The Good, The Bad, and The Pacific Northwest.

Look Mommy! A city!!!

2011-09-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

A statement I never made growing up. Our son on the other hand has lived in Oregon longer than he lived in la. And that fact threw me for a loop the other day. I'm happy that he has had the chance to spend his childhood surrounded by such beautiful country. Lush greenery every where you look. Rivers and lakes to play in. But it's just so weird to think about since I grew up in much more of a metropolitan area.

When we drive up to Portland his hands and forehead are glued to the window looking at all the buildings and lights. He says "Look Mommy!! A city!!!" and it makes me laugh.

My little Oregon boy...

That funny funny innerwebs

2011-08-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

A while back I tried logging on to my blog only to discover it had been deleted by Blogger because they detected suspicious activity on it. I tried to find any kind of support I could but in the end decided that I didn't write much on it and I would just let it fade into the nothingness.
Cut to this morning, when I'm messin around on the computer, and up it pops! All fine and dandy like nothing was ever wrong. So strange.
I decide to take this as a hint to write more. I love showing pictures of my family and our time here in Duck Country. The internet is a scary thing. So vast and endless. So not private. I mean, we're here just sending out our opinions and stories and photos of loved ones. Hoping just to share a glimpse into our lives with others not really knowing whose looking. It's a scary thought. But I'm not going to let it intimidate me! Besides, this has got to be safer than facebook, right?

2011-05-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

I love taking photos of that dang cat!! She is so purdy! And super photogenic. But then again if you find any cat relatively close to a window with some natural light coming through, you're bound to have a great photo.

Nola has taken a liking to falling asleep during "tummy time". Bella finds her to be the best sleeping partner. I think Bella is just happy that someone gets down in the floor with her. Someone her size. Soon she'll learn to run from the terror that is a running-trampoling-skin pinching-hair pulling toddler. ahhhh... but for now, the naps are nice Bella says.

Morning Person

2011-04-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

I am like two different people when it comes to my moods during the course of a day. From the time I wake up till about 3pm I am such a happy, cheerful, up-for-anything kinda gurl. My kids definitely benefit. Then sometime around 3pm I start to walk a little slower, smile a little less, and give up on any projects I have started for that day. It's really sad. Last night I even left a sink FULL of dishes. I know, I know....GASP! But seriously, we've got ants here and I know better. So of course when I woke up this morning to fix my coffee, I was greeted by a nice family of about 80 ants diggin' on my dishes. SO GROSS! I hate ants!!!
Anyway, I rocked this day out cleaning and taking photographs and playing with my kids and then BOOM! 3pm hits. Cut to me, in my pj's, staring at a computer screen dreading the fact that I need to go to the gym tonight.
I should start drinking tea at noon or something.

Here's to tomorrow morning, the start of a new day, new projects, cleaning my house all over again, and hopefully no rain.

Twinsies

2011-04-20T18:02:00.000-07:00

Our cocker spaniel Bella has become very taken with our newest little one. When ever Nola is on the floor, she most definitely needs to be right next to her.

I need to send these to Ellentv. hahahaha

Rejuvination

2011-04-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Erin, Madison, Parker, Juno, Nola (whew) and I wend to Dorris Ranch on Tuesday. With our newborns strapped to our chests we frolic'd in the sun that decided to show it's face. It was a brisk 50something degrees but the sun felt oh so good on our faces.
Juno fell in a mud puddle within 5 minutes of getting out of the car and was very concerned about how dirty his pants and shoes were. I gotta get that kid out more...

We were lucky enough to spot a coyote (either that or a fox) and I got to snap a shot of him thanks to the zoom lens I just got!

This photo is a little too saturated but it was blown out anyway so I decided to mess with it.

And here is my little smiley nugget.

Rejuvenation!! Thank you sun for showing up and staying out!

My son, My life.

2011-04-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

I am doing the 365 project on flickr and this is a photo I took the other day.

I'm dreaming about the sun since I haven't seen it in a long while and thought it would get my point across. So after shooting I was playing around on the computer and doing stuff around the house when I walked by the chalk board and saw this. It melted my heart.

My 4 year old was trying to draw what mommy drew. I love it. I love it more than mine. What an awesome little dude.

Here we go again

2011-04-14T12:24:00.001-07:00

Ok here I am. Starting anew. I am slowly but surely getting my motivation back with photography. I am currently trying to find time in my day for me to dedicate to uploading and editing photos so for now, non of these are going to be messed with. Photography is such a fun hobby for me. With the addition of a new family member, it has become harder for me to find the time to do anything for myself. Once these two kiddos are asleep at the end of the night, I pass out. But here I am, starting again and promising to get back to my hobby.

This week has been tough with Juno being sick and Nola just having received 4 vaccines! Nobody was in a good mood. Including yours truly but there was no way I was going to take a picture of this mug on days like that.

Even Siouxsie was in a bad mood. hahaa

Juno's First Bicycle!

2010-08-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

A brand new bike from Lolo and Lola keep us pretty busy these days. We ride to visit the horses up the street and the little bug is getting very good at looking both ways before crossing the street.

He loves to go fast!

Thank you Lolo & Lola!!!

From my garden

2010-08-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

I totally grew these!

And these!

And they were yummy.

Chris & Mizu visit

2010-08-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

Back in May our good friends Chris and Mizu came up to Oregon to stay with us for the weekend. It was sooooooo nice to have them here and hang. We miss our friends so much so when they take the time to come up here, we have the best time ever!
Here are some photos of their trip!

We took them to the Saturday Market downtown.

And then to Cornucopia. Best Burgers & Beer in town!!!

These are some of the flowers in our backyard.

Bubbles!

This is at the top Skinners Butte. Eugene Skinner founded the town of Eugene and this is where he claimed it back in 1846. You can see the whole town from up here. And it's not very high, which says a lot about the size of our tiny town. haha.

