The Saturday after Thanksgiving

Today has felt very productive. Here is how the day has gone so far...
4 AM: Woke up by alarm (cell phone) I had left in the bathroom. Prior to the alarm going off, Brian had at some point during the night shut the bathroom door (a wooden sliding door) because of water dripping in the shower that we have not been able to completely shut off. I, of course, did not know this because that door has NEVER been shut during the night. I walked right into the door nose first. This is how my morning started. No blood until I blew my nose. It hurt but I am fine.

4:30 AM: Mom and Dad packed up the car and headed on their way back to Dallas. Brian and I went back to bed after they drove away until 8 AM. It was so nice to sleep in for the first Saturday in a very long time. I would normally be at Starbucks by 4:15 in the morning.

8:30 AM: Organized the kitchen, continued to clean up around the house, finished up the laundry.

1:00 PMish: Brian and I went up to the bank to get my named changed on everything there. Returned a gift to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Went to Home Depot and bought paint for the kitchen!!!! We have been talking about painting the kitchen for a while now!!

5:00 PM: Asked Brian if he wanted to take a quick break and go check the mail. He had to look for his shoes so I went out to check on the turkey carcass we left out side on Thursday. It was still there yesterday. As I was walking toward the aluminum platter I noticed a larger bone.

Went in between two large cactus that were blocking my view and noticed it was completely empty.

At that time Brian walked out side. He had not done anything to it. Nice to know the coyotes were crossing through at some point today!! Too bad we didn't have a camera watching the movement! :) And speaking of movement...Brian and I were jamming out to some music while painting. He was dancing around while painting..I wished I was able to capture some video. He then thought it would be funny to pull this paints up over his belly and dance around. This is what I got to look at!!

You know you're jealous! :)

7:00 PM: Finally sitting down and relaxing. The paint job is not done but we are making good progress. We will be done tomorrow. The sunset was gorgeous this evening. The pictures do not do it justice. Beautiful blues and reds right over the mountain. The moon to the left and two vibrant starts to the right of the moon!! So many things to be thankful for in Tucson!!

T-Give in the T-son

Thanksgiving (or T-Give if you're Veeves) week has been a blessing. It has been wonderful having my parents drive in from Dallas and spend the week with us. They stayed at Dave & Connie's condo and enjoyed a little fill of vacation. Their condo is right down the street from our house so it was perfect for all. They arrived on Tuesday afternoon. I was able to work a 1/2 day on Wednesday. We spend Tuesday and Wednesday organizing and opening wedding gifts. On Wednesday afternoon mom, dad, Brian and I went to Paradise Bakery for a late lunch and then to B,B&B to return duplicate gifts. Later that even my momma and I went and did the same at C&B and then bought some new items too!
Mom and Dad at Paradise Bakery

Brian (doing the Valerie pose) & Catherine at Paradise Bakery

The gang at the PB


Some of the gifts that my parents brought!



The Shaffer's chair they donated to The Wick cause! :)

Me and my daddy!


Thanksgiving Decor and T-Give Day





Those are 6 hawks on top of those trees. Mom and I were driving down my street back home after hitting up the big sales at 6 am on Black Friday. She told me to look up and asked if those were the hawks I kept talking about...then she said she wished she had her camera. Low and behold I had mine in my purse! I put the car in reverse. Backed up. And shot a few!

So neat...right after the picture was taken 4 flew a way! Great timing mom!!


After a fabulous Thanksgiving Day with the fam and friends we decided we needed to something a little more productive..like actually being on our feet walking around. We decided that we would walk over to Tohono Chul park since it is SOOO close to our house (I drive by it ever day to get to and from work). We spent the rest of the afternoon having lunch and walking around the park. Brian and I have lived in this area for so long and never been to the park. It was about time!




Cath being eaten by a Century plant...that sucker was huge!

Mom with the ACU purple plant and her cool new vest!


There were so many humming birds flying around. It was so much fun trying to spot them and capture a picture before they quickly flew away!

I love this picture of them. I wished they would print and actually frame it!

A yellow finch

That's a bunny in the middle of the screen!

That is right my friends. People in Arizona know how to decorate for the holidays!

Brian and my engagement picture...I know it is a little late...but still fairly funny! :)






So, what is neat about Tohono Chul park is that if Brian and I really want to see what we saw there...we can just walk in our back yard. But I do completely recognize why people visit. It does definitely have its own type of beauty.

What a fabulous week we are wrapping up. My parents leave early tomorrow morning for a 14+ hour trip back home. It has been so much fun having them here. I'm glad they were finally able to come see the house, check out the area and also meet our sweet roomie Amanda!! Blessings to you and your this Thanksgiving season!!!

The hawks

When I was driving home this afternoon I looked up while pulling into the drive way and saw this...



There were 4 in a row. But by the time I stopped the car, grabbed my camera and rolled down my window, two had flown to the top of the telephone poll. Either way...still cool...as long as they don't bite me! :)

Happy One Month Anniversary!

Brian and I have made it one whole month!! Now after 12 years of friendship and 10 years of on again off again dating, one month doesn't seem like such a big deal. I wished I could be gooey romantic about it but really we are just having fun and not much feels that different!!

To celebrate this time however here are a couple things that have been going on in our lives over the last few days...

We are going to Whistler over the holidays for our honeymoon. To gear up Brian has pulled out all of his snowboarding gear, the board and the boots to start polishing, sharping and doing whatever else you do to these things to get ready for the season.

