Just My Rambling

I have been glued to the TV tonight watching the development of Hurricane Gustav. It is expected to hit New Orleans early Monday. According to CNN, 1.9 million people have evacuated the Louisiana coastal towns. I just can’t imagine how the people of New Orleans are feeling now. Most of them have just barely started recovering from Hurricane Katrina and now another hurricane is about to strike, possibly destroying all their rebuilding efforts.
Looking at the out-of-gas signs at the gas stations, empty ATMs, empty aisles at the grocery stores, shuttering up the houses on TV brought back a lot of memories of the time when we were caught in Hurricane Frances & Jeanne in 2004. They were Category 3s and that’s what Gustav is expected to be when it hits land. It was definitely not a good experience and pretty scary. I really hope that Gustav will lose wind before landfall.

Lil’ C loves animals and recently she has been asking for a pet. She wanted a cat or a dog. Unfortunately I don’t think that she is getting her wish fulfilled anytime soon. Seriously I don’t think I can afford to keep a pet. The dog or cat supplies, grooming and even medical care all cost money. I guess Lil’ C will have to wait till she can earn her own money before she gets a pet.

My little girl will be starting elementary school in a couple of years. That is why I have been thinking about moving to another town that has a good school district so that my girl can go to a good school. Unfortunately most of the houses in that town are quite old. If we finally decide to buy an old house there, I will make sure to hire a good house inspector to make sure that there isn’t any form of asbestos in the house especially since exposure to asbestos causes mesothelioma.

Do you think that this beautiful blue background is the sky or water?

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If you answered water, you are right!!! It is the BEAUTIFUL Crater Lake in Central Oregon. We just got back from a week’s vacation in Central Oregon and it was so gorgeous there. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and it is famous for its deep blue color. This lake was formed by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. Crater Lake is also interesting in that it has no inlets or outlets which means it is filled by the rain and melting snow only, thus no pollution. This is my 2nd visit to Crater Lake and I am still awestruck by the calmness and the blueness of the lake and like my 3 year old says, It’s a beauty!

More photos of Crater Lake:

Thanks for visiting my PhotoHunt. Have a great weekend , everyone.

I am typing this on a porch of a gorgeous huge house in the mountain in Oregon. The kids are all asleep peacefully after an exhausting 3 hour walk around this mountain retreat. Ahh… peace…. Well, at least for an hour or two before they wake up!
It is so nice here to be out in the nature after a long drive here yesterday. Yesterday, we arrived in 4 cars with 9 adults, 4 kids and 2 babies. All of us had our car packed to the brim!!. It’s amazing how much stuff you have to bring when you have a child. Next time, I think we will have to get a truck rental to fit everything we need.
We’ll be going to Crater Lake tomorrow. I am so looking forward to that. Hopefully the weather will be nice so that I can take some nice photos of Crater Lake.

I’ll be going off to Oregon in a couple of hours. This will be the last vacation for the summer before school starts again in 2 weeks. We rented a house with some old college friends. I can’t believe it’s been almost 20 years when I first met them. I am really feeling old!!!   (Aww.. my little girl just read the last sentence and said Mommy you’re not old, you’re young!! Thanks babe!! U made my day! There’s supposed to be internet access at the rental place so hopefully I will be able to get online.

This cute little wrinkled-face puppy went on her first camping trip with us!

 Thanks for visiting my PhotoHunt. Have a great weekend , everyone.

Lil’ C finally got over her fear of getting her head in the water during swimming class yesterday!! It’s a big breakthrough from the first day of class last month when she didn’t even dare to put her face in the water. She even went under water to pick up a ring! Once she discovered how fun it was to go underwater, she couldn’t get enough of it. She kept dunking her head even while the instructor was talking. Hehe…. I think pretty soon she will be able to swim on her own already.

Have you been watching the Olympics? Well, I have spending my nights glued to the television. My favorite events are swimming and gymnastics. What are yours? Now that everyone is having the Olympic fever, it is a good time to give your friends the Olympic Visa Gift Card from GiftCardLab. I am sure that your friends will appreciate them especially the Michael Phelps Gift Card. I would not mind getting some for myself as a souvenir.

Last week, we had a super hot week. It was in the 90s the whole week and since we have no air-conditioning in our house, we spend a lot of time at the mall. Most of the houses here do not have central air-conditioning because usually we don’t need it. We only hit 90s probably one or 2 weeks every year. Some people buy portable a/c but so far, I haven’t succumb to the temptation yet since I know that I won’t use it much.

True enough, the heat didn’t last very long. The temperature has plunged down to the low 60s and even 50s this week! I really feel that the weather here is just like a yo-yo. You’ll never know what the weather’s going to be like tomorrow. I hope it will be good next week because we are off to Oregon for a vacation!!