Me and Mizu at Shelby's house for Shelby's birthday.

It was so nice to have our friends come out and stay with us even if it was for a short weekend trip.

Thanks Chris & Mizu!!! We love you!

Bees

2010-05-20T19:44:00.000-07:00

One fine day the bug and I were leaving the house and noticed a couple bees fly past the car. I was stopped in front of my house and wanted to see where they were headed. Oh, no where special, except for the GIANT BALL OF BEES that had formed on one of our trees out front!!!!!

I didn't know what to do! How do you get rid of thousands of bees?! I couldn't get close enough to spray them, they surely attack. And besides that I didn't really want to murder a bunch of bees that weren't harming anyone. I went inside, called around and came across a bee catcher. He was so excited to hear of a bee swarm! Apparently, there is a bee shortage out there. I gave him our address and he was on his way!

The bee catcher said they were Italian bees and can bee a little hot headed if agitated so I should stand back. You don't gotta tell me twice! This was the last photo I took outside. hahahaa

This I took all the way zoomed in from our front door. It was so cool to see him wrangle all the bees inside his little box. He was like a Bee Whisperer.

Once he got the bees inside the box, he loaded them inside his truck and gave me his card. He said that some of the bees that didn't make it would look for another swarm maybe one or two houses down and to warn the neighbors.

Haven't seen or heard of any since but I still follow their path if I see a couple flying together. What a weird day.

Siouxsie Sioux

2010-05-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

We have had Siouxsie for about a year now. She and our cocker spaniel Bella are the best of buds. For reals, like if I recorded them together, I should probably send it into AFV or something. haha. They even groom each other. So cute! Anyway, Here are a few photos of Siouxsie. Enjoy!

Age of Aquarium

2010-03-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

I procrastinated a lot on this entry mainly because there are so many pictures and the thought of having to sit down and write about each and every one became a very daunting task in my mind. So here I am, finally sitting down nearly two weeks after these picture were taken, finally blogging about them. The captions will be short and sweet. This is our trip to the Newport Aquarium and our random little stops back home. Spoiler Alert: I see a lighthouse in your future!

The bug was pretty stoked at the idea of getting to touch stuff, but once he saw the texture of what he was touching, he was done. hahaha. This did not surprise me, after all, Juno didn't touch grass or sand on his bare feet till he was like two years old!

Yea, I touched them.

We taught Juno to say "I Luuuuvs me some shrimpsss!" What great, grammatical parents he has!

I heart this picture so much.. It gives me goosebumps to see father/son loveliness like this!

Contemplating the freakishness of the spider crabs.

Yea... I could have done without ever seeing them too, Junebug.

Shark Tank!

We made some stops along the way back down the coast.

Ate some damn good crab.

And saw a lighthouse!!!!

We love lighthouses ::hug::

A great day was had by all.

Roots

2010-02-25T20:41:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we got back to our roots. Well, The men in my life did. I guess I am mearly a supporter of the Asian community. ... I mean come on, I supplied a whole human being to the Asian community so that's gotta count for something! hahaha! Eugene held it's annual Asian Celebration and this year they celebrated their 25th year! It was held at the Lane Events Center at the Lane County Fairgrounds. They had whole rooms dedicated to art and history, food and performances, and what person in their right mind would leave out the gigantic room of craft booths that don't really belong at ANY festival!

We saw beautiful displays of Orchids from some of the Orchid nurserys in town. There were a couple Bonsai tree displays but the pictures of those were terrible so I didn't include them. (I have lighting issues!)

Mainly, it was so nice to get out of the house during a sunny weekend in February. Very uncharacteristic of Eugene during the Winter. Even the Cherry Blossom Trees have bloomed!

Father and son. Ryan is teaching Junebug the importance of the meat/rice combo spoonfull. Important stuff.

Digging in.

Again with the lighting. These flouescents were tricky. The dancers were great though!

What two year old can resist the face painting booth? There were lots of designs to choose from. And like the realistic parents we are, we chose the design that took the least amount of time. heehee. He loved it!

Ok, here are the orchids I was talking about. Amazing!!! I can't decide if I love them or hate them but they definitely intrigue me. Look at that!! I am a big fan of any type of art form or life form that makes you question everything. These flowers definitely had me wondering what they were and why they look the way they do. Awesome.

More Orchids.

This is a tree in our front yard about to flower. The fuzzy shell around the bloom is soooo soft. They are going to be beautiful. I hope they stick around all Spring.

Some photos of the Cherry Blossoms around town.

St. Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

I was able to get out of work early this Friday to be with Juno for his Valentine's Day party at school. Everyone exchanged cards with candy, pencils, and stickers in them. They decorated cookies and got to eat them afterward and at the end everyone played Pin the Heart on the Dog.

It was a really cute party and I can't wait for more in the future! Juno will be in the 3 year old class soon!

Home Sweet Home

2010-01-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

We finally did it! The Camus have bought their very first home!!! It's been in the works for a while now and we are so happy that we finally have a place to call our own.

Our friends graciously came out on an early Saturday morning to help us move. Goodbye Bailey Lane!

Shelby is with child so she was in charge of making sure Penny didn't go play in some traffic.

Talkin' bout gettin' the job done.
...actually gettin' the job done.

Bobby and Miranda trying to steal our tv. Good thing for us Ryan has a "special" bond with his baby and can detect any funny business up to 10 miles away.

Finally done. Unfortunately I think Jeremy is still in the truck..

Rock classification with Shelby Wills.

And we're done! The day went by so fast due to everyone busting their asses. Thank you all so much for coming out so early on a precious Saturday and helping us move!

We love you all!!!

New Job!!

2010-01-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

I have a new job!!! Finally the applying, emailing, and waiting is OVER!!!!

With the added pressure of our first mortgage payment looming, I went out in search of a job. It only took me 5 months to actually find something. haha. Ok, not that long. But the idea of finding work has been in my brain for months and months.

