Learning Spanish is easy

You just need motivation <3

Dream a Little Dream

Sweet memories...

...If a memory can be made from a future event.

Some photos of our day trip down to the American River Bridge outside Auburn. A nice Labor Day weekend excursion down to my favorite river spot.





Joey came with us but he was swimming and looked like he would get himself in trouble out in the current. He became a liability but I know he had fun too. It was great to get the kids out of the house for a few hours.

A couple of My favorite songs

Not the original but this one I think is better to my tastes

And one more because after I lost it on the song chart I always wanted it back...

State Fair was Fairly Stated, as... Fun!

The County exhibits are always my favorite, or one of my favorite parts of the fair. Here are some of the noteworthy offerings. I thought these people did great work on these displays of some of their Counties best attributes.










I tried to show the county name in the photo and let them speak for themselves.

The portraits here were done with jelly bellies, thats such an interesting medium I had to try and show some of the work. The bear was in the works right then so it can be seen how it was done. I love the colours and the compositions that a fair presents, it's so much fun to try and capture with the camera.

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What About John and Kate?

I get so tired hearing about a gerrymandered relationship that is only dragging out for ratings and sensationalistic headlines. It's ironic that my own relationship gone awry was a John and Kate, too. I moved on without the glamour of a breakup in everybody's face. I see the daily headlines and I cringe, how many more days can these two and whoever is pushing this keep interest in the sordid disrespectful selfish and unrealistic union alive and worthy of voyuers attention? Think of the kids, and how they will someday have to realize their parents acted like fools. If their drama is prolonged past the point of pointlessness as mine has done I am certain all viewers would be lost.

Love is A Two Edged Sword

I hear these types of sayings, but I only really understand them in my own experience. I know why they withstand the test of time as I go through my heart rending situation. There's a summation of countless emotions being felt, so many other people have gone this way, too. We are all together as we keep alive the meanings and definitions.

So we are never really alone.

"It is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all."

Hearing that doesn't make it any easier, but it is comforting, nonetheless.

My Heart Was in Her Hands...

A year was all we had,

But in reality it was a handful of Days

I gave my love freely, with both hands

I couldn't hold on to it anyway...

I would do it all over again

If I get to keep my friend

Honestly

Our lives are tethered to this world by a million strands of hope, trust, faith, desire, knowledge, duty, inquisitiveness, possibility et cetera. We need to believe in something that reaffirms and reassures progress toward our ideals as we grow spiritually and as human beings.

I have found ways to make shields to protect myself and my loved ones, unfortunately I also block some of my potential growth opportunities. In the end I guess its better to be safe than sorry?

The most basic building block is that we believe and trust those with whom we share our lives. It becomes more difficult when its family because their best interests are always in the forefront of our minds. And we can be blinded by love so easy. I never want to hurt another soul and I pray that I do not.

To be a friend is an honour and a privilege. To remain so is a commitment.

The Window of the Soul

I can see what it means to be free, feel how it feels to have hope, and to believe better days will surely come. You know that by the pain that we humans can feel in our souls there really is something more than mere flesh and blood that is who we really are.

We see the world and are moved by its beauty. It is nearly impossible to look at this creation and not acknowledge there is an intelligent designer. It takes as much faith to believe in nothing as to believe in God. You can hear it when the wind blows or waves crashing upon the shore, or the thunder rolling. Our senses touch the world as well as register in the spiritual world.

Sometimes I think of what Christ did for us as he felt all of our pain, suffered all our punishment and freed us up to be whole again in the eyes of God. When you think of this very thing its a rather humbling experience. Such an enormous grief he bore. For us.

When I think of my mostly personal and selfish issues that tear at my heart I have to pause to regain a proper perspective. I guess everybody has a right to want all good things in their lives, and I know that we possess our souls in patience. If I go back to the cross where Jesus paid the price for all our sins I will be reminded that God is with me in all things, He knows what I may be going through. I must continually go back to the cross where Jesus suffered for me, too. And how if I feel I have a right not to have to suffer, I am in error. Or that I should avoid it at all costs. Maybe my lot is to learn from these hard times through the pain. Maybe this adversity is really my blessing.

God has given me great gifts in which I am eternally grateful. He has given me chances to correct myself and I think I have. I know that I am a work in progress and am so lucky to be alive. Giving up has never crossed my mind. Seeking his will is my duty. God said "ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find", and I just know its true.

