30 Things

As the tempuratures continue to rise, the days get increasingly longer, and weekends somehow seem even shorter, summer officially begins tomorrow!  I saw this on Mama Kat's blog as one of the Writer's Workshop prompts.  I definitely missed the Thursday due date, but I thought I'd do it anyway.

30 Things I vow to do this Summer:

1. Go to the pool on average once a week
2. Try at least 3 new recipes
3. Blog on average twice a week
4. Take more random photos to document our summer
5. Take at least one photo of Sam & I together every week
6. Send birthday gifts out on time (Gavin, Justin, Phaedra & my Mom)
7. Go through bathroom linen closet, and my closet.  Organize said closets
8. Read 6 books.  And don't feel bad if they're mostly "chick lit"
9. Read 2 non-fiction books
10. Find & volunteer for Disney's Give a Day Get a Day. 
11. Bake cookies or cupcakes for my husband once a month
12. Dust our ceiling fans.  It's pretty embarrassing how long it's been since this has been done.
13. Call at least one member of my family once a week to say hi, see how things are going
14. Have weekly date nights with my husband
15. Visit Phoenix Art Museum again
16. Begin the process of redecorating our bedroom
17. Tell my husband I love him every single day
18. Explore a different area of Phoenix at least once a month
19. Convince my bff that she must move down here.
20. Save up for & plan our October Disneyland trip
21. Keep my pedicure looking cute. 
22. Turn the computer off more often
23. Play wii with my husband more often
24. Cook more often
25. Try a new resataurant...or 3
26. Get together with other couples 3 times
27. Laugh a lot
28. Take notice of, and enjoy the small things
29. Frame & hang more photos
30. Get my hair done.  And not feel guilty for spending the money!

So there we have it... my 30 things for the summer.  I've officially got 94 days, as Fall doesn't begin until September 23rd.  I think it's doable! 

What are some things you vow to do this summer?

Vegas Recap

As promised... back to back posting by yours truly. Ha!

I just got back from my Vegas trip with Rachael. It was SO much fun! It was exactly what I've been needing. I got in Wednesday morning. Mom picked me up from the airport. We went to breakfast, and she took me to the store so I could get some booze to drink in our room (trying to keep the costs down yo!) Then we went to her apartment, and hung out there. Her friend, Missy, came over, and the 3 of us headed to the pool. We spent most of the afternoon by the pool, then Mom took me to check into the MGM. She hung out with me for awhile in the hotel room, and we talked a bit. It's a really difficult time for my family. My parents are going through a lot, and for the first time in 29 years, we're not sure if they'll be able to pull through this marriage in tact. I see both sides, and I see faults in both. It's hard.

Rachael got in Wednesday night at 11pm. She got to the hotel, and we just hung out there, enjoying our cheap cocktails while catching up.  We did venture out of our room to grab a bite to eat prior to passing out for the night. Or should I say morning?

Thursday, we hung out at the pool all day, then got cleaned up & headed down to Diego to partake in their happy hour. We enjoyed a delicious pitcher of sangria between the two of us, and had some yummy appetizers. We got the bright idea to go to the Wynn, as Rach hadn't seen it yet. We hopped on the monorail, but were pretty discouraged, when we were dropped off at Harrah's, the "closest" stop to the Wynn, which was definitely not close. So we walked to the Venetian, and had a cocktail there. One of Sam's friends that he used to work with was also in Vegas for the weekend, as well as a friend of a friend of Rachael's. So we decided to meet up with them, at their hotel. The freaking Stratosphere. Which is at what seems like the other end of the world. So we hop on the monorail again, only to be dropped off at Sahara. After grabbing another cocktail for the road (do you see a pattern here?) we trekked across the street to Stratosphere, plopped our butts in comfy lounge chairs for the next several hours, and had a fabulous time, filled with tons of laughter with Denise, Kim & Rach.

