Home Again! Catching Up

After getting home from our summer vacation, we had the opportunity to enjoy the many

beauties the desert has to offer!

Our cacti have been blooming A LOT this summer,

and the flowers are big!

We're still loving our pretty backyard.

I spruced it up because we were planning to have special visitors:

Greg's Mom and sister!

They were going to visit and spend one night with us,

so I set up the guest room for two.

Juvy helped!

There's Greg with his Mom and sister, Jennifer.

Here we all are together. 

The babies were glad we were home, too!

Allistair

Juvy

so pretty!

Allistair

sleepy Stephen

Allstair is helping me read some thick theology books!

or are his sleepy vibes just making me wanna take a nap . . . ?

doesn't look comfy to me, but Stephen sleeps like this often!

It certainly has been HOT this summer!

This was from late August, and this week it's been 108 today and yesterday.

Whew!  I'M THANKFUL for our sturdy air conditioner!

I'm also thankful for our roof . . . even though it had a leak (now fixed).

We had QUITE a monsoon storm!!!

Here are Greg (and Juvy!) sopping up the water that came in through the hole.

I captured a few recent outfits for you . . . 

blouse: Per Seption Concept (Ross)
camisole: JKY by Jockey (Target)
skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)
bag: ABage (Amazon)
shoes: Target

blouse: Maison Jules (Macy's)
skirt: GAP

sheer dotted blouse: Victoria's Secret
camisole: JKY by Jockey (Target)
skirt: GAP
bag: Nine West (TJ Maxx)
shoes: Target

shirt: Target
skirt: GAP
shoes: Target
bag: ABage (Amazon)

blouse: Karl Lagerfeld (TJ Maxx)
skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)
bag: ABage (Amazon)

Look again at the adorable bag!!!

It matches Juvy!!!!

Here's a close-up of the Nine West bag (it was $10!)

I also got this cute bag (for $19.99) at TJ Maxx.

See them in motion here:

We also enjoyed the recent eclipse!

Greg made me a little viewing box because we weren't sure we trusted the special glasses.

Look!  You can even see the clouds!

It wasn't a full eclipse; the sun was only covered about 35-40% here in Arizona.

Still it was exciting!

I tried a delicious new recipe lately - lentil sloppy joes!

YUM!!!

I need to make this again - maybe tomorrow!

On Labor Day it's far too hot here to do anything outside as I grew up doing . . . 

so we went to a movie! 

We saw "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" in a fun theater where I was able to get vegan gluten-free pizza DURING THE MOVIE!!!  And sparkling water, of course.

The food was way more expensive than it should have been but it was surprisingly good.

Before the movie they were showing hilarious previews (interviews with the director, for example) PLUS these cute dancing aliens!!!

Here's what I wore that day (in the bathroom of the theater):

blouse: Eden & Olivia (Ross)
skirt: Recucci (Amazon)
bag: ABage (Amazon)

You can see that I wear the same things in HEAVY rotation!!!

As far as the 1:1 (special needs) program that I run at our local church,

I have recently discovered a really fun new sensory toy!

See then in action here!

Thanks for hanging out with me, and here is your reward!

This is a little rock, painted like a penguin, that I saw outside Macy's a couple of weeks ago.

Isn't he adorable?!  I love it that he's just sitting there, making people smile.