Gabi - Homecoming Dance

She's a good sport and let's me photograph all her special moments.

She looks adorable.

needed a silly pose, too

Gabi & me

Kalon, Gabi's nephew was around while we were taking photos, he's way cute!

Kalon Hall

New dog video

Maximus (yellow lab) & Bella girl (chocolate lab) love retrieving the ball, especially in the pool!

Facebook

I'm finally on Facebook.  So far about all I figured out is how to add friends, chat with a few people, and add a profile picture.  Then there's my wall, news, messages, more friends to add, etc.  What a great social network.  I'm gonna enjoy connecting with family & friends.

jobi tinajera arens

Grand Canyon trip

First day............
My job was crowd control.  Keep the tourist out of the area mainly for safety issues.  It was fun, even though one of the climbers felt the need to coach me on what to do when the crowds started to show up.  I'm like..it's cool I can handle this...but he insisted.  (annoying).  Just to let you know no one (okay, one lady and one man did cross the tape) caused me problems.  It was fun meeting people from all over the world.  Bus loads of people!   Everyone was very nice and amazed with the Canyon.

see the yellow caution tape?

the climbers getting set up, this took longer than I thought,
 but safety is huge

Kerry getting ready to repel down

another climber repelling

Liz keeping Kerry safe

I'm the official crowd control person taking a break

Liz & Kerry 

Bad weather, we had to stop earlier than we thought

Me at the the shuttle bus stop
 (I thing my friends Joni & Mary had something
to do with designing this area)

Laura and me 

According to Kerry, she's the master of smore's.
(I agree)

Grand Canyon trip

Second day....
We came around the corner and could see Kerry and Liz along the canyon wall.  Once we got closer I was able to get better photos of them.  They are amazingly strong to cling to the walls.  Overall, a great trip and being at the Grand Canyon is always the best.

I found a nice safe place to sit and watch

Liz, she looks like a spider on the wall

Kerry repelling down

Care packages

I sent a care package to Christine and Natalie in Boston.  I had so much fun putting it together.  I also sent them my Flip video camera along with a set of finger puppets and animal hand stickers.  They're supposed to make me a video of a puppet show. On the Flip we video taped our (me, her mom and sister) last trip to Walmart since Christine mentioned she missed our trips to Walmart.  I didn't get a chance to see the videos but I'm sure they were hillarious.   I also sent some munchies and a cool scarf for both of them.   I painted the box and I should of taken a photo of it, cuz it was fun.  I'll have Christine take one and I'll post it next week.  

Grand Canyon

Heading to the Grand Canyon for a weekend camping trip.  The canyon is one of my most favorite places to be.  It's energy and views are extraordinary.  If you've been there you know what I mean.  If you've never been there you must go.  Check in next week and I promise to have more updates on what I've been doing.
Have a good weekend!

Remembering 9/11

God Bless Our America

Boston, Massachusetts

Arrived in Boston got into the rental car and boy driving in Boston was an experience!  The person I was following, Melvin, was driving as though he didn't have someone following him and had no clue where I was going.  My first turn onto the parkway had drivers honking at me.  What I learned about driving in Boston...everyone runs yellow traffic lights and absolutely no one stops at red lights! People drive out in front of anyone going any direction, rights, lefts, on to street from side streets, and pedestrians do not use crosswalks or pay attention to walk signals!!!

Second day in Boston we took the train/subway the "T"

       

We in Malden taking the "orange line" to downtown to the "red line"

We got off the T 

Me with Christine waiting for the shuttle to UMass

Christine with her mom, if you look at the windows you see the harbor

We walked around UMass & the bookstore to get Christine's books!

 The were as expensive as they were heavy!

Back on the T 

Fenway exit

The Red Sox had a home game against the Yankees. 

Would of loved to go but tickets outrageous.

Looked at #34 jersey, darn not in my size. 

(Did get at Danny Woodhead Patriot jersey!)

After a few days in Boston we headed to the beach. 

Me with Auntie Phyllis

This is Auntie's cottage.  Very nice.

Most family and friends headed to the beach.  I spent one day at the beach and that was enough sunshine and sand for me.  I found I like the beach and ocean but it's not my thing to sit for hours in the sun.  

I prefer to walk and explore, which I did each morning.

Beach in Marshfield, Mass

One of my days at the beach I drove around and checked out cute shops and the sites.

