They didn't even bring cookies.

Last night as I was decorating my front yard with Halloween decor I MET MY NEIGHBORS. If you have ever been to my house you know the ones. Their garage is always open. The door is open with just their screen door doing its best to hold in all their noise. I don't think the man has a job. He is always home yelling at his kids. I don't think its yelling though, I think he just talks to them REALLY LOUD. His name is Dave and his wifes name is Karen. They have 3 girls (ages 8, 14, 16) and a dog named Pete. Here is how it happened. I am on a kitchen chair stretching above me to try and hang some cob webs from the archway. All of a sudden I hear his thundering voice,

No you can't do that! What are you doing that for?!

I immediatly drop my hands and say in my timid voice, Um, excuse me? Thinking to myself, crap is he part of the HOA? Am I in trouble? I haven't seen cobwebs on other houses, maybe this is against the rules. OH NO! Why am I such a yuppie?

He walks over, with pete and the 8 year old trailing behind him, and say's well now you have done it. You have made your yard look better than ours. Now we have to put out our decorations and they aren't as good as yours. You are making us look bad. Its bad enough that the first house in the complex has an entire haunted house going on.

Oh, sorry I say. I guess you better get out your decorations huh. It will be fun if we are both all decked out.

yeah we will have to do that. But don't worry, we will beat you at Christmas we go all out. He says.

I just smile because he has no idea who he is dealing with AND that I have connections with Arizona Holiday Decorators ...... Here is a plug for them... They do FANTASTIC christmas lights. give em a call for a quote.... 480.278.3648.

We then have a conversation about all the different neighbors and such. He askes, Are we too loud with our TV on and our door open? We have all our family stuff going on and sometimes in can get a little loud.

How do you say YES, YES YOU ARE.

FIRST OF THE SEASON was almost the last....

HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE HIKE

I am so excited that it is hiking season. I love Usery park. There are so many cool things to do there from different hiking groups, night hikes, campfires, astronomy nights, biking trails, different level hikes, etc. It is worth it to buy a year pass for $70. Each time you go in its $6 to park so I have more than paid for my pass with all my trips. Yesterday was the first hike of the season and Trisha and Brynn came with me. THEY ARE NOW A PART OF THE HIKING CLUB!!! YAHOO. It's always nice to have new members. From this particular hike up to the wind caves you can see South Mountain, Downtown Pheonix, The superstition mountains, & The Fountain Hills Fountain. Quite the view I would say.

We made it to the top in just 45 minutes. I was pretty worried about how everything would go because I haven't done this hike in about 5 months. Plus I haven't done much working out all summer. :( Sad, I know but its winter again and the weather inspires me. Last year I got to where I could hike the mountain in 45 minutes. 30 up and 15 down. Running down is my favorite part. :)

We rested at the top for a bit and had a photo shoot. The view is amazing! Now you see why I would hike this everyday?

The actually do offer nature yoga classes at Usery park. I don't think its at the top of the mountain but they do offer them.

On the way down we were running, naturally. It's an intense run. There are many rocks along the path and you have to keep your legs and buns in control or you WILL get hurt. I decided to stop and wait for Trisha and Brynn. There were only a little bit behind me. As we are walking I look down at my feet and seriously a foot away is.... A SNAKE. FREAK. I say, oh look a snake. It doesn't look like a rattle snake. At just that second it coils up and starts rattling away!! HOLY CHRISTMAS TREE! We all jump back screaming, naturally. That stupid little snake just sat in our way, coiled, looking like a perfectly placed rock. It is the black dot just on the other side of the big rocks. looks like a little rock right? bleh.

We had no idea what to do. At this point the trail is such that you can't walk around it. Plus we didn't know if there would be snakes that we couldn't see in the brush. So we start throwing rocks at it. We were scared to get anywhere near it so it was hard to hit it from such a long distance. We get close but never get it, and it NEVER moves. We were getting worried because it was quickly getting darker and there may be other snakes further on down the trail. CRAP. What do we do? CALL DAD! DAD, HELP. There is a snake in our way and we can't get home.

