Come to the Flea Market with me!
There is a huge flea market every weekend in Mesa.  There are approximately 400 booths in this huge market selling everything you can imagine.

 

We really found everything from soup to nuts at this market.  I was looking for a pair of slippers and did not find slippers there but we did not walk the entire market as Don was still not 100% (that being said, he is not a fan of that much shopping on a good day)

 There are numerous stalls with clothes for men, women and children.  These are the prettiest sparkly sweatshirts.

 Yup, can even get a wig!

These are little tiny beads that you set into water, they soak up water and become circles about the size of a dime.  You can use them to put plants in instead of soil, they basically water the plants and you can re-hydrate them a few times until they "wear out"

 I love these so much, they are sparkly glass and there is a motorised gizmo at the top that spins it, it looks like the crystal travels up and down the wire - so pretty!

 There is even sexy lingerie

 These shawl, poncho type things are everywhere.  Seems to be the new style, I am almost tempted . . .

There are at least 4 different stands with tons of Avon

 I saw some kids on these bouncy things - they are like a huge balloon.  Seriously, why don't they make them in XXL I would so like to try one!

 There were a few stalls with really reasonable produce.

 Even underwear

 these were the nicest carved wooden bowls and vases

Can you believe there were even fabric stores?

 There were a lot of crystals and they were amazing and only 4.95

 There were a lot of really awful clothes  LOL

 I loved these petrified wood  pieces.  It reminded me of when we were kids and my dad used to take us out to look for petrified wood pieces.

 this was a shop of all kinds of candies . . .   mmmmm candies!

 Luckily we do not have room for this!  It is the prettiest lit up tree ever

 There are a number of shops with pet items.  This one had a ton of doggie sunglasses and 2 cute little models. They also had these carriers so you could take your dog everywhere!

 I really love all the metal wall hangings as well.

 They had brand name clothes too!  Lotta bling bling going on here!

 this shop was amazing - the table tops are sandstone and the bases are metal.  I just absolutely love these

 These are the salt rock lamps that Kylie and Tami have.

 Of course I thought this was funny!

 There were lots of Mexican type items as well.

Love Love Love this giraffe!

 What to do?  What to do?
Has been a quiet couple of days.  Don has a cold/flu and has no get up and go.  I have to admit I had a little cabin fever today and was dissapointed  and grumpy that we had to put off the 2 trips we had planned.  So . . .  it was clean up day.  Got the place vacuumed, cleaned, dusted and actually baked a squash besides.  Also managed to organize some cupboards and clean, vacuum and steam clean the seats in the car.  And, a nice walk besides.
Wednesday we went to that market where the produce is ridiculously cheap - look at what I bought for $12.86

Awesome or what?  The grapefruits are local and most of the other stuff is from Mexico.
Really no excuse not to eat healthy!  I am loving the sweet potatoes, hate to even eat a regular potato anymore.  They are great just baked with nothing on them - although we had them "twice baked" at Tami and Dar's at  Christmas and they were the best!  They mixed the mashed up sweet potatoes with maple syrup and cream cheese and put back in the shell and sprinkled on some pecans - can you say heaven?
Last night we went to the Organ Stop Pizza restaurant with a couple from Alberta who live a few doors down from us.  It was such a different place and I am not sure the pictures or my description will really do it justice.  It is a huge restaurant, with long tables and two levels.  At the front there is an amazing organ that has 4 levels of keys, 276 keys and 798 stops and controls. Can you imagine learning to play that?

The organist rotated and actually disappeared as the whole thing sunk during sets.  The organ basically plays every type of instrument you can imagine.  All around there are drums, horns, wind instruments etc.  This Wurlitzer theatre organ was built for the Denver Theatre in 1927.  "The theatre organ has been described as part military band, part symphony orchestra and part theatrical sound effects. These theatre organs were designed so one musician could do the work of many and save money for the theatre companies. This organ has nearly 6000 pipes.

The organist also controlled lots of different little fun things, like opening up this curtain and letting these scraggly little cats dance.  At one point bubbles came down and there were also kaleidoscope and different shaped lights that came on and projected onto the walls.
Another fun thing to do is look around in the grocery stores.  They have so many different products than we do in Canada and its pretty cheap entertainment.  There are so many varieties of cake mixes and bar mixes and icing it boggles the mind.

 The dairy products are quite a bit cheaper and there are so many kinds of ice cream bars and treats that it is really hard to resist.

Have to admit - we did not resist either of these- mmmmm,

 I bet Kylie and I eat some of these when she comes!

Every grocery store has a huge selection of alcohol as well, which still makes me do a double take

So many kinds of cereal, so little time.

 Um . . .  yuk!  But 1.00??

 Pure vanilla is really cheap - I guess because of the close proximity to Mexico.  I plan on bringing a good supply back home with me.

 Some fairly healthy lunches for the kids - for only 2.50

 Who knew there were so many kinds of marshmallows?

 These are so fun - you just freeze the whole thing and voila -  you have a frozen margarita.

 First time ever in my life that I have seen cactus in the produce aisle.

 Really, sticks of butter, marked  with tablespoons on the package?  Ingenious - I love it!

Happy New Year!

 We got back to Arizona yesterday after spending the last ten days back in Saskatchewan.  The temperatures there were frosty and I have to admit we were not acclimatized and did a fair amount of shivering.  On the plus side, when I went on my walk today, the temperature was only 11 here and it felt incredibly warm! 
We didn't do anything exciting today but I thought I would write about our park and what I  saw on my walk today.

This is our "home" for the next month and then we have to move a few streets over for February.  We decided to stay in this park as it is not as easy as we thought to find spots in January and February. 

There are a few lemon trees in this park along with the grapefruits and oranges.

There are a lot of hummingbirds here.  There are 18 species of hummingbirds in Arizona and you can often hear them flying by your head before you see them.  I was pretty close to this one and was wishing I would have had a camera instead of the phone.

Pretty flowers on top of someones cactus.

 This is a giant shuffleboard game area in our park.  There is pretty much every sport you can imagine.  We are going to go to a pickle ball lesson - which is a game very much like table tennis but you actually stand on the "table"  which is like a small tennis court.  There are 3 outdoor pools and 1 indoor one.  There is a gym and also aroebic  and yoga classes.  There are even clubs you can join to learn jewellery making, quilting, woodworking - you name it really.  There is a huge library as well.

 This is walking down our street

There are tons of flickers, hummingbirds, sparrows, doves and an unidentified bird that will not let me get too close.  There is a bird watching course and field trips so I will be checking that out for sure!

 This is the pool and bar area (bar closes at 6 PM - which is pretty funny)