My silly niece!

So this is my niece Abigail, who lives in Tucson. She was part of a talent show at school and my sister LaDawn recorded this! It was so funny, I had to pass it along.

Chicks meeting the Dogs

New Addition to our Family

Six to be exact!!!

We haven't named them yet, being that you can't really tell them apart :)

Daniel surprised me last week (we had been talking about getting them in October) with our new arrivals. They are so cute. He and a friend (Chris B.) are going to build the coupe. Daniel's so excited about this project. He went to a class offered by City of Phoenix about how to raise chickens for eggs and care for them. Plus we've asked two family members about their experiences with raising chickens. When I told my parents about the chickens, their main concern was with how the dogs were going to react. Well, we took a little video of their reaction...

Vein Surgery

Okay - so either I'm extremely sensitive or that was the worst pain I think I have ever felt. Let me back up. I have varicose veins. I had them checked out a few months ago to see if I have a "dysfunctional valve" creating the bulging vein. And yes, three out of the four valves are not functioning. So, I scheduled the vein surgery (Endovenous Laser Therapy- EVLT). They informed me it would be "uncomfortable." Yeah, the biggest understatement of my life! They gave me a Xanax and Viacatin before the surgery to help relax and calm me. I felt a little loopy, but not much different than usual. Then came the prep. No biggy - they scrubbed the area clean and prepped my leg with a beautiful purple marker, marking where the vein was. Then the doctor came in - Dr Pain, I mean, Dr. Pang :). He told me I would feel a few pricks where the needle was numbing some areas of my leg where the needles would be inserted (picture included). Ouch, but tolerable. Then he informed me he was going to put the needle in, with the wire. Holy mother of $%#@##$!!!! I could not believe how bad that hurt. The three staff just worked quietly. Then my blood pressure started dropping, I could feel I was going to faint. (I usually do when I give blood, so they prep me by tipping the chair back to help the blood flow.) My hearing was going and the room was getting black and I felt like throwing up. I told the doctor and he had them check my blood pressure. I heard him say, "Tip her back on the table." Then he had the assistant check my bp three more times, each time tipping me back further. He said, "I don't want to go up any further, let's stop here below the knee." Finally, I could hear again and the pain was horrible. He asked if I wanted to proceed, informing me that it was my choice, but that they were ready to start the laser. I asked, "How much longer???" He said, "Two minutes." "Okay." He said, "Let me know if you feel this." It started and immediately I said, "Yes, it kills." So he stopped, put a few more shots in my leg, then tried again. "Yes it still hurts." He shot me up once more and tried one more time. "No, I don't feel it now." He completed that part of the surgery, stitched me up once where I was bleeding a little too much (picture included) and then said to have me wait in the room until my bp was back to normal. I forgot to mention that they had put a turnicate on my leg to inflate the vein a little when marking it, but did not release it during the procedure, probably contributing to the pain. When I asked him later why it hurt so bad, he said it was because my vein was small - due to being dehydrated and that my bp dropped because of a reaction I had to the medication. I think it was due to hurting so freaking bad! So I asked a friend of mine who had the procedure done and she told me that the first time killed, but the second time, it wasn't as bad because they shot her leg up with a lot more pain killer. I don't know. My favorite part of it was when Daniel walked in and was told that there were some complications and that they didn't finish the procedure. I told him in Portuguese how badly it hurt. He smiled and asked in Portuguese, "So, do you really want to have children?" I said, "No, we can just adopt." Classic.

Okay -so this is a horrible picture, but I love that Toby is in all of these.

This is my leg where you can see the purple markings where the procedure was supposed to go up to - there's a little "x". However, he stopped just below my knee.

This is a picture of the bandages, nothing too exciting.

This is me being brave to see what my leg looks like this afternoon.

Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Here's the little stitch they had to make by my ankle.

There's a little bruising, but not too bad.

Tula through the ages

Well, Tula turned one a couple of months ago and I just had to post some before and after picture, along with some funny ones in between. She is a sweetheart and we love her to death, except when she gets in the trash. :)

Here she is after we just got her - like a fluff pup.

(For those of you who remember that brand of stuffed dog!)

Here Tula after getting groomed for the first time. Daniel freaked me out saying that she had ran away and he was out looking for her. He had really just gone to go pick her up. Not nice! But she did look adorable!

Here's Tula and her first, well, period. We got her some "doggy" diapers. They have a hole for the tail to go through. It was so funny watching her walk with them on. I love the look on her face, "Are you kidding me???"

We have these pillows the dogs use for beds. We just moved them into our room and had not put them down yet. However, Tula was not going to wait, as you can see in the photo.

Still, if we could all be as comfy as she is, then life would be good.

This is the latest picture I have of her. She cracks me up just chillin on the ground and the way she puts her feet up on the water cooler. She does this all the time now.

I love dogs - they are so funny.

New Hair

Okay - so nothing too exciting... but I did go brunette. This is a first for me. Let me know what you think... I've also attached some other pictures of different hair. You can vote :)

This is my friend Erica - she came over on Friday and helped me with my hair. Even though she has no formal education in regards to hair, her experience makes up for it. (She's my friend who is constantly changing her hair! I love it!)

Here I am, sporting my new hair. I didn't do it - other than blow dry it. But it's kind of fun. A lot darker than I expected. (It is a wash-out kind, so it will lighten up as the weeks go by.)

And I don't know - but I'm really loving this look. You'll have to tell me what you think :)

Arcosanti

Some of you may have seen these pictures on Facebook - I seem to post more things there nowadays - so sorry for the delay here on the Blog (Jessie - hint, hint, hint) :)

This is at the entrance of Arcosanti. It's just off of I17, on your way to Flagstaff.

Of course, you all may recognize this hunk of a man - my sweet hubby. (Is it just me, or does that face remind you of Steve Martin on Dirty Rotten Scoundrels "Excuse me, may I use the bathroom?")

This is one of the amazing views at the site.

Me on our cozy bed, in our cozy room. No ac - just a fan, but it was really nice weather at night and only got up to about 85 during the day.

So this is us in the dining area. Great food and it's all made fresh. They use to have more of an agriculture project, but with the economy, they've downsized too. However, the food was yummy and healthy.