Friday, we headed to the pool once again. We didn't stay quite as long, as it got really crowded, and turned into a "meet market" type scene. Not quite our deal. So we headed back up to our room, and had our own happy hour before getting ready to go to Beatles Love. Which was ah-maze-ing. Seriously. SO awesome. I highly recommend it! We were pretty pooped after the sun, booze & Beatles, so we headed back to our room & crashed relatively early

Saturday, we were both pretty much done & ready to go home.  We checked out of the hotel, and went and grabbed some breakfast.  My Mom met up with us, and we enjoyed our breakfast together.  We wandered around for a little while, and decided to head to the airport early, as we had our sensory overload fill. 

So, that was our trip in a nutshell.  Like I said, it was SO much fun.  The perfect mixture of relaxation, drunkeness, laughs & most importantly much needed girl time.

Remember Me? It's been awhile...

Oops.  I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted on here.  Ay yi yi!  I don't really know where to start, so I'll just recap a couple of the bigger things that have happened in the last 5 weeks.  Since this has gotten incredibly long, I am going to break it into two posts.  Impressed?  You'll get back to back posts from me!  Woo hoo!  Might wanna mark it on the calendar.  It'll be less than 3 weeks between posts.  THAT doesn't happen often.


So first things first...


The in-laws were here visiting back in May.  If I ever feel the need to take an extended amount of time off while they're in town visiting, PLEASE direct me to this post.  It was exhausting. I do MUCH better with small little spurts of visiting.  I love them, I really do.  They are wonderful people, so very good to us.  They have treated me as if I were their own daughter from day one.  I really am blessed in that they love me (& of course their son) so very much.  I feel I need to preface what I'm going to say, because it's not the nicest. 

• They are so incredibly judgemental, I can't stand it.  No one is immune from the judgement.  Gays?  Without a doubt.  Mormons?  Oh yeah.  Emo dressed?  You betcha.  They compared everything to WA.  Everything. 
• According to them, WA is a horrible place. It's pretty much a crap place to live, there's nothing there, is ugly, there's really no redeeming quality.  I grew up in WA.  I still love it there.  It is not a horrible place.  It's far from ugly, it has a lot to offer people... So that kind of irked me.  Silly?  Yes.  But, it is what it is. 
• They have to be right.  At all times. And if they're not?  They'll find a way to be right.  This is mostly my MIL.  We went shopping together one day.  Sam & his Dad went to Guitar Center, so his mom & I headed to the mall.  We were wandering around Dillards shoe department, when she mentions to me that her friend was looking for a pair of basic black heels that only have a 2 inch heel.  I point out a pair to her, and she says that's a MUCH higher heel than 2 inches.  I said I didn't think so, I thought it was maybe 2 or 2 1/2 inches.  She goes up to the sales associate, and asks for a freaking TAPE MEASURE so that she could prove me wrong.  Seriously?! Who does that?! Oh, my MIL.  That's who.  I conveniently wandered off when I saw her approach the sales associate.  There was no way I could be near her and not lose my ish.  When I did find her again (giving ample time for the measuring of the freaking heel) She informed me that the heel on that shoe was actually 4 inches, and it just goes to show that they're higher than you think.  I replied telling her that I guess I must mostly wear 10 inch heels because majority of my shoes are all much higher than that.
• They are better than everyone. Or so they think.  Ugh.  Seriously, could you be any more condescending?  So irritating.

So, I decided to go by the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" motto.  For the most part, it worked.  There were a few times that I just couldn't keep my mouth shut.  But overall, it worked. I have to admit that I was a little relieved to hear that they drove Sam nuts as well.  He's an only child, and tends to be somewhat of a Mama's Boy.  So it was nice to know I wasn't alone in my frustrations.


So yeah.  That was the visit with my in-laws in a nutshell.  Please tell me I'm not the only one with in-laws that drive them batty. 

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Jennifer at Becoming A Mrs


The rules are simple:

1)  Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder


2) Select the 8th photo in that folder


3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.


4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same.

