Flagstaff

Last weekend Josh and I went to Flagstaff to visit some friends. Yes, there actually is snow in Arizona. Who knew? And Josh had so much fun in the snow, he's decided he wants to live there forever. Psych!

We brought Josh's dad's quad with us.  (BTW, down here in AZ its a quad-not a 4-wheeler.  Duh).

 

Can anyone guess what they're trying to spell here?  (Hint:  It was Josh's idea and is starts with 'p').

Snow Angels

The coolest snowman ever

A video of Tyler smashing the coolest snowman ever with his quad. (Again:  Josh's idea)

Funny Story...

My department at work decided to have a secret santa between the staff this year.  The rules for secret santa were that you were supposed to buy five little presents ($5 each) and one big present ($15) for the name you drew.  I decided to not be a Secret Santa because a) I would end up with 6 cheap presents that I did not want b) I would have to find the time to buy 6 crappy cheap presents for someone else, and c) we're trying to conserve money and $40 is a lot of money to spend on someone you only see at work (aka: I'm cheap).

So then the next thing I know, one of my co-workers put my name in the drawing anyway, even though I had never said I would participate.  So I had to them her no thanks I don't want to do this, but it was too late, they had already drawn names.  Then they had to make this huge announcement in front of everyone that I wasn't participating.  As if that wasn't enough, the person who drew me wasn't there, so they wrote it up in HUGE letters on the blackboard that LAURA IS NOT PARTICIPATING IN SECRET SANTA AND WHOEVER DREW HER NAME NEEDS TO GET A NEW ONE.  And then left it there for a week.

Awesome.

Talk about feeling like the scrooge of the office.  

My life must be boring. . .

I've been sitting in front of my computer for 20 minutes now trying to think of something, ANYthing, to post about.  And the only thing I came up with was the one of my psuedo-child Maggie below.  Something exciting/interesting/not-normal had better happen soon so I can update my blog!  

My sister-in-law took this picture of Maggie over Thanksgiving. Seriously.  Cutest dog.  Ever.  

Last night I woke up to this big thump on the floor.  I could vaguely remember rolling over and hitting something with my hand.  So I looked down and there was poor Maggie, looking dazed after I basically threw her off the bed.  Poor girl.  And now I know that once we have kids, we will not be a family that co-sleeps.  As my family and all of my roommates know, I cannot be responsible for what I do when I'm sleeping.    

"These mashed potatoes are so creamy..."

"Mary mashed them!"

It's December now, which means it's officially Christmas! And that means it's time to break out the classics:  Elf, Home Alone, and While You Were Sleeping.  One Christmas I had the flu and watched Elf four times in one day.  It was awesome and yes, I still love the movie.  

The only problem is that most of these Christmas movies are chic flicks and Josh is the only person I have to watch them with.  So all I get to hear is "That is so fake!" "Seriously, why do girls like this?"  and on and on and on.  Yay.  And this is the reason I rarely make Josh watch movies with me.  Sigh.  Anyone wanna come over and watch "White Christmas" with me?  

I may have accidentally put up the Christmas tree last night. Oops. Too bad we don't have any ornaments yet. It's also too bad that when I bought it last year, I was still thinking tiny-cramped-apartment-with-no-room-to-walk as opposed to large-empty-front-room-that-still-has-no-furniture-of-our-own-in-it. Oops again.

Camping Pictures

I finally remembered my camera! We went camping with some friends at Canyon Lake. Very different from camping in Utah, because there are like NO trees. But we were right on the lake which was pretty cool.

Here's Maggie on her very first camping trip: She had a hard time figuring out how to not get tangled with her leash.

Tinfoil dinners-Yum!

Josh always falls asleep early

We went fishing in the morning-sort of. It only lasted for about 30 minutes before we got bored and left.
So there was our first camping trip. We finally got to use our lantern and sleeping bags. Can't wait until next winter.

We're headed out the door to go camping. That's right. Camping. Because it's still like 80 degree down here. To all you Utah people dealing with a foot of snow...HA! But don't worry-I'll take some pictures!

Trick or Treat!

So I got to give out the candy to trick or treaters on Halloween this year. For the first time. Ever. In Manila, we lived too far out of town for people to come to our house, so this was definitely exciting. Except for one thing...

Apparently it's common for adults-full grown ADULTS-to go trick or treating as well. First they send their kids up to the door, then they follow holding out their pillow cases. None of them spoke a word of English and I was too scared to say no. I always said I would go trick or treating until I was 80, but I didn't actually mean it. It's just weird. And it kind of makes me mad.