I never want to forget what it means to love and really be loved, and I never will, so help me God.

Happy Independence Day!

We had fun going to the fireworks show in Roseville but it was moved to Sierra View C.C. so the works were a couple miles away from the fairgrounds. But we had fun anyway and did some at home later.

And my camera did a better job capturing my sweethearts than it did the fireworks, maybe next year I will know the right setting.

When Mortality Dawns Upon US

Today a pair of "Iconic" Americans passed away, following another well known persona yesterday. Ed McMahon died yesterday after a lengthy illness and well publicized personal finance troubles, forever remembered as Johnny Carson's sidekick and yes man. Farah Fawcett passed away today after a long bitter battle with a tough cancer, expected, yet still a shock as a living legend has left US. Then on top of those, Michael Jackson has a heart attack and passes away at 50?
Michael had a lot of bizarre tabloid troubles, yet this suddenness is just a complete shot across our collective bows.

I think our country likes to live vicariously through our celebrity culture, worshipped and enabled, for the very purpose of being like a mirror to look into our own selves and to dream a little dream about fame and fortune, "what would it do to me?" Since everybody knows about these people we all share in the loss and still we try to figure out how we really are affected. I think the whole outpouring of grief will be overdone and over covered. And yet, I also think many of these people are mourning for something or some part of their own lives they feel is now lost. Maybe living vicariously also means dying sympathetically.

Is this the three, as in tragedy coming in sets of 3? I will pray for their souls and hope there is a lesson for all of US in this. Life is never gauranteed and no matter what our troubles amount to as a portion of our consciousness, we will someday leave it all behind and move on to the next stage of our souls developement.

There are troubles brewing out there in the world that will require everyone to become self-less. We don't want to waste our grief on the passing of an individual or three, as we could be looking at the passing of our way of life and our countries position in the world. There are perceptions and then there are realities. The times they are a changin' ~ for sure.

May we all take a moment and reflect and think of how we can become better people, to all who we come in contact with.

A Solstice Anniversary Vision

Happiness is...

an everlasting love made exclusively for two, and I only want to share this blessing with my best friend. I know she knows that I know that she knows. This is exactly how I feel, it's purely harmonious and truly something special.

If Love travels in all directions, its travails at least seem to go the ways of gravity. The highs are so high and the boundaries limitless, but its the deepness that excites my inquisitive nature to explore its nuance and arouses my desire to find the right words to translate this most indescribable feeling.

The expression needs to come out perfect, and somehow, because I started to relay these thoughts out loud it seems more difficult to say it just right. Therein lies the challenge, to describe the very emotions that dwarf words and deeds and relegate powerful sentiment into numb adages.

How do I measure or probe that which is indefinable? How can I touch on what sometimes seems just out of reach and even unobtainable? Theres a feeling I want to describe but mere words diminish and turn what is graceful, natural, and flowing into something clumsy and common.

The multplying force of passion finding passion mesmerizes me out of my body and into my spirit. I can't let go of this chance to realize what seems to be at the very meaning of life. I won't give up until what I see in my heart becomes the reality I crave. True joy will come to me, if I can hang on and not just smother these flames with my doom. Some things will only happen once in a lifetime and must be acted upon while there's still enough time. All the signs and their vibrations, the pure emotion and its profound meaning, direct me, like a compass, to my love.

How To Be a Rock

Thats what I want to know.
I know just how I feel, and it's so incredibly strong. But I fear the brittleness that comes along with that. And then I fear the fear that goes along with that. We have come so far, but the road disappears right around the bend.
Its all more than us, together, its our individual souls needing to grow. Its all we have ever been, and even what can come to be.
I want more than anything to stay strong. Thats how I will remain. I really can ignore all my doubts. I can even turn off the pain. I want to be the last man standing.
I can win by not losing.

Patterns

Do you see my pattern?

I see patterns in everything that happens in life.

The magnificent tapestry our Lord created is woven with such artistry and detail we cannot see all the designs, all the possibilities, all the splendour that is the entirety of this world. Where we fit in, is our little spot. Where we go, is where God puts us. What we do with it is our choice, how we fit in is how we agree with God.

The patterns change and yet somehow it all stays the same.

Unfortunately, it's too late for me to change, too.