Fur, friends, family, and flees!

Last week, I went to the zoo with Ryan's cousin's wife (cousin-in-law?) and her two cutie patootie kids. We have a great zoo here...they even have baboons! I'd never seen a baboon before!



It's so great when kids don't know that you can put a quarter in and it makes the sounds for you...



We had a great lunch that afternoon with our friend Samir who is in med school and, lucky for us, has an easy rotation right now so he can sneak off for lunch some days! :)


Yesterday we went to the U of A vs. UNC basketball game...we were anxious annies from the tip off to the end, with a horrible loss of 62-94!

Ryan led worship at church again this morning!

This evening we went over to Chris and Melissa's for dinner....Chris made an incredible gourmet meal that was sooo delicious! Chris' mom is in town for the weekend, so we got to have a lot of fun spending time with her at Chris' concert last night, and dinner tonight!


And, of course we couldn't let the night slip away without another rendition of "My Cat Has Fleas" on the uke!

Ice Fights

Last weekend Lori, Ryan, and I went to an Ice Cats game (our Christmas gift from Sara!), unfortunately though Sara was sick and couldn't join us. I was really into the idea of seeing a fight on the ice, since that seems to be such a crucial element in hockey. Well, my wish was definitely granted, and I quickly regretted it...it just wasn't pretty. They were ripping each other's shirts off and going crazy until they got done on the ice and then the refs would break it up. Four players got kicked out of the game due to fighting and there were 120 minutes in the penalty box...it was an unreal kind of game....but a fun night out!

We're Tuc-sno-nans!

We were planning on going up to Mount Lemon today to go sledding and have a "real" winter experience, but then decided we'd wait until tomorrow to avoid the weekend traffic... But, the winter experience actually came to us instead while we were at Melissa and Chris'!

Prior to the knock on the door by a neighbor to tell us to come outside...


The second largest snowfall that Ryan can remember ever having in Tucson...the other being when he was 5...








And...of course a great rendition of "My Cat Has Fleas" on the ukulele to finish the night!

spray paint?

I was just at Home Depot to buy spray paint and decided to make my purchase in the self check-out lane to save. In my rushing to save time, I accidently pressed the button for everything to be in Spanish instead of English....which I wasn't too concerned about since rarely do you really even need to know what the "register" is saying. But of course that wasn't the case today. After I scanned my bottle of spray paint, the register screen said something in Spanish, and I could pick out that I needed to wait for cashier assistance. The cashier came over, and of course was a native Spanish speaker, and assumed I was as well since I was doing the check-out in Spanish, however she quickly learned that I couldn't keep up to her speed. It turns out that I needed to show my ID in order to buy spray paint! Who knew one could be carded at Home Depot!?

Momarama

My mom came to visit for a week, January 1-7. Much to my dismay, I didn't take many photos...I guess we were too busy having fun to take the time to capture it on film. :) Overall, we had a very relaxing week of sewing new placemats,

planting flowers,

creating a compost pile,

going for walks, etc.
We also went downtown for a great dinner and a great benefit concert that involved: Luca, the Pueblo High School Mariachi group, Luz de Luna Mariachi group, and Calexico. Our friend Chris played bass for both Luca and Calexico, so it was fun/proud night for us to get to cheer him on. It was an incredible show that involved 2 rock bands and 2 full mariachi groups...I mean there were like 50 people on stage at one point...it was crazy! It was soo much fun though...the perfect concert for anyone visiting Tucson to get a taste of our Mexican flavor.

Ryan and I were spontaneous with our cash for once and bought new shirts to support Calexico...


I took her and Grammie to the botanical gardens that I work at and we got to see all the beautiful butterflies fluttering around...


This morning I woke up nice and early to meet my college cross country for a 7.4 mile run at Sabino Canyon! He is originally from Tucson and still has a house here, so whenever he's in town we usually get together. Thankfully, I was in much better shape this time than during his last visit when I thought I was going to have to crawl up the canyon! :)

Sno' Way!!!

Yes that's right folks...we can see snow (in the mountains) from our driveway!!

Happy New Year!

This morning Ryan did an amazing job leading worship at church for the first time!

Right after church we drove to Rex Ranch in Tucson for our friend Amber's wedding. She's a very fun, outdoorsy, creative person and it shined through in every aspect of their wedding!
For starters, she made her own wedding dress!...


Each table was then labeled and decorated with things that they like to do...we sat at the scrabble table...
(Ryan, Abby, Keldin Hood, Cameron)


They had a great assortment of their favorite teas for us to enjoy...the bees enjoyed the honey...


We made it home in time for a midnight celebration!...


p.s. see below post for updated christmas photos! :)

Merry Christmas!

The days before Christmas our house was smelling super yummy...we didn't get around to holiday baking this year, but we did experiment (successfully) with making apple butter and lavender soap, which was really fun.


The Saturday before Christmas, Ryan and I went with his mom (Lori) and sister(Sara) to play guitar and sing Christmas Carols at his grandpa's home. It's so fun to be surrounded by such musical talent...(dad excluded, no offense mom and nichole :), I've just never gone caroling with family before where everyone breaks out into three part harmonies...actually, I've never been caroling before where we all know the melody from start to finish. :) Anyway, it was a fun night of singing, and then we went over to Lori's house for a great dinner.