Confession:

Scrubs makes me cry. A lot.

Wee-Zur

Josh loves, loves, loves Weezer. I had never even heard of them until college. Some kid in class mentioned that he was going to Weezer that night. So I piped up "I have a friend from Weezer!" meaning Weazer, ID. And then he looked at me like I was an idiot. Because I was. Even after I found out about Weezer the Band, I still wasn't that big of a fan. I mean, they were ok, I guess.

So last weekend we went to the State Fair to watch the Weezer concert. It. Was. Awesome. I wish I had remembered my camera :( Seriously, best concert ever. And Josh has never been so happy.

The rest of the fair was great, too. Hamburgers-$30, Parking-$20, More mullets in one place then I've ever seen before-Priceless.

I'm still allergic to Maggie

And I'm driving Josh INSANE because I clear my throat/cough about every 10 seconds. So--anyone have any advice? Or should I say, does anyone want the cutest puppy ever? :(

Wake-up Call!

A few weeks ago, Josh woke me up in the middle of the night, saying that someone was breaking in or had broken into our house. For those of you who were my roommates, you know I don't wake up very easily. So naturally, I tried to roll back over, telling him it was nothing. But Josh gets up and goes to our bedroom door, so I panic and decide to believe him. At this point we have no idea if someone is actually in our house or not. Josh goes to the top of the stairs and yells in the loudest, deepest voice I've ever heard heard him use "GET OUT OF HERE!" and then calls 911. In the meantime, I'm running around upstairs, looking for something, ANYTHING, that we could use as a weapon. Shirts, pants, a pillow? A shoe? How about my straightener? Would I have time to heat it up or should I just whack them with it?

In the end I grabbed Josh's plastic, wimpy guitar stand and tried to give it to Josh so he could use it if we needed. I say tried, because I conveniently managed to place it directly behind him, so that he turned around and tripped over it--not once, but TWICE (3 am, remember?). By this time we had figured out that someone was not in our house yet, but was knocking on the door now. Anyway to make this incredibly long story just a little bit shorter, the cops came, it was some totally wasted chic who lived on the street next to us but got confused, due to her inebriated state.

So, even though it ended up being nothing, Josh and I have been feeling very insecure in our new house. We live at the end of the cul-de-sac and our property borders the backside of a strip mall, so really anyone could hop our fence. It's crazy how this one little event, which really was nothing, totally freaked us out. I can't imagine how we would be if something actually did happen.

Fall Break is awesome because:

1. Shopping
2. Sleeping in (well, until 6:30 when Josh leaves and then I have to watch the puppies)
3. Judge Judy everyday
4. I get to laugh at Josh and text him during the day to remind him that he's working and I'm not
5. More shopping
6. Finally, a clean house!
7. Naps in the middle of the day
8. Lunch with friends

Fall break=Awesome!

What is it about high schoolers and hygiene?

Seriously, sometimes I can't help but dry heave. Do they not know how to shower? Can they really not smell themselves? It's not just one or two-it's almost all of them. And my office stinks for hours after they leave! Is there any nice way to tell someone they stink? Blech!

The Thrilla in Manila

So since Josh had never really been to my hometown before, I decided to was time for him to experience Manila. And it was AWESOME. Manila is a tourist town, so there are always lots of people around for holidays, especially Labor day. We got to see the town parade, which lasted close to 30 minutes this year. I think it was because the Manila Tractor club was in the parade. They had to stop and describe every single tractor. We also decided to float down the Green River. It's more of a fishing river, but there are one or two spot where a little water gets in the raft.

Of course, I didn't take any pictures on this trip, so I just have a couple from other cameras.


After Manila we went and visited our friends Heath and Jay. Always good times with the Rickters. Ola Amigos!

Anyway, that's the last of our summer Vacay pics. I think it's time we went on another trip.

Maggie's first haircut

I came home last Friday and saw this rat running down the stairs to greet me. Then I looked again and realized it was Maggie. Josh had cut her hair and she was so bald! I seriously almost cried. But now that it's been a few days, I guess she's still kind of cute. And she doesn't look as much like a rat, either.

Look! I have eyes now!

I love it I love it I love it!

