NEW FLASH!!!

We WILL NOT going North for a visit in October!!! I repeat we WILL NOT be visiting in October. We've moved it to NOVEMBER.


that is all

Its been way too long

I think an update is in order. I have tons of good news!

First I got hired by the company I was temping for. That was back around July 25th. At the same time my husband got hired by them too. He's working out in the heat doing quality control, I am working in the office doing payroll/hr.

My boss is great and the owner is really great too. I have of course run into some personality issues with some people, but I'm working through all that. I just got a raise this week! And I am getting ready to put out an ad for an assistant for me and my boss. I'm very comfortable working here, and I love the work. My boss calls me her mini-me, and we get along fantastically. I couldn't have asked for a better job!

Yesterday we faxed in my from for health insurance, so for the first time in almost three years I'll have health insurance!!!!

We really have been blessed in moving out here!

We're starting looking for a second vehicle today. We're leaning toward buying a truck (that's what will be best for Ed's job). It'll be a couple of months before we buy, but we're starting the looking process now.

Our cat is going stir crazy. I think he really needs a friend. So that may be something we're looking into soon. But we'll see.

My mom came to visit in July. It was a lot of fun and I'll put some pictures up soon. I get homesick sometimes, especially when I'm alone at work.

But we are going to be in the Chicago area in October as we stop over on our way to Ohio! Maybe we have a little get together the night we get in (the next morning we'll be heading to Ohio). Let me know if you want to get together!

Love ya all,

Me

Shots from our apartment.

Here are some pictures I took from our apartment complex. None of them are of the actual apartment yet. I'll get those taken sometime this week, now that I think we have most everything where we want it.

These are clouds.

This is the mountain you can kind of see from our patio. I took this picture from the edge of the property. I love the mountains. And they are even better with sunsets.

Pretty clouds.
The moon from the pool.
The fireplace at the pool.
Our apartments have a "resort style" pool. There is a fireplace, spa, 2 grills, and the pool is large and pretty. We spend a lot of time here.
The grills.
That's all I've done so far. We noticed hummingbirds at the pool the other day. So we put up a hummingbird feeder. I've been writing all this from my patio, and one little guy keeps coming over to check it out. But he hasn't drank any yet.

Did I mention I love it here?

A Few weeks in a Hotel...

Here are some pictures we took while at the resorts. It was nice getting to be on a sort of vacation for a while after getting here. But by the end I was eager to get moved in and stop living out of suitcases.

Ed took this one of a flower by the Scottsdale Villa Mirage. Of the 4 places we stayed I liked this one the best.

There were quail all over the place. Literally. I almost ran over a family of them crossing the road.
This was our kitchen. I loved it. I kept telling my husband that we should just get the resort to let us move in there.
The living room with fireplace.
Bedroom. Comfy bed.
Sideways bathtub! Yay! I wonder how that happened. I'm sure I flipped all theses pictures. Oh well. You get the idea.
More quail!
And again!
The view from our 2nd resort. I didn't like this place as much. It's only benefit was the view.
Sunset.


When we first arrived in Phoenix we stayed at a hotel in the Scottsdale Air park. Then we spent a week at the first hotel. Then a night at the Fire Sky resort. That place was really nice. And they were really pet friendly. There were dogs everywhere. After that we were in our 2nd resort. And then finally we moved into our apartment. And I am certainly glad that is all over with.

Guess where I took this...

Go ahead. Guess. I dare ya :)

New Mexico and Beyond!

Continuing on our trip. This is...somewhere in New Mexico. I like pictures of mountain-y things. Enjoy.

Love the colors in this photo.

Big Rocks. We saw lots of them.

Home!

I love this shot. It will someday go on my wall.
Then we saw this. Its a fire rainbow. Which is pretty cool. When my husband and I started our relationship it was a complicated decision for us. We took comfort in the fact that when we decided to date, there was a rainbow that day. Now as we are entering our new life in a land we aren't used to. It was nothing but good signs to see this. And it was stinkin' cool.

We would have slept here! If it were night time. Or we were tired. Alas it was the middle ofthe day.

Love patriotism. Love Old Glory.
The cat. In a very weird position.
This was the beggining of my heart attack. I forgot about this part of the drive. It was not fun in a 16ft truck towing a Wrangler. Not fun at all. The husband was driving. I was dying. (In case you haven't drivin it, this is the route from Flagstaff to Phoenix. You drop a few thousand feet along the way. Boo!)
My doom! Our truck could not handle these mountains.

Conversation after seeing the first of these:
A: Look a cactus!

E: Ooooo

A: Does this mean we can go back now?

E: Yep. I've seen what I came for, let's go home.

OH MY GOSH this was SCARY! All the sudden we were assaulted by hundreds of...BEES! I want to know who the heck threw BEES at us?
Not 1 minute before we had seen a sign "Big Bug Creek" about 2 minutes after we saw "Dry Beaver Creek" What next? Hundreds of beavers?!?!?!

Frickin BEES!

(that's BEE guts all over our windshield)

The sun.
Dust!
And that's about it for pictures of our trip. Next will be some pics from our hotels. And then some of our apartment complex.

