The Woman Gadget

It's no secret that most guys LOVE their gadgets. In fact, when we moved into our home Doug's graduation present to himself was none other than a 50 inch flat screen television. More than likely that wouldn't have been my first purchase, but he deserved it AND I must say I am now spoiled with HD and Blue Ray. (and do really enjoy this perk) On the other hand, there are many things Doug could most certainly do without. He could care less about kitchen appliances, vacuum cleaners or really any household "womanly" item. Things I was drooling over in the design center for our home, he really had no opinion and let me do most of the choosing. Having said all of this, since we have been married most of our appliances we settled for the cheapest and something that would just get us by for a few years. Probably not the most economical thing, but as students there was no choice. Our 2nd washer and dryer set just died on us Sunday, it was 5 years old. An inconvience, yes, but truth be known no tears were shed over these guys.

I spent the last two days researching, bargain shopping, and price comparing. It's an exhausting process and much like buying a car, but I survived and got a FANTASTIC deal on these babies. The other perk is that the government is giving rebates on He washers as is the City of Chandler and State of AZ. Total score! In the meantime, I decided to also take advantage of my empty laundry room and spice it up with some color. My house is pretty vanilla (aka safe neutral colors) so I opted for galvanized blue.

Call me a 50's wife, but it just makes me happy just to look at them. I already did 2 loads of laundry and I have NEVER had cleaner clothes!! Happy early Mother's Day to me!

Do you have front loaders?

Peralta Trail

We decided to take advantage of our nice spring weather and headed out to the Superstition Mtns. Saturday. The Hunter's joined us and we headed East to hike to Weaver's Needle. I haven't done the full 1.5 mile to the top since high school.

The photos really don't do justice, but the scenery was breath taking. I also opted not to bring my big good camera due to the weight. My old fashioned powershot still seemed to work. It was lush and green everywhere and the desert was in full bloom.

Doug showing us our victory making it to the top!

We were done by 9:30am and rewarded ourselves with some breakfast burrios, oh and a LARGE diet Coke. Yum! Thanks Mark and Heather for tagging along, we had so much fun!

Five For Friday

1. We welcomed Annabeth into our home last Monday. She seems to be healthy, strong and enjoys wearing pink. Taylor is expected to carry her around for two weeks. She must care for it, and if she breaks or cracks, has to write a 3 page report on child abuse. What's my opinion on this teaching principal of parenting? Can you really compare an egg and a human? Super LAME and cheesy if you ask me.

2. I live out of my car most days being a taxi driver to my kids. To be honest it doesn't bother me, but my car does seem to suffer now and again. The Honda van has the capablity of holding 12 drinks at one time. That's pretty dang impressive! The sad part there isn't a day that goes by that 4 of those cupholders are filled with diet coke's. If there was ever such a thing as DC annonymous some one may have to sign me up.

3. We really did luck out this year in little league. Jared was drafted to one of the best coaches. The downfall is, you don't get to pick who is one your team. For the past 3 seasons Logan and Jared have been on opposing teams and happens to be one of Jared's good friends. Logan is a great player, but unfortunately he couldn't carry his team to a victory. The Dodgers won 7-2. I am just glad they both had smiles on their face after the game.

4. Just so you know Luke is still around despite his absence on the blog lately. He continues to be my rule follower and loves to challenge his parents with his short tempers. However, he wears his heart on his sleeve and continues to be concerned about his brothers at all times. There isn't a day that goes by that Luke doesn't come up and give me a hug and kiss before walking out the door. And we also LOVE those deep brown eyes.

5. Okay, so it's been two weeks since I have registerd St. George Marathon lottery. I don't know what's worse waiting to see if you get in, or dreading if you get in to have to train in the Arizona heat!

Earth Day

I love you, Grandma!

I'll never forget the 4:27am wake up call I received one year ago today. It was the news that my Papa had passed away. It was bitter, sweet. Bitter, because the man I knew and grew to admire wouldn't be here physically with me anymore. Sweet, in that he wasn't suffering any more pain. It's strange to think so much time has passed. I kidnapped my grandma today in order to keep her preoccupied and help brighten her day. We spent the morning shopping and then headed out to lunch to her favorite sandwich place, Paradise Bakery. I don't get the opportunity to spend time with her very often, so I am especially glad I could be there for her today.

