6-30-12

Me: Pool time!

Abbie, Mike and Nancy hiked Superstition Mountain this morning (a tough 4 hour trek) and Bob and I rode 100 miles. All of us needed some cool water therapy afterwards!

PS: You can see the finished textured & painted walls in our yard now. It turned out nice!

6-29-12

Me: I do like picking out paint colors, but why is it so hard? The paint swatch never matches how the color appears on the wall. It's frustrating! So there are 6 different gold-ish colors on the wall (I painted 3 colors twice). Three are left over samples from the condo, one is from a friend, another from my sis-in-law and a new color we just bought. I have my favorite, Bob has his, Nancy & Abbie each picked one and a girlfriend stopped by and wrote her favorite up on the wall (ha). What is your choice?

Next decorating item...

The tile we have laying on the floor is our top choice for tile. It's really unique and looks like distressed wood with some interesting stone appearance mixed in. There would be 1/16 inch grout line between the tiles that would blend in nicely because of the color variation in the tile. The whole 1st floor would be this & it would be stunning, hide the dirt and go with our various furniture pieces.

Our other thought is to not lay tile and just keep the exposed concrete. We would finish the concrete with a stain or paint plus a clear coat. This could look really cool with the imperfections bringing a lot of character. We're not going to do anything right now with the floor - only gathering ideas and thinking about it. What's your opinion?

6-28-12

Martin: Bit of a foggy start to the day.

Me: Bob and I are watching Lily (Janna & Andrew's dog) until Monday. Lily was shedding a lot of hair so Abbie (my niece who recently moved here from Des Moines, IA) and Nancy (Abbie's mom) stopped over to help brush her out. By the end of her grooming session we had filled a 1/2 trash barrel full of hair! Then we gave Lily a shampoo bath. I think she's feeling a lot better, especially on hot days.

6-27-12

Martin: Good winter's day for the soccer and the ground had held up well to the rain over the previous week.

Me: Blue Blunder. :-/

I've never painted a room blue before, until now. My favorite color is green and I love golds. In an effort to get paint on our walls and while trying to be daring in decorating, I pulled the trigger on the above. I do like blue, just not convinced this is right (I envisioned more of a grayish blue). However, the whole room is done. :-(  I think once I get drapes and have complimenting cushions on the window seat I might like it, I hope. For now it's just, well, too baby blue. The good news: its only paint and we can always redo it. Anyone feel like grabbing a paint brush and visiting us? We have a nice blue guest room you can stay in! :-)

6-26-12

Martin: Ruth's sister had the fire going when we dropped over the other afternoon. At least the snowfields are benefiting from the cold spell.

Me: Bob reading Kavan a very interesting story.

6-25-12

Martin: Storm front drifting in from the direction of the coast.
Had a little bit of hail out of it.

Me: Evening walk.

6-24-12

Me: . Yesterday's pic taken at Windy Point, 1/2 way up Mt. Lemmon.

6-23-12

Uh, Martin - you're slack'n. :-)

Me: Our friend, Bill enjoying a rather gigantic cookie and ice cream at Summerhaven, top of Mt. Lemmon. 11 of us went to Tucson, biked to the top of Lemmon, enjoyed snacks at 9000 feet and then cruised back down to the heat. Another good day getting in 86 miles and 10,500 feet of climbing.

6-22-12

Me: I tuned in on-line to a live chat with Rebecca Roush. She is the 2009, 2010 and 2011 female winner of the Leadville 100 race in CO. She is also 3x 24 hour world champion cross country mountain biker and her resume keeps going. I discovered she was having a live question & answer session about endurance racing today. She even got to the question that I asked about tapering before a race. Cool. I didn't get to watch the whole hour but what I did hear was interesting and helpful.

The car is packed and we're heading to Tucson tonight. About 10 of us are biking Mt. Lemmon tomorrow. Back to the nice cool air at 9000 feet! Awww.

6-21-12

Me: Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

Recipe: Throw 2 cups frozen strawberries & 2 cups frozen bananas in the Vitamix. Blend and serve. Delicious!

6-20-12

Me: Harley doesn't like visiting the vet. She shakes terribly as soon as we park & realizes we are at the doctor's office for her. Then she puts her tail between her legs and hides under the chair in the waiting room. Good news is she got a clean bill of health and a few treats for being brave.

6-19-12

Me: Another Rattlesnake! :-( This time in our neighbor's yard (thank goodness, but still). This one was a Diamondback and pregnant with baby rattlers (according to the snake catcher), yuck. I just DON'T like snakes and especially in our yard, next door or anywhere near by. Ok, how does that work when we live in the desert, right on the mountain?! Truly, I know it's their home and as long as we don't bother them, they shouldn't bother us. However, you guys are kinda crossing the line lately! Mostly, don't bother our little Harley girl. Thanks!

Photo: Trying to use water spray to get the snake in the trash bin. Didn't work. Snake guy got there soon after.

6-18-12

Me: We've had a crew of guys working really hard in the heat for 3 days. They are stuccoing our exterior cinder block wall and building a 1/2 wall around the pool equipment. It's looking good!

6-17-12

Martin: Much of the same.

