The Continuing Storm Saga

At the end of last month, I told you about some crazy rainy and windy weather we've been having.  Well, here is the results of all that weather.

Doug decided it would be easier to drain the
pool than it would be to scoop ALL
those leaves out.  Plus, there were some
areas in need of attention.  So, while empty
Doug got to do some repair work.

And since most of the leaves were out of the
trees - mostly because they were in our pool,
Doug took advantage and trimmed out a
lot of those branches.  I should have taken
pictures of the branches we had to carry out
to the street for bulk pickup.  Crazy.

It's Been A Strange One for Weather

It has been a strange year for weather at our house.  First we got hit with that crazy hail storm - and then it was the strongest winds.  All night one evening you could hear the wind howling and blowing everything all over the place.  And, when we got up the next morning, we found that at least half of the leaves in our two trees by the pool had all been blown off the trees and all over the yard.  It was a quite a sight - and of course a huge cleanup job for the future.  Crazy wind I'm telling you.

Our entryway into the pool  Look at all those
leaves all over the ground.  You can hardly
see the grass.

I think our pool had more leaves in it than water.

And the Storm Came Rolling In

When I hear the weather men predict rain, I only believe them about 10% of the time.  And here, where we live, it can rain five miles from our house and we will have nothing but sunshine.  Even when we see those big dark rain clouds overhead, there is still no guarantee that we are gonna see anything from it.

So, last Tuesday when the rain came along, it was a little surprising.  And then when the hail was pounding down on our  house it was a little scary (please don't break any windows or roof tiles) and amazing.  Doug and I watched the entire storm from the front and back of the house.  We kept going back and forth between the two to watch.

Some of the things I remember from that day - our pool had waves in it.  Like totally visible waves jumping up out of the pool.  In a matter of moments, I was suddenly able to see sky through the tree where it had just been full of leaves.  I mean literally, I couldn't even see branches in it before.  I could barely see anything beyond the sidewalk in the front yard, or I should say, where the sidewalk is supposed to be in the front yard.  I could not even see the sidewalk.  There was so much water in the street that the sidewalk and a portion of the front yard were covered in swirling water. 

And then, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours later when we went to pick Ryan up from school, this is what our neighborhood looked like:

An uprooted tree in the neighborhood.  There were more of these than I could count.  Luckily, this one missed the house it fell next to.

A branch that was snapped off a tree and was laying on a fence.

At least 3 hours later, here is a pile of hail up against our house.

Doug had just started getting the lawn ready for winter seeding and fertilizing.  Underneath this tree it was nothing but brown dirt.  And then along came all the leaves.  If you look at the left side, you cannot even see the pool kool deck, it was completely covered with leaves.

A coworker of Doug's came to pick him up for work a couple of days later.  He lives about a 15 minute drive from here.  He told Doug our neighborhood looked like a war zone.  They got hardly anything at all - just some rain and no hail.

Happy Birthday to Doug

Doug's birthday is just before Halloween. This year, we carved our pumpkins on his birthday. So, we decided to wait and celebrate it the next evening - which was a Friday - and then we would have Halloween the next night. I planned it all out and didn't tell him what we were doing.

For dinner, Ryan and I made Hot Dog Mummies with chips. They were very yummy.

A close-up of one of the mummies:
The only thing Doug knew was to dress warm. We went to the first Howl-O-Ween at the Zoo. We got there a little bit after the opening time and actually had to stand in line for about a half an hour. I've never had to stand in line at the zoo before. The line did move really quickly. It was a blast! Here is a horse drawn carriage with a coffin in the back. The coffin was full of cereal samples.

The only animals we got to see were a couple zebras.

We did go on the Haunted Train Ride. It was totally cool. Along the ride there were different characters dressed up that would chase the train - they had a mummy, Frankenstein, a werewolf, and a Dracula. The guy that drove the train was pretty funny. At one point he asked if anyone got their blood sucked. It was pretty scary and fun at the same time.

