We went to lunch with the Almeters at Oregano's on 1/8. We owed them because they paid for dinner the last time we went to Hot Rods.
We met the Alvirs for lunch at Macayo's on 1/15. Afterward we went to Odysea. Nathan and I really enjoyed it, but Paul wasn't that impressed.
I bought a new camera from B&H Camera on 1/18. Mine had been dropped a couple of years ago at Petrified Forest National Park. I felt it didn't produce sharp pictures after that. I went a cheaper route and bought a Nikon D7500 to replace my D7200. It's basically the model that replaced my discontinued model. I paid $1k for it. I decided to just use the wide angle and telephoto lenses that I already had. I had previously purchased my D7200 back in 10/16 from Amazon for $1600 including the 2 lenses and other accessories.
On 1/21, I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens.
Nathan had 1/2 days 2/9-2/11 for parent teacher conferences. We had our parent teacher conference on Friday, 2/11. His home room teacher, Mrs. Powers, had all good things to say about him.
Bella turned 14 on 2/11.
Nathan went to Nerf Day with Arizona Adventures Camp on 2/12. Paul and I went to eat at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate Valentine's Day and our 19th anniversary (2/17).
On our anniversary, 2/17, I went to the Desert Museum to celebrate! We went to dinner at Dominick's and I got the chicken piccata!
I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens on 2/22.
Nathan had Rodeo Break on 2/24 & 2/25.
My printer died when we were trying to work on our taxes. We didn't think that buying a new printer would be such a big ordeal. I quickly researched printers and decided to get a HP OfficeJet Pro 9015e Wireless Color All-in-One Printer. There was only one available in the Tucson area at an Office Max on the south side. We paid for it online and Paul was going to pick it up after church on 2/27. Well, we got notice that they actually did not have one in stock so Paul looked around and found one in Mesa. He went all of the way to Mesa that Sunday to get our new printer! That was almost $300. We didn't realize that we actually bought our last printer back in 12/13 (8 years ago). We paid around $150 for our HP Photosmart 7520 wireless eallinone printer.
I went to Saguaro National Park on 2/28. I did some hiking near Contzen Pass. I saw a gilded flicker which was pretty exciting. Got some sunset pictures with the saguaros.
I went to Reid Park Zoo 3/1.
I went to Tohono Chul Park on 3/3, I was very disappointed because there was almost nothing in bloom. So then I decided to go to Tucson Botanical Gardens.
I had my annual gynecologist appointment and mammogram on 3/7. My mammogram came back normal. I had a new gynecologist this time because mine resigned. The new gynecologist could not really help me with my perimenopause symptoms. She said she hasn't had much feedback from her patients so if I find something that helps my symptoms to let her know. Thanks a lot! My weight is up again thanks to perimenopause. I had lost 20 pounds a few years ago and this past year or so I gained 15 of those pounds back. My blood pressure was normal. She ran some bloodwork for me. My glucose, A1C, CBC and thyroid were all in normal range. I didn't have her do a lipid panel so I am not sure what my cholesterol and triglycerides are and those are usually high.
On my walk 3/7, I noticed that there is a great horned owl in a nest in a palo verde tree in my subdivision! I went home and got my "big camera" to get some pictures. Looking forward to hopefully seeing some owl babies soon!
Nathan had a half day on 3/11 ending the 3rd quarter. Unfortunately, he just missed honor roll again this quarter and once again had a 89.2 GPA. He got a 85 in History/Geography, 95 in Science, 91 in Math, 84 in Latin, 91 in English, E (exceeding the standard) in Art, M (meeting the standard) in Music and M in P/E. He got great remarks from his teachers on his report card, though. His English teacher who is his homeroom teacher said he is a pleasure to have in class. His Music teacher and Art teacher also said he is a pleasure to have in class. It was partly his Latin grade that caused him to miss honor roll this quarter. Right at the end of the quarter she put in a grade of 20/30 for notebook check. Nathan wasn't sure why he didn't get all of the points. I tried emailing her, but she never responded. He had like a 95 in Latin up until the last week when she put in two grades that brought his grade down to a 84. This is one thing that frustrates me about this school. They take the grades down in the system the last week of the quarter so the teachers can finalize the grades. They can put anything in they want to and once they do so the grades are final and can't be changed. Nathan was so upset that he didn't make honor roll again. We rewarded him anyway because we know he tried his best. Yesterday, March 29, he brought home his Character Attributes Report. He has had great marks on this report all year and this quarter one of them even went up. Respect went up from a C (Consistent) to an E (Exemplary). The rest were the same as the previous two quarters. He got a C for Caring, E for Citizenship, E for Perseverance, E for Responsibility, E for Trustworthiness and C for Best Effort. So even though he is very unhappy at this school and his grades are falling just below honor roll status, he is still acting like a fine Christian young man so we are very proud of him.
