Crazy Old People

Anybody that has ever been to Phoenix during the winter knows that we have a plethora of old people here. The most common encounters with them is on the road; when you are traveling along at 50 MPH and suddenly you have to come to a screeching stop.

When you live in far East Mesa (the Land of Green Rock as I like to call it) the crazy old people encounters are year round, as their lovely double-wides surround my neighborhood. On the street adjacent to ours there is a particularly extra crazy old person, I'll call him Stew.

The first time I saw Stew I had to stop and stare because it's not every day that you see a man in his 80's ridding a bike with a very large basket on the back supporting an even larger canopy. I wondered what he was doing and then carried on with what I was doing. After, many Stew sitings (in 100+ weather) I realized that he was picking trash up off the streets (with one of those trash pincher thingies). I thought to myself, "O what I nice old man, using his time to help keep our neighborhood clean."

Now that I work at Kids Corner before school I am always driving home at 8:30. This seems to be Stew's scheduled time for 'cleaning' the streets. As I approached my house the other day I saw Stew out in front of my neighbor's house. As I got closer, I realized he was digging through his black garbage can! He was pulling garbage out of the can and placing it in his basket!

I am not sure what happens to man to make him want to dig through an other mans trash, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with age.

Dec The Halls

I have been so excited for Christmas this year and have spent the last two days making my home festive. Last Friday, and all day Saturday, (it took forever.) I made a garland to go around our family room. For having no idea what I was doing I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Notice that in all my excitement for Christmas I have not completed my painting that I began in October. I need to decide on a color for my plant shelves and get them done. I'm thinking maybe red.

Today Dave and I went and picked out a Christmas tree, brought it home and decorated it. I think it is so beautiful. But when comparing it to last year's Charlie Brown tree anything does.

Last year's tree sure did have a lot of character though. Dave and I thought that it was perfect for our first year of marriage. We learned from last year, that Christmas trees are expensive, so we saved a bit more, and were able to get a tree that's branches weren't quite so sparse.

Only 16 more days until Christmas!

Captian Jack Sparrow

So, the other morning began just like any other day. I was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and enjoying the beautiful new day with my back door wide open. As I cleared off the kitchen table I saw something out of the corner of my eye move. I turned back and looked at the ground to find a bird sitting on my kitchen floor. My first instinct was to freak out and scare it out of the house, but after a second look I realized that this wasn't just any old bird, it was a parakeet. So, instead I quickly closed the back door and called Dave to inform him of the exciting news. I then spent several panicked seconds running around my house looking for something to catch the bird that was flying from my floor, to my fridge, to my table, in. My first attempt to catch the impostor was with a laundry basket. (FYI birds can wiggle through holes that appear much smaller than their bodies.) My second attempt was with a tightly weaved basket. Success!

Now that I had caught my intruder I had no idea what to do with it, so I went and took and shower.

I began to talk myself into keeping the poor little fellow as I felt that he had chosen us and we couldn't just throw him back outside. Later that morning I found myself at WalMart, and then at PetsMart buying a bird cage (WalMart is apparently the people's 'Mart' as it had no birdcages).

When I got home, I got his cage all set up and ready for him to enjoy (I really have no idea if he is a girl of a boy but will continue to call it "him".) I was so proud of the home I had made for him, when suddenly I realized that in order to get the bird into the cage I would have to reach my hand under the basket, grab the bird, and then lift up the cage door and shove him in, all the while being pecked to death. This idea frightened me way too much until I chickened out and went next door to ask my neighbor to do it.

My neighbor and his friend came over and attempted the task I was to chicken to do (I felt like such a girl.) Of course, the second they tried to grab him he flew out from underneath the basket and all of the house. We spent the next five minutes chasing him down and finally catching him with a pillowcase. We had to stuff the pillowcase inside the cage and slow drag it out. I felt so bad for frightening the little guy and was pretty sure that he would be traumatized for life. But once he found his food I didn't feel quite so bad. The poor guy was starving! He eat for a solid 15 minutes and then fell asleep, so I really feel like I saved the poor bird.

So, that's how we came get a pet bird that we now lovingly call Jack.

HAPPRY THANKSGIVING

I hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Day and are able to be surrounded by all the things you are thankful for. I'm thankful for you! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Forts

In order to stay young, you must never forget how to play. Dave and I like forts. Of course ours are always G rated.

