Yes+

December 30, 2012

Back in February 2012 is when Andy and I decided to pull the goalie and see what happens.  We decided "not to try" but to "not prevent" either.  Basically, whatever happens, happens.  I felt that if we were suppose to have a kid, then we would and Andy agreed.  It took quite a few months for my body to get back to normal and then in December was the first time I felt weird and that maybe I could be pregnant.

Buying the Stick
In mid-December I wasn't feeling very good and had symptoms of being pregnant so at 10pm Andy and I went to Walgreen's and I went in to buy a two pack of pregnancy tests.  It was my first time ever doing this and I was a little uncomfortable.  I kind of felt like I was a teenager buying condoms...it was really weird.  Then it didn't help that I was in the most ghetto Walgreen's where I had to press a button for service because the tests are on lock down.  As soon as I hit the button the following came over the loud speaker "customer assistance in family planning, customer assistance in family planning."  Now, if I wasn't already uncomfortable enough, this just made it worse.  I know I was being a baby, but it was really weird.  Well, needless to say in the morning I peed on the stick and three minutes later it told me I was not pregnant.  Ok, not a big deal.  I was neither sad nor happy, just kind of like "whatever".  

Two Weeks Later
So two weeks go by and I did not get my period.  It is now December 26th and the day came and went with no aunt flo in sight.  I wasn't worried, but my mind automatically went to "I'm pregnant" because since February I was NEVER late.  The latest aunt flo ever arrived was the 26th of the month so when that day passed I knew right away.  Plus I was a little nauseous the past week and I wasn't sure if it was IBS issues or not.  I decided to give it a few more days before I peed on the second stick that came in the two pack.  On the morning of December 30th I peed on the stick, put the lid on it, wiped it off and set it on the counter.  I didn't even get the toilet flushed this time before the YES+ appeared on the stick.

Yes, it's the big YES+ sign on the stick.  Whoa!  The box said three minutes and the first time I did this it took three minutes, so where is the rest of my time to sit and think about this?  There was no thinking this time.  The stick didn't event let me flush the toilet...crazy!  I must really be pregnant!  I went back to bed and laid down for a few minutes before I rolled over and said to Andy "Good morning, I'm pregnant."  His response was "Seriously?  Are you messing with me?  Now way!  Really?  Congratulations sweetie."  Then he gave me a kiss.  That was sweet.

My mother-in-law was in the next room so we were being quiet.  Since we couldn't talk about it most of the day I had a lot on my mind. I had so many emotions going through me that I didn't even know what to do.  I was excited, scared, nervous, freaking out and ecstatic.  Will I be a good mom?  Are we ready for this?  Am I sure this is what we really want to do?  Will the baby be healthy?  How will the animals take the baby?  How will I handle labor? Oh my, so many questions and only 9 months to figure this out.

After all that we decided to keep it to ourselves even though his mother was in the next room.  We decided not to say anything until after I see my doctor and even then, we decided to keep it quiet until the three month mark.

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a fabulous (and safe) New Year's.  We stayed in Arizona for the second year in a row.  I did miss a WI Christmas, but overall Andy and I had a nice Christmas together...just the two of us.

The Nutcracker
The weekend before Christmas, Andy took me to see the Nutcracker in downtown Phoenix.  I have always enjoyed this show at this time of year.  It takes me back to my childhood.  Back to the first time I saw the Nutcracker when I was about 10 years old and my grandpa took me.  I enjoyed the experience and as a little girl it meant a lot to me that my grandpa took me to see the Nutcracker and only me...not my sister.  Since then I have enjoyed going in December and try to go every year.  It was a great holiday date night with the hubby.

Christmas Eve
After many last minute trips to the store Christmas Eve arrived.  We spent the day cleaning the house and making appetizers to have our friends (Mike and AJ) over.  They brought their puppy Cooper and this provided our dogs with entertainment.  Cooper tired out our dogs by 10pm, but he wouldn't let them lay down.  He wasn't done playing.  The three friends played until 3:30am.  This allowed for our dogs to sleep for the next two days straight.  It. Was. Awesome!  After that, I have decided we need to do more doggy play dates with Cooper.  After stuffing our faces with many yummy appetizers we played board games and watched movies. 

Christmas Day
After our friends left we opened our many presents that we received from family back in WI.  Again, we were shocked at how many gifts arrived at our house.  We were overwhelmed, again, at how many gifts were sent to us.  We spent about an hour opening everything.  I wish I took a pic of all the gifts under the tree for only two people, but I didn't.  I am horrible at picture taking.  I think that will be one of my New Years resolutions for 2013.  After presents we headed to the movie theater to see This is 40.  I thought it would be a very funny movie, but it was only mediocre.  Not as funny as I thought...it is a renter!  After the movies we made our own ham dinner at home and enjoyed the peace and quiet in our house while the doggies snored on the couch.

Overall it was a good holiday for us.  We spent a lot of time together and spent most of this month with our good friends.  I did not get all my cookie baking done this year.  I only made peanut butter balls and I did not make the Dove blossoms that I love so much.  I purchased all of the items needed to make the cookies, but just never quite got them done.  I also got my holiday cards out late.  Epic fail!  According to Shutterfly people will be receiving our cards between December 29th and January 4th.  Another oops on my end.  I was a little disappointed in myself for being so late, but time crept up on me and before I knew it, it was the end of December.  Enjoy our holiday cards when they finally do arrive.  One other thing I wanted to do this December, but did not get to: Zoo Lights.  I have been wanting to do Zoo Lights since we moved here, but again, time got away from me and now I will have to wait until next December to do Zoo Lights.

Fa La La La La

Last weekend was my firm's holiday party.  It was a great time had by all...enough said.

Andy and I in the photo booth at the beginning of the festivities.

