We Finally Blogged Again !!

Yes the Blonski's are finally up and running again. Hopefully our lack of blogging will not become a habit. It is my new goal to keep it updated. Here is a quick update.



A lot has happened since the last time we blogged, probably the biggest thing was moving from Sonoma to Green Valley where we bought our first house. We moved in at the beginning of October 2008 and have slowly ( very slowly) been working at making the house our home. It was a foreclosure so there is a good amount of work to be done on it, which we don't mind. Daren really likes to do the hands-on stuff (when time permits). I mostly just like picking out paint colors and home decor. We have successfully painted and re-floored( with cork) the down stairs and have half way finished painting our room. We haven't found the time to finish our projects yet, but we will keep our progress posted. We hope to start to tackle landscaping the backyard sometime this summer.



Daren is still the same hard working, never stopping, Daren that we all know him to be. ( A blessing and a cure) He will be finishing his first year of his Masters program in Organizational Development at Sonoma State in May. He has been attending school on Monday and Wednesday nights for the past year getting home around 11 at night . Just one more year, although he is already talking about where wants to get his PhD. Yes that is my husband.



I, Finally,( as Daren would say)graduated from Cosmetology School and got my license in February, and am currently working 3 days a week in a Salon in Walnut Creek called Indulge. Things are a bit slow right now, especially for someone building their clientele, but hopefully things will pick up.When I do have clients I really enjoy working on them, there is still a little bit of the crossing your fingers and hoping everything turns outs o.k. element there, but that also makes it exciting. Don't worry no major mistakes yet (knock on wood).



My most recent hair endeavor was coloring and cutting my sister Kristen's hair. She has been growing her hair out since she graduated from high school, but while she was at home during her spring break, she let my chop off a good 8 inches!! If you know Kristen, this is BIG for her. What a good sister. I think it was a little shorter that she had expected in the end, but she says she likes it. (I wish we had some good pictures of it.)



I hope to find something else part time closer to home to fill up the rest my days, but I am still in the looking process. I can't complain too much though, having 4 days off and making my own hours seems like the best job in the world if you ask me, I will enjoy the time while I can ( or until goes Daren insane ; ) .

Dogs or Rats?

It has been pretty hot in Northern California these past couple weeks and we don't have air conditioning. We felt bad for our two dogs (at least they were dogs) Winston and Sawyer so we decided that we would take some of their curly fluff off to cool them down. Instead of paying the $80 dollars to get the boys groomed, we bought clippers to do the job ourselves. How hard could it be. We thought we were doing the dogs a favor by giving them a close shave, now I am not so sure if it was a favor or animal cruelty. We started off with two dogs and ended up with white rats. What do you think? BEFORE

AFTER

Smoke, Smoke, and more Smoke!

As many of you fellow Californian's noticed we have had a lot of smoke recently (it has made me a little nostalgic for the fire fighting days). I was hiking Hood Mountian (not Mt. Hood in Portland) and got one too many lungs full of it. Nonetheless the hike was beautiful, well worth the 2000 ft. climb. If you are going to hike Hood Mountian ...don't bother going to the top instead take the fork to Gunsight Rock. The top of Hood Mountian is very anti-climatical.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Daren

Best Leadership Blog of 2008

One of the blogs that Daren writes for was recently nominated for one of the best blogs on leadership for 2008. Check the link out.

http://leadershipchallenge.typepad.com/leadership_challenge/2008/07/leadertalk-is-a.html

Sawyer and Winston

This is Sawyer and Winston our two Maltese. They are about a year old and are still very much puppies. When they run they both look like they are hopping. Recently we decided to shave them because it has been so hot...not so cute any more.

Congrats to Steve and Jenna

We were very honored to be a part of Steve and Jenna's wedding.

This was my sad attempt to be King for the Day. The sword would not move. Maybe next time.