When it rains it pours, November 18, 2018

Last Sunday night Luke decided to take off for a little adventure. He never takes off when the family is all home so it was super weird that we couldn't find him. We searched for hours literally a couple hours to no avail. We searched on foot we searched in our car we prayed we cried we were all super sad and went to bed with no dog. When your dog is blind it's a scary thing when they are lost. He can't see if there was a hole, he can't see oncoming traffic, he can't see the dangers of wild, animals super scary. Many of the kids went to bed crying and I just said a prayer. For 2 days Tucson was super windy and we had a cold front and Sunday night was so blustery. I just prayed that my ancestors who love animals would watch over and protect our dog. Then at 5:30 am on Monday morning I got a call from a lady who found Luke!! Benjamin and I got up and got out of the house and in minutes flat met this wonderful woman the Good Samaritan and got Luke home. He looked pretty rough. Lots of briars, cactus and he smelled pretty rotten too. This blind black dog crossed Tanque Verde road, four lanes of traffic, in the dark and managed not to get hit and managed to safely be found in the neighboring neighborhood. The amount of miracles this dog has had in his life is abundant. His zest for life is evident every time he runs into the open with just the complete faith and hope that he'll not knock himself in the head. If we get to the other side and get to watch film strips of mysteries in our life I really can't wait to watch the mysteries of Luke's miracles unfold. I think that would be a great movie!
A trip to the groomers helped make him spiffy once again.

This miracle helped us keep perspective as the rest of the week unfolded. Our guest house had major plumbing issues and while we had guests staying in there, the sewer line was backing up into their showers and the toilets. It was pretty disgusting. By some miracle these guests were super chill and didn't even get upset and were generous with us getting the septic tank fixed. They were even getting ready for a wedding so it could have been very stressful but they were super relaxed, we were very lucky. I'm a firm believer that money talks so they got a refund of a night. Benjamin is not only handsome but he's very handy. He was able to diagnose the problem dig a trench with the help of his brother Dan and a friend that owns a landscaping crew lent us his workers. We paid them but nothing like what we would have had to pay a complete stranger in an emergency situation to fix this pretty enormous pproblem. While the septic tank was exposed I took the opportunity to explain plumbing to the preschoolers :-) they thought it was quite disgusting and fun!

Of course while this was happening Benjamin's clutch in his Civic blew. His car was in the shop for several days and thankfully we were able to borrow his parents car since they were out of town in Alabama. Our two cars are such beaters. It was a very pricey and stressful week but with finding our dog Luke it put everything into perspective. A perfect lead up for this week's Thanksgiving scene. Life is good.

Veterans Day celebrated on November 12th

Veterans day brought the Webster family down from Gilbert and the Holman's and the Howe family togertog at Sabino Canyon. We love this Oasis in the desert and love getting together wirh cousins and family. We missed spouses, Dad and the Smith clan. It's always a little miracle when everyone can meet. It's always a miracle when Holman gets into the freezing water!!

26.2...... November 3rd, 2018

On September 27th my ever adventure seeking husband said "do you want to run a marathon with me?" How could I resist?! When we married 20 years ago if I said "do you want to go on a run?" Benjamin would say I only run if there is a ball involved, basketball, baseball or soccer ball. Running for pleasure was never on his to do list. But the in the last 5 years Benjamin discovered the joy of running and caught the running bug, but a marathon was still never on his bucket list. Then Benjamin heard about the Mount Lemon Marathon and the adventurer in him couldn't resist. They shut down the mountain and the course runs from Summerhaven all the way down to the base of the mountain to Tanque Verde High School. We looked up how to run a marathon in 30 days and just went for it!! Josh Clark and his friend were crazy enough to sign up for the race too, we signed up as a team called "Day old Bread." Training for the race actually got me out of bed in the morning. We ran 143 miles in the month leading up to the marathon. I was excited for the race for about a week. Then we went on a 10 mile trail run and my quads were killing for over a week, I was so ridiculously sore... and questioning all my life choices. From then on I realized what a big deal 26.2 miles is. My constant prayer was "help us not to get injured training or during the race." There are so many miracles leading up to the ability to run and finish a race. November 3rd was a looming deadline that I was terrified to do. The last time I ran a marathon was 21 years ago when I was 19, 21 years later and 30 pounds heavier :) The great thing about a marathon is the variety of people that run them, skinny people, old people, large people. There really isn't just one type of person that is crazy enough to do this. There was even a woman in pants, a dress and a hijab. The actual race was fantastic!! I think I worried so much leading up to the race that the actual race was worry free! My biggest blessing was a great head space. My prayer was to enjoy the race and not to worry about the road ahead and that prayer was answered!! Benjamin and I stuck together, at times it was just the two of us and it felt like we were running on Sabino Canyon road. We ended up seeing a couple of friends who were working the aid stations, a couple from our ward in Benson and a young woman, Brooke Larson, from camp. Hearing them cheer us on was awesome! I loved that I could help encourage Benjamin to finish strong, and we did!

