The Storm I Didn't Chase

Every now and then during the Monsoon, I don't work. Surprise, surprise. And on occasion, there is weather going on close by on those days I don't have to work. What are the odds? Balancing home life, being a mommy and all that comes with that, going out to chase storms leaves a pretty small window of opportunity. Luckily for me, sometimes storms come near by and I'm able to witness some pretty cool stuff.

Still learning how to take the right photos of storms and clouds, it's amazing the beauty that can be seen from a distant severe thunderstorm producing strong winds and heavy rain. And paired with a sunset. That's epic!

I did a little post editing, but I'll show the originals too. This storm was south of Avondale, north of Gila Bend, August 27, 2013.

Original

Edited

 

Original

Edited

Original, black and white

Edited

Original

All photos are mine and were taken by me on a Sony DSLR camera. 

Breakfast Anytime {Monkey Bread

Breakfast happens to be my most favorite meal of the day. Scratch that, it's nearly my favorite meal ever. Of course, spaghetti and Italian is a close second. The point is, I could eat breakfast anytime of the day or night. So, having it for dinner is a pretty good way to end the day!

Sundays, or Saturdays, usually are a big family breakfast day (if I'm not at work, then the boys are fending for themselves. I try to make a pretty special breakfast, even if its just scrambled eggs. Waffles, pancakes and omelets are regular cast members. Monkey bread also makes an appearance from time to time. I didn't have a recipe off hand, so went straight from memory.

Monkey-See-Monkey-Do Bread

2 cans refrigerated biscuits

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

About 1 1/2 cups mixed sugar and cinnamon

A bunt pan, greased

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Cut each biscuit into 6 or 8 pieces (the smaller, the more bite size pieces you'll have). Place sugar and cinnamon mix in a bowl. Coat by rolling each biscuit piece in sugar cinnamon mix and place in bunt pan. Mix butter and brown sugar in microwave bowl and melt butter. Drizzle over cinnamon sugar biscuits. Bake for 30-35 min. Will be crispy on top, but make sure it's not too gooey underneath. Yum! Eat warm.

Easy peasy.

There may not be many leftovers if you live with boys, FYI.

                                 

                      

Hey Soul Sister, Meet Virginia

Summer concert series! 

Source

This summer I've been lucky enough to attend a good handful of concerts, and mostly accompanied by the lovely Jessica from work :)

Imagine Dragons, Gavin DeGraw, The Script, Train (saw these guys last fall, too!).

Great concerts here in Phoenix. Too bad they have to come when it's so dang hot.  105F in June for an outdoor concert. 107F in August for an outdoor concert. Luckily, we missed the 119F record heat day. That would have been brutal! The only good thing about that kind of heat, is baking cookies.

This was back on June 29, 2013. The official temperature recorded that day at Sky Harbor was 119F, setting a daily record. This is a capture from my phone. It felt that hot! Yowza!

Imagine Dragons concert at Comerica Theater in June 

Gavin DeGraw as an opener at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

The Script was next in line at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

Train as a finale at Ak-Chin Pavilion in August

All of these bands were so great to hear live. Imagine Dragons is a new fav group of mine and they have some really great, catchy songs that just make me want to sing as loud as I can. But I won't.  You're welcome.

Gavin DeGraw I'd never seen in concert, but now I want to see as much of him as I can. He's got a great voice! The Script I didn't know much about, but some of their songs I'd heard before. They surprised me and were really good. Train, of course, was no disappointment. This was the second time I've seen them in a year and I'm so