Letters from Virginia - Part 2: The Response

Tori's response to Crissy...apparently she has a 'rood' brother too...and soccer is hard...lol...

Letters from Virginia - Part 1

A note to Tori from her friend Christable in Virginia. A little back story: apparently it was decided that in order for the girls to live together when they get older, it was agreed over the summer that Tori should marry Crissy's brother, David Jr. and Crissy should marry Tori's friend Liam...I guess by this letter that plan is off...

Spring Break - Day 2

Check out the craftsmanship on this house!!! Of course this was Day 2 of spring break. The kids encouraged me to get started early on this. I didn't mind because it mean it would keep them busy the entire day.

There is one story I have to tell before I get into this. Years ago, before Kevin and I even got engaged, I had lived in an apartment briefly with four girls. I splurged and got myself a desk for my computer. Then I attempted to assemble this desk all on my own. Now, normally, I can put things together. This however, was a challenge. Apparently reading direction is really important. Later, Kevin came over and saw what a botched job I did and had to fix it. Since then, he always teases me on how I don't read directions. Lately, I've been trying to do that (but I will say since this incident I have assembled many things such as medicine cabinets and kid toys with no problems).

Everything seemed pretty straight forward with the house...just insert and click. However, the directions did tell me to put screw where there were no holes. I repeat, the directions told me this!!! As you can see, however, the house is standing and it's not crooked (as far as I can tell). The kids helped put the stickers on and the put together the little inside doohickeys.

They pretty much spent the rest of the day in the house. They even ate lunch and snacks in it. Tori got some of our extra cushions to sit on inside the house. Her friend that visited really enjoyed being around for the house unveiling. The next door neighbor girl even came over (for just a bit).

That was pretty much day two...that was enough! Day three...a second sleep over and the kids' first dentist appointment in Tucson...oy!

Spring Break - Day 1

Day one of spring break started out a little later than normal. We were all tuckered out from such a busy weekend. Everyone was up at 7am and we all had our normal breakfast. Then it was time to do chores. Tori had to clean her room because she was having a friend come over.

Most of the day was spent cleaning, feeding kids, and doing little things here or there. There were two highlights of the day. One was making our first Peep diorama. If yDoou have never heard of making a peep diorama, then you have never seen the Washington Post Peep show. I highly recommend it. We look forward to it every year. It's online if you do not subscribe to the Washington Post.

I thought it would be cute to tackle a Arizona desert theme. Our diorama is plain in comparison to what the Washington Post comes up with, but I am happy to say the kids did alot on their own. The main focus was on cacti. Tori colored a prickly pear while I fashioned a pencil cholla out of straws. Merrick insisted on including a peep snowman in our desert. Don't quite know how that fits in, but he made it himself. While some peeps disguised as quails (towards the back), a littlest pet shop toy filled in as a tarantula.

I realized later we should have included coyotes and javalinas somehow, but we did include alot of 'sweating' peeps. Tori made the sweat out of hot glue.

My favorite part was making the 'melting' peep by microwaving it. The kids loved watching it blow up.

After our diorama making, I was tired. I layed down with Bubsey (aka Stefan) on the couch. Just as I was about to doze off, I got a text message. The new playhouse I ordered for the kids arrived at Wal-mart --over a week early! This was totally perfect since it was the first day of break. So I packed everyone up and off to Walmart on Speedway we went.

It took a while to get there and when we did, we found out the box was too big to fit into the car. No biggie, I did some car seat shuffling and had them take the item out of the box. I knew I was keeping it and I made sure every part went into the car. Besides, who needs the huge box, it was ripped to heck anyway.

On our way home, I got a call from Tori's friend's mom asking if I could come pick up her friend. So I stopped home, unloaded the house and went off the pick up the friend.

Pretty full afternoon...but it made for an exciting second day...

Daylight savings

Since I'm not using Facebook...for any East Coast people that MIGHT read this blog...keep in mind we just sprung out clocks forward...so everyone here in Tucson is three hours behind the East Coast now...Just keep that in mind when you go to call.

THANKS!

Just an awesome weekend

The title says it all. We had an awesome weekend in our wonderful Arizona. The weekend started of windy as heck. Friday, the winds we were waiting for on Wednesday kicked in. I was glad I didn't put the baby gate back up around the pool. (don't worry it's up again now). However, once Friday afternoon blew in (har har), the wind had stopped and the nice weather worked it's way into the weekend.