Well girls, you are in quite the predicament. Did you throw rocks at it?

Yes, but we are girls remember... we didn't hit it and it won't move.

Well jump over it I guess.

Oh, yeah. Right.

Well just about this time the snake slides off and we take of RUNNING down the hill screaming with dad on the phone. He reminds us to NOT RUN. If there are other snakes on the path we won't give them enough time to warn us and they may strike. So we walk, kicking dirt in front of us to warn future snakes that we are coming and we don't want trouble.

WE SURVIVED.

At home Lindsey was waiting with Dinner. How nice!!

While cleaning up dinner I decide to sweep. What do I come across? A SCORPION hiding in the corner!! JULIE! WE NEED THE PEST PEOPLES NUMER pronto. Watching trisha step on the scorpion is something I will never forget. It was a mix between a seizure, dance of the sugar plum fairies, and Michael Jackson. Just fantastic.

Oh thats what we forgot.. OUR HOUSE.

We went camping this weekend. I am a firm believer that ANY camping trip is a good camping trip no matter what happens... until this trip! If something could go wrong it did. We left late. It was freezing. Important supplies were forgotten. We had a dog with us. Some people didn't get along. You name it, it happened. Which is too bad. For the record we didn't have fun and it wasn't 100% a waste of time. We got to see Roommate Julie, I now have a brand new dutch oven and air pump, we got a little fresh air, we survived.

My Nacho Libre mask. I put it on as a joke but it made my face feel amazingly warm, so I wore it!

Casey and his new bride Janae. She is a sweetheart and we are glad to invite her into the family.

Pumping up my mattress the 2nd night. Noche numero uno was muy horible.

Julie and Jakeb in the hammock

The opening to the Lava Tubes. These are fun, easy caves that anyone can have a good time in. The beginning is a little slow and go with rocks to climb down but anyone can handle it.

hiding along the cave walls.

Casey and Janae. Look how cool the ceiling is. Is that calcium?

Horror Movie

Sisters

This is right after Joe and Jakeb got into a huge, major, uncomfortable fight in my car. Thank you Jakeb for standing up for me and as far as Joe, I always knew I disliked you, grow up. I ended up turning on Celin Dion and got out of my truck.

This was the warmest I was the ENTIRE trip. Thanks for sharing your warmth Julie!

Bippity Boppity BACON!

Shooting guns. Okay so we only brought a 22 and a BB gun but it was fun.

We were babysitting munchin for the week so we brought her along. She slept in my bag with me and kept my legs warm. I have a feeling she peed in my sleeping bag. Thats the only explanation I have for the wet spot. Can dogs sweat enough to create a wet spot? It didn't smell like pee?

Kara, Julie and I chillin in my living room.

Thanks Lindsey for the foot picture! You know how I love these.

ALL ABOUT STEVE

I knew I was going to love this movie. It stars Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper. Can I just say 2 beautiful people?! That alone makes a movie enjoyable. Sandra happens to also be a favorite of mine and this film just made that love grow. She is a GREAT actress. She plays so many different roles in her films and this role was one unlike any other. She is not live Vince Vaugn who has 1 role that be plays over and over and over like the energizer bunny of Hollywood. He does it well but where is the true talent. Change it up a bit and show us if you can do more than that! Back to Sanrda, Her quirkyness and happiness and laugh is adorable. I envy her love for words. I read something today on a friends blog about the average american using 6,000 words. An educated american uses 9,000 words. Shakespeare used 36,000 words!! I wish I could master the art of words. I truly believe that it is power. You will get it once you see the movie. I promise your side will be split from laughing so hard and you will leave your guts on the cinemark floor! As far as it being rated PG-13 I was impressed with it. Maybe I am "de-sensitized" but I never felt uncomfortable and it wasn't full of sewer language. Only once and thats okay because they were, in fact, in a sewer. :)

I think the above pic the correct portrayal of relationships. One person is TOTALLY digging it, and the other is thinking HOLY CRAP. WHAT IS GOING ON? ABANDON SHIP. THIS IS NOT WHAT I SIGNED ON FOR.

