Rain

I just commented on a post my sister, Becky, put on her blog about having monsoon storms for 2 days in a row. I had just commented that we hadn't had any rain yet. We were hoping we'd get some soon - maybe tonight. Things were looking pretty good outside but we have seen hopeful skies only to have things break up and only get a drop or two of rain.

Not 5 minutes later our front porch looks like the bestest slip and slide ever. The rain is pouring down and draining with gusto toward the cul de sac. I can hear the rain pounding on our south facing windows. When I realized the rain was actually coming I ran to the mailbox to get todays mail. I got wet - but thank goodness I went when I did. I could have been drenched!

And guess what I spent all day doing? The floors! The floors! It took dang near all day too. We have a lot of tile! So I hope I don't yell at anyone about getting my floors messed up. I have a breakfast here on Saturday morning and needed to do them. But why today? Yeah, it is like getting rain right after washing a car. But sheesh!

Oh well. We love the rain. We need the rain. I'll take the rain - any day.

WOW!!!

I love watching the hummingbirds outside my kitchen window. I mean it beats a plain brick wall by a long shot. Sometimes I get upset when "hummingbird wars" erupt. But I still enjoy watching them. I even have one that seems to come to the window and look at me.

Anyway, I was at the kitchen sink today

and saw a white hummingbird!

WOW!

I have never seen one like that.

WOW!!

It was cool.

WOW!!!

That, my friends, will probably be the highlight of my day.

Leucistic Hummingbird

Albinistic Hummingbird

Post Script: After spotting the white hummingbird again I searched for some information on the internet. I thought it might be an albino but the eyes weren't red and the bill appeared to be dark. So after looking that was confirmed. An albinistic hummingbird would have a more orange beak, light or red eyes, and light/transparent feet (you can see the blood veins through the skin and nails). The one visiting my feeder is a leucistic hummingbird which means that the bird has white, off-white or tan plumage but the eyes, feet, and bill have the normal pigment. I will keep my camera handy and try to get my own picture of the white hummingbird that made my day.

Sweet Delivery

Isaac has a friend. His friend is a girl. The girl is a cashier at Isaac's pool. They see each other every day. She is nice. Her name is Kristina. She likes Isaac. Isaac likes her.

Kristina sent Isaac a Sweet Delivery last Friday. Isaac liked the Sweet Delivery! I'm sure he'll use a couple of these images to give her a Sweet Thanks!

Hot off the press!

It is coming. Hot off the press! Your next issue of "Mom and Dad's Empty Nest Report 2010". The new issue: A Launch to Remember. Look forward to encounters with wildlife, a day at "The Happiest Place on Earth", some of that "southern hospitality", good eats, ventures into the wild waters of Florida, and much much more.

Bug Spray

Last night we had another scorpion visitor. We DO NOT welcome them but they keep coming. I think it must be the extreme heat that makes them seek for relief.

After Scott discovered our last visitor a week or so ago - Doug took action and he bug sprayed outside the house. Our hope was that the poisonous barricade would prevent or discourage any more visitors. But I guess that was not enough. After last night's visitor Doug took more action and he bug sprayed inside the house too. Hopefully we won't have anymore unwelcomed guests.

Saturday is a Special Day

Yesterday a Primary song kept rolling through my head. Everyone who was ever in Primary knows this song - even us oldies. The tune: Saturday is a Special Day. Yesterday was special. It was special in more ways than one. Let me explain.


Yesterday was HOT. Very hot - I think the high was 117 or so. Well, I just checked and we supposedly topped out at 110 - but let's stick to the 117 for effect if you don't mind. Anyway it was HOT. Plus according to the National Weather Service on June 15th the official Monsoon Season started. But all us Arizonians know that that standard is bogus. We know that the true measure to the start of Monsoon Season is that the dewpoint is 55 or above for 3 days in a row. Even that measure has been reached this year - so we are officially in Monsoon Season. That made for not only a HOT day but a very sweaty day too. Those things made Saturday a Special Day.


Doug and I worked together on a project all day long. That made Saturday a Special Day too. And even specialer - we didn't have opposing opinions about how to do the project too often. Woo Hoo.


Finally, and at long last, the project we worked on was the garage. It needed some work. It served as our catch-all as we were moving in 14 months ago. This house doesn't have a storage room or storage shed so there was a lot of stuff in the garage with no where else to go. There were stacks, clumps, clusters, shelves, and other scattered formations all over the garage with little to no organization. We could only use our two-car garage for one car - our truck. Anyway, you get the picture (only we forgot to get a before picture). Remember the temperature listed above - 117 (yeah right) - anyway working in the garage required our exposure to the outdoor elements. Ouch! That was hot and sticky. Very hot and sticky. But we got busy on the project anyways. Doug measured and calculated and figured and finally determined where exactly to mount our ceiling-mounted storage racks. I assisted. When those were assembled and installed we had to figure out what could and could not be stored up there. Then we needed some bins to put stuff in. Doug went and bought some bins - he spent as much on the bins as we spent on the 2 racks. OUCH! Anyway, we got those racks loaded and got the rest of the stuff stored along the side wall in the garage. And it can now hold 2 cars. And it only took a mere 14 months to do it. That also made Saturday a Special Day. (Scott is going to owe us big time - since his car is the one that can be parked in the garage.)

TA DA!

One more reason that Saturday is a Special Day - after getting hot, sweaty, sticky, and dirty too we decided to go to Isaac's pool and have a refreshing swim. That would have been good if the water wasn't as warm as bath water. Oh well. We still managed to enjoy it.

He did what?

Isaac came home last night after a long day of work and finishing the day off with some fun volleyball action. As I looked at him I saw something. Something different. Something was wrong with his face - no his eye. Hey, he had a black eye. I thought maybe he took an elbow to the eye during some awesome volleyball action. But no. Not that.

