Tucsonan Villalpandos

Friday, November 4, 2011

Pumpkin Carving Party

Tricia

Cali with her catnip mouse pumpkin

James has his game face on

Sarah & I

James as the Headless Horseman, watch out Sleepy Hollow!

James' finished pumpkin

My finished pumpkin, "Jack O' Clock"-thanks Martha Stewart!

Our Halloween Tree

Halloween/Tracy Visits Prescott

Kinder Class

Snow White @ Prescott Fall Festival

Abby turns 5

Honey Bee Cake

Teri's CUTE bull terrier, Mingus

Fall colors in Prescott

Prescott's downtown square

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy October and Fall to All! September was very busy and not busy at the same time. The not busy part was me being on a 3 week vacation from work. Here is a snapshot of our September in the Wild West....

Little sister Tricia had her first ultrasound. She is 3 months now, and they will find out if it's a boy or girl in December! It's going to be a long wait! We also got the happy news that another member of our big family is expecting, but I won't say who yet. We are so happy for both of them!

Mom Zabowsky has been getting into the swing of taking long walks & learning more about how to manage her diabetes. She has been in Missouri visiting and taking care of her very ill sister.

My 3 week vacation came very unexpectedly due to bad storm damage to my school. Pictures and more info below.

With everyone else I know in Tucson working, I have not had a lot to do. I did get a lot of finishing touches done on our apartment that I have been meaning to do. So that I wouldn't go completely crazy, and so that James wouldn't go completely crazy from working so hard this month, we decided to squeeze in a mini trip. We went to Sedona for 4 days. The weather was a little cooler than here (we are still in the 90's!). One night we both couldn't believe that we were cold-it's something we haven't felt since living in San Diego! We got in lots of hiking, including a hike with Teri, Joe, & the kids. They live in Prescott which is only an hour away from Sedona, so on Sunday they came out to see us & we had dinner together.

I made a slideshow of our pictures from our trip. I couldn't figure out how to post it here, so click on this link below...

http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d1971528k9248303o1/sedona

Tohono Chul Park

Can you find James?

Tohono Chul Park

We decided to check out a park that is about 10 minutes away from us. The grounds are beautiful, and they have an amazing restaurant. I had the best scone of my life-cranberry white chocolate chip. Yum! Here are pictures of the day.

Entrance to restaraunt

Lots of fat & happy lizards

Pomegranate Tree

James checking his Fantasy Football

Cactus Lady

September 9th-Monsoon Storm Wreaks Havoc on My School

September started off with a bang! Friday the 9th I left my classroom around 4:30. At that point the storm was off in the distance. I was feeling anxious because all my weird sick symptoms had come back full throttle, and I was anticipating missing more work the next week. Saturday evening I got a call that the monsoon had hit our school and a "microburst" had done considerable damage. Microburst involve really powerful winds-enough to take sections of the roof off our school. So it was pouring inside our school for however long, destroying classrooms. Luckily my wing of the school just got a little water, but other rooms lost everything. The first few days they were optimistic that we would be able to open in a week, but as more and more problems surfaced they decided to immediately close for Fall break. So I have not had any work since September 9th! We go back this Monday, but the construction is not complete and for now the plan is basically to put the entire student population in a large area where they have put up makeshift classrooms....with no school supplies. All of our supplies and furniture are currently in storage where we can't get to them. Keep me in your thoughts-I could get eaten alive by bored children next week! Below are pics of the school before everything was put in storage.