PICTURE TIME WITH EARLY DECEMBER NEWS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ELLEN AND MARK

Mark's mom Linda and dad Bill

Uncle Paul, Bob and our friends Fredna and Jim Watson. Oh, and Howard's arm.




Mark's brother Mike and Eunice's arm are new to this picture.

Larry's brother Bob visited from Houston Wednesday and surprised me with a culinary delight for Ellen and Mark's birthday party last night. He made guacamole dip with pita dippers and it was the hit of the party. Thank you Bob!

When I looked at Larry's pictures tonight I was surprised to see Sophie admiring the pearl beads on the tree. Later on in life I'm sure she'll want to wear them instead of taste them. They do match her bracelet! What an eye she has!

I feel I'm a step ahead of the Christmas mayhem this year since I did get 75% of the decorating completed for the party. Now for the other 25%! Today Jennifer reminded me of the shopping challenges that still await me. Bummer. However, everyone sent me their list. This is a first and I now realize how easy this could be. After spending 2 weeks with Uncle Paul I quickly relearned the value of looking for the positive in life.

Today Uncle Paul and Bob returned to Houston. Their visit passed too quickly. We had wonderful days of fun, good food and card playing. We played Spite and Malice morning, noon and night. Thanks for the good times Bob and Paul.

NOVEMBER NEWS AT LAST

It's been a busy month. We had Luke's birthday. Brayden and Luke celebrated together at Bounce-U. I think the blue icing was fun!

Larry and I took a trip to Sedona to view the fall colors.

Thanksgiving fun.

Thanksgiving was at our house this year and the weather was lovely. The Shariff family and Judy Day joined our 3 families along with Larry's uncle. Uncle Paul of Florida and Texas arrived the Monday before Turkey day and helped me get ready! Rain was scheduled and we did have sprinkles. One night before Thursday I awakened to the beautiful music of rain on the skylights. We had not had any rain since August. The clerk at Home Depot asked where my jacket was. Oh, it felt so good to be cool and misted. Sometimes I like to sit on the porch when it rains. During monsoon season it's especially exciting with the lightning. This week's watery weather was over too soon. Today the sky is clear. The fridge is full of food. The storage unit is cleaned out and all the Christmas decorations are in boxes in the living room waiting for me to trim the house. I'm hoping for inspiration to strike.

Oh yes! My first painting sold on EBAY for a whopping $10.00. The real thrill is that someone wanted it. There were several bidders. How wonderful is that? Here is the next offering I'm hoping to list this coming week. The "finch, cactus and fruit at LaCasa Trails" ACEO painting.

October News and Photos

Hurray! My "La Casa Trail Cactus and Fruit" watercolor painting is listed on EBAY. So far there are only "watchers". I'm trying hard not to log in every few minutes to check status.

This month our Arizona family has 2 birthdays. Larry on the 20 Th and Brayden on the 31 st. Yes, his birthday is on Halloween! How much fun is that? Last year Mom and I went along trick or treating in their neighborhood. Hopefully, we'll get to do that again. I'm getting a little excited about decorating our yard this year. It just may happen.

You can send Larry birthday wishes to LBAUER9@QWEST.NET. Brayden's can be sent to BAUERAZ@HOTMAIL.COM.

I must mention our celebration last month for my mother, Eunice's birthday at her clubhouse with neighbors, friends and family. We had a good time. Brayden and Luke helped bake cookies for the festivities. Jennifer baked a beautiful cake and Ellen made delicious punch. Thanks to all for your contributions. I especially want to thank Audrey and Ski for all their help.

My mother's front porch is a good spot to take pictures of critters. Luke, Brayden, Sophie and I walk the streets taking photos. I'm posting a few. Luke loves all the orbs, as he calls them. Breyden is fascinated with bees just now. What fun I have being with them. The picture of HP and Sophie is from my birthday party last month.

Jennifer and HP's dogs had puppies. Ellen and mark have 2 of them to raise. This week I checked up on them at lunchtime. The first day they were in their pen in the family room, safe and sound. The second day they greeted me at the door. What escape artists Mimsie and Ferdinand have turned out to be.

Larry has a new site to post his wonderful photographs. Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/bauerpower/ and view. Very exciting!

How I'm keeping busy!

It seems my new blog is not popular with my children. They weren't happy with their picture. Soon I will post new pictures of them. But for now, I've decided to concentrate this blog on my life since leaving the mortgage business as a loan processor. It's taken time to adjust.

I worked at a mortgage company from Nov 1989 to Sept 2007. When I started out I was learning to paint with watercolors from a friend I met at the Welcome Wagon meetings about 1988. The busier I got at work the less I painted. Now I'm trying to relearn what I've forgotten.

Larry has been encouraging. He restarted my interest by saying "Look what is for sale on EBAY!". He buys and sells cameras and lenses. So I took a look and now I'm ready to have my first auction. I'm focusing on what is called ACEO art. The baseball size card paintings seem to be popular sales on EBAY.

Painting these miniatures is challenging and hopefully it will get easier. Here's a picture of the first auction item. I won't be disappointed if it does not sell. I'll get to keep it! Of course I had to bid on several auctions by other artists. I now have 7 new paintings which need to be matted and framed. I have to learn how to do that to keep costs down. Larry just laughs. He's happy I'm painting again.

How we got here!

One hot summer day in 1987 we arrived here with our children, H.P. and Ellen, Flower the cockatiel, Waldo the dog and Larry's boat. It was quite a challenge. We got separated. Larry and Waldo were in the truck. I caught the red light with the bird and kids!

As usual I was not prepared with map or details of where we would be in Phoenix but I had the name of the hotel. I called all the Quality Inns in town and some in Tucson (those darn 800 numbers). That was after I found a phone booth with a phone book....

The bird was panting, the children were complaining and surprise, surprise...some of the yellow pages were missing. In desperation I accidentally recalled one number and a deep voice said "The Bauer family is staying at the DAYS INN".

Well, wasn't that nice? He did what I couldn't do! He even gave me the address and directions after listening to me scream. I never did figure out how he knew I'd call him back.

We arrived just in time to see Larry peacefully walking the dog. He had already reported us missing with the police and was calmly waiting for the results. It took a few days for the truth to come out. Larry had given me the wrong name of the hotel.