And truth be known, I think she is about the cutest 81 year old lady you'll ever meet!

Cover Girl

My introduction to Kirsten 1 year ago, was not under normal circumstances. When Doug and I were called as Ma's and Pa's on the trek our biggest worry was the kids we would be assigned. Would we get rebelious, defiant teenagers? All I know is that for 6 months we prayed and fasted for a good experience. I'll be honest I was nervous the morning when we met these 12 teenagers that we would be spending the next 3 days with. However, we couldn't have asked for a better group of kids. Sure they were a group that wouldn't probably hang out at school, but they grew to all love one another and we grew to love them. Kirsten was one of our "kids" and one of my favorite to hang around. Today I had the opportunity to photograph her senior pictures. The weather wasn't ideal, super windy and really over cast, but I think we were able to capture her fun personality. Here are some of my favorites......

Thanks for being such a trooper photographing in all of those interesting spots :)

Congratulations!!

My Twin

Most of the 6 years we lived in San Antonio, I spent as a single parent, due to Doug's crazy busy schedule. Although, I don't miss being a single parent, I do miss San Antonio. Luckily, I met a dear friend right away who happened to be just a few doors down to get me through those 6 tough years of residency. She was my rock I leaned on when Doug was gone. She listened, cried with me, laughed and was one I could vent to. At first we were just casual friends, but our friendship grew into something deeper and more rooted. We not only became friends, but best friends who could hang out as couples. Greg and Doug got along as well and Angie and I. And for those of you who have friends like this, know it is SUPER hard to come by or replace them. We went through 2 pregnancies together, and literally have watched our kids grow up. Her children have become like mine and mine hers.

Weekly outings to Six Flags waterpark with all the kids.

It wasn't until I moved away I realized how much I missed her. I miss our daily walks, our weekly lunch outings, craft days, Sonic runs, therapeudic shopping days, lying by the pool, and even trying to manage our 8 children at local fast food restaurants. I miss the "Are y'all sisters??!!" comment too.

Chuy's Mexican Food

Need I say more??

We were mistaken by several people as each other at church and people often called me Angie and her Jenny. It became a running joke. Often times Angie would come over and without even knowing we would have the same outfit on, from head to toe. Never mind we also would pick out the same shirts for our husbands. We still talk a lot, but as you know schedules get crazy with kids and living 1000 miles away doesn't help.

Afternoon shopping

As I was driving the other day I was thinking about my favorite places to shop with Angie (Hobby Lobby) We frequented that place and even ended up getting some furniture deals there. Arizona does have a Hobby Lobby, but not anywhere super close to my house. Until.....I headed out the other day and realized we are getting one less than 3 miles from my house this June! My heart skipped a beat when I saw this sign. And just look Ang, it's right next door to TJ Maxx, Target, AND In and Out Burger. So, in a nutshell I am speaking out loud, I definitely need an Angie fix. Is this enough to get you on a plane??? I hope to see you within the next few months....... Miss your guts friend!!

What Goes Around, Comes Around

It's strange how history and fads tend to repeat themselves over and over again. For example, just when you thought George, Edna, and Ernest were "grandparent" names, you hear friends and family members naming their children those names. Alice has become the new Mackenzi of 2010. I can't help but walk into some of my favorite stores (i.e. Target) and see the stretch pants, neon colored long shirts and LARGE belts. Do we really need to relive through the 80's era again? Ick! What's even more strange is my daughter is wearing the things I wore in her very same grade, 7th. Colored van shoes. Who didn't have a pair of those growing up? I know I had about every color in the rainbow to coordinate with all of my outfits. Hair bows are starting to trickle back in style and I think I even saw a evolved version of a banana clip in the store the other day.

Having said all of this some things in history may go in and out, but an old fashioned car game never seems to get old. Remember getting into a friends car and playing corners? On occasion, I find myself still pushing myself into Doug when we turn and put all of my weight into him shoving myself and yelling, "CORNER!" When I was a teenager, it wasn't uncommon to get into a car and yell "SHOT GUN!!" Of course the first person who managed to blurt it out got the prime seat in the car, the front. And then while driving if you saw a Volkswagon bug you would yell, "SLUG BUG!" and the best part was getting to slug your friend as hard as you could. Because you know if they saw it first they would do the same to you. The unwritten rule was the person who saw the most won. There never was a prize other than, the prideful statement of getting to say you won.

