My Little Volunteer

Christina and I participated in another Mobile Pet Adoption Event for New Leash On Life. We were assigned Cosmo, a 2 years old Chihuahua. He was very cute and sweet, but had a lot of energy and a "big dog attitude in a little dog's body". On our way home, we started talking about how long she has been volunteering for New Leash On Life. My volunteer start date is 2009 and Christina started at the same time as me. She took a little break from volunteering while I was the Blog writer for the Lend A Paw program, but she got back into it about 4 year ago and has not stopped since. She still loves dogs and all the NLOL staff love that she is very knowledgeable about dogs and the rescue. 

Forgetful

I forgot to do a post last night. I have been a little forgetful these past few days. I also realized yesterday morning that I forgot that Christina had swimming on Friday night. I guess with Anthony gone surfing by himself and waiting for him to get back, it slipped my mind. Which is very unusual for me. I am usually pretty good at remembering things. Maybe I'm getting old?

Can I PLEASE Go Surfing?

Anthony texted me this morning: "Volleyball practice was canceled. Can I PLEASE go surfing?"

He has been asking permission to go surfing by himself since he got his driver's license and I have been reluctant to let him go. Not because he is a bad driver, but because he is forgetful and I was worried he would lose his key or forget something important at the beach. But today, I ran out of excuses/reasons and I realized that I will eventually have to let him go. And if he loses his key or something else, he will have to figure out what to do on his own. After all, he is almost 17 years old! So I let him go with the promise that he would text me when he got there and before he left to drive home.

At 3:00PM I got this text: "C Street was walled out, too big! I'm gonna hunt around for a spot that's smaller/safer."

I'm thinking OK, at least he made it to the beach, but apparently the waves are too big! But I trust Anthony and I know that he will find a safe spot, or he will turn around and come home. (If this was Nicholas, who is more of a daredevil, I would have been really worried).

5:16PM: "On my way home. Scored big time at Rincon!"

6:45PM: He just got home safe and sound and very happy! Phew!

Blue Skies

No rain in the forecast... Only blue skies for the next few days! And the weather is supposed to jump into the eighties by Friday! I guess we should enjoy it while it lasts. El Nino is usually around February and March. And this year's El Nino is supposed to be a big one... We'll see.

Weird Sense of Humor

Anthony has a weird sense of humor. For example, while I was at Target with Christina, he texted her: "Grease fire". Now I knew there was no way it was true, but Christina was a little freaked out. Of course, when she texted back asking for an explanation, he responded with: "chicken nuggets"! I guess he thought that was funny!

Voice Over Project

Christina was recording again this morning for the voice over project that she booked last week. She had a great time and did really well. And to make the day even better, her manager was her set teacher for the day. Julie read to her an email from the Director she worked with Thursday night and this morning about her performance on Thursday. He was very pleased with her professionalism and her ability to take directions. He told Julie that he will definitely call on her again (yay!) and that Christina is a "keeper"! Way to go, Sweetheart! I am so proud of you!

Surfing in January

I watched Anthony surfing this morning. It was a clear, cool morning and just watching him in the water made me cold! But the water temperature didn't seem to bother him... He spent 2.5 hours in the water! He caught a lot of good waves and I was ale to take some photos. Here are a few:

Laid-back, paws crossed

Christina got herself a Polaroid camera. But since it uses film, she hadn't tried it yet, afraid that she would waste the film. So I suggested that she take a picture of Conan. We went outside and I helped her by making sure that Conan would stay still long enough for her to take the photo. But when she tried to take the picture, the camera wouldn't work. Turns out, she didn't even read the instructions! After reading the instructions and checking everything, I realized that the batteries were in wrong. Finally, we got Conan to "sit and stay" and she was able to take a photo. Of course, since we were already outside taking photos of Conan, I decided to take of few myself. I always wanted to capture his "laid-back, paws crossed" posture. So I finally got it:

Green Tea

Still fighting a cold! Runny nose, sore throat, and just tired. Made myself a nice Decaf Honey Lemon Green tea. I am using my new Starbucks mug that Christina picked out for me for Christmas. It's not exactly what I had in mind when I told her I wanted a big mug, but I like it.

Voice Over

I forgot to post last night; I was so tired! I have been fighting a cold... I also found out that Christina booked a voice over project and that they needed her to start recording today! So here are a couple of pictures that I took earlier this week of Christina and Conan.

A Big, Wet One

These two are too cute! I often find them all snuggled up on Christina's bed. She calls him "Squishy" and he likes to kiss her!

Hands At Work

Hands at Work: a photography prompt. I decided to do a self portrait of me knitting. Not as easy as it would seem. The final take is still a little out of focus, but it's way better than the first take.

