Crazy May Weather

This is one for the record books, I am sure!  We have had more rain in one day in May than we have had all year so far!  And the last few days it has been crazy with hail, then a touch of blue and the sun peaks out, then the sky turns black and we have the heaviest rain and even more hail.

I was driving down the road on Wednesday morning and all of a sudden there was all this white stuff on the side of the road, I thought it was foam from someone washing a  car, or from an oil spill and then heavy rain!  However as I turned the corner the whole road was covered in white and I realized it was all from hail.  OMG!!  This is May, what is going on?  This picture was taken on Thursday and I was over at Dina's house (my old house!) and I popped outside to grab a picture of all that white stuff in the flower bed!  YES, that is a Moose in the front flower bed!!  A donation from Papa Bill's yard.  I think maybe he is trying to 'clean' house and get rid of 'stuff', so he gives it to family members.  We love getting things like this from him!  I was the lucky recipient to get another "Madonna" carving (the first one I received years ago stayed at the old house!) and this new one is currently sitting in front of our garage because we haven't landscaped our yard yet!

Does it look like "Madonna with Child"?  I must admit to some of us thinking it was "ET" because it was back in those days that we received our first carving!  But we treasure it and even more so knowing that it is meant to be Madonna with Child!

This sculpture does not have a permanent home yet, either.  But it is going to sit in front of our house.  It is called "Stump Art" and yes we did pay money for this!  A person in Aurora does fabulous work with stumps and logs that are sometimes flowing down the river and he is able to snag them.  He designs whatever the wood is calling him to produce.  Depending on whether you see the front or the back, it could be several different things to the eyes.  One thought it was a buffalo, myself, I see more like a dog, coyote type creature.  This piece of art grabbed Scott by the collar and wouldn't let him leave until he purchased it!!  So when we get it in it's permanent place, I will take another picture because I think with rocks and plantings around it, it will look fabulous!

Birthdays

Tristan is ONE YEAR OLD!!

His Mommy was so smart to take off his shirt before giving him his birthday cupcake! From the looks of it, he enjoyed it although he did not enjoy getting cleaned up after eating his cupcake!

The Great-Grandparents love being included in the celebrations of birthdays.  Tristan was one on May 1, Lacey was 31 on May 17 and Jalen was 3 on May 20.

Jalen is THREE YEARS OLD!!  Yes, it is a "Monkey" cupcake, aren't all little boys "monkeys"??  They sure act like it!

At Nana's house he got a "Go Diego Go" cake and he was so excited to have that cake, he could barely contain himself and his little fingers from dipping into the icing and grabbing the 'car' that Diego was sitting in.
And Nana and Papa Snook came through with a new bike for him and his own LaCross stick because his older sister Ellie plays LaCross and he loves to do everything that his sisters do!

Arizona Flowers

Do you remember the picture of the cactus that had all the buds?  You would have to scroll down to find it, so I will post that picture again for you and then I will post a picture of it with a lot of the buds opened!  A friend took this picture and sent it to me because I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be in town when it opened.  And sure enough, the morning we left, it opened later that day.

And another random cactus blooming that our friend sent to us...the color is so rich and vibrant...LOVE IT!

The late spring is the best time to see all the cactus blooming...although I guess it might depend what kind of weather the area was having in the winter and early spring.  This year 2010, was a very wet winter for the area and much cooler temperatures than average.  If you want to see the desert in it's full glory, than May is the time to go.  I know that for me, I only thought of the desert as being a place with cactus and rocks and brown looking plants.  I had no idea there was such beauty in this place!  And did I tell you that I spotted a red cardinal this last time?  They are way to quick for me to get a picture, even if the camera was sitting in my lap waiting for me.  But they are so much fun to see!  And we have so many quails too...those little critters will only get up and fly if they are in dire need of saving their lives!  I love it when the babies are born and you see 10 little baby quails following the Mama Quail...so cute!  We did see quite a few bunnies and baby ones too!  We heard the javelinas getting into the trash receptacle on the 13 tee box on night at 10 pm, but we wer already in bed ad didn't feel like getting out and finding the flash light to see them!  Do you know Javelina's?  they are like BIG PIGS, however, no tail and they are more a gray, charcoal kind of color.  And they can be very mean and charge you, so you really don't want to get close to them!!

Our Street name Away from Home!