Another Weekend Away

Following guests in town and plenty of crazy busy around our house I took off to Palm Springs with the girls for our second annual shopping trip.  This is our second year doing this and we decided it definitely must be an annual trip.  This year it was a little later than last year which made holiday shopping so much better.  It was a lot easier to get in the mood for holiday shopping and to actually shop.  The other thing that was different is we were down two girls.  Jessica had the flu and AJ had to stay home and be a responsible adult while she chose studying for her MBA over shopping with the girls.  That left Amber, Kim and myself all weekend.  I am not going to lie, I did do some damage at the mall in Palm Springs. 

A picture of the damage three girls can do at a high end outlet mall in Palm Springs.

Besides shopping we went out for a nice dinner at Roy's and then to see the Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 movie.   Such a girlie day and I loved it, especially since Andy would never do shopping like that with me and he would never, ever go see a movie like that with me.

While I was away I asked Andy to hang the outside Christmas lights and help me finish a project that I was in the middle of, but just ran out of time due to the craziness lately.  He is such a good husband as he completed both tasks.  I was a little unsure if he would help me with my project because he is not into arts & crafts at all, but he must have been super bored without me around that he did do it and he did a great job.  I got this idea from Pinterest of course.  I already decorated the entire house the weekend prior and purchased the letters J and Y for the wall.  I needed them spray painted gold, and then a layer of gold glitter over that and then hung on the wall on each side of the wreath.  Now you see why I was unsure if Andy would participate.  He is such a good sport and he did a GREAT job! 

The finished product behind the couch.

Up close of the final product.  I am very happy how everything turned out.

Well, that concludes my traveling adventures for 2012.  I will not be traveling for the rest of this year, thank goodness because I am all traveled out.  I had a great time this past weekend with some amazing girlfriends.

Jaimi's Top Ten

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family.  We miss those that live far away and will be thinking of you today.  We are spending this holiday with our Arizona family and my father-in-law and step mother-in-law as they are in town.  We are going to make grandma's buns and cranberry sauce (not the canned crap) to share at the Siefert's Thanksgiving.

As you may have been seeing on Facebook and blogs, people have been posting their daily thanks.  I decided to do the top ten things I am thankful for today instead of all month long.  Enjoy!

Top Ten Things I am Thankful For

10. I live in a state where we don't have natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes.  We have dust storms which are a lot of fun to watch from the back yard and they are relatively harmless.

9. Being able to say I have no regrets in life!

8. Living in a state where the sun is out on average 350 days a year.

7. My career, which I love, as not many people can say that about what they do all day long.

6. Modern technology, because without it my life would be so much more stressful trying to stay in contact with everyone I care about.

5. My fur babies who love us no matter what and who I can't live without.

4. Being able to afford the basic necessities like food, water, shelter and pedicures!

3. Friends who live all over the place, but no matter near or far we stay in touch and stay close.

2. My family.

1. A wonderful husband who is the love of my life and my best friend.  A husband who likes to cook and will do the vacuuming because he knows how much his wife hates to vacuum. 

Baby Extravaganza!

The month of November is the baby extravaganza month for me.  I just went to three baby showers in the past 7 days, one of which I co-hosted.  I feel like the last 19 days has completely revolved around babies.  Besides showers, I have found out I have another friend who is expecting a baby.  Whew...can you feel the baby craze here?  I feel like the universe is trying to tell me something. (No commentary from the peanut gallery, please!) 

I have definitely spent my fair share of time in Buy Buy Baby this month that you would think I know the store in and out now, but I don't.  It's still a very foreign store and a very scary store.  There are so many items in there that I have no idea what they are.  I stuck with the clothes section as that is easy to pick out and actually fun too!  I couldn't stop myself from buying so many clothes that I figured if Andy and I were to have a baby we would be in financial trouble!  :) 

I am so excited for all the mommies-to-be and can't wait to meet all the new babies in 2013!

Good Times in Seaside

I didn't think traveling to Wisconsin or Vegas was enough so I hopped on a plane with my friend Jessica and headed up to Seaside Oregon to throw a baby shower for our good friend Pam.  We arrived in Portland last week on Thursday night and were greeted by Pam and Garrett who so generously picked us up from the airport.  The good times started immediately with chit chat and laughter in the two hour car ride to the coast.  That laughter did not stop all week as it went on so much that my stomach hurt from laughing so much.

Weather
The last time I was in Oregon was in August of 2010 for their wedding and it was beautiful weather, this time I wouldn't say the weather was beautiful...instead I would call it "brisk."  Once Jessica and I arrived at our hotel/cabin room it was freezing so we cranked up the heat and went to bed.  We rose on Friday morning to a sauna in our room.  It was so hot that I opened the door to cool off the place and two hours later when Pam came to get us the room still wasn't cool...hmmm...we didn't do that again!  I am not going to lie...it was cold in Oregon!  It was a high of about 45/50 degrees and would get down to 38 degrees at night.  I was freezing...I froze my butt off.  You would think this WI girl could handle it, but I couldn't.  I was a wimp.  The next time I head to Seaside it will be in August when I know it will be beautiful there.

Our source of heat for the weekend.

Tilly and I snuggling on the couch at Pam's house in front of the fireplace on Friday night.

It also rained on Sunday, the day we were scheduled to head home.  While I was in the shower Jessica decided to take a walk with her leopard print umbrella.  She was already warned by Garrett and Pam that she will stand out like a sore thumb as the locals do not use umbrellas.  This did not stop Jessica as she went for her strole in the rain carrying her large leopard print sign that screamed she was not from around there.  She did get asked twice if she needed anything and one driver actually stopped her to ask if she needed a ride and ended her sentence with "hun."  Now, that is funny.  Yes, I am sure the umbrella made her stand out like a sore thumb, but I am sure the leopard print didn't help her cause either.   Anyway, it was a good story that provided one of many giggles that weekend.

Shopping
One thing I love about the coast of Oregon is all the tiny towns and shops.  Pam took us shopping in Cannon Beach all day Friday.  Cannon Beach is one of the locations where the movie Goonies was filmed and as you blog followers know, that is an awesome movie and makes me geek-out when I am in the vicinity of where the Goonies was filmed.  This was no different!  Besides enjoying the beauty of Cannon Beach I purchased some souvenirs for the girls (Madison and Izzy) and a couple small items for myself. 

