It is September already!

The year is flying by, but I am glad Fall is coming.  I am so tired of his heat!

On 8/23, I took Nathan to the zoo.

Nina had her 6 month vet appointment on 8/25.  I discussed with them everything that is going on with her.  Her main problem is that she can't not control her bowels very well.  She has the cyst on her eyelid, arthritis,  cataracts, a heart murmur and she is probably close to 13 years old.  The blood tests did not show anything too alarming, but they found another lump on her leg and she has lost a lot of weight even though I did not start feeding her less until a week before her appointment.  They agreed that senility could be setting in and that something undetected like cancer could be starting.  Coupled with all of her other problems, they said they would support our decision to put her down if that is what we decided to do.  This has been a tough decision for me which Paul and I have been talking about for awhile.  He wanted to put her down a long time ago.  I did not want the decision to be a selfish one so I wanted to hear the vet's opinion.  Hearing that they would support our decision to put her down just made me break down in tears.  I called Paul and he said to schedule it in a couple of weeks so we could spend a little more time with her.  The ironic thing is that she has not been quite as bad since her appointment.  I had finally agreed to put her down, but now I am unsure again.  Feeding her less makes her have less accidents, but I also do not want her to lose more weight.  She has been slightly peppier and really enjoys when we are downstairs with her...even Nathan sometimes!  He used to bother her a lot when she just wanted to be left alone, but he has been a lot better recently.  We may wait until my parents come out later this month to put her down, if we are still going to do so.  Maybe I will see what they think when they see her.

On 8/29, I went to the zoo and to the Tucson Botanical Gardens when Nathan was in school.  I got some great shots of the new baby flamingo and of our female tiger in the water.  The zoo decided to share one of my tiger pictures on their facebook page.  I also found out that day that my prairie dog picture that I entered into a contest got chosen to be featured in their Autumn issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine. 

Paul decided to take off on Friday, 8/31.  We were going to enjoy a kid-free day while Nathan was in school.  We took both cars to get washed.  They had problems starting Paul's car again so they suspected it needed a new battery.  We had just replaced the battery on the Grand Prix a week ago!  On the way to Pep Boys to get the battery looked at, one of the windows broke!  We got the battery replaced and scheduled the window to be fixed the next day.  We at least got to enjoy a lunch together at Pappoules.  Later that night we drove to Oracle to eat dinner at Nonna Maria's.  They were closed for the holiday weekend!  I got some nice sunset pictures over there, though, and we ended up eating at Carlota's in Catalina.  I never saw Nathan eat so much.  He loves his chips and salsa and cheese quesadilla. 

On Saturday, 9/1, we got the window fixed fixed on the Grand Am and then went over to Breakers Water Park.  Nathan had a blast.  He is getting more used to the water and even liked putting his head under.  We are thinking he is ready for swimming lessons again.

Nathan had the BIGGEST temper tantrum after church on Sunday all because he could not take home some cars he played with in Sunday School!

Yesterday we took Nathan to the zoo for Labor Day.  It was crowded and hot!  I wanted to see the new baby zebra, but it was not out.  We also found out that Snow, the polar bear, died that morning.