A long awaited break

Well I had my first Phoenix excursion this weekend. Nora's Grandparents are in town and we went to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. It was a much needed break for me. I have been studying for my exams and working a lot. I have passed another exam and am waiting on two exam results. So that is 2 passes 2 unknown and 5 test to take. I am hoping to take the next test at the end of next month. Oh yeah I also turned 31 last month! I am getting old but still feel like a little kid. Nora would agree with the kid part :)



Well now to the good stuff. I have posted a slide show of the pictures of the Grand Canyon. I will post another slide show after this one. There were a few cool things that we saw other than this big hole in the ground. On our drive through the canyon we saw a cougar crossing the road in front of us. I pictured it eating the people that annoyed me for the rest of the day as well as making cougar noises to annoy Abbey. I do not really like being out in the public. I think I get this from my mother! We also saw a coyote along the road as well. I did not expect wild animals to be so close to where people are camping.

Well it is starting to get colder here now and we should be able to do more outdoors now. So hopefully the blog will get more updates. I will bring all the pictures of the Grand Canyon when we come home for Christmas. Look for the Sedona pictures shortly.

Birthday Present

This past weekend Abbey rented a hotel room so that we could use the pool and celebrate my birthday. It was great! The pool was gorgeous. Scott and Joe went golfing Sunday but Scott got to enjoy the pool a little on Saturday. None of us wanted to leave. Thanks Abbey!

What is wrong with people?!?!

Scott and I decided to go and see Batman this evening at 7:50 p.m. Neither one of us likes to go to the show because of the crowds and the annoying people the crowds consist of. We now only go to movies that are action packed or that have cool graphics that really look best on the big screen. After tonight, I think that we have decided not to go to the movies even for those types of flicks.

Here is the scenario: Scott and I arrive early (as per usual), buy our tickets and cherry slushes, and then quietly find our seats. We then considerately turned off our cell phones. At this time the theatre is probably half full. Scott made the mistake of saying that he thought that the crowds would be much worse. He asked for it because before long the theatre was full and the family that chose to sit behind us had four kids that I am guessing were all under eight years old. The kicker is that one of the children was in fact a baby in a baby carrier. As they tried to get situated, we wondered what they would do with the baby carrier. I quickly found out. The Dad sat down and proceeded to wedge the carrier between his lap and the back of my seat. OK no big deal. Shake it off and enjoy the movie - I told myself. Never mind the fact that they brought a baby to a movie. Sure enough the opening few lines of the movie and bang there goes the gun fire. Apparently these particular parents did not equate loud noises with a baby crying. As soon as the first shot was fired, the baby starts crying. Then we get to hear the shushing and the baby passing and the dig for the bottle and the feeding slurps and burps. Guess what? The movie had a lot of gun shots, things exploding, and many other loud abrupt noises. Don't worry though, they did not take the baby out of the theatre. They yet again attempted to shush and feed it. This continued for about half of the movie. To make things even better they were not the only family that thought it would be a good idea to bring a baby to see Batman. When the Dad behind us finally left with the baby, we got to hear the other one crying.

OK so there were some kids crying. Are we the only two people who think that babies do not belong at the movie theatre no matter what the movie is? My other complaint involves the other kids. The girl and two very young boys of the family that sat behind us did not do much sitting either. We were seated near the top and at the end of a fairly large theatre. We got to watch the kids go up and down those stairs more times than I cared to count - by themselves. No parents! It is like the blind leading the blind. Would you let your kids leave the theatre by themselves? I am talking in an 18 theatre multiplex on a Saturday night while no older than eight years old? They drove me nuts!!! What is wrong with people? Better yet, more parents than not thought that it was a good idea to bring young children to a 2 1/2 hour PG-13 movie at eight o'clock at night. Shouldn't they be in bed? Can any adult sit still for 2 1/2 hours? I had to race to the bathroom when the movie was finished. No wonder the poor kids had to take themselves and their younger siblings to the bathrooms while their parents sat and continued to watch the movie. Would they have noticed if they didn't come back? Would they have done anything if they had noticed that they were missing? There are so many things wrong with this scenario I can't type fast enough to capture them all.

OK so there were kids up and down by themselves throughout the entire movie. What about the fact that the content of the movie would have given Scott and I nightmares for weeks when we were kids? Scary looking clown masks firing guns, flinging knifes and blowing up everything in sight. This movie was a little above the good guy against the bad guy in which the good guy prevails - like in the cartoons. The plot was slightly more complicated and the line between good and evil was slightly blurred. At least from a child's perspective.

Needless to say, we left the theatre enraged. Scott a little less than me - or at least he hid it better. I was furious. These poor kids. Up past their bedtime (or what I think should be their bedtime), fed gigantic snacks a drinks, who are expected to quietly sit through an entire 2 1/2 hour long movie or choose to navigate themselves through a loud dark theatre to the bathrooms. Again, WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!?!