Who is this gracious employer that dared to trust me with the inner workings of their business you ask?? Well none other than the coolest vet clinic in all of Eugene, The City Center Cat & Bird Clinic!

I have been having a blast learning everything there is about the clinic and the front office. The full time work is a great help to our finances and I absolutely love the people I work with. ...and getting to play with every cute kitty in Eugene isn't so bad either.

I havent worked since I left my job to become a stay at home mom. (Almost 3 years now!) The time off has been amazing and being at home to see the bug grow and learn has been the most precious and rewarding time I could spend doing anything. Now it's back to the daily grind!

Here's the Clinic

Yeti, the resident cat.Natasha, the resident bird.

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-09T19:51:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!!! Wishing everyone out there the best 2o10!!

For Santa!

2009-12-24T20:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope everyone out there is having a wonderful holiday. We are all ready for Santa to come down our chimney tonight. We've even made him some Gingerbread cookies for his trouble. We had the best time talking about all the fun things Santa is going to bring. ...If he's been a good boy.

The one on the bottom left had to have emergency surgery. He didn't make it.

High five Junebugz. Good job.

4th Annual Smith Basketball Clinic

2009-12-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

This Saturday Ryan was one of the coaches at the Smith Basketball Clinic. It is a free clinic that AD Smith puts on once a year to get kids interested in sports. He also does the regular clinic during the summer.

We brought Juno to the clinic to have fun running around with all the other little kids. He is still about a year too young for the age group that was learning how to run drills, dribble and shoot but he still had a blast running around screaming 'nice shot!' to everyone. hahahahaha.

Update: Juno is successfully getting four bounces in his quest to learn how to dribble.

MVP! MVP!

Christmas Cheer

2009-12-16T09:13:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Camu clan! This will be our first Christmas spent up in the great Pacific Northwest. Luckily, my mom is spending the holidays with us so it doesn't feel like we're totally alone up here in the cold.

Earlier this month the weather dropped down into the single digits and we live in heaterless house. We have a couple of radiator heaters from the dark ages so needless to say we were blowing fuses every other day. It's the middle of December now and good ol' Mother Nature has blessed us with temps in the 40's and 50's which feels like a nice summers day to us now. The rain has begun and will probably last throughout the month and into January but I'll take the rain any day over those 8 degree mornings.

I took Juno out for a little photo shoot for our Christmas cards. This is how he felt about it.

But he soon warmed up. He's a ham for the camera, just like his momma.

Good to know the train table is still being put to good use.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone out there! I hope to have a few more blogs written before the ball drops. We wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season!!!

Love you all.

Saturday Market in Winter

2009-11-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

Once Winter rears its cold shoulder, The Downtown Saturday Market moves to the indoors of the Fairgrounds. We missed it last week so my mom and I decided to check it out and see how it compares to the normal outdoors market.

The produce is still very fresh, organic, and YUMMY! The best thing, I must say is that they separate all the arts and crafts booths from the vegetable booths. It was so nice having wide open spaces of just produce and yummy brownies to gaze upon without everything else clouding you.

We stumbled upon some sun chokes. If anyone knows what to do with these, bring it on! I will be searching for them on the food network site tonight. haha.

Beet it.
Chanterelle Mushrooms. Again, Ideas on what to put these in?
Having these for dinner tonight!

and finally... ChestNUUUUUUUUUTTTTTS roasting on an open fiiiiiiire.. sorry had to do it.

I heart my farmers market. I really need to get down there more often.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T10:17:00.001-08:00

The wonderful Mahler's invited us over to their house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a beautiful table and spread! It had been rainy that whole day so it was nice to come into a nice house for the holidays.

Ryry and Junebug. Dig the tie ladies...

Pixel hoping for morsels of food to be dropped.

Iron Chef

The approval?

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!!! Thank you so much to Jeremy and Elizabeth for having us!

Sake

2009-11-17T15:57:00.000-08:00

I recently had a photo shoot with the beautiful Elizabeth Mahler and her dog Sake. Sake isn't going to be with us much longer and she wanted to get a few more photos of the two of them before he's gone. I was so happy and honored to have been asked to take these photos.

We love you Sake, you will be missed.

Halloween Monster 2009

2009-11-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

Here are a few shots of Junebug in his costume before we left for New Orleans. He was the cutest little monster!

Pumpkins on 5th

2009-11-16T09:51:00.000-08:00

Pumpkins on 5th is a small festival the town puts on that involves all schools and clubs in the area. The classrooms all make jack-o-lanterns and there is a costume contest. The whole 5th street Market is decorated and even the local news was there to report. I love living in a small town! haha.

Go Ducks!

Wild thing!!!

The fountain was filled with Red Apples. Juno wanted to eat them.

Thisle Down & Lone Pine Farms

2009-11-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

The bug and I ventured out one cloudy day in the hunt for some good pictures. And maybe a pumpkin or two. Thisle Down and Lone Pine farms are next door to each other in North Eugene and are so awesome. Fresh produce and play areas and animals....well, goats.

We found some pumpkins but decided since we were going to spend our Halloween in New Orleans, we'd leave them behind.

I can't wait for next spring to shop at these markets again.

Bird Hunt

2009-10-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Over the hills and through the woods, on a bird hunt we go. Well, more like up the 5 North...

Elizabeth, or how she is more popularly known by a certain 2 year old, Beh-Bef, and I loaded the car up and drove to Corvallis to obtain the newest member of her family. I don't know the exact full name of this bird but I do know that it is a Finch. So we will refer it as Rainbow Bird.

The drive was spectacular since the rain that is supposed to be pounding down on us all week decided to give it a rest for the day. (That glare is called, me being too lazy to roll down the window)

The town of Corvallis is really beautiful. Especially with Fall just now starting to hit us. The whole town with all it's yellow and red trees reminded me of what it would look like in Connecticut or something. So beautiful.

