Emma

A week ago, my cousin Troy and his wife Ceng (pronounced "sang"), recently got a puppy! Their kids Aleila and Deihan named her Emma. I know, it's kind of a little girl name, but it's so cute for her! Anyway, Emma is a Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd mix. She looks more like a lab, which is a good thing! You can see the German side of her on her face lol, the German side! haha.. Anyway, she is just a few weeks old, i think! Maybe a couple months? I don't remember! Isn't she beautiful?? They brought her over to grandma's house. Camille, Aaron and their dog Spencer were there too! We were all playing outside and then suddenly Jacob and Coco show up! Yikes! At first, Coco was a little growly (which made Emma super scared of the 'big, bad, dog'), but after holding Emma and showing Coco that Emma is nice and a good dog, and after the butt-sniffing ritual (excuse my french), and getting to know each other, they became buddies! I love how small and tiny Emma is! It reminds me of when Jacob and I first got Coco! Smelled just like Coco, too! haha, Here are pictures! Keep in mind, grandma's got a ton of plants in the backyard... but the 'grass' sucks!

above: half of me, and Emma :)

She looks like a lab in this one!

You can definitely see the Lab/German Shepherd in her!

Camille with Spencer and Aleila with Emma

Spencer and Camille on the grass!

Here are the 3 dogs: Coco, Emma & Spencer

The labs with Jacob :)

Look how ginormous Coco is compared to Emma!

The Next DesignStar

So Jacob and I decided to have a design contest to see who could remodel our home the best! So I got on the Mac and used Adobe Photoshop, while he got on his PC laptop and used Paint. Now keep in mind, Paint is a very simple coloring program, while Photoshop is specifically used for editting photos... Let's see the results!

Above is Jacob's. His looks great! Remember, he used Paint- he did a lot of copying and pasting... i.e., that pavement is made out of the roof! the ivy around the garage is made from those palms! haha

Here's mine! Somewhat blurry looking! I figured adding a Lamborghini would put me ahead of Jacob! Jacob wasn't satisfied with his Paint remodeled home after he saw mine. He said I had the advantage of using the better program... so on Saturday, he spent all morning remodeling again! This time, he used the Mac! Below is his masterpiece! I absolutely love it! It's awesome! He wins!

Spencer

A few weeks ago, my little brother and sister got a puppy! The puppy is full breed Havanese. Camille named him Spencer. Spencer's parents are both show dogs and they were both champions! Anyway, Spencer is sucha cutie! He is surprisingly calm. He never barks, he never growls, and he never jumps. I thought maybe he was depressed from being away from his brothers and sisters and parents, but nowadays, he is pretty jumpy and excited all the time! Well, he is whenever he sees me! :D We're best buds now! haha. I think I want a Havanese, too! Anyway, here are pictures!

Back To Manzanita...

Two Sundays ago (1/10/10), Jacob and I went back out with Erin (our realtor) to Murrieta to look at our house again. (The one we put an offer on in September). They accepted our offer, so the house is pretty much ours. We are just waiting to get into escrow (which is VERY soon, probably some time this week). We were last there in September of last year, so it's been quite a while... and we definitely needed a refresher. It's taking a long time because it's a short sale. Erin took us around to look at more houses just in case :) . While we were pulling up into the community of our house Jacob and I had forgotten how beautiful the community was! I was like, "wow...i forgot how nice these neighborhoods are!" We are definitely sticking to our house on Manzanita St.

So anyway, we had to go back for a refresher and we wanted to take some pictures of the interior and exterior so we can figure out what to change, paint, re-do, etc. (which is pretty much EVERYTHING!) Well, we brought in our camera and Jacob started taking TONS of pictures... we realized there wasn't a memory card in there so all that picture taking was a waste! we were hoping the pictures were saved on a camera, but just in case, i started taking pics with my iphone. We ran out of time because we had to go look at the other houses and Erin had another appointment back in OC. If you have an iphone, you know that the only 'good' pictures you get are ones that are taken outside when it's sunny, or in the kitchen where there's tons of light! When we got home and hooked up our camera to the computer, there was NOTHING saved on the camera! Good thing I had that iphone... that takes crappy pictures! Below is a combination of pictures I took and pictures from the listing site.

We'll definitely put a retaining wall at the bottom of that slope in the back, and then fix up that area so it doesn't look so...bleah

Master bath. Definitely needs a new paint job!

Definitely going to remove the mirrored closet doors

Looking into the master bedroom

Junk left from the previous owners. People are so trashy!

Hallway view. Bedroom to the left and right, and then another at the very end of the hallway. Jacob is looking inside the extra niche area, which is currently a desk/cabinet spot. We'll probably make the 2nd bathroom bigger using this space.

This is that niche area

From left to right: bedroom, niche, bathroom, other bedroom

Jacob at the top of the stairs. Door to other bedroom

Top of the stairs going to the front door. Living room and dining room to the left

Living room

We'll change all the flooring downstairs.

Dining room. Too bad they didn't leave these guitars!

Arch to the left leads to the family room/kitchen

View of the family room from the downstairs hallway underneath the arch. We'll change out the tile and get rid of that yucky "hardwood" flooring. It's uglier in person lol

Family room, den/5th bedroom in the back, tile floors leading to laundry room and garage on the left, and full bathroom at the end of the hallway

Full bathroom downstairs

Den/5th bedroom off the family room. We'll use this as the study. This room has the BEST hardwood in the house! We're keeping this room's floor :)

Study

View of kitchen (in the background) from the study

Family room and sliding doors to the backyard

Kitchen. Definitely going to change out countertops, stain cabinets a darker color, and get rid of that yucky purpleish paint.

View of the kitchen from the corner of the family room. Jacob under the arch (with dining room behind him). We will change the paint... everywhere!

Fireplace

Fireplace and entertainment section

A Better Picture...

Alrighty, I know I blogged a couple months ago about us getting our new car, but it was such a cruddy picture taken with my iPhone! This is a better picture taken by the Canon! :D

Happy New Year's!

Today was GREAT! I had TONS of fun spending the day with Jacob! We drove to Irvine Lake to go fishing! This was my first time at Irvine Lake. It isn't the best look area in the world, but the lake is pretty cool. I LOVE fishing. I hate putting the bait on and taking the unhooking the fish, but i love fishing! We usually catch a lot of fish when we go fishing, but this time we didn't catch anything :( . Sad, but I still had fun! We ended up going to 3 different spots. The first spot was waaaay too shallow. Second spot was actually for people with kids, so we got booted out. And our last spot was on the dock.

This ugly look place is where the people with kids go fishing...