Happy 4th Of July

Here are some photos of family and friends on the 4th of July!

A Time To Cry....

So in the last month death has been heavy on my mind. Our church community lost a wonderful man on father's day weekend. I cried all day Friday....for him, his family, his wife, his friends, and our whole community. Walt has been fighting cancer for the last 10 years and no one did it better than him. I planned the reception after the funeral so I didn't get to go as my husband and I were busy setting up for the 400 people that attended his funeral. I am saddened that I didn't get to go to the funeral but at the same time I went to the vigil the night before and that was hard for me. The hard part wasn't that I lost Walt cause I knew him and loved him and his wife but there were many more who would feel the loss more fully. The hard part for me was watching the grandkids. I was raised by my single mother with help from her parents. I was close to my mother and my grandmother but I was closest to my grandfather. He died the day after my 22nd birthday. For those of you who know me you know what a difficult time for me that was. I was 22 and I was without the man who raised me. The person that I depended on most in my life. He had seen me through so much but yet I still needed him to see me through more. I looked at Walt's grandkids and non of them were older the 10 and all I could think of is that they would miss out on one of the best relationships in the world. Now I know that my relationship with my grandpa was different than most but I also know that Walt was one of the best. Losing Walt was hardest for me because I went through some of the grief of losing my Grandpa again. I miss him so much that even after all these years....7 to be exact...I still think of him everyday. I still pick-up the phone to call him anytime I am big. I keep his picture in my wallet and my office and tell everyone that see them what a wonderful man he was. I cry for him a lot. I sometimes feel lost and abandoned when things are going wrong cause I can't talk to him or have him hug me. Recently I lost a pregnancy and all I wanted to do was go to his house and hide from the world while he took care of me. I wanted him to tell me it would be alright. But he is gone and I won't hear his voice to calm me or give me advice. Losing a parent is hard. I always thought I was lucky...I had my Mother and my grandparents. That was like having three parents and the three of them are the reason I am the person I am today...both the good and the bad. The downside to having three parents (two of which are your grandparents) is that it is a loss that you feel sooner than most and 3 times. I lost my grandmother at the age of 18. I was prepared as we knew she was sick but it hurt and I felt a pain that was heartbreaking and only helped by my mother and grandpa. When he was gone it was sudden and I literally felt like my world was caving in and I didn't know what to do. I wanted my grandma and grandpa but they had left me. My mother and I are closer than most. My fear is that once she is gone I will have a hole inside of me that will never heal. I pray that day never comes.

I hope that all the people in my life know how much I love them and I fear that they don't. But I just keep trying to show them. My grandparents showed me everyday how much they loved me and they keep showing me. When my son wants to cuddle or gives me a big hug for reason I know that they love inside of him was put there because my grandparents William and June loved their family and the love continues on long after they do.

I LOVE YOU GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!

A Sad Loss

As I was checking in on the blogs I try to keep up to date with I found that JellyJules had lost her mother. She often blogs about her family and I enjoy to read all about it. So I was sadden to hear about her mother. Please take a moment to offer up a thought or prayer t who ever or whatever you believe in for Jules's Mother and all those who loved her.

"A Mother holds her children's hands for a while...their hearts forever"

Once upoon at time....

I had a lot of time to write in my blog, but times have changed and I feel like I am neglecting my blog. Sadly I don't have much time to type today. So I will post a picture and hope that you stick with me till I get through this busy time. I will leave you with this....

OMG OMG!!!!

