Let's finish out the year

We had another grooming appointment for the BADC. It was at Steph's house this time. She had made beanie weanie casserole and it was good. Then we had craft night. As always a good time. 

The Thursday before Christmas we went to zoo lights with Nick and family, and John's parents. It was really crowded but the kids seemed to like it for the most part. I think that was the beginning of my sickness.....

So then we had Christmas. We decided to do a dinner at our house on Christmas eve. I tried to have Nick have his kids act out the Nativity scene but that didn't happen.....

I made my first prime rib and in true Jena fashion I have pictures I will post. I think it turned out really good and I'm glad I got the bigger rib. We opened presents at our house that night. It was a lot of fun. John's parents had gotten everyone presents and that was really nice of her and the kids liked it a lot.

Christmas morning we went to Nick and Shar's for breakfast and to see what the kids had gotten for Christmas. We gave Ashton his bike that morning and John his gun safe. Then I went to church with Nick and Shar. That evening we went to Steph and Bart's for our annual tradition of breakfast for dinner and our Lights on Bikes ride. We expanded the ride this year and had 8 people instead of just the four of us. We also estimated that we went about 15 miles. We had a good time and got a lot of good responses from people who saw us. I think this is what sealed the sickness...

We did have our gift exchange and I got a Nook that I love!!

The work week was slow but I started to get pretty sick and congested and by Wednesday or so had basically lost my voice. I finally went to the doc in the box today and I have bronchitis, laryngitis, and a sinus infection. The doctor told me "good job!"

Last night John and I went to Stomp at Gammage. I made John go because I thought that he would like it and he did. It was really good and interesting. Next will be South Pacific in January.

So, it's New Year's Eve. We didn't do anything today. Ran an errand and I sat at the doctor's for a while. Then we watched 30 minutes or less.... not worth it.... and now John is sleeping on the couch and I'm reading blogs! How exciting!

Since Cancun

Ok, let's see if I can remember everything since Cancun. I know I went to my work's division Veteran's Day picnic. I think I have some pictures that I will post later. Then the big day came... November 17th. The opening of Breaking Dawn. Stephanie had our Twilight marathon at the Cinecapri and we loved every minute of it.

Then there was Thanksgiving. To avoid having to go to multiple places we decided to have it at our house with Nick and Shar and family and John's parents. We had a ton of food and I think it went really well. I know the next day I went shopping and got most of my Christmas shopping done.

I think it was the first weekend of December I did my first run. It was the 12k's of Christmas, but we only did 6k. It was fun and a good first race experience. I went to White Christmas at Gammage with Shar. We went to Casey Moore's first; I love that place.

I know one Saturday we went to Kirk's annual Christmas party. As always, it was a ton of fun and we got to hang out with some good friends and eat cream puffs.

I found out that the Forgotten Carols was going to be at Gammage. I hadn't been to that in several years and I love the music so I invited John's mom and we went. I think she liked it and it's funny how much of the actual play I didn't remember.

New Background

Yeah, that's right, my background is a chandelier. Only dang chandelier I get. That's all I have to say about that.

Pictures

Everybody at the airport when we arrived!!

Tulum

At Tulum

John and I and Mom and Patti all went parasailing

John's sailfish

Eating the Wahu I caught

Here comes Hurricane Rina

What a bunch of rebels, defying the order to be in our rooms!

This is as close to the beach as we could get

Grandma took a nap...in the lobby

Grandma, Grandpa, and I on our last night

Let's go back in time

A lot has happened since October 5th. I finished another class. Holding up my 3.97 GPA. I know I had a lot of Dr's appointments in the middle of October. That all led up to the big trip the last week of October. We went to Cancun with all of my aunt's and uncles, parents, and grandparents.

We left on Saturday the 22nd very early. Nick took us to the airport. We met everyone in Dallas and then continued on to Cancun. From there it's about a 90 minute drive to the resort, Barcelo. It's an all-inclusive resort. We'd never been somewhere like that before and it was nice and relaxing. Sunday we ended up going to Tulum which is some of the Mayan ruins. It was really amazing and a beautiful day.

Monday was a beach day. I promptly got sunburned and my Mom finally got to parasail. Everyone sort of did what they wanted; reading, swimming, snorkeling, etc. Most of the evenings we tried to go to the gym and sit in the saunas or spas. The hot tub was always scalding hot.

