Sunday, September 28, 2014

Come on Fall!

I joined Pixoto on 7/27 and I have been obsessed with it ever since.  I have won numerous awards....but no money :(

I went to Sweetwater Wetlands on 7/28 to see the baby coots I had been hearing about.  I had never seen babies before so that was kind of cool.

Nathan has been so cute lately.  He has been giving me long kisses an hugs, particularly hugs.  When he is done giving me a long hug he says "That is how much I love you".

I took Nathan to the zoo on 7/31.  We got to see the new capybara.  They now have a female and male and it was really cute seeing them together.

7/31 was meet the teacher night at Nathan's school.  He had been in Mrs. Robbins class several times last year when Ms. Monica was not there.  I like her.  The bad thing is that she is also student teaching this year.  She was there the first few weeks and then she started student teaching.  She is supposed to be back the middle/end of October.  The teacher teaching in his place was good, but then she took a position elsewhere.  So Nathan is on his third teacher this year.  Mrs. Amy Wilson is good and always did the break times for his past teachers so he is familiar with her, too.  I just hate the inconsistency.  I will be glad when Mrs. Robbins is back.  He started off the year so good with her. Then he started telling me that some of the boys in the class were not being nice to him and not sharing.  I talked to the teacher about it (the one who ended up leaving) and she said she would pay closer attention to it.  Later that day she agreed that he was being nice to them, but they were not being as nice back so she talked to the class about sharing and about everyone being friends.  She said the day got better after that.  Unfortunately, that is the last day I saw her because she left and they switched teachers again.  The next day Nathan was in school he had a hard time at nap time, keeping the other kids up, so he had to be sent to the office.  We talked about the change in teachers and we told Nathan that he had to be good at nap time even if he was not tired.  He had a much better day the next time.  Meanwhile, I have already started the application process for Kindergarten next year at Sonoran Science Academy.  The application was lengthy, but I submitted it.  Now we wait. Not everyone gets accepted.  I almost wish that he was staying at Casas because he is used to it there and it is a Christian school.  He talks about God all of the time and some of that is because of that school.  However, Paul wants him to have the best education.  Sonoran Science Academy is supposed to be a great school and it goes all the way up to 12th grade.

Nathan's first day of school was 8/4.  It seems like they start earlier and earlier each year.  He picked out what he wanted to wear which ended up being his hot air balloon shirt from Albuquerque.  He had a great first day.  While Nathan was in school, I went to the Reid Park Rose Garden and Tucson Botanical Gardens.

On 8/7, I saw that one of my capybara photos was photo of the week on the Reid Park Zoo website. Also that day I asked my son if I could play this little piggy on his feet.  He said I could only do this little piggy if I play cars with him.

8/15:  My son is such a sweetie.  He gives me the longest hugs.  He says mommy this hug is going to last all the way until tomorrow.  He crawls in my lap (as big as he is)!), puts his head on my shoulder and just stays there for the longest time.  I don't want him to grow up!

Nathan was playing with his mega blocks before school on 8/18.  I ask him if I could kiss him all over.  He says, no mommy I need my space.  So then he says, when I am playing with my toys I need my space, but when I am done you can kiss me all over.  Of course at the end he said that I could play blocks with him if I wanted to.  Kids say the cutest things.

8/20, Nathan came home with the cutest book he made at school. One page said my name is and he had to write his name.  Another one said I want to be when I grow up and he said a fireman so he drew a fire truck (although he told me that he wanted to be a lot of things, but they would not let him finish), one page had his handprint, one page had his favorite color red, etc...  Then he had a page where he had to draw his family.  He drew me, daddy, himself and grandpa.  He said he ran out of room to draw grandma, but that we were on an airplane to go see her.  Grandpa had no hair in his drawing!

Nathan and I went to DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun on 8/21 because the monsoons produced a bunch more cactus flowers.  Saw some beautiful peach ones!  Later that day Nathan and I made pumpkin cupcakes!

On 8/25, I went to the Sweetwater Wetlands to see the "baby"coots again and then I went to the Desert Museum.

The following day I took Nathan to the Children's Museum.  They changed some things around in there and Nathan had a blast.

On 8/26 someone told me on one of my Facebook groups that she wanted to paint one of my pictures.  I said sure and that I would like to see it when it is done.  I have not heard anything since, though.

