Ah-Mazing

Isa made me take her to the movies this morning...
She isn't quite old enough for Friends with Benefits...

So we watched Crazy Stupid Love.

It was amazing.
As in CLEVER. And GENIUS. And WITTY. And SOOOO GOOOD!

Steve Carell is the best.
I love anything with Emma Stone; she's fantastic.
And Ryan Gosling?! Hubba Hubba.

You need to go see this movie.
I am going back for round two next weekend with my parents.
It's THAT good.

Me, me, me...

I've been so super busy. I think.
I am not sure, if someone asked, I could remember what I've been up to the past few weeks.

A lot of work, I suppose.
And those pesky kids.
:)

I know today, I signed up for the Great Recovery. I am sure you've heard of it. Maybe.
We've followed Dave Ramsey for a while, but since purchasing the house - we've fallen off the wagon a little.

Time to get back on. :) Especially since I just took on $325 more in reoccurring debt each month: Isa's braces and Nic's pre-Kindergarten tuition. Fun.

No more Chipotle for me.
Such a shame.

P.S. My camera is back - safe & sound. Just in time for back-to-school pictures!

It's Official

I miss my camera.
But that isn't the reason for this post.

It's official!

Nic is officially registered in Pre-Kindergarten... He starts August 8.
He will go on Monday's, Tuesday's, Thursday's, and Friday's from 12:30pm until 3:30pm.
Are there supposed to be apostrophe's on the end of the days of the week? Hmph.

We picked up Alex's schedule and books today. Spent $150 in fees and yearbook...

I promise he hasn't failed Freshman English twice before. He had to drop it the first time around and then didn't do so hot during summer school. Thankfully, he only needs to take the first semester of it - he passed second semester with no problems!

But look how hard he has it - he has to take TWO English classes at the same time. I hope he's learned his lesson.

The kids and I went school supply shopping last week - and we are done! Now it's just about getting them organized (which will last all of one day)... and ready to start a brand new year!!

All three kids will be in school this year - one way or another - I could get used to this. =)

Nasty Gram

Well, we made it just about 10 months - I so for sure thought we'd be free and clear during at least the first year.

Nope. We received our first Nasty Gram from our HOA.

They don't like the decorative iron wall hangings the husband hung up for me last month.

They told me to read through the 61 page CC&Rs to determine "why."

Seriously?!

Well, the closest thing I can find is window coverings and altering the appearance of the house. They say we need prior approval.

Hmph.

I am going to send them this picture and say "Pretty Please!"
And if they say no, I am going to get nasty right back (holding back ugly; I don't want to get fined or anything! lol)... 

We are trying to make sure our yard is the nicest one in the neighborhood... We aren't leaving piles of junk or hanging weird neon signs.

This from the people who approved a heart-shaped grass area (our neighbor, five houses down) and who allow RVs to be parked on the street for long periods of time.

Hmph.

Just when I thought I was slowly climbing out of my mid-summer funk.

I hate nasty grams.

Bummer

So, I just dropped my camera off at Best Buy today to FINALLY take care of that scratch on the lens; the one that's been there for about a year now!  I found the receipt and the Geek Squad warranty information - I have another year left, but I decided to get it taken care of now - sooner, rather than later.

They are no longer selling the camera so they took it in to have it sent out. I should have it back in a few weeks sans scratch. Let us hope.

In other technological news, my home computer isn't hooked up at the moment. Which is a true bummer. Especially since it seems that Blogger has changed a bit. My work computer isn't displaying all of the icons and words and such. I hope I am doing this right! ;)

Well, it's Sunday - Marcos is off. Isabel is at a friend's house for a few days. I have grocery shopping to do...
Not much else is going on!

What's a Haboob?!

Such a fancy (albeit weird) name for a dust storm. In my last post, I mentioned that Monsoon Season was just about here.

Yesterday - it arrived.

This one above is near me.
The one below is near my parents.

And then in some areas of the valley - the rains came. We didn't see one drop here, but it's early yet!

The wind knocked down the canopies at the park across the street and added a HUGE layer of dust to everything, but other than that, not much damage to report from my locale.

Here is a link to some video shot by Channel 12 News:


People are saying this is the craziest dust storm they've ever seen in Arizona. The thing was 30 miles wide and swept over the entire east valley. I am not sure where it started, but my parents dealt with it - and we dealt with it. We live about 40 miles from them.

They are A and I am B:

If you were looking down at a map, Phoenix would be in the very upper, left-hand corner.

Just crazy.
Makes me wonder if this is going to be a Monsoon Season to remember...

P.S. All pictures have been borrowed from AZCentral.com - where they were uploaded to Facebook by local residents. And the map was from Google maps.

It's starting...

We had some monsoon like weather this weekend. The dew point has dropped - and we are just about there. We are actually seeing some crazy humidity. It does happen - and it's not just a dry heat.

