{The Arizona Journey Continues}

Wow, hard to believe it has almost been a year since we made the big move from Colorado to Arizona. We officially left the great state of Colorado on this date, Feb 28th, of last year and moved in to our now home in Arizona on March 6th. Time sure has gone by fast. Along with the post I made here about the new year and year in photos, I won't bore you to death with all of that again. Yes, you can thank me.

This year has definitely had its' ups and downs, but we made it.

 A lot has happened this year NOT involving us. While we've been away...Let's see if I can get this right... 

9 of our friends have had babies this year {Stephanie, Rebekah, Jennifer, Ashleigh, Leota, Alicia, Shannon, Susan S., Katie M.-cousin}. 
One of our cousin's {Holly} got engaged. 
Our sister {Steph} is expecting baby #2 and her and her now hubby got married {Steph & Erin August 2010}. 
Numerous friends graduated from college {In May & December}.
My brother {Jimmy} finished his 4 year active duty in the Marines and moved back to Colorado from Oceanside, CA. 
Some friends and family celebrated their little one's 1st birthday {Isabella-Mark & Sarah; Connor-Cassie & Nate}, there may be a few others I can't think of now.




As for Josh and I...
We survived our first 114 degree day (3 days in a row).
We survived the overnight temperature only getting down to 94 degrees. 
We survived an electric (air conditioning) bill over $200.
We are still surviving winter with green grass, wearing t-shirts, light hoodies (I knew I could wear some of them again!), flip flops year round (but I did that in Colorado anyway) and NOT having to shovel snow or scrape the windows in the morning.
We enjoy having a swimming pool, outdoors mind you, to swim in year round. 


I'm sure I've missed one or more things here...sorry! I hope you all have had a wonderful year as well. We sure have missed all of our family and friends and love hearing about all that is going on with them.

The News is Public Now...

After flying home last weekend to tell our parents and close family members the news, which had been a secret since January 11, the news can now be public.

Yes, Joshy and I are expecting our first child in September. I will be joining the Mommy-hood club! We are super excited. I'm kind of surprised that we were able to keep it a secret for so long, and man was it HARD! I wanted so badly to tell my mom, but we both decided it would be so much better to surprise them in person, and it turned out great!

It was kind of neat to have our own little secret for a while too. We both were able to soak in the excitement for a while just the two of us. I had written a little blurb on blogger, but saved it as a draft, of the day we found out and the next couple of days or so, just documenting how it all felt and went.

I love reading other blogs of women who are pregnant and now realizing how it will affect ME down the road. I love those! I can now say that as of yesterday (the 26th) I am 11 weeks along. We are due Sept 15. Hard to believe I'm already almost 3 months pregnant?!?!?! Wow, when you say it out loud like that it is a bit strange. I'm so excited to experience pregnancy and become a mom. My sister in law Steph is 7 weeks ahead of me with her second child, so I will have someone to be pregnant with.

I'll start posting stats and questions and pictures soon enough. We're so excited to talk to everyone about it now. I know, it's been a secret for a while, but it was just because we had to fly out to Colorado to tell everyone.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

{Never Alone}

May the angels protect you
Trouble neglect you
And heaven accept you
When it's time to go home
May you always have plenty
The glass never empty
Know in your belly
You're never alone

May your tears
Come from laughing
You find friends
Worth having
As every year passes
They mean more than gold
May you win and stay humble
Smile more than grumble
And know when you stumble
You're never alone

Chorus:
Never alone
Never alone
I'll be in every beat
Of your heart
When you face the unknown
Wherever you fly
This isn't goodbye
My love will follow you
Stay with you
Baby you're never alone

I have to be honest
As much as I wanted
I'm not gonna promise
That cold winds won't blow
So when hard times
Have found you
And your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you
You're never alone

(Chorus)

My love will follow you
Stay with you
Baby you're never alone

So when hard times
Have found you
And your fears surround you
Wrap my love around you
You're never alone

I absolutely love Lady Antebellum! Such strong words in a meaningful song.

{Fabulous Friday} and remembering last year

Happy Friday everyone, TGIF to you! Unfortunately today is my Monday and at that I'm working overnights so my Friday is done by 7am today! Either way, it is still Fabulous.

What are all of you doing this weekend? Celebrating Valentine's day? Going out of town? Anything exciting? Besides working and sleeping strange hours, I don't have anything planned. 

Looking back to this time last year, we spent our Valentine's day weekend moving. Moving 3 blocks. We moved out of our rental house to Josh's sister's house only 3 blocks away. We had to do this because we were getting ready to move from Colorado to Arizona and had to be out of our house early. So we lived with Josh's sister and her husband and our nephew Kayden for about 2 weeks. How fun! We love them and miss them so much. Hard to believe it has almost been a year already...time flies.