This week has been an OMG week. Lots of good and bad things happening in the parameters of my life. But just now I opened up an old friends blog and OMG...she is preggers. From what I can gather they weren't trying and the doctors said not a good idea...but I think we all know that GOD is the one in charge and he does what he thinks is right. SO...CONGRATS DESERT ZEN!!!! I love you all the way from Cali! We are fostering e itty bitty kittens (OMG...do I even like cats...don't know???) but I have room in my heart and our family to love these little ones and I don't think that GOD's creatures should be killed cause they are too young to be adopted. Now for the sad...OMG I just found out that one of my former bosses (one I actually liked) was told he has 7 months to live. He is still young and has young children. He is a great man and has been so amazing with his kids who have disabilites. GOD I pray you hold him and all those who love him in your loving embrace and let them know your healing love. AMEN!!! OMG...our puppy got bitten by a rattlesnake. For those of you who know we had a wonderful puppy that we got over a year and a half ago and last July he was bitten by a rattlesnake, subsequently he died (about 2 months later). We then (for my son's birthday) buy him another puppy, Tobi, and she is wonderful and our WHOLE family loves her. She was bitten in May by a rattlesnake...but this time GOD knew that my son probably won't be as strong losing his second puppy so he got her through the ordeal and she is perfectly healthy with no side effects. OMG did we celebrate Ry and Shar's graduation all night until 4 in the MORNING??? Yes we did and we had a blast doing it. Though I have realized I am not 21 one any more. AND the BIGGEST OMG of them all I AM GOING TO BE 29 in a week!!! This will be my last birthday in my twenties. AND the weird thing is I think this is going to effect me more then my 30th birthday. But 29 is the new...I don't actually know what 29 is. They said on Oprah that 50 is the new 25....so does that mean that 29 is the new 4?!?!?!? I can't be 4!!!! My son is 4?!?!?! Well I hope everyone has a good weekend. I have finished my first book on my Herding Cats Challenge. It was a really good book but it struck a strong chord with me so I am not quite ready to review it. I hope to start writing the review this weekend. But I would defiantly recommend Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Take care of those you love!!!!

Herding Cats…My First Challenge

So today I start a new adventure in blogging, Challenges. I have become a regular reader of Thinking About… written by Jules. I stumbled upon her blog when doing a google search for the restaurant my husband works at (she had written about it in her blog). So I have been reading her blog and I noticed that she participates in quite a few challenges, so when she wrote about this one, it looked interesting so I decided to join my first challenge.

342,745 Ways to Herd Cats

1. List 10 books you have read and love or at least really really like.

2. Pick 3 books you haven’t read before from the ‘favorite books lists’ of other challenge participants. They have put together a great master list, making it much easier.

3. Read those 3 books, and review them on your blog. The time frame is May - November 2008.

4. Of course, link to the main challenge blog.

So here is my list of 10:

1) Yellow Raft in Blue Water- By Michael A Dorris- This book is an amazing book about the relationship between Mothers, Daughters and Granddaughters.
2) A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier- By Ishmael Beah- I read this book in one night because it was a Christmas gift for someone else and I had to wrap it. I would stay up all night again to read this!
3) Mists of Avalon- By Marion Zimmer Bradley- I was introduces to this wonderful book by my Women’s Lit teacher in college. I have read it again since then.
4) Night- By Eli Wiesel- I read this book for the first time in high school and have read it many times since. I cry every time.
5) Nectar in a Sieve- By Kamala Markandaya- I was assigned this book in a Humaniites course in college but dropped the class. So years later when I was moving I found the book and read it then. I wish I had read it sooner.
6) The Great Gatsby- By F. Scott Fitzgerald- This classic is a permanent fixture on my bookshelf. I have read it so many times it is scribbled all over and worn out. But I still love it.
7) The Wedding- By Nicholas Sparks- This book is the sequel to the bestseller The Notebook. I liked both books but I liked this one better. I loved this story and am glad that I took the time to read it.
8) At First Sight- By Nicholas Sparks- I have two Nicholas Sparks books on my list and I probably could have put more but I wanted to but a variety of different authors. This book is probably my second favorite book of his. It has a sequel, which I was less crazy about but this book shines alone also.
9) Dr. Dave- By- Clark S. Sturges- This book is about the Founder of the Haight- Ashbury Free Clinic in San Francisco. It is an great read and not one that a lot of people know about. This interesting story gives you a glimpse of an amazing city during a crazy time.
10) A Lesson Before Dying- By Earnest Gaines- I just read this book recently and really liked it because of the emotions it evoked. I think every student should read this book so we never forget what type of terrible injustice Americans are capable of.

And the Three Books I am reading:

1) Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik- The title of this book is what first grabbed me. Then as I was looking for another book I was reading a blog and they mentioned this book. So I looked it up and ordered it. It looks to be a good BART read. It came from Athena's list.