Baby Shower
The weekend before the baby shower I got crafty and made artwork that I ironed onto onesies for the travel themed baby shower.

My craftiness with the iron, onesie and artwork!

The 6 onesies for the baby shower!

The baby shower was held at Pam's parents house and was a couple's shower so we limited our baby playing games due to the couples shower theme (or my anti-baby shower game attitude).  I asked their friends to write down tips for traveling with kids and then they had to guess who said what.  This turned out to be a lot of fun.  Following that it was present time.

Pam and Garret opening gifts.

Happy couple!

Then we participated in Jessica's activity of painting PARKS letters for the baby's room.  That was very creative and a lot of fun.  The men did not have to participate as they could go in the other room and watch football.  Following that we ate some more and socialized before we were all exhausted from the weekend and were ready to pass out.

The ladies all tired out posing in front of my crafty onesies that were strung up!

To top off the trip we stopped at Voo Doo Doughnuts in Portland on Sunday before going to the airport.  This doughnut shop is apparently the place to go whenever in Portland.  I am not much of a doughnut fan, but I have heard so much about this place that I just had to go.  Jessica was not on board, but she was a trooper as Garrett drove us there since I was so excited to go.  We all had our doughnuts and then Jessica and I headed home. 

I love Seaside for the simplicity of things and how everything is much more laid back and done at a slower pace.  It's a great place to visit and I can't wait to visit again...in August that is!  I am very thankful for the great group of girlfriends that I do have and extremely thankful for the means to be able to travel and put on a baby shower for such an awesome friend!!

October Overview

Holy crap, I realized that I did not do one blog post in the month of October and that is because we were pretty busy.  I have decided to give you the cliff notes version of the month of October to get you up to speed and you will see why I was too busy to post.

Bought a New Car
So, I said goodbye to the Audi A4 and hello to a 2013 Honda Accord V6.  Some might say that is a step down, or "what were you thinking", but I am extremely happy with my purchase.  It's a beautiful car with a hell of a lot less (aka cheaper) maintenance than the Audi.  I was originally looking at the 2013 A4, but my practical side took over and I purchased the Accord, but of course it is loaded with everything I could possibly get in it.  Hey, my practical side stepped in, but my high maintenance side wouldn't settle for anything but the best.

Get Together with Friends
Our good friends purchased a beautiful new home (aka mansion) and had a "housewarming" party, but didn't call it a housewarming party as that is too cliche.  That was a ton of fun to get together with our amazing friends for some shits and giggles.  They even had this beer pong themed cake for the housewarming/birthday/get together celebration.  How creative is this?

What a fun cake!

Went to Wisconsin
Oh boy!  We took off to Wisconsin for a week, or at least I did while Andy went for a long weekend.  Of course the weather sucked as it was rainy and cold for 5 out of the 7 days.  On my long flight I started to think about moving back to be closer to family, but once I stepped off the plane and my face hit the freezing cold those crazy thoughts were completely destroyed.  I can't live in that climate of freezing (ok, freezing to me) cold with rain and doom and gloom.  While there it was crazy go-go-go.  It was good to see so many family and friends (even though I was exhausted from the go-go-go) and always a great time at the WI Badger football game.

Me, Bobbi and Kelli tailgating at The Stadium Bar.

Andy and I at the end of the daily festivities.

Got Sick
The crazy go-go-go caused me to get sick and I returned to the beautiful state of AZ with a wonderful WI parting gift of a chest cold.  You know, one of those that hurt to cough.  Good thing the dry AZ climate dried up my cough just in time to head to Vegas.

Went to Vegas
As my previous post discussed we went to Vegas for our friends 40th birthday celebration and to see Jimmy Buffet.  Yes, I got home on a Monday from WI with a hell of a cold, got healthy in time to fly out that Friday for good times in Vegas.  I am such a trooper!

Doggy Daycare
Per my previous post, our dogs tried out a new daycare (because they had to and not by choice)  while we were in WI and used the old daycare while we were in Vegas.  They were very well behaved dogs at both daycare places.  We now have a new daycare place close to home that we are able to take them to.  The new place said Madison was quite shy at first and didn't want to have anything to do with the workers, but once she warmed up she was very playful with them in the back yard. I am glad we now have daycare choices and even though Madison can be a pain in the butt sometimes, overall she is a great dog!

We are now in the month of November.  Where does the time go?  I am hoping to be better about posting this month, but we do have a lot going on this month too, so don't judge when I don't do at least a weekly post.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween (yesterday) to all my friends and family.  I just love Halloween.  It is so much fun to dress up and go out to see how creative others have gotten with their costumes.  Unfortunately, we did not dress up this year.  My wonderful husband did surprise me on Halloween morning with a fun card and bag of goodies.  He is so sweet!

Why did we not dress up...you ask?  Well, instead of being festive this year we went to Vegas to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. 

A nice little representation of the hubby and I on our way to a fun filled time in Vegas.

While in Vegas for a quick weekend we went to the Jimmy Buffet concert to celebrate said friends birthday.  This was a great time had by all.  Here is a horrible pic of us at the concert.

I tried to take a pic of Jimmy, but that did not turn out very well.  Besides the concert, we also shared a couple cabana's with the rest of the birthday crowd.  That was fun just hanging pool side with some of our good friends.  We also went to the piano bar the night before the concert and then on to a mini-club in the Cosmopolitan hotel.  This is one of my favorite places to go because it's not so "clubby" but it is still a ton of fun.

Us at the piano bar in New York, New York.

The most eventful part of the Vegas trip was our travels.  We flew Allegiant Air, which we have never done before.  Let me tell you, this airline brings out Mesa's finest...basically we flew back with the extended family of Honey Boo Boo...you get my point.  Quite interesting.  Normally I might find this entertaining, but this weekend I just did not.  I was exhausted, especially since we had just gotten back from Wisconsin and now we are on another plane.  I am getting too old for all of these travels. 