So for Spring Break we planned to go down to Corpus Christi and San Antonio. We left on 3/12. Unfortunately, we didn't get far. We were headed on I10 and a semi in front of us kicked up a big metal pipe at us. It hit the front of the car and then went underneath the car. Our car seemed to be the only one affected because the pipe then went in the median. We got off the highway on the off ramp in San Simon, AZ. All of the antifreeze emptied out of the car so the car ran hot and we pulled over. It was no longer operational so we called Enterprise who we rented the car from. We told them our exit #, the city we were in, we had GPS coordinates, but they said they could not find us without a physical address. Who breaks down at a physical address?! They told us we had to arrange our own towing to a nearby location with a physical address. So we called our insurance company, State Farm, who had us towed to a nearby gas station. We had to pay for the towing even though we have roadside assistance on our insurance. We are waiting to be reimbursed for that. So then after we got towed we called Enterprise again. We talked to them multiple times and each time they had no record of our previous conversations. They told us that they had no more rentals within a 100 mile radius. They said the closest one was in Las Cruces, NM two hours away. However, they could not arrange Uber to take us that far so they said we had to arrange our own transportation to Las Cruces, arrange for our own lodging for the night and then we could go to the Enterprise there in the morning to get another rental. Essentially, Enterprise left us in the middle of nowhere. We decided that we just wanted to go home. We tried to get a Lyft to Tucson. Our credit card denied the charge thinking it was fraudulent. They sent me a text and asked me to approve. If it was a legitimate charge they said to have the merchant run the charge again. So we tried again and once again our credit card denied it! It seemed nothing was going right for us and it was getting later and later. We then decided to start calling friends who could come get us. We first tried Greg Lyons. Unfortunately, he was out of town himself. He said he could come get us later that night, but we really did not want to sit in our car with all of our luggage in the dark at this gas station in the middle of nowhere. Then we called Linda and Steve Almeter. They graciously agreed to come get us and take us home. We are so blessed to have great friends like them. They truly saved us. So we didn't make it to Texas. Sunday we stayed home and tried to recoup from our ordeal. Then we decided to go up to the Phoenix area for a few days. Our stuff was still packed and the dogs were still at the boarders. On 3/14, we all went to the Phoenix Zoo. Nathan loved seeing the Komodo Dragon. I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens on 3/15. There wasn't a lot in bloom, but there was still plenty to take pictures of. Nathan and I went to Odysea on 3/16. He loves to see the pufferfish. I took him back to the hotel and then went back to Butterfly Wonderland. On St Patrick's Day, we crossed one thing off my bucket list and went to Fountain Hills to see them turn the fountain green. Afterwards, we took a drive along Bush Highway and Butcher Jones Road to see the wildflowers. There isn't a superbloom this year, but there were some scattered patches of poppies and other wildflowers. We stopped at Portillo's before heading back home. We also ate at Grimaldi's TWICE while we were in town. That made Nathan and I very happy.
I went to Pima Prickly Park on 3/22. There wasn't a lot blooming there yet.
On 3/25, I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens and Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens.
I went to Bach's Cactus Nursery on 3/30. Not a lot was blooming there. Mostly just some orange claret cups. I ended up buying 3 small cacti, including a pinecone cactus. Then I went to Tucson Botanical Gardens.