Junebug was definitely up for the trip once he heard a Rainbow Bird was involved.

This is how Beh-Bef feels about birds.

Introducing Rainbow Bird! (I'm sure Beh-Bef will give the Finch one of her famous awesome pet names soon enough, but for now, it's Rainbow Bird)

Junebugz

2009-09-21T11:29:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday was picture day at Busy Bee Academy (Juno's preschool). He sat so well for the photographer (which was a huge surprise to me. He hasent sat on something in a strange environment since I traumatized him with the Snow White ride at Disneyland a year ago).

We made a point to watch the girl before him take her pictures so he could see that all was good and there would be no scariness. Except for the creepy bearded photographer who said 'that's gooood huunney' one too many times.

Once we got home I just couldn't let him go without snapping a few photos of him myself. Here are a few of the pictures I took (with a little more personality than the school shots) of my little Junebug.

Beach Day

2009-09-19T14:48:00.001-07:00

In an attempt to squeeze as much outdoor play into the last remaining weekends of summer, we headed to the coast. Florence is about 45 minutes west from where we live and it's such a beautiful beach. I thought it would be weird living further from a beach than we were used to in la, but with all the traffic on the 101 it turns out to be the same amount of time.

The Oregon Coast is awesome. The whole coast line is owned by the state or rather 'The People'. So that means, no private beaches for you to trespass on and no crazy parking lots charging $15 per car. Just mile after mile of empty beach. About an hour north of Florence is a town called Newport. That is where the Oregon Aquarium is located. We have been gathering up the stamina to drive all the way up there. Maybe in the winter, it'll give us something to do while Eugene is covered in a blanket of cloudy rain.

This past Sunday on our trip to the beach, we decided to bring Bella, our new Cocker Spaniel. She just seems like a dog that would love running in the sand and frolicking in the water. While she loved the sand, the water was entirely too cold for her. She took one dip and that was good enough for her.

I'm still getting used to the internal light meter on my camera. Haven't quite figured out how to meter off of something darker so it doesn't automatically take the reading from the lightest thing and darken the whole photo. This is why some pictures appear to be darker than others. Giving the illusion that it's later in the day. All of the pictures were taken between 2 and 5 (brightest part of the day).

Juno found a walking stick and poked around at all the jelly fish looking blobs in the sand. He had to point out every shell to us. "Shell right HEEEERE!!!!"

Ryan and the bug decided to race a wave. As you can see, the wave won.

This is me trying to practice some portraits. This huge log was perfect for sitting and framing.

My wonderful boys.

Bella the black blob.

This is an example of a light meter taking a reading from the brightness of the water and sky. It made this image look as if it were 7 or 8pm. I like it though. It makes me feel cold. haha

I'm sure that this was probably our last trip to the coast for the summer. The weather is starting to change into fall and the beach will just be too cold for the remainder of the year.

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were lucky enough to be invited back up to Eric's parent cabin at Wauna Lake for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. The forecast was rain Friday through Monday. The clouds behaved themselves for the most part. We were able to go out on the boat to the other lakes and look for turtles.

Shelby and Ryan eagerly awaiting some grilled salmon and veggies.

I love this picture mainly because of Juno's facial expression. Hahaha. We went on some hikes and looked for bugs. And bears of course.

This place is so awesome. I feel so privileged to live near so much beauty.

Watchin' movies and eatin' pasta waiting for the rain to come..

And it did...

We're goin' to the fair y'aaaawllll

2009-09-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

Come One, Come All and see the white trash come out of the wood work! I knew they had to be somewhere.

Ryan, Jb, and I took a drive down to the Lane County Fair one Sunday. It was a relief from other fairs we'd been to where you have to wait an hour under the summer sun just to get your tickets to get in. Here, there was no line to get tickets and we were the 4th people in line to get in. We went in the mid afternoon. I guess everyone was waiting for the evening when things really got wild! (yikes)

I wish I had snapped a shot of the dude giving rides in his monster truck in a fenced off portion of the parking lot. There were two families strapped into the seats in the bed of the truck. Two toddlers gripping on to each of their mothers screaming for dear life. The Mothers were holding onto their kids with a I can't believe I paid $20 for this look in their eyes and the Dads rode with a little smile creeping out of the side of their mouth as if they were finally getting to fulfill some monster truck fantasy from when they were kids (which wasn't that long ago from the looks of them). The truck did figure eights for about five minutes and Ryan and I joked about how we wished it would have been figure eights for an hour.

After we walked through the gates, the fair was pretty much any other fair.

Food booths, Rides, Carnies, Animal tents, oh and your run of the mill Are You Going To Heaven booth.

Junebug got a Snow Cone. We also got some Cotton Candy but he didn't want anything to do with it. I think his taste buds are still governed by texture. Oh well, more for me!

This ride was the only one he agreed to go on and as you can see he had a fantastic time.

Ryan won him a frog.

We lasted for a couple hours then called it quits and headed home. Thankfully Juno is still too young to want to win every prize from every booth and ride every ride until he pukes.

It was a fun day and I'm happy to say I've had my share of Fairs for the next couple years!

I'm on a boat

2009-08-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Or how Ryan would be singing it, "I'm on a boat, and I'm not too happy about it". heehee. I don't know when Ryan's fear of all things water came about, (and to his defense, it is pretty scary for your first boat experience in years to be on a speed boat) but I am happy he swallowed his fear and sat at the bow of the boat.

We were heading into a uturn at about 50mph at this point. hahaha. So insane.

Good job Ryan!

Cougar Lake

2009-08-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

There was a running joke this weekend that some one during the night would come across a cougar running through the forest. Smearing red lipstick on the trees on her hunt for 20 somethings. heeheehee..