Tuesday we went deep sea fishing with my dad and Russell and Misty. We had the boat to ourselves and had it all day. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we did it. There wasn't a lot of time between catches and we each got a pretty big catch that wore us out. After we took a "small" (it was gigantic) filet to a local restaurant and had them cook it up for us and it was delicious.

All this time we had been hearing that there might be a hurricane coming. Well Wednesday while some of the people when to some more ruins we hung out and watched the preparation for the hurricane. It was hard to get information on what was really going on. Thursday was the day that they actually shut us down. We were all supposed to be in our room at a certain time and only one restaurant was open. So we spent the afternoon with all our balcony furniture in the middle of the hall playing cards with everyone.

Friday we made a beach day again and it was beautiful. I don't remember doing a whole lot but going snorkeling with Annette, Mark, and Dwight. Saturday we were leaving so we did go down to the beach and hung out for a bit and then headed to the airport. Our plane was delayed in Cancun and we were told we wouldn't make our connection, but running we did. Overall, it was a really fun trip and we had a great time.

Pictures to come!!

Bucket List

I don't know if I mentioned this before but we (the crew, Stephanie, Bart, John, and I) made bucket lists a few months ago. Well, really, we went searching for Trapper Keepers. If anyone knows where we can get the good Trapper Keepers let me know. So we found Trapper Keeper folders and made our Bucket List folder.

 (and I wonder sometimes why I feel like a kid with a credit card and no supervision.....)

Anyways, so of course, skydiving was on the list. CHECK!
Next on the list that should be crossed off .... we are training for a 1/2 marathon in January. Yep, 13.1 miles. I think I started the whole challenge and it's gotten a little away from me. So we'll keep our fingers crossed that we actually do it.

SKYDIVING

 We finally got our skydiving scheduled about two weeks ago. We have been wanting to do this since we did the indoor skydiving in May. I have to say that it was the best experience ever. I kept waiting for the nerves to set in and have the freak out moment but it never came.

 This was on the tram taking us to the airplane. It's about a 15 minute plane ride to 13000 feet. We each had our tandem person (Joe for me, Jared for John, Pat for Stephanie, and Aaron for Bart). Then we had a photographer also. My photographer was Keith, I don't remember anybody else's. I know Joe was awesome about telling me what was going on and what we were going to do. Once we got to 13000 feet people start bailing out! It's about a 1 minute freefall from 13000 feet to 5000. Then you parachute the rest the way and that takes about 4 minutes.

 I was surprised because when the parachute comes out there wasn't a much of a pull as I expected. Joe let me "drive". We went full speed, stopped, turned left and right.

 The landing was perfect. Basically I stood on Joe's feet and kicked up my legs when he said and then stood up when he told me to. We didn't even end up with any grass stains on our butts.

 It is definitely addicting and it's hard to describe the feeling. I would say that having done the indoor wind tunnel was a good starter to skydiving. I never had the feeling of falling and I want to do it again as soon as possible!! For surviving our fall we had a celebratory dinner at LoLo's! Chicken and waffles with some red Kool-Aid. Best day ever!

Amazing

Quick post. I had the chance to finally volunteer at Phoenix Children's Hospital on Thursday. They do a 2 day radiothon and I have listened to it since we moved here and have loved it. Then I have been wanting to go volunteer at PCH for a while. Well, it was an amazing experience. I loved every minute of it. Maybe I'm demented or something seeing as that I can't have kids, but I feel very strongly about volunteering there. I can't wait to get back and complete the class so I can go back more often!

Hmmm

So I have been thinking about this blog. I don't have a whole lot to say. That's not true, I don't have a whole lot of time to type it all out. And I'm not documenting anything for my kids or anything so should I keep it?

Recap

Ok it's finally time to try and recap.