Look at some of the shots I captured:

This first one is from Saturday evening, just before our 4th (er, 2nd) of July party. I have maybe 4 pictures of the rainbow - and during the last one Nic insisted on being in the picture! So you also get my dad's vehicle... and a bunch of other stuff. Sorry about that! ;)

This will be our first monsoon season out here. We are further out than ever before, with a lot of farm land and desert around us. Just seeing some of the winter storms (using the term lightly), I am afraid of what monsoon will bring! Thankfully, all of my trees are now staked!

I love me some storms - so hopefully we will be able to capture some great pictures. I just got my new Kodak Play Touch video camera (for work purposes), but I will def. have to test that baby out during one of our storms.

Independence Day - 2011

Or otherwise known as my favorite holiday ever.

Even if there isn't any gift giving.

In the many years since we moved to Arizona, back to our extended family, we've always celebrated the 4th of July in one of two ways; 1) At a local park & fireworks show or 2) At my Aunt Anita's house & pool.  This year, I had the honor of hosting my peeps at my house.

Joy!

The husband, kids and I cleaned up and decorated a bit - gearing for our 4th (er, 2nd) of July party!

I realized I don't have enough 4th of July decorations on hand.

Maybe I need to remedy that. I am sure the HobLob has some sales going on tomorrow. =)

We made do with what we had.

Here's a pic of my "mantel." I realize it's not a REAL mantel.

But I think I will use it as a place to dress-up for each of the holidays & seasons.

It may look different from last time. Or the time before that.

I like it this way, much better.

Here it is again - this time with more treats on it!

Like my licorice bouquet?! Name that movie.

And darn it - I think I ate 94% of those Hot Tamales.

And every.single.time I got a really HOT one, I told myself I wouldn't eat anymore.

The bowl is empty.

:(

On the menu?!

Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, potato salad, jalapeno coleslaw, chips and dips and dips and chips, and a green salad. Now, I will note that the salad bowl hardly had a dent in it. My peeps need to eat more greens. Oh well, the man I said "I Do" to and I had leftovers last night for dinner. We love us some ensalada.

Besides all of that food, we had an array of canned soda, water and bottles of crush.

My cousin also brought a few bottles of wine.

We don't drink - and I do not have a wine bottle opener.

Fail.

She's a clever one though - and she got the darn bottles open.

I do have some wine glasses in the house, she found those okay!

No need to guzzle and pass for those that opted to partake.

=)

By the way, someone needs to gift me a wine bottle opener.

Some more decor:

Finally - firecrackers.

You see, Arizona has had some HORRIBLE wild fires going on in the state as of late.

Our unincorporated county island decided to ban fireworks this year (our first 4th since the state law changed to allow them in the first place). We were bummed. But, since we already had a small pack of small-ish fireworks, we decided the kids could light a few.

The little ones loved the sprinklers.

I know. Sparklers.

But I couldn't get it right.

I took a few pics, but none really turned out. I am hoping the ones my cousin took look better -

and that he feels like sharing.

What I don't have pictures of is the pool time or the lovely desserts that followed.

People will probably thank me for that! ;)

All in all - the last of our guests left around midnight.

Isabel had a friend stay the night - we were all sooo exhausted, I am sure she was bored out of her mind!

Marcos and I didn't even wake up until 11:30 yesterday. Crazy.

What's crazier is the aftermath.

.... that's still waiting for me today.

I didn't lift one finger yesterday... unless it was to change the channel on the remote.

Thank gosh for leftovers and half grown children.

And thank gosh for our beautiful country, our rights, our freedom and for those that serve and protect it all!

Hope you have a beautiful day today!

Well... THAT didn't work.

And I will not blame Sherry or the tutorial. Instead, I will blame the ball to my chain. He rushed me on the second pic.
My FAVORITE pic. And now, it's a mess. I had to make some quick changes - to at least cover the screw-holes; I have people coming over tomorrow!!

So for now, horsey playing on the beach is put aside (I've seriously cried enough tears; no more!) and I've moved some things from our dining room to our family room and vice versa.

I moved the diamonds from the dining room...

and in their place I put the framed art that used to be on the family room wall.

I am not CRAZY about the outcome in the family room (looks too blah and bare),

but I love the art in the dining room - much better than the diamonds.

You can see the lost art in the mirror above. I have it sitting in the shadows so you can't see my failings it's flaws.

The sweetie pie (like how I changed my tune?!) said I could order the prints again, but this time we agreed to mount them on wood (an additional $60 per print, but probably totally worth it!).

P.S. Like my new star?!

I got two, one I mentioned in my master bedroom post and one for downstairs. Like my curtains?! - Just waiting for the husband to hang the ones in the family room - to the right of the star.
Come on husband... I've only been begging for like a week or so.

Hmph.