Doggie Problems

A couple weeks ago we booked the dogs into our regular doggie daycare for our upcoming trip to Wisconsin.  Three days after the appointment was booked the daycare called us to inform us they cannot take the girls because Madison does not do well when they have a full house of 50 dogs.  What?!?!  We were confused because this is the first time we have heard that in the four years we have been taking them there.  Andy returned their call the next day and they explained that the time frame we booked the dogs is when they are really busy with 50 - 60 dogs and Madison does not do well when they have more than 40 dogs at the daycare.  Apparently she gets really shy and uncomfortable, won't go outside and then won't come back inside.  I guess when they have 50 - 60 dogs they don't have time to deal with a high maintenance dog such as Madison.  They tend to have this many dogs at the daycare on all holidays, so now Madison is banned from that place on all holidays.  GREAT!  At first I was super annoyed that yet again, Madison is a problem.  Once I got over it I realized that this is probably a good thing because we have needed to find a backup daycare place anyway in case they were full at a time when we need to go out of town.  Also, it would be nice to find a backup closer to our house because the other place is a 45 - 50 minute drive from our house...kind of annoying.

Andy and I both hit the Internet to find out all of our options close to our house. Once we reviewed all the websites Andy narrowed it down to two that he liked while I only liked one option.  The next thing was to do a site visit.  I called and told the place how I liked what I saw on their website, but asked if I could come in for a tour to make sure I liked it in person and felt comfortable leaving our dogs there.  Of course they said yes.  Last Saturday Andy and I went on a site visit to see if this place close to our house would do for our upcoming WI trip and for our backup when the other place has too many dogs for poor shy Madison.  We got a tour and both Andy and I really like the place and would feel good about our babies staying there.

As I was driving home I asked myself "Did we really just do that?  Did we really just go do a site visit for doggie daycare?"  Yes, we did and I am definitely proud of it.  Our doggies are spoiled, but they do deserve nothing but the best.

First Day of Fall

Last Saturday was the first day of Fall and to be honest the only reason why I knew that is because of social media.  Anytime I seemed to log into any account people posted about the official day of Fall coming up.  I also kept seeing fall-like foods all over Pinterest for the exciting day.  Ok, this got a little depressing as the weather man was saying it was going to be 106 degrees here on the first day of Fall.  Yuck!  This high temperature made it difficult to look at all the Fall weather posts on Facebook and Pinterest.  Instead of getting bummed about this I decided to join in and make a Fall food to help speed up the cooler weather here.  I wasn't about to make a soup or warm drink, but instead I  made some apple spice doughnuts from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  I got up early (aka 7:30am) on Saturday morning to start the doughnut process.  It actually was much easier than I thought.

Andy said these were not doughnuts because they were not completely round, but instead in the shape of a mini muffin since I did bake the dough balls in a mini muffin tin.  Oh well, doughnuts or muffins I made the very yummy apple spiced breakfast pastry.  I served them with scrambled eggs and turkey sausage.  Now, I want to make a pumpkin spiced muffin that I found on Pinterest.  Maybe that too will help get me into the Fall mood.

Last weekend we also went out for dinner at Roy's.  Very YUMMY seafood.  It was so good that I couldn't believe we never ate there before.  Anyway, we went to celebrate my promotion at work. I was promoted from the Marketing Manager to the Director of Marketing.  I am pretty excited about it as it's something I have worked towards for a while.  Cheers to me!

Coyote Problems

I have recently found out there are coyotes on my mountain.  I am now very scared to workout on the mountain like I normally do.  It has finally cooled off enough that I could have gotten up early last weekend to run around the mountain, but my fear of coyotes kept me from doing that.  This weekend is no different. I am not ready to face a coyote again, so I don't think I am ready to get back on the mountain this weekend.

Background
This past June when I was running around the mountain I encountered a coyote not that far from me.  I started to panic and freak out internally.  I did my best to keep my cool as I did not know what to do.  Do coyotes attack people?  Should I be afraid of this coyote?  Is it really not that big of a deal?  I really had no idea, so at first I hid behind a large boulder.  Realizing that would not protect me I took off running in the opposite direction and took the long way back down the mountain heading towards home.  Once I got home I filled Andy in on my adventure on the mountain and asked him how a coyote could be on Look Out Mountain which is surrounded by homes.  Of course he laughed at me and said it was probably just a dog that got away from its owner.  I swear I did not see a dog.  He proceeded to laugh at me and so I just let it go.  That was the last time I was able to workout on the mountain.

Up to Date
Andy read an article recently in the news about coyotes in our area for the past few months eating people's pets.  What?  He mistakenly shared this information with me, so I initially started to panic and then I remembered my coyote from back in June.  I started to play the "I told you so" game.  Yup, full force I am singing that song loud and proud.  Andy was not amused, but then again, neither was I.  I started to research coyotes on Look Out Mountain and found it is very common to see a coyote on that mountain even though it is surrounded by homes.  I have just been very lucky to only see the one in the past five years.  I learned that it is more common to spot a coyote at dusk and at dawn.  Well, that just heightened my coyote fear by a ton!  I also learned that they do not attack people unless they are crazy (aka have rabies).  I read up on what to do if I ever see a coyote and apparently my behavior back in June was everything you should NOT do if you see a coyote.  Well, glad I survived that one.

Even though I am now more knowledgeable of coyotes and what to do if I ever do see one, I am still not ready for that 6am run this weekend.  Maybe next weekend I will get back at it...once I become fearless...sort of!

When It Rains It Pours

Seriously, we go from doing absolutely nothing to everything all rolled into one weekend.  Of course life works that way though.  We were so busy last weekend that Andy actually said "when it rains it pours."