When we pulled up to the campsite my jaw hit the ground. I have never seen a more beautiful forest. The only thing I have to compare it to is the Redwood Forest and even then I'd call it a tie.

The grounds were littered with fallen trees, ferns, and moss. The sun peeked though the tall century old trees shooting rays of sunlight to the ground below. It was absolutely beautiful.

Found a Banana Slug. This picture doesn't do justice to how gross it is! I should have put a quarter down or something to show the size. It was about 5 inches long. Imagine that thing getting in your tent and crawling across your face in the middle of the night. hahahha..(sorry, had to do it). YUK!

The camping trip was organized by Amy (on the left). It was a present for her husband Andy (next to Amy). Then we have Jeremy and Elizabeth (and little Kismet the poodle), and of course you all know Ryan and Juno, and the latest addition to our family, Bella the cocker spaniel.

Here's another one of Bella. The best camping puppy ever! We let her off leash and she stayed under my feet the whole time. We brought penny too but she was busy workin' on a bone to care about the forest. Such a princess. haha.

We put together our tent. Ryan then trekked off into the woods to look for firewood with the others.

Once the tent was up, Bella claimed her home and guarded the front door. She was gonna have to protect us from all those cougars....and their 23 year old boyriends...heehee.. sorry, last time.

Juno was being pretty good at this point because we were all always on the move. We'd walk some trails that were surrounding the campsite or go play near the stream. The crazyness didn't start till after the sun went down and Juno still wanted to run around in the dark. He finally went to sleep around 9:30p and at that point mine and Ryan's nerves were shot. 'Can't wait to go camping again without a two year old' was the quote of the night.

But when you see this face bein' all sweet to you, it just makes it all worth it.

After the bug was asleep we were able to relax and hang by the fire. We were roasting marshmallows and making s'mores AND the greatest creation of all things having to do with campfires... The Hobo Eclair. Amy can explain it better than I can. She has a fantastic blog called Playing House. Check it out!
I can't wait to go camping again and with others and share the knowledge of the best camping treat since the s'more.

I love that Eric broke out some Tenacious D as the first song of the night. Way to jump in the deep end first my friend!

Also took some shots of the night sky. This is a 75 second shutter. If I had a shutter release remote, I would have been able to capture some star sweeps. Next time for sure!

It was a good weekend of camping. Ryan and I haven't been camping since the 2001 or 2002 trip to Lake Elsinore with Tom, Heather, Marcus, Ed and David. It was nice to be out in the wilderness again.

Photography Class Project #2 and #3

2009-08-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

I have combined two of my last projects in this entry because I am eager to post about new things. Project #2 is called Lines, Shapes, Patterns, Forms, & Designs. I am sure from the title you can guess that we have to look for Lines, Shapes, Forms... and so on, in our pictures.

This first one is a wood pile at a friends cabin. I love the lighting in this one. It really shows the true brown color of the wood. I like lines and shapes of the space between the wood and the shapes the wood creates. blah blah blah....

This next one is a picture of a fern I found while on a camping trip with some friends. (Note: Never Ever Ever take your two year old on a camping trip, unless you love stressing out to the point of crying all the way home and then passing out for 4 or 5 hours due to shear exhaustion. If you are down with all that, go right ahead.)
I love this photo because of the color. The green just lit up the whole class room when we critiqued it in class. I love all the spines of each fern branch and the water you can see on the leaves.

Those are the two I am showcasing from that project.

This next one is me paying homage to the late great Edward Weston and his famous Pepper, 1930 photo. He is probably one of my favorite photographers. His Farm Security Administration work was one of the most profound and ground breaking introductions into real life that there has ever been. So here's to you Mr.Weston! Thank you for being so damn inspiring!

This one I shall call "Tomato, 2009".

My next project was the dreaded Portraits portion of this Photography class. I somehow managed to get Ryan to agree to a photo shoot. The lighting is late afternoon/early evening and the backdrop is a mural of some graffiti in the middle of town. I chose this one to show all you lovely people because I love the color of the background versus the dark black and gray's of Ryan's clothing. I just think it looks interesting. I also like the composition of the photo being shot from below. I would have liked to see him doing something other than checking his phone but I couldn't think of any direction to give him. At least he is natural in this one. I need to work on my direction. It's hard to tell people how to act or look and still expect them to look natural. I think he pulled it off in this one though. I like it. I love taking pictures of Ryan.

That's it folks. I hope I got a good grade in the class. Thinking about taking a Lighting for Photography class in the fall. This class was so much fun and I met some cool people. And some not so cool people! But that's a story for a real conversation and not a blog.

Stay tuned for pictures from the camping trip we took. The place was absolutely beautiful! Definitely going back, WITHOUT THE TWO YEAR OLD!

Photography Class Summer '09

2009-08-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to take a photography class this summer to brush up on some basic skills and to also have a little fun with my new camera. This class is great! It has already taught me so much about my camera.
The pictures below are from my first assignment. They are manually taken, utilizing our knowledge of ISO, F Stop, and Shutter Speed functions.
This assignment is called "Single Object, Single Idea". The concept is to take an object and photograph it in a different way than we usually see it. For example, from above, below, close up, etc.

Enjoy.

Tractor scooper (no idea what this is actually called.) at the Middle School down the street from my house. 7:30am
Springs of a freight train. 11:30am
Fence Post at Johnson Farm. 7:30pm
Sculpture outside the Courthouse. 8:30pm

29 years ago today

2009-07-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

I was born.

Today has been such a wonderful day! I've had a wonderful few days in fact! Mornings that started after 8am, Pancakes, Sushi, Presents from the hubby, and to cap it all off... a dessert party at my Friend Amy's house! She made this amazing cake that should go down in cake history for all of the awesomeness it possessed. She is a fantastic baker/cook and an even more fantastic (if that's possible) blogger! Her blog Playing House has become an obsession of mine. So THANK YOU AMY!!!!!

Here are a few photos I snapped of our night.