New Mexico! Hurrah!

This is post 1 of 2 due to technical problems the other night. Its time to finish up with the pictures of our trip. So enjoy. Or don't. Whatever..I don't care :)

Don't my mom. But this is my attempt at taking a picture of the New Mexico sign while driving, at about 1 AM after reaching such a point of exhaustion I couldn't keep my eyes open. Considering we didn't die in my attempt, I think this picture turned out great!

We slept at the rest area just over the state line. I climbed into the back of the truck and slept on the big red couch while the husband slept in the cab. I woke up as more and more trucks were heading out. And it was just in time to see a gorgeous sun rise. Behind us.
I was driving. Husband was manning the camera. Not too shabby.
Stopped for breakfast. Its been a long time since I was up this early. And it might be the last.
Ummm rock-y things. I like land pictures. I don't care if its not interesting to you.
Those are horses. Believe it or not. Oh and that's grass. Haven't seen much of that landscape lately.

Those are cows. I like cows.
A friendly bird at a rest stop. Somewhere in New Mexico.
There was a sign about this bridge. I was pretty far gone at this point from all the driving. So I have no memory of what it was all about.
More rock-y landscape! Yay for me!

Alright that's all you get for now. Part 2 will be coming shortly.

PS There is grass here. Its not the same though. Different.

NEWS! ALERT! READ!

Now that I have your attention!

I have written a blog with pictures. Unfortunately blogger wigged out on me along the way. So I have part 2 of a two part blog written about our trip down here. Unfortunately this does nothing for you. As I will not post part 2 before part 1. But the good news is as soon as Blogger starts letting me load my last few pics both part 1 and 2 will be up. I'm hoping for tomorrow!

I have even more good news. While I was fighting to load my pics I went through and picked out all the ones of our hotels and apartment that I want to post. So by the end of the week there may (or may not) be 4 new posts WITH PICTURES!

Aren't you all just pleased as punch.

Now I am off to bed. It's 11:21 and that's 21 minutes after my bedtime.

G'Night. God Bless. And leave me a comment :) Even you Allstaters who view but don't leave comments! I know you're reading!

9 minutes to write this

I have 9 minutes until my cupcakes are done and then we are off to the pool. So here is an update on life in general. The husband is still looking for a job. I am on a temp assignment that I love and it looks like I'll get hired pretty soon. My supervisor on Thursday said "bring in your resume on Monday so I can have the big boss look at it and tell him how very I want to hire you". So hopefully he is not put off by compolete lack of payroll experience and will go based on the fact that I am the most awesomest at learning new things.

We are just about done unpacking. Just a few more boxes and then its just getting everything decorated the way we like. It's nice having the pool. There's grills at the pool so we swam and grilled last night and it was very fun. We're probably gonna do the same tonight.

On Independence Day we went our friends place. They grilled, we talked, and then swam admist very windy and somewhat lighten-ey conditions. Their kids are great fun. My husband and his friend are going job hunting this week. Let's hope they are both succesful.

I had a huge stress relief off my back yesterday after I had realized I entered one of our biggest bills twice into our budget. Thus freeing up a lot of money I thought we didn't have. Whew!

We're used to the heat now. And I have a nice little tan going. My mom is visiting in 2 weeks which will be fun. So who's coming to visit me next? Huh?

Okay I have 1.5 minutes left. A good bye for now, I shall go work on my tan and swimming-ness.

Has it really been 8 days?

I think an update is in order.

I'm eating spaghetti-O's. How's that for an update?

Alright, alright. Here's a real update. Wednesday I started working a a company that instals the internet/cable/tv our here. It appears that I am mainly doing payroll stuff. But who knows. It's a temp job that has the possibilty of becoming permanent. I really like the lady I'm working for. She has that southern hospitality you can only get from being from Georgia. I miss Georgia. It used to be really far away (10 plus hours?) but now. Sheesh! It's forever away! There's a lot I'm missing about the midwest. And it's mainly being so close to the south.

We bought a new computer desk, and we are staining the coffee table to match the colors or our living room better. Oh and the coffee table is now the TV stand. It makes sense.

I've been on the computer all day re-working our budget and finding a flight to my sis's wedding in October. So I'm rather sick of the computer right now. But the good news is all of our pictures are now on our home computer, so I'll be much more likely to finish putting up pictures of our trip.

That's about it for now. I'll try to do more tomorrow.

HI!

We have an apartment!

We signed the lease this morning. And currently we have moved in our cat...and some bottled water. We're gonna move the furniture in tomorrow.

I'd love to tell you all about our new place. Would you like to hear?

Its a 1 bedroom. The bathroom is large. The bedroom is medium. And the living room is long. Our kitchen is small on walking space, but huge on cabinets and counters. We have vinyl hardwood floors in the dining room, living room, hallway, kitchen, and bathroom. And carpeting in the bedroom. All the appliances are brand new as of the previous renter (so we're the second people to use them). We are 1 minute from the mall. There is a HUGE pool with a fireplace, and a hot tub. There is also wifi in the clubhouse and by the pool area. (that's why I am on the internet even though our service won't get hooked up until Tuesday). There's a patio and we're on the first floor. There is even a ceiling fan on the patio. Oh and there's a fitness center with cool machines that haveTV's built in them.

