ok I lied...

I never got around to posting more pictures.  Fall break flew by and now I am back to the grind of spending my days with my head in the books (or more accurately--glued to my computer). 

Yesterday I had an almost shocking realization.  I remember at the beginning of the year when I was setting New Year's resolutions and trying to imagine what would be different at the end of 2012--I realized that in December I would be half way done with the cramming for exams school part of my pharmacy education.  That's 3 years--and I would be done with a year and a half of it.   So yesterday I realized we are almost to that December.  Almost to that halfway point.  Only about a month left and it made it seem like the year just flew by.  So here is to hunkering down and chugging through that last month of this semester.  Some classes I am still shooting for A's, and some (which shall remain nameless) I will be happy with passing--thanks to a horrendous test a few fews ago.  One of the only comforting thoughts was most everyone else in the class bombed it as well (class average was 65%!).  So not only was I not the only one who had a panic attack and failed it, but I have many friends to commiserate with. 

We are still enjoying colorado--just wishing it was a tad closer to family.  Rachel tells everyone she loves it here and that her favorite part is the snow...even though it hasn't snowed yet.  :)  Hoping we didn't jinx it by moving here and that it actually starts snowing soon so Sam can start his dream come true of living close to a ski resort--I don't think it counts if said ski resort isn't even open due to lack of snow  ha ha!

2 more days till fall break

I was going to wait until I was actually on fall break to update my blog..but I just took a test, didn't do as great as I had hoped, I have 5 lectures waiting for me to watch them--and I turned the first one on and all I can hear the professor say is "blah blah blah blah blah..."  Obviously my brain needs a little bit longer to recover.

Well I am not that surprised to see that it has been a while since I posted.  I thought when I started school that maybe I would keep up with my blog so that friends who have a similar desire to go back to school could see what it is like  ( I had a hard time visualizing what it would be like and finally had to just take a giant leap of faith).   But in reality there are two reasons this doesn't happen

1. school keeps me so busy,
2.  any spare time I do get is first dovoted to spending time with Sam and Rachel, and then making meals/grocery shopping, watching midless tv shows, calling friends to catch up, and then finally if there is any time left I force myself to fold the laundry that is most likely piled 3-4 loads high on the guest room bed - which of course uses the last ounce of energy so nothing is left for blogging. 

Last week someone asked me how long I have lived here the other day and I said "a couple of months" - and then I realized that wasn't true, I hadn't even lived here for 2 months yet--more like 6 weeks.  Which is wierd, because we feel pretty settled.  I think it could partly be because Rachel and I started school right after moving here so we got right into our new routine.  I felt bad for moving Rachel again in her young little life, so I was determined to be proactive about making friends.   We signed her up for soccer, then they said they always need coaches--so Sam and I signed up to coach--and we have had a lot of fun.  I really enjoy playing with the kids at practice and getting a little workout in myself  (and let me assure you - at an altitude of 7500 ft it doesn't take long for Sam and I to get out of breath :)   There have been many nights where Rachel was having fun playing with friends after practice that we stayed a while longer - until dark and the dropping temps forced us to hear home. 

The short sale on our house was approved by the bank...so looks like it is going to go through (fingers crossed), something about that makes the move seem a little more real..or more permanant or something.  But it is a good thing so hopefully it goes through.

Home sweet home

That is a real deer in our front yard--this is no lawn ornament.  

 I thought this was pretty exciting--but I have learned that everyone sees them as more of a nuisance.  They eat your plants, and leave deer droppings in your yard and on the soccer fields at the park. 

I still think it is fun--maybe I will change my mind by the spring if my yard is infested with them :)

and most important...

The Guest Room  :) 

It's all ready for visitors!

Ballet

Gotta say--she had the cutest bun in class :)

Zapata Falls hike

Today we went exploring on a hike not too far from our house. The trail itself wasn't very long and the vew was great.

The water was Cali approved

 Sam is dying to hike one of these peaks that are around 14,000 feet....someday :)

Our new place in Colorado

Ok--soooo Scratch that! 

This was supposed to be our new house--but long story short, it did not work out.  For the record, we are happy that it didn't work out and we love the new place we found soooo much better--but it did make our arrival here in Colorado very stressful. 