Josh and I have been looking for a piano for weeks now. We finally found one that we liked on Craig's list. Only problem was that it was in Payson, which is about an hour away. So, to make a long story short, the seller eventually told us that if we could get up there and move it, then it was ours for free. And now we finally have one piece of furniture in our front room. Baby steps, right?

Oh and just in case you were wondering, we still have a broken A/C unit. Just thought I'd keep you updated. Grrrrr.

I have no eyes!

And I like to eat toy flowers.

Seriously, is she not the cutest dog ever? And her fur is turning brown around her mouth. Weird huh?

An update on some vacays

I've been a lousy blogger lately. Oops. Josh and I took a couple of trips this summer, I've just been too lazy to post them.

First, we took a trip over to San Diego with Josh's parents to visit his bro's family. Maggie is so lucky that she even got to go with us. She's a good travel dog. She usually just sleeps that whole way and then wakes up when we get there. Which, really? It's the only way to travel.

Can you believe how big Maggie has gotten? 4.3 lbs. already!

Seriously, I love the beach. We definitely need to go more often.

Josh and I also went to took a trip experience the awesomeness that is Manila. Of course I'm too lame to remember to take pictures (I stole these pictures from other blogs) so I'll have to wait until I get copies of everything before I post. But be excited, because it was just that awesome.

So the A/C drama. It continues

Josh and I called our home warranty on July 31 to get our A/C unit fixed. And we are still waiting. So far we have had four different A/C companies look at this stupid thing. Seriously? Do these people not realize what it's like in Arizona in the summer?

The first company that came out was so mean on the phone that I fired them. The next guy was great, but he got hurt like three days after he looked at our unit.

So today I was called the warranty company again and was told that this last a/c repair company quoted us $5000 to get the a/c unit moved from the attic, in order them to even start working on it. Yay for us, the home warranty won't cover that part. Great. Which explains why the previous owners of this house never got it fixed. So, it looks like we have to get yet ANOTHER company out here to see what can done, since I don't believe that $5,000 crap. Just to put a hole in our ceiling? Give me a hammer and I'll do it myself. Grrr. Good thing the temps have lowered down to around 100 now. It's better than 112 I guess.

Next time I book a flight for a holiday weekend, I'll be sure to actually verify the date of the holiday, rather than assuming the I know when it is. Cause it kind of sucks to get to the airport and find out that you booked your flight for the following weekend. Yeah. Oops. Luckily we managed to change our flights and they only charged us $88. I love Southwest. They didn't charge us for our luggage. And we got seconds on our drinks. For FREE!

"Are you a student here?"

Pretty much the best question you can be asked on your 26th birthday! Especially when you work at a high school.

I go back to work full time on Thursday and I am really not excited.  I think I should get to be a stay-at-home dog watcher, don't you?

Anyone who's lived me knows that I lose a lot of hair from my head. Ridiculous amounts.  Josh complains about it because it gets stuck in his RC car wheels and then they can't drive straight.  I feel like I vacuum every other day.  So, a couple days ago I was playing with Maggie when I noticed a hair on her chin.  I tried to wipe it off, but then started pulling and pulling on it and ended up getting one of my 18 inch hairs from her throat/stomach.  Yuck.  

Hopefully she'll stop hacking and coughing now.

Family Time

The King's had their family reunion at Zion National Park this year. Everyone was able to come this year, including the two newest additions to the family, Maggie and Bear. (BTW, everyone loved them, because they are SO CUTE. Especially Maggie.)

We stayed at this awesome cabin, hiked around the Park, and stayed up all night playing Rock Band and Bananagram (the best version of scrabble ever).

Here's the whole family, complete with our cute dogs!















Aw, what a cute family!:



















One night we had a pie eating contest. Here are all the contestants:















Here we are after the contest.



















Maggie is scared to death of water. But Josh finally convinced her to get her feet wet in a stream. She was barking and crying the whole time.















We went on a hike and our niece Sophie was posing at every chance she got. Perfect model!



















So, family reunion = fun. We should do this again sometime.

I knew it, I knew it! Josh and I got callings today and I have the exact same calling as our last ward-Sunday School teacher for the 14 and 15 year olds. Grrrr. The only difference is that in our last ward, I knew it would only last for a year, cause we were planning on moving. But now it could be years before I get released this time!

And Josh pretty much has the same calling as well. Except this time he's the cub scout leader. Hehe. We'll see how he does with all the eight year olds!

So today in church we had to give talks on the pioneers. And in the program they listed me as Brother Lars. That's never happened before. So funny.

