Life Aside From The Kitchen

Life does go on outside of the kitchen, as hard as that may be to believe with all of the food posts I post. Rarely do I just post about random things anymore, so not to confuse that I do have a life outside the kitchen. While that has become a good new hobby for me, there are other things I do. For starters, I have a full time job and career as a meteorologist. Starting out my career there is a TON of training, and that is an understatement. Taking on this challenge has been a non-stop, deer-in-the-headlights feeling for most of the time, but nonetheless it is going well.



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With any new experience there will be a lot of training and if you know me you know that I love to learn new things. I recall a time in high school during a Geography or Spanish class while sitting towards the back and having friends in the class we would pass notes and talk and at one point I turned to the guy next to me and said "Shhh, I'm trying to learn". How funny that seems now to say that as a High Schooler but it made complete sense in the big picture. I was not one to ditch classes or school. On senior ditch day I believe I came to school and got extra credit for being one of the few that showed up. I can remember the one class period I ever ditched, one and only during 4 years of high school. It was spanish class and I skipped with two friends to go to one of our houses, since we all lived so close, and have lunch. Woo-who rebels!

Anyway, the new job/career is going well. I'm a science nerd at heart and love all things weather. My passion for space weather is still quite present, as I check spaceweather daily. Coming to Arizona for weather, my first words were "Arizona has weather? Sunny and hot, repeat 365, right?". While this has been true 96% of the time since I've been here, I've come to learn Arizona has a different kind of weather. Most people may not think that heat is any significant weather, but when the thermometer reaches upwards of 112 degrees (or more) I'd consider that 'weather'. The impacts are different than I would have though, having never experienced temperatures above 101 before in my life, except in visits to Las Vegas. Other weather that has happened in Arizona have been the "freak" rain storms and this last Hail-of a storm last Tuesday, which looks to rank among some of the craziest weather that has happened here since the 1980's. By "freak" I mean sudden, fast, quick and not very severe/long-lived. Also, since being here the skies have been 98% clear. Upon moving here in March, I think it was until June that I didn't see a single cloud in the sky. That is very rare for this Colorado girl! As much as I love summer weather, clouds are a necessity to have in the sky for beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

If you're still with me, congrats. I know this is a pretty random and ramble of a post and I thank you for sticking with me!

Lately we've hung out with our neighbors downstairs, Jenny, Todd and Bertnee, and also our neighbor across the way, Sean, quite a bit. They are all such great people and have really been good friends to us. Outside of work for both Josh and I, we havn't made too many friends so to have people we get a long with and have a blast hanging out with that live so close has been a blessing.  Speaking of work friends, Josh has made a couple buddies at his work along with the guys that work for him. He's really broadening his Spanish and learning new ways to communicate. He's also feeling the stress of being "in charge" of guys and thus having to be on the phone and deal with more drama/stress. Such is life though, right?! And for me, after a long while of feeling "out of place" at work, I'm finally feeling like I'm fitting in and being accepted. Making a few friends at work has definitely helped. It is nice to have conversations with people at work that don't necessarily deal directly with work, I'm human too! So for that I'm thankful that some have taken me under their "wing" and befriended me.  It can be hard; you don't always get along with people you work with nor do you really have to, you just have to be able to work with them. For me, it sure has helped to get along with the people I work with.

Looking forward to the next few months of "nicer" weather and the opportunity to do more outdoors now that it won't be scorching hot. Will be interesting to see what the holidays are like here. As it stands now, it looks like we both will be working through all of the holidays so we'll just make our own holiday on another day, no biggie. It would just be us two anyways. Hard to believe its been over 8 months since we've moved here, time sure has gone by fast it seems.

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Keeping up with everyone back home and all those babies being born. Holy cow, baby city! Let's see if I can count how many babies have been born since we moved. Steph B., Rebekah D., Ashleigh K., Kristi, Leota B., Alicia D., Katie M., Jennifer M., Susan S., and on top of that 3 more women are pregnant and due very soon! It must have been something in the water, but I'm so happy for all of them and all those babies!

Just a little randomness for now...I'm sure I'll have more for later :)