Thursday, September 27, 2012

Nathan misses his grandparents!

On 9/12, I went to Reid Park Zoo. 

On 9/16, I fainted getting ready for church.  It took me all day to recover from it. 

On 9/17, I went to Reid Park Zoo again.

9/18-9/25 my parents were in town.  We took them to Mt Lemmon on Paul's birthday, 9/20.  We ate at the Cookie Cabin and then we went up to the top for a ski lift ride.  They claimed they had never been to the top.  For dinner, we went to Trail Dust Town.  On 9/23, we went to Tombstone after church.  The purpose was to see the new Harley Davidson store.  Paul and I got to go on a date night on 9/24.  We used a Groupon and went to dinner at Lodge on the Desert.  We thought it would be a little fancier and the location is not the greatest, but the food was great.  I loved the cream of garlic soup and I got the pan-speared chicken breast with tamari butter sauce and roasted potatoes.  Topped off with a prickly pear lemonade!  Paul got the tamales.  Grandma and grandpa left on 9/25.  I think Nathan really misses them.  He seemed to love having them here.  It is almost as if no time or distance has separated them when he is with his family from Chicago. 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

A new week

On 9/5, I went to the Desert Museum when Nathan was at school.  I got to see the bear in the water for the first time, the ocelot was actually moving around, there were hundreds of caterpillars on the museum grounds which I guess come out every 3-4 years and I saw a fox roaming around the grounds.  I also had one of their yummy salads and the prickly pear punch.

Yesterday we went to the U of A football game against Oklahoma St.  First we went to eat dinner at our favorite pizza place, Grimaldi's.  We stayed for half the game and left because it was past little man's bedtime.  He did good up until then, though.  They won 59-38.  This was their second game of the year and they won the first one in overtime.  The weather was perfect for the game and I also got to try their prickly pear lemonade which was very good. 

Since it was a late night for us last night we decided not to go to church today.  We did, however, go to out to breakfast.  I wanted chocolate chip pancakes and Paul did not feel like cooking...so we went out!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

It is September already!

The year is flying by, but I am glad Fall is coming.  I am so tired of his heat!

On 8/23, I took Nathan to the zoo.

Nina had her 6 month vet appointment on 8/25.  I discussed with them everything that is going on with her.  Her main problem is that she can't not control her bowels very well.  She has the cyst on her eyelid, arthritis,  cataracts, a heart murmur and she is probably close to 13 years old.  The blood tests did not show anything too alarming, but they found another lump on her leg and she has lost a lot of weight even though I did not start feeding her less until a week before her appointment.  They agreed that senility could be setting in and that something undetected like cancer could be starting.  Coupled with all of her other problems, they said they would support our decision to put her down if that is what we decided to do.  This has been a tough decision for me which Paul and I have been talking about for awhile.  He wanted to put her down a long time ago.  I did not want the decision to be a selfish one so I wanted to hear the vet's opinion.  Hearing that they would support our decision to put her down just made me break down in tears.  I called Paul and he said to schedule it in a couple of weeks so we could spend a little more time with her.  The ironic thing is that she has not been quite as bad since her appointment.  I had finally agreed to put her down, but now I am unsure again.  Feeding her less makes her have less accidents, but I also do not want her to lose more weight.  She has been slightly peppier and really enjoys when we are downstairs with her...even Nathan sometimes!  He used to bother her a lot when she just wanted to be left alone, but he has been a lot better recently.  We may wait until my parents come out later this month to put her down, if we are still going to do so.  Maybe I will see what they think when they see her.

On 8/29, I went to the zoo and to the Tucson Botanical Gardens when Nathan was in school.  I got some great shots of the new baby flamingo and of our female tiger in the water.  The zoo decided to share one of my tiger pictures on their facebook page.  I also found out that day that my prairie dog picture that I entered into a contest got chosen to be featured in their Autumn issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine. 

Paul decided to take off on Friday, 8/31.  We were going to enjoy a kid-free day while Nathan was in school.  We took both cars to get washed.  They had problems starting Paul's car again so they suspected it needed a new battery.  We had just replaced the battery on the Grand Prix a week ago!  On the way to Pep Boys to get the battery looked at, one of the windows broke!  We got the battery replaced and scheduled the window to be fixed the next day.  We at least got to enjoy a lunch together at Pappoules.  Later that night we drove to Oracle to eat dinner at Nonna Maria's.  They were closed for the holiday weekend!  I got some nice sunset pictures over there, though, and we ended up eating at Carlota's in Catalina.  I never saw Nathan eat so much.  He loves his chips and salsa and cheese quesadilla. 

On Saturday, 9/1, we got the window fixed fixed on the Grand Am and then went over to Breakers Water Park.  Nathan had a blast.  He is getting more used to the water and even liked putting his head under.  We are thinking he is ready for swimming lessons again.

Nathan had the BIGGEST temper tantrum after church on Sunday all because he could not take home some cars he played with in Sunday School!

Yesterday we took Nathan to the zoo for Labor Day.  It was crowded and hot!  I wanted to see the new baby zebra, but it was not out.  We also found out that Snow, the polar bear, died that morning.