On Leave...

...and enjoying every bit of our time with family and friends.  I'm posting this picture of our happy little family just to buy me some time.  I know I haven't been posting regularly as of late and I really want to tell you guys about the week we spent in Utah with Malu's family, I'm just too lazy to do it right at this moment. 

We are truly missing our loved ones in Utah right now and are so grateful to them for showing us such a wonderful time there.  We are currently in Colorado, enjoying time with my family and waiting for the rest of Malu's siblings to arrive for Christmas (his younger brother, Vaea, is already here with us).  We can't wait.

I guess I should also add that our little girl has been getting spoiled left and right and I know she is loving every minute of it!

In any case, this picture was taken at our friend, Jennifer's, Ugly Christmas Sweater party just a few days before we left El Paso.  Since all of our stuff had been packed and we really didn't feel like buying sweaters (and ugly Christmas ones at that) we found these really funny shirts at Target.  They were about $7 and a big hit at the party.  While we were at Target, we also found an "Elf in Training" outfit for our baby girl and she was also a big hit at the shindig, although the outfit was slightly too big for her. 

While I'm mentioning El Paso and friends, I just want to thank all of our wonderful El Paso friends (you all know who you are) who made our experience there so memorable.  On one of the evenings before we left, about 25 of our closest friends and their kids threw a farewell party for us at one of our favorite restaurants in town.  We were presented with beautiful parting gifts and shared a few laughs and lots of hugs.  Later in the week, Jennifer held her party and we were able to spend some time with her and her family (she grew up in El Paso) who I'd become extremely close to while living in El Paso. So everyone truly just made us feel so special and we can't thank you guys enough for your love and support.  We miss you guys so much already!

Well, it's late and I must get to bed.  I promise to post about our Utah trip soon!

~Farmer's Market~

I spent this beautiful El Paso Saturday morning at Ardovino's Desert Crossing Farmer's Market.  Minutes away from downtown El Paso, local artisans and farmers sell their fine wares and fresh produce here and I absolutely love to go to peruse, taste, and enjoy the scenery.  Here are some pictures of my lovely morning!

In El Paso, you hardly see trees, let alone flowers.  These were so vibrant and beautiful, I just had to take a picture.

The next time I go, I'm taking Lucy with me.  There were several other dogs and lots of the vendors had fresh bowls of water handy.

At just about every farmer's market or craft fair I've been to El Paso, are these handmade soaps and I'm always a sucker for buying a few bars, only today was an exception.  I still have several that I got from the La Vina Wine Festival two months ago.

Every time I see these I want to buy one, but I don't quite know what to do with it other than hang it on the door--and I've already got several wreaths.  I just love taking pictures of them.  They're so pretty.

Some lovely, fresh herbs.

I did, however, walk away with a jar of some delcious apple butter to go with my morning toast/bagel as well as some peach salsa.  I had later purchased a breakfast burrito there and experimented with my peach salsa and it was to die for!

If it weren't for the fact that I didn't already own one of these African hand-woven baskets (which I purchased in Pueblo, Colorado), I probably would have splurged on another one.

And finally, the view from my breakfast table.  Isn't it simply lovely?  When I thought of living in El Paso over a year ago, I thought...yuck...desert!  But it didn't take me long to realize how much beauty there is around this place...from the Franklin Mountains, to the Rio Grande, and all the way to this quaint farmer's market at Ardovino's Desert Crossing.  I'm definitely going back one more time before the summer's out!

And now I'm officially worn out and taking a nap for the next few hours.  I hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start!

Holy Coyotes!

So it was another late night at work and of course, I found myself walking Lucy in the dark again tonight, which I hate because the lighting around this new area isn't very good and it is just Lucy and I after all. Anyway, we usually hear howling and barking around the neighborhood as we pass houses, but we heard some unusual howling tonight. I swear it sounded like there were a bunch of hyenas nearby and I'm like, oh no! those must be coyotes because we're certainly not living out in safari-land! But then I was like, well, they can't be that close. But I swear, as soon as we turned the corner to get to our house, I saw shadows of a pack of what looked like dogs running across the field in front of our house. Lucy and I stopped dead in our tracks and I was like, holy coyotes!

I didn't actually scream it because I didn't want them to hear us and turn around to come and get us. Still, I really wasn't convinced that they were coyotes, but rather a bunch of stray dogs. So then we quickly jog the last 50 meters to the house just so I could get Lucy into the house because for some reason, I keep thinking about them coming back to eat her (must be the crazy pregnancy paranoia) and the first thing I do is Google "coyotes in El Paso" and sure enough, this article pops up about a pile of dead coyotes that was discovered in East El Paso a few weeks ago. And guess where I live? Freakin' East El Paso! No freakin' way! I guess I was naive to think that there weren't any coyotes in this area, but whatever. Lucy and I might have to come up with another place to walk at night.....like the park down the road that's actually lit at night, where other people actually hang out. Yeah, that might have to happen.

Anyway, that was my excitement for the night. Holy cow, this seems like a long week. Two more days! Tomorrow, there is a post run, which means ALL of Fort Bliss will be running tomorrow morning. And to my concerned friends...NO, I will not be running this time no matter how tempted I am! Happy Hump Day to everyone!