We drove what turned out to be a 12 hour drive and arrived at our house at about 9:30 pm.  We had packed our sleeping bags in the car so we could just sleep on the floor until the moving truck arrived the next morning with our stuff.  However, our first walk through the house is no where near what we had expected  (despite the fact that it was old and we hadn't seen it yet, and we knew it would have its own little quirks and we were excited about the "adventure" of it all).  Basically -- it was a DISASTER! filthy, trash and junk everywhere, there was extra furniture and appliances left there too  and to top it off there was POOP on the floor! Some windows were left open so probably some animal got in--but still-disgusting!!   (note--movers were already in transit and set to arrive at 9am).  We checked into a hotel and left frantic voicemails and emails for the realtor we had been working with.  We couldn't sleep-- instead spent hours trying to figure out ways we could get out of the lease-- realtor agreed to meet us at the house at 7am.  He was shocked and we actually found a giant fresh second TURD in another room that morning!!!  He was very apologetic and said he would get his cleaning crew in there ASAP to rectify the situation--but I said NO Way!  I don't want it just cleaned ---I don't want ANYTHING to do with this house anymore.   Then I had to play hardball --threatened getting lawyers involved and threw in some tears and FINALLY got out of the lease and got our deposit and first month's rent refunded in full!    Yipee!       Wait a sec --  movers will be here any minute and we have no house.  I went to the other realtors office and THANKFULLY I found a new house to rent which I like even better -- only they are putting in new carpet so we can't move in for a few more days --so again--where to send movers?  who are now charging us by the hour for wait time.  We decide to rent a storage unit--only after going to a few we can't find any available--so we figure we could rent a moving truck here and just transfer everything and rent the Uhaul by the day--only one 16 foot truck in the whole town--which is not going to fit.  --luckily the owners to the new house have a large garage in the backyard of the place we are going to rent and were going to clear all the junk out later in the week --they offered to clear it out right away and let us store the stuff in there.    So all in all everything seemed to work out but of course in the most stressful way possible! GEEEESH!!     

Pictures to come--we have been in a hotel since we got here--but we should get the keys to the new place tomorrow.

Someday I will laugh about this...

Let me just start by saying that I am really glad I am moving during the summer and not during the semester.  Hang on, back up a step, maybe I should have started with -- Guess what-- Sam got a job in Colorado and we are moving!!  (probably in August, but don't know the date yet)

Finding a house in this small colorado town is proving to be challenging.  The town has about 15,000 people, it does have a walmart and a small college, and is mostly a farming community, and most importantly--is only an hour away from a great ski resort.   I have looked into EVERY rental available in july or aug (there have been 7 total--3 rented while we were still trying to decide if we were moving there for sure--and 1 was in crappy neighborhood where we drove right through, 2 were nice neighborhoods, but disgusting houses, the last 2 were decent houses in decent neighborhoods that would not rent to us because we have a pet.  I have resorted to asking friendly looking strangers at McDonald's if they knew of any houses for rent  (which they did, and led to some of these leads), and I also called just about every reasonable house currently for sale asking if they would rent instead.   I also called a random stanger (a friend of a friend of a friend) and begged them to take pictures of houses and give me the real lowdown of what they are like--since I am now having to pick a house from long distance.  This girl has turned out to be amazing, more proof that the people there are so nice, and if I ever do move there I am sure I will meet lots of great people. 

It started when Sam told me to drive to Colorado and take our daughter and see if we would be happy living there. At that point, he was also considering a job in New Mexico and I was supposed to help him choose between them. 

I liked the schools better in Colorado, and I met so many friendly people that said they loved this town and it was great to raise families in, so I was feeling really good about it.  While I was there, he was officially offered the job so I decided to talk with some realtors.  They said I should snatch something up ASAP, because pretty soon the college students would be looking and everything would disappear.  Mind you, this is about 2 hours after Sam was offered the job and he doesn't have a start date yet (has to wait for a license to be approved in that state before he can work--we guess he should be able to start in august...but aren't positive), we still have a house in Arizona that we are *trying* to sell--but hasn't sold yet.  The realtor says there are 3 houses available for rent, they are vacant, and they expect them to rent in a matter of days--so if I want them I need to pay the deposit and the first month's rent today.  They hand me the keys to the 3 properties and tell me to go take a look.  (that's right--no one actually showed me the houses--they just sent me on my way).  

