From One Spring Break to Another...

I had all these fun visitors last week and got to spend a couple days in San Diego. Then I came home, turned around and went to Palm Springs for the weekend! I don't know how I got so lucky!

My cousin's family came into town on Saturday and stayed with us for 2 nights. It was good seeing them again. The kids take a little while to warm up to me, but once they do - it's so much fun. I love spending time with them and having little chats. And when they actually WANT to hold your hand, it is to die for! We played some games and took them to Travel Town and spent quality time relaxing together. They headed to San Diego on Monday afternoon and I met up with them there. We spent all day Wednesday at Pacific Beach. It was a GORGEOUS day. Nice ocean breeze and plenty of sunshine. The beach house they rented was so awesome too! It had a nice picnic area, fire place, hot tub, pool and I even got my own room. I'm thinking I should look into renting something like that and staying for at least a week!

I'm really glad they decided to make the trip and allow me to crash on the family fun! They talked about doing a trip like this once a year, and I sure hope they do!!

The next mini vacation was to celebrate our good friend's 30th birthday! He and his wife rented a townhouse on a really pretty golf resort in Palm Springs. It was sooo nice with palm trees everywhere and an awesome pool area - it felt like we were much farther than 2 hours from home. Just so peaceful and relaxing. We rode the Aerial Tram up to the (much colder) top of a mountain and that was spectacular. We spent some time at the pool. We ate a fantastic dinner at Roy's. We gambled at the nearby Indian casino. And that was just in half a day! We basically had a big slumber party that night and headed out the next morning. We got to eat and gamble some more, but the weekend just flew by. It was too much fun. I sometimes wish these fun-mini-spring-break-vacation-weekends didn't have to end...

Woo!

So I have officially launched my new website and blog!

www.photographybyjaana.com
www.photographybjaana.blogspot.com

The website is still in the works - you know, I have to get it JUST RIGHT and its not quite there yet! But it's a start and I just couldn't wait to get it up and running. Please check it out when you have time. There will be more pictures added as the days go on. But choosing and editing 7 years of photos has not been easy! (Is it possible to get carpel tunnel in your back?)

Anyway, this last week has been really good. I went to Utah to check on the nephew - cute as ever! There was a miscommunication with the surgery date, so I missed that all together, but seems as though everything went well. I got to spend some time with my sister and a couple of my bestest girl friends. Some much needed gal time. Now I just need to convince them that they DESERVE a vacation to California! The invitation still stands!

I came back home with a couple visitors - my mom and brother stayed with us for a few days. We had fun hanging out, shopping and eating (as usual). Its always nice to see them and spend some family time together. I can't think of any other reason I would allow myself to gain 5 pounds in one week - I must have REALLY enjoyed their visit!

When they left, we got another visitor in hubby's Godson. We had a fun day at Venice Beach and driving around Hollywood. Venice is like another world! I guess I've never really experienced the Muscle Beach area. Saw some really great, really weird things. I'm sure it was a bit shocking for him, coming from this little town in Wisconsin. Heck, it was shocking to me and I've lived around here forever!

Tomorrow, we get our last set of visitors (for this week!) and I'm so excited to see them. My cousin and her adorable family will stay with us for a couple days. I definitely want to show them a good time. They wonder how I can live here with all the horrible traffic, so I have to give a lot of reasons that make up for that major downfall of L.A. Should be fun!!

News

It has been a busy couple weeks! I have had doctor's appointments, a couple new jobs for HomeView, my photography classes, working on my new website (!) and a major computer crash.

Starting with doctor's appointments: Hubs and I both went through some fertility testing and we are GOOD. Absolutely nothing wrong. Clean bill of health. Phew. Doc says to keep trying for a few more months and then we will move on to the next phase of treatment.

HomeView jobs are going well. Even though some clients have slowed down, others are going steady and keeping us on our toes!

My photography classes are still great. Only one more week of B&W Photography so I'm sad about that, but two more weeks of Photoshop. I won't lie, I'll be slightly relieved when that one's over. I still have a couple months left in Color Photography and I'm glad. The class just flies by each week! The more learning time I have, the better.

The new website. Aaaah, the new website. I am so excited about it. I will probably have to give up one of my THREE blogs (haha) to keep up with this new site, but I'm ok with that. It has been a fun project to work on and so far, I am proud of it. I will be launching it soon. Hopefully within the next two weeks!

The major computer crash was potentially a major disaster, but since I have a computer genius for a husband, we didn't lose anything! All of our documents, files & pictures are safe and sound. Thank goodness! It was more of an inconvenience to have to reinstall everything, but he is so awesome at all that stuff, he basically fixed it in one evening. Go honey!

Next - I am leaving for Utah tomorrow morning, as my nephew is going into surgery. I want to be there for him and my sister to make sure everyone is OK. He has to have a hernia or something else (I can't remember what its called) removed. So nothing that can't be fixed, but its always a little nerve-racking. I will get to see a couple of my girlfriends while I'm there too!

The following week we will have some visitors! My mom and brother will come here for a few days. My husband's Godson will spend a night here. And my bestest cousin from Utah will be coming with her family and staying a couple nights. I AM SO EXCITED!

So there ya go. Stay tuned for some fun stuff!!

P.S. Boo on Daylight Savings Time. I like the longer days, but this time around has kicked my butt for some reason!

Clutter Bug

Stayed pretty busy this weekend with fun things. It was a nice break from what I'd been doing the rest of the week. I swear, I watch one episode of Oprah and it takes over my whole life. She did a show on de-cluttering your house and that's all I've been doing for a week straight! But it sure feels good, especially since we are in a smaller space. Our closets always seem to be bursting at the seams. I still have a couple more things to go through, but so far I'm getting rid of 10 bags worth of stuff! It feels like its a little easier to breathe now.

On Friday night, we went out to dinner at CPK with the gang and then bowling. It has been awhile and I barely broke 100, but it was a lot of fun. On Saturday, the girls got together for shopping at the outlets. That's always a treat, since we don't have girl time very often. And yeah, shopping. Good. That night we had some sushi and the guys played poker while I watched Wall-E. On Sunday evening I went with hubs to CA Adventure. Had to use up that free pass! It was a good date night. The weather was nice and we ate some yummy food and ice cream and went on like 2 or 3 rides. He's so fun to hang out with.

Now on to a new week (not to mention a new month?!). Nothing major going on, but I do need to go get some supplies for my class tonight. The de-cluttering tour will also be continued (and hopefully wrapped up!)