Visiting Arizona for the first time, finding a place to live. February 2010.

 

Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to all!

Breakfast for Dinner on my "Friday"

In my rotation for shifts Tuesday was my Friday so Happy Weekend to everyone that is not having a weekend! I'll enjoy mine for you. However, at the end of my "weekend" I'll be working overnight shifts, so there's where it turns around for me. None the less I'll have another "weekend" in the middle of the week next week. Confused yet?

Anyway, I was wanting to make breakfast for dinner for a while now and did so on Tuesday evening for my "Friday night dinner". A while back we had scrambled eggs with broccoli in them at our neighbors house and oh man were we turned on to something new and delicious. It does sound strange at first, but if you like broccoli then you'll love scrambled eggs with broccoli in them. It's also a healthy twist on breakfast. A great way to start your day with those green veggies we all need! Or in my case, start my weekend on Tuesday!

So I chopped some broccoli from the big stem and sauted them in dairy free butter for about 3-5 minutes until you could smell the broccoli and it was fairly wilted. Next I added in the eggs and scrambled them. In the scrambled eggs before I added them to the broccoli to cook I added maybe 3-4 teaspoons of Wheat Germ--protien and vitamin D (if I remember right). There isn't much taste with this small amount, but the taste is fairly light and slightly nutty. I love this stuff!

In the pancake mix I added cinnamon and vanilla extract and about 2-3 teaspoons of flaxseed--fiber and other nutrients. I love adding vanilla and cinnamon, it gives the pancakes (or waffles) a GREAT flavor!

The bacon was actually Turkey Bacon from the store and I baked the strips not fried. Baked at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes. Not as crispy as I'd like, a little on the chewy side, but it turned out great! I've been hooked on turkey bacon for quite some time now and don't think I could go back to regular bacon.

All in all, it was a pretty light and healthy twist on breakfast and it did not disappoint!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday tomorrow!

Winter Weather Anyone?

The whole state is nearly purple! No that doesn't mean there is a haze or lingering gas leak, just a Winter Weather Advisory and the pink is Winter Storm Warning, mainly in the mountains. Impressive, 1 degree in Denver at 9am.  When at 9am here in Phoenix we were nearly 55 degrees WARMER than Denver, sorry Coloradans!

Some current weather observations around Colorado and surrounding states from 10:23am this morning. It's still only 3 degrees in Denver and Greeley...Yikes! Looks like the snow is continuing throughout much of the state and into Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas. Ah, winter time! Meanwhile it is getting up to 58 degrees here just after 10am...really I'm not trying to rub it in. I do miss the snow, and this whole 60 degrees in February is SO strange to me!

Stay warm everyone! 

Kitchen Rewind!

I've been lacking posting recipes and dish's that I've been cooking so I'm going to send it all at you at once--it will get your mouth watering and hopefully spark something for you to make for dinner this weekend or this coming week. Enjoy!


Regular and Whole Wheat pizza dough made from scratch

 

Homemade Baked French Fries--need to perfect this!

Ketchup & Mayo to dip the fries in--pretty good!

 Turkey meatballs in General Tso's sauce



Italian Taco Casserole--Y-U-M!

 



Deep fried soy sauce & chili sauce marinaded chicken potstickers

  I think one of the best thing about all of these dishes is: they were all homemade and made on the fly following no recipe. I just looked in the pantry and the fridge and saw what I had and went with it. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it doesn't. The french fries I need to perfect, they were a bit mushy but still got the job done and tasted they way I had wanted.  There was also a dish I made that I didn't take a picture of, hamburger casserole. This turned out pretty good and now I know what I would change next time I make this. The Italian taco casserole is amazing and I've made it numerous times now with different noodles and it turns out great.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Stay warm--most places are pretty chilly out there! One thing I don't miss about living in Colorado is scraping my windows before I drive away or shoveling snow. Phoenix sure did have it's share of cold weather this week though. However not as cold as -30 degrees, 30 degrees is quite cold for the desert!

I'm not a big NFL fan or follower, but I'm excited to watch the superbowl after work tomorrow just purely for the commercials and half-time show. That's all I ever look forward to!

Got Cold Weather?

Most of the country, at least East of California (yep, that's most of it) is under very cold weather. Here is a glimpse of what may be happening around your area. Starting with where I'm at: Phoenix. Our high temperature tomorrow (Wednesday) is only supposed to be 49. In Phoenix, that is extremely rare. I know other locations aren't seeing their high temperatures above single digits.

Stay warm everyone!

Phoenix, AZ