Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas is in 3 days!

Once again I am behind on our blog.

I got in a car accident on 12/5.  A lady hit me in the parking lot after I ate lunch at Casa Sanchez.  Her insurance is going to pay for it and we took it to get an estimate, but now we are waiting for the parts to come in so we can get it fixed.

I took Nathan to Reid Park Zoo on 12/6.

Tracy Simpson came to visit us on 12/15, Nathan's birthday.  We all went out to lunch at Macayo's and then we had a small Thomas the Train birthday party at our house that night.  Mommy and daddy got him a lot of Thomas gifts, but the hit of the party was the fire truck monster truck from grandma and grandpa. 

We went to church on 12/16 and then that evening Tracy and I went to the Celtic Woman concert.  Paul did not want to go with me, but he missed out on a great concert. 

12/17 we went to Sabino Canyon.  It was very pretty with the water flowing and the trees turning yellow.  We also saw TWO roadrunners.  I still did not get a very good picture of one, but I at least attempted!  That night we took the mule ride through Winterhaven.  I always wish I could get better pictures when we go there, but I still need to learn how to take better pictures at night and of the Christmas lights.

12/18 Nathan had a dentist appointment and an eye appointment.  He was a model patient again at the dentist.  No cavaties and all of his baby teeth are in now.  The eye appointment was more challenging.  He did not want to cooperate for one of the tests.  However, the dr determined that his eyes are just fine.

The next day, 12/19, we went to the Desert Museum. 

Tracy was supposed to go back to Chicago on 12/20, but her flight got canceled due to an expected snow storm.  We took her out to Mosaic Cafe for dinner that night because she heard it was a good place to eat.

Tracy was able to get another flight back home on 12/21.

Today, 12/22, we took Nathan to get his birthday pictures taken at JC Penney.  We got a few good pics.  I think this photographer was a little better than the one we had for our Christmas pictures, but I don't think we got any outstanding pictures this time around either. 

Tomorrow we have church and then we are going to Alvirs for dinner.

Christmas Eve the Southen Arizona Golden Retriever Group will be coming to do a home evaluation.  Hopefully, we will be getting another dog soon!

Can't believe Christmas we will be in just 3 days.  I still feel unprepared.  I need to wrap Nathan's gifts.  Looking forward to seeing him open his gifts, though!  It is strange not having family around to celebrate Christmas with, but it is not so bad to celebrate just the 3 of us.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

It is almost Christmas!

I can not believe how quickly time is flying.  It has been a month already since I updated our blog.  We have been pretty busy. 

On 11/10, we went to take our family Christmas pictures at JC Penney.  They were quite disorganized that day and we were not happy with the new photographer.  Now I am hesistant about going there again in the future, but we do have Nathan's birthday coming up and I like to get birthday pictures taken.  We also ended up getting Nathan's picture with Santa taken that day.  Paul was walking around the mall and saw Santa there.  Kill 2 birds with 1 stone!  Nathan told Santa that he wanted trucks and cars for Christmas.  After taking pictures we decided to go to to zoo.

The next day, 11/11, we went to the NASCAR race in Phoenix.  We sat up on the hill.  We got there late to take pictures before the race, though.  We bought Nathan the #29 car when we got there and #29 ended up winning the race!

11/15, I took Nathan to Reid Park Zoo.

11/17, We went to Patagonia Lake.  It was beautiful there.  Pretty Fall colors.  We wanted to take a boat ride, but they were booked up for the day.  We took a hike and ended up walking on an open range.  We had cows walking around us.  It was a little scary at first until someone told us that they are used to the people walking around them.  Then we even saw a bull...that one we kept our distance from!

11/22-11/26 we drove over to California for Thanksgiving break.  We went to Carsland on Thanksgiving at Disneyland Adventure Park.  Nathan loved it.  The next day, 11/23, we went to Legoland and Sealife Aquarium.  I particularly liked the aquarium.  11/24 we went to San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  We were disappointed in it.  We saw beautiful Fall colors there and it is set up nice for the animals, but it is not a great experience for the guests.  It is a lot of walking and yet it is hard to close enough to the animals to see them.  I liked feeding the lorikeets.  We also saw some baby elephants and a baby gorilla.  My pictures did not turn out that great, though.  The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was a Sunday and maybe due to the Thanksgiving weekend it was not very crowded which was nice.  Nathan and Paul went their way and I went my way because I really wanted to get some good pictures.  We met up for lunch and then went our separate ways again.  I missed having them with me!  I think I got some good pictures, but I am still going through them.  The last day in town we went to Balboa Park.  I think Nathan would have enjoyed the model train museum and the air and space museum, but there was not enough time to do those.  We went mainly so I could look at some of the gardens.  I was excited to see the Japanese Garden and I was majorly disappointed.  They are working to expand it so maybe in the future it will be better, but it was not worth the few bucks I paid to go in there.  I think my expectations were high because I loved the Japanese Gardens in San Francisco.  Balboa Park's paled in comparison.  I also went in the Botanical Building and it was just alright.  I saw the rose garden across the street and it seemed even smaller than our rose garden at Reid Park in Tucson. 

On 11/29 I took Nathan to Reid Park Zoo. 

Today, 12/4, was Nathan's last speech therapy session.  He has come along way in the last year or so.  He started when he was 18 months and now he is getting ready to turn 3 in a couple of weeks.  I like his speech therapist, but I think a lot of his speech development happend naturally.  It just developed slower and later than with most kids his age.  Now we just hope that he will not need more speech therapy down the road, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.  We chose not to transfer over to the public school system's therapy at this time since Nathan is going to Casas Christian School and we would rather that he not have to go through the public school system.  It is too bad that Casas no longer offers speech therapy.

So we have Nathan's birthday coming up on the 15th and Tracy is coming into town that day.  Then shortly after that is Chrsitmas already!  I love Christmas, but there is so much to do between now and then.  I don't even know where to start.  I am so frustrated with our house, too.  I hate looking at the clutter and it seems to get worse rather than better because I just get more and more behind.  Maybe I will get a handle on it after the holidays, but it seems like my house is never going to look nice.  I like having friends and family visit us, but I wish our house looked better for them.  There is so much potential.  If we could get some new furniture and decor and if I could get the clutter to a minimum I would feel so much better. 

I also am very displeased with the way I look now.  I have gained so much weight and I am mad at myself for letting it happen.  If my mom makes me fudge and gets me Garret's popcorn then there is no way I will lose weight before the New Year.  I guess it will just have to be a New Year's resolution...again.  My hair is driving me nuts, too.  My bangs are driving me crazy and I just don't know what to do with my hair anymore.  Oh well!