Today we are baking, and I don't mean cake!!! The hovel is a whopping 89 degrees inside right now. It's miserable.

Also, last night I was bit at least 4 times by some kind of bug (probably red ants) so my legs are all itchy with giant red bumps that are driving me insane.

I'm so glad that we get to move out of the hovel in the next few weeks into a beautiful apartment with lovely grounds where they have air conditioning and they spray every two weeks for bugs. I can't wait!!! =)

Happy Birthday, Heep!!!

Hope your day was a good one,

enjoy your carrot cake!!!

Love ya!!

Mom and Dad headed home today. They left at 6 am, and they called about an hour ago. Their van broke down in Oklahoma. Please pray that they will make it home the rest of the way safely.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Becca... Happy Birthday to you!!!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday here at the hovel!! You have been a great housemate, but thank goodness this part of our lives is almost over!!!! But, oh, the stories we'll all have to tell our grandchildren!!!!

Mom, Dad and Ness are having a truly 'hovelicious' experience this week. It has been very hot in the hovel during the day, and last night and today, we had an unwelcome visit from some of my least favorite Arizona critters... fire ants. I was bit on my feet and legs about 3 times, and mom was bit on her back a couple times. It ain't fun!! =)

Despite the ants, (and the fact that we are in Arizona....) I have loved having them all here for a while. Janessa is a little sweetheart and I have missed her alot this past year. Her and Brandon have been having a fantastic time playing together, I don't know how they will handle being separated when the time comes for her to go home. (Honestly, I'm not sure how I'll handle it when they have to go home, either!!! At least I know I get to go visit them in August, and we will be moving between now and then, so I should keep pretty busy in the meantime.)

It's late and I'm tired, I'll try to post more later!!

Father's Day Pictures...

Pictures of Mom, Dad, and Janessa's trip out... and the night they arrived bearing gifts for Brandon! Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!!

Happy 30th, Justin!!!

I hope that your day is fantastic and this next year the best ever!!

Have a great time wherever your travels are taking you.

I miss you and I'll see you in August!!! Love ya!!!

Happy Father's Day, Pops!!!

I hope that you had a great day, we sure did! It's been great having you all here the past few days!! I miss you all so bad when we aren't together... it's always nice to see you guys again!! I love you, Dad!

Happy Father's day to the rest of you

not-so-important-to-me-therefore-not-so-important fathers, too!! =P

Hope you all have a nice day!!!

Mom and Dad enjoying their visit to the new and improved (newly painted) hovel.

Right now, my Mom and Dad are playing tennis on the wii with Jariah and Zion. LOL ...Who would have thought that that would ever happen??? Not I!!

They're here!!! My parents and Janessa arrived safely a few hours ago!!! It is so great to see them!!!!!! I am just hoping that the weather cools down (wishful thinking on my part) so we can enjoy their visit to the fullest without anyone croaking from the heat!!!!

My Mom, Dad and Janessa

leave to come here in

10 hours!!!!!

WooHooo!!!!!!

Saturday was nuts!! Josh called at around 9 a.m. and told Zion that a couple guys were on their way to the hovel to paint the outside of it. He has been planning on getting it painted for a few months now, but the guys weren't ready to do it yet. They apparently called him about 5 minutes before he called us and told him that they were going to get it done today.

Because Becca is pregnant, and can't be around paint fumes, they immediately left for the day. Jariah, Becca and Brandon got up and got ready quickly so they would be gone before the paint fumes started flying. They went out for breakfast, took their time letting Brandon play in the McDonalds play land, went ahead to our new apartment to sign the final papers, then came back about 3 hours later to check the progress of the painters. The painters had gotten there about 5 minutes before and were just starting to tape off the place...

Zion and I hadn't gone anywhere yet, we weren't sure what we were going to do because we had been planning on packing up some stuff to get ready for our move and for my parents coming to visit, but when the painters got there and started working, they asked us to turn the coolers off because it was messing up the paint, so when Jariah and Becca got back, we all headed out together to destination unknown!!

We ended up going to the Planetarium, which was big fun for Brandon and pretty boring for the rest of us. (After growing up 15 minutes from the Neil Armstrong Space Museum, Tucson's little planetarium was pretty sad...)

After the show at the planetarium, we were all hungry, so we decided to go to Olive Garden for soup, salad, bread sticks and their famous and delicious Bellini iced tea. We went to the one on the other side of town, right by the Park Place mall, so after eating, we went to the mall to kill some more time. By this point of the day, it was about 6:30, we figured the paint guys were probably done, so we could go back home to at least turn on the cooler then we would go back out for another hour to give the cooler a chance to cool down the hovel a bit.

When we got back to the hovel, we saw that the painters hadn't gotten very much done, and they were in fact just arriving back to the house to continue painting. It had gotten really hot during the day, and when it got to be too much for them, they left. It was 6:30, and they had another few hours of work to do before we could come home!

We then headed over to the Tucson Mall and walked around for a couple more hours, then came back home ready to relax at around 9 p.m. The guys were gone, the painting wasn't quite finished and the fumes were horrible!!! At this point, Becca was dead tired (she'd been walking around and out and about for 12 hours straight!!!) and we knew it would probably be a few more hours before the fumes would dissipate. We had no where to go, everything was closed. Zion called Josh, and he said we could come over for a while if we wanted, but Jariah said the fumes probably wouldn't be gone until morning. Becca went out to the car to stay away from the fumes while Jariah called area hotels and looked online for a room. They ended up staying down the road at Best Western costing them 70 bucks.

It was the longest, most boring day in a year-long history of the most boring days of our lives... and here was a post to match the boringness of the day!!

I'll let Becca tell you about the drunken party in the room next door...

Happy birthday, Jess!!!

I hope you have a great day and a fabulous year!!

I miss you!!

Love ya, sis!!!

=)

We just found out that we get to move in on July 1st!! Wooohooo!!!! This is so sweet!! =)

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!

I hope you both had a great day!!

I love you both!!!

My life is finally looking up again.

My parents are coming with Janessa for a week to visit on or around the 17th!! (They are driving, so they could be here on the 16th or 17th, depending on traffic and how long Janessa can stand to be in the van!) =) I can't wait to see them all again!!!

Also, we are finally getting out of the hovel!! We got the move in date of July 13th to our new apartment in Pusch Ridge. The 5 of us will be living in one 2 bed/2 bath for the first couple months, then around December, Zion and I will move into our own 2 bed/2 bath apartment, leaving the first one for Jariah, Becca, Brandon and the new baby who is due sometime in Janurary. It's all very exciting, because the apartments are awesome!!!!!


Click here to see pictures of the apartments. =)