Happy Angelversary My Snowflake

It's been a year.

52 weeks.

365 days.

8,765 hours.

525,600 minutes.

31,556,926 seconds.

..A Long Time..

A long time of firsts.

Such unknown territory yet a path walked many times before.

Situations never the same-always uncharted.

How is it possible that a year has passed by?

A year of flashbacks, a year of fear, a year of tears a year of screaming into the wind.

A flood of memories slipping slowly through my fingers leaving me clinging to Hope.

I only wish I could smell your sweet baby scent once more.

I miss you more than you know sweet boy.

I know the stars are shining brightly tonight.

I love you snowflake.

A Miracle If There Ever Was One

-Jaycee Lee Dugard-

Pulled into a car and abducted in 1991 while walking to the bus stop 18 years ago, Jaycee Lee has now reappeard alive.

It's because of Jaycee that I learned self defense in middle school.

All of my friends and the entire town (South Tahoe, CA) are now elated and feeling incredibly thankful.

I have mixed feelings on the subject. I'm incredibly thankful that she's been found but I'm a bit disturbed that as the kidnapper was a registered sex offender and that she was hidden in the backyard for the past 18 years yet no one knew.

It's said that the man (kidnapper) was passing out pamphlets on the UC Berkeley campus (where my sister attends) on Tuesday with 2 girls, 11 and 15. The campus police officer thought he was acting suspicious and looked up his profile and found out he'd previously been in prison (even for a while during the time he had Jaycee) so the officer called his parole officer. His parole officer called him in the next day.

So here's what confuses me..

He showed up at the parole office with the 2 girls(who were his and born to Jaycee-which means Jaycee had to be around 15 at the time of the first child's birth), his wife and Jaycee (introduced under the cover name of Alissa who is now 29 years old).

Why would he suddenly decide to bring her out of hiding for the first time in 18 years..especially since it was to his parole officer who wasn't aware of the existence of Jaycee or the two girls (all of whom who didn't ever attend school or go to the doctor).

Also, what about the woman who the man(kidnapper) rented a piece of land for his buisness from? In the interview with her, she said she knew he had the two younger kids but he'd said he homeschooled them and went to church in their basement making their family alone a congregation that he led.

Didn't anything he said sound strange to her?

Third, the neighbors. They knew strange things were going on and one woman even said she encountered the youngest girl (who had "blond hair, blue eyes and really pale skin with frekkels" while the seen "mother" was not caucasion at all) who told her she had two older sisters, one was 28 who both lived with her (yet hadn't been seen).

If they knew he was a registered sex offender and knew he'd been in prison for 11 years for raping a woman and they thought there was something weird going on, why did no one report anything?

Finally, I keep hearing how glad people in Tahoe are glad she's happy and healthy. Even if she's smiling, there's going to be some incredible psychological (if not physical as well) damage for both her and her two kids. I mean she's been kidnapped, raped (at least 2 obvious times), and stuffed away in sheds for 18 years.

I don't know, while this case proves that you should never give up hope and I'm incredibly glad that Jaycee has finally been reunited with her family..the case is just incredibly unsettling to me.

Welcome Home Jaycee.

Wordless Wednesday -#15

My Bedroom Makeover!

Well it's taken me much longer than expected but I'm finally done with my room! I still have a couple tiny adjustments to make by I'm unpacked and my room looks like mine now! You ready to see it?

Here's what it looked like when I first walked into it back in October.

And NOW....

Don't you just love the little flip-flop lights from Eva?

The picture of the mask and the daisy is one of the pieces I did in the darkroom last summer.

I LOVE these little "paper" cranes!

This incredible little pillow was made just for me by the INCREDIBLE and talented Tanielle! I've been wanting to post about so I figured I'd show where it's taken up permanent residence =].

Whadda ya think?

Halfway Through My First Week of School (and my fishy's sick)

Two first days down, one to go! I've had my Mon./Wed. English class, my Tues./Thurs. Acting/Playwriting class and my Tues. History class. The last "first day class" I have is tomorrow and it's a Child Development class.

Tonight I came home to one of my betta fish lying on it's side at the top of the tank with its belly swollen. After a quick bowl change, I looked online. It could be one of two things, Dropsy of Swim Bladder Disorder. My fish doesn't have all the symptoms of Dropsy like it does of the latter which I'm thankful for. I'm hoping it's the Swim Bladder as that's just really constipation and requires 48 hours of fasting followed by a bite of a cooked, peeled green pea. (Don't ask me!) While Dropsy is fatal disease where the fish dies in a week or two.

I'm hoping my poor little fishy will be back to normal in a couple days!

More to update on later but I've got a way to early English class in the morning (as it is, the most sleep I could get tonight would be 7 hours) so I'm off to bed! Night!!

First Day of School

My 18th "First Day of School" tomorrow..hehe...Oh boy. =]

Wordless Wednesday -#14

One of the things I think is the most beautiful of where I live is when the lines of the vineyards dance and twirl over surrounding hills.

An Urgent Medical Update...It's back...

Warning: TMI.

I found out yesterday that I do in fact have a staph infection. Unfortunately since the culture was done at the doctor's on Friday, it's gotten much much worse and is progressing rapidly. I'm up to 8 or 9 sores on my body including the newest one which is in-between my toenail and the toe on my baby toe. Can you say Ouch!? I then have about the same amount of new ones that are coming in.

I had a Staph infection the finally went away at the end of 2007 but that was after lasting 13 months.

I'm not sure what's going to happen but I'm supposed to be starting school a week from tomorrow.

Tomorrow I head to Sacramento to see my TMJ doctor and he may end up injecting my forehead with Lidocane in hopes of helping my still-ongoing headache.

Then on Tuesday I find out what I'm doing about the infection which may land me in the hospital.

My computer's been overheating quickly for months and is finally going into the Mac Doctor at the Mac Store tomorrow so I'll borrowing my mom's computer for a few days. I'm excited to get it fixed even if it does mean feeling lonely for a few days (haha!).

I'll be sure to update as soon as I know anything or there are any new developments.

6 days left of summer..and I'm planning to make the most of them!! (Starting with buying my books tomorrow...)

Night!!

Headshots

I had the privilege of shooting some headshots for my gorgeous sister yesterday. We headed out to the local park and I think we came out with some great shots.

(These are only a couple of the close to 200 shots we got!)

What do you think?

The Happiest Place on Earth 2009

As promised, here are the pictures from our summer Disneyland trip!

We went back and forth to both California Adventure and Disneyland throughout the 3 days we were there. The theme of this summer was celebrations. We saw the Pixar Water Parade, the Electrical Parade and the Celebrations Parade, learned how to draw Dopey and Grumpy at the Animations Studio, watched Fantasmic, saw Mary Poppins perform spontaneously in front of the castle, fed all the adorable little ducklings in the lakes, been showered with Mickey shaped confetti, rode many rides and even enjoyed each other's company (haha!).

Now...Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth!

I had a wonderful time yet I'm exhausted and happy to be home again.