Visitors on the week-end

My nephew Erik and his two daughters were visiting Sharon and Arne this past week and came to see Drew on Saturday and spend the afternoon swimming in the pool. Kadin and Gracie are so brown compared to white Drew!! Darling little gals. Pictures are from that visit and also a picture of Matt and Drew visiting in Omaha two weeks ago and naturally a few pictures thrown in of Drew. He is sitting alone now but every once in awhile gets too excited and tips over! Hope everyone's week is going well.

Happy, Sad

Our town house

Mark and I have spent a lot of time fixing up the town house so I have included some pics of the new paint and new furniture. I went a bit dramatic on the paint but we both really like it. All I really have left to do is put up some wall decor and plant some desert plants in the patio and it is good to go! It is a perfect little second place for the two of us during the winter. I think we will really enjoy it. Megan and Andy also put in a security system so that makes me feel pretty comfortable living in the big city. The only trespassers I ever had to shoot before were raccoons and rabbits.....I didn't want to have to shoot anything (one) here so I really like the alarm system being in place. :-) I hope some of you come for a respite from the mid-west winters and stay for a spell with us in beautiful AZ winter temps! You can come now if you wish, but don't bring many clothes.......it is too hot to wear any. :-)

Home for the week-end

I was back in Iowa Wednesday afternoon through very early Sunday. (I had a 6:30 a.m. flight so left the farm at 4:15 a.m.....ugh!) It was so wonderful to be with Mark, dig in my flower beds, mow the lawn. I also took time out for all my yearly medical physicals so that took up some of my precious time there but all needed to be done. Mark and I also spent some time helping our good friends Jan and Clayton begin their move to a new home in town. They have sold the beloved farm with the pond but the upkeep on it was getting to be a bit of a chore for just the two of them. The place they bought in town is just awesome, though. It is HUGE and lovely. I am very happy for them. They have timber on each side and in the back so it is very private for being in town. This will make them a great home. I have included pictures from my long week-end. Some are from around our farm, some from the pond farm and a few of their new home in town. One picture shows cannas and zinnias that Mark planted while I am away. I thought that was very special that he did that considering they can be a lot of work. He is such a sweet guy, but everyone knows that! The picture of me in our golf cart shows me sporting a jacket........I cannot recall the last time I needed one of those items of clothing in Phoenix! The air felt even crisp.

Fun new toy!

Great time with Grandpa

Mark flew to Iowa yesterday after being out here for 12 days. I think he was tired when he went back.......I made him do too much getting the town house ready! He wouldn't have had to work so hard if he were not so talented at fixing things and cleaning! Again, it was tough to see him go but I see him again in 3 days so we can manage that, surely. :-)

Saturday we all went to the mall to get Drew's six month pictures taken. This little guy does nothing but smile all the time, but could we get him to do that in the studio? Murphy's Law in action I guess. Megan did get some good ones though and I have posted a couple here. Grandpa pushed his grandson all over the mall while she and I picked out the pictures. I think he enjoyed that.

Well, it is a Monday morning and I am back to babysitting Drew. Much, much easier than my past Monday mornings, heading to Ogden. This is much more enjoyable and less stressful. Now, as he gets older and starts crawling and walking, the stress level may rise a bit. :-) Oh well, hopefully the little guy will keep me active and young. Have a great week everyone!

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Drew gets dunked!

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Sad Drew....

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The first week of July

Busy......Mark and I have been that this week! He flew in on Tuesday, July 3rd and that is the same day we moved into the town house. One furniture store delivered our new king sized bed and furniture that exact day and also our dining room table and chairs. We went with a pub sized table and just love it. It is good with our long legs.....well his anyway. The sofa and love seat arrive tomorrow. That will be very good, as sitting on patio chairs in the living room isn't all that much fun! We bought Andy and Megan's 57" TV as they wanted to get a new Plasma. Maybe I should say Andy wanted a new plasma. :-) We had DishNet installed yesterday morning so we at least now have that to watch, if we had some spare time....... Wednesday we have Internet installed, thank goodness. I have been missing that greatly, thus the reason for very few posts this past week. Between all the installations poor Mark has been working hard at scrubbing floors, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning garage floors and patio floors. He has also been a godsend with his handyman persona on all the little things that need fixing, etc. While he does that I am painting all the rooms. It should look really nice when we get all finished. I will post some pictures of our "second" home when we get all done!

We spent the 4th working for most of the day but took a break in the late afternoon to visit Andy, Megan and Drew. They spent most of the time in the pool and I videotaped. Be watching for Drew's first dunking in an upcoming video. I wasn't too keen on daddy doing that but Drew took it just fine! It was worse on grandma. He begins swim lessons soon and that is a very good thing. A pair of two year-olds had near drownings this week-end, one is fine but they don't think the other will make it. How terribly tragic, and adults were all out in the same yard. Horrors......

Saturday night we took Sharon and Arne out to dinner at the Satisfied Frog in Cave Creek. Fun atmosphere and good conversation and good salad bar. We wanted to thank them for all the weeks of hospitality they have extended to us both while we awaited the town house to be empty. I think I will rather miss going up there every week-end and staying in beautiful Terravita! I will always visit often, though.

Well, that is what we have been up to here in the heat of the desert. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th. I, of course, must post a few photos I have taken along the way. :-)
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