Clarisse & EJ's Family

The new family, Alayna, Sarah, Tim and Alyssa. Alayna and Alyssa are Tim's girls from a previous marriage and a very welcome addition to our family too.

Sarah and Ed, her Dad

E.J and Sarah, his baby sister, the bride.

E.J. and Brad, his other brother in law, who happens to be the grooms uncle, yes, you might be a redneck if.... lol!!! Explanation, Brad Oskey is married to Jean, E.J.'s older sister. Sarah, the baby sister met Tim Oskey, the new groom, at a family gathering and they hit it off :) Just keeping it all in the family LOL!!!

Jean is on the right, the empty spot is to represent Pamela, our niece who has been deployed to Irag at the last minute, then it's Casey, Kelsey (Jean's girls) and Alayna. Alyssa was standing on the other side of her father in front of the groomsmen.

Here's a little video I took of the flash flood that came careening down the wash behind our house. It's all very exciting when we get these during our monsoon time of year, and as you can see from the photo's below, Augie just loves it! Nellie will swim, but only because she is chasing Augie, Scooby won't go near it and we worried that Ren would get swept away but he was smart enough to stay to the edge only :) What fun!


and I just liked this shot :)

First Hiss :)

Emcee (actually MC for Middle Cat as she was named by her first homies) joined our family today. She was born on May 12, 2007 in Mohave Valley, AZ. She is decended from a dumped-by-the-pond litter of baby kitties that some very kind folks happened to hear mewing one day and took into their home. Since Tank passed away back in February, 2007, Xena has been kind of lonely and we decided she should have a new buddy to play with. When we leave the house, she meows and meows till she is hoarse. She just doesn't like being left alone, and we just can't stay inside all the time, so the solution is Emcee :)

I sure miss Tank, he was a beautiful true Manx, he didn't even have a nub of a bone where his tail would have been, just a little tuft of hair. He rode back and forth with me when I was commuting between California and Arizona and he was so well behaved, my mother would let him come inside her house when we visited with her too :) He was a pretty trippy kitty and I miss him. We believe he ate some kind of poison. He was kind of lethargic one evening and gone the next morning.

This was Tank when he was about 9 months old. Patricio was a rescued from the street starving little guy. My friend Patricia found him and gave him to me, so he was named after her. He came to the desert with us. He started spending more and more days away from home so I knew we were sharing him with another family. Then one day, he came home snuggled all of us said goodbye and moved out. We still see him from time to time 2 blocks away. He really hated our dogs and I suppose he decided it was time to move on. It's nice to know that he found a good home for himself :)

This is Justin, Becca's new love. They came to vacation with us over the 4th of July this year. They spent a couple of days in Las Vegas while we watched Trinity and Severen. Severen is 5 and is Justin's son.
Although I burned the poor little guy to a crisp letting him swim too much in the pool (yes I used lots of sunscreen, but he has more delicate skin and no one warned me and yes I feel terrible about it). I think they had a good time.
Trinity and I made this Barbie dress on her Barbie tube knitter. She usually is really interested in making things, but this trip she had Severen to play with and we were only able to spend a couple of days so those were all spent out in the pool. Hopefully next summer we will be able to spend more time together so we can make stuff :)

We spent 2 more days down in Laughlin and watched an awesome fireworks display over the river and then the kids suddenly cut their trip short and went home. I yearn for the day that Becca and I can spend some time together without getting all stressed out.

Lake Mohave is the result of the Davis Dam on the Colorado River between Laughlin, NV and Hoover Dam. It's wonderful and boat beaches are everywhere and it's not over crowded at all. We had a very relaxing day here and had I known it was so great, we would have been spending alot more time here. It's only about 45 minutes away too. I wish I had known how great this was when Becca and her family were visiting, I'm sure she would have enjoyed camping out here. The water was perfect too. It's also a good sized reservoir, the pictures don't give you any idea of the size, but it reminds me alot of Melones in Angels Camp. We are definitely going to have to get a party boat soon.

E.J. found a box of old pictures and he came across this one taken in May of 2002 of me (the big girl) and my friend Eileen Real. She worked with me as my Youth Program Aide and we sure made a wonderful team helping at risk teenagers become employable through the Federally funded J.T.P.A. Summer Youth Employment Program of Tuolumne County back in the 1990's. She passed away about a year and a half later from Hepatitis C. I loved her very much and I still miss her very much and this was one of her "good days".

Eileen Real
Oct. 28, 1948 — Aug. 8, 2003
Longtime Sonora resident Eileen Real died suddenly Friday at a Sonora hospital. She was 54.
She was born in Long Island, N.Y. She lived in Sonora for 25 years. She worked as a training supervisor for Mother Lode Job Training for nine years.
Her family said she loved motorcycling, dancing and spending time with her family.
She is survived by her sons Brett Cawley of Oregon, David Rose of Sonora and Michael Rose of Modesto; two sisters, Maryann Grant of Ellensburg, Wash., and Teresa Lawson of St. Louis; and four grandchildren.
Services will be held at a later date. Heuton Memorial Chapel is handling arrangements.

Trinity getting dolled up for her day in the ghost town and the burro's.