Left to right: Zack (younger brother), Mataya (his girlfriend) Sam, Me, Dad, Mom, Gavin (my nephew) Justin (older brother) Phaedra (sister-in-law/Justin's wife), Austin (nephew) Bill (youngest brother) Kym (Bill's fiancee)

Okay, this is kind of funny.  It's one of our family photos that we had taken last May.  The photographer told us to all make funny faces.  My dad was actually really disturbed by the thought of getting our photo taken with all of us making funny faces. 

Boy do I miss them all! 

I'm not going to tag anyone, as I know this is going around the blog world.  If you haven't already done it, let me know-I'd love to see your photo!

Vegas Baby!

Woo hoo!  I'm going to Vegas!!  I'm so incredibly excited!  Seriously.  It's a little ridiculous how excited I am!  Sam will not be going.  I'm flying in Wednesday 6/2 in the morning.  Mom is going to pick me up, we'll hang out all day, until Rachael flies in around 11pm that night.  We have no plans at all, other than laying by the pool and having some much needed girl time. 

I think it'll be good to see my Mom too.  I haven't seen her since our big family reunion last July.  There's definitely been a lot of distance between us, as I feel like she's made some pretty selfish choices, putting her friends before any of her family.  Growing up we were always taught that family comes first.  And she's definitely not been following that at all.  It makes me kind of sad.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to seeing her. 

I frequent a message board on The Nest, and there has been a lot of talk lately about a program called Bountiful Baskets.  I thought it sounded interesting, and looked like a great deal, so I decided to do it last weekend.  What it is, is they get the best/freshest produce at a really low price, and pass the savings on to you.  It's all run by volunteers.  Anyway, we got SO much stuff!  Here's just a few photos of our bounty. 

We got 1 package of blackberries, bananas, a bag of apples, pineapple, cantaloupe, tomatoes, spinach, swiss chard, green leaf lettuce, 2 bags of red potatoes, celery, and baby carrots.  I had also added on the tortilla pack.  I think we'll be set on tortillas for awhile!  We got 2 dozen HUGE flour tortillas (probably bigger than the ones they use at QDoba or Chipotle.  2 dozen soft taco sized flour tortillas, and 2 dozen corn tortillas.  And they're delicious!  Pretty darn close to homemade tasting.  For all that, we payed $28.50.  The fruits & veggies were $15, a $3 first time fee, and $10 for the tortillas.  We'll definitely be doing that again!  Such a great deal!

Last night we went to dinner with Monica & Shawn, and Michelle & Ty.  It was SO much fun.  I really don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time.  My cheeks hurt from laughing so much.  It was a good mix, and everyone got along great.  It was my first time meeting Ty, and I've only met Shawn a few times when he'd come see Monica at work. 

Sam's parents will be here in just under two weeks.  I think I'm equally excited & nervous.  I love my in-laws, really I do.  They are so good to us.  They love me like their own daughter, and have always welcomed me into their little family.  However, they can be a little exhausting.  Sam's mom is always making suggestions (I get it, she's trying to be helpful, but after awhile, they're rather irritating), and she's one of those people that can't handle quiet.  Every minute we're together has to be filled with conversation.  And if I don't have something to say, and I'm having an "off" day?  Then something is wrong, and she thinks I don't like them.  Nevermind the past 5 years, suddenly because I'm a little withdrawn it's because I don't like them.  Now, normally it's okay, because we would see them for little spurts of time... No more than one overnight trip.  But now?  They'll be here for nearly a week.  That's a lot of time for me to be "on".  And that's exhausting.  But, at the same time, I am looking forward to seeing them, spending time with them.  It'll be nice to have them around.  I'm excited to show them around, so they can see where our new life is.  And see how much we love it here.  I'm excited to have family visiting, as I've really been missing my family.  So, there you have the equally excited & nervousness.  Luckily, they will be staying at a hotel, and not with us, so I do have a slight reprieve.  Thank goodness!  I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to share after the visit.

