Christmas vacation...

John and I drove to EP at the beginning of Christmas break to see family. We weren't quite on the status of the movie "Four Christmases" but we were close with three.

We killed some time on the way with getting our picture taken on the road. Gotta love camera timers!


When we arrived in EP we were greeted by Jim, Michelle, Danielle (who was in for a few days), Ryan and his family. Ryan is getting married to Annie who has three very sweet children.



Here's John with the house cat Posha. His eyes were normal until he saw me.



We had a pre-Christmas visit on the east side which included Grandma and Granddad and then AJ and his familia.



Nat Nat (Natalie) is actually sitting still for her picture and she's looking at the camera!!!


Here's me with AJT IV (Joey). He's such a sweet baby!!!


John and Nicole never finished their game of Candyland. Too many distractions!


Christmas Eve was spent back on the west side with John's side of the familia. We went to church then ate some great eats and played cards.

John and Brad before the church service began.



Jim sang in the choir.





Our three Christmases begins...

We started our day at AJ and Adriana's house. The girls were very excited because Santa had been there.





Then for our second Christmas we got to hang with the grandparents.




For our third Christmas we were again on the west side with John's side. We had steak and lobster for Christmas dinner. I'm not one for seafood but I became a fan of lobster...delicious!




Our three Christmases were wonderful and we enjoyed every part! We will get another Christmas in January when John's mom and Greg come to Phoenix. We look forward to that! Next year...Christmas in Horseshoe Bay with my mom and Dick.

Holiday Hair

My hair...not me was getting the holiday blues. Talk about unmanageable! So yesterday I got a trim and a color. I'm happy with the new color scheme for my mane. Although, maybe I should have gone with the green streak my hair dresser suggested for extra holiday spirit...next time.

Phoenix Suns holiday kitty

Christmas time is here...happiness and cheer

Johnny went with me to our after hours school holiday party on Friday at a beautiful house in Gilbert. It belongs to our Language Arts specialist and her assistant principal husband. Both educators...they scored! It was such a fun time!

They had a raffle for gifts and John and I both won! Great night for the Maxfields!


My friend Joni had the genius idea of putting this picture of me holding my frame inside my new frame. It's already been done and it's in our living room. I should now have a picture taken of me holding my frame with me inside of it holding my frame and put it in another frame...oh boy.


John looks great in his Phoenix Suns Christmas hat with the price tag hanging on it. That's hot! It's now on our big wooden cat next to the fireplace. Picture of the kitty to follow in a later post.

John bustin a rap...

Last Friday night we went out to watch our friend BlaineLong.com play at an eclectic place called the Paisley Violin. Before we left John told me that he and Blaine had worked up a surprise. He kept saying,"You don't know...you just don't know!" I really didn't. John played along for a few songs and I thought that was the surprise. Then when we thought the set was over he took the mic and turned into LL Cool John. He busted out a rap he and his friend Tom made up seven or eight years ago. Have a listen...



Awesome!!!

Animals behaving badly...

The weather here is awesome right now so we take any excuse to be outside. Yesterday was a fun trip to the zoo. We were on our best behavior...I can't say the same for the animals. We started with the Savannah where the animals were able to roam (relatively) free. The giraffe was our favorite there.


Then we went to the lions and got really excited for January...we're going to the Lion King!!!! This is where the wholesome animal exhibits ended.


The demise of animal decorum began with the Rhinos. Our Rhino viewing started off with a typical meal of grass until one of them decided he would move on to something tastier?



Then we went to see the baboons...let's just say that they didn't realize that the zoo is supposed to be a family environment.

The wolf was actually very well behaved. He just didn't fit into the four legged creature category.

Bowling...

I have been bowling on and off now for years. I've even been on a bowling league. So I have to say that through all my years of practice I'm still terrible. There's a force when I'm walking up to throw my ball that pulls it into the gutter...frequently. I do have moments where the force isn't strong so those moments must be celebrated!

Thanksgiving in AZ

Thanksgiving for us started with a photo opp with the queenie of the household...Keets. Kita in her beautiful winter coat which is unfortunately not necessary in Phoenix and us in our sports wear. Lookin tough! We rode our bikes to Target in search of tin foil. Target isn't open on Thanksgiving...too bad for us. So the regular grocery store it was. When we were there we bought Kita a bone filled with meat...sorry if you're veggie and reading this. She went nuts! We would have to take it away from her to give her jaw a break. When she actually finished it (which took hours) she whined because she wanted more!