Friday
On Friday night I got to use the gift Andy gave to me back on our first wedding anniversary.  It was two tickets to see Jim Breuer at Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix.  I must say, this was a GREAT time.  We got downtown early to have dinner, but since we couldn't decide on a place we just ate at the club.  That was a good thing because we ended up sitting right next to the stage since we got there so early.  Andy purchased tickets to the 7:30 show and when we arrived I noticed there was a 9:45 show, so I asked Andy why he bought us the early tickets with the older people.  He didn't think I would be awake for the 9:45 show.  Plus, we are now part of the "older" people crowd.  When we left the club I thanked Andy for purchasing the 7:30 tickets because this old girl was tired and ready to go home. 

Jim Breuer is absolutely hysterical. When it was over I was kind of bummed that it took us 7 years of living in Phoenix to get to a comedy show.  I used to go to the Comedy Club in Madison and I don't know why we never went here.  Well, from now on I would like to add attending a comedy show to our list of things to do on a boring weekend.

Saturday
On this lovely evening we ventured down to south Chandler (AKA Mexico because it is so far from our house) to visit our friends Mike and AJ.  AJ had her family in town and asked us to join them for dinner to meet her family from South Carolina.  It was a good time and her family is so sweet.  I look forward to seeing them again at their wedding next summer. It ended up being a late night where I lost to a game of cornhole to AJ's brother and I had to drive us home since I didn't drink much. Two nights down and one to go.

Sunday
Normally I don't do much on Sunday evenings because I am a believer in getting a good night sleep on Sunday to start the week off right.  This time was a little different.  While Andy watched football with Tom in the backyard I ended up with my girlfriends for dinner and to see the play Les Miserables.  It was definitely not one of my favorite plays and it was probably at the bottom of my list as far as plays that I have liked.  Minus the fact that we arrived late and I almost tumbled down the rows of seats; in pitch black; in my 5 inch wedge shoes, it was more depressing that I like to see.  Hence the name Les Miserables...yes, I know the name kind of gives it away that it's not going to be upbeat and happy, but I mainly signed up for the evening to spend the time with some great ladies.  It's always the best time to get together with girlfriends to catch up and laugh.  I look forward to this time with my girlfriends every time we do plan a get together because I always have the best time and they are such a wonderful group of ladies.  Yes, you are ladies!  It was a late Sunday for me by the time I got home and got to bed, but I have survived the week so far.

Now, that it has poured at our house I don't foresee any rain in our future until mid October.

Missing Wisconsin

Every year in September I start missing Wisconsin.  It never fails that every Labor Day weekend I start to think about all the positive things WI has to offer and wonder if we could ever move back.  I think about the good times Andy and I had together in WI, our families, the simple small town I grew up in and the beautiful fall weather.  I get antsy in AZ during the months of September and October while I miss my home state.  I think this happens every year because I am sick of the heat right about now and it's hard to think of fall when it's still 100 degrees out.  It's hard to watch the Badger football games when I am sweating my butt off.  It's also hard to watch the games when they show the sights and sounds of Madison and I see everyone's posts on Facebook about how much fun they are having in the beautiful fall weather.  I also see a lot of Pinterest posts about fall food and that is hard because in no way am I excited for hot cocoa and hot cider since I live in an oven right about now.  Agh!

This mood I am in happens every single year at this time and I don't get out of my funk until November when it cools off and we had our annual fall trip home for a good game and cool weather.  This is the time of year that someone could talk me into moving back if they really wanted to...maybe!  I am just going to sit back and wait for our trip to WI in October to be able to enjoy in the fall weather (my favorite time in WI) and get over this funk.

Wedding Dresses & Football

Last weekend I was able to go wedding dress shopping with my friend, AJ.  She is marrying Mike next summer here in Arizona and I offered to go with her.  We started at the same boutique that I purchased my dress at.  It definitely brought back wedding memories when I walked through the doors.  It was different this time around as I found it to be a lot more fun.  This time I was not the bride and I was not stressed out.  This time I got to look through all the dresses and pull dresses I wanted to see AJ in.  It was so much fun playing dress up.  I even got to know her girlfriend a lot better as we sat together on the couch waiting for AJ to try on the million dresses we pulled for her.  I must say it's a ton more fun to be the person helping pull dresses than the actual bride trying on the dresses.  On Saturday AJ found a dress she really liked; however, she started to stress out pretty bad so I knew we had to stop for the day and come back on a different day.  I met AJ back at the same boutique on Sunday after she spent the night looking through dresses online and got a better idea of what she liked.  We then pulled a bunch of new dresses based on what she found online.  I think the bride had a better experience, but did not end up buying her dress.  I think the stress of committing to the dress got to her.  I can relate as I remember the stress I went through when it came to deciding the perfect wedding dress for me.  We left the boutique empty handed, but we have a couple more appointments lined up at different shops in a couple weekends.  I can't wait to have more fun dress shopping with AJ!

While I was out dress shopping on Sunday, football entered our home.  Yes, on Sunday Tom came over so him and Andy could strategize for their fantasy football leagues.  Ahhhh...it's that time of year!  Ahhhh...the year that I find completely annoying!  The time of year when Andy is completely oblivious to anything around him if it does not involve football.  Ahhhh! 

Andy and Tom in the kitchen strategizing!

Day Drinking

This pretty much sums up our last weekend.

Getting full use out of our amazing margarita machine.

Enjoying margaritas by the pool.

Andy enjoying his beer in the pool.

 I am not much of a day drinker, but something got into me on Saturday that I felt the need to get a little crazy with the margarita machine.  This craziness led to a rough Saturday night and therefore reminded me of why I am not much of a day drinker.  Between the heat and alcohol it always hits me like a freight train and I ended up living through a rough hang over at 8pm.  I had a ton of fun with Andy on Saturday; however, it was a friendly reminder of why I don't care to day drink when it is 110 degrees outside as it's a bit rough on the body.