Brain Dump

I have a whole lotta randomness floating around in my head (frightening, isn't it?), so I figured I'll just do a little brain dump, and not try to make any sense of it. :)  So here goes:

I only took 2 1/2 (who am I kidding--nearly 3) years, but I finally made a photo book for ourselves with our wedding photos.  I know, pretty bad, huh?  In our defense (really mine, because let's face it, Sam has nothing to do with it) I did make one for each of our parents as Christmas gifts back the year we were married, and we do have a few framed photos.  Just not a book showing the "story" if you will.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.. Here's the link.  I used MyPublisher to make it, taking advantage of an incredible special they had going on.  We paid only $20 for our book!  Yay for good deals!  I had used Picaboo for the ones I did for my parents.  I liked the layout & background options better with Picaboo, but the overall quality of MyPublisher is better (in my opinion). 

I'm once again struggling with being home-sick.  I feel like it should be easier by now.  It is, don't get me wrong, but I still have horrible bouts of missing my friends & my family.  It's the silly little things that totally get me too.  For instance, Phaedra posted a new photo of my nephew, Gavin, on Facebook, and I teared up.  He's growing up so much.  He's only five, but ay yi yi... he's gotten so big in the last 10 months.  Another little thing?  I went shoe shopping this weekend.  Shoe shopping is something Rachael & I would do often & she was definitely my partner in crime when it comes to shoes.  So I was really missing her even more than normal.  See, random little things that make me miss "home".   I think I just need to go back & visit for awhile.  Get my fix, and come back here. 

A few weeks ago, I surprised Sam with a birthday weekend in Scottsdale.  We stayed at the Firestky Resort & Spa for 2 nights.  It was so nice!  I totally fell in love with the resort.  Unfortunately, so did everyone else in the world (or so it seemed)  My grand plan for the Saturday we were there was to lay out at the pool all. day. long.  We got out there around 11, and there wasn't a pool chair or towel to be had.  So sad.  We kept checking back, and finally gave up around 2.  I was totally bummed.  Other than that, we had a great weekend.  Went to the Frank Lloyd Wright house (Taliesin West), and the Phoenix Art Museum.  Both were amazing.  We still had a great time together that weekend, just bummed that we weren't able to have the chill time at the pool.  Here's a few photos from the weekend:

Recently, my cousin found out that her biological dad passed away.  She didn't have a relationship with him, and struggled with whether or not she should go to the memorial.  She has formed a relationship with her aunt (his sister) in the last 10 years, but he chose to not be a part of that, and flat out refused to see her.  Anyway, it got me thinking about my bio dad again.  Part of me thinks maybe I should make another attempt to contact him.  But then the bitterness and resentment sets in again, and I wonder why is it up to ME to make an effort?  Why can't he?  I'm really trying to imagine how I would feel if I got the phone call saying that he passed away.  I think it would be sad that I never got to know him, or that he never got to know me.  But on the other hand, I have a dad.  I don't feel as though I'm missing anything.  I don't know.  It's all a lot to think about.  I just really have a hard time understanding how a parent could just walk away from their child.  I don't get it.  He CHOSE to not be a part of my life.  I guess I just need to remember that.  He made the choice.  And apparently, he continues to make that same choice.  Even though I have given him an opportunity to contact me.  Can you tell I'm really torn on the whole sitch?  Blar.

Well, I think that's all I've got.  For now.  It's late & I'm heading to beddy bye!

Goodnight!

I Gots Da Fever

Baby fever, that is.

Seriously.  It's a little ridiculous.  I really wish that we could start TTC now.  Alas, all our ducks are not in a row.  Almost.  There's just a couple more things that we want to take care of before we start.  Like moving into a bigger place.  Sam & I have decided that when our lease is up in June, we'll be looking for a house.  To rent.  Unfortunately, we're not able to buy at this point, so we'll be looking for a rental.  And then?  Then I do believe that most everything else will be in alignment (or close to) and we can start trying to have our own little family.  How bad is it that part of me wants to pick up things here and there, for when the time comes.  Sad, huh?  Blar.  Not too much longer.  Of course, that's provided that we actually have no issues TTC. 

Tomorrow is Sam's birthday.  It'll be a pretty low key birthday.  We're going to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants.  Will is in town again, so he's going to join us.  Then, of course, next weekend is the birthday get-a-way weekend.  I can't wait!