Here is the story. Isaac is a lifegurard. He went into a closet at work to retrieve their well used megaphones. You know the ones they splash water through, or use to scoop water onto the hot deck, oh, and the ones through which they yell rules to the pool rats. Things like "Young man, no running!" Anyway, there he was getting the megaphones. For some reason he decided to do something new with the megaphones in his hands. He used them like a huge pair of binoculars. He did what? Right, that's what I said.

Well the rest happened quickly. He had on flip flops with little to no traction. He must have hit a wet spot. Then he slipped and fell forward with the megaphone that was up to his left eye hitting the deck first. Therefore, his left eye caught his full weight. OUCH! (Luckily he has lost 10 pounds since coming home from his mission.)

Anyway, this morning it was a very pretty purpley color. And I couldn't stop myself from blogging to you all about it.

These pictures almost look like Sheriff Joe booking photos.

A shave would help the image a little, don't you think?

The Fuse

About 9 one evening our restful near slumber repose was shattered. All at once a crashing sound was heard. I yelled to Doug to see what he was doing. He yelled to me to find out what I had been doing. Getting no answers we both got up and began to look around to find out what had happened. I looked at the back porch to see if the "puddle duck" that Doug is making had shifted or fallen. I also checked the back yard but saw nothing. I checked the side yard with the basement window wells and everything seemed alright. Doug began checking the garage for anything amiss. He also looked out front. After having found nothing we both shrugged our shoulders and returned to what we were doing.




After a few minutes, I remembered that when we very first looked at the house someone else had a contract on it. But during their inspection they found a cracked truss and had to have it repaired. Eventually they bailed out on the house and that is when we were able to get it. Anyway, back to the story at hand. I had a thought that maybe the repaired truss hadn't been repaired so well after all. I headed back to mention my thought to Doug. But I guess Doug had had a thought similar to that just moments before I did.


I found our ladder in the laundry room and Doug up in the recesses of our attic. I climbed up the ladder to see what was the matter (ha, ha, I rhymed). He had discovered that a metal cover to the air handler in the attic had fallen off. Whew, what a relief. A small fix that he could surely have resolved quickly. And sure enough after a few minutes he had it fixed and came back down.




After all that work in the attic I guess he was hot. So he went to the thermostat to get things a little cooler in the house. When to his utter astonishment there was no display in the thermostat! Something was wrong! Very wrong!


Back up into the attic he went. He removed the metal cover to the air handler and took a look. He was trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He found a schematic on the back of the cover and brought it down so he could take a good look at it. But what he really wanted to do was find the fuse and see if that was the problem. He went back up and took a good look at the wiring that was exposed and indeed found a tiny fuse that he removed with surgeon-like care with some needlenose pliers.


When he got out of the attic and into the house he discovered a little black on the fuse and was pretty sure that was the problem. Now with that problem diagnosed we had another problem. It was now 10 at night and we would be hot if we couldn't get it fixed tonight. But any electronic type stores were closed for the night. Rats! His mind was doing all sorts of acrobats trying to figure out a solution to the problem - when he had a flash of brilliance. There was an auto parts store that was opened pretty late! They might have that type of fuse. He bolted to the car.

Before long he was home with one of these.

He took the precious purple fuse and headed once again to the attic. With just as much care with which he removed the faulty fuse he inserted the new one. Voila! Success! The thermostat once again was fulfilling its purpose in life - keeping us cool.

I think Doug saved us about a bazillion dollars on repair bills by figuring out this problem and being able to fix it himself.

He's a great handyman!

And the best news yet - his fix cost about $2.00.

Plus we have 4 more fuses to use later.

That means this fix cost about 40 cents!

Beat that one

Parker and Sons

and

DeWitt Equipment Company

for that matter.

Bragging Rights

This morning Scott and I went to play a little tennis.

We played 2 sets in some pretty muggy heat.

The score: 6-3, 6-3 - MY WIN!!

My game plan worked out perfectly. I asked Scott last night if he wanted to play. We did a quick warm up this morning. And as expected his tennis form was a little rusty. All those things played into my plan. It ensured me a win and bragging rights. I'm sure next time he won't be so rusty and he'll be looking for revenge. But it is nice to have bragging rights for a while.

POST SCRIPT:
And a little later while Scott was dutifully cleaning the pink bathroom he came face to face with a lively scorpion. It was up on the counter ledge roaming right and left just looking for a little breakfast. Both Isaac and Dad went into action. It lived only a few short minutes more.

Movie

Here is our movie of the trip.

Just to let you know, we took a picture every 5 minutes on our trip up to Utah. That is how we can so accurately document our trip from Glendale, Arizona through Fredonia, Arizona with stops in Springville, Utah and Shelley, Idaho. And in case you are wondering "Are you crazy?!" Yes we are and we won't be doing that again.

Where I've Been

We have now safely returned from our trip to - UTAH. That is where I've been. I'm sure most of my blog readers knew that instinctively. But my husband worries about tipping off strangers about our trips. Leaving the house empty, announcing it on the blog, (yeah, like my blog has a huge following) - Well it just isn't right.

The trip was wonderful. We even needed jackets and several blankets on the bed at times. Zac's blessing went wonderfully. We loved seeing the kids - Evan, Shanna, Rob, and Lindsey. We also loved getting to see the grandkids -

Sadie

Calvin

Zachary

We were also glad to see Rob's family again - they came from Oregon for the blessing. Plus we scored a bonus: Yvonne and Spencer were still in Utah preparing for their upcoming relocation to Germany. They were also able to come to Springville for the baby's blessing.

NOW: The main problem about going out of town is catching up on everything when we return. I am doing that now. I'll try to post more about the trip as soon as possible.