Another Haboob

Last weekend was the first weekend in quite some time where we had nothing planned and nothing to do.  It was fabulous!  There was no reason to get up early, no reason to even take a shower if we didn't want to.  Of course we did though!  Basically, you get the point.  We were back to our usual Friday night of drinking wine and watching our Netflix of the week.  Sometimes this could get old, but last weekend we really needed it.  Besides all the relaxing and being lazy we were able to watch another haboob roll into town.  These are seriously pretty cool from our back yard.  This one wasn't as crazy as they usually are, but I will still share the photo I did take since it was the only exciting thing that happened last weekend.

Gotta love the haboob!

Slightly Annoying

I received the following picture text from Andy as I was at the nail salon paying for the services I received.

You can imagine how UNHAPPY I was to receive that picture.  I initially thought it had to be a joke.  Who would break their wedding band?  Plus, how could that have happened?  Seriously, I was not thrilled with this joke.  Good think the nail salon is a short 3 minutes from the house so I could get home quickly and find out what was going on. 

I got home to find out it was not a joke.  The day before Andy's ring went flying onto the tile floor and when he picked it up there was a chip in it.  He figured he would take it to the jeweler to fix it when he had time.  Apparently the next day it just "shattered."  Weird!  I didn't know Tungston rings could do that.  We bought this particular metal because it is supposed to be very strong.  He was afraid of my reaction so while I was at the nail salon with Laura he drove down to the jeweler, all the way in Chandler, to have it fixed.  Good thing it is under warranty and they had to order him a new ring.  He drove all the way back home by the time I got home from the nail salon.  I am happy that he was proactive and got right on it instead of acting like it was no big deal even though I am sure he was proactive because he was afraid of me getting mad.  With that said I am still not thrilled that this happened.  Now his ring is not the same ring I place on his finger on that hot day in Mexico.  It's not the same ring I personally had engraved.  The new ring will have the same engraved message inside the band.  Ugh, it's just not the same.

The jeweler told him that Tungston is very strong and does not scratch at all, but if dropped on tile it can shatter very easily.  Great!  Would have liked to know that when purchasing the ring, especially since the durability was the whole reason why we selected this type of metal.

I have come to terms with the ring issue and I am over it, even though it's not the same ring.  It will be two weeks before Andy's new ring comes in and so he is walking around saying "I am single and ready to mingle" all while flashing his naked finger.  Not funny!

More WI Visitors!

We had a busy past few weeks.  Following my mother's visit and the "cabin" up north we had another visitor come and stay with us for a week: my mother-in-law, Laura.  She got to town the day after we got back from our weekend up north.  Laura was helping her friend move into her new house here so she drove out with her from WI, spent time at our house while also spending time with her friend.  What a good friend to travel across country and help her move the last of her items to AZ.  We have done that drive many times (and hopefully don't plan on every doing it again) so I know what it's like...very LONG and exhausting! 

While Laura was here we relaxed as we watched the Olympics, did plenty of eating and sharing some laughs with each other and our friends the Seifert's.  We also went and got mani pedi's together at my nail place.  That was very relaxing in itself.  The doggie's of course loved the visit from their grandma.  Now that she is gone I don't think they know what to do with themselves. 

Now that Laura flew back to WI we have no scheduled visitors until Thanksgiving.  Whew!  I don't know anybody who has as many visitors as we do.  It's nice and of course the animals love it! 

Escaping the Heat

Two weekends ago we escaped the heat with some friends for Josh's 40th birthday celebration.  We rented a "cabin" up in Show Low with two other couples, a new born and two toddlers.  First the "cabin" was not so much a cabin.  It was more like a mansion on the 18th hole at a country club.  Jackpot!  My type of northern adventure.  This house was seriously amazing.  It had 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.  It was perfect for 6 adults, baby and two kids.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the house, but trust me, it was a BEAUTIFUL home. 

We left town on a Friday morning to take the three hour drive up north.  It was a long drive, but definitely worth it to escape the 112 degree temperatures to enjoy 75 degree temperatures.  It definitely does remind me of northern WI in northern AZ.  We spent the weekend with our friends laughing, joking and just having a great time.  The boys played plenty of beer pong and the ladies had plenty of girl time.  We all played the Newlywed Game (like a board game based off the hit television show) and I must brag that Andy and I won both rounds.  That was a ton of fun!  I am not much of a game player, but when you get the right people (plus booze) it ends up being quite the riot.   

So, I spent the weekend with a new baby and two toddlers and I survived.  One thing I learned is that toddlers are a lot of work and need a lot of attention.  They play hard and want you to play with them.  I was exhausted!  I guess when you are not used to being around toddlers it wipes you out.  Boy, was I wiped!  Their cute little faces made everything worth it.

I must say that it was definitely my kind of "camping" as I told Andy that I might be spoiled now and don't know if I can ever go back to tenting it in northern Arizona.  I must say that I would like to make that our annual summer event with our friends as it was so much fun.

Shopping, Sushi and Pink Jeeps

A couple weeks ago my mother and cousin, Makalya, came to visit.  The trip was Makalya's graduation gift from her parents and my mother decided to join Makalya on her trip to visit Andy and I.  I was excited to show Makalya Arizona and life outside of SP.  I believe she enjoyed her stay, the heat and what Phoenix has to offer.  She will definitely have to come back in the winter to really see why we live here and the beauty of AZ.  While they were here they went to see the Phoenix zoo and did some crap shopping in downtown Scottsdale while I was at work.  I did take a couple days off to spend with them and we did some shopping as well as pool time.

My mom and Makalya in our pool!

I also re-introduced them to sushi.  My mother had sushi in the past, but was not a huge fan.  We took them to Stingray and didn't order anything crazy.  We kept it in the newbie category as to not scare them.  Makalya and my mother really enjoyed the experience.

Enjoying the sushi experience.

