October Fun

Duststorms, anyone?


I have always loved October since I was little because it is my birthday month, my mom's birthday month, and Halloween finishes it off with a bang! Then I got married and October got better still - it's my mother in law's birthday and Charlie's parents' anniversary as well!

We had a nice little party at our house for Charlie's parents a couple of weekends ago and had lots of fun. The theme was Italian and I got to fix some delicious dishes for dinner. I love playing hostess. :-)

Here are some pictures. We made this cake from scratch on Donna's actual birthday and we were going to write her name on it, but the icing started shooting out everywhere so we made a "Jackson Pollack" creation instead.




Me and my parents - it was the night before their trip to Hawaii



The star of the party of course was Emma, the daughter of Donna's friend. She loved the colored lights I put on the stair railing and kept naming off the different colors.

And I thought we lived far away

Higley. Queen Creek. San Tan Valley. My eyes are opened to the crazy growth that is still happening in Arizona, despite the economy, after a long drive this Sunday. Charlie and I went out the the Olive Mill in Queen Creek and we decided to keep driving to "see what is out here." Well, there is alot. I don't know why it impresses me so much - maybe because I lived in Chandler for so long before college, and yet enormous communities have sprung up without my knowledge. I am one of those people that loves looking at model homes for no reason other than to look, so I convinced Charlie to follow the signs out to one of a dozen builders. We found one, stopped, and got out, and I was laughing to myself because I had no idea what town we were even in at this point. It was sooo far from everything! Well it turns out it is San Tan Valley. It's about half an hour drive southeast of our house. So now I know a little bit more about what is out there. And maybe I won't complain about my drive as much.

Because that. is. seriously. far.

What do you think about...

Clients who can read your thoughts? Not kidding, even a little bit. I started a new rotation of clients today and my last person of the day (he communicates by typing) typed out the thoughts of the other therapist and my thoughts as well, at the beginning of the session. Like, specific things that nobody could ever guess. I literally had goosebumps for like 5 minutes.

Wow.

Anyway, before this happened today I was going to write about what a fun weekend we had! Our friend Trevor was in town from Colorado, and he took turns staying at our house and another couple's house. We had a great time playing games and chatting before going to very cool places in Scottsdale for dinner and after dinner. The first place was a restaurant called Stax, which serves these little 3-oz burgers in many different varieties, with very trendy toppings. Charlie had one that was Wild Boar burger. It was a little pricey but very fun. And they had yummy sweet potato fries.

Then after dinner we went to a wine bar called Kazimierz, where everything was super dark. Like only lit with candles, literally. The walls of the place were stone, and I felt like I was transported to Medieval times or something! I didn't have any wine (just chocolate fondue, yum) but I would definitely go back, just for the experience. We also did a lot of people watching. I was never in the "going out" scene, especially in Scottsdale, so I was just fascinated by how everyone acted and dressed. And had lots of plastic surgery. Like they were movie stars or something.

The next morning we all drove to Flagstaff to go hiking ... and we didn't know until we got there, where we would go. We went to the lava tubes!! Which, if you have never been, is a very fun, challenging, hike through a cave made from volcanic rock. It is literally pitch dark, and Charlie and I were sharing one flashlight the whole time. I think our marriage grew alot in those 2 hours, haha! It was really hard to get a good picture because the flash on our camera didn't do a whole lot, but I found this picture online.



We heard at the beginning that everyone rips their pants on this hike (can you see all those jagged rocks?) so I made it my personal goal not to have this happen. I was wearing my favorite pair of jeans, after all! Well, I triumphed. I came out with my intact jeans (just slightly dirty), slightly sore quads and triceps (who would have thought?), and most importantly, my husband.

Occupations

Since we moved into our house in July, we have been busy every weekend doing something or other - usually something house-related, if not with our lovely family and friends :-). Thus, we have not been very regular to blog on what we are doing. So here are some things to give you an idea...

1) Catching crickets.
When we get home from work, I point them out to Charlie. He uses the humane "capture with cup, stick a paper underneath, and set free outside" method.

2) Catching lizards.
I have been the sole lizard catcher thus far, and my count is 2. I sang to one (I am not at all kidding) and then caught it with a bowl. The second one I persuaded to climb our sliding glass curtains, then opened the door and pushed it outside. Each time, I got the chills and a sick feeling in my stomach. Reptiles are just creepy.

3) Chatting with our neighbors
They are pretty nice. The man across the street is a mechanic, and although we thought his little boy was nuts at first (he kept running after their dog and shouting "I'm gonna kill you" in a scary voice) Charlie talked to the boy and he is better, haha. The next door neighbors have two kids in marching band at Higley High School and they hold band booster meetings at their house. It brings us back to the good old days.

4) Exploring
Our neighborhood is so fun! We have been to our swimming pool close by and we have been (don't even laugh) rollerblading together some mornings around the lake, parks and houses. Power Ranch is huuuge and we have only seen a tiny part of it. There's also this place called the "Barn" where they hold events. Sometimes we go and peek in the windows at random people's weddings and parties.

5) Chores
Let me just say I am very thankful we have a smaller backyard and that Charlie (and his dad) have been taking care of it because mowing the lawn is one house chore I dread the most. I have never enjoyed laundry so much before - our machines literally play like a 16-bar song after they finish a load. Ok, it can get annoying too, but I figure we can teach our future kids to sing the laundry song with solfege syllables (do-re-mi) someday or do some melodic dictation.

6) Decorating
My favorite. We have been doing it slowly but it is fun! The top 3 things we did so far are buy this photo collage frame at Hobby Lobby and put it upstairs in this little niche area, the picture of Paris at night in the dining room, and another picture we just got to go above the couch. It's hard to find "art" at stores that doesn't cost a fortune and doesn't look like it belongs in a La Quinta hotel somewhere.

I am already anticipating Christmas ... is that wrong? I can't wait to buy our first real-sized tree and reunite with Melissa and Amanda when they come home!!

Housewarming

We had our family housewarming party last Saturday, and it was so much fun. At one point we had 19 people all over at the same time, which is quite a bit more than we could fit into the Colorado condo!


On Sunday we went to church and then Sears to buy a grill - yay! Then yesterday we picked up the grill and went shopping for some other random things. We also swam in our community pool for the first time, which was so fun. It is huuuge, and usually really crowded, but we went at 8am and nobody was there except for one sunbather. We also had two dinners our with family. I love 3-day weekends!

El Paso

So last weekend was El Paso! Besides my dad and mom of course, I got to visit with my Uncle Roger, Aunt Maria, cousin Haley, and Aunt Angie.

Haley was the flower girl at our wedding 3 years ago. Hasn't she changed?





Her dad and my dad are 17 years apart, and Haley and I are 19 years apart. But we are still best cousins!




We drove to Socorro, where my dad and his family lived in the late 60s. This is a picture of him with his brother and sister. They were very happy to see him again!



We got to meet Haley's new dog, Harlan. He is a Rottweiler and weighs over 100 pounds. When he steps on your foot, it seriously hurts! I am more used to little dogs...



Like these babies! Aren't they cute? We got to babysit for a week. We still don't have a dog yet, and for now we are enjoying our petless lives. But Lily and Luke are excellent stand-ins.

Back in Town!

(he was trying to compensate for his sleep deprivation in this one)

Guess who's back from a certain Middle-East country that rhymes with Mafghanistan? My dad, of course!! We are all so happy and relieved! We greeted him at the airport early this morning (you can see how early from the pictures, ha), had breakfast, and we will be seeing our family in El Paso tomorrow to celebrate!