Sunday, June 10, 2018

GG is 100!

Easter was April 1.  The Easter Bunny treated Nathan well.  We also went to church.

On 4/3, I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens, the Reid Park Rose Garden,  Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens and Bach's Cactus Nursery.

I went to the Desert Museum on 4/4

The next day I went back to the Desert Museum, to Tucson Botanical Gardens and to Bach's Cactus Nursery.

On 4/6, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens and Back's Cactus Nursery.

Nathan attended the 7th annual great paper airplane fly-off at the Pima Air & Space Museum on 4/7.  He did not do as well as he did the previous year, but he had fun!

I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens and the Reid Park Rose Gardens on 4/9.

I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens, Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens and Bach's Cactus Nursery on 4/11.  I ended up bringing home a snail with the African Daisy plant I purchased at Tohono Chul Park.  It stayed alive for a couple of weeks and then it was gone.  I saw a millipede or something in the plant which could have been the culprit.  I had fun taking pictures of it and I was sad when it was gone.  Unfortunately, my plant is not doing so good either after being without water when we were out of town for a week.  I am hoping it comes back to life, but so far no luck.

On 4/13, I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens and the Reid Park Rose Garden.

I saw an orthopedic doctor for my right shoulder on 4/13.  He had me do an xray which came back normal.  He told me I had frozen shoulder and gave me a cortisone shot.  He suggested that I do physical therapy.  He gave me a work order to go a couple of times to learn at home exercises.  I went to Proactive Physical Therapy on 4/17.  I should have known it would not just be a two time thing.  They examined me and thought that I had a torn or inflamed rotator cuff.  They suggested I do physical therapy 2x/week for 6 weeks.  That would end right before our Chicago trip.  I did my 6 weeks and they gave me the bad news that they wanted me to continue after the Chicago trip for another 6 weeks.  The break in between seemed to do me some good.  I am still uncertain if the physical therapy is helping or not.  I started to feel better after the cortisone shot and I think I may have healed quicker without the physical therapy.  There is no way to know for sure now.  I am doing better, but still not 100% better.  The physical therapy is getting tougher, though, as they increase my strength exercises.  I hope that my arms are at least getting stronger and that maybe I am losing some arm fat!

On 4/14, we went to Wildlife World Zoo.

I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens on 4/18.

On 4/19, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens, the Reid Park Rose Garden and Pima Prickly Park.

Paul and Nathan went to the Pima County Fair on 4/21.

I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens on 4/24.

On 4/25, I went to Oro Valley Hospital to see my gynecologist.  I had not had a period for over 3 months.  They had me do a blood test and an ultrasound.  The ultrasound came back normal.  The blood test showed I am perimenopausal.  I am in full menopause when I have not had a period for at least 12 months.  As of today, it has been over 5 months now.  I really don't think I will have another period so I think menopause is close.  I am already getting all of the symptoms.

While at the Oro Valley Hospital, I saw a lot of torch cacti blooming in their median.  After that I decided to go to DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun and Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Nathan earned his 3rd stripe in Taekwondo on 4/26.  I also went to the Desert Museum and Bach's Cactus Nursery.

Nathan and Paul went to see Avengers on 4/29.

On 4/30, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens.

I went to the Desert Museum on 5/4.

On 5/7, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens.

Nathan had his musical performance at school on 5/8.  He was not very excited about it.  I remember in preschool and kindergarten he loved them.  He was the music student of the year in kindergarten!  Maybe his love for music will return some day.

On 5/9, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens.  I went back to all of them the next two days.

On 5/12, I went to Tohono Chul Park, Bach's Cactus Nursery and to Lowe's (to photograph flowers).

5/13 was Mother's Day.  Nathan made me a couple of cards and they bought me a cake.  Paul made me Greek chicken and potatoes.

I saw a turkey vulture flying behind our house on 5/17.  Nathan's favorite bird!

On 5/18, I went to the Desert Museum and to Lowe's again to take pictures of the flowers.