This part where she was running along with the van was FANTASTIC!

Something I liked all the characters in the film. Mostly the pro-leg characters. They had a passion and love for EVERYONE. Even if they didn't know someone they felt with them. I find that hard to do. Maybe its because I am a Haws and we feel things differently..... I wish I had the passion of these people.

I'm gonna knock ya sock ya...

I LOVE Chris Crocker. I can't explain it.

Favorites are:

1.Miley, Can I be Chris Cyrus
2. What is normal
3. I have a problem
4. Leave Britney Alone

You can youtube him.

*for the record he is a gay dramatic. Sooooo his video's aren't recommended for everyone. A spade is a spade. If you want a "clean" video to watch I would recommend "I have a problem"

Cheers! MUAH!

Not always flashes and glitter.

Have you been wondering what I have been eating all week? Yeah its been fun. I have had to....COOK.... I have been loving every second of it. Its rewarding to know that you cooked what you are eating.

This was poppy seed chicken! SO easy, yummy, and perfect for a cold day. To get the recipe go Here

This is just your average grilled cheese with a surprise of pepperoni inside.

Pretty boring, but as I recall it was a busy day and no time to cook anything.

Those are the only pictures I have taken for a bit. Nothing exciting going on or just that its the same old thing all the time. I have a billion pictures of all my friends. I have a billion pictures at the lake. Nothing new grabbing my attention. We are going camping this weekend. I am very excited to be able to do that again. We went last year and had a great time. There are some caves to crawl through. These are NOT the caves we got lost in. These ones are basic, one way in, one way out. I think the last time we went was in November so it was FREEZING. Courtney and I ended up sleeping in my car with the heater on. It has been explained in great detail that is NOT an option this year.


Our company has been volunteering at St. Mary's Food Bank and it was our teams turn yesterday it was quite the job. They had a A HUGE box of pasta. It was probably 4 ft tall and 4 ft wide. STUFFED with pasta. We had to put the pasta in a bag and tie it. Can you imagine that task? It was great at first, till we got half way down that box. Then we were having to dive into the box to get noodles. It was painful! I am sore today from being a NOODLER. Never thought that would happen. I want a shirt that says I NOODLE. It took us 3 hours to box up that pasta. When all was said and done we had fed 3,000 people. GO US.


Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile...

Just signing in

These stuffed peppers were divine!!

I have been cooking a bit lately. This is what happens when you don't eat out. Its been fun. 1 thing I have learned.... Jalapenos DON'T belong on a salad no matter HOW GOOD it sounds.

This picture is ONLY on this blog for Julie's benefit. Enjoy, I love you, I miss you, see you soon.


Keara and Daryl went to the lake with us last week. We had a blast. Keara isn't a fan of the water but she did a GREAT job and I think she might be a little bit addicted to the Jet Ski. Just a little? Maybe? I hope so because we had a good time. We had the BEST waves out there that I have ever had so it made it easy to go slow and still get in a good ride.

About the bike dilemma..... I HAVE ONE!!! A bike I meant, not a dilema. I was at Trisha and Brynn's house last night and simply asked if they had an extra bike! Turns out they do and they are going to let me borrow it as long as I give it a good tune up! You bet I will do that!!! So let the bike riding begin! Usery Park or bust! I am excited to try out the desert trails. Yes mom, I will wear a helmet. I am sure I can find a wicked Cherry red one somewhere.

YUMMY

Are you interested in cooking yummy food? Are you in need of recipies? Becoming Betty is a FANTASTIC place to get recipies for any taste bud.

Thanks to Kim for the info!

ALSO... Grandma Debbie.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE invite me to read your blog! :) You are such a faithful follower of mine I want to read yours too. :)

How am I attracted to such a short man? How is all 5 feet 11 inches of me finding you completely adorable?

