Around here this weekend...

Good day, blog friends.

♥

I hope this Monday morning finds you well and happy. I am both. :o) Come in, I'll tell you about our weekend...

Saturday morning I had breakfast with my sister-in-law, Janet. We each had a mimosa and a yummy meal at The Original Chop Shop in downtown Chandler. SO yummy, and I'm excited to take Doug there sometime.

Carrie and her beau were out of town for the weekend, so we had her dog, Marcus, in the mix of our resident fur balls. Marcus and Lucky are great friends. The cat? Not so much. This next shot was at feeding time for the cat...all hands on deck.

I drew a few mandalas this weekend and I loved spending lots of time with each one, just taking my time. Whiskers Jay stayed close by (as usual).

That tail.

You can see both of our turtles in the photo below, enjoying some ground venison that Doug gave them. Oh my gosh, they love that stuff! Rex literally comes "running" for it. Nature. So gross and so cool.

I played with watercolor pencils on my mandalas this weekend and Whiskers would not leave my water jar alone. Pal or pest? Both rolled into one!

This week will include lots of yoga as I have picked up a Friday morning class at another Chandler Parks & Recreation location. So, in addition to the two I teach at Snedigar Rec Center on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I'll be teaching Friday mornings at Tumbleweed Rec Center. I've also scheduled my next mandala workshop for the end of August, so I'll be preparing for that in the coming weeks.

When my schedule is full like this it's a challenge to keep up with my own yoga practice, so I'm stepping up my morning routine starting today. Gotta' click publish and hit my yoga mat.

Pray for peace.

♥

Our day trip in search of desert wildflowers

Weekends aren't what they used to be! With me teaching yoga on Saturday mornings, and Doug using his weekends to squeeze in home projects and time in nature when he can, we've been a bit limited when it comes to picking up and hitting the road.

 

The office where I work was closed for Good Friday, and since Doug has the best boss ever {himself} he took the day off too. We loaded up the truck with snacks and drinks and Lucky the dog and headed out early Friday morning in search of this spring's desert wildflowers.

For my local readers who know the state of Arizona, you'll know where we traveled, and for others who are interested you can view a map of our state and find these points of interest. We traveled through Payson, up past Kohl's Ranch, to Young, and then home through Globe, Arizona.

Ah! Nature makes us so happy!

There's me, blending in with the trees. :o)

When we got to Young we headed out to the airstrip. Doug and Lucky hiked to a water hole to look for deer tracks, and I sat at a picnic table and enjoyed some mandala time. ♥

As planned, we were in Young around mid-day and had a yummy lunch at Antlers - our old stomping grounds.

 

Mmmmmm.... Heartburn for days but SO yummy at the time! :o)

 

From Young we drove to Globe, enjoying the views of Roosevelt Lake and finally seeing a few wildflowers. I think we may have been a little late this year because there weren't a ton of flowers to be seen and/or photographed. The drive was beautiful, nonetheless.

 

We arrived back home at 5:00 p.m., tired and happy.

As for the slim number of wildflowers?

None of us minded one little bit.

♥

New house / new turtle land

Oh hey there, blog friends.

♥

Phew. I just could not get myself in gear yesterday morning and get to a weekend recap. Actually, myself was in gear finishing up the weekend's laundry and preparing for a new cleaning lady to come later in the day to take care of our floors while Doug replaced my car battery. How's that for a Monday morning? So, no official weekend recap on Monday morning but I'll sum it up in one word for you: busy.

When we moved to our new house (tomorrow will mark three weeks!) we used a large 55-gallon plastic tub to hold our two box turtles until we could build a new habitat for them. I filled the bottom with a bag of shredded bark and said a heartfelt prayer for their safety and well-being.

Well, everything was going fine(-ish) with the temporary quarters until our baby turtle, Casper went missing. Doug was working out of town for a few days and I hadn't see Casper at all, so when he came home he was given the potentially bad-news-task of digging in the bark to find a baby turtle.

The good news is that Doug found her and she was just fine. Bad news is that we discovered the reason she was so hunkered down was an attempt to hide from Rex, our male turtle who is seriously in the mood for love. L.O.V.E. And in such cramped quarters there was no escaping him without burrowing to the bottom.

 So Doug and I set aside some time this weekend to work on building a turtle pen. I had some ideas for the design and material to use, and Doug made it happen. Seriously, my husband is a jewel! He's so accommodating to my requests and worked so hard to make this happen. I love the new turtle pen AND my sweet and awesome hubby!!!

This little hut had been a bird house until we moved and I dropped it and the whole thing broke apart. I salvaged the top of it and thought it would be cute in the turtle pen...



I was right. ;o)









Rexy and Casper really like it too. It was fun to put them in their new space and watch them exploring it. This space has so much potential, and I can't wait to get some grass and other plants growing in there. We also need a few more areas for them to hide, and a better water source, but at least they are out of the plastic tub! And Casper has some space to move around and hide if/when she wants to.

In other pet news, Lucky the dog is a bit obsessed with being able to see and smell the turtles in his backyard. Now prayers are for this new habitat to keep the turtles in, and one very curious pup out.


♥

PS: Casper is about three years old. Female box turtles typically begin producing eggs when they are five years old and/or 5-7" in length. I'm glad that Rex is in love with her, and I hope he still feels the same in a couple of years when she's ready to reciprocate. ;o)

This weekend at the new house

Hey there, blog friends.

♥

One of my favorite adages is this: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." And that's what I'm struggling with when it comes to blogging right now. It's been a weird time for me and I feel like I have myself stuck in a bit of a negative rut. I know it will pass, I know I'll morph out of this funk, but for right now I am a little upside down. Makes it kind of hard to come into this space and offer up some words of encouragement and sarcastic humor for you, when I'm not feeling it myself. {Ha. Although, having just typed and re-read my intro paragraph, I already feel a little bit better...}

Anyway! I'm pretty sure you don't come to PaperTurtle to hear me whine, and I've been doing a bit of that in real life, so what say we just look at a few photos and then head out to tackle the upcoming week, eh?

Eddie's home...

When we moved into our last house four years ago, we didn't have a ceiling high enough to accommodate Eddie's rack so he went to live at Doug's brother's house. Well, new house + higher ceilings = Eddie's home. Doug is super happy and I am...well...getting used to having a really large and beautiful and dead animal hanging in our living space. I'll be honest and say that I kind of freaked out last Monday when I came home from work and he was hanging there. Carrie tells me, "Dude. It's Doug's house too!" and I think, "Wait a minute. You're my kid! Don't be on Doug's side!" (tongue in cheek there). One week later I'm surprisingly ok with Eddie living in our space again - or I'm just used to him now. It is what it is...

It's interesting (and encouraging for me) to look at the photo above and see how much progress I made this weekend. All those boxes are now stacked on the side of our house, waiting for someone to answer our ad on Craigslist for free moving boxes. It felt awesome this weekend to actually set out some of our little treasures. It's really starting to feel like home around here! :o)

Our turtles have been living in temporary housing while they await the creation of a new habitat. The unsettling news is that I haven't seen Casper in three days. She's burrowed under the bark in the tub and hasn't surfaced. Doug was out of town this weekend, and he's charged with the task of digging through the tub to find her this morning. Praying that she is ok!!! In the meantime, I've been letting Rexy roam the backyard in the afternoons for some sunshine and exercise. This weekend he discovered Lucky the dog.

Treasures starting to land in place...

A gathering of angels...

Between our house move, my mom's three-year-good-bye-anniversary, having shingles (they are better now!), a full-time job, yoga teaching and yoga teacher training, and blogging, I'm feeling a bit maxed out. This week's goal is to settle the heck down - I feel it coming back around and I know I have to make it happen in my mind. I will. I always have before and I will do it again.

In the meantime, I'm not going to worry too much about blogging. As much as I love this space, PaperTurtle is so on the back burner at the moment. However, I do have a post ready for Wednesday with some mandala goodness to share. You just never know when I'll pop up in your feed...

So, until we meet again, my friends, keep the faith and keep on keeping on. That's what I'll be doing over on my little piece of the planet.

♥

Weekend at the new house

Oh hey there, blog friends.

♥

Phew. If my mind accidentally forgot what I did this weekend, my body would remind me. Lots of physical work for both of us, but I'm pretty sure Doug isn't feeling it the way I am. Yoga lets me feel really strong in my body, but there's no yoga pose that matches shoveling...

That's going to be our new turtle habitat. It started out as a crummy looking flowerbed, filled with rocks and sticks and lots of carpenter nails from past construction. I worked on this area Saturday and Sunday morning for a while, loosening the ground (with Doug's help) and sifting through the dirt - slowly clearing it out for our shelled friends. I do hope they appreciate this!

I worked in the dirt until it got too hot for me, then there was plenty to do inside. It might seem silly, but I really do love listening to Doug's paint-job-radio while I work over there. There's something nostalgic and basic that is just kind of fun. :o)

The original color I chose from the tiny little paint card felt too dark, so Doug got a lighter sample and we both like it much better. I'm about 25% nervous about having him paint the cabinets this color, and 75% excited. I hope I love it. I think I will.

Our tile floors were scheduled to start going in on Thursday of this week, but the job got moved up to today, so there was a lot to clear from our floor space to get ready for this morning.

Doug is juggling working at our new house with his regular work for clients. He had cabinets to paint for a job he's working on, plus our cabinets, so he combined work with play(?) and painted both this weekend. {Our bathroom cabinets are going white.}

In all my life I have never seen anyone who works as hard as Doug. The push is on this week to put the finishing touches on so we can move in next weekend. Doug hasn't had a full day off in a few weeks now and I worry that he'll overdo it. This must be how he is so strong {swoon} and doesn't have sore muscles after working in dirt and scrubbing cabinets. ~sigh~ Anyway, sending little prayers for Doug today as he deals with a few different trades, plus a client who really wants her cabinets done.

That sliding glass door in the photo above is going to magically turn into French doors by the end of this week. ♥

We got the keys to this house five weeks ago today. The transformation has been incredible, all thanks to Doug! And it was really fun yesterday to be able to take all the masking paper off the kitchen countertops and to actually clean the space where I'll soon be preparing meals. I took some fruit over for Doug to have this week {the pantry is stocked with not-so-healthy fare}.

And then there's Lucky the dog, footloose and fancy free. ♥

This week...well...I'm trying to wrap my head around all the stuff we're taking on, while also trying not to be in my head too much about it. There's a whole lot of stuff to be done and I know that the important things will fall into place. I also know that we'll roll with the things that don't get done, or maybe don't get done in the way I really hope they'd be done. ;o) It's all about rolling with the flow at this point.

And while I'm rolling with the flow of the new house remodel and upcoming move this weekend - plus a week off work next week with possibly no internet - this little blog space will be on a little break. I decided to cut myself some slack and not have blog-post-planning be on my list of things to do in the next couple of weeks.

I'll catch you on the flipside, my friends.

And if you're good with a shovel, come on over next weekend...

♥

This weekend on our piece of the planet

Hi everyone!

♥

I hope this weekend recap finds you well and happy. It was a deliciously busy weekend on our piece of the planet. Doug took a much needed break from the new house remodeling and headed north to camp with his brother, and I had my monthly yoga teacher training weekend - a total of 13 hours of anatomy lecture, yoga poses and yoga friends. I loved every minute!


Saturday morning I hit the ground running. I couldn't resist snapping a photo of the beautiful morning light streaming through our kitchen window - though the photo doesn't do that moment in time justice. I've packed most of our personal treasures in preparation for our upcoming house move, and it's actually been nice to not have so much clutter around. I'm thinking I may keep things to a minimum in the new house. Maybe.

A turtle story: Saturday morning I was rushing around here, admittedly with too many irons in the fire. I fed the turtles, started water for tea, put some eggs on to boil, got in the shower... About an hour later I came out to the kitchen to find our dog, Lucky, pacing around the kitchen table. Underneath the table was a big blob of something...was it a rock? What in the world... OMG - it was REXY! In my scurrying I had accidentally left the atrium door open, and our male box turtle wandered on inside and made his way to the kitchen table.

I picked him up and examined him for dog tooth marks but he was perfectly fine. So I held him down close to Lucky for a final dog sniffing and praising. What a good doggy!!! With our upcoming move we've been concerned about creating a new turtle habitat that was dog proof - just not knowing how Lucky would be with our shelled pets. We still wouldn't give Lucky free access to the turtles, but it's good to know his instinct for them is on the gentler side. Phew!

Saturday: Hurried housework in the morning, corralling a turtle, teaching yoga, learning yoga, practicing yoga, dinner with Carrie, and a visit to see her beau at his place of employment.