Another random picture...as we drive out of our 'development' our street address is 90th street.....EVERY other name in this development is 'Roadrunner'...Roadrunner Road, Roadrunner Lane, Roadrunner Circle, etc.  We end up with 90th Street!  I was so disappointed in the name.  No matter.  Anyway, when you drive down to the main road to take you out and about, the road is called Legend Trail (that is actually the name of the Golf Course and the name of the whole development...but within this development, individual builders had a section and named their own group of homes something...our is called Traditions.  Anyway, travel about 1 1/2 mile down the Legend Trail road and you run into Stagecoach Road.  We take Stagecoach to travel to our Mirabel Club to play golf, to swim and to eat some of our meals.  Just off Stagecoach is another road, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of it...it reminds me of home and you will understand when you see the picture!

And HE is the WINNER!

It has really been two full summers that Scott has NOT golfed very much at all.  With spending all weekdays building the house, he was often too tired to play on the weekends.  But now, he is back into it full swing!!  When we were in AZ, he had some lessons and practiced every day.  And it paid off...he played in the final tournament of the season (that is before all the 'snow birds' head home for the spring and summer).  It was called the Men's Three Club Tournament.  So apparently you get to choose only three clubs and that is all you get to take out with you to play the round of 18  holes.  I don't know too much about these clubs, but for Scott, he did bring his putter and then two other random clubs.  And he actually won!  That did a lot for his 'mental' game and feeling like he could get back into it again!  He said, "I haven't played this well in 20 years"!!  WOW!  I am glad that he has this activity to keep him busy and that allows him to do something he loves to do!  There was a time when he was way better than son-in-law Jamie, then with a lot of coaching from Scott, Jamie improved his game.  However Scott always...ALWAYS beat him with a better score.  The last couple of years there would be a time or two when Jamie actually won the round.  I think that might have been a bit depressing for Scott.  However he does understand that he is 60 and Jamie is 34...so there you go!

There are Cactus and then there are Cactus

Do you remember looking at children's magazines and they asked you to find the picture that is "different"?  Well, I think you would probably say this picture directly above is different than the other two because it has buds on it.  And you would be RIGHT!  However, the real reason it is different is because that is a true living cactus and the other two are actually 'CELL TOWERS'!!    Can you believe it?  I think that is such a wonderful way to provide the service, but keep with the environment!  They even have holes in the fake cactus just like the real ones where the birds have pecked out holes and made nests inside!  Have you ever seen a saguaro cactus blooming?  Each of those buds is a white daisy like flower.  It is so beautiful.  Unfortunately, we had to leave before they actually opened up, but it is pretty impressive!

Mother's Day Luncheon

This was the 6th annual Mother's Day Luncheon at our church.  We hold it on the Saturday before Mother's Day.  The Celebrate Life Ministry prepares all the food for the event and there is always a guest speaker to share a faith story.  We honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus during the month of May, and as a tradition in all catholic schools, one day in May, Mary is crowned with flowers.  I remember during my grade school years the May Day Procession and crowning of Mary.  It was quite an honor as an 8th grade student to be voted the May Queen to crown Mary.  And it just so happened I had that honor back in 1964!

During our luncheon festivities, we gather all the young girls who have come with their mothers or grandmothers and they each bring a flower to place by the statue of Mary and one girl gets to carry the crown that goes on Mary's head.

Last year when I was on my pilgrimage to Medjugorje to see the place where Mary appeared to 6 young people in 1982, we climbed Apparition Hill to the place where there is a statue of Mary at the exact spot where she first appeared.  We prayed the rosary going up the hill, then we spent some quiet time by ourselves.  After about thirty minutes we were preparing to head back down the mountain.  At that time, my friend from church and our bible study leader, Judy, asked me if I would consider telling my story about how my faith helped get through all the years of Lacey's addiction.  I waited until I got home to ask Lacey if she minded if I shared her story, she said no.  So I agreed to speak.  I spent the whole year praying to the Holy Spirit to give me the words and the courage to talk, because that is totally out of my comfort zone.  I was so afraid I would trip going up to the podium, or my mouth would be so dry I couldn't move my lips, I was imagining everything that could go wrong.  But I did it and it went fine.  I had two good friends join me for support, Becky and Liz from high school, and of course, both my daughters were there and my wonderful mother-in-law, Elsa.  Lacey invited her AA sponsee and her mother to this luncheon also.  There were about 190 ladies facing me when I got up to talk.
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It was an emotional day for many of us to relive this past however I pray that it brought hope to those who are living it now.