Two nights ago Brian brought his boots in from the shed and was pulling them on over his feet. He started lacing up one and the laces broke. If you remember our pack rat problem from a couple months ago you understand why. Those little suckers chewed on his laces until they were hanging by the thread. He started to put boot #2on when he noticed a little lizard inside of it...remind you, he is in the house!
My thoughts are get that little sucker on the OUTSIDE of the house NOW!! Brian thinks, 'Oh great! Max can learn how to kill!' Oh, the difference between boys and girls minds. Praise the Lord that Max is a little dingy and didn't know at all what to do with that lizard!!



Brian finally decided Max had had enough fun and that lizard was probably terrified. Brian just picked the little guy up and put him outside! We will just let Max keep playing with his little stuffed mouse on a string. That gets his energies up just fine!

When Valerie was driving back home to Dallas a couple weeks ago she called as she was driving through Abilene to let me know that gas prices were only $1.89 there. Gas in Tucson was still in the $2.50+ range at that time. Well, just like everywhere else, gas prices have continued to drop here. Brian and I were driving last night and saw this...

What a nice surprise. The funny things is that I drive by this gas station every day to and from work. When I left work at 5:30pm gas was still $2.05/gl. Within the hour as Brian and I were driving passed it again prices had dropped!! This is the only $1.99 gas I have seen in town so far. However, I am not complaining one bit!!

Before Valerie had decided to move back to Dallas so quickly she had purchased concert tickets for one of her favorite peeps, Jason Mraz. The tickets were for last night and since Valerie couldn't go and there are no exchanges at the Rillato Theater she gave the tickets to us. We thought the concert started at 7 pm so we left the house at 6 pm to give us enough time to find parking and find good seats. After we parked we walked to the theater and saw the line wrapped around the building with people wanting to get in. We got our tickets from will call then walked across the street to Hotel Congress and the Cup Cafe. I had no desire to wait in that line. We learned that the doors didn't open until 7 and the concert wasn't to begin until 8 pm. Jason didn't end up actually coming on stage until 8:45 pm. That was pretty annoying. Once he started playing though those bitter thoughts were washed away. He is a wonderful artist and such a witty performer. You can tell he passionately loves what he does. Here are some pictures from the concert. I took some video to but will upload those once I get home tonight. Enjoy!!

Thank you Valerie for our One Month Anniversary present! :)

(Brian in his ACU shirt...I would never tell him that but I know...I know!)

Oh Max...

So the kitten, Max, was great when we got him from Veronica. He was super shy. Very quiet and obviously not really sure what was going on. Then there was last night. That stinkin' cat would not stop meowing. He sat right outside of our bedroom door and meowed. We thought lets bring him in the room and he will be quiet. WRONG!!!!! Brian finally grabbed the cat took him to his carrying case bag and zipped him in that. That was at 1:58 AM. Then around 6:30 AM he starting meowing again like crazy. We let him out of the carrier and he followed me back to the bedroom door and meowed until he could see a human. He doesn't really want to be touched or held. He just wants to know that someone is around and watching him. Moral of the story...no matter how many times I saw I want a pet...ignore me dang it!!! These little animals drive me bonkers and I am very much looking forward for Veronica to come back and have her kitty again.

(Can you tell I didn't get a lot of sleep last night...) :)

Over the last 22 days

Brian and I have made it 22 days to date! YEAH!! :) Not that I was really worried or anything. I still have not received the marriage license so I guess "technically" we are not legally married!! :) Hahaha...


Dad & me in front of the truck. Brian loves that truck!

My new mama (Sara) and me!

Brian and his mom!

Patrick & Kate...they drove all the way from New York and after the wedding kept driving to Tucson. They were in the process of moving and the wedding feel over the perfect weekend!

Me and Brian with the yummy dessert we got for free at Cuba Libre as an engagement gift from our waiter who also just happened to be an old high school friend of Brian's.

The Turner crew at the dance party!
Speaking of the wedding; Lisa has posted ALL of the pictures from all of the events from the weekend online. If you want to see them go here and click on ViewEvent. The Username is Wick and the password is 15676. There are a lot...and most are SUPER CUTE!!!! Please embrace the ones of Brian dancing with his friend Mike. Those are special moments I tell you!

Valerie left us on Tuesday. She is now back in Dallas work for the school district. She is a Pre-K assistant! Who would a thunk it?? We miss her a lot but I guess at some point Brian and I have to be used to not having lots of roommates around. Amanda is still here for now which I really appreciate. I don't think I could handle having both Val and Amanda leave at the same time. I am sure I will LOVE when Brian and I have the house to ourselves...but I am not rushing it either.

At least my parents will be here in just two weeks!!! That will be such a blessing.

This past Thursday the President of the company I am working for right now gave me two tickets to the home opener of the U of A basketball game. They played Incarnate Word from San Antonio. We had a little bit of difficult time finding parking but once we had it it was nice...and they won. So we have that going for us.







God bless this child really. It is SOOOO difficult to have him take a picture without making a goofy face. I still love the guy though...

We have a new friend in our home today. A friend from church as well as one of Brian's clients is having to go out of town for work so we are keeping her kitten!!! It's pouncer #2!! :) Max's story is similar to Pouncer's. He was found in a dumpster by somebody. He is probably about one month old and is full of energy. He was hiding anywhere he could when we first brought him home but now he won't leave either my or Brian's lap. Here are a couple of pictures!!











I've got some other thoughts but I don't want to type any longer. Later...