May:
My mom was here over mother's day weekend. We went to Water for Elephants, still a great movie. Love Rob. We painted some pottery at As You Wish. We must have finally pottery painted out as we haven't been back since. I do have some platters I picked up to paint. Then the best part of the weekend we went indoor skydiving. I was a little nervous but it was amazing!! We had done a 4 minute package. So you go in for two minutes and then rotate through and do another two minutes. The first time is really to get the feel of it and learn how as you adjust your body you can control your height. Then the second time they let you go a bit more and at the end they take you clear up to the top of the tunnel and you spin around and around. Basically when you're experiencing it you are just thinking:

"THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME!! MY MOUTH IS HANGING OPEN. DID I JUST DROOL ALL OVER? THIS IS SO AWESOME! MY NOSE IS ALL DRY. WE'RE GOING FAST. THIS IS SO TOTALLY AWESOME"

We came out and immediately asked if we could go skydiving from a plane but it was too windy. So plans are in the works that we will go before my birthday.

How pathetic is it that when trying to remember what we did I am looking at my bank account! So apparently the weekend after Mother's Day we went to Oreganos....probably with Bart and Stephanie.

Nick got here on the 19th..ish. I took Friday off and he and I basically unloaded his entire house. I remember being sore and tired and a bit sunburned after this.

The next weekend was Memorial Day weekend. I don't really remember what we did Friday or Saturday. I know I started a class on the 17th so I probably worked on some homework, etc. Sunday we did a caravan with Stephanie and Bart up to Jerome. It's this little town at the top of this big mountain and it was pretty cool! We wandered around all the shops and grabbed some lunch, etc. If memory serves that night we came back and went to Oregano's and tried to burn the place down.

That pretty much wraps up May. In between all this was just the normal school and work.

June:
I think it may have been the first weekend in June that we went on a pretty awesome bike ride one morning. We rode by Kim Whalen's house and then to Dunkin Donuts and then around Power Ranch. I believe that was the weekend I broke down and had someone finally cut my hair. Turned out ok. Then we tried Blue 32 that weekend. The burgers were good.

Shar and the kids got here on 9th or something like that. On the 10th I went to Wicked with Heidi. We had dinner at Casey Moore's and I had an awesome salad and then the play. Except I typed it was Wicked and it was really Les Mis. LOL. It was good and I was surprised it wasn't on the turntable and then I read an article specifically about how it wasn't on the turntable.

Then the weekend of Father's Day. We didn't do anything. I got sick Saturday night/ Sunday morning. Like throw up sick. I haven't thrown up so much as I have this year. So I ended up calling in sick Monday to relax a bit.

Life has been crazy finishing up this class in school and then I have been double covering at work which has been a bit of a nightmare but is hopefully getting under control. 

I don't know what we're doing for the 4th; possibly some bowling and I'm sure some general hanging out. We did have some fun the weekend of Father's Day when I finished my assignment and then 2 hours later my motherboard crashed. So I am now the proud owner of a Mac. Four hard drives in less than 4 years I couldn't handle it. So far I am getting used to it and liking it. But who knows where all my pictures are. I will try to find them and get some uploaded. Two weeks to get that done until my next class starts!

Awhile

I know it's been a while since I have posted anything and a lot has gone on. Sometimes it's so hard to sit down and type something up. I also have a bunch of pictures to add, but that is so time consuming. So with that said, I will get this updated but today is probably not the day.

Only a month?

So it's been just over a month since I updated this last and WOW a lot has happened. Let's see if I can remember back that far. I have a ton of pictures I could load as well. Right after my last post John's sister and niece was here for a week. She was out at my in-laws but she was in AZ.

While they were here did dinner with John's uncle from Chicago one night and some of that side of the family we see about once a year, but always have so much fun with. We went to San Tan Flats and went to Tombstone ;-) and who knows what else. It was our finance appreciation week at work so one day they took us all to a spring training game. Couldn't tell you who played or who won, but it was a great day to be outside and get sunburned!

Kim, Brittany, and I went to Tombstone one day. We were going to go to Karchner Cavern but couldn't get the tour we wanted. We also stopped at John's cousin's house in Casa Grande on the way home and had dinner with their family.

Let's see... John started his new job the first of April. It was a busy end at Harley with bike week and so far I think he's liking his new job alright and I know he's liking not working weekends because we've been SO busy every weekend so far.

I was in class also at that time. I'm done with that class now, just waiting for my grade to post. I'm out for 4 weeks and the time off is flying by!

Also about this time Nick started interviewing with University of Phoenix and the next thing we know they are moving down here. They'll be here mid-May. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I want it to be a good move for them and I'm worried about all the logistics and everything with moving. I think it is a good move career wise but I just don't know that everyone has bought into the idea.