 After the big talk, the girls came back to the house to get a tour of the still unfinished house!

Hangin around the house

We purchased new bunk beds for the children's bedroom.  This hall bedroom has a queen bed and now the bunk beds.  The stairs up are so cool because each one is a drawer!  I must admit that these little hooligans let their creativity get away from them.  You can imagine my first rule...NO JUMPING from the top bunk to the queen bed!  I do believe they followed that rule, however they had to take off all the mattresses and bedding and build forts...I know, I know that is part of the fun, but really???  So I had to say, NO moving the mattresses, do what you want with the blankets.  Well, I believe those instructions landed on deaf ears!  While the top mattress was askew (if not missing!) a slat was broken....yes, so disappointing.  However it was a pretty easy fix for Papa, so we just asked that they NOT remove the mattresses.  This was the first time when we have all been together that all three older children got along fabulously.  It was so nice for all of us...must be growing up, ya think?

Now for the next story, I do NOT have a picture, and I really could just kick myself for not grabbing the camera, but you will realize why I had other things on my mind than a camera....So Lacey, Aaron, Tristan and myself were outside digging up a big plant that I wanted removed.  Dina was in the house making lunch to bring with us to the pool, the older kids were doing something in the bedroom.  Two toddlers were around and about.  After a bit I came in to rock Tristan, shortly Aaron came in to say they were all done digging out that plant.  I had just heard a noise that sounded like water, so I say to Aaron,  "Can you go into your bathroom and check it out I think I hear something that I should NOT be hearing!"  So he goes into his room and announces that no one is in there!  So we both say at the same time, better check the Master Bath!!  Aaron goes in there (cause I almost have Tristan asleep) and Aaron yells, "OH MA, we have a major problem in here!"  I knew I didn't like the sound I was hearing!!  So I go in as quickly as I can and naturally Tristan is awake and OMG!!! the whole bathroom is FLOODED!  I mean, seriously flooded, and this room is probably 10 x 6 and the water was into the bedroom carpet another two feet, and then into the toilet room!

Those two little toddlers decided to go swimming in the bath tub!  They had their clothes on and were just having a grand time all the while the water is flowing over the top of the tub (and this is one of those deep kind of bathtubs!!)  All the adults start grabbing towels to soak up the water, we get the kids out of the tub, screaming cause they wanted to stay and swim some more and we send them out of the room!  Addie turns around and comes back into the bathroom and says, "What happened, Mama?"  We all burst out laughing!  What happened indeed!  Addie and Jalen is what happened!

I could go on with more stories about those two..it was endless.  They loved all the rocks out in the yard and had a grand time throwing them all over the patio.  At one point when Jalen was about ready to dump rocks near the sliding glass door I heard Addie say, "Jalen Jack, blksiodjvnskdioejksdljal!!!!  (In other words, it sounded like greek to me, but I think she was telling him, DO NOT DUMP THOSE ROCKS RIGHT THERE!)  He of course had to YELL back, "NOOOOOO!!!"  And she countered with, "YEEESSSSSS!!!"
He yelled louder, NOO and she topped him with another YEES and on it went until there were tears!  Yes, that is pretty much how the week went...yelling and then tears.  We were happy to send them home and receive our next house guests...the first generation who goes to bed at 7:30 pm and doesn't yell and bicker or fight with each other!!  LOL

Family time in Arizona

Well, how can we go for three weeks and not have the whole family come down, too!  It was pretty wild with 12 of us in the house, and actually 10 of us were really pretty easy, but those two toddlers put us all over the edge!  First, they are not into sharing so much, so if one has something, the other wants it and will most likely either just take it away or push, shove, hit, whatever it takes to get what he or she wants!  And then come the tears and the melt down like you have heard before I am sure!  But two of them???  I was experiencing some serious sensory overload!!  LOL!!  (And as Scott was heard saying:  "Are you kidding me?")

And then to top it off, the weather did NOT cooperate with us, I think Arizona was and has been experiencing some of the strangest spring weather like the Pacific Northwest.  And although it didn't rain on us, well, maybe a drop or two, it was cold....I mean like the average temperature for that time of the year is 89 degrees, and now we had temperatures in the high 50's, maybe some 60's, but with the sun behind clouds and the wind blowing it was down right cold!

