LUCKY US!

Even after fifteen years of living here in Santa Cruz, I still am in awe of the beauty of this tucked away little village.  It's truly an amazing place to live...we're a small town mountain community that sits on the ocean...how's that for charm!
So even through I moved down out of the mountains a few years ago, and I no longer have that Spectacular view or the deep redwood forest...what I do have is the convenient forest situation living in the foothills, so I'm surrounded by trees, yet five minutes to downtown...and better than that, we can be on the beach within minutes!

So today we took the pups and spent a perfect hour just taking in all the beauty of this marvelous Spring day!  We literally just shake our heads and feel extremely grateful and blessed to live where we do.  Hope your day was as perfect.

There's a paved path that goes for two miles
and on the back half of the lot is a beach camping
area that's always full.

Dolphins were just swimming by..so freaking cool!

The sweet perfect little beach town of Capitola behind me...it's just the best place to live!!

Have a terrific Spring!  Be happy where ever you live and enjoy the beauty around you...lucky us!  xox juner

TODAY'S UPDATE

So I'm going to keep it short and sweet.

Believe it or not I've been sick with the stomach flu the past three days....NOT my thing.  I just don't get sick, EVER.   I literally go years and years without a sniffle....however, after the whole kidney stone thing had worn me down and some super stressful stuff going on here, the kid's were scary sick and  I guess that was all I needed....my immune was shot and boom!  Sicker than a dog for one entire twenty four hours.  And now I'm attempting to get my energy back.  

In the meantime I'm working diligently on my computer, mainly on a HUGE marketing program for my book.  So at least the down time is being used for something important, other than the first day when I couldn't do a single thing but moan...I'm getting a lot done.

And now the update.

First we finally found someone with a duck.  Yes, a new duck to partner up with Vida.  In case you forgot, Dolce, our male duck was killed by a hawk in January, (or possibly Feb, I forget by now) and our girl Vida, has been very lonely.  Wasn't sure how she would take to having a baby boy around...well she took to it....well like a duck to water!

She started preening him instantly...it was the most amazing thing ever when I first introduced them, I wish I had it on film.  She was squawking when I brought him in and he stretched his neck up as far as he could to peek out of the box as if to say, "hey I recognize that voice, that's one of my own." She began pacing for me to let him out of the box, speaking the entire time.  They literally ran up to each other and had an entire conversation face to face, seriously, quacking back and forth almost bill to bill for a few minutes and that was it.  Vida protects him and won't hardly let me get near him...oh, his name is Doug by the way, and he's almost as big as she is, but he's a baby.  And she was heavily molting in these photos, so no judging!

He  seriously follows her around, everywhere....it's just the cutest thing ever. I'm so glad we found him.

Dougie!!

Then the question was brought up by Linnie..where's dad at the ball game and his Xmas jacket?  Well here he is!  Finally up and around, we made it to a game and it was a good one.  This is our ballpark seat neighbor Carmen.  And our mascot is an elephant, if you can believe it...Stompers, for god's sake!  

And last but not least...my roses are going off!!  This is just a teeny tiny sample and not at all a perfect depiction to real face to face...but close enough.  The orange one has a deep blood orange color with bright yellow innards, and then there is a coral one in the center and a red one on right...doesn't show up well, sorry...but the lavender in the middle is amazing!

So that's it for today...too exhausted to go further, seriously, this thing really takes it out of you...so be careful to stay clear of this bug...the headache that comes along with it is mind numbing!

Mucho love my dear sweet friends....xoxo juner

OPENING NIGHT AND WEIRD PAIN...I'LL EXPLAIN

Here we are at the opening night of the Oakland Athletic's...it was packed and fun!  They lost but we still had a great time...and after the opener and the next day,  they've won eight games in a row...so they are on fire!! YaY!

The Athletics and the Raiders still share a coliseum so I couldn't resist getting a photo with my Raiders...I'm even a bigger fan of NFL, so fun for me.  And they passed out the yellow fan rally towels, it was CRAZY to look out over the sea of yellow...it was GREAT FUN!

Fireworks and a big hoopla to begin the season...again, GREAT FUN!  Below is the older son, Cal, who came in from SF to enjoy the game with us, which meant we had to drive him back to the city and was a treat to be there at night, it's so beautiful, the bay.  

However, for as much fun as this night was, I was in pain for the entire event. Now comes the explanation.

I thought I was having a bladder infection and it was grim...however, two days later I ended up in the hospital, thinking I had something SEVERELY WRONG with my colon as that is where the pain was exploding on Wednesday afternoon...seriously had me on my knees and scared out of my mind.  All I could think about was, geez, what if I need surgery, this is crazy....I honestly thought my colon was in big trouble, especially since the pain came on so suddenly and I was running to the loo, (not to get too personal), but as it turned out, it was my old foe...the little demon that has not darkened my doorstep, or my kidneys as it were, in twelve years...stones!!

So that's where that's at...kidney stones, which I passed a tiny one on Saturday morning, but it's still not right, almost went back to the hospital today....we'll see what happens in a day or two, cause I'm pretty certain we got some residual gravel/sand floating around...caught a bit just a while ago and let me tell you, that sand can hurt almost as much as the stone!

So that's life around here...oh, I almost forgot to mention.  My maid of honor, Jamie, who has been working on a show in LA for the past month, and in from NYC, came up this weekend to hang and to perform some of her duties as my right hand gal...considering I was losing my mind Friday and Sat...I felt a bit up to par on Sunday/Monday, so off we went in search of the illusive wedding dress.  

What an ordeal.

Actually, it's a bit of a story, and since I'm beginning to fade I'll have to catch up on the drama another time...suffice it to say, we found the dress!  Super simple, age appropriate, and French country garden ready...so there you have it...now I can rest for a while!

Hope all is going well in your world...mucho love to my home girls...xoxox juner

PS. so good to see your jamers..I miss you so much...tons of love coming your way...thx for all the support, and helping my find my special dress...smooch!!