Happy Veteran's Day

You know what is great about today? There is no school, and when there is no school I don't have to work. To celebrate the day off, my mom, brother Preston, and I, oh and our little dog Dieter, decided to go on a hike on Peralta trail. For those of you who don't know, because I didn't before today. Peralta Trail is in the Superstition Mountains and leads you to a great view of Weever's Needle. The weather was perfect and we had a great time walking on the trail and wondering off from time to time to climb over some really cool big rocks.
The beginning
These rocks were so cool, and what's even better, they have a really cool name; hoodoos.Preston wondered off the trail and tried to make it to the balancing rock until my mom decided that it wouldn't sound so good on the six o'clock news when they asked her why her son had fallen from the cliff and why he gone up there. To which she would have to reply I told him to.

At the top, Weever's Needle looked so cool. After, many many years of not liking the desert I'm starting to think it's not quite so ugly after all.

We stopped at the top and had a little break and a little food.

Dieter gets the award for hiker of the day. His four 2 inch legs carried him up and down 5 miles of steep rocks and he didn't complain once.

Photos

Time to catch up on what's been happening with a few photos.

Dave and I dressed up as Suns' Fans for a Halloween party. Thanks Stacy we had a ton of fun!

My family came over to carve pumpkins with us the day before Halloween. Dave looks like he's having a great time.

Last weekend we watched our friend's little girl. She is so cute and we had so much fun with her.

We have also been doing a lot of painting. The familyroom is almost done now. Only one more place to paint and curtains to hang and then is will be done. I can't wait!

Christmas Tree Skirt

Hey does any one have a pattern for making a Chirstmas tree skirt?

I'm "IT"

My sister "tagged" me which she informs me means that now I must write 6 things about myself; fears, secrects, habbits, ect. Which is cool I guess because it actually gives me something to write about, even if it is all about boring old me.

1. Deep Dark Secrect: I've never really thought of myself as much of a secret keeper. In fact, I've always been horrible at keeping secrets. Ever since I can remember I told people what was in their Christmas packages, where some one was hiding, and everything else that was suppose to remain undisclosed. Something most people probably don't know about me though is that no matter how much I say I hate "girly" things like dressing up, dancing, or talking on the phone, I am really starting to like to shop. Oh no, I can't believe I just admitted it.

2. Favorites: I love finishing things, school classes, books, projects, ect. I love spending time with Dave and family. I love when Dave cooks dinner for me and tucks me into bed. I love my bed, I love sleep, ...I think I'm really tired.

3. Fears: Ever since I was really little I have had a dream where my house burns down in the middle of the night and I run as fast as a can to save my scrapbook, journal, and scriptures. Every once and I while I still have this dream and it still freaks me out just as much.

4. Habits: I have this really weird habit of making my bed just before I go to bed. All day long it sits there with the sheets twisted up, pillows on the floor, blankets half way off the bed, and then right before I go to bed I suddenly have a need for it to be perfect. I walk around the bed several times making sure the fitted sheet it securly wrapped around each corner, that the top sheet and duvet are are centered just right, and the pillows are nicely fluffed lying side by side inside their pillow cases. And then just after I'm done Dave comes flying in the bedroom and flops down on the bed, errr.

5. Talents: To be totally honest, I've always felt quite talentless. Deep down though, I know that's just not true. One talent that I do believe I posses, and have always been proud to have, is the ability to play like a kid. No matter how old I've been I've always loved taking off my big kid jacket and playing like I was 5 again.

6. Things I'd like to learn: I like to learn things. A couple things I'd like to learn how to do are sew, html, how to decorate cakes better, how to grow a garden, and lots of other things that aren't coming to me right now.

Well now I guess it's my turn to "tag" people.

New and Improved

I've created this new blog because I didn't like blog.com very much (not so user friendly). It seems like every one has blogspot.com addresses and I like the way theirs look much better so I thought I'd give it a try. So welcome to my new, and hopefully improved blog. No promises that I will write much more on this one though.

It's time for a celebration. After 4 months without kitchen lights I finally have light in my kitchen! Dave finished installing recessed lights in our kitchen yesterday and I am so happy. It was a little nerve racking cutting holes in our ceiling since we didn't know exactly what we were doing. After hours of measuring the exact location for the lights Dave began to cut. Moment later he quit. When I re-entered the room and asked why he had stopped he told me that he had hit a stud. Turns out that was an important bit of information we left out of our measuring calculations. An adventure into the attic, a bit of remeasuring, and some spackle took care of that problem. They are now done and look so awesome! And what's even better, I can read my recipes when I cook now. Which is a very good thing. Now we just have to finish patching the holes from Jason and I's light incident.