AZ Science Center Free Weekend - Beware there are LOTS of pics

It has now been over a month ago - yikes! I can't believe it's taken me that long to get these pictures posted! After you see how many are on here, you will understand. And I only put the REALLY good ones on here! Just one day after we went to the Pumpkin & Chili Festival, we went to the AZ Science Center. They were offering a free weekend to Fry's VIP customers. Woohoo! I LOVE FREE!!!! We had a great time. It's actually been a couple years since Ryan
& I were there on a school field trip and Doug has never been before. They are always changing things up there. Many of the displays stay the same, but about half of them get changed up and rotated around with other museums so it's always fresh. Check out some of the fun things we got to do.

The music room, where you get to see music come to life!

This is a favorite display. You stand on this stage like area surrounded by large screens, wind machines, misters and even heaters to simulate the forces of nature. You get blown by the wind, you get rained on and have the heat turned up like the desert. It's way cool!
Doug & Ryan when the heaters are on. It got pretty hot - even to me.

A display that allowed you to morph yourself on screen. Ryan looks pretty crazy with such a large upper head.

Building circuits:

Checking your weight at different angles:

Ryan had a great time with this trying to ring the bell when the lever was pulled over to his side.

Checking how fast your reflexes are:

This bridge felt weird, everything under your feet moved independently:

We even went to an IMAX 3D movie for only $5 per person - bargain!

Ryan & I waiting for the movie:

These are the largest 3D glasses I've ever seen:

Wheel chair races:

Ryan laying on a bed of nails:

An interactive water feature. The kids press different buttons all around and the water shoots to different areas:

What a great day we had. We got to do so many fun things and all for only about $20. Thanks Fry's for sponsoring a free weekend!

Baby Bird

Ryan & a friend were swimming in the pool. I was sitting on the back patio to keep an eye on them. Usually, I read a book, but this time I was talking on the phone with my mom. I noticed something fall from one of our trees. It immediately hopped up. It was a very tiny, very young baby bird. It hopped up onto it's legs and proceeded to sit there staring at the tree. I watched it for about a half hour and then another baby bird fell from the tree. This one didn't land as well. Doug was able to prod it back up so that it was also on it's feet. Eventually, he scooped them both into a bin filled with foliage and placed it in the tree. At last check, both baby birds were still in the bin and appeared to be doing well.

Look in the bottom right corner, you can see the baby bird standing up at the edge of the shadow of the tree, look how tiny it is & just how far it fell from the tree:

The baby bird never really took it's eyes of the tree:
Stretching as far as it can, trying to get back to that tree & it's mom:

Mother's Day Flowers

Some flowers from Mother's Day. We had a nice day. I even got to take a 2 hour nap before we went to my parent's house to spend the evening there. Some of my family was there also. We had dinner and visited for a long time. It was very nice.

Flowers in the kitchen:

These flowers are in the bathroom. I love purple (in case you didn't know that already). Our bathroom is all green and purple and these flowers look beautiful in that setting. I actually took these pics almost a week after Mother's Day and am amazed at how fresh and beautiful they still look:

School Field Trip

This week we got to go on Ryan's school field trip. It was fun. We went to a Desert Museum. It was 2 hours away. The kids got to ride on nice tour-style buses. They watched movies on the trip. Doug & I drove down by ourselves. We dropped him off at school and went out to breakfast at Liberty Market. That was fun & very yummy. We got to the Museum just shortly after they arrived and found his group right away.


The Museum was tons of fun. We saw a lot of native plants, and plenty of butterflies and hummingbirds. There were displays of native minerals, native animals and an area the kids could break fossils free from dirt clods and sift through rocks to find some minerals and gemstones.

Ryan on the bus:

Upon entering the museum, this was the view:
Display of rocks:
Ryan's group during the museum:
Sifting through rocks to find "treasures":
Trying to break a fossil free:
Doug's self-portrait:
Me doing my thing - photographing something. Be sure to check out my photo blog over the next few weeks. There were over 200 pictures taken at the museum.
An example of one of the photos taken that day: