JJ Goes to Bay Area, DD Hangs out with the Usual Suspects, JJ Comes Back and Rebecca Visits on her way Back Home


This past week Justine went to Oakland to get some training, instead of the usual training others. She then stayed on to visit with Mom, Grandpa, Dad, and Aunt Mart, and got to spend time with Gillian, Joanne, Jenessa, Erica, Ben, Cye, Kate, Kelley, and Eden. She also got to see Kate Kelley and Eden in their new home! It's beautiful and suits them perfectly- the evening was quite exciting as they were introducing their cats and dog to the new home and trying to refrain from introducing them to each other just yet! It was a fun weekend although Justine's mom's car, which she was borrowing, got broken into and her luggage taken. Friends rallied and brought her lots of clothes, so she returned with a whole new wardrobe. Thanks Cye and Erica especially for a newly outfitted JJ, and thanks State Farm, as all of her stuff will be replaced, including the window of the car. Dina stayed behind and worked and went out Friday night with friends, then worked on the rental house, and hung out. JJ came home late Sunday, and Tuesday we had Rebecca and her mom over to eat dinner with us in the backyard. The weather was fantastic due to another good rainfall, and we ate delicious chicken, and shrimp which we grilled, and beans and carne asada from Francisco's right down the street. Rebecca stayed to hang out on Wednesday, and helped JJ finish up final touches on the 6th st property (which is shown here in it's new red trimmed glory) then went out to sushi dinner with DD, JJ and Karen and then back to her mom's. She'll be driving back to the Bay Area, where we'll see her at the end of August.

Rainstorm, The Year, and The World Cup Final

We had an extra large rainstorm during the summer monsoons this weekend, and it caused huge areas of flooding in Tucson though it didn't affect us beyond the fact that I couldn't make it across town to go meet Dina for lunch as she was working at the rental house we recently bought, and I was home. Our cacti and other non-irrigated plants breathed a sigh of thanks though, and the weather has been cooler since the big downpour.

Our weekend was spent mostly in doing the small fix-up projects needed at the rental house, and dreaming about big projects that could result in that property becoming our full time residence in a few years, due to its ideal location, near downtown, the university, and historic district. The picture shown here is before the recent improvement of painting the door green, accent work around the windows and other doors is also planned.

Friday night we went to the Congress Hotel to see our favorite Tucson band, The Year of Acceleration who play regularly in venues about town. The show was fantastic, and we went out with brothers, Chris and Scott, the lead singer and bassist, as well as friends TJ and Jessica on Saturday night to the Elbow Room, a great bar with steak specials on Saturday nights, to toast the show and hang out. Dina and I called it quits early that night, preferring to be rested for the World Cup Final on Sunday Fifa World Cup and Italy, who we of course were rooting for, won! As you can see from the pic, Dina, Scotty, and Fern were pretty happy! Several friends, including Chris, Scott, TJ, Fern, Allison, Jessica, Candice, and of course Karen came to our house to watch, and we ate delicious fried chicken from Church's. (Sorry to Dina's dad!, no KFC nearby) This week I will be traveling to Oakland to participate in a training at the home office of Scientific Learning, and visit with my Grandpa Vidal, who is in Oakland for a few weeks visiting from Mexico. See you all soon!

Monsoons! The monsoon season, our summer rainy season, has arrived early this year, and we spend a lot of time talking about it, as well as experiencing it. Here is a picture of a storm from our front yard. We watch our local news channel, KOLD for their sky tracker weather and we have learned a lot of monsoon facts and figures from our favorite weatherman, Chuck George. None of us can remember the exact statistic as to why, but our monsoon season officially began last Wednesday, and it has rained every day except one since then, although not as much as we would like. Still everyone says this is a good sign, and it is beautiful to watch the storms roll in and the lightning storms. Brazzie hates the thunder, Bella really couldn't care less! We'll keep you posted on the monsoons, as well as whether we get up the nerve to invite Chuck George (who Karen met in our favorite local bar the other night) over for a bbq to further explain the monsoons and other weather wonders to us!

Everybody is doing it so why shouldn't we? Now that all the major events of our life over the past several months are over, I should theoretically be able to post them, blogstyle, right? I figure this will be an easy way to keep up with the events of our adventures here in Tucson and share fun things we are doing, like getting married

having a minimoon at the lake

or just hanging out with Matthieu (aka Frenchy) on our couch at home

here's a picture of when we went to Sonora Bay, Mexico

We can even write about silly things, like when Rocky, the monster pomeranian stayed with us-



The main reason for the blog of course, is because we miss all of YOU, and we want you to see pictures and read postings about our life here in Tucson. And also of course, so that we can be a link off of your blogpages, see you all soon! love Dina and Justine