We knew it would be nice if they were close enough for us to car pool....so I found a house 6 houses down. Again, excitement and apprehension at the same time... John and I have enjoyed our independence since moving down here 5 years ago. So just staying positive and getting ready for them to move down!

We've managed to stay super busy this past month with car shows, bike shows, and lots of As You Wish. For Bart's birthday we went to As You Wish and found out how much fun it is to paint pottery! We've been back since then and plan on going again soon. It's a learning experience everytime because we have learned that we need more time than we allot. On Bart's birthday I was also introduced to Sprinkles. I have read about Sprinkles in magazines and I love them. I would drive to Scottsdale once a week for a half dozen any time.

That doesn't sound like a whole lot typing it up but it keeps us busy! This coming month doesn't seem to be slowing down either. My mom will be here next weekend and we have some pottery painting, maybe a pedicure, a movie, some indoor skydiving, and who knows what else!! Then two weeks later Nick and Shar will be moving. I've also got a date that weekend for Tyler's wedding some of the peeps from BoA!

Of course I'll be starting class again in there too, we haven't even thought about Memorial day weekend! And most importantly Friday I'm taking a motorcycle class with the option to do a trapeze class in a week or so... should be fun!

I think I'm up to date now...

Brookie when we were all at mom's house a few weeks ago

I was going to make this their christmas card!

Our Halloween pumpkins! So what if it's 6 months later!

This was after the dogs had THEIR halloween party

Lolo's! Need I say more??

This is a view of downtown Phoenix

This was my pumpkin. It took forever!

Arizona

So a long time ago, I think when I had a crush on Val Kilmer, I fell in love with the movie Tombstone. By the way, it's an awesome movie and I watch it about once a week. Well, upon moving to Arizona I realized that we could go to Tombstone. So John and I made a day trip one day and I LOVED it. We happened to be there during Wyatt Earp Days and it was just a lot of fun. There's the Birdcage Theater, Boothill Cemetery, and all other sorts of good stuff.




So I found a biography on Doc Holliday and I am almost done with it. Biographies are a little harder to read but this one has been really good. I love knowing that this all happened right close to where I am today. After the whole OK Corral thing Doc went to Colorado and that's where he died and I think I'd like to go visit his grave and everything there. But it has been an amazing book to read and learn about.

Long night

So we decided to go to dinner last night with Stephanie and Bart. I wasn't feeling the best there and it caught up to me about 2:30 am. I don't know if it's that I was hot, the food, or the huge amount of pills I'm taking. So of course, since I was going to lay on the couch I let the dogs out. Well, Joey was sick too. He's been pacing and screaming and doing that whole thing again. He threw up a bunch about 5 am. So it was a long night. Not how I want to start the week.

Random Pictures

This was a few months ago. It was an exciting Friday night at Wal-mart!

This was in September when Nick and Shar came to visit.

When Nick and Shar were here I took them up South Mountain to get a view of the city.

This goes back to Halloween. Steph and Bart came over and we all carved pumpkins. It was a lot of fun!

Edward and Joey got groomed a few weeks ago and now he's cold. So he's got this fantastic argyle sweater to keep him warm!

This past week we had crazy hat day at work. This is Adam my academic counselor. He took a lot of flak for his hat.

This is my Cailes. She was on oxygen when I went home for RSV. It was so cute and sad at the same time.

Cailee

Cailee again!

I was standing in the Idaho Falls airport and noticed that it is an AWESOME airport!

March

I can't believe we're into March already. February flew by. I have a few pictures from when I was home that I'll try get posted soon. I can't think of anything exciting that has happened otherwise. I don't think I mentioned that I finally got to watch Julie & Julia. I really liked it. It has deepened my love of Stanley Tucci!

Some pictures!

Flat tire

My war wound

Finished Product

Tomorrow's the Day

So tomorrow I get to go home! The last time I was home was 14 months ago. I think. I've been in Utah since then but not to Pocatello. I'm excited to go, although you can't tell by the fact that I have not packed and I leave in less than 12 hours!