On Friday night, I hung out with women from my MOPS Club. It was Bunco night at someone's house. If no one knows what Bunco is, I'll break it down for you: It is a mindless dice game someone made up so women can have a moms night out and have an excuse to eat, drink and socialize. I LOVE IT!!!! I love that I can play the game without thinking, I love that I got to hang out with some totally awesome women, and I love that I went home with my cheeks hurting so much from laughing. It was just what I needed right now.

Saturday, we literally spent all day at the Tucson Festival of Books. I've been to the National Book Festival the previous four years and I have to say, the Tucson festival kicks the DC festival's ass. Not only did EVERYONE in the family come home with a book, but I never saw so many local and/or self published authors in one place. It was so motivating to see them all there. I kept thinking "I can do this. I can be here next year!" I think I need to make that my goal...

The kids were really wonderful at the festival too. We were there from 10am-4pm and only Stefan was mildly fussy at times. The kids loved getting a free book, seeing the Ronald McDonald show, and they loved the Science City the festival set up there. Even Merrick did the experiment at the Raytheon tent.

Today, after starting out a bit blah, I threw Kevin out of the house and told him to take a bike ride in the desert. Then I took the kids on a bike ride to a nearby park. After that, we took Signal for a walk. Then neighbor girl came over to play with Tori for a bit. I kind of started to crash by this time, but we made it through dinner. Now, I'm writing this after a break of playing the Sims.

I think to sum up, this weekend was another weekend where we got to go out and see how cool it is to live there. There seems to be always something going on that is fun and gets us out of the house. Next weekend, Kevin found a benefit event going on for women in aviation. Hopefully, we can get a play ride for us and the kids for 20 cents/lb. How awesome is that???

Well I'm off to bed, and I hope to enjoy the first week of spring break. It's going to be awesome to not have to wake up to an alarm clock or not have to be anywhere. Woo hoo!!!! Hope you all have an awesome week!

Hazy Mountains, Windy Desert

Before I start things, just want to say..."I LOVE BABY HUGS AND KISSES"

Ok...now that I have that off my chest...

Yesterday we had a wind advisory. The forecasters were calling for winds up to 60 mph. This sounded pretty serious, so I did my usual precautions for high wind situations. First, I folded up the new fence we put by the pool. Then I put all the sand toys in the sand box and shut it. Next, I put the outside toys into the toy bin. After that, the playdough pieces on the kids picnic table were put away. Finally, anything else left out was brought inside.

I'm used to getting ready for high wind situations. Last year, in Virginia, we had alot of tornado sightings/warnings. I had a similar routine as I did yesterday. However, I feel the winds in Virginia were harsher than I saw yesterday.

I'm not sure how most of the area was yesterday. It seems in Arizona while one area experiences one type of weather, another area experiences another. Yesterday the winds seemed alot tamer than what was being called for. Almost a kind of downer. I was actually hoping to see my first sand storm...just so I know what one looks like for future. That didn't even happen. I guess that's a good thing.

Today, I noticed the mountains which are usually so clear to see were hazy. I'm not sure if this was just a weather related thing or if the winds yesterday (and still today) kicked up the haze. I know that sounds dumb, but I guess it could happen.

Nothing very exciting otherwise is going on. I am counting down to spring break. Two more days! Then I get to turn off every alarm in the house (except for dance school). But for the most part, we don't have to be anywhere or do anything. We are starting a list of things to do during break. Some of those things include but are not limited to:

Visit Color Me Mine at the Mall.

Make our own 'peep' diorama.

Have sleepovers with friends.

Make playdates with friends.

Have a picnic at the park (Tori wants to do this EVERY DAY...I don't think so).

Hold the first annual Zhu Zhu Olympics.

Hold second annual My Little Pony Olympics.

Play in new playhouse when it arrives.

So as you all see, I may be busier than I expected, but I hope to let my hair down and have a little fun.

Javalina Crossing

A few weeks ago, it was a half day at Tori's school. I picked her up just like normal. We were heading up the hill towards our house when I heard a bunch of kids screeching. I looked ahead because my curiosity got the better of me just in time to see a whole heard of javalinas crossing the street that the school was on.

