November Catch-up

Ava lost her first tooth, and she was very excited to use her tooth fairy set that she bought at the book store. It came with a little candle-light so that the tooth fairy knows whos room to come into, a little pillow for the tooth and a book all about loosing teeth!

This month we also had a lot of other fun things going on...We had friends over for dinner & poker. It was such a great time, that we decided to make it a more regular occurance! Here is a picture of the big winner, Karla....$6.00 in cold, hard cash. "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!!" I can't beleive we didn't take more pictures that night. Oh well....next time!!

We also got a new puppy... Velvet. She's a sweet little thing, a Weimeraner. Hefé is in doggy heaven now that he has a dog smaller than him around, although she will soon surpass him in the size department. Timber, well, I think he's still missing Heaven. They were like two bookends with eachother, but he's slowly warming up to Velvet.

Bye Sweet Heaven...

Today we had to have our 10 year old (well, almost 10) Weimeraner, Heaven, put to sleep. Heaven was the sweetest dog ever. She was old, and hadn't been doing well, but she started seizing earlier in the day and never stopped. André rushed her to the animal hospital as soon as he found her, but it was too late. The Vet said due to the length of the siezure and her condition, that the likihood of recovery was nil...so, we had to make the decision to put the poor baby down.

We were all pretty broken up about it, but Aidan took it the hardest. We burried her in the backyard, under a shady tree.

Timber is missing his friend as well, he looked for her yesterday after she was buried. He kept sniffing her bed and running around the house... We got Timber when he was 6 months old, and we had already had Heaven at that point - so he's been with her all his life pretty much.

Yesssssssssss!!!

I am beside myself with excitement and hope for America!!!

André sent me a text earlier today - someone sent it to him, and I don't know where it came from, but I want to share it:

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run; Obama ran so our children could FLY"

Wooo-hoooooooooooo!!!!!

He's A Man of Many Talents

He can fly a plane, with help from Big Sis of course!







He can play piano







He is an artiste, lol



Here is the first drawing :)

7 Years!

Yesterday André & I celebrated our 7 year anniversary... wow! At times it seems like we've been together forever, and at other times I can't beleive it's already been 7 years. Of course, we've known eachother much longer than that - more like 9 years, since we met in '99.

So anyway, I took the afternoon off of work and we went to a little pub called the Firkin & Friar in Tucson - OMG. The food was so good - I mean, who knew that a grilled cheese & a toffee apple martini could make a girl so happy? lol I'm talking, grilled cheese that had cheese oozing out the sides with a crust of crispy parmesan on the outside. MMMM. The drinks were great too!

After André had me good and liquered up, he talked me into letting him buy me a new car (hahahaha!). We are getting rid of one of our gass guzzlers for much hipper ride... a Scion xB. Sweet!

A funny story: Today we went to gas it up for the first time, after putting over 400 miles on it (yes, in two days!)...22 dollars. OMG. That many miles would have cost us at LEAST 50 bucks before. André actually yelped with pure joy and danced a little jig at the gas pump, lmao!

Here is a picture of the car (taken yesterday...) See, the '08 model is much more curvy than the older ones (thank goodness!)

Ashton's First Haircut

Pre-haircut:


André did a great job!


Ashton was NOT a happy camper...


The finished product - what a handsome little dude!

My 30th!

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later... I'm officially a grown-up. No longer a 'twenty-something', but a THIRTY year old. Oh my goodness. It sounds so authoritative, lol.

We started out the day with breakfast at a little French café that was recommended by our great friend, Karla. Thanks Karla - we loved Ghini's! (pronounced like Guinea...)



Then we did some shopping (Christmas shopping, not birthday shopping, lol)...woo-hoo!! No pictures of that though, sorry :) Then stopped by the post office to pick up a gift that my mom sent - a beautiful pink tourmailine necklace. Thanks Mom!!