I went to Bach's Cactus Nursery on 5/21.

Nathan's last day of school was 5/24!  He ended up making honor roll again the 4th quarter.  He got a 94 is History, 93 is Reading, 95 in Recitation, 100 in Science, 91 in Math and 94 in English.  He was meeting the standard in Art, Music, PE and Spanish.  He is now a 3rd grader!

We left for Chicago on 5/25.  We drove to Phoenix to fly out of the Phoenix International Airport.  We were able to catch an earlier flight so we got to Chicago a little earlier.  Unfortunately, we could not find Nathan's booster seat on the luggage return.  We finally located it, but it was after midnight and we were afraid that the car rental place would be closed.  It was still open!  We got a car and found a hotel room near Indiana Dunes for the night.

We traveled to South Haven, MI the next day (5/26).  Nathan got to spend some time playing at the beach.  I walked around taking pictures.  We ate at Clementine's for lunch.  We stayed in Paw Paw that night.

The next day (5/27) we went to Holland.  We were a couple weeks late to see the tulips :(  We were able to tour the windmill, though.  I went to photograph Big Red, the lighthouse in Holland while the boys went to the Cherry Republic store.

The next day (5/28) we took the S S Badger, a car ferry from Ludington, MI to Manitowoc, WI.  The trip was about 4 hours.  We saw the movie Coco on the ride and played games like Uno, Bingo and Family Feud.  Our hotel was right where the S S Badger docked and very close to a lighthouse, too.  We drove around looking for a beach area for Nathan to play.  We finally found a small one pretty close to our hotel.  I decided to walk around and found very cool picture opportunities with boats, wildflowers, birds and the lighthouse.  They created a bird sanctuary there for pelicans, seagulls, barn swallows, etc...  We ate dinner that night at the Lighthouse Inn.   

The next day (5/29) we drove to Milwaukee and went to the Harley Davidson Museum.  We were all going to go to a Brewers vs Cardinals night game that night, but I was too tired so the boys went by themselves.

We drove to Chicago the next day (5/30), stopping at Mars Cheese Castle for some sausage and cheese! We ran into a little rain, but it stopped in time for us to go to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  Unfortunately, none of their waterlilies or lotuses were blooming, the flowers I wanted to see the most from our previous visit.  The gardeners said maybe in a couple of weeks they would be blooming.  Not many of their roses were blooming yet either.  So it was disappointing, but they still had some pretty flowers to see.  We were also too late to see the lilacs blooming at Lilacia Park.  I tried going there on 6/1.  Not much to see.  They did not even have many other flowers blooming.  I remember going there years ago and they had tons of tulips and other flowers blooming.  It really is fantastic when all of their lilacs are blooming, too.

Paul went to lunch with his employees on 5/31.  Grandma June took Nathan and I to lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  Then we all met Paul at AMC in Oakbrook to see Star Wars, a Solo Story.  Then we met Debbie Madl and Cass for dinner at Stir Crazy.

The next day (6/1), Paul had to work from the hotel in Lombard.  Nathan's leg was hurting so he stayed in the hotel room.  I decided to go to Brookfield Zoo.  Then we went to Uncle Julio's for dinner.  I miss their chips and salsa!

On 6/2, we met Lisa and her family at the LaGrange Pet Parade.  Nathan loved the parade, seeing all of the pets (mostly dogs, but there were some cats, bunnies, birds, etc...).  He also got lots of candy and goodies!  Then we met Tracy and Aaron at Ledo's Pizza for lunch.  From there we headed to White Fence Farm for grandma's 100th birthday party!    Before heading back to Tucson the next day we spent a few hours at grandma's house visiting with her.

Nathan started summer school at Casas as soon as we got back on 6/4.  His first session he is taking Archery, Let it Fly, Science Olympics and Lego Mania.  He goes 8-2:15.  It is ironic that there are 2 other Nathan's in his archery class!  He said there are 3 girls with the same first name, too.