Ugotta Havit

I stopped at a way cool cemetery.  It was very old and nothing like you would see in Arizona.  It was beautiful and peaceful.

These items were sitting on a bench near a tombstone

Goodbye to the beach

Goodbye to Malden

My trip to Boston was about Christine.  She decided to participate in student exchange program from her university, NAU to UMass/Boston.  She was excited about the move, but she's had a tough week missing home, family and friends.  She's an awesome young lady and will get her bearings here soon.

Today

Heading to Tucson today to check out some rustic mexican hardware for a piece of recycled furniture.  Then to a new art supply store in Tempe and finally to Costco to find new beds for the dogs.  I'm loving this freedom!  I'm having this overwhelming need to get into my craft studio, but other things first, because once I go in there I will not be leaving!!!

2000 hits

I began my blog in 2007.  This past weekend I was Yahoo IM chatting with my sister, Melinda and I asked her if she's checked out my blog lately.  I was apologizing for not posting much these days.  We checked it out and I noticed I had my 2000th (view)  hit!  Now I know there's blogs out there that have millions of hits and millions of posts.  I'm not one of them.  But I am so pleased to know there are some gracious souls out there who stop by my blog.   Thank you and I mean THANK  YOU.
I've been brainstorming ideas and thoughts to improve my blog and one thing I plan to do is more photos and videos.  I may do some videos on some of the fun stuff I make, bake, cook, break, see, experience, read, or a good music video to get you smiling.
Thank you, again,
Jobi

Bella

Remember Bray, the chocolate lab we sat for???  Well she's part of our family.  Her owner sadly needed to find her another home.  She asked us if we would like to have her. We couldn't say no even though three labs are a lot of dogs.  We needed a new name for her and "Steve" was my choice but not too popular with anyone else.  We finally agreed on "Bella".  I'll post new photos of her once I can get her to sit still.  She's a great companion to her brother Maximus.  Don't know if I mentioned Bella and Maximus are from the same liter.  Bella was the smallest and Maximus was the largest of the bunch.  Winston couldn't be happier, too.

Trip down memory lane

On a recent trip home I made a stop at Miss Betty Jean Brown's.  She's my longest known friend, our friendship began in kindergarten at Roosevelt grade school!  I have ton of memories of our school days.  As usual, she has a huge smile and our visits are always full of laughter.  On this trip I got to see her oldest daughter Misty.  I will always make time for Miss Betty Jean.  Here's to us!  

It's July, It's Arizona, It's hot

I just can't seem to get to posting on my blog.  I'm busy but I do still find time to read a few other people's blog, but not mine.
I finished up with Kerry's wedding stuff and attended her wedding.  It was a busy time.  Her wedding and reception turned out beautifully.  Lots of nice comments about every  detail.  Menus, favors, guess book, guess table, picture stroll in the green area, cake tables, food, etc.  I meet up with her this week and can't wait to tell her what everyone said. She looked lovely.
Here's some great news, I submitted my retirement letter!!!!  25 years and a great career.  A year ago, I wrote about beginning my 25th year and my plan to find joy each day.  I did!  I focused on what I enjoyed about my job and career.  I will miss working with the clients, but otherwise I'm ready to begin a whole new path.  So watch out..... creativity knows no boundaries.

Kerry's Wedding Invitations

I thought I would share the steps in making Kerry's wedding invites.  Overall, a  long process and amazing how the final product had everything Kerry envisioned, even though I doubted her.  We were a great team and the end result came out better than either one of us thought.

Remember my old Canon printer, this is when we started on Kerry's invitation. This was the border, we struggled to get the edges printed perfect.

This is the paper, it was a very nice ivory pearl.  My new Canon printer worked lovely.  We started with 12x12 sheets and scored, cut and folded to get the final size.  This was after we printed the design on the edges and cut a decorative edge.  We added panels on the inside flaps.  We also designed, cut, scored, folded and taped the pockets.  Actually, Kerry's fiance, Trent scored and folded the pockets.  He did an amazing job.

This is Kerry working on the wording, but got hooked on FONTS, cuz I have a million different ones.  I warned her about font addiction.  Kerry was involved in every step and worked hard.

This is the final invite.  It came out beautiful.

Finished the front with a very nice ribbon and wax seal.

Done and ready to mail!