One very tourist thing we did was head to Sedona and do the Pink Jeep Tour.  Uhmmm...not so much a fan of this.  It is definitely a tourist thing to do and is definitely for people who do not live here.  Andy and I do not need a tour and information on the various cacti in the desert.  Also, the day after my back was all jacked up.  I definitely needed to see my chiropractor after the trip.  Not really my thing.  It was nice to show Makalya another side of Arizona.  She got to see the beauty of Sedona and the drive through the mountains to get there. 

Andy and I as we stopped for a photo opportunity!

Makalya, me and my mom.

All of us on the tour!  Andy is slightly taller than the ladies!

Us featured with the jeep that wrecked my back.

Cousins!

The scenery in Sedona.

Following the pink jeep tour we ate lunch at a cute place in Sedona before we headed back to Phoenix to prepare for dinner with guests.  We had the Seifert's and Mike and AJ (along with their new puppy) over for a Mexica Fiesta.  The Fiesta was supposed to be outside, but it ended up inside due to the haboob that swept through Phoenix that night.  My mom and Makalya were pretty excited to see a haboob and snap pictures of it.  From our back yard it's a pretty cool sight to see as the haboob roles into north Phoenix.  Other than that it is just a dust storm.

It was a fun visit and I am glad I got to show Makalya why Andy and I moved to Arizona.  Hopefully she can make it out again...preferably in the winter so we can do more outdoor activities.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me...happy birthday to me!So, it's my birthday today and I did have a great day.  It's definitely rough for me to get older every year and of course birthdays become less fun after the age of 30.  I wasn't as excited as I used to be...back in my 20's.  It was more just another day...not much of a big deal.  I went to work all day where I got PLENTY of birthday wishes from many co-workers.  I also got plenty of wishes from my FB friends. Then I get home and I got the most important birthday wish of all...from my husband.  I know that he knows I am not a fan of getting another year older (even though I become wiser), so of course he tries to make it special for me.  TMI alert:  I also have my period and so I am SUPER crabby and not in any mood to celebrate the aging process.  Andy, of course, got me a very sweet card and two Pandora charms to go with my bracelet.  One was a snake, which I had picked out earlier, and the other was a turtle to represent our honeymoon in Hawaii where we swam with the turtles in the ocean.  I thought that was pretty sweet of him since he picked it out on his own.  He also got me the most amazing hair dryer ever...something I wanted really bad.  Following the present opening Andy took me to a sushi restaurant that I wanted to try.  It's one of those restaurants where the sushi goes around the restaurant on a conveyor belt and you pick up the plates that you want.  It's not the best sushi, but it was a fun experience. 

How cool is this?

Earlier in the week Andy got me a birthday cake from Everything Bundt Cake.  This was that amazing cake that we had at the Seifert's last month.  It is so yummy that I have been eating a slice of it every night this week.  We had the cake on Monday night because my mother and cousin were in town and they helped us eat it so we didn't have a whole cake by ourselves.

It was a chocolate, chocolate chip cake with cream cheese frosting!

Another year older and another great birthday, besides tacking on another year to my age.  I am glad to have great friends and a wonderful husband to spend my birthday with.

Let's Get Caught Up

It's been a while since I have blogged, so I decided to try and get you caught up with Andy and I over the past month.  Warning: it's not too exciting!

1. I shopped a lot.
2. I decorated with the items purchased from the listed activity in #1. I would like to say I re-decorated, but the house was never really decorated to begin with so I can't say I re-decorated.
3. I finally got photos from our wedding blown up and hung on the walls...yay, as it only took over a year!
4. We spent a nice quiet and peaceful 4th of July together at home...not camping like we normally do.
5. Andy hung curtains that were purchased from the listed activity in #1.  He was not a good sport about it as he whined through the whole process.
6. We celebrated our good friends wedding engagement in Old Town Scottsdale one night and that ended with a cab ride home.
7. Throw in a mani and pedi for me.
8. We celebrated a birthday while sharing some laughs at the Seifert house...always a good time.
9. I definitely utilized my Pinterest account to make some awesome meals.
10. We did some major cleaning and organizing to prepare for house guests...which arrived today.
11. We had a friend in town last weekend so of course we went out in Scottsdale Quarter and ended the night with another cab ride home.

Ok, so you can see we are not that exciting at all, but I did have to get everyone caught up on what we have been up.  Above are the top 11 things we have done in the past month.  I will do my best to continue posting (hopefully once a week) about the adventures of Andy and I.

Getting Pretty Fancy

I have made a couple of awesome meals lately that I would like to share with everyone.  They were both so good and healthy that it's a must I share. 

The first one I found on Pinterest...of course.  It's Chicken and Asparagus Crepes and it is only 405 calories and very yummy!  The recipe called for store bought crepes, but I made my own instead of buying them.  You can do it either way.  I will definitely make this again as Andy liked it too.

The other meal I made was Grilled Salmon and Brown Butter Couscous with zucchini.  I found this recipe in the Cooking Light magazine. This was also healthy and is only 545 Calories.  If you serve without the zucchini the meal is 457 calories.  It was a light dinner and very yummy as well!  If you would like me to type up the recipe I will, just let me know.

Three Day Weekend

This weekend was a nice three day weekend for me.  At my work we have a "use it or lose it" policy when it comes to PTO, so I had two extra days that I had to use and one of them was this past Friday and I am using up my last one this upcoming Friday.  It was a great three days as I got a pedicure, shopped, went to a game, birthday party and decorated.

Friday
I got up early to get my exercise in and I was up so early that I got to watch the sun rise. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or bad thing.  It was very pretty to see the sun rise, but it made for a really long day and I was ready for bed around 4pm.  After my morning exercise I got a much needed pedicure. It felt glorious to sit in the chair and have someone clean up my hot mess of toes!  I did a little shopping for the house after the pedicure.  I got new curtains and other new decorations for the house.  

