Ouch!

My friend's 6-yr old son has just had a precancerous lesion removed from his body, and her husband was told that his cancer had been caught early enough to treat.....so, I thought it was time I sent Nigel along to the dermatologist for a full body check. Like all great wives, I want someone else to check out things like this before I go myself!!!
He dutifully went along on Monday for his 'examination'.........turns out it is quite harrowing to strip and get attacked with syringes, scalpels, and liquid nitrogen..!!!
Both ears had something strange on them, and 3 moles were sliced off his back- so he came out limping, groaning, and armed with antibiotic cream and a load of band-aids. Today it turns out he is also allergic to the band-aids, and now has great weals around the wound sites.
Needless to say, he is very grateful for my loving concern!!

(I haven't made my appointment yet.......)

Walking in Sedona.........in the winter!!

The weather was absolutely freezing, but the walk was stunningly beautiful.
Everywhere we went, people had piled up stones on top of each other, and created a surreal environment.

School lunch has changed a lot since tapioca and jam !

At school here they really encourage parents to visit for lunch, send in notes, phone children in class etc- involving parents at all levels. Daniel very often phones me during the day, and I have taken to surprising them each with a Sonic lunch (think very posh McDonalds!) Emily was so stunned last week that I had turned up that she was unable to speak- so I sat and watched her smile for 30minutes whilst all around was chaos!!!

Bad Timing!

I had high hopes for my fitness regime over Christmas as Louise turned up complete with running gear! But, somehow, I got lured into an indulgence which would have made Billy Bunter happy!! And so, now I am supposed to be being abstemious......BUT......Baskin Robbins has just opened their ice cream parlour (next to the supermarket, I ask you- couldn't they have done it a little less conveniently?)
We had to go to try it (obviously!) , and then we had to take my mum there, and then, well Nigel had been away for a week and not tried it yet, so this is a photo of Sunday lunch.........
We are focussing on the obvious nutritional value of the protein in the cream, the nuts, the fruit, and of course the stress relieving aspect of it all....... and the mental agility required to make the choice of flavour must be good for the brain, right?

The Alps at Anthem

Well, the weather here has been very strange of late- lots of miserable rain, and wind, and very low temperatures. And yesterday we had snow and hail!!
The kids thought it most hilarious and ran outside with their mouths open wide, trying to catch some on their tongues. We followed them out to capture the moment, and the whole street was alive with screaming kids!!!
It is a good job my mum is not visiting just for the weather- as I believe it is nicer in England!!

Double- digit Daniel!

Daniel was 10 on Saturday, and is now a certified dude! He has his own MP3 player, and portable Nintendo, and cannot be found without headphones on now! (Except when he is lounging on his 'speaker pillow' which plugs into both items!!)
We had a little celebration at Rawhide with Jonathan and Lizzie on Monday (love the pink guitar.....) and then he had a sleepover planned for Saturday night with friends from school. We had not allowed for the stomach bug in his class- one by one his friends cancelled, leaving one brave soul......and he fell ill at 8pm and had to go home!! So, we all rallied round whooping with glee, singing loudly and pretending there were more of us there!! We all got into our PJs at 8pm and sat under blankets watching a film, and actually had a really good time!
Daniel was amazingly resilient to the whole thing!!

New Year's Eve!

Christmas Lights in Anthem, then champagne and streamers, and a fabulous meal cooked by Brian.....
a great end to the year.