Sunday: Hurried housework in the morning, a 30-minute astrological phone reading from Debra Silverman (so cool!), lasagna soup made in the crockpot for dinner, more learning/practicing yoga, coming home to find Doug safely returned and Carrie here for lasagna soup, finished up laundry, enjoyed this sunset, fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Now comes Monday, in her typical here-too-soon fashion, ushering out the final day of August. I have lots of cool things on my calendar this week with a three-day weekend on the horizon (yay!).

Here's wishing you the best possible outcomes for every little challenge you may face this week.

Remember, it's all about perspective...

♥

This Weekend and GO!

It's go time around here, my friends.

Today is the day we get the keys to our new house!

:o)

♥

It was four years ago this month that we moved into our current home. Four years ago, in the middle of the crazy August heat. Of all the months on the Arizona calendar, I'm not sure why we always think it's a good one to move in, but here we are again. It's super hot outside, but we are happy!

So our weekend... Carrie is out of town so we have her pup, Marcus, staying with us. That always adds to the excitement level around here.

Add packing boxes in the mix and you have...well...

We signed all the paperwork for our new house on Friday afternoon, then met Carrie and her beau for a celebratory dinner. Saturday was filled with teaching yoga, dropping Carrie at the airport, having my hair done, and then home for an evening of packing.

Yesterday morning I packed most of the things in our backyard and cleaned up my little garden space for the last time. No photos of that because it was a dirty-sweaty-bug-repellant-covered morning. Ugh - and it was so dang hot!

We had our final walk through of the new house, and it was fun and overwhelming to see it now that we know it will really be where we'll be spending our future. I will be sharing before and after photos over the course of our new-home-journey, but I thought you might like to see our new backyard space. I can't wait to see what we turn this into...

After the house walk through, Doug accommodated my two-week craving for a hotdog and we drove the distance to a local hotdog eatery where we gorged ourselves with this:

 

Makes my tummy do a little flip-flop this morning. It's puzzling to me why I would have been craving this meal, but I did and it's done and I won't want another hotdog for a very long time.

So what's the most logical thing for me to do after working in the garden, seeing our new house, splurging on a crazy meal and having more boxes to pack? Why, sit down and draw a frenzied mandala, of course!

And then I continued packing. :o)

We'll have our keys at some point today, whenever the documents are filed and the bank funds the purchase. This evening we'll christen our new home with a little gathering of friends and family - complete with pizza, beer, soft drinks and camping chairs. I can't wait to start filling our new home with the love and laughter of people we love.

And with that, I'm off to work a half-day today and then celebrate our new space.

Life is good and busy and full of exciting things.

My heart is full of gratitude.

♥

Photos from my weekend

Good morning, my friends.

♥

Here we are at Monday morning again - the beginning of the final week of January! Sheesh, time! Slow down!!!

Those of you who know me through my blog and/or real life know that I'm a busy girl. I typically have many projects going, plus my regular household responsibilities, plus my yoga practice, and a full-time job. One of the things I really want to focus on is slowing down a little - taking some time out to relax. Over the next couple of months while the weather is so nice here in Arizona, I'm pretty sure my Sunday afternoons are going to be dedicated to sitting outside and drawing mandalas.

I met one of my yoga friends for lunch yesterday and we sat and drew mandalas at our table in Whole Foods {more about that later this week}. Afterwards I came home and sat outside and added a few finishing touches to the mandala I'd started, and continued drawing another one while I waited for Doug to return home from his weekend wilderness trek. Of course, he came home with a heart shaped rock in hand. {I ♥ Doug.}

Ahhhh...what a gorgeous afternoon. I love Arizona's weather in January...

Oh yeah, back up to Saturday afternoon when I took a really cool three-hour workshop on gardening for small spaces. I learned a ton and am so excited to get a little {food} garden going - even if it's in a small container. You know I'll share more about that when I put it together.

There was also some time spent indoors, sewing on the quilt I'm making - nine rows done, five to go...

And of course, my trusty little weekend sidekick, Lucky the dog kept me company. He loves the weekends and having his people home. ♥

Now I'm off to see what this week holds. I have plans for yoga classes two nights this week, and meeting a friend for wine tomorrow night. No sense whining about Monday...Friday will be here before we know what hit us.

Go make it awesome!

xoxoxoxox

♥