This was also the day that I had purchased tickets to the Cubs game for Andy for his anniversary present.  Since I wasn't working we headed to downtown Phoenix about 3:30pm to hit up some bars.  We NEVER get to downtown Phoenix so we thought it would be fun to check out some of the bars.  It was a good time.  The only down fall was it was 112 degrees outside.  Most of the bars we were on the patio under the misters, but it was still HOT!  After a few drinks we headed to the game to watch paint dry...oh, I mean the Cubs lose to the Diamondbacks.  We ran into some friends while we were there, so we headed to another bar following the game for some chit chat before we ventured home.

Our seats at the Cubs/Dbacks game.

Saturday
Since it was a late night I did not get up at 5am to watch the sun rise as I ran around the mountain.  Instead I slept in and then got up to do a little charity work.  Andy and I headed downtown to the St. Mary's Food Bank where we joined my co-workers in filling 3,240 bags full of food that were given to families in need.  That is a lot of bags; however, the food bank was very organized and got us all in an assembly line where we worked very well together.  This team work made the 3,240 bags go very fast.  The experience definitely humbled me and made me GREATLY APPRECIATE all that I have because there are so many people out there who are unsure of where their next meal is coming from.

After our volunteer work it was a quick rush to the grocery store to pick up items needed to make an appetizer for a birthday celebration at the Seifert's house.  We were both pretty tired so it had to be something easy and simple.  That called for my very easy Caprese salad on a tooth pick.  Once we tiredly assembled the appetizer we rushed out the door to get to the Seifert's on time.  It's always a good time at their house.  It's full of jokes, laughter and just good times.  We celebrated Melissa's birthday with yummy food, an amazing cake from a place called Nothing Bundt Cake and of course wine.  I am now a BIG fan of this cake place as it was unbelievably moist and addicting.

Sunday
Early to bed and early to rise again to watch the sun rise.

Check out that sun rise behind the mountains.  It was about 5:25am.

After my run I cleaned the house from top to bottom and then it was time to hang the curtains and other household decorations I bought.  Our tiny house is finally starting to look good...it only took me 5 years to get decorations almost complete.  I also ordered canvas prints from our wedding to hang in the bedroom...I mean that only took me over a year to do.  Geez...what is my problem.  I am starting to look like such a procrastinator.  Anyway, I can't wait until they get here and we get them hung.

All weekends should be three day weekends.  Next weekend will also be a three day weekend.  I better not get used to this!

Cilantro Pesto Chicken Tacos

About a week ago I made another very tasty dinner from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  It was cilantro lime chicken tacos.  At this household we love tacos and we love to try different tacos all the time.  I saw the pesto was made from cilantro so I thought let's try it.  I figured it could go really bad or really good.  Both Andy and I loved it so I thought I would share it with everyone.  The blogger topped their tacos with peppers and avocado, but we topped ours with tomatoes and avocado.

Cilantro lime pesto chicken tacos!

Viva Las Vegas!

Last Sunday, June 10th, I flew off to Las Vegas for my annual accounting marketer's conference.  Last year I was in Chicago for the conference and it was such a great conference that I was really looking forward to it again this year.  This year the conference was held at the Aria resort so I was super excited to stay in this fancy new hotel on the strip.

View looking out the left side of my room window that was floor to ceiling.

View to the right is the Monte Carlo casino. 

The first night I had dinner with fellow accounting marketer's from across the U.S. and it followed up with drinks in the Aria bars.  I also had a friend there that same weekend for the world poker series.  I met up with him because he wanted to teach me how to gamble.  I am not a fan of gambling as I don't like to gamble away my money.  If I lost $100 I would be super bummed because that could have bought me 8 or 9 beverages, or even a new pair of shoes.  My friend, however, was going to teach me how to gamble using his money so I was all in.  I only won $40, but did not learn how to gamble whatsoever.  We were playing craps the whole time and all I was being told was what number to roll and where to place my chips.  No reason as to why, but just to do it.  I need to know why in order to learn.  I did end up throwing the dice off the table on accident.  Hey, I was a newbie at this so throwing dice across the table with specific instructions was kind of nerve wracking.

The next day was filled with conference sessions that was followed up with a gala. 

With my communications specialist at the AAM Gala.

 At the gala they also announce the marketing awards for the year.  About two months ago I submitted two projects my department did this past year and I was hoping to at least win in one of the categories.  Following dinner and my one glass of wine, compliments of my one drink ticket, they announced the winner for the advertising campaign category.  It was my firm.  I was excited and went up to get our glass box for the "trophy."  Then it was time for pictures with the award. 

With our award for our very creative ad campaign we did for the restaurant niche.

After the excitement at the gala it was time to celebrate winning the award.  We headed over to the Mondrian Oriental for drinks on the 35th floor overlooking the Vegas strip.  This bar was AMAZING!  Very pricey, but oh so worth it. 

At the Mondrian Oriental bar on the 35th (I think it was the 35th) floor with my communications specialist.

My amazing view from my seat at the bar.

Following a great night of celebrating I still had to get up on Tuesday for the conference...oh, and Wednesday as well.  Tuesday night the accounting marketers went to STK (AMAZING by the way) for dinner and then Hyde lounge & nightclub for drinks.  Hyde was awesome as our table was right in front of the Bellagio fountains...AWESOME!  Following Hyde we went to the Cosmo hotel for some more drinks before we hit the hay. 

Our table was seriously so close to the fountains it was awesome.  We would catch the spray that came off the fountains. 

With my communications specialist at Hyde.  Enjoying the view, drinks and the fountains.

Wednesday proved to be an early morning and a long day.  After three nights out in Vegas with approximately 5 hours of sleep a night this girl was pooped and ready to head home.  In the Vegas airport on Wednesday night I saw a BIG celebrity.  How awesome is this picture? 

Me with Gene Simmons as he stood outside of a Starbucks waiting for his wife.  This was AWESOME for me.  I definitely acted like an insane crazed fan...not gonna lie!

I got home late Wednesday night to a vase of flowers from my mother for a congratulations for winning another marketing award for my firm.  It was such a nice surprise and ending to an awesome four days.

I had another great year at the association for accounting marketing conference.  I am already counting down the days for next years conference...and hopefully another award!