Was the movie good? Yes. Would I have rather waited to see it when it came out on DVD? Yes.

We are still alive!

Well, after a lot of poking and prodding, Scott and I decided that we should probably update our blog. The last post talked about the fire that was so close to our house. Since that day the fire has gone out and we have had many new experiences. Unfortunately, I have been sick and haven't felt like talking, typing or getting out of bed. I am on my fifth round of antibiotics. I hope that it will be my last. Scott has been busy with work, picking up my slack, and hanging out with our new roommates Abbey and Joe.

The picture is one of many that I took while in Sedona. It is a truly beautiful place. While there, we took a Pink Jeep Tour (like the one shown on Little People Big World). It was great traveling up the cliffs but quite scary on the way down. It is a small gravel road with absolutely no guard rails. I nearly lost my breath a couple of times because our driver pulled us so close to the edge.

I took the other picture in Flagstaff where I met my Aunt Carol and Abbey for the last leg of their trip to our house. We took a ski lift to the highest point in Arizona. In fact, we used the highest toilet in Arizona while we were there. How could we resist?

I think that that brings everyone up to date. Keep in touch!

No Fumar!!!!!!!

Well Monsoon season started last week and yesterday we had our first storm. It is pretty exciting to see rain again! I was starting to think I would have to get a pet camel if it did not rain pretty soon. The storm was pretty bad. It had a ton of rain with a lot of wind and lightning. I did not think to much about it when it was happening but when I woke up in the morning there was a plume of smoke rising from across the road. It looks a lot closer than it is with the flatness of the desert but it is still pretty scary. The lighting struck a dry field full of dead shrubs and boom there goes the neighborhood! The good news is that so far no homes have been in danger. Only the migrant workers and the wild pack of dogs have been inconvenienced. Well I guess the man upstairs did not hear that Arizona is a non-smoking state or maybe he missed the NO FUMAR sign. That is no smoking in Spanish! Hehehehe..... I am bilingual now.

Well a quick news flash. I passed my first ARE (Architectural Registration Exam)! I took the Material and Construction Methods. I am taking my second test tomorrow. This one is Construction Documents. Hopefully I will pass this one as well. I will keep you all in the loop.

Posted by: Scott :)

Quick Update

We haven't blogged in awhile. I have been pretty sick. I had to go to the hospital this past Monday. I thought I had kidney stones. The x-ray didn't show any stones but it did show an infection. I am almost done with my second round of antibiotics and I still feel sick. I have a doctor's appointment on Monday.

Scott is going to Miami tomorrow morning. We have to leave for the airport at 5:00 am. He will be back Tuesday evening. Then I am traveling to Michigan on Friday. I will be staying for a week.

My Pack Mule

Scott provided me with a great laugh Saturday afternoon. We were waking up and discussing our plans for the long weekend. We had several projects that we wanted to accomplish and I asked him where we should start. His response was, "Why are you asking me? I am just your pack mule." Could he be any more honest and accurate? Most people know that when it comes to organizing and decorating our house I have the ultimate say. Some people might think that it is because I am incredibly bossy and opinionated (which is true) but it is also because Scott generally doesn't care. As long as I don't paint everthing pink and purple and use flower patterned fabric everywhere, he doesn't have an opinion. (Good match, huh?) Obviously, the pack mule reference perfectly describes his role. I need him to carry things, move things, and do the heavy lifting.

We did manage to accomplish quite a bit this weekend. Of course our expectations are always unrealistic, but I think that we did a pretty good job. We bought and put desks together for Abbey and I as well as an extension for Scott's existing desk. I attached a picture of our new desks. They are located in our living room. I desparately needed a designated area to do my work and Abbey will need a place too when she gets here. Having our desks in the living room works out great because Scott now has his own "play" room. We put his desk in the extra bedroom and set up his weight bench. He also was able to unpack and display his bobble heads - toys he thought would stay wrapped up in a box once we moved into our new home.

I also have some confessions to make. My Mom says that I am a habitual hoarder. My favorite things to buy are picture frames (which never get hung), pictures (which never get put into the frames), and bedding. All of these vices were made very apparent during our move. Despite all of the excess, I purchased several items from each category this weekend. I finally found some pillows to base the color scheme of the living room on, walls decorations for the bedroom, a new bedding set for our king bed, and some picture frames for the pictures that I purchased at a street fair in Phoenix. It sounds like I spent a lot but we really didn't. Slowly but surely our house is starting to feel a little more homey. Needless to say, I am a happy camper. Don't worry, my shopping trip did not jeopardize our potential pool installation.

I hope that everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend. Keep in Touch! GO PISTONS!!!