We will miss you, Jason!

I can't decide what I think about Arizona. Some days I love it and some days I hate it. The weather has been beautiful here, 80s and literally not a cloud in the sky for weeks. Sounds perfect right? Well, I work in the east valley and live in Central Phoenix. I drive east every morning to work and west every evening home.
No clouds.
Bright sunny sun in my eyes For. The. ENTIRE. Drive.
Awesome.

Well, it's been a full two weeks since I started work. Things have been going well so far! I am slowly getting settled in and comfortable with my job tasks. I think I am really going to like it here! I'll definitely keep you posted =)

On a sad note, we said goodbye to my brother in law, Jason, earlier this week. =( He has been battling Leukemia for 3 years. I've known this day would come eventually but it doesn't make it any easier. I didn't know Jason all that well but the times we did spend together were always fun!  We will miss you Jason, Rest in Peace.

Kane sure did love Jason!

RIP Jason. We will miss you always.

Jason's memorial will be held Thanksgiving weekend. Jason really wanted to make it to Thanksgiving so it seems appropriate we should wait to have it then. Here is a link to his obituary. Sorry to leave you with such a sad story but our hearts are at peace that Jason is in a better place now, free from pain and suffering. We are happy! Happy he is in heaven with Jesus! Looking forward to seeing the family in November =).

xoxo,

Life as a Trophy Wife

As many of you know, since moving to Arizona, finding the right job has been difficult. So, I’ve spent most of my unemployed months lounging by the pool and eating bon bons….

 …..Bahahahah ok ok I can’t keep a straight face while saying that!

There have been NO bon bons.

Haha! All joking aside, there has been some lounging by the pool but mostly just boredom. After the house was unpacked and set up for the most part, I ran out of things to do. I mean even pinterest gets old after awhile, especially when you don’t have the money to do any of the projects I pinned. So what has this girl been doing to keep herself busy??

Well, I’ve done some cooking. I’ve never been that great of a cook in the past- mostly from lack of experience. So, I took this downtime to practice! I have mastered quite a few amazing recipes as well a few doozies.

Spiral Pasta Vegetable Salad

Summer Vegetable Crepes

Corn Chowder

Gazpacho

Asparagus Frittata

Mango Black Bean Quinoa

Roasted Vegetable Stacked Enchilada Casserole

All of the above I HIGHLY recommend. They were delicious! Let me know if you want the recipe for any of them.

I’ve also been trying to learn the manual setting on my new DSLR Nikon. I took an introduction to photography class to try and get a grasp on all the different manual settings. It’s overwhelming at first but I’m still learning how everything works together to create the best picture!

There are several blogs I’ve stumbled across that have photography tutorials and they’ve helped as well! Click the link below the picture to go to the blog.

Digital Photography School Blog

I heart faces blog

My next plan is to take a creative photography class. Thanks to a groupon, I have that already lined up as soon as I get the hang of the shutter speed, aperture and ISO!!

So that's pretty much been my summer! 

That's all about to change though. I am hanging up my trophy wife shoes because... 

I GOT A JOB! Yep! I have been waiting to tell you all and now I finally can! My first day is Monday. I will be working as the dietitian for a home tube feeding company and I am SUPER pumped! I love tube feeding so I know I am going to love this job. I'll have to keep you posted =)

xoxo,

What I learned about the desert...

Last week Hubby and I visited the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. I bought half priced admission Groupons for us with the intent of attending their flashlight garden tour. The flashlight tour sounded really cool because in the desert most of the wild life comes out at night! But, alas, story of our lives, we waited too long and they ended the flashlight tour. So, we decided to wake up early one morning and visit the garden before the heat got too unbearable!

We were pleasantly surprised, the garden was really interesting!

Who knew there were so many different types of cacti!?

Octopus Cactus

Old Man of the Andes Hairy Cactus

Organ Pipe Cactus

I don't remember the name of this one...but it's pretty!

The iconic cacti that we typically see in Western movies is called the Saguaro (pronounced Sah-whar-oh):

The Saguaros are the cacti with the thick stem and multiple arms. The cactus at the bottom of the picture is called a Prickly Pear. You can eat them!

 Saguaros are only found at a certain altitude in the Sonoran Desert, which happens to be mostly in Arizona!

This is what a dead Saguaro cactus looks like!

You may or may not be able to see in the pictures, but there are little holes in the cactus's body. They are made by Gila Woodpeckers! The birds peck holes in the bodies of the cacti and build nests inside the cacti to raise their young. The holes are well insulated from heat and cold. Pretty smart!

The garden even went as far as educating us on the first Native Americans that made the Sonoran Desert their home.

Oh! And you know how I've been commenting that there are no squirrels in the desert? I was wrong! There are two types of squirrels that live in the desert: Harris Antelope Squirrels and Round Tailed Ground Squirrels. I actually saw one at the botanical garden too!!! (Kane was super jealous when I told him about it...) I wasn't able to get a picture though, because they are amazingly fast. Here's one I found on the internet:

Harris Antelope Squirrel

They're kinda cute aren't they? Like a cross between a chipmunk and squirrel!

The botanical garden was totally worth the price of my half price admission ticket! I learned a lot. Now I can pretend to know what I am talking about when people debate me about desert trivia. Because that's totally going to happen. People debate about desert trivia all the time, ok?

Until next time,

(Your resident desert expert)

Go Take a Hike!

One of the many joys of living in Arizona is taking advantage of the beautiful mountains surrounding the valley! Recently the weather has been bearable enough to venture out and explore the countryside. And by bearable I mean, less than 100 degrees. Hubby and I attended a few Meetup groups that meet at 6 pm on Monday nights and hike Dreamy Draw Mountain. Meetups are great. They are a bunch of people who have similar interests that meet up together to do or discuss said interest. Check it out on Meetup.com! I am a member of a hiking meetup, a vegetarian meetup, and a young professionals meetup! But I have only ever met up with the hiking group so far. Hiking AZ mountains is FUN! And beautiful... Check it out:

Hubby and I have also ventured out on our own a few times and have taken the dog with us as well:

No, we didn't break the rules and go into the closed area. We were going to, but i chickened out...

View of Phoenix from a mountain top

There's Hubby and Kane! can you see that tiny speck in the picture? Yep! That's them!

Not only is hiking fun, but it's a work out too! Poor Kane had to take an entire recovery day after his morning hike! Even though Hubby was moved to second shift this week (boooooo) I still plan to meet up with the hikers on Monday night by myself. We still  have plenty of room if anyone wants to join us!! =) Next time you see me I'll probably have buns and thighs of steel from all this hiking. hahah or maybe not.

xoxo,

What you missed during my blog vacation...

So, I guess you’ve noticed. I took a little hiatus from blogging… all right, all right, a LONG hiatus! My apologies! I guess I just haven’t been in the mood to blog. Moving to Arizona hasn’t been the greatest thing for my cheerful mindset. We moved away from a lot of things (and people) I loved and adapting to Arizona life has been harder than expected. But none the less, Hubby and I have had a TON of fun, even if it is just the two of us!

Here’s a little of what you missed…

4^th of July

Kane still loves the pool!

We went to Vegas for my dad’s pool tournament

We visited the Hoover Dam

 We flew back to Atlanta for an amazing lake weekend with our awesome friends!

We flew BACK to Atlanta again for a wedding

 Kane turned 9 years old!

I went to my first major league baseball game (Go Diamondbacks!)

That's pretty much the highlights! But, I'm back to blog land! No more vacations like that again for a while- I promise! Fall is coming and hopefully we'll start to see some milder temperatures. I'm just hoping for less than 100 degrees! Until next time...

xoxo,