However, the kids came to play in the pool, so play they did, much to the chagrin of their parents!  They went from the hot tub to the pool and back to the hot tub.  Now you could count on seeing the parents in the hot tub, but no way were they going into the pool, so they made sure the little ones were staying on the steps!  The cooler weather lasted three days, then finally we had two really nice days of 80+ degrees where everyone got to enjoy the sun and the pool.

           Tristan and Lily getting ready to get into the hot tub at Mirabel!

               Jalen getting thrown in the air by his daddy
                

A New Eatery in Cave Creek

This eatery place is only new to us, it has been around for quite a while.  Scott was intrigued with the sign when we happened to pass it one day looking for a new BBQ restaurant.  So of course he could NOT get it out of his mind and we had to go try it out.  For the "parents" sake, I heated up leftovers and left them home while we ventured down the road to Big Earl's Greasy Eats!

Couldn't resist putting my face in that board!  What a hoot!!  And I can tell you that the hamburger was good!  Not too greasy....the restaurant is actually an old gas station, they have outside seating and a few tables inside.  I am sure we will be back to this eatery again!  As for the BBQ, we ate there, loved the meat, didn't like the sauce so much and did not like any of the sides...like beans or the potato salad.  However we did pick up some meat to take home and made our own sandwiches with the older folks and everyone liked that, although we did put our own "Sweet Baby Ray's" Sauce on the sandwiches.

Entertaining the Kids, big and little!

So what to do when the sun is not out, but we have 6 children that we need to burn off some energy?   We go to Cracker Jax!!  This is a fun place for kids and adults alike.  They have batting cages, a driving range, bumper cars for little ones, go carts for bigger kids, water bumper boats, bungee jumping on a trampoline, not to mention all the arcade games one could ever want to play!

The three older children had a blast with the bungee jumping, they were all doing flips, double flips and bouncing so high, it was so fun to watch them!  Addie, who barely weighs anything (I think her one year old brother may have the same weight as she!) had to have help with the bouncing.  Papa or Lacey would grab her leg and pull her down to hit the trampoline and give her a boost to bounce on up!  Jalen, who absolutely LOVED it last year, would NOT have anything to do with it this year!  Go figure!

Our Favorite Time of the Year in Arizona

Not only do we have the beautiful cactus flowers blooming, but we get to see A Great Horned Owl sitting in a big saguaro cactus with a couple of baby owls!  They are so darn cute!  And for a while Mama Owl sits in the nest with the two little ones, until they get a bit too big and there is not room for her!  So she sits nearby on some condominiums to keep an eye on her little ones.  This cactus was transplanted when they built the condos, but the Owl comes back every year to have her nest.  It is right on the side of the main road going through our development.  She causes quite the attraction, people are out all the time with their big zoom lenses getting close ups of those fluffy little baby owls.  Take a  look...I must admit to taking more than one picture myself, but I did try to spread it out over the three weeks we were there!

This is actually Mama owl and I don't think you can see the babies very well, but there are two of them!

                                                             Aren't they just too cute??!!

                                                          Mama owl keeping an eye on things!

Beauty from the Dessert

When one thinks of the dessert, one thinks of sand, rocks, cactus, dull colors like brown or grey and you might not be so inclined to visit a dessert place.  But let me tell you, it may not be like the Pacific Northwest, but it has its own beauty that can capture one's heart.

This is the Ocotillo with flaming orange/red blooms.  Perhaps it was because of all the rain this past winter, but the Ocotillo's were just beautiful.  The flowers at the end of each branch resembles the bird of paradise flower.

The yucca's were extremely prolific this year also.  In fact Scott hadn't remembered even seeing them before, but this time when we were here, they were all just in full bloom and the white was so white and just stood out so majestically!

This prickly pear cactus is along the side of our driveway.  I was so excited to see it blooming. 

When we arrived we actually had three agave plants that had bloomed.  We have never been home to see the actual flower, only the dried up brown stalk like you see above. 

Can you believe all the buds on this cactus?  This was not in my yard, (darn) but the thing about this cactus is that the blooms only last for a day and then they wilt...but can you just imagine how beautiful this will look in full bloom?  And each flower is probably  4 -5 inches wide...here is a close up from a plant that has only one flower blooming on it...