THE CAKE!!!!

Thank you all so much for making my birthday such a special one! ::beaming with love::

Train Set!

2009-07-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend we bought Juno a Train Set! We've been wanting to get him one for so long. Juno is obsessed with trains. He is, after all, a two year old boy! So what better present, than the Imaginarium Classic Train Set.

These pictures aren't the best. I wish I would have taken more time to improve the lighting and framing but I was just so excited!!!

Introducing, Juno's Train Set!

And THANK YOU DADA for putting the whole damn thing together!

Craft Night

2009-07-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday the gals (consisting of but not limited to; Elizabeth, Amy, and Shelby) and I got together to scratch our crafting itch. There was knitting, scrap booking, and electronic scrap booking. Shelby opened up her house and Eric provided the ever inspiring fight songs that kept us going for three hours!

Tomatoes & Bubbles

2009-07-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was spent in the back yard. Nothing really to do but lounge around in our pj's all day and play. My tomatoes are starting to ripen. I can't wait to make something with them! Or maybe just eat them by themselves with a little salt. YUM! My mom and aunt will be here in 3 weeks and hopefully they'll get to pick a few for themselves as well. My aunt has this amazing garden with every kind of veggie you can imagine. It produces buckets and buckets of vegetables and my mom flies out there (out there, being Louisiana) sometimes to satisfy her throbbing green thumb. Hard hard work. Hopefully I'll have a garden like that some day. well...maybe a little smaller.

Juno, like every other kid on the planet, loves bubbles! And unlike the hyperventilated days of my youth, today's kids get to reap the benefits of motorized bubble machines. "Now blowing over 5,000 bubbles a minute!".
The bug can't get enough of them! He lets it run till the batteries squeeze their last bit of juice into the rotating mechanism and that last huge bubble comes bellowing out.
We love the bubble machine.

Junebug

2009-07-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

Today Juno and I hung out in the backyard for some much needed sun and bubbles. The weather has been amazing lately. Even Sunday we had this random lightening storm pass through with the kind of thunder that shakes your house. Amazingly, the bug slept though it.
Anyway, here are a couple photos I snapped during our day in the sun.

Enjoy.

Oregon Country Fair

2009-07-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

I've heard so much about this fair since we've lived here. Thought about checking it out but didn't think it would actually happen. That is, until my babysitter couldn't come because she was going to the fair. A light bulb went off in my head! The fair would be the perfect place to hone in on some of my very amateur photography skills. So I packed up the car with two of my friends here in Eugene and drove down on a Friday afternoon.
Here are just some of the pictures I took that I feel are blog worthy. I will probably be posting the others on my facebook page if your interested.

Bare Necessities...
SO MANY TOPLESS WOMEN AT THE FAIR!!!! These gals were so cute. Sorry it's a back shot guys, I've decided that while I did get quite a bit of naked boobage during my day, I don't want to exploit any of the women that decided to bare all during their day in the sun.

These girls were cute too. They were the only taped up nipples I saw. Everyone else had their goodies painted.

Lots of hair accesories..

Cat ears. Elizabeth got a pair of these and they are so cute!!

And last but not least, A little boy playing the violin. When I snapped this photo he was doing an "oldie but a goodie" (as he put it), Twinkle Twinkle. My heart melted.

I took so many pictures at the fair. I would love to put them all up on here but until blogger makes it a tad bit easier to upload multiple photos, you're just gonna get the cream of the crop (in my humble opinion).

Hope you enjoyed the photos.

More to come of our days here in good ol' Eugene.

peace out.

Where the world ends

2009-06-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

My brother came to visit us. He flew out on a Friday night after work. Saturday Morning Ryan and I took him to the Saturday Market then on to the Oregon Coast. I love it there so much. This was only our second visit out there but I can already tell there will be many more.
We decided to take a road we didn't know and see where it led us.
It led us here..

I couldn't get over how beautiful this place is. I am so used to the cramped cemented streets of coast line littered with homeless and soul-less and everything in between. This place is clean and untouched and wonderful.

We parked and climbed a sand dune and that lead us to an even more jaw dropping scene..

Miles and miles of empty beach. shells and crab picked over by the morning gulls, and nothingness. It was amazing. The sky was threatening rain and it created an erieness that made for great pictures. (Although, the pictures don't in any way portray what we actually saw).

Duck Duck Goose

2009-06-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend we visited Alton Baker Park to hang with the water birds. Juno had so much fun walking right up to them to feed them. Both Ry and I are too chicken to hold our hand out for them to eat off of but not Juno! We kept making him hand the cheerio to the duck. hahaha. He got nipped like 5 times and laughed every time. He got a kick out of the interaction. The amount of duck and goose poo that gets stuck in your shoes is staggering. Nothing a hose can't take care of but still...

Sunday we finally made it to a park our friends had been telling us about. Thanks Jeremy! I like this park better than the Skinner Butte Park cause it's not so big and crowded. I hate going to SB Park cause of all the people on the weekends. This one was perfect. It had lots of fun jungle gyms AND a water fountain area. The kids had a blast running around getting soaked. Juno had never played in a water fountain before but it didn't take him long to get used to the idea of fun in mud and water.

Greener Pastures

2009-06-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

My gardening has officially turned into an obsession. I love it oh so much. I can't wait to have an actual gardening plot in the back yard instead of just some random places that I dug up. haha. Here are some updated photos of my babies.

My cilantro has gone nuts. I really need to make something that calls for a lot of it. (Sorry Ang. haha)

My sunflowers were doing wonderfully till Souixsie decided to lay down right in the middle of them a couple of weeks ago. I thought she had ruined them. I just kept watering them and they started to perk back up. There are still some that are growing along the ground. There is one that is laying down and then half way up the stem it turns up toward the sun (It's the one at the bottom of the picture). Strong little buggers. I cant wait till they flower. They are going to be so huge.

