "surf and turf" and linking up with Helena's photo pairs meme this week.
Of course there were some runners who wanted to help some of the reluctant ones into the water:

And why not? People were enjoying body surfing and cooling off.

 Although some remained unconvinced!

A Sunny Weekend of Racing

How was your weekend? Mine was spent in the lovely southern California town of Santa Barbara with Clara's track team. I watched my beautiful girl run through a great deal of pain in her hip.

 

To help her two relay teams - the 4x800 meters and the distance medley (girls run 1200m, 400m, 800m and 1600m) - win medals! 

It was a very fun weekend. And now on Monday, we're off to have that hip looked at. . . . because we're hoping for a lot more running this spring!

Photo Pair at the Track Meet

Helena hosts a weekly photography meme asking people to share a pair of photographs that are related in some way. I call this action pair "Battle . . . Won."

Me on Monday

Wintertime Photo Hunt Item #15: Bunting

What kind of a weekend was it?

 

 It was a first track meet of the season, with lots of fun races and team-bonding weekend.

 

Item #6 Winter Weather (really, this is what our winter has been like)

A BBQ with friends enjoying our "winter weather" weekend.

An Aria still recovering, volunteering at Guide dogs and end of my mid-semester break kind of weekend. 

Followed with back to work tomorrow.

How was your weekend? Check out Sian's blog From High in the Sky to see who else is waving hi on Monday.

Scrapbooking Pairs: Half and Whole

I'm still enjoying scrapbooking. In fact, this week I did all my layouts for 2012. It was relatively easy because I only had photographs for 12 layouts total and most of them were very simple (plus I used several premade, empty layouts form my bin). One of my favorite layouts was made using Amanda's March Scraplift Challenge, which features uneven quadrants. Here's what she did:

My version is up top. It's all about Clara playing basketball her freshman year in high school. I made a companion page, and here's the two page layout:

I'm also linking up to Helena's Photo Pairs meme, calling this one Half and Whole. Back tomorrow with some more art journaling.

A Quick Hello and Scavenger Hunt Linky Reminder

Hi all!!!

I've been super busy here with the end of our summer break and beginning of the school year for me and for my daughter Clara. I wanted to pop in to remind everyone, though, that I will be hosting the end of the August linky for the 2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt this weekend (I'll put it up to start Friday night, August 29, California time). Please check in with your latest finds. I've really enjoyed seeing what everyone has been up to on instagram and facebook. I apologize for not getting around to my feedly reader to catch up on blog posts, but, as I said, I've been super busy!

Doing what?

Well, helping Clara finish her summer reading for school:

Taking her shopping and then sending her off for her first day of her junior year. She looks very grown up for 16, doesn't she?

We've also been spending time volunteering at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafeal.  It will be our regular Sunday volunteer gig this year.

We're working in the boarding/neo natal kennels. That's Clara doing health checks, which includes cleaning ears and brushing teeth. We also give baths, clean kennels and feed the dogs. We don't work with the puppies, but do get to see them occasionally:

And that's your dose of cute for today!
Hope to see you back this weekend for the linky.

ZIZO #26: Laverne Needs a Bath

We're in a bit of a  drought here in California, and the chicken's aviary has become quite dusty. I've read that chickens give themselves dust baths and generally don't need to be bathed. But, seriously, Laverne, you're looking really scruffy. And Clara is thinking about giving you a bath. Clara's friend, Ashley, who shows chickens and runs the egg program at the high school has volunteered to come over and help. I'm planning to stay back. . . and take lots of pictures! Linking up with Helena's zoom in zoom out meme.

Meanwhile, over in the Kitten Nursery . . .

Regular readers of my blog know that my daughter Clara and I have been volunteering at the local humane society for about a year, mainly walking and socializing dogs. And that, over the last several weeks, we started volunteering in the kitten nursery.

We take care of teeny, tiny kittens 3-6 weeks old who don't have a mom and who need help being fed and learning to eat. We also socialize them and tend to their general care.

Once they leave the nursery, they usually go to foster care for a few weeks and get "fixed" before returning to the Humane society to be put up for adoption.

I would never have started to volunteer at the Humane Society, if it weren't for Clara's need to do "community service" for high school, her insistence that she do her hours there, and the need for under-16 year olds to have a parent partner. And, it makes me wonder whether others do volunteer work and what your experience has been. When we first moved to our current community, I did volunteer work in the "well baby" clinic for the public health department. I weighed and measured babies and did some light translation. Once we had children, I devoted my volunteer hours to working in the schools, first in the classroom and then helping to support their sports teams. 

And now I find myself helping motherless kittens get strong enough to find a loving home. We recently got an email that over 100 kittens have come through the nursery, and we're starting to see our first graduates going up for adoption. That's 100 little souls that have been saved through the good work of volunteers. I feel privileged to be one of them.