Also you, yeah you with the dark curly hair and the deep brown eyes wearing the shirt and tie wandering around my office, you are more my type. God was in a good mood when he made you.

I am going on a hiatus from grocery shopping and eating out. Who thinks I can go till the 15th with ONLY the food from my cupboards and the generosity of strangers? No I will not go beg on the street but feel free to invite me over for dinner. :) If I am ever careful with my money I can have $500 earnest money ready for when I need it. Who knows when I shall need it. The market is crazy right now you know.

There is nothing like reading the Christmas addition of AVON that gets me more in the mood for Christmas. They have gifts for everyone. They have PLENTY of cute little Santa's that would look great at my front door. I look at all the bells and I can actually hear them ringing in my head. I know fall just got here and I am enjoying every second of it but Christmas is looming in the background.

GC was amazing, as always. I love that you can have a question on your mind and you WILL find the answer. The words will speak right to your heard and soul and you WILL be comforted. Sunday morning the sister missionaries invited us to go to the church and watch it with them. They are so sweet and my roommates and I love spending time with them. Sadly Sister Reed is getting transfered to Snowflake but we have already planned a trip up to visit her and check out the fall leaves. ANYWAY, back to conference at the church, it was fantastic. It is definatly a better experience than watching it at home. It was easier to pay attention and fun to sing with a congregation during the songs.

It was a great weekend of reflection and I realized that as someone told me a few months ago, I am not the same person I once was. At the time I didn't believe them. After this weekend I realized they were right. There were so many talks on service and I think thats where I fell off the band wagon. I need to be less selfish. I have become incredibly selfish and rarely ponder on the needs of others.

Also, the loss of a friendship has been a blessing for me. It turns out my greatest fear has become my greatest blessing. I realized I had let this friendship effect me too much. It effected my emotional and spritual well being. I will go far enough as to say that it was emotionally abusive and at times made me question my self worth. The time to move on has come and I feel free. I couldn't be happier. Thank you for this Tender Mercy.

We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord's tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to foritfy and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustives and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance. - David A Bednar, April 2005

I have Faith.

When you come to the edge of all the light you know and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on or you will learn to fly.

I came across this quote today and I just love it. This past weekend Roommate Julie was in town and we had a wonderful discussion on Faith. It's always strengthening to have conversations like that with your peers. Faith is such an important aspect of our lives. It is required as a daily companion. Without faith I don't think I could accomplish anything of good in this life. One can only KNOW so much before faith can step in. On can only believe for so long for belief is given up to faith.

I wanted to fall in love

Fruit. I like fruit. I don't know anything about some fruits. pears for example. The only pears I have ever eaten are the ones that fell of the tree in my grandma's backyard. Those were delicious, if you could find one that wasn't bruised or had too many worm holes. Last night as I was at the farmers market, I noticed there were multiple different kinds of pears. There are many different kinds of apples but I think apples are more common so we aren't scared of them. I decided to do a pear test. I want to know what pears I like and which kind are best. This would also give me different fruit eating options. So I bought 3 different kinds of pears. After doing my test this morning I decided....Drum roll please....... I DON'T LIKE PEARS! I could not fall in love with them as planned. Not fresh ones. My grandmothers dehydrated tango pears are a different story! Remember those orange things that tasted SO GREAT? If anyone knows how to make them please let me know! I will go out and buy a dehydrator right now and go to town on those pears.

My next interest, fava beans? what the heck is that thing? It looks like its from the set of Honey I blew up the kids and someone had a sugar snap pea in their pocket.

ALSO... at some point last night I got that feeling of excitement way need in your tummy that makes your heart flutter a little bit because its almost time to carve pumpkins! Another reason I love fall.

Learning lessons, one day at a time.

You may not know this but I have been on a hunt for a new bicycle. I want one REALLY bad. Most times when I want something REALLY bad I just go get it without considering all my options and thinking things all the way through. My truck for instance. What I really wanted was a chevy silverado. What I bought was a Tacoma. Now thats not to say that I don't love my tacoma, because I do. However each time I pass by a beautiful silverado there is a twing of sadness somewhere in my stomache that reminds me of my tendency to act too quickly.