This is my blueberry plant that has yet to produce a blueberry.

One of my beloved pepper plants. They are starting to bud!!!

Siouxsie love stalking things in the back yard. I am so glad we got a cat cause she is really good at hunting for bugs, especially in the house. She finds them before we do, THANK GOD! And if she sees one but can't reach it, she does this weird studered meow sound and stares at it. It's awesome. I'm so glad she has a back yard to run around in and get all her energy out. Then she comes in and gives me lots of love.

Snaped this one on my way in from the garden shots and decided to post it. I love pictures. and here are some that we keep on our fridge. There are more on the sides but you'll just have to come over to see those.

I really want to have more pictures of people on this blog. I still want to keep it true to why I started it though. I want it to be a photography blog about all the stuff I come across while living in Eugene. I need to get out more with my camera and start taking pictures of people.
I saw this bum, um I mean...vagabond the other day (there are a lot up here) and he had a sign that said "Nobody reads this shit anyway". I wanted to give him all my money. I can totally apreciate being fed up. It was a green light though and I couldn't stop. Oh well, hopefully I'll see him again.

Sahalie Falls

2009-05-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today Ryan, Junebug and I took a little road trip out to Sahalie Falls. I can't believe this place is only an hour away!!!! So beautiful.

He looked in this log for like a good 5 minutes yelling for bugs.

It was so nice to be at the waterfall today. I have never lived this close to so many beautiful places. An hour in one direction drops me at the coast. Long rock jetties beckoning you to walk their paths into the sunset. An hour the other way leaves you speechless as the deafening roar of the waterfall sends the cool mist up to kiss your face. An hour and some change north and you are right in the middle of the city of Portland. It's pretty amazing.

Oh Garden! My Garden!

2009-05-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Three, count 'em THREE tomatoes a bloom. Woohoo!!! More on the way by the looks of all the little sprouts on this tomato plant.

I've had a battle with the aphids this spring and I'm sure it's only going to get worse as the summer wears on. For now however, the blooms have been gorgeous and there are so many more on the way.

My peppers are my prized possession in the garden. I'll post some pictures of them when they start producing. I can't wait!

Care for some Aiball?

2009-05-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

Our first visitor from La was Ai. She flew up on a Thursday and took me on a hunt for vegan eateries and the illusive vegan mall up in Portland. We had a blast. I love Portland. I can't wait to go back up. I'm so glad we live so close to such a rad city.
Friday we showed her around our town of Eugene and ended up at the U of O cemetery.
Photographs ensued..

Wah-fou

2009-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the bug and I went over to Weh-weh-befs house to play with the doggies and hang in the back yard. It was windy but that didn't stop Junebug from running around the whole time with Pixel (juno calls her tickle haha.. so cute). After a bunch of running and screaming all that energy out, we went inside for a snack.

Elizabeth had blueberry waffles on hand and the cuteness continued.

Exhibit A

what a goof ball.

I would have lightened these up in photoshop, but i'm still trying to learn how to use it. haha.

A quick fix

2009-05-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Feeling crappy always warrants that one things that will always make you feel better. I am a big supporter of nursing ones self back to fantasticness.

Today I have not been feeling quite right. Then this afternoon I suffered through 3 hours of cold. It's perfectly normal out side but for some reason my bones decided to become icicles. God forbid I turn the heater on. no use in raising the heat bill while I feel like this. I'd much rather blast the heat for no particular reason and relish in it's hotness. Pain free.

Anyway, there is that one thing that I know will make me feel a tiny bit better. Some hot chocolate out of my favorite mug. This mug is special to me cause it's cheesy and my hubby gave it to me.

Do your thang hot choc!

Flower Blog?

2009-05-10T20:40:00.000-07:00

This is turning into a flower blog instead of a photog blog! But I can't help it! The flowers here in Eugene are insane. Today I found the tiniest little blue flowers out under a bush in our yard. The bloom is about the size of a pea. So Small!!!

Even my plants are starting to sprout!! This is cilantro that has poked up through the soil.

And here are my sunflowers!

Gardening in Eugene takes your mind of all the rain. You find yourself wishing for more rain so you don't have to fool around with hoses and watering cans. I can't wait to actually get some veggies from my other bed. I'll post pictures of them later. I am growing hot peppers and will be making pepper sauce. Look at me and my green thumb!

Nammy's in town

2009-05-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

Nammy came into town a few days ago. I love having her here! She came to the Portland Childrens Museum with us today.

It's been raining for days down in Eugene but the gods sensed we needed to have a nice day so they cooperated.
Juno had a blast at the PCM as usual.

I'm so mad the mustache ones are blurry! That's what I get for boycotting my flash. I can't wait to get a new flash with a diffuser thingy. ...god I need a photography class.

Easter Pics

2009-04-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

This outfit brought to you by one very awesome Grandma, aka "Nammy".

And this one...

Easter was fun this year. I took JB to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. On the way there I talked up our furry egg hiding friend so much Juno couldn't wait to meet him. I mean, who wouldn't right? All that fluffiness hopping around your backyard, hiding eggs you decorated and then leaving giant baskets of candy behind to replace the next mornings breakfast?! What could be better?

Unfortunetly the bug didn't share my excitement once he layed eyes on the 7 foot tall (ears included) cartoon eyed giant they were calling a bunny. Poor kids. They get put through this torture every year. Even Ry didn't understand why I was going to the mall of all places and pay someone rediculous amounts of money for 4 wallet sized pictures that I could have taken myself. And done a better job might I add!

As I explained to the hubby, I go through all this because my parents did it with me. I have like 7 consecutive years of Easter Bunny and Santa photos. I bet my mom complained about the exact same things as she forked over her $4.50 in exchange for the blurry polaroid of her tramatized toddler.

