Trippin'

My trip to Minnesota to visit my family and help my Mom through a difficult part of her recovery is coming SOON!

Greg will be staying home in Arizona, but I still don't love anyone online knowing the exact dates and times of trips, so I'll keep that quiet, but it's coming up quickly, which means I've been packing!

Before we get to that, let's look at kitties!!!

Today while I was working on the couch, I had four cats nearby.

Claude on the back of the couch, Juvy on the brown blanket,

Allistair and Stephen looking out the back door.

Allistair slept on my lap for a while.

And Claude was a beautiful fancy princess!

Look at those pretty fluffy paws!

It has gotten into the 90s now . . . boo.

But I'm going somewhere cooler for a week!

Here are the outfits I have planned.

1.  Pink Spots + Stripes

sweater & blouse: Merona from Target
pants: SoHo Apparel Ltd from Ross

2.  Rose Print Jeans + Aqua

jeans: Seven7 from Ross
blouse: Merona from Target
hooded sweater: Roxy from Ross

3.  Blue + Olive

blouse & boyfriend cardigan: Target
denim leggings: Style & Co from Macy's 

4.  Bright Green & Ivory

jeans: DKNY from Ross
blouse: Merona from Target
sweater: Old Navy

5.  Red & Gray

jeans: Style & Co from Macy's
blouse: Merona from Target
boyfriend cardigan: Target

6.  Bejeweled Stripes With Blue

jeans: Style & Co from Macy's
sweater: Merona from Target

7.  Dots With Denim

jeans: Style & Co from Macy's
blouse & sweater: Merona from Target

8.  Zebra Stripes + Dots

pants: SoHo Apparel Ltd from Ross
blouse: eci from Macy's
sweater: Merona from Target

9.  Dots + Animal Print!

jeans: Forever 21
blouse: peck & peck from Ross
boyfriend sweater: Target

I am bringing two extra top combinations just in case, 

both of which can be worn with any of the bottoms!

10.  Lacy Leopard

camisole: Target
sweater: by design from Ross

11.  Neutral Dots

tank: Target
sweater: Merona from Target

Here are my clothes, all folded up.

By the way, I could pack quite early for this trip because I am definitely not wearing any of these winter clothes here now that it's hitting the 90s!

Stephen helped me pack!

Allistair came in to "help" only after all the hard work was done! 

Even though it won't be a vacation and it won't probably be the easiest of trips, 

I look forward to wearing all these outfits, and that's something to look forward to!

Sweet Acacia Craziness!

Our Sweet Acacia tree in the front yard is a bloomin' fool!

There are blossoms (well, clumps of yellow dust!) all over our

vehicles and all over the yard.

It's really very pretty.

Kinda stinky, though.

Everyone in Arizona is taking megadoses of allergy medications this year.

It seems as if the sudden transition from chilly to almost-hot did us all in! 

look at those puffballs!

Greg and I went for a walk the other night as a bank of clouds rolled in.

There was lightning in them thar clouds!

Our neighborhood

And then I saw the evening star!

And palm trees!

And the evening star again . . . 

On our anniversary, Greg and I went out for dinner.

I wore this:

dress: Calvin Klein
shoes: Aerosole

clutch: no label!, purchased at Ross
LOVE THE GOLD DOTS!

And at church last week, I wore this!

dress: Calvin Klein
jacket: ABS
shoes: Aerosole
bag: no label! purchased at Ross - this color blue is my favorite color

Stephen has been more relaxed and silly - 

he drooped himself over the scratching Arc De Triumph!

Oh!

I found another outfit photo stashed on the camera!

I wore this running errands yesterday.

dress: Macy's
bag: no label, purchased at Ross
shoes: Target

Juvy has been nice and snuggly - 

she likes to lie around with her tongue peeking out.

I LOVE that!

And the other night while Juvy was snuggling on my lap, I saw this out the sliding glass door . . . 

It was the MOON!

We almost never see the moon in that position!

Allistair has to change his sleeping position now that it's warmer.

But his nose is the same!

This is how I work many days.

Today Juvy wanted to be inside, but looking out at her domain.

Look at that beautiful profile!

Lots of our plants are blooming or doing other interesting things.

This agave grew stalks about 5 feet tall and they're about to blossom into hundreds of flowers!

The hummingbirds love these plants.

I hope your day is as full of snuggles and sunshine as mine has been!

Home

The weather here has been glorious! 

Cool (even chilly) mornings and evenings, but up to the high 80s in the afternoon.

We haven't needed the air conditioner yet - and we'll wait as long as possible!

At an outside meeting I had on Thursday, 

we saw this horned owl in a palm tree!

I got closer . . . 

and closer still!

Only to realize later that I was taking pictures of his back!

Still, what a majestic bird!

We met with our first contractor last week, and have found another company from whom we'll get a second opinion in the next week or so.

One of our main issues at the moment is the flooring.

The flooring in the dining room was damaged by the water leakage, and we are waiting on a CSI-type investigation by our insurance company to find out if compatible flooring can still be purchased.  If not, we will definitely be having all the flooring in the great room replaced (and probably the rest of the house, too, since it's all either the same as this flooring or needing to be replaced).

If they find a match, we may still choose to have this flooring replaced because we need tile in kitchen and two bathrooms replaced, so we are considering doing the whole house in the same stuff.

Will keep you updated on that!

But before then, I wanted to capture some current photos of what our home looks like right now.

Here's our great room.

sneak appearance by Juvy, a black cat blending in
to the brown blanket on the couch!

Here's a pan to the left, where you can see the hallway (through the half-wall)

and the Foosball table!

Here's our kitchen.  I LOVE the blue pendant lights and our wonderful appliances, 

which we installed about five years ago.

Here's part of the master bedroom.  

I greatly anticipate the day we get rid of carpet for good.

I know most people disagree, but I think carpet is unhygienic, 

especially living in the desert and living with animals!

And here's the guest bedroom:

guest appearance by Allistair on the chest by the window!

and guest bathroom.

You can see that the tiles have cracked here due to

the shifting sands upon which desert homes are built.

There are some new strategies for dealing with those shifting sands now.

I talked to the second contractor yesterday, and he told me that there is a fairly new product that good flooring installers use that can prevent cracking in the future.  It is a rubbery membrane put down under the tiles, and when cracks form or increase in size, the membrane stretches and the tiles are less likely to crack.  What a great invention!

So there's a little tour!

And here's a bonus extra special treat for you on this fine day . . . 

A CUTE KITTY VIDEO!!!

Allstair loves laundry day, and frequently hides under the blankets as I'm making the bed

after washing the bedding.  But I found him!

Happy weekend!