On Christmas Eve, Ryan and I went to the Tucson Medical Center ER and passed out Christmas gifts on behalf of the Shyann Kindness Project to children and their siblings who were in the waiting room. I got to use my first little bit of Spanish that I've been learning on cd, and say, "habla espanol un poco" and "Feliz Navidad" (I don't know how to spell in spanish) to a family that we gave gifts to. Then that night, Cameron and his brother came over and went to the candlelight church service with us.

Christmas day, Ryan and I went over to Lori's house in the morning to do stockings with her and Sara and eat orange cinnamon rolls...a tradition that both of our families have always done...a definite sign that we were meant for eachother. :) Then we went over to Grandmo and Grandpo Green's house for lunch. And, then back to our house for dinner with Ryan's mom's side of the family. It was a fun rite of passage for us to get to host our first holiday!



We had the fireplace going (while the kitchen window was also open b/c it was too warm in the house), ate a great meal, and then did a talent show/sing along.




Merry Christmas!

Chill in the air?

Well, I haven't updated lately, and I promised my sister I would write something (I have no new photos) tonight. I can't really tell you what I've been up to lately, because that would then spoil the christmas gifts I've been making for people... So, I guess I'll tell you what I did today. :)
This afternoon I went out to lunch with Ryan's cousin's wife...she's a burst of energy and has two little kids that are fun to be around. After lunch we went back to her house and made candied apples. I had never made them before, nor had I even really heard of them before. They are basically apples on a stick with a candy (jolly rancher style) coating around them like a carmel apple. Quite tasty and a fun tradition for their family.
On my way home this evening, I had to pump gas in the car and I was freezing standing outside...I mean, it was 55 degrees out! Brrrr! Who knew it got this cold in AZ!?!
Then, I came home and worked on mailing out RH Christmas orders of cds and t-shirts, and now I'm back to working on Christmas crafts/gifts! :)
Oh, just to update you on the house...I'm in the process of re-painting the bathroom...the blue just wasn't doing it for me, so we're going to go with browns and reds, I'll post photos when it's done! :)

I hope you are all having fun getting ready for Christmas!

Belated Birthday...

Ooops...sorry I never posted about my ACTUAL birthday...I know you've all just been dying to know all the details! :)
Sunday, December 3rd, the start of the 27th year of my life, we went to church and then stayed afterwards with our Young Marrieds group to do some "fix up" projects that had been needing to get done...

Our friend Chris painting the sanctuary...


Me planting pansies...


Our young-marrieds group (+a young helper) posing in front of the soon-to-be empty "helps board"...


Ryan had planned a big surprise kick ball game to take place later that afternoon, however since by Tucson standards it was too chilly of a day (65 degrees)...we have had to re-schedule the game. I have to hand it to Ryan though, he somehow was able to plan this, the Little House party, and the bike without me having a clue...and all things that I totally LOVE!

That night we went over to Grammie's house for a great dinner! It was such a cozy evening with the fire place going in her place....and we even managed to get a game of "Gimme Five" in. :)

"A Harvest of Friends"

Ryan has been acting quite fishy lately with not allowing me to look at his computer, taking phone calls outside, and having to run mysterious errands without my company..."all in the name of birthday fun", of course. And, I guess once you start getting up into your 'late' 20s like me, you get not only one day of birthday fun, but a whole weekend...so the surprises started coming out today! :) This morning started out with one of those "mysterious errands", so while he was gone I worked on sewing our Christmas stockings...


Then Ryan got home, we ate lunch, he gave me a card which led me to the garage where he had brought home 2 mountain bikes (great deals on Craigs List of course...that's where we find all of our great birthday deals!)! He had researched a great mountain biking spot called "Fantasy Island", which happens to be less than 2 miles from our house, and where we spent our afternoon flying down crazy paths, seeing roadrunners, and getting a couple of minor bumps and bruises (well, I did at least).

I'm not much of a thrill-seeker type of person and don't enjoy rollercoasters, or even driving too fast over railroad tracks...but I loved mountain biking!

At the end of the day, we both agreed that bike shorts are probably worth the money..

The mangled bike art made us feel real safe...


But, I only had one fall...a mighty fall...just after Ryan said "we just got go for it on the hills", I don't even think I had gotten to the hill yet, but for some unknown reason, just tipped over. :)

We got home with just enough daylight to start putting up our Christmas lights...


And for those who have been wanting to see updated pictures of Squiter (again, pronounced skee-ter)...
Here is his picture from when we planted him in May...

And, here is his 6.5 month old picture...


So, just when I thought my birthday eve was coming to a close, Ryan picked out clothes for me to change into, "old fashion attire" as he phrased it... I had no idea as to what to expect was going on...never once did it cross my mind that we were going to be hosting a Little House on the Prarie themed dinner party (for those of you who don't know, I LOVE Little House!). Two couple friends of ours came over, also dressed in Little House wear (Melissa even in a bonnet that she made just for the occasion!)...one brought beef stew and rustic bread, the other apple cobbler...exactly what Michael Landon always wants for dinner.. Next, Ryan brought out season 1 of Little House! We watched the first episode, "A Harvest of Friends", tonight...and hope for many many more (we have 19 hours worth as of now) Little House movie parties! :)

David, Eileen, Abby, Ryan, Melissa, Chris