Photo Background

I've been researching ideas for photography backdrop. And one of the idea was to use fleece as backdrop. Fleece is wider than other fabric and doesn't show wrinkles as much. And it turns out that Jo-Ann's Fabric Store had a huge sale on fleece. So I went and I got three different pieces of fleece. When I got back, I showed it to Christina and she suggested that we have a little photo shoot to try it out. So I set up my off white background outside in the backyard and took a few photos. Here are my favorites:

Reading

Christina had an acting class today from 10:00AM to 1:00PM. I love this class because it's too far to go home after I drop her off, so I just stay there and read a book. This is pretty much the only time that I allow myself to read. I have a tendency to get so caught up in the book that I forget everything else. Things are neglected and after that I feel guilty. But when I am just waiting for Christina and I have nothing else to do, then it's OK.

La Maumarriee

Today, I spent half an hour with Christina and the Golden Valley Women's Choir, teaching them the correct pronunciation to the words from a French song. When Christina asked me if I would come in her class and help them learn the song, I wasn't sure. But then, I heard the song, and I realized it was a song I already knew. It's an old French Folk song called "La Maumarriee". It reminded me of an old Quebecois TV show called "Soiree Canadienne" that we used to watch on Saturday night, back when I was just a little girl. I hope that my French lesson was helpful and I am looking forward to hearing them sing the song later this year.

Black and White

Here is another photo that I took yesterday. I love Black and White so I processed this one in Lightroom. I love the result. I should go Black and White more often I guess!

Head Tilt

I was taking pictures of Conan today and I noticed that when you make a high pitched sound, he tilts his head from side to side. It's the cutest thing!

Selfie

I had a few cancellations this morning. Time to catch up on some paperwork. I hate paperwork! If I could only find a job that doesn't require Progress Notes, Reports, etc. It would be great. Unfortunately, that job doesn't exist.

All Stars

More good news! I found out last night that the Southern California Volleyball Association will make an All Star Team this year. This is to increase the number of players who will attend the High Performance Championship. The best volleyball players are mostly from Southern California. However, High Performance and USA Volleyball select the same amount of players from all regions, making it unfair for the Southern California athletes. So by forming an All Star team, Southern California will be able to send more athletes to the Championship. Hopefully, Anthony will be selected as one of the setters who will participate in the Championship.

Third Place

It was a long weekend that ended very well! Anthony and the SMBC U17s team finished third in the SCVA Invitational Tournament, earning a spot in the Open Division at Nationals! Anthony played great and made us proud! He also tried out for High Performance once again after the tournament and he and Allan were both happy with his performance. So all in all, a very good weekend...

Smirk or Laugh

Whenever I ask Anthony to pose for me, he gives me the "serious look" or the "smirk". I can never get a decent smile out of him. And when I tell him to smile, he laughs and then his eyes are closed! These two photos were taken shortly before Christmas. I wanted some good photos to send to my mom for Christmas. I tried again on another day and got slightly better results. But it's always a challenge! So most of his photos are action shots of him playing volleyball or surfing. And speaking of volleyball, today is the start of a 3 days tournament. So stay tuned for a lot of action shots of Anthony in the next few posts.

Snow

As expected, we woke up to snow on the local mountains. I haven't seen this in a few years! And there is more rain in the forecast for this weekend.

Downpour

It's been raining all day! Sometimes hard enough that the streets get flooded. I drove home from work during a downpour and had to drive on a street that looked like a river! It's supposed to rain all week. And tonight should be very cold. I am looking forward to seeing some snow on our local mountains! Pictures to come later this week.

Symetry

My latest hobby: coloring. It's a new thing. A lot of moms at Christina's acting classes started to bring adult coloring books to pass the time while they wait for their kid. I've always loved coloring, so I told Christina to put "Adult Coloring Book" on my Christmas list. Allan was a little worried when Christina told him, but people started posting pictures of their "art" on Facebook. So I got two books for Christmas and I am enjoying coloring!

Car Trouble

 I am a little frustrated this morning. My car won't start! I had to cancel my clients which is pretty bad since I already took two weeks vacation around the holidays. Now I am sitting here, waiting for a tow truck to take my car to the dealership. Hopefully, they can fix it today.  Here are some photos I took on Christmas Eve of Christina.

Adele

Went to New Leash On Life's Mobile Pet Adoption event today with Christina. We were in charge of Adele. This beautiful girl is still waiting for her forever home. She is obedience trained, loves kids and is good with other dogs.

Goodbye Christmas!

It took the whole morning, but I managed to put away all the Christmas decorations! Goodbye Christmas tree, goodbye Christmas lights... See you next December! These photos were not taken today, but a few weeks back. I never got a chance to post them on Facebook or Instagram, so I decided to post them here instead. I have a feeling that a lot of my posts are going to be about Christina. After all, she is my baby and I spend the most time with her.

Another Photo-A-Day Project!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! I hope that 2016 brings everyone a lot of success. This is a rare family photo. Now that Nicholas is in college, we don't get together too often. So I decided to start this year right: with the help of Greg Timbers, I set up the camera and got everyone to pose for a quick photo. My New Year's resolution is to include myself into more photos. And I also decided to try a Photo-A-Day Project again. Hopefully, it's not one of those resolution that I abandon half way through January!