Me: Happy Father's Day!

My father-in-law is in Marquette, MI now. Bob and Pat along with their crew are 1/2 way through their cross country Model A tour. They always have a good time. Wishing my wonderful father-in-law a super Father's Day!! I'm glad you're in my life and thankful for the role model you've been for my husband. I hope you had some ice cream to celebrate!

To my Dad...miss you so much. Thanks for being the best father! You worked hard, played hard, loved God, your family and provided a joyful upbringing on an Iowa farm. I was always proud to be your daughter and thankful you're my Dad. I love you!

6-16-12

Martin: Clearing afternoon.

Me: Mt. Lemmon - woo hoo!

Bob, Kaylee and I rode Mt. Lemmon today. 87 miles and 10,700 feet of climbing. Nice cool weather, pine trees, and a cookie shop stop at the top. Great training ride for Leadville!

6-15-12

Martin: Nice winter's day.

Me: Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Today, June 15th is mom's birthday. She turned 85 and had a good day celebrating in Iowa with family and friends. The above photo is actually from her 80th birthday. Mom with her siblings; Warren, Janet, Mary and Sonja.

Love you, Mom!

6-14-12

Martin: Nice morning for a soccer match.

Me: We just got back from Nello's where we ate pizza with our nephew, Mike and our friend, Mark, his wife Heather and their 3 boys; Micah, Huxley and River. Micah is 6 and he drew me this picture. He said it's me riding my bike and he signed it Love, Micah. I think it's awesome and fridge worthy! Bob thinks it looks like the profile for the last hill in our upcoming Leadville race in August. Steep! 

PS: Mark and Heather told us that Micah has two fish at home. One fish is named Speedy and the other fish is named Jane. Ha, I like that kid! :-)

6-13-12

Martin: Lining up in the rafters for a bite to eat on a wet afternoon.

Me: Here's an old photo of Harley after we had brought her home from the animal shelter. She was 6 months old. Now She's 7 years old and according to our vet is considered a "senior". Boo hoo...I don't want our little girl to grow up.

6-12-12

Martin: Rain put a halt to the flower bed construction... turning into a swimming pool instead.

 Me: I've been needing a desk so today I looked on Craig's list and found this beauty. Ok, maybe it's not a beauty but it's pretty cool. $35 and solid wood. We called over our nephew to help lift and maneuver it up our tight stairway. Wow, that was no easy job - great job, guys! The desk is old (we believe from 1937 as it's stamped in the hinge) and even has a typewriter pullout shelf on the left side. I guess I'll search for a typewriter at the next garage sale. :-)

6-11-12

Martin: Transferring a pile of soil to the back garden to construct a flower bed outside the back door.

Me: Our pet rattlesnake...NOT!

Saturday Night: Bob lets Harley out in the yard around 9:00pm. She immediately goes towards our front gate when Bob hears something that sounds a LOT like a rattle. He yells, "Harley, COME HERE!" She actually listens and comes right back in. Bob grabs a flashlight, goes back outside and sees a rattlesnake coiled by the sidewalk next to the water hose. I'm freaked out, Bob grabs a shovel (to kill it) and Harley sits worried inside. Our better judgement wins and I call the Snake Whisperer. Nice guy shows up in 20 minutes and catches the snake. Phew! Afterwards we get a brief education on the Mojave Rattlesnake - the kind of snake captured. Different from the Diamondback, the Mojave's poison attacks the nervous system and shuts down your organs. A Diamondback's poison attacks the flesh. The Mojave is one of the most toxic and if Harley had been bit she would not have survived. Oh man, we are so thankful Harley is ok. We took precautions today to help keep the yard free from snakes and we are giving Harley extra lov'n for being a good girl!

6-10-12

Martin: Overcast afternoon and calm.

Me: Kavan's first swim!

We had Janna, Andrew and Kavan plus our nephew, Mike over for a BBQ and swimming. It was Kavan's first time in a pool. He took right to the water and we all had a good time!

6-9-12

Me: I didn't make it to any garage sales today (instead rode 94 miles with Bob and a few friends). But yesterday we hit the jackpot at an estate sale! We found the very same patio set that we already owned (guessing it's from the 70's). The estate sale had a 3 seat couch, a 2 seat glider, 2 side tables and 1 small round table. All in perfect condition since they'd been inside a sunroom all these years. Well, you guessed it...we bought it! The price was already good but we bargained and got a great price. I'm thrilled! Our yard is definitely big enough to have this much seating and now it's all matching retro!

above photo: new couch & tables with the chairs we had.

 New 2 seat glider. So relaxing to swing on it.

The love seat and couch we already had.

6-8-12

Martin says his pocket camera is broken. Australia pics are on hold.

Me: Special bench.

Bob and I accomplished a lot today; we got the garage more organized, shelves moved around, laundry put away and this stone and rock bench put in place. This bench was a gift from my Mom and Dad (not long before my dad died). They found it here in Arizona and thought we needed it for our yard then (1999). It's simple yet clearly special for the memory it holds. We brought the bench out from storage today and as soon as we put it in place along our back wall, Harley let us know that she thought it was special too!