The bus ride up to the mountain

Our race numbers, "free" T-shirts, and hat. Benjamin labled my bib "Hotness Everdeen" thats his running nickname for me, haha! He calls himself fat boy, silly man.

The best was running into the finish line with the kids, my parents, the Claridges and the Clarks. The kids made us signs, so sweet!

October 28th Masquerade Ball

This week we had the privilege of hosting a sweet 16 party at our house. It was for a young woman in our Ward who was planning on having her party at her apartment complex but their Clubhouse wasn't finished in time for the party. So we were happy to host it here. It was a masquerade ball. Her grandmother made her a gorgeous dress, it was peacock themed. It was very intricate intricate and beautiful. Olivia, Holman, Bella and I had masks and joined the party it was super fun. Plus we did a deep scrub of the house in order to prepare for it 😀 That is always a win to hosting! She had a lot of friends come out and support her and a lot of really personal and thoughtful gifts.

Bella was still at work when we took this pic before the party.

This picture is of Olivia and I sitting on the side of the road waiting for Bella to pick us up. Since we only have two cars right now one car is with Benjamin at work and then Bella and I share the otger car for the afternoon. Usually it works out fine other times it's quite the scheduling juggle. On this day Liv and I went to a doctor's appointment. Bella dropped us off and she went to go pick up everybody else. We finished the doctor's appointment early and thought we could walk the mile to the main road so that Bella could pick us up on the way to Adrianna's Activity Days which starts 15 minutes after school gets out and is 30 minutes away. It was quite fun we sat on the side of the road and took this picture.

Sunday October 21, 2018

Franklin and Parkin after their first soccer game of the season. They both play goalie and defense. They looked great and saved a lot of shots.  Go Bulldogs!!

Fall break October 14th

We had/have an opportunity to host a super fun foreign exchange student from Spain. He is 16 and his name is Guillermo. His regular host family had a family emergency and he needed a place to stay for the week of fall break. The previous week he was staying with friends of ours, but they were going out of town for fall break so they asked us. We said sure as long as he is cool with camping. He attends my alma mater. Bella and Olivia asked their friends at Sahuaro if they knew the foreign exchange student. Their good friend Jordan is his friend so we invited Jordan to go with us. 

We went camping for fall break to Parker Canyon Lake. 

His host family is still out of town. He was supposed to go to a different family but he's been having to move around so much we offered to keep him till the host family returns. We have had him for 14 days now. He is outgoing and loves soccer and can play just about anything on the piano!

Benjamin and I back in school!

On Friday night Benjamin and I went to aa wate harvesting class. It was so much fun. We learned all about water harvesting in Tucson. They showed us pictures of the 1940s when the washes and rivers were running in Tucson and then they showed us subsequent photos of the 1980s when all the washes were dry. The aim of this group is for people to learn how to rain water harvest so that the water table below the surface will rise up and be able to maintain what we naturally should be able to have here in Tucson. People think when they see water running down the street to washes that that's helping our aquifers. But it's not it's really just running past Tucson into Marana & beyond. They want to teach people in Tucson how to capture the water so that we can grow sustainable greenery here. We had an awesome storm today and went out and watched where our water runoff takes place. We can't wait to capture this rain water to change our landscape. They offer a consult to come out for a fee and then they make a plan for you on how to capture the water, we're so excited. Especially because our neighbor does not want to sell her unused well. Now maybe we won't have to buy it from her!

this is at the west side of our property several neighbors use this road that floods every time there's a heavy rain. Can you imagine if we could harness this water before it hits the road?

These two pictures are of our wash. We're going to keep that water booyah!