Reed and Jen and then...

Reed and I were thrilled when we woke up the other day to this...




He was in our backyard stealing some shade. Guess we'd better put those screens we bought in the openings in our wall now. This sucker was over 4 feet long and looks as though he's staring right at me in this picture. Reed discovered him (luckily, because he didn't have a rattle) and ran upstairs to share the joyous news with me. I threw some clothes on and hurried downstairs. Reed was a little upset that I just waltzed outside to find it with seemingly no caution at all. Especially because in other news...





I'm pregnant!! I figured it was okay to tell now because:

1. It's getting too hard to hide it and


2. People are probably wondering why I'm "letting myself go" and


3. I'm 4 and 1/2 months





So there ya go. I will finally breed. Watch out world!!!!!!


We'll find out on August 6th that it's definitely a boy...cuz that's what I want!

Independence Day 2009

Reed and I had his family over for the 4th's celebration this year. We usually just watch the fireworks on TV or go up to the second floor of our apartment complex and see what we can see, but this year we decided to mix it up. Being a homeowner sure does open up many more rooms of possibilities. Reed and I thought it would also be more fun to have a BBQ at the very nice and spacious park by our house. Well, when we arrived to clean off the grill that other nasty people have used and start the coals burning, the very nice and spacious part was drenched in about a million gallons of water (courtesy of the downpour we had the night before). Apparently this park also serves as the drainage for our community. Brilliant!! Reed had actually gone over earlier to check the park's availability of crusty grills but decided not to tell me about the water in hopes it would all be gone in the next few hours and I suppose in fear of any yelling that may ensue upon me hearing the dreadful news. So, Reed and I enjoyed cooking and semi-hosting our first BBQ in pools of molch sprinkled with rabbit poo...and the aroma...mmmmm! I say semi-hosting because instead of Reed's whole family attending like we thought and were hoping for, Reed's parents came. (That sounds bad...we did enjoy their company). The other family members showed up in small numbers eventually. The night ended up being rather enjoyable. Reed did a wonderful job with the burgers and hotdogs, he even fed one to the rabbit pooed water. They were tender and juicy. Yummy! We ended the night at the Fireworks Spectacular held in Marana. Next time we'll have to bring lawn chairs, even though we thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the ant-ridden dirt hoping that one would not crawl down my pants.

Reed and his BBQ-ing skills!

Only a fraction of the drainage aftermath...and my father-in-law, Darwin.


My mother-in-law, Jeannie, waiting for her food in the van. She did not want to hang out with us in the rabbit-poo water for some reason.

Now there's the spirit folks!!