Just a little something...

Just a little something to hopefully brighten your day. It brightens my day every time I watch it.

We are demo-ing the backyard currently and I was hosing down the cement. Apparently, Tucker was determined to stop the water.

Sorry the quality is crappy, we only had a cell phone camera.

The Money Pit

Some of our other recent good news is that we have officially become homeowners! We've been looking forever and we had so many close calls but we feel it all happened to lead us to this house. It's a condo/town home which we figure is a good start for us. We LOVE the location and that was the most important thing for us. It's an older home so it needs lots of work and we've already dove in.

We are thrilled to have a place where our sweat and work won't go into nothing. We hope to build a lot of equity and memories here.

Welcome to our home!

I'm a Big Girl Now!

As I previous mentioned, we've had a lot going on in our lives. While the passing of my grandpa was painful, we have had some happy occasions recently. One of those occasions being my graduation.
After six years of full time school and full time work, I can finally be done with one...for now.

I graduated with my degree in Psychology. I can say I started out in Psy and finished in Psy. I love learning about it and I do plan on going back in a years time to get my master in either I/O Psy or my MFT (Marriage and Family Therapy License). We shall see as I do more research in both ares.

I am so proud to say that my high school friend is one of the leading students in our psy program and he was asked a great honor to carry our banner. He is going on to get his doctorate and I couldn't be prouder of him.

It was pretty easy to spot me...yes that is a Johnny Cupcake logo. I got so many compliments :)

As you can see, I was pretty excited...
Oh ya baby! It felt so good to walk across that stage...and to think...I almost didn't want to do the commencement ceremony... The day before I visited my grandpa in the hospital (this was before his passing). He has always been a stickler for education. All my life I can remember him pounding into me that I had to go to college and get my education. I didn't appreciate it at the time but now that I look back at it, I'm so glad he did. My grandfather couldn't make it to my ceremony and I know it ate him up. He told me the day before to think about him as I went across that stage and accepted my diploma...and I did. I shouted to my family as I walked by them that I was thinking of him and it was a difficult moment but I know he was so proud of me.

Afterwards I had a fun time goofing off with my bestie!

I worked hard for this degree, working and going to school sucked. I was determined to do it and I did it. But I can't take all the credit, some important people helped me get to where I am today.

My bestie! I can't imagine anyone being a better friend to me. I see us as sisters and am so grateful she was always there to keep me in line and to be happy for me. She is my second breath of life...

Next is my touch-stone. My baby sister. If you can remember, we've had some difficult times. But her determination has always been an inspiration to me. I can't believe how much I've learned from her.

My parents have also been a guiding light. I have always done what I wanted to do. Even if they didn't agree with what I had planned for myself, they've always supported me. I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to my parents, and it might seem silly and irrational but one of my main goals in life is to make them proud of me...everything I do, I do it in hopes that it will make them happy and proud.

Lastly is my rock. Mr. Bumblebee has put almost as much blood, sweat, and tears into my degree as I have. Late nights of stress and panic, to early morning temper tantrums...the man has dealt with it all and God bless him still finds it in his heart to love me. As I sat listening to our speakers, I would look over and see him smiling from ear to ear with that smile I've fallen in love with over and over again. I'm so glad that he was by my side.

Lastly, Cal State Long Beach is know as an art museum with no walls. There is art all over campus and even our fountains are designed by artists. This is a main center in the school and I remember when I first applied to the school, the postcard it sent me had girls posing in the fountain with their grad gear on and I told myself...that will be me...

and now it is...

To the sky and even more....

One of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with happened on July 11th, 2010. My grandpa passed away after a good long hard battle with cancer.

He's had skin cancer for a long time but it was manageable. He would have them removed and everything would be fine. In April, on the 17th we received a phone call that he was having seizures and that it seemed possible that the cancer had finally moved into stage 5 and into his brain. Just a few weeks prior to this revelation, I was excited because they would be visiting us from Mexico for my graduation. Immediately it was the consensus that he would be coming up to the states for treatment. He got here May 17th. He left us on June 11th in the morning, a few minutes after my grandmother let him know that it was okay to stop fighting and that his family would be okay.

It was an exteremly tough decision but I decided to speak at his funeral. I wanted everyone to know what an amazing grandpa he was. It was extremely difficult and I barely got through it but I'm glad I did it.

Its been difficult to deal with this on a day to day issue. I am expecting a phone call from him from Mexico and realize this is all a dream but I know that won't happen.

To make matters worse, on Tuesday, my grandma's (3 weeks after burying her husband) sister passed away. She left to go back to Mexico and I'm counting down the days till she is back up here with us.

I love you grandpa, to the sky and even more.

3 years!

Sorry I haven't been blogging...blah blah blah. My life has been crazy...blah blah blah. There is a lot to catch up on but lets just dive into the most recent even in my life and then I'll deal with catching up later....
3 years ago yesterday, some guy asked me some question and I said "I Do!"

Because of recent life events, this anniversary was almost overlooked. We've just had a lot going on, but we decided to make a day trip out to San Diego and go to the San Diego Zoo and have a nice dinner in the Gas Lamp Quarter.

When we woke up and it was drizzling...I was pretty crushed. 3 years ago, I had gotten married on the hottest day of 2007. I did that because I always wanted nice weather for our anniversary and now it was raining...go figure. However, the tickets were paid for and we had taken the day off, so we decided just to go. We hopped on the freeway and watched as the weather got worse the farther south we got.

Once we got to the Zoo and looked for parking for 248024 hours....the weather started to clear up.

Mr. Bumblebee and I love animal watching. So we really enjoy the zoo.

The Koalas are some of my favorite. They look so gentle and calm. This little guy was dreaming while we watched him...then he pooped. (yes I'm still 10 and laugh when I see animals poop)

Since we got there late morning, it was siesta time for most of the animals since they had full bellies after breakfast....

...but wait! I see movement...

This guy reminded me of Tessa when she naps. She gives me that same face like "Ya, take a picture, it'll last longer..."

I love love otters! I've heard they are actually pretty mean and nasty but look at that face! OMG! Just too cute...he was pretty funny, very busy little guy.

Zebras!

Thanks for the warning...ew.

This is exactly how Tess sleeps when she sleeps hard. Her tongue is too large for her mouth so it always sticks out.

I see camel toe...(once again, the 10 year old humor surfaces)

This guy was very intrigued by me.

These two wrestled a lot and reminded us of our own two little piggies.
Three little ducks went out one day....

I wanted one of these ducks so bad! Their waddle was just two cute to pass up.

We went to a nice dinner at Croce's in the Gas Lamp Quarter of San Diego. I didn't bring the camera because...well it was our anniversary. I enjoyed the Filet Mignon and Mr. Bumblebee loved his halibut. It was interesting because we sat next to the owners and we were both impressed with how involved they were in their restaurant even though it's apparently very successful. While we were sitting there we ran into our Swedish friend that we hadn't seen in 5 years! Talk about a small world.

After dinner, we made the long trek home to our own little zoo animals...

They were happy to see us :)