I can't believe the holidays are here already and the year is almost over. It seems like time goes faster and faster. It's been awhile since I updated this blog, too.
8/13: I went to Reid Park Zoo. I got to see the elephants playing in the water and the baby zebra.
8/28: My First Light bloomed. We also attended Nathan's open house at school to meet his teachers. It's not one on one meetings, but all of his teachers had positive things to say about him.
8/29: Paul's Argentine Giant "Big Bertha" bloomed in our front yard. It had two flowers.
9/3: I went to Green Things Nursery.
9/6: I started having severe upper body pain again. Lasted for about a week and finally went away.
9/12: My June Noon bloomed.
9/16: The hummingbird moths returned to our yard for the year. They come out around dusk and like our lantanas. I saw them out there almost every night that week.
9/20: We went to Vivace for Paul's 55th birthday.
9/23: Nathan had a cold or something so I made chicken lemon orzo soup. He only ate one bowl! Good thing I like it.
9/25: My June Noon bloomed again. I also had my 6 month checkup with my doctor. He said everything looks good. He said my last bloodwork looks good. My cholesterol is a little high, but he wasn’t that concerned. He said we’ll check bloodwork again in 6 months. I mentioned the upper body pain I had a couple of weeks prior. He wasn’t as concerned since it mostly went away on its own. He said if it happens again I can come in while it’s happening and they can do some tests. He said otherwise I am doing really good. I don’t always feel that good! Perimenopause and turning 50 is kicking my butt. I'm 4-5 months in with HRT (as of today 11/10) so I’m hoping that will start making a difference. So far I haven't experienced anything positive with the HRT. However, I have experienced some negatives. The first couple of months the estrogen patches didn't bother me or leave that bad of marks. Now, however, I have pretty bad red marks all over my abdomen. They itch a little when the patch is on. I'm worried that they are going to leave permanent scars. I know that this reaction is a common side effect, but I'm not sure if it is should be this bad. I have a follow up appointment on 11/17. Then around 10/19, I started having constipation and a hemorrhoid flared up (one I got while giving birth to Nathan). It got pretty painful for days. I read that the estrogen patch could cause constipation. However, I also recently switched from Naturemade Cholestoff to Garlique and that can also cause constipation. The swelling finally went down, but I continue to have issues. I am being mindful to take my fiber supplements, eat more fiber, drink more water, stay active, take epson salt baths, etc... I also stopped taking the Garlique.
9/27: We all attended Michael Hoogendoorn's wedding. It was Nathan's 1st wedding. It was a large wedding at NTBC and they had a private reception that we were not invited to. They sang to each other during the ceremony and both her pastor and Pastor King performed the ceremony.
10/1: Butterfly Magic started at Tucson Botanical Gardens so I went to see them. I also went to Reid Park Rose Garden and stopped at Sweetwater Wetlands. They drained Sweetwater Wetlands early this year which I did not know until I got there so there was not much to see.
Nathan had Fall Break from 10/3-10/13. We didn't go anywhere this year which was very disappointing to me because Fall is my favorite time of year. Paul said he had too much work to do. Plus, we bought the windows earlier in the year which greatly reduced our savings. I thought about doing some day trips around Arizona, but there wasn't much Fall color yet at the time and there was a threat of rain toward the end of the week.
10/8: I went to Apple Annie's to photograph their sunflowers. Since there was a threat of rain later in the week, I decided to go and photograph the sunflowers early while I had the chance.
Q1 ended just before Nathan's Fall Break. He made honor roll, although I guess they no longer give out honor roll certificates. His GPA was 3.625, the highest he has had since starting high school. He got an A in Pre-Calculus, a B in German 3, an A in Marketing 3, a B in AP World History, an A in Pre-AP English 2 and a C in Pre-AP Chemistry 1. It is telling that he got Cs and D in English last year, but that this year he is back to getting an A. Nathan said the teacher had something against him and other students of the same demographic in the class. It is unfortunate, but I believed it to be true. When I addressed the issue with administration, I was shocked when they backed the teacher up. She showed the Assistant Principal a sample of his work and she concurred that Nathan was not performing to his potential. Funny seeing as he always had As and Bs in English up to that point and performed at or above average on state testing. Now this year he is back to an A in English. It is a shame that last year's English teacher had to ruin his GPA. She is no longer at the school either. This year, his German, History, Chemistry AND English teacher all said that he is a pleasure to have in class on his report card.
10/14: I photographed the flowers at Home Depot. I also ate lunch on the patio at First Watch and shopped for Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes at Hobby Lobby.
10/16: I went up to Mount Lemmon to check out the Fall colors. They were barely just getting started. I went to Bear Wallow and then had lunch at the Iron Door.
10/23: I went to Reid Park Zoo and to Reid Park Rose Garden.
10/24: I ate pumpkin pancakes at First Watch. I took pictures of the flowers at Lowe's. Then I went to Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens and to Mesquite Valley Growers.
10/25: Paul and I went up to Mount Lemmon. Nathan didn't want to go so we let him stay at home. This is the first time we have let him stay at home by himself for that long. We hiked the Bear Wallow area and it was pretty much at peak. I was surprised because just a week prior the colors were barely getting started. We ate lunch at the Iron Door. On the way down, there was a fatal accident involving a motorcyclist.
10/28: I went back up to Mount Lemmon. I decided to do the Marshall Gulch trail for the first time. I was glad that I did. It was a tough hike, but the colors were amazing about halfway through. I thought that the trail did a loop, but I was mistaken because it actually joins with another trail to make a loop. So I got a little confused when I got to the end of the trail and couldn't figure out where to go from there. I saw where other trails hooked up to it. I decided to go back the way I came on the Marshall Gulch trail. On the way back I followed a couple of other hikers who continued on a lower "secret trail". It was harder to navigate, but was a little nicer being lower near the water, leaves and out of the sun. If there were more water, you would be crossing the "stream" more during this hike, but there was only a little water flowing this day. It was nice, though, because at one point I took a short video clip of the Fall colors, the leaves falling from the trees and the sound of the water trickling. I stopped at Bear Wallow on the way back down because I really wanted to see how the colors were there, too.
10/31: I went back to Apple Annie's/ I did a corn maze for the first time! I chose the easy one. Their clues didn't really help.
11/2: Donna Collins gave me a Nothing Bunt Cakes pumpkin spice cake and Tiffany Campbell-Cornwell gave me a bunch of sloth pens!
11/5: I went back up to Mount Lemmon to see the last of the Fall colors. I went to the very top where there were still some yellow aspens. It looked like they had the road to Marshall Gulch closed for construction so I didn't go there. I went back to Bear Wallow. There were a lot more leaves on the ground which was actually pretty in itself.
11/7: I went to Pima County Cooperative Extension Gardens and Green Things Nursery.
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