The Rambling Family

So our neighbors are officially insane. We hired a professional tree guy to come today and trim the tree that overhangs our garage and driveway, plus the backyard tree, and our palm tree. The one over the driveway is really our neighbors and we had told them last week about us wanting to just hack off the whole left side of the tree that is on our garage; it looks like a V and would look like a nice straight normal tree without this side. But this morning they come over with some legal document they typed up wanting us and the tree guy to sign saying we’ll be held accountable for anything bad that happens to that tree in the next year. Tree guy just refused because the wording meant ANYTHING, related to the trimming or not would be his fault and we backed him on that. So anyway we had an argument with the lady; she is literally a nutcase and claims she’s a lawyer, that the tree will die if trimmed, that we’re not allowed to cut their tree even if it overhangs our stuff, and a bunch of other absolute nonsense. So anyway, we know we legally can trim the tree, and we had him do it anyway…just a more minor trimming instead of cutting off half the tree. Then they freaked out over the backyard tree that overhangs their yard, but they want it to STAY! Crazy. It’s scraping their house and yard, but it stays that way since we didn’t need more troubles. Even the tree guy thought she was either drunk or insane.

Anyway, that was our morning. Luckily Zoe napped through most of it. She’s been napping once a day, but this nap was early in the morning. So, I think she was super-tired this evening as she almost feel asleep eating dinner at 6! I gave her a quick sink bath and then she was out as soon as we started rocking.

Well this weekend we’ve gotten some big jobs done. On Saturday we scraped, sanded, primed and repainted the trim all around the house. It was a big job, but really needed done since we pulled the gutters off. Zoe did great for a while just playing outside while we worked, then she napped for quite a long time so we could all but finish before lunch. The house looks so much better, now. To increase the amount of chaos at the house, we’re watching 2 other doggies for some friends. They are good dogs, but when 3 get together they can really be nuts. One is a really nice lab that we’ve watched before; she even lets Zoe crawl on top of her. The other is a really affectionate german shorthair; he is super sweet but wants to be touching me at all times and even slept between me and Bryan…until we threw him off the bed. That was a bit much. Finally, today Bryan built a neato wooden shelf to go into the back of the Outback for our move. It’s about 6 inches high and covers the entire back when the seats are down. It’s so I can store the guns under it while we travel and won’t need to worry about Arlo stepping all over them, or all our other junk banging against them. They’ll also just be safely out of anyone’s reach.

Zoe also got her first real injury this weekend. She’s had lots of scrapes and bonked heads, but we had actual bleeding. On Saturday she was playing with one of the dogs’ bowls (she likes to carry big things around) and onto it. She was in her room and I believe she was trying to get on or off of her mattress with the bowl when she slipped. She fell face first onto it’s edge and cut the inside of her upper lip; maybe from the bowl or maybe from her teeth. Who knows. Anyway, the bleeding stopped pretty quick, but she had a puffy lip until this afternoon. It was sad, but she was running around like a nut (with the stinking bowl) withing 10 minutes. So, we went for a swim and that really made her feel better; especially with 3 doggies jumping in the pool with us!

I love the swimming pool

We got portraits taken at Target last weekend. Zoe did awesome; she started out being a bit clingy but then got really into it. The photographer was so great with techniques to get her to smile and enjoy herself. The pictures look great, too. It took us a while to pick a few out, and it was tough to not get more than we really needed.

We have been having a lot of fun this summer, and the end of July proved to be the best so far. We’ve been camping up on Mt. Lemmon a few weekends straight. Plus, Kat’s sister Bethany came to visit! It was so awesome to see her and hang out by the pool before she heads off to Germany. Zoe has been enjoying her fun activities; we still go to a playgroup Monday mornings, Kat get’s her into the Child Development Center a couple times a week as a fill-in, and she just finished the second level at the city Parks Movers and Shakers class. So fun! Speaking of the parks, the Tucson Parks department held the ‘Mud Monster’ party last weekend which was a blast. It’s a huge mud puddle morning complete with obstacle courses and the fire department hosing you down. We’re really going to miss all the awesome Tucson events while we’re in Korea next year. That’s the last news: we’ve got orders, move out dates, and plane tickets scheduled to go!

What started out as a completed open and unplanned month has turned into quite a fun time. Zoe and Kat have been busy swimming, going to playgroup, and visiting the splash park. Then there was our fourth of July weekend…we saw a parade up on the mountain in Summerhaven, went to the fireworks on base, and drove up to Phoenix to visit some family.

We picked up Arlo this morning and put away all our Disney trip stuff. Zoe napped long this afternoon. We also played out back for a bit. It smells like smoke though, since the Rincons are on fire.