I'll take some pics of the property and whatnot and load them in a few days. Along with all the other pics I've been promising.

For now the husband wants to get on the computer so I'll say bye. Hopefully after Tuesday we'll be a 2 computer couple again and these horrible fights over who gets the lappy will stop! (hahaha)

So I don't have readily available inter-webz right now.

I bet you're all missing me and dying to hear about the latest. No? Well I'm going to tell you anyway. The new place we're staying at doesn't have wireless/Internet/any communication to the outside world at all! So we have to trek to the mall for some free Wifi. Hence the lack of blogging, that will continue until we change locations.

In other news. We found apartments we like, and put in our application. We're waiting to hear form them. But if all goes well we'll be moving in on Friday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these apartments. And if we get this place I'll tell you all about why. But until then I don't want to write about it because if we don't get it then it would be pointless.

On the job front. My "assignment" ended last week. On Friday. Yes that's right. The day after I started. They had no clue what they wanted to do with the position, so they decided to end it for now. But I do have a temp job that either starts tomorrow or next week. It makes kick but money, with a lot of overtime, for 6 weeks. To sum it up, in the next 6 weeks I'll make enough to pay our rent for 6 months.

I did have an interview today with the county. I really like this position and our prayers are that they like me and hire me. They are doing the interviews for it until Thursday so I'm expecting they'll make their decision by the middle of next week.

Okay on with the fun stuff. Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary. In honor of it we saw a movie, ate out and took it easy for the day. Ed bought me a bunch of lotions I'd been wanting (hey we can't spend a ton right now we don't have a place to live...or jobs...plus now I smell good!). Friday night we stayed at this place called the Firesky Resort in Scottsdale. Loved it! They allow pets so their were dogs EVERYWHERE. A huge pool. Beautifully landscaped. I highly enjoyed our relaxing night. It was super super good.

I think that catches you all up. Don't expect anymore blogging from me until the end of the week. When we will hopefully be blogging from our own apartment.

Love you all!

sorry again!

Okay quick update.

1. I have a job. It's a temp position as an admin and they are trying it out for possible permanent. It's in downtown Scottsdale. And right across the street from the mall. So we all know where my paycheck will be going...

2. We're looking for apartments in Tempe/Mesa now. Scottsdale is real nice, and if we end up staying in the phoenix area its where we'll head. but for now those areas seem better for us.

3. i lied about putting pics up today. the pool is calling to me. and I've been running all over looking for apartments all day. so i want to relax. if I can con the husband into it, maybe he'll load the pics for me tomorrow and i can just label them when i get off work.

4. i start work tomorrow. hence my urgency to spend my last bit of free time at the pool.

5. i also have an interview with the county for a data enrty job on tuesday. it would have benefits so that would be superb.

6. i really just want to buy a house at this point. maybe things will work in my favor.

love ya all.

What did I tell ya?

I told you I get distracted easily.

New post tomorrow. I promise. There will be pictures of the rest of our trip. Plus pics of the resort. Plus an update on the job hunt.

If I don't post tomorrow feel free to bomb me with a ton of e-mails.

I'm kidding. No bombing me please.

But you can be upset and let me know it!

So you want to see the pictures?

Presently I am sitting on the deck by the pool (but away from the water) and my husband is beside me doodling. I have much to tell. The resort we're at doesn't have free wireless in the rooms, but that's okay becuase in the shade its GORGEOUS outside. We stayed at a hotel for 4 nights in a king suite and then checked into this place on friday. We're here until next friday and then we go to a different resort. We dropped the cat off at a boarding place yesterday so he won't have to be moved around anymore until we find an apartment. As of right now we're looking to stay in the northern Pheonix/Scottsdale area. Its where we've stayed all week and I really like the place. The husband's testing went well on Thursday so now we wait for his results to see if he's on the list for the job. I applied with Borders today. I want to find a job in retail. I'm tired of working in an office. So we'll see what happens. I'm still going to see about office work because it pays more, but really, I'm tired of it and would like some different work. At least for a while.

Okay this place has fast inter-webz so I was able to get a bunch on pictures up. This should get us through Texas. Tomorrow I'll try to post from New Mexico on.

First some cat pictures

Chopper being pissed
Chopper still being pissed and glare-y

Chopper finally getting curious. 5.6 seconds later he was back in his tent being pissed...

Rain while crossing into Oklahoma
If you can't tell that is a motorcylist driving in front of us in horrible down pour that involved hail at times. And ZERO visibility.

At the gas station in OK
Crossing into Texas
The landscape
A gas station and motel combo in Texas
I like when people get artsy it makes the trip more interesting

hahaha. I love Texas
Seriously, is there any greater state? I think not. God Bless Texas.
The Texas sunset

Me at the Sunset
The husband at the sunset
Yes. That is a grill. Did I mention I love Texas? This was at the rest area.
Stars!
Little star, big star
At night they light up the place!

Okay. So my next post shouldn't be too far off. But I do get distracted easily so don't be surprised if I disappear for days on end.

Leave me comments. I miss everyone!