Bella and Tulla went to the vet on 8/30 for their 6 month check up.  All is well.  Bella lost a couple of pounds, but she needs to lose a little more.  Tulla lost quite a bit of weight so we are actually feeding her more now.  Tulla is still itching like crazy.  The vet prescribed an antihistamine, but it did not really help her.  She is still itching so I am hoping that it stops if the weather will ever cool down.

On 8/30, I told my son I love his feet.  He said to say goodbye to his feet because they are leaving!

Paul went to work for awhile on Labor Day, 9/1.  Doesn't he realize that is one of the days of the year when you are not supposed to work?!

I took Nathan to the zoo again on 9/2.  Later that day he thanked me for everything under the sun...buying him clothes, buying him toys, taking him to the zoo, doing his laundry, buying him food, etc.... and then he kept telling me how much he loved me.  I said I don't know why you love mommy so much, but I am glad you do.  He said I love you so much because I really like you.

Nathan was  being really sweet again on 9/4.  I wrote down some of the things he told me.  He still keeps thanking me for everything.  He said, "You are the best one on earth I ever saw", "I love you more than all of the people out there" and "I will love you forever" among others.

On 9/5, I went to the Reid Park Rose Garden and to Prickly Park.

On 9/6, we all went to the Desert Museum.

9/9 was National Teddy Bear day so I made Nathan take some pictures with his teddy bear!

Debbie Madl came out to visit on 9/10.  The next day we took her to Sedona.  We ate at the Open Range when we got there.  The next day we went to Cathedral Rock and then we went over to Chapel of the Holy Cross as well as Bell Rock.  We went to Slide Rock Park, but they had the swimming area closed due to the recent fires.  They opened it up again shortly after we left Sedona :(.  We drove a little up toward Flagstaff, but saw that they still had the West Fork hiking trail closed so we drove a little further up and then decided to come back.

The following day we went hiking.  We started at Boynton and then decided to do Devil's Bridge. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into at Devil's Bridge.  The trail was a lot longer and harder than we thought.  The views at the bridge were amazing, though.  We all went swimming back at the hotel that night.

On 9/14, we went up to Bearizona.  We got to see some wildflowers along the way.  From there we headed back to Tucson.  The following day Debbie went back home.  I was disappointed that there were not more Fall colors for her to see in Sedona.  It is so beautiful in the Fall.

On 9/17, Nathan had another good quote "God is a good boy!".  I was also told that day by someone that he thought I was 25.  Not bad for a woman getting ready to turn 40!

Nathan and I watched the Muppet Movie on 9/19.  I had not seen it in years and Nathan had never seen it.  I don't think he was very impressed, but he did like Kermit.

9/20 was Paul's 44th birthday.  He did not want to do much that day.  I ordered him tropical flowers, including his favorite bird of paradise.  I got him ho-hos and a new pair of shoes.  We went to eat at our favorite place, Athens.

My son gave me 50 kisses on 9/20!

I went to the zoo on 9/22 to see the new baby elephant.  She was out with her mom and brother Sudzu.  Later that day I asked Nathan if I could get his feet (yes, I am obsessed) and he said no, but you can kiss me all over!  I don't think Nathan has ever seen the movie We Bought a Zoo.  However, I think he wants to live Matt Damon's life in that movie.  He keeps telling me that when he gets older he is going to have a zoo and he is going to have a house to live in inside the zoo (actually he has changed it to a hotel).

9/25:  My son told me that he will always love me to heaven and back.  I said I hope so.  He said I am sure I will!

9/26:  Our family has Flintstone vitamins every night.  Whenever Nathan gets the Fred Flintstone one he keeps calling it Tombstone.  Only a kid who lives in southern AZ!

We went up to the Phoenix area yesterday, 9/27.  I went to Butterfly Wonderland while Paul and Nathan went to McMormick-Stillman Railroad Park.  We went to Portillos for lunch.  Then we battled the thunderstorm over to Chase Field.  It was pretty scary because it was hard to even see on the highway.  We saw the Diamondbacks play the Cardinals.  Diamondbacks won.  When we left it was pouring.  We waited in the parking garage for awhile and we decided to venture out the rain was not as bad.

Yesterday was such a long day so today we decided to stay home from church.