I can't believe January is almost over!

We decided to pay off the Grand Prix a few months early!  No car payments for awhile!

I went to the Desert Museum on 1/18.  I am hoping that going out that day is not what got me sick the following day.  I ended up with the flu.

Paul had it in his mind that he wanted to get a new dog last weekend.  We looked and looked online.  We came across one that interested in us.  There is a family here in Tucson and they are moving to Canada.  They can not take their dogs with.  I contaced them and Bella, their 4 year old female yellow lab, was still available.  We went to go meet her last Saturday, 1/19.  We found out that they actually had 5 dogs.  2 were going with family, one was going with them because it is 13 years old and the other 2 needed a home.  Yes, 2!  We did not want to separate them so we took them both!  Tulla, is 5 years old.  They think she is a Shar Pei mix.  I think she may even have some Pit Bull in her.  But, she is the sweetest dog.  Bella is a little difficult, but she is a good dog.  She is a big girl and probably needs to lose some weight.  Of course neither one of them has been eating all that much since we have had them.

So Paul had off on Monday and started to feel sick that night.  He ended up staying home from work on Tuesday.  He came home early from work every other day during the week because he still was not feeling well.  When I went to pick Nathan up from school on Wednesday he, too, was not feeling well.  It is now Sunday, 1/27, and we are all still recovering.  We are hoping Nathan is feeling well enough to go back to school tomorrow since he had to miss on Friday.  Of course it is supposed to be rainy and cooler tomorrow so that does not help much.  It rained all day on Saturday.  We stayed in most of the weekend trying to get better.   

My birthday is officially over

We had a nice Christmas, other than me being sick.  Nathan is one spoiled little boy!  We also got a birthday cake for Jesus.  Since mommy's birthday was shortly after Christmas, we had a lot of birthdays in a row (Nathan, Jesus, Mommy).  So now Nathan thinks it is time for daddy's birthday!

On 12/29 I went to Reid Park Zoo to celebrate Sundzu, the baby elephant's 2nd birthday.  Afterward I stopped at the Tucson Botanical Gardens to take pictures of the butterflies.

New Years Eve we did not much, but Paul and I did stay up until midnight to ring in the new year.  I could list a ton of new year's resolutions, but they are actually all things that I have strived for in the past.  The first and foremost being to eat healthier, exercise more and lose more weight.  I have done well so far doing my bike.  The eating better part not so much yet with my birthday and finishing up holiday treats.  I would love to cook more at home and utilize all of the recipes I have been keeping.  We also plan to scan a bunch of my mother in law's pics and in the process we may finally get to some of ours as well!  The list goes on...

New Years Day we drove to Bisbee so Nathan could play in the snow.  Nathan made a snow angel and we all made a snowman.  Then we ate at a cute pizza place in town where they had the best chocolate canolis!  That evening we went to dinner at Vivace to celebrate my birthday a little early.  The food was very good.

On my birthday, Paul went back to work and Nathan was home with me since his school was still on break.  Not a very exciting birthday...which is why we extended it out and celebrated for several days.

Nathan had his 3 year checkup at the pedi's office on January 3rd.  He weighs 33 1/2 lbs (60%) and is 37 3/4 " tall (50-55%).  She was very pleased with his speech and the rest of his development.  He was well behaved, too!

Yesterday, 1/5, we went to the Wildlife World Zoo.  I really enjoyed myself and took a ton of pictures.  Nathan liked the train ride and boat ride.  Then we went to the Phoenix Zoo that evening for their Zoolights.  It was ok, but too crowded for my taste.  I can say I have experienced it, but I doubt we will go back.  One reason that I wanted to go was to see their light show set to the music of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. 

Today we went to church and then ate lunch at Grimaldi's using my birthday coupon for a free pizza.  My birthday celebration is now over.  I was not so excited about my birthday this year because I am quickly approaching 40 and I felt I had little to show for my life thus far.  However, in the new year I have been trying to keep a positve attitude and I am working hard to be happier.   

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.

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!  

Where do I start?

We have been really busy lately.

Let's start with today.  Looks like Obama got re-elected.  I can't believe that our country would re-elect him.  It scares me for the future of America.

Now let's go back to 10/18.  I took Nathan to Reid Park Zoo.  It is still an adjustment now that I am letting him walk around with me instead of sitting in the stroller.  Keeping tabs on him makes it more difficult to take pictures, too (which is why I often go there by myself when he is in school!). 

10/20 we went to Boo at the Zoo at the Phoenix Zoo.  We did it last year, too, so we knew it would be a fun day.  Boy my feet hurt after walking around that zoo, though.  It is so much bigger than Reid Park Zoo.  That night we stayed in Scottsdale.  The next morning we drove to Clarkdale and took a train ride at Verde Canyon Railway.  It was Nathan's first train ride.  It was pretty, particularly with the red rock, but we were a little disappointed.  We did not see a lot of Fall colors nor much wildlife.  They told us we might see eagles, but we didn't :(

10/26 & 10/27 I did a Photowalk at the Desert Museum.  This was my first time doing one so I was excited.  It was good, but I was disappointed.  The behind the scenes stuff was not really geared toward photographers so I think they could of come up with some better photo opportunites for us.  I got to see the raptor free flight show and I learned how to shoot in continuous mode which helped.  I also learned how to force the flash on my camera and the flash helped me in the hummingbird aviary.  However, the instructor advised us to always use the flash at zoos due to diffused lighting, but I have found that it does not work well for me.  For now I will stick to the auto setting!

