October 2014, Month in Pics

Haven't posted a damn thing on this blog, but not because I've been sitting on my a$$!

So many things happened this month.

Our vacation to Punta Cana.... of course I took A LOT of pics.

Pumpkin Patching and Vampire Children....

 

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween.  This was the year of the SPIDER!

And oh yes, how could I forget, my other babies; my nails, which finally grew too long for me.  




And Tater spent the month building fat reserves for the winter, building Legos and custom kitchen cabinets, and celebrating the Giants World Series win!  Go Giants!

Good bye October!

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

Sept 2014, Month in Pics

September is always a special month for me because it's my birthday month!  Now, it's become even more special because it has officially become my family's "crazy birthday" month, where me, my husband, my cousin, and now my little niece's birthdays are all celebrated.  So there was a lot of birthday time this month!



 To prep for their cousin's very first birthday, I put the Ruffians to work.  It paid off with a fabulous, new growth chart!  And speckled, gray wood stain on my deck, but what can you do?!!!!




And apparently I was very hungry this month (even though I should have been stuffed with all those cakes!)

And the nutrients from all that cake food helped me grow out my nails, which in my opinion is the best birthday gift ever!



And then there were our day-to-day shenanigans, if you will:




And I guess although I love September so much, some of us feel that October 31st can't come any sooner!

And that was September 2014 in an Instagram nutshell!

Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

July 2014 Month in Pics

It was a really relaxed month of July.  We celebrated the 4th having a Peruvian style Luau called Pachamanca. The boys had a lot of good experiences at pool parties.  I got recognized at work with a nice amount of rewards points that I used to buy a new big-girl camera.  My natural nails' length have really taken off after a month of taking Biotin and Calcium <--- which I'm calling my new "nail crack".  And finally, of course, boys will be boys!

I hope you had a nice July!

-Shirley (Mama Ruff)

Where I'm At (An update and Instagram pics)

These past few months, you've been able to find me on Instagram (@simplyshirley08), but not on this blog.  Although we've been having a good time, living life as shown through the pics below, I still didn't post here very often.  All it took was one big loss (Qori), for me to go on somewhat of a hiatus on this blog. I didn't want my written thoughts to wander too deeply into a depression.

I've been meaning to get back to blogging and find inspiration in other things, but so far all I have are half-written posts that never made it out there. 

Where am I at in my head and heart now?  Well - deep down inside I'm starting to feel truly better about Qori's passing, but many times still I miss him dearly.  I think I'm almost at a place in my heart where I can truly start to write genuine posts again without being a Debbie-downer.

So I'm starting with some baby-steps in an Instagram compilation post that I've let stack up for the past three months.  Here's what we've been up to in April, May & June via Instagram pics:

I hope you are all doing better than I have been lately! -Shirley (Mama-Ruff)

February 2014 - Month in Pics

Each day that has passed, I intended to post, but as usual I got caught up matters of life and paying the bills - until lo' and behold: the month is over and all I can do is an end-of-month, Pic-post.  So here goes:

My February started off slow enough, and San Francisco got some much needed rain.  We took Diego to see the thing that matters most in this world, animatronic dinosaurs!

Valentine's Day was remarkably pleasant, but it spurred what I have referred to as "Puke-fest" by the end of the day.  Diego got Mateo sick, then Mateo got me sick, and the viscious domino effect continued.  I basically bathed in puke for days.  The very next week after Puke fest, we traded in the old, still puke-soiled BMW (aka. Seniorita BMW) for a new (pre-owned) 4-Runner (aka. Senior 4-Runner) and were off to Lake Tahoe to break Senior in with a road trip!  Hubs referred to the BMW as "Seniorita" because she was high maintenance and not aging gracefully!

Just before we went on our road trip, Diego got a cold and then got Mateo sick, and then got my husband sick and the viscous domino effect continued!  Despite the spreading virus, and lack of good snow (I guess the rain was not good enough!), we made the most of our trip to Lake Tahoe.

And to give you an update, this week Diego is battling major and painful constipation.  I seriously hope that Diego stops starting trends as of NOW!  No wonder I haven't posted in a few weeks.  We're one big, infested family!!!!!  Thank goodness computer screens aren't contagious!

January - Month in Pics

I've worked on and published two years worth of my blogs recently using Blurb.  Looking back, I really liked these monthly recaps of pictures, so I think I'll keep it going.....

January 2014 caught the tail end of my inlaws' visit to the US. It was also an eventful month for Diego, as he learned to push himself on a swing, BY HIMSELF!, he learned how to write a "0", and he celebrated his 4th birthday!

It was also an unfortunately eventful month for Qori as he was diagnosed with a terminal nasal sarcoma.  I'm still adjusting to this news, but trying to stay brave.  Qori is now on meds, and I'm trying my best to ensure that he is comfortable and having fun as long as he is still with us.

Other than that, I've been on a health kick trying to eat more healthy and be more active, and trying to keep up my nail hobby.  I've been trying to add variety to my cooking and some things I tried to cook this month were Roasted Tomato Soup, cooking more seafood like Halibut and Jumbo Prawns, and getting creative with one of my favorite Peruvian appetizers, Causa (pictured below).

I bought a Fitbit pedometer and reached a 10,000 daily steps goal by taking Qori for a full morning hike and then walking half the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge at night.  I'm supposed to do this DAILY?!  Wowza!

How was your January?

-Shirley (Mama-Ruff) [instagram: justshirley08]

April 2013 Recap: Instagram Style

 

The month of April started off with left over Easter eggs & exciting Auntie news for me (to be blogged about later), and then it ended with a new ride: Ruffian style (and I'm not talking about the boat or the horse!)

How was your April?

-Shirley (Mama Ruff)

 

Life thru iPhone Pics - February 2013

I spent the month of February creating this new blog in my spare time (all of 5 minutes at any given moment).  And in the meantime, life went on.  You don't say???

Here are some great moments I spent with my iPhone family in February ;)  There were slim pick-in's since I excluded pics from our recent trip to Peru. Apparently while I was lovin' the Valentine's chocolates, the ruffians were lovin' the oven?

Do you have any fun February pics to share? - Shirley (Instagram: justshirley08)