Junk Food 911!

Yes this is a junk food emergency. If you have not yet heard, the Hostess company, creators of that insanely popular fat and sugar laden superstar the Twinkie, are indeed going out of business. Even though I wasn't allowed to eat such things very often as I was growing up, I did have my favorites. Those raspberry iced Zingers with coconut...Holy Cow!

Fortunately, I only eat one about every 3 or 4 months. Ha ha ha! I also have a weakness every now and then for Suzy Q's. They remind me of being a kid because on the rare occasion when we got this sort of treat I picked Suzy Q's.

My girls love Snoballs so we went out tonight to FIVE stores before we found any! And we just found these single serve packs. But it's better than nothing!

We found one lone box of Luke's favorite...the Orange Cupcake!

And Clark Kent's favorite were found only because a very sweet cashier thought they had a couple more "in the back."

I must admit it was a fun adventure dashing around town from store to store mostly finding this.

But we completed our mission! Now...if we can just make them last a year or two. Hee hee! Happy hunting out there all you junk food maniacs/adventurers. I hope you find your favorites!! Taniya

Prayers For Violette

I haven't made any time to blog lately because I've been so busy taking care of our precious little dog, Violette. She had a terrible thing happen to her about two weeks ago. She was attacked by a pit bull. It happened at night so I rushed her to the emergency pet hospital that's open all night. The prognosis was grim. She has a broken neck and could be paralyzed. The damage to her spinal cord made it hard for her to get enough oxygen so she had to be in an oxygen chamber. But she had some feeling in her back legs so I was hopeful. After a couple days I decided to bring her home. Pet hospitals get expensive!

She can't move so I turn her over every two or three hours and offer her food and water...even through the night. It's kind of like having a newborn baby. So I'm pretty tired out! But every day I notice a small improvement. Like she has begun moving her legs. All of them! She lifts her head now and moves it around. She has begun licking our hands again. And now I've been taking her out in the yard to get some sun three times a day. She also got her neck bandage off!

The bite wounds are healing,

and she's able to hold herself up on her front paws a few seconds now!

Pretty exciting! The vet could hardly believe it. So next week she starts some physical therapy exercises. So we're hoping and praying that our sweet puppy will be back to running and playing in no time! Please pray for Violette and I will keep you updated. Thanks everyone! Taniya

Sheriff's Dept. Picnic

Every year around this time, our local sheriff's department has a big picnic! With carnival booths, jumpy houses, tug o war competitions, a petting zoo, and demonstrations put on by the various divisions within the department. Like S.W.A.T. for example or the helicopter pilot.

I love helicopters and would love to learn to fly one. Maybe someday! This year they had alpacas at the petting zoo.

They're like llamas but smaller. Look at that cute, fluffiness on it's head!

This is the mounted posse. They search in terrain too difficult for vehicles to access. Pretty cool!

All the food was free for members of the department and they had pulled pork, barbeque chicken, baked beans, and salad greens. Yum! It was a hot day so Kona Ice made a perfect dessert.

Halloween isn't too far away now, so I'll leave you with this skeleton chart to help you learn all those important bones. Ha ha!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend, and thanks for stopping by! Taniya

Too Busy For Breakfast?

First thing this morning we had to get dressed and get out of here for Alani's physical therapy appointment. All I had time for was to drink my lemon water and grab a banana and out the door we went. Then while we were at the doctor's, I remembered I had a fiber bar in my purse!

Breakfast is super important to me because I will feel rotten if I don't eat it, so I'm glad I had a little something with me! But, clearly, this is not enough food to last very long. So a little later I got a second breakfast, which we're famous for in my family. Hahaha!

Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts ( no sugar!), and coffee. Yum! Hopefully I can be home for lunch to eat at my very own table. Hope your morning was a bit less on-the-go than mine and that you had a nice, big, healthy breakfast. Thanks for stopping by! Taniya

Orange County Fair 2012!

This years Orange County Fair was full of fun! Here are some photos of our day. We just HAD to ride the ferris wheel or it would not have been a day at the fair.

Just Clark Kent and I. This was taken waaay up high in the ferris wheel.

The children stayed down below eating a funnel cake. Yum!

Here's the view from up there.

So if you're afraid of heights, you may want to stay away from this one. When it came time for some grub there was the typical county fair food like deep fried twinkies and this kind of stuff.

But I wanted something a bit healthier. So I ended up here.

Because they actually had some lighter-on-the-stomach type fare like this chicken breast with veggies, which is what I ate.

Of course we played carnival games like the shooting gallery, which Luke was very good at.

And basketball. (I think those hoops are bent. Not fair!)

We saw lots of cute animals too! They even had a rabbit judging. This ones name is Cola.

This is the biggest horse I've ever seen!

And I made a new friend.

By the end of this very busy day, Alani needed help walking. So her daddy helped her out.

If you were able to go to the O. C. Fair or some other fair in your neck of the woods, comment and tell me all about it! If you haven't gone to one yet, just be sure you don't eat a lot and then go on a ride like the zipper. NOT a good idea! Keep smiling and I'll see you next time! Taniya

A Big Event And A Birthday!

Our oldest daughter has moved out on her own! She's been talking about this for a while now and been crunching numbers to see if it was possible. She wants to be closer to the university and, I'm sure, wants her own space. Hahaha! So she is now settled into a peaceful, little housing track with three roommates and right down the street from a park. She also has a brand new pepper spray! Ha ha!
Since this is her birthday month, what do you think we got her?

A laundry basket full of "New House" supplies and FOOD! She was in the process of packing up her room (sniff) when we gave her this. That's why the bookshelf is empty, etc. Later we had a little birthday party for her with family and she got even more new house things. This is her cake!

Here she is with my sissy, her funny aunt!

Thankfully, her new house isn't very far away or I would be quite sad. But this way we will get to see her pretty often. As a matter of fact, she's coming over in a few days for her sister's birthday. Oh what fun we'll have!! Until next time then, Taniya              P.S. I love this picture because she is laughing so much from my sister's antics!

My Dad's Birthday!

My dad's birthday is on the Fourth of July. And what better way to celebrate than with a Bang of a party! We swam in the pool (it was a nice, hot day), played pool and played ping pong. We also had cake! Yum!

We didn't put the proper amount of candles on because it would have covered the whole cake. Ha ha ha! (Sorry Dad!) Look at the scrumptious coconut falling off the side.

We laughed and sang and laughed some more and my dad blew out the candles!

We couldn't actually celebrate it on the 4th but here's some fireworks just for you Dad.

A super happy birthday to an extra special dad! And for anyone else out there with an Independence Day birthday, I hope your day was full of love and hugs and fun! Taniya