I had not yet seen a javalina in person at this point. My neighbor had once mentioned that she though javalinas had raided her trash cans one night at her temporary housing. I actually believed it was coyotes that did this because I had seen coyotes. Javalinas to me seemed to be this mythical creature that people talked about, but had yet to cross my back yard yet.

In case anyone reading this isn't sure what a javalina is, it's a creature that is not a pig, but looks alot like a pig. It however, is probably more akin to a wild boar. They are black with the coarse pig fur. They live in the desert and usually are harmless. The creatures we saw a few weeks back, certainly were harmless.

It was actually surprising to see them for a few reasons. For one, I thought they were nighttime creatures (based on my neighbors story about the trash). Second, it was a very busy time in the neighborhood. School was just letting out, cars were driving down the road. To see a heard of these creatures out during this time seemed very strange. I felt even worse when I witnessed one of them get hit by a car as they raced across the road. This didn't seem to bother the javalina, however, because it go right back up and finished running across the street.

I saw the heard take the desert path behind my house. So of course, when we got home, I went out back and crawled up the rocks by my pool (the thing I tell my kids NEVER to do when they are out back). I tried to see if I could find some javalinas, but they were long gone. A ton of kids from the school had the same idea because they were all spread out in the desert area looking too.

So there you have it, my first javalina sighting. I just feel bad because while Tori and Stefan saw them too, Merrick was rear facing in the stroller and missed it. Poor guy!

Yardwork...and such

I thought by giving up Facebook for Lent, I would have more time to blog about life here. However, Lent coincided with a visit from my mother. Therefore, my time wasn't my own. After putting the kids to bed most nights, I've been talking with her or watching a movie. Mom finally went home yesterday. And while it was great having her here to help deal with kids and clean house, it's nice to get back to normal here and start focusing on my Lenten goals.

One of those goals was to exercise more and get more things done around the house. Today left me feeling pretty accomplished. It was eighty degrees here, which was awesome. After church, we took a family bike ride. Tori rode her bike, Stefan rode in the trailer with me, while Merrick rode in the trailer with Kevin. We ended up riding all through Civano.

Civano very much reminds me of Takoma Park, MD. It seems like a nice little hippie like town. Many of the houses have solar energy, they have a big farmers market in the summer, and the houses are all different beautiful colors. Many homes are the Santa Fe look, but some are not. I enjoy just looking at them and seeing all their different features and decorations. One house had a fence made of wire that was filled with rocks. So therefore, it was a rock fence, but not cemented together. I thought it was a very creative idea of doing this. Another house, had all different kinds of plants. It was almost hard to bike through it because some plants stuck out at various areas. I saw Agave, aloe, and a huge yuca tree. It was just impressive.

I didn't mean to bike through Civano, but Kevin didn't stop me and Tori didn't remind me to turn on Drexel. We were heading to the corner store for doughnuts (Tori's motivation for going bike riding). After a while in Civano, Tori go very whiney, but she did indeed make it all the way to the Corner Store. We sat outside and had our treats. We all shared a bit with the baby and we all shared with each other (awww....).

After we got home, I wasn't hungry for lunch (wonder why) so I decided to tackle a long put off project of trimming the backyard bushes. Because our home was the model home, alot of plants were planted just for show (literally). This week, I've been really looking at how this will work for the long run. I've decided to pull up a few desert rose bushes and some other bushes that just seem like they are being strangled in the mass of bushes they planted. The desert rose bushes were planted I think as a means of building a privacy screen. However, for one, we don't have anyone behind us and never will...and two...the rose bushes grow AWAY from our fence...and it's just not working...One is working but it needs major pruning. I started it, but it's taking a while.

In short, I trimmed alot of bushes today, pulled some, pulled a rose bush that was growing by the air conditioning units (really, who puts one THERE???) and I placed goof plugs where I needed to. Goof plugs help plug up the areas of the irrigation system we don't need, therefore helping conserve water.

I even got to trim a bush up front that Kevin said was out of control. So all in all, it was one productive day. While I miss gardening back east, I have to say gardening and weeding out west is a lot less tedious. For one, weeds grow slower, so I have more time to get them before they get out of control. For another, I'm growing a lot less, therefore, it's easier to keep track.

Maybe I'll get a raised bed going...maybe not. Then again, considering I'm going back east for a month in June, I maybe shouldn't leave Kevin in charge of a garden...nah...I'll take a year off..