Rain, Rain, Stay and Play!

Living here in Arizona means I get to experience a LOT of dry... sizzling hot... tumbleweeds-rolling-across-the-street kind of days.  And yes, there are a lot tumbleweeds, mostly at the end of summer when the monsoon season begins.  I actually think it's pretty cool.  Well, that is until one hits my car then all I can envision are the pretty scratches all over the side of my car... Okay, maybe not so cool.

We have had some pretty amazing weather this winter.  It's been raining off and on lately.  I think everything about it is pretty much, beautiful.  I love the water, the sound of the wind and rain, the gorgeous skies before, during and after the rain... the rainbows! Uhmmmm... the smell.  What's there not to love?  Do you have a bad case of the frizzies? I do! Who cares? LOL!  Well t'anyway,  I'm absolutely thrilled with it!  It's cleansing... What a treat!

This is a photo I took from my back window
just after hours and hours of endless rain.

You can't tell me this isn't beautiful...

I don't know if the weather has brought me this strange kind of peace... or the new people in my life... or if it's the fact that going to church has made me see things differently... or that I'll be turning 40 years old in less than 10 days and I'm totally A-Ok with it!  I feel wiser  already... hehe!  Anyway, I say strange peace because I'm not used to being able to let things go as easily, like I have been lately.  Maybe it's a combination of them all.  Whatever it is... I sorta kinda like it  :O)


What weather do you feel brings you the most peace?

Disconnected

We were about a block away from home yesterday when I realized I left my phone charging on the kitchen counter.  We were on our way to a movie and then to get some dinner so I knew that I'd be without it for quite a few hours.  My hubs offered to turn back... We were only one block away.

I had a quick flashback to when there were no cell phones.  We'd leave our home and be completely disconnected from everybody that wasn't with us.  I also thought about how that made it possible to be completely, undividedly, dedicated to the person/people you were with... no distractions, no alerts, no posts, no emails, no games nudging you to take your turn....

"Nope," I said to my hubs.... "I.don't.need.it"

My cousin's hubby told me about a fun exercise he heard about... Go out to eat with friends and everyone puts their cell phones in the middle of the table.  Whoever gives in and picks up their phone first, also picks up the tab!! LOL! I thought that was a brilliant idea!  My hubby, yeah, not so much...

Getting back to last night... The movie we picked was Jack Reacher starring Tom Cruise.  I don't love the dude but I really do enjoy his movies.  So, then, I guess that means I like him...?  Oh and I do have to make a note that I checked the parent guide in IMDb and I wish I would have read it more carefully because I really felt guilty about taking Ethan to see that. (Ethan is 10yrs old)  About half-way through the movie, I made him dim the light on his 3DS and play video games for the rest of the movie... (and no, nothing distracts him when he's playing video games so it was fine)  I thought the violence should have been scored more at an 8/10 not a 6/10.   Lesson learned... ok!  No spoiler here really, just that the character, Jack, talks about how he is completely disconnected from everyone and everything.  He lives his life, day by day with no cell phone or computer and feels that he is the one who is "free"... and the rest of us are not free at all.  I gotta say, in my opinion, he's right!

Okay so I wouldn't want to be completely disconnected like Jack Reacher.  I like my phone and I like my computer and I like feeling connected to some people on a daily basis.


Question:  Being that I was only a block away from home... if it was you, would you have turned back for your phone?  Have you ever been "disconnected"?  For how long?

Snow Day

We may not have hired a professional photographer... oh wait. I am...  No... wait...  Every mother out there with a digital camera is a freakin' pro now.  I  set up my tripod and we get what we get! I can't bring myself to spend the money on something I know how to do! I set up the tripod and run back and forth like a crazy woman... in this case... it was a nice fellow that took our family photo in exchange for me taking a photo of him with his sons.

Snow day.  I don't mind the 1.5 hr drive up north to play in the snow for a while.  We drive up, eat lunch, play, freeze and drive home.  It's just enough time for my sons to have a little fun and for this "Mama with a digital camera" to freeze some memories.

Ok.  Pathetic story. Here goes.  I actually planned my outfit on POLYVORE!  Holy yikes. I know, sad.  I almost had it to a tee 'cept I forgot to throw my scarf on for the photos.  I was freezing and in a hurry to get back in the car!  It was really snowing pretty hard.  I couldn't keep my face up or eyes open for too long without getting snow flakes in my eyes.

Okay, so here's my outfit... Did I mention I love this site? It's like playing paper dolls on your computer.  So. Addicting. So. So. So.... Darn you Polyvore... I love u! :)

Snow Day by aznat73 featuring black gloves





A few "out takes" :O)

Me and my "little" lovies

Dale was trying to take a photo

of us all together... here he is trying to hold

my ginormous Nikon!  He didn't do too bad

and we had quite the laugh!

Dale and our boys :O)

Making memories people... making memories.. that's what it's all about :O)

Canyon Lake

The end of summer vacation is nearing! So bummed! I feel like I ran out of time to do things with my boys.  The weather forecast for yesterday read that we were going to be having thunderstorms.  The weather is kind of tricky in Arizona.  They might say we are having a storm and it'll sprinkle for about 5 minutes and it's done.  Mother nature loves to leave us longing for more!

I'm an Arizona native so I know that a few clouds doesn't mean a thing! We packed up some lunches and headed to Canyon Lake.  It's been years since I've been there on a weekend.  It's gets packed pretty quick and we got a late start but we were fortunate enough to score the last picnic table under one of the ramadas.

Watching the kids splash around in the water brings back so many memories of my childhood.  My parents used to take me there before my little brother was born (we are 8 years apart). I've always loved the water and I was never fearful of venturing out a little deeper than I should.  My mom would get so scared so my father decided to tell me that there were sharks in the lake and they would get me if I went out too far. That story stayed with me until I was 19yrs old when my hubs (he was my boyfriend at that time) laughed and told me there were no sharks in this man-made lake! I felt like an idiot.  Daughters always want to believe what their daddy's tell them.........

 We arrived around noon yesterday, just in time to eat our lunch.  It was slightly cloudy until about 2pm.

More clouds started to roll in and it started to get a bit windy.  The boys didn't seem to mind at all because the waves picked up too!

After a couple of hours of swimming and unsuccessful fishing, we decided to head out when we spotted some lightening east of us.  I was hoping to get some good shots on our drive down the windy mountain before the rain caught up to us.

My goal was to get some daytime lightening shots.  I pulled over when we got by the beautiful Superstition mountains just outside of Canyon Lake.  The sky to the west of us was glowing light but the sky to the east of us was quickly turning black.

I waited here for about 10 minutes, hoping for some lightening........ Score!

Drove down a little ways and ran across this little church... it was starting to rain, lightly, but the rain drops were huge!

You can see here that the rain was sweeping its way across the Superstition Mountains as they are hardly visible anymore!

Monsoon season in Arizona is so beautiful.  Besides the Fall season (which doesn't last very long), I have to say monsoon season is definitely my favorite!

What's your favorite season where you live?