Light at the end of the tunnel

Today marks the two-week final stretch! We have 5 chapters left and 14 days in which to submit them! It's really crazy but I keep reminding myself that by the time I turn 32 (on the 22nd) I will be done with this craziness and life can return to normal (ha!). Oh, if you get a chance, pick up the Sept issue of Family Circle. We are cited in the "45 Ways to Save Money" feature! WooHoo...my name in print in a national publication. Pretty cool :)

I am going to take a break next weekend to catch a movie, Julie & Julia! I love to cook and I love inspirational stories about everyday life...and I need a little getaway. Hopefully my friend Sara will join me (I'm envious of her baking!).

Danny's been pulling double duty on the weekends being both Mom and Dad while I'm sequestered in the bedroom writing.

Actually today we've accomplished a lot and I've managed to nearly complete a chapter! We got coffee from Dunkin', picked up our produce from Bountiful Baskets (and had so much we're sharing some with Sara's family), did laundry (hung three loads out to dry), made laundry detergent (Danny did most of this), fed everyone rearranged and cleaned Evan's room and got Caitlin down for a nap. Later they'll head out for some errands and I'll start getting dinner on the table.

We have some pictures and updates to post from the past couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Two things you must do…

There is a blog I love. It goes beyond the typical rhetoric about personal finance and talks about things that really matter,topics about parenting, cooking, living and dreaming…and all from a guy who’s been down and out and come back on his own!

It’s The Simple Dollar (www.thesimpledollar.com) written by Trent. I look forward to his writing every day and I’ve learned a ton from reading his posts, advice and book reviews.

Speaking of book reviews…if you ever feel like you ought to be doing something other than what you are. Even if it’s as simple as running errands and you feel you ought to be doing laundry or playing with your kids…you need to read Getting Things Done by David Allen. See if your library has it. I bought a copy because the waiting list at the library was long!

Fabulous book that has made a huge impact for me in just a few short weeks!

Fourth of July

For the fourth we drove up to Prescott (about 50 miles west of Sedona I believe).

We are still amazed at the variety of climates here in Arizona. We started in 102 degrees, humid, sunny and hot! Along the way we encountered some storms and the temp dropped dramatically to 62 degrees! In just 20 more miles we were back into sunshine and 86!

Prescott is in the mountains and has the feel of a mid-western town with all the trees and architecture. We had a picnic at the Prescott Frontier Days and walked around downtown.

We left in the late afternoon to head back home for fireworks in Chandler at Tumbleweed Park near our house. It was a fun day but we were exhausted!

We were a little bummed when we realized the desert is too hot and dry to allow regular folk to shoot off fireworks. It never occurred to us until that afternoon that we hadn’t seen any fireworks for sale or heard anyone shooting them off. Bummer!

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Roosevelt Lake and Globe, AZ

For Father’s Day we took a day trip through Globe to Roosevelt Lake and Dam.

I personally did not see anything remotely interesting in Globe but maybe I wasn’t looking for the right thing?

Roosevelt Lake however was beautiful! We climbed up to see the ruins at Tonto National Monument but the bees were so bad we couldn’t get too close. It was quite a hike and pretty hot out but Evan was a trooper. The kids have their mini camelbacks and love them! We had a picnic by the water and drove around a bit more before heading home.

The drive back was very rustic! A single lane, winding gravel road on the edge of a mountain for about 30 miles! It took 2 hours but was beautiful. Oh, and we discovered Caitlin gets carsick :( poor thing got sick twice!

Here are the photos...enjoy (you can view all the pots in the slide show at once by clicking on the images).

Our Challenge for the Summer!

Since the kids are older now and we have so many great places to go in such close proximity, we've set some vacation goals for ourselves!

So far, we're planning to go to San Diego for a weekend and make several smaller day trips. Danny and I are also planning to take a weekend trip just the two of us for my birthday. The last time we went anywhere alone was January of '05 (and I would argue that Evan was technically with us then, too!).

The San Diego trip will be for Evan's birthday (a trip to Lego Land and the Aquarium) and for our weekend trip we will either be heading to Sedona or taking a kayak trip on Canyon Lake.

Even though the places are close, the cost is high! Lego Land tickets are more than DisneyLand, and for our weekend alone we have the added expense of having someone take care of the kiddos!

So - our challenge? To pay for the trips (or at least most of them) wtih funds from a garage sale we are planning in July. We've been clearing out the clutter like crazy and it feels so good to get rid of all the stuff we aren't using any more. We have many boxes we've never even opened after our move.

We'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Anniversary...to you!

That's 19 years!



Happy Anniversary!

Love from all of us:)

The Neverending Story

Since all of our family is out of state, (sorry – all but ONE of our family is out of state :) and we live in a black hole when it comes to mail service…Caitlin’s gifts will be trickling in all week.

Tonight she opened gifts from two Great-Grandmas…

   

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Gifts from Aunt Connie, Great Grandma Choo Choo and Great Grandma Casteel – THANK YOU!