Maggie finally learned how to climb up the stairs and was so excited. So Josh decided to teach her how to get down them. She started at the top and made it down two before she rolled the rest of the way down, hitting every stair. Poor girl, I just wish we had recorded it.

Our bathroom smells like campfire.

And we have no idea why.  Any ideas?

Maggie has arrived!

Josh finally got his anniversary present and she's so cute! Look at her, how can you not love this face (this coming from a person who hates dogs)?:


We'd been looking for a puppy for awhile and when we went to go pick her up, we kind of bought her brother as well:

They look like two black mops.

Luckily, Josh's brother said he would take the boy for his family. Here's our nephew holding his new puppy, "Bear":


Every time he had to put the puppies down, he'd complain to us, "But I'm strong!" It was pretty cute.

Maggie is so lucky, she even gets her own pink water and food dishes. Just so everyone knows she's a girl.

So we got a toy poodle because they're supposed to be hypoallergenic and they don't shed. Plus, she's small enough to not drive me insane. But unfortunately, I get hives every time I touch her and I sneeze about 20 times a day now. We bought some allergen shampoo today so hopefully that works.

We've gone to church one time in our new ward. ONE TIME. Tonight I got the phone call. And now I'm "subbing" for the 14-15 year-old Sunday school class on Sunday. GRRRR!

I'm basically unemployed right now.

So why, you might ask, haven't I been blogging more? Well, it's like this. My life is so consumed with Judge Judy, Montell, and Maurey, that I simply cannot find the time. Ok, that's not entirely true (except for Judge Judy), but it is amazing how I don't want to do anything when I have so much time! But seriously, the house still has so much to do. We're still not done painting and every time I walk by the mess that is our storage room I want to cry cause it's pretty much all my stuff that I don't know what to do with! It is nice to have a break from work though...

I'm working in a high school next year. And I'm a little bit nervous. Last year I worked at a school with grades K-8 and one day I had to go upstairs, but I could hear all of the eighth grade students out in the hall and I was too scared to go up there, so I hid in a doorway until they were in their classroom, so how on earth will I survive in a high school with over 2,000 students where I have to pass them in the hall EVERYDAY? AAHHHH! (and how was that for a run-on sentence?) Someone told me that everyone will just think I'm another student. And that was just about the best compliment ever. Because I'd like to think that I still look like I could be in high school.

Ok, ok, I'm back

After having at least 20 people (well, like 3) complain to me about not posting pictures of our new house, I finally decided to do something about it. So I grabbed my camera and went around the house.

Our first project was removing our weed trees. Here is our backyard before:















(I know they don't look like much, but they were seriously bigger than me. Like trees I tell you!)

And here is our pretty backyard now!

(well, "pretty" except for the massive dead spot of grass. We just can't get it to turn green!)

We decided we were too lazy to paint all of the house, so hired a painter to take care of the front room and kitchen/family room area.

Before:















The red almost looks good in this picture, but it really wasn't. Every single wall was red and it was a crappy paint job.














And now...
















(yeah, the kitchen still needs a lot of work. Ugly yellow cupboards. Blech! We're hoping to remodel for Christmas).














Isn't it so warm and homey? And we love our new couches (Finally! After two weeks of sitting on the carpet).

And this is our storage room. We realized the other day that we had unpacked most of our stuff, but we don't have a single empty box. I still don't know where we got all this crap from!
















So, I still need to do tons of decorating and get some color in this place! Jules--you planning on coming out here to help? You promised!

Pictures of the house are coming soon.

I promise.

Things we've accomplished in our new home:

1.  Pulled the GINORMOUS weeds from the back yard.  My legs still ache.  Seriously, some of them were the size of trees.

2.  Met our next door neighbor, who after watching my struggle with the weed-trees, offered to let me use the weed trimmer.  Of course, I had to do it the hard way, so kindly rejected her offer.

3.  Spent 3 hours cleaning the master shower, tub, and counter.  Didn't even get the tub or floor.  Dis. Gust. Ing.

4.  Spent 6 hours prepping/painting about 2/3 of the master bedroom.  Not including the baseboards.  That's one room.  We have a whole lot of painting to go.  Anyone wanna come over and help?  

5.  Removed the fridge to discover a new definition of filth.  I almost threw up.  

So this house is turning out to be a whole lot of work.  But I think we're both happy we got it, especially since Josh gets to improve his 'handy-man' skills.  And when it's done we're hoping it looks good.  But right now all I want is our soft, squishy, shag carpet to get here so I can walk around barefoot.  That's right, we got shag style carpeting.  And I have never been more excited.  