2)Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See- This book was recommended to me about a year ago and I never go around to reading it. I am looking forward to this read. This book came from 1 more chapter's list.

3) Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani- This book was recommended to me years ago and I remembered that my friend had told me about this series of books she absolutely loved but I could not for the life of me remember the name of the books. Then when I saw the title on the list I KNEW it was the book she had told me about. So I am looking forward to reading the book that has eluded me until now. This book was on Page After Page's list.

I will review the books as I read them and keep updating on my progress. I hope to finish more than three books from the list but only time will tell.

It is all in the name

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet"

So today I have turned over a new rock. I have changed the name of my blog. So let me explain how this all came about. When we got our first home computer way back in the stone age I signed up with Yahoo and I needed to come up with a user name for my new e-mail. Purple was my favorite color and I LOVED angels. So I tried PurpleAngel, but since I was not one of the pioneer users of the World Wide Web it was not available (Surprise). So I decided to go with PurplAngel. So it has followed me ever since...from my best memory it would be around 12 years. PurplAngel has been my online identity for a LONG time. I can't count the number of times that I have said "PurplAngel that is Purple Angel without the E in Purple" when giving out my e-mail address. So today when pondering my "online life" I decided that I really like blogging and I want my blog to have the same name that I have uses. I want people to know that it is me. So today this blog is being reborn. A new look and a new name...and hopefully there will be more content. I love to read and in going back and looking I have noticed that I have not talked about and of the books that I have read. So keep checking back...and let me know what you think.

And the Beat Goes On…

Okay, so my grandfather use to say “Don’t put the cart before the horse” and I use to think that it was funny when he would say it. I use to laugh because WHO would put the cart before the horse? I mean only an idiot would do something like that…right???

Well today I my friends have officially put the cart before the horse. I always right my blog posts first. Then, after reading them I try to come up with a clever and appropriate title. It was always the logical way for me to do it. I mean sometimes I would sit down at the computer and not even know what I was going to write about. Like so far for today’s post I would title it something like “Cart Before the Horse” or “Don’t put Your Cart First”. But I didn’t title it that I titled it “And the Beat Goes On…” and you may be asking why I would have done that and I will tell you I DON’T KNOW. I just really wanted to call it “And the Beat Goes On…” So now I need to figure out what to write about that goes with that title. Oh god the pressure!!!

Today is Monday and I feel like I was in Malibu about 2 months ago. My daily life and the things that come with it have effectively removed the relaxed feeling that I had when came back from my trip. A week ago today, as a matter of fact at almost exactly this time, I was getting in my rental car and driving from the Burbank Airport to Malibu. I feel like everything is going a little bit faster then it was when I left. Summer seemed so far away before my trip and now it is rapidly approaching (proof was in the temperature this weekend). My birthday is coming and with that my sisters will come (she is turning 21 this year). My Vegas trip will be at the end of July and as much as I want to go on it I don’t want it to fly by. So as my title states (which I picked before I decided to write about this), “And the Beat Goes On…Getting Quicker Everyday”

Have a Beautiful Day!!!

7 Years!!!!

Today is my husband and I's 7th Wedding Anniversary. 7 years ago today in a backyard in Clayton, CA we were married. There were only 12 people there and the ceremony only lasted 15 minutes but was a wonderful day. About a year and a half later we were married in the church in front of 150 people. I have to be honest I think I may have liked the first wedding better. Either way I have been married for 7 years. I wont lie and say they have all been perfect. Anyone who has been married knows there are ups and downs, but I know that he loves me and I love him. We have a wonderful son who we love and I can't imagine being raising him with anyone else. Happy Anniversary Baby...I love you and thank you for all that you have been to me!

Our Family Trip....

This picture was taken when we went to Disneyland in January. We had just arrived and went right into the park. My mother and husband and went to the restaurant to get us a table and my Son and I took this great picture and it turned out to be the best picture of the trip. Sadly this trip ended when I became sick but at this point all was well.This is a great picture of my husband and son. They both love race cars and were so excited to take this picture with McQueen.
This is a great picture of our WHOLE family. Don't we look happy! I love this picture and have gotten so many compliment on it.