Then some friends came down (the Cauldwell Family) and we capped off the day with a nice dinner (pasta & salad) which Karla - thanks again!! - cooked and brought down. We watched the Biden-Palin debate and played Palin Bingo. That was fun - everytime Silly Sarah mentioned one of her catch-phrases (maveric, air space, geez, ummm...you get the picture) you got to mark a space off on your bingo card. The first person to get 5 in a row wins. André was the winner.

Planting Time!

So, we finally got around to putting our vegetables in the ground. Above you see our Pepper Plant, Collard Greens, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower & Broccoli. Can you tell whats what? lol

I still want to plant an herb garden, but I can't decide whether to add the herbs to our existing garden, or create a container garden for them. Decisions, decisions!

We aren't done yet. We've still got some mulching to do, and I need to figure out why my sprouts are wilting... So, once everything is growing beautifully, I'll post another picture. Meanwhile, here are a few from planting day...

Oh, and I know you all want my hat!!

Plum Tuckered Out

The kids went to the Children's Musuem on a field trip Friday. Poor Aidan...they must have worked him good! He fell asleep sitting up at the counter


The he curled himself up on the barstool for the rest of his nap!

Big Week!

This was a big week for Ava & Aidan. They got school pictures back, had partent-teacher conferences, half-days at school and they got to visit with friends & family at Ashton's birthday party.

The conferences were pretty informative, and I am impressed with their school - especially the Community Services Department, which is in charge of the pre-school, Kindercottage and aftercare programs that the kids participate in. Ava's teacher told us that she is very mature for her age (big surprise there!! lol), she has mastered many of the skills presented and is a joy to have in class. Aidan's teacher had an equally glowing report for him, she just mentioned that he needs to learn to focus (again, big surprise!!).

So, they are doing great in school and they both love it.

We also got two new tortoises, who have yet to be named...I'll post pics and names when that happens... In the meantime:

Ava, Age 5


Aidan, Age 4

The little man is 1!

The Man


The 'Cake'


The Beginning


The MESS, I mean, the middle :)


The End!

How Sad

Tonight André discovered that one of our tortoises had died (we've had these two tortoises for about 4.5 years)... I fed him yesterday afternoon, so it must have happened sometime today :( We had two, one was large and one was smaller - it was our big guy.

We think he must have suffocated - Andre found him under a copper cover (the top to our fire pit) in the yard. He liked to hide in shady spots during the hot part of the day. Apparently, and obviously we don't know for sure, he went underneath it and it somehow got stuck - since he was pretty good sized he propably tried to get out and in the process knocked the whole thing on top of himself. Kind of like getting locked in a hot car :(

What a downer... we wanted to get another tortoise, and have one for each kid. Well, now we only have one. We'll see what happens, see if we get another one.

The picture...

A few people have asked where the 'about me' picture was taken... It's atop Mt. Lemmon. We went there to celebrate our anniversary last year - made a family date of it and packed a picnic. It was fun, and it's beautiful!!
Tucson rests in a valley between several mountain ranges, one being the Catalina's - which is where Mt. Lemmon is. It can be seen from all points in Tucson, and yet is like a completely different world. It snows, the leaves change, there are actual SEASONS... it's great.

I finally decided to do it...

Create a blog, that is.

This will be a place to unload - to good, the bad & the mundane...starting now!

So, summer is almost over and it's supposed to be almost 100 degrees today. How is this even possible? I want to wear sweaters and courderoys, but instead I'm in shorts and a tank...my point is this: André built a nice garden in the back yard - great raised bed, I can see it from my bedroom and the dining room. It's pretty, or it will be once we get or vegetables planted. BUT, it's still too hot for fall planting, and it's too late for summer planting. What's a would-be gardener to do? We have a little pepper plant, given to us by a friend. That's it. That pepper plant is my little pride & joy at the moment, but there is only so much love that you can give to a pepper.

Must. Plant. More. Veggies. This is my new mantra (until tomorrow, when it changes)

That's all for now - Baby Boy is intent on trying to turn off my computer. I guess that's his way of letting me know that my 10 minutes of alone time has come to an ubrupt halt.

Keri