Later we had a fantastic pot luck Thanksgiving dinner at our friends' house. I made a potato casserole and green bean casserole. Thank goodness for the Campbell soup web site!

All in all it was a really fun day! I definitely give thanks for my wonderful family which includes Johnny, Kita and all our crazy but fantastic relatives! I'm also thankful for great friends and new opportunities!

So we don't have kiddos but we do have Kita!

It will be ten years this Christmas since John gave me the wonderful gift of Kita! She is the best pupster ever! She's part Chow Chow so when she was a puppy she kind of bullied me. We're past that and I don't think we'll ever have as wonderful of a dog as Kita ever again! I just wish she was easier to photograph...
































Now we got it!

A night full of biking, huge green men and Triple Triump...

John and I definitely enjoy at least one homebody night (sometimes more) a weekend. It's a really good time. Last night we began our evening with a bike ride to gather our supplies...cigars to satisfy John's craving for tobacco and Subway. I was only almost hit by a car once...I'm getting better. Then we were home for the evening. We watched the Incredible Hulk. Not too bad. After enjoying our endulgences-sandwiches, vanilla flavored cigar and popscicles, we played Triple Triumph. Last Maxfield left standing? John. He always wins! I think he cheats.

We were listening to satellite radio when a song we both knew (most) of the lyrics to came on. I thought it was especially funny that John knew the lyrics and our camera was conveniently sitting next to me so I tried to get it on film. He suddenly didn't know them anymore...hmmmmmm.

Lamp Man

A week before Halloween two friends of mine from work hosted a costume party. It was such a good time! John had a difficult time deciding what he was going to dress up as. He's not usually one to dress up in a store bought costume but there were some funny ones we almost bought for him! The night before the party he still didn't know what he was going to go as. After many discussions between us and others the decision was made...he would go as a lamp! We didn't have a shade big enough so we went to Target. We were in the lamp aisle having him try on different shades not even thinking how this probably looked to on lookers. A woman behind John saw what we were doing and she said,"I think that one looks great!" We bought the shade and went home so he could fashion up a light. Who wants a lamp that doesn't work?

He was definitely the only lamp at the party. He was both funny and functional!

He filled in places where there was no lamp, provided light in dark corners and gave ambiance when needed.








John made a great lamp!

Frump days in EP

John and I were wanting some pictures for a project we're doing so we looked in the computer for all of our pictures. Boy oh boy did we find some doosies!!! We started laughing at the pictures of me from El Paso...frumpy and sad. John must love me a lot because he said he didn't even realize what I had looked like. I just wasn't taking very good care of myself. I was in an EP rut. That lovely picture you see of me isn't a time warp into the future...I was 26 years old!!!



Our move to Arizona in 2005 was a new chapter in our lives and that's when we both started making some changes. I began to try to resemble a female and do what most chicas do...get my hair done periodically, invest in some cooler glasses and contacs and not try to dress so frumped up. Then last year John and I both started eating healthily and getting our recommended daily exercise. Sometimes my frumpy side still likes to come out for a quick appearance. What can I say?





I'm not really sure what I'm doing in this picture. But I'm five years older than my frumpilicious picture.

Keep on keeping on...

My sickness is almost a thing of the past...phew! I'm feeling a lot better and I'm now unmedicated. I still found it very difficult to wake up super duper early today to sweat it out on the treadmill. So lucky me gets to do that when I get home. Armed with my "Keep me going" music and some water, I'll be aok. My keep me going music is extremely different than my regular tunage. It's like I have multiple personalities when it comes to music. Regular tunage might include John Mayer or Rachel Yamagata. Exercise Mary enjoys 50 cent "In da club" and Britney Spears. Bonnie Tyler and her Hero song also gets me steppin!

Never say never...such a cliche but so so true!

I couldn't even tell you when the last time I got sick was...well before this weekend. On Saturday night we were having dinner with our friends Carlos and Alicia who had both been sick and were both well again. I proceded to say "I never get sick". My fate was sealed! Throughout the evening I felt worse and worse. It started with a very sore throat and that stuffed up feeling where you can't breathe through your nose. Not too fun. Except for the whistling sound my nostrils make when I do try to breathe...now that's a good time. I spent the rest of my weekend in and out of slumber with my very sweet husband at my beck and call. He's pretty good at it. He did everything for me from making sure I had clean clothes for work to medicating me every four hours. I'm almost back to normal. Well, normal in that I'm getting out of the sick funk. I even went to work today. Don't worry, I made no physical contact with anyone. I gave my students air high fives!