So in this process of buying a bike I wanted to take my time. Think it through. Find out my options. Be responsible. I have done a great job so!! I thought about what I wanted a bike for. To ride around my neighborhood, to the gym, and on the biking trails at usery park. If I wouldn't have thought this all the way through I would have bought a cruiser and not even considered a mountain bike for the desert trails that I have always looked at with interest.

I decided how much I was willing to spend on a bike. I looked at different makes and models. I considered that fact that I am tall. I looked through store catalogs, through craigslist, asked questions to friends who know more about bikes than I. For the past week I have done my homework. I even went and bought a bike lock so that I would be 100% ready when that special moment came and I brought my bike home. Its like when you bring a baby home, you have to have a car seat and a nursery ready. My shiney new bike lock, that I could even program myself and it has a cool light so I can see the numbers in the dark. I was knowledgeable and ready, just needed wait for the right moment to purchase.... This portion of the story is to be continued.

Yesterday I had plans to go to the lake with Kear and Daryl Greer. We were pumped and had it all figured out. I was going to be gased up and ready for them at m7 house at 5. I got home from work, hooked up the Jet Ski and head off to the gas station. As I am stepping out a white truck with 2 boys pulls up and askes if they can ask me a question. Sure I said, So they tell me this story...

We are from Tucson and are just up here for the day working on installing home theatre systems. We don't sell them, just install them. We purchased the systems we need for the day and they gave us an extra one by accident. If our boss see's it he is just going to take it. We are going to meet him right now and would like to sell it before he see's it and then we are just going to split the money. We almost sold it to that guy right there for $400 but he was going to write us a check and we didn't trust that.

He then shows me the system in the back of his truck all wrapped up nice and neat. Brand new. I see the price on the side of the box... $3199.00. I tell him, listen buddy... I don't want this, I don't even really watch TV plus I don't have 3 grand. He said, I know you like toys, look at that one right there, pointing to the jet ski. I say EXACTLY! but I spend all my time at the lake so I don't really watch TV. I agree's with me and says he can understand that, give me $200 bucks and its yours. I would rather get that then have my boss take it. (THEN I REMEMBER... I have my bike money!!) Listen buddy, I have $120. Thats it. His friend looks disgusted at my offer but says, well better that than nothing. Merry Christmas, You owe us Beers if we ever see you out. I smirk because we all know I will NEVER have to pay up on that. :) So they put the system in my truck and leave, I fill up and head off to the lake with my friends. I think I KNOW that they were telling the truth because they didn't try to flirt with me to buy it. They just told me how it was straight up and that was it. We have all been approached to buy things on the street before and they try to flatter you into it, right?

It hit me this morning that the system WAS technically stolen since they didn't take it back to the store when they realized that they had an extra one. I can't feel bad about it though because in the moment when I was buying it that seriously didn't cross my mind. There is nothing I can do about it now. I would have no clue how to return it.

When I get to work I look up the brand of the system, ITS TOTALLY A SCAM. The brand is paramax. There are people around the entire country with the same story! haha. I just have to laugh. Here I was thinking I was doing SUCH a good job and doing my homework and making a rational decision and what do I do? Buy a home theatre system that I don't even need, from 2 punks on the street. WOW. The story is they do still work but make a funny noise? We shall see what happens when I hook it up.

OH NO!!! MY BIKE!!! I WON'T GET ONE NOW. :( :( The bike lock is very lonely now.

Rant and rave anyone?