One year...

Holy crap, where has the time gone?  Josh and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday.  Since it was on a Sunday, we couldn't really do much.  Church, friends, a nap--the ususal.  But Saturday and Monday were the real celebration!  On Saturday Josh and I spent the morning choosing carpet for our new house! And on Monday we signed the paperwork and made it official.  What a great anniversary present.  

Speaking of anniversary presents, I feel like I should share with everyone what I got Josh, cause it's kind of a big deal for me.  I gave him puppy food, pee-pee pads, a dog bone, and permission to get the puppy he's dying for.  And now I think it's going to be me who dies.  Yes, I guess there will be an animal in a house of mine.  I never thought I would ever agree to this, but it's crazy how marriage can change you.  So now in addition to paint shopping, we get to go puppy shopping as well.  

An update on the house

We're supposed to close on Thursday! Except Josh will be out of town, so it will be Saturday or maybe Monday.  And I'm so excited!

A post full of nature...

So we've lived at this apartment complex, Lakeview at the Bay, for almost a year now.  And it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that we realized that it was named that for a reason and that we actually live on lakefront property. Lakefront! Here in Arizona! Who knew?  And so a couple weeks ago, we spent a lazy sunday out at the lake.  See how pretty?:

Josh saw a turtle at the bottom of the lake, which luckily was only about 6 inches deep, so he was able to catch him:

(can you even consider this a lake when it's that shallow?)

The poor turtle was so scared, he wouldn't even eat the tortilla we gave him:

Josh wanted to keep the turtle, but I told him I was allergic to turtles.  And dogs.  And cats.   So we decided to feed the baby ducks:  

Anyway, I decided it was time to post again, so you get a story about ducks and turtles.  

We got our house!

Maybe.  Sort of.  We think?  So our offer on the house was accepted.  And we're supposed to close on May 15th.  But this is a short sale and everyone warned us that short sales could be difficult.  The bank just barely came back with some addendums, or whatever they are, which meant our inspection had to be pushed back.  And they still haven't turned on the water or the electricity for the inspection, which means it could be pushed back even further.  So hopefully everything will work out so that we can start moving by the end of May.  Wahoo!

We've already started looking at carpet and paint and a fridge and a washer/dryer and new cabinets and I'm so excited for some new things!  No more crappy apartment!  So anyone wanna come down and help us paint??  Julie, Heath, Mom, Dad-you know you want to!

Is anyone else kind of disappointed in the new Office episodes?  I think I've laughed like twice.

I have this image of myself as being much stronger than I really am.  For whatever reason, I've always wanted to appear as though I'm really tough--even though I can't lift 50 pounds.  When I was in college, a group of friends and I went on this canoe trip.  60 miles canoeing down the Green River.  They warned me it would be hard, but I just laughed-60 miles on a river?  How hard could that be?  Yeah, so it didn't matter who I was with, my canoe was always in last place.  And by the last day no one wanted to be my canoe buddy because I was such a wimp about it and eventually just stopped paddling all together.  

Some people in our ward take this trip down the Grand Canyon every year.  18 miles.  In one day.  All the way down to the bottom and then straight back up to the top.   My response:  "Wahoo! Sounds like fun!"  See how happy I was before we started:

Here's the whole group.  The leader, Ed, made us all hats that said "Club Ed" on them.  They were awesome:

One hour into the hike and my legs started shaking.  I kept on twisting my ankles, I packed waaay too much stuff in my camelback, and lets face it, I'm just a wimp.  I was pretty much done after the first hour.  And this was all on the downhill part, which was supposed to be easier. Here's how sad I was after twisting my akle for the 50th time: 

(I can't figure out how to rotate this picture, so you're going to have to turn your head)

When we got down to the campground at the bottom, we saw everyone else setting up their tents, getting ready for bed.  And we hurried and ate our hot dogs (I ate PB&J) and then packed up to go right back up the mountain.  It was basically 7 miles of stairs to the top.  My legs have never hurt so bad in my entire life.  When we finally got back to our motel at 1 am, I couldn't even lift my legs to take my shoes off.   It was about three days before I could walk without limping.   

More pics from the trip:

It was definitely pretty, but was it worth it?  Maybe, but I'll never do it again!