It seems like a great time to go home. 3 of my 5 nieces and nephews have had a birthday in the last month. I'm making this a grandparents trip home since I haven't seen my mom's parents in 3 1/2 years and my dad's in 18 months. Then hopefully I'll get to see Cailee since she's still tied to oxygen at this point after her RSV RVS what it is diagnosis this week.

Valentine's day was quiet for us. We just hung out at home :-)

I think there's only two somewhat exciting things that have happened lately. Last Thursday I left work and got to the truck (John was driving my car because I thought it was acting up) and the tire was punctured/slashed. I reported it to my work's security and had a nice talk with them but I think it was a random mean employee. I don't think I was in any way targeted because I wasn't in my normal vehicle, etc. So that pretty much sucked.

Then we have been frosting a few of the windows in the house and had decided to frost the window in the bathroom. I was looking for power tools to take the blinds down and was in the garage. I decided to use the "dog stairs" John had made for the dogs to get on and off our bed so I could see on the higher shelves. This resulted in the stairs breaking and my legs being stuck in the frame falling on the concrete with the cordless drill in my hands trying not to hit the car, my head, or land on the bikes. I have a pretty good bruise from it and was a bit sore. I've now been told since I was home alone, that I have to wear a helmet around the house.

I'll post a few pictures.

February?

Wow, it's February already. And not just February 1st, it's February 10th. I can't for sure remember all that has gone on or all that I've eaten since I last posted (Wallace family joke). I know that it's busy. John's aunt and uncle came for the weekend the weekend after Martin Luther King. We enjoy spending time with them. I think the week after that Stephanie and I went to a baby shower and enjoyed a LOT of food. We went to No Strings Attached and I thought it was great. Then the end of January John's parents moved down here to their new house and John's aunt and uncle came back (they stayed with his parents) but we spent a lot of time with them.

The 2nd was our anniversary, 9 years. I can't believe it's been 9 years. I went to the chocolate festival with John's family last weekend. That was not quite what I expected but still fun. I'm excited because I get to go home for a quick weekend next week. It will be good to go home.

I'm exhausted

So January is almost over already. It's been a crazy month. I'm pretty much over my sickness, but still have a bit of a cough. John's Aunt Viv and Uncle Bob came to visit this weekend. We had a great time. We went out to the Mesa Swap Meet and I'm afraid to say that I recognized some new vendors! Looks like we're going to have go out and look around some more.

I am just about done with this class that I'm in. I can't wait to be done and have a break. The next class sounds scary but we've managed to get four of us in it together who all work together so it could be fun. I should manage to pull an A on this class too, but we'll see in about a week when I get  my final grade.

I can't say January hasn't been without it's stressors. I'm not surprised I didn't get the job I applied for at work considering I interviewed with 102 degree fever. I was lucky and my work came through with a decent raise which is nice. That should be helpful since John is in a commission job and sales are SLOW!

Then in about a week John's parents will be back for I don't know how long. They will be working to get into their new house out in Maricopa but may be staying with us for a while. Bob and Viv are coming back then too and we're all going to go to the Chocolate Festivale in Glendale. I also think we're going to try and schedule our indoor skydiving in February, as well as I'm going home for a quick weekend visit. So February will fly by as well.

Crappy start to the year

So, it's been a pretty crappy start to 2011. The 3rd was my birthday, that's not the problem. The problem is I started to get sick and by that night had a fever of probably at least 101. Unfortunately I had to go to work the next day for an interview (I'm sure it was not my best interview). When I still had the fever that night, I stayed home Wednesday. My fever finally broke Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. So it's been a great start so far. I'm pretty sure if this is how this year is going to be.... I'll just go to bed.

However, my birthday was a good day. I went and got a hot stone pedicure on Sunday with Stephanie. Then Monday I got flowers, some clothes, a gift card to the spa, and a gift card for indoor skydiving! Then today, another gift card showed up for New York and Co! So thank you everyone for the birthday presents, I feel really spoiled this year!

I don't know when we're doing the skydiving but I will be sure to get some pictures.

Some new pics!

This is what we did at work for about 3 days last week. It was fantastic!

These are our bikes for our Lights on Bikes ride Christmas night

Edward got a new Polo from Stephanie!

The Christmas Tree my mom made us put up. Now we're just waiting for her to come take it down

The sunset in San Diego when John and I went this summer, one of best trips ever!

John in San Diego