Have you ever tried being a carefree single girl in corporate America? If you haven't, well let me just tell you how torrential it can be!! Here are all these people scrambling around trying to get ahead of everyone else. Trying to make more money to feed their kids, their animals and keep up with their neighbors. They want to move up, up, up or on to the next thing. Then there is me. I work here. I have my cube. I have my phone and I have my students. I love my job and I come in (on most days). I am not looking for that huge raise to pay for my kids tuition to private school. I am looking for a little extra cash to stow away for my next trip and guess what, I have that. I am happy, I provide for myself. I believe this would be called "Independent woman" That's me. independent woman. At this point in my life I don't want to move up to executive counselor and have the responsibilities that come along with it. Who cares if Joe next to me wants that, let him have it. Don't use him to compare to me and what you think I should be achieving. I am me. I have my goals. BIG DEAL IF THEY AREN'T MATCHING UP WITH YOURS. Just how do you tell that to a manager though. I am not looking for the next promotion, I am looking for the next trip to the lake. I am not looking for the next training, I am looking for the next camping trip. I am not looking for the next great online tool, I am looking for the next outdoors toy. I bet I would make a great beach bum. So I would assume there will be a time in my life when I am forced to get serious. To have the desire to advance my career and wear a pant suit to work each day, but today is not that day. Don't hassle me, I am a local.

Of course I want to be the best I can be.

15

Reasons I love fall

1. Orange
2. Scarves
3. Hot chocolate
4. Crisp air
5. Hiking season
6. Everyone feels like cuddling
7. Camping
8. Christmas is just around the corner
9. The smell of wood burning stoves in the air
10. You can eat soup and not feel like you are in a sauna
11. Cute hates/beanies
12. No more HOT DAYS.
13. Bath's are much more comforting in the fall
14. The scents of pumkin bread and spices.
15. Fall just makes me happy.

Fa Fa Fa FALL!

Okay, I am such a succor for fall. I went to wal mart on friday for a few lunch items for the upcoming week and before I know it my cart looks like an entire tree has shed its fall leaves into it. Even now as I sit at my desk, drinking my hot chocolate and thinking about those leaves, I feel happy inside.
It was such a fantastic weekend. Roommate Julie and I got to go to the lake on Friday and we had a BLAST. The multiple bruises on my body are there to prove it! haha. I now know what its like to FLY off a jetski, backwards. Saturday night Julie, Meagan, Tori and I got to attend the RS broadcast which was fantastic! Its so comforting to hear from such amazing women. I know that they care about all of us and pray for guidance in knowing how to direct us. The chapel that I watched it in looked EXACTLY like my stake center back home. I imagined that I was at home, on Main street in Eagar. I walked outside, saw the best western across the street, and drove up main, around the corner to school bus, took a left onto amity and I was HOME. I. LOVE. EAGAR.

Waiting for us back at my place was a house warm with friends. Roy was there cooking up a storm. Chilis, stuffed with cheese, wrapped in Bacon. Taco's. Homemade spanish rice. YUM. He is such a great cook. Zach and Kara come over along with old school Brendon and his GF Kristina. It was fun passing out gifts from Egypt and telling our stories.

Sunday night we had friends over again. Here are a few of my FAVORITE people in the Universe.

You are very familiar with Best Friend THE ZACH. Here is his GF KARA PALMER. She is a sweetheard and, cross your fingers, hopefully my new roommate!!

Here is the stud himself, Jakeb. Are you liking his beard? I think its groovy and sexy. Too bad his stake president doesn't agree and asked him to shave it. boo

Angie, Amy, Lindsey.

Roommate Tori! She is such a doll. I can't believe all the dedication she puts into her work. She is a teacher and ALWAYS brings work home with her and stays after to do things. Its amazing. Kudo's to The Tori.

Here is me and that dead guy.

I rocked my Galabeya. I LOVE It.

So here are my decorations! I love them. These leaves have fallen down 100 times! I am trying to figure out how to get them to stay. I am going to try tying them up with string. I think that will do the trick.

The kitchen counter.

Do you just LOVE this wreath? I know I do. 10 bucks at wal mart. I can't wait to see what Michael's has...

This is a nifty scarf I got in Egypt along with a cornacopia a friend made for me years ago. Our house is very festive and I can't wait to make it even more so. :) It makes it feel more like home.