After the Photowalk we drove to Williams, AZ.  We stayed there overnight and got up the next day to go to Bearizona.  Love that place!  It started our cold, but quickly became a beautiful Fall day.  They fed some of the animals pumpkins and we got to take the open air bus ride.  I used my flash most of the day and after the fact I realized that many of my pictures did not turn out well because of it.  However, I took like 500 pictures so I did get some good ones.

After Bearizona we headed home via Sedona.  We were hoping to see some more Fall colors.  We saw a little, but it was not as pretty as it was last year when we went.  We stopped in Sedona to have lunch before driving the rest of the way home.

On Halloween, I went to Reid Park Zoo where they were feeding most of the animals pumpkins.  I particularly liked the elephants and the lions.  The elephants stomped the pumpkins with their feet.  The lions were playing with the pumpkins, even in the water.  I made another photography mistake that day because I forgot to turn the flash off when I was shooting pictures of the lions  through the fence.  I am learning the hard way what not to do! 

That night we got Nathan dressed up in his doctor costume to take him trick or treating.  We headed out, but he did not want to go up to any of the houses to ask for candy.  So daddy walked him around the block while I started handing out candy.  When they got back they helped hand out candy.  I think Nathan got a kick out of all the kids dressed up and giving them candy.  We ran out within an hour and a half and I thought I bought more this year than last year.  We get tons of trick or treaters!  It is still hard to get used to since we did not get any when we lived in our townhome in IL. 

On 11/3 Nathan and Paul had a father/son day.  They went to Empire Ranch and Parker Canyon Lake.  I stayed home to clean and go through pictures.  I feel like I did not make much progress with either! 

I miss Nina!

On 9/28, I went to Reid Park Zoo.

On 10/1, I went to the season opener of the butterfly exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

We went to Apple Annie's Pumpkin Farm on 10/6.  We always enjoy our time there picking apples, going on the tractor ride to get our pumpkins, enjoying pumpkin ice cream, getting fresh tomatoes and other veggies to take home, etc...

On 10/8, I went back to Reid Park Zoo.  It was somwhat uneventful for me that day so I stopped at the Tucson Botanical Gardens on the way home and took pictures of the butterflies again.

10/10/12 - One of the hardest days of my life.  I took Nina to a scheduled vet appointment to get her bordatella shot.  However, she had been having trouble breathing for a couple of days so they did some x-rays.  She had a lot of rocks stuck between her stomach and intestines and she had severe heart disease.  I made the difficult decision to put her down that same day.  I cried my eyes out.  Nina was "my" first dog.  We adopted her on 5/17/03 shortly after we got married.  We drove to Michigan to get her.  She was 3-4 years old at the time.  Thus, she lived to be about 13 years old.  She had numerous health problems that were developing over the last couple of years.  It is still hard to believe she is gone.  I have had a dog all of my life.  I want another dog and I want my son to grow up with dogs.  Paul does not want another dog, though.  He says he likes dogs as long as they are not his own, meaning he does not want the expense, the dog hair all over the house, etc...  My first choice would be a golden retriever mix, but they tend to be larger dogs and I would prefer a medium sized dog.  There are some golden retriever rescue groups in the area, but they seem to have mostly older dogs.  I want a younger (but not a puppy) female dog who will be with our family for many years.

I attended another photo safari at Reid Park Zoo on 10/13.  The problem was that I showed up on the wrong day!  I was signed up to go on 11/3, but I had both days written down in my organizer.  I had scheduled it a long time ago so I did not remember to take off the October date on my calendar.  They let me stay, though.  I did not get many good pictures this time around. 

After I got home from my photo safari and after Paul got his flat tire replaced, we took a drive to Sierra Vista and went to Ramsey Canyon Preserve.  I did not realize what I was getting myself into.  I had no idea it would be an uphill hike and I did not wear the right shoes for it.  But, I made it all of the way to the top.  On our drive out we even saw a momma and baby deer.

Nathan misses his grandparents!

On 9/12, I went to Reid Park Zoo. 

On 9/16, I fainted getting ready for church.  It took me all day to recover from it. 

On 9/17, I went to Reid Park Zoo again.

9/18-9/25 my parents were in town.  We took them to Mt Lemmon on Paul's birthday, 9/20.  We ate at the Cookie Cabin and then we went up to the top for a ski lift ride.  They claimed they had never been to the top.  For dinner, we went to Trail Dust Town.  On 9/23, we went to Tombstone after church.  The purpose was to see the new Harley Davidson store.  Paul and I got to go on a date night on 9/24.  We used a Groupon and went to dinner at Lodge on the Desert.  We thought it would be a little fancier and the location is not the greatest, but the food was great.  I loved the cream of garlic soup and I got the pan-speared chicken breast with tamari butter sauce and roasted potatoes.  Topped off with a prickly pear lemonade!  Paul got the tamales.  Grandma and grandpa left on 9/25.  I think Nathan really misses them.  He seemed to love having them here.  It is almost as if no time or distance has separated them when he is with his family from Chicago.