• House #1 & #2  --in a nice neighborhood, both 3BR but very small  (1050 sq feet)  and there are rocks in the front yard and dirt in the back yard.  (I am not super excited about the move at this point, but trying to get excited about moving to a place where there is better weather and more greenery, so rocks and dirt just isn't cutting it).  One is a new build though and both are nice--translation--no pets.  If things don't rent for a while, the owner's start to consider pets---but since this is high season and they are renting hours after they are listed, we don't have much of a shot, and I am not loving either of these enough to snatch it up or beg, so I decide to pass.  
• House #3--3 BR, not in the area of town I had hoped for-but ok, it's an older/more run down house, tub is stained dirty, there are bugs crawling around, (owner was outside doing yard work and was really nice--said the only bad part is the bugs but they will work with the renter to try and get rid of them, they come due to the trees that are planted--but don't bite, just kind of annoying.)  The property is huge and full of trees and he even tells my daughter he would let her build a tree house--So I think, well, maybe I could live here.... 

I take the keys back to the realtor--and they tell me while I was out looking, they actually had someone put a deposit down on the bug house, so it is to longer available.   I go to the other real estate place in town that has rentals and he says they have 3 places for rent, none will take pets, so he doesn't give me any keys--he says there isn't really a point in looking. 

I decide to head home  (I have a 10 hour drive in front of me) but first we stop at McDonalds, where I confront two moms who have several kids and seem happy/nice.  I make small talk, and just drop in that I am looking to move there--and ask if they know of any rentals.  They give me a few ideas and then leave my number with them and get their numbers as well. 

I head back to Arizona, about 15 miles later, the realtor calls to say another house is coming available so I drive back to town to look at it...only to hate the neighborhood (down a dirt road on the outskirts of town--looks run down, and the houses are so spread apart there is no way I will be seeing neighbors, let alone making friends with any of them). 

When we get back to arizona, I decide to stop stressing out about it now, because our decision is still sinking in and we don't feel comfortable about paying rent and deposits only 24 hours after taking the job. 

• house #5--realtor calls about another house, but we decide to wait  (in retrospect--it was a nice house in a  nice neighborhood, wish I would've had the guts to just pay the deposit)

A few days later...the lead from McDonald's mom leads me to...

•  house #6  More expensive, and has been listed for a few months so he says he will consider pets, so my new very best friend drives over takes videos of the front yard, and surrounding houses, and the back yard and takes pictures of the inside.  The layout is awkward (the "front door" walks into the master bedroom) so you could use a side door to enter home,  but clean and updated inside, wood floors throughout.  She also reveals that the house backs up to a major road, and it turns out there is a bar 3 houses down.     Hmmm....   I found another house in the newspaper so we decide to wait and go see that one.
• house #7 -- 3 BR 1300 sq feet, good neighborhood, decent backyard, hideous wallpaper in many rooms,  showers are stained dirty.  Detached garage has been converted in an extra space--with a mysterious (sketchy looking) sound-proof closet???!!  wierd.  My friend says the other place is looking better and better (even considering the busy traffic and the bar).

So--I put in an application for house #6, and wait, and wait....and they deny us--they decide to not take a pet after all.    GRRRRRRR!  (this was today)

So--this is how I am spending my summer vacation.  I leave tomorrow morning for camping where I have no internet and no phone service, I can't decide if I am going to be relieved--or completely stressed out. 

Wish me luck--and stay tuned :)

Life in my 20's

While I was hiking the Grand Canyon I got thinking about what I wanted to do next--what was going to be the next big exciting thing that I wanted to do?    Then I decided that before I jump to that--I should look back at all of the fun stuff and reminisce about the events I am most proud of, and all the ways my life has changed, here is what comes to mind:

Things I did in my 20's:

1. Spent my 20th birthday as a newlywed  (that's right, I got married when I was 19)--that is shocking to me when I look back, but at the time I felt so mature and independent, I had been living with my roommates in my own apartment for a "whole year" already when I met Sam.  ha ha   But I wouldn't change a thing.
2. Had a baby/Became a mom-- I spent my 21st birthday holding a one week old baby girl, and thinking she was the best present in the world.
3. Moved to Boston, experienced a new life on the east coast, experienced winter, and a little bit of the other seasons :)
4. Graduated from ASU with my bachelors degree, an interdisciplinary studies degree in business and Spanish...what did that prepare me to be?  not sure, but who cares--all I wanted was to be a mom.
5. Bought our first house, and since then I have learned so much about what NOT to do, ha ha  Oh well :D
6.  Lived on an Indian Reservation, talk about from one extreme to another, but we found things we loved about the small town, quiet life.
7. Ran a half marathon
8. Got accepted into pharmacy school
9. Successfully completed my first year of pharmacy school
10. Backpacked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon  (Backpacked is different than just hiking,  it is about 30 pounds different) :)

