August in Hindsight

I apologize for being a bit behind with the blog posts but instead of skip the month of August, we will just do it in review:

 

Amy and Cory came over with Annie the Shih-Tzu so that Sasha could get more "dog socialized".  The ice-cream was quite scrumptious!

Cans at work before compactor foot...

Cans at work after compactor foot! (I was kind of looking for things to do that day)

Most of the time that we go over to the Long's now, we take Sasha with us because she and Tater have become pretty good friends.

Jason at NPT gave us two passes to a Diamondbacks' game as a birthday gift / going away present!  It was a lot of fun.

 

What a beautiful couple, right?

We started up school again and I found out that they've done some remodeling to the patio in front of the business building.  It's nice to not have to climb up and down the stairs in the fountain area anymore.

Bates Family get together / pool party--this might have been late July actually.  Alexis and I were in charge, so we delegated everything out, arranged with Aunt Sue and Uncle Mike to use their pool and had some delicious pulled pork for dinner.  Yum!

I finished up work for the summer a few days before school started and, it being my birthday, Alexis and I went up to a cabin in Eagar, AZ that the Johnsons (the amazing senior couple from my mission) let us use.  It was very nice to just get away from the heat, work and just relax a bit before school started. 

Here is Alexis prepping the cooler for the drive.

Here is the house / cabin with a very curious Sasha sniffing around.

 One interesting thing that we noticed about Eagar is that its residents are quite patriotic.  It was refreshing to see a flag on almost every porch or a bench painted red, white and blue.  I'm afraid that we are losing touch with the sense of patriotism that we should feel.  Even I forget to put up the flag on holidays and I'm the one mentioning it.

 When I would take Sasha for her walk in the morning, she was usually quite "excited" to see that almost every house in Eagar has a dog or two as well.  Honestly, we could hardly pass more than 1 house before a dog would start yapping at Sasha or a horse would come running over to take a closer look.  I think she liked the attention though.  This little dog was more friendly and Sasha reciprocated that kindness--too bad there was a fence or they could have been fast friends.

We hung out inside most of the time because we didn't want to leave Sasha alone (we had forgotten her crate) and because we just wanted to relax a bit. We had a lot of fun putting some puzzles together--I can't remember the last time I did that and Lexie enjoys them. That is one thing, among many, that I love about her: that she is incredibly bright and creative but doesn't need a complex computer game or movie to entertain her--a puzzle or a game is just fine.

 I liked the soccer one best--I might be a bit biased though.

I colored Hercules (one of the best Disney characters of all time) while we watched a movie.  I think it is a pretty good likeness of him if I do say so myself.

 Scrabble is, well, kind of boring.  I thought that it would be fun like Word Feud on the Droid, but apparently not.  We did finish one round though! 

Oh, and there was the car accident.  We weren't in the accident but it happened about 25 yards behind us at an intersection.  We were just walking Sasha in quiet, peaceful little Eagar when a car passed us by on the road, ran the stop sign (or at least that is what we suppose happened since we didn't turn around until we heard the collision) and slammed into the front of a van which proceeded to crash into this power line pole.  Lexie took care of Sasha while I ran over to check on the people in the van (an elderly woman and her senile husband--who for some reason hadn't been wearing a seat belt and ended up stuck between the two front seats with a bleeding hand) and all the old lady could say was, "You saw that it wasn't my fault right?  Oh my goodness!" as I frantically tried to dial 911. 

I had actually never dialed 911 before so that was fun, I guess.  I was worried for a bit because the airbag had launched and the dashboard was smoking (which concerned me since I did not know if it was something in the recently smashed engine or just the airbag).  Fortunately, the police, paramedics and firemen arrived in short order to help the old man out of the van (he was not in a pleasant mood at that point) and into an ambulance.  They seemed like they were going to be okay but the van was totaled.

 

The lady that likely ran the stop sign slid off into the grass next to the van after the collision and, fortunately, didn't go in the neighbor's yard (which you can see was only a few feet away).  She seemed okay but was also taken in an ambulance.  

The police had us wait around for about 25 minutes because we were the only "witnesses" but since we didn't actually 'see' anything, they let us go.  It was quite an adventurous walk, that's for sure.

Later on, I opened my gifts from Lexie.  

 

I opened "The Music Man" soundtrack first--Hooray!  I love the Music Man.

 And then....

 "The Big Book of Answers"!!  Because I am always asking so many questions (weird, insightful and otherwise).  It is actually a pretty interesting read.

Sasha relaxing with Justin.

 Alexis decided that she was "finally" going to get her hair cut this month (and believe me, that was a Big decision).

Before...

After!!  I think she looks super cute--the shortest that I've ever been around to see it, in fact.

My blood pressure has gone down significantly since my month of unemployment at the beginning of the summer!  I was quite excited and I'm sure you are too.

The good husband making pizza dough for dinner--under his wife's watchful eye.  I love Pizza!  Thanks for the dough recipe Kim!

And that's all she wrote!