Living Life, Valentine's and Snow

I am two weeks out from chemotherapy, and feel better every day.

I haven't posted because well...I've been busy living life!

Here are some random things that we've been doing:

Our old microwave died and we had to buy a new one.  Who knew that the packing would be such fun for two little boys?  

They enjoyed utterly destroying it with hammers, screw drivers and their own feet.

I can go to the park again with my family!  Here we are at a local park (Udall) - the boys rode their bikes while Bryan and I walked/jogged along behind.  (I mostly walked...I am much weaker than I want to be!)  And I greatly enjoyed the scenery of the Catalinas in the background.

Ben took our picture for Valentine's Day.  He forgot to aim the camera at Dad.

(I still have a double chin.  Thank you steroids.)

Then Sam took our picture for Valentine's Day. 

(I think we have budding photographers, no?)

Finally, Mom took our picture for Valentine's Day.  Thank you Mom.  

(We were at Macaroni Grill.)

Mom and the boys, also at Macaroni Grill on Valentine's Day.

At another park (Agua Caliente) on another Saturday.  It was a beautiful (though windy) day.  

I so love and appreciate being able to do things with my family again!! 

SNOW?  Did I mention that I live in TUCSON?  As in, Arizona?  I love the contradiction of a cactus being snowed on.

So my crazy Arizona-born boys wanted to play in the snow -- Arizona-style.  They had a blast!!

My desert bush - Texas Ranger (yes it needs trimming) - and our palm bush (tree?) all covered in snow.  There are supposed to be mountains in the background, but they disappeared for a while.

It snowed for about an hour!  But it was very wet, and didn't stick.  It's all gone now.  So sad.

That's all the excitement I can take for now.  

We're still cleaning up mud and sand from clothes, the floors, the bath tub after the boys' adventures in the snow.

Stinkin' Hot Friday

It was a balmy 106 degrees here in Tucson today.  At least, when we were outside, and these pictures were taken, it was 106.  Yes, you read that correctly, east coast/northwest people.  ONE HUNDRED SIX.

So, since it was such a nice day and all, we took a trip to Lowe's and then thought we'd do some yard work.  

Yeah.  I know.  We are SO SMART.

First we set up the pool for the kiddos.  Behold pure joy.

Then, since another plant died last year that I'd had in this big black pot, we bought another plant.  I think it's called "Pincushion Flower" or something like that.  I dunno...but it's PURPLE and it SMELLS PRETTY.  So that's all I cared about.  Oh, and it's supposed to be "hardy" for the desert heat.  Also a huge plus.

Part of my planter and also my vincas, which I confess I tried to kill last year, but they just. wouldn't. die.  So now I'm embracing them.  Yay, pink vincas!

The whole reason we even ended up at Lowe's in the first place, was to buy a little cilantro plant.  Because, well, remember the HUGE cilantro plant I had earlier this year?  I attempted to trim it down a bit a few months ago, and...well, I pretty much killed it.  All that's left of it is that tiny vine-y thing you see in the middle.

The lush plant on the far end is my mint, which is providing us with much-needed minty iced tea right now.  Then there's the poor little cilantro vine.  (Would you believe that both Home Depot AND Lowe's were out of cilantro plants?  I guess Arizonans love their cilantro.  I don't blame them.  'Cause it's yummy and we love it too.)

The plant nearest to the camera is our new tomato plant!  Bryan decided we should try to grow our own tomatoes.  We bought the Roma type, since that's what we like to use in our guacamole and salsa.  And pasta salads, and regular salads.  Pretty much everything.  Let's see if I can keep this one alive.

Bryan is building a new planter for my new bougainvillea bushes...he wanted to buy them for me; I'd been wanting them for some years now, and I thought it was the sweetest thing that he remembered.

This is true love, people.  Remember the 106-degree heat.  I told him he could wait to do it when it cooled off this evening, but no...he wanted to do it right then.  I love that man.  

And below are my new bougainvillea bushes!  Bryan bought three of them for me.  "Royal Purple", of course.  Everyone has pink around here - we had to be different!  