Places I  have been/Sites I have seen

1. Boston
2. Spent a day on a beach on Cape Cod
3. Spent a day on Martha's Vineyard
4. New York City--saw the Statue of Liberty, Time Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero, central Park
5. Went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC 
6. Saw Niagara falls
7. Took a road trip across the US
8. Vacationed in Hawaii
9. Traveled internationally....to Canada  (Victoria, British Columbia)
10. Seattle, Washington--which means I have been to all four corners of the USA (SW, SE, NE, and finally NW)

Random facts about my 20's 
(that Rachel will enjoy hearing about later):

1. Got my first cell phone
2. got my first digital camera
3. got my first laptop computer
4. Took my first train ride

 And as for my list of what I hope to do in the next 10 years, here is the start of my list:

• Graduate pharmacy school
• Rent a beach house for at least a month on Martha's Vineyard, The cape, or any comparable beach to celebrate
• Travel overseas 

Soccer Star

Luau Birthday Party

After being back in Phoenix for a whole year I heard of many fun locations to do birthday parties, bowling, gymnastics, and on and on, and yet still Rachel really wanted to just have a pool party.  I was getting de ja vue of her 5th birthday party so we tried to get a little creative and decided to make it a luau themed party.   A big thank you goes out to the Dollar tree store for the grass skirts, leis and even the bamboo limbo stick. 

 Here I am documenting that Rachel had a pinata.  I soooo do not love pinatas, but it became very clear to me that her childhood would always be incomplete if she never got a pinata at a birthday party.  So I caved in and got one--knowing I could cross that off the list and be done with it :) 

Limbo

She had several friends from school, and a few from her soccer team, and her cousins. 

For her cake this year we did an ice cream cake that looked like a watermelon made out of sherbert. 

Cali even got to play for a bit

Then we had hula-hooping contests

Birthday outfit on her real birthday.

Rachel has grown up to be an amazing, entertaining, smart, kind, friendly, creative and thoughtful girl.  I love hearing the things she comes up with, and I love watching her do the things she loves.  She seems to have a knack for gymnastics and always has a perma-grin during all of her lessons.  Gymnastics was only once a week but I think every other day of the week she still had her leotard on and was doing gymnastics in our front room.  She also played soccer this year, it seemed to be more of a challenge, it was 3 days a week and she had a tough coach this year who pushed them pretty hard, but despite the hard times she still enjoyed it.  There were times she was crying and I would wonder if maybe this wasn't her sport (sometimes because she was tired, or because someone was pushing, or sometimes because the shin guards were uncomfortable)  and then other times like when she took a ball to the face during a game and didn't even flinch and just kept going, but when I would ask her if she still liked soccer she would say yes and she can't wait to play next year.    Her teacher worked a lot with trying to teach responsibility this year and I feel like Rachel figured this out pretty well.  I rarely had to remind her of homework, she would be reminding me of when her projects were due, and would bring her books home before a test.  She doesn't get perfect scores but does well and I am really impressed with her independance.   Speaking of independance she was also very independant in getting up every morning and getting ready for school this year.  She would have her clothes picked out the night before, then she would set her alarm for 6:30am, then she would wake up, get dressed and then come in and snuggle with me while I was trying to wake up and drag my sleepy self out of bed.  I would like to say I was bright-eyed and cheery every morning and had a yummy breakfast waiting for her, but the truth is that she would be the one who would come wake me up, and we would snuggle until about 7am when Sam and I would finally get out of bed, I am glad this year she still liked to snuggle.  If I ever got up early and she wasn't able to snuggle in the morning she was not very happy--so I had an extra excuse to just lay in bed and be lazy since I knew how much she enjoyed it.  She spent a lot of time missing Chinle this year, but she finally settled in here and was sad to say good-bye to 3rd grade.  She actually said she was sad the last day was a half-day --she wished it was a full-day because now that it is over she misses all her friends.   I am so lucky to be her mom and I can't wait to see her continue to grow up and the person she turns into.

 Pics with the birthday girl

Mother-Daughter Pedicures

My birthday and Rachel's birthday are a week apart and when she was little I would think about all the fun stuff we could do together when she grew up to celebrate our birthdays--like go to the salon together, or get manicures or pedicures. One of her closest friends also has a birthday in May and so does her mom, and they had started the tradition of going to get pedicures every year and they invited us to come--and we had a blast.   Rachel was smiling every time I looked over at her, and we all splurged and got fancy designs on our toes since it was such a special occasion.