Now, my kids don't normally yell shotgun, do corners, or look for slug bugs, BUT we have gotten seriously competitive with yellow car. I suppose you could pick any color your family wants, but for us it is yellow. It doesn't matter who is in the car with me, but lately Weston and I have gotten into having our eyes peeled for this particular color.

The rules are if you see a yellow car, you need to blurt it out before the other person sees it. This earns you 1 point. However, if you see a yellow FJ cruiser this earns you 2 points. And the bonus is if you happen to see a yellow Honda Odyssey (which I am not even sure exists) you win the game. Buses, Construction machinery, moving trucks and taxi's are not allowed to be counted for. Doug and I always joke that it would be cool to own a Volkswagon bus, I think it reminds him of his highschool glory days (his friend owned one), I personally think they are just cool cars. I couldn't help myself the other day while playing this game and came across a yellow one. Luckily, I have been keeping my camera handy and happend to capture this one......

How cool is that? Or should I say rad? I believe cool and awesome have made it's way back into the vocabulary word of slang terms, hmmm maybe dude should too. Do you play this game?

Casino Night

Saturday night Doug and I headed over to the Hilton Hotel in honor of the Kings football league charity event. We purchased tickets which included a buffet dinner with $1000 worth of "play" money to gamble.

I was happy to sit back and watch, because truthfully I have NO clue how to play any sort of Vegas style games. If you don't know how to play this is most definitely the best way to learn.

Doug and Mark stuck with the black jack table the entire night. Their dealer Allison was actually super nice and pretty much told them when they should hit or not.

By the end of the evening Doug was up a couple thousand dollars than when he started. If only it was real money right? Once they closed the gambling you could exchange your chips for raffle tickets to enter into various drawings.

I would have liked the i-pad, but no such luck.

Mary and Heather were on the committee to help run the show.

It was close to midnight before we left, I can't even tell you the last time we dressed up and was out that late. It was definitely past my bedtime, and for those of you who know me I get a little slap happy when I am tired. And slap happy I was. Thank goodness for late church today!

5:30am

I set my alarm for 5:30am this morning. It's Saturday you may ask and there is no baseball games, I am not meeting my friends at the palms, nothing on the calendar, and I am not even running the Pat Tillman 4.2 mile run (that took place today with 20,000 other individuals).

I had a date with my ten year old and I wasn't about to sleep in and pass up on the opportunity to bond. Like me, Jared doesn't mind getting up on occasion, especially if it involves the outdoors.

We left the house around 6:15am and headed out to Camelback Mtn.

The weather was absolutely perfect it started out around 60 degrees. 1 mile up and 1 mile back. It took us around 1:40.

Jared was a trooper, there were some definite steep parts and a lot of switch backs. He offered to carry our camelback full of water. Never complained, just a little Jared smirk with small talk now and again.

Afterwards we treated ourselves with some Jamba Juice, yum.

Thanks for being my hiking companion Jared, I hope we can do it again soon!

Five For Friday

Jared getting ready to pitch.

I have found that the older I get, the more competitive I am. I used to be one of those passive parents who sat and "observed" their children while interacting in a sport. Occasionally, I would speak or yell out with a "good job" now and again. However, now that Jared has gotten older, the games are more intense, and a win definitely counts. I find myself on the edge of my seat and despite having to go to the bathroom I can't manage to escape beit 5 minutes. What if I miss a double play or great hit? I bite my nails, get nervous sweats, crack my knuckles.....what is wrong with me? Our team lost their 1st game Tuesday night, which ended up being a great eye opener for the boys. We played our 7th game yesterday and our boys were back on their "A" game. We beat the D-backs 10-0. Jared played 3rd base on 4 of the innings, but had the opportunity to pitch in one of them. Here is the 5 step process of how to strike three kids out in a row. With a total of 14 pitches.

1. You plant your feet on the mound, mentally prepare and communicate with your catcher.

2. Pull back on that left arm.

3. Throw as hard as you can and aim right for the plate.

4. Follow through with the swing. Nice.

5. Watch to see where the target hits.....it's good. STRRRRIIIIIKKE!

Last, get a pep talk from Coach Clay on all your hard work.

Congrats Dodgers on a great game!