After planting my new Pincushion flowers and Roma tomato plants, Mama had to take a break:

This is one HOT Mama.  And I mean that lit-ra-lee.  HOT.  Note my red face.  Dirty fingers from potting plants.  Purple water bottle.  The wooden rocking dinosaur in the back agrees.  It was STINKIN' HOT.

We are enjoying our patio so much.  Bryan built it last year.  Yeah, he's pretty much amazing.  He laid the tiles, built the planters, built the shade...no, he will not build one for you.  He does have a day job.  ;)   But he'll be very kind and gracious about turning you down.  

Thanks for sticking with such a long post!  I put up my latest stitching project on the Cottage Stitch-a-Long blog too, if you're interested.  

Happy Weekend!  Happy June!  

Good Day

Well it’s a good thing that we lost our internet connection this evening, or I would never have uploaded the 100-some pictures that I took today.  I was just going to talk about how I’d taken so many pictures and was totally unmotivated to upload them so I could share, but since the internet was down, I realized there was nothing better to do!  So if this is posted on the blog – obviously we got our internet back.  There was a big rain-storm here this evening!  We saw it coming on as we left Texas Roadhouse and drove right into it coming home.  And for some reason, every time it rains here, we lose internet service.  And our phone line gets all crackly. 

Here are Bry and the boys outside Roadhouse...he had to take them out early because suddenly Sam was DONE being in the restaurant.  You can see the storm clouds back behind them:

 Here is the view we had coming home -- these are the Catalinas.  Beautiful!!

The boys and I had a fun day today.  Mama was in a little better mood than yesterday (though I’m not sure why, I didn’t get any more sleep than I did the night before) and I knew we needed to get out and do something fun.  So what do you do for fun in the summertime in Arizona?  You go to the mall!  We had lunch in the Food Court; Ben wanted orange chicken, which means Panda Express.  Then we played on the cars (the ones you put $$ in, except we don't :)) and in the play area....shopped a bit, went and looked at the water fountain (they love to see the water gushing), came home.  The boys were actually pretty well-behaved, and Ben was very obedient, even when he didn’t want to be.  So I was proud of him and happy to actually have had an enjoyable trip to the mall, for the first time in….oh, four years?  (How old is he now?)

As we were leaving the mall, we approach our car, and of course Ben is walking, and I’ve got the stroller with a sleeping Sam in it, our bags, my water bottle, soda, and the two sippy cups.  We’re traveling heavy.  And this dude in a sleek sports car pulls up behind me and decides that he’s going to WAIT for my spot!!  I thought, “Dude, you’ll be waiting for a while.”  I learned a long time ago to not let these people stress me out or make me hurry.  You cannot hurry a 3.5-year-old.  So as I get Ben in the car, then our bags, our many cups of beverages (because it IS summer here in AZ)…Dude starts to rev his engine.  I thought, “Really?”  I ignored him.  Ben noticed, of course – Mr. Observant.  “What’s that sound?”  So I tell him it’s the car’s engine, and then the Dude pulls away finally.  I get sleeping Sam in the car, and a few other miscellaneous items that have fallen out of my purse and the diaper bag into the stroller, and Dude comes back!  Now, I promise you, I did not have the most stellar parking spot.  There had to be others available that were either just as good or better.  But now I think Dude was on a mission.  So I get my stroller in the car, and finally myself in the car, and Dude keeps inching his car closer – as if that is going to hurry me up.  I was not trying to go slow – but when I’ve got two kids, many bags, a stroller, and it’s about 100 degrees with 80 percent humidity – I am not able to move quickly.  And Dude apparently has time on his hands, because he’s at the mall at 2:00 on a Wednesday afternoon in his sports car.

He didn't bother me a bit, though -- I found the entire situation amusing.  Reminds me of an article that a friend recently shared on FB, and then I shared it, and all my mommy friends were so happy.  Here is the link: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-is-a-calling-and-where-your-children-rank#.TicFhJ5AhTl.  Children are a low priority to most people -- and as a mother, I am not going to apologize for having my children out in public and for people having to "wait" on them.  We are always kind and friendly!  Anyway the article is about more than that -- read it, fellow mommy -- you'll be blessed.