Still, I think it's time for a change. I think I'll be taking these photos from now on. It's time to stop complaining and do something about it! Time to send a message to those mall fonies and say Enough Is Enough!!!

...Ryan is going to look so good in Bunny ears.. heehee.

Flower Power

2009-04-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

It has been amazing here the past few weeks. Flowers don't seem to die off as quickly as I'm used to, and the trees are no exception. I wish I could have every single flowering tree I've seen here in my own front yard.

Today the bug and I went out on assignment to find and photograph some of the wonderfulness that has bloomed up here in the great North West.

This building to the left is a fresh produce market that I have been searching for for two months. It's actually a house located on a small residential street. I have yet to shop there, I just feel better now that I know I can have fresh strawberries.

This pink flowering tree is EVERYWHERE! You'll probably see more of this tree in these pictures. They are insane! So beautiful!

This picture hardly gives these tulips justice. The bloom is as big as my fist.

And here is my latest contribution to the flowers here in good ol Eugene. Purple and Yellow Pansies. Gotta represent our Lakers/LSU Tigers! haha.
Also got some strawberries, Blueberries and white Impatients. I'll take pictures of those once they flower.

It is so nice to drive around the town with the windows down and that warm breeze blowing past you. The sun is out and all these trees and flowers put a smile on your face. Everything is clean and there for a reason and we're not crushing every living thing with buildings and parking lots and apartments.

It's nice.

Hail at will

2009-03-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

The weather has been crazy here lately. The sun peaks out like the tease she is and then pops back behind the clouds that seem to have taken permanent residence here in good ol Eugene. Yesterday it was sunny for a about twenty minutes then rain for a half hour then sunny again for 5 minutes then Hail! Crazy. It was cool watching it come down though, so I snapped a couple shots.
This is the hail coming down

And this is Ryan and Siouxsie watchin' it come down

I'm sure it'll be raining here all throughout April and May. It's nice hearing the rain come down when you're falling asleep.

Around town...

2009-03-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

Spring is in the air and the trees and flowers are exploding! These daffodils are EVERYWHERE!

One on my favorite trees is the Cherry Blossom Tree. Every year back home we'd go to Balboa Park and have a picnic amongst them. Amazing. Shout out to Chirs and Mizu! I was so happy to see that there are tons of Cherry Blossom Trees here and they are humongous! Here is one nestling up to my soon to be favorite restaurant.

There is this large hill in the middle of Eugene called Skinners Butte. You can see the whole town from up there. When I was up there today there were some dudes enjoying the insides of a very large bong from the comforts of their pickup. Dude #1 gave me the "sup" head nod and I replied with a "wow, really? in broad day light?" subtle head nod. I took some shots and headed back down. Not really great with landscape shots yet but I'll post some when I go up there at sunrise or something. ...ok, maybe sunset..haha.

So at the bottom of the "butte" there were these three guys..

It was a nice day to go hunting for photographs.

More later.

New Camera!

2009-03-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

So here are a couple pictures with the new camera. I am really excited to learn more about this thang! The first picture is Juno looking out of our dining room window and the second was at the park today.
Enjoy!

temptation

2009-03-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

I tell him not to go in the planter on a daily basis. I tell him not to go near it! Go play in the grass, go play with the sidewalk chalk on the pavement, go shovel something!!!! He says "ok." and smiles.

and then...

I guess it's time to plant stuff.

Relocating

2009-03-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

Ryan, Junebug, and I moved to Oregon on February 5th. Here's our trip through the eyes of my iphone and my digital camera..
it was a cold and rainy night. err, mid morning..

the bend in the photo was possibly due to all the acid we dropped as we said our final goodbyes to the apartment.

Abe and I are giddy cause I bought dvd monitors for the Rav4 and a little later we're gonna break out some Bill & Ted's awesome adventure.

picked up this nice fellow along the way. Don't think he'll cause any trouble. Ryan's got his shank under the seat if he tries to pull anything.

Baby Einstein for miles and miles and miles and miles.....

First of all I would like to say that mom's rule. Mom's will die for you. Mom's will bend over backwards for you and do your laundry and give you advice and love you unconditionally, all while making you a samich. (that's right, samich). That said, I would just like to point out how much MY mom rules with this photograph. This is box one of three. Nuff said.

driving amongst nothingness. It gives you this feeling of liberation, lonelyness, nostalgia, and a sinking panicky feeling that there's not a bathroom for miles..

You know..hehe...the funny thing about acid is that it can really just creep up on you at any time. You never know when it's just gonna say "hey dude!! remember me fucker?! that's right...you thought you could just have a fun time and never see me again?! I don't think so! Have fun on this desolate road trapped in this tiny car with too much shit in it with not a bathroom in sight!!! or a 7-11!" yup... it's a nasty drug kids.

Yes! an ihop! A 24 hour Ihop no less.

We made it to Redding. Found a cheap hotel. JB graciously gave up his bed there in the middle to Abe so he didn't have to sleep on the floor. Abe is surprisingly flexible.

This ones for Chris. Yes, we found it. And yes, It was just a town consisting of a Forest and two gas stations holding the racket on all paraphernalia having to do with the towns name and the double entendre. So sad.

This continued for 300 miles. Ahhh the sweet sounds of three men sleeping.

Insert "Welcome to Oregon" sign here.

I took this for my mom. She and my dad were members of the Oregon Shakespeare Theatre for years. They had Ned (my brother) then but not me. he was little and they used to keep him up too late to watch the shows. All the people in the theatre would look after him if my mom and dad were in the same show. It's crazy what different lives he and I were brought up in. My mother often says she has two only children.

A mesa. I think..

So we arrived on a Friday. Our stuff arrived 6 days later. Abe stuck it out with us through all the sleeping on the floor and restaurant visits with a 2 year old and no tv. I salute you.

So that's it. That was our trip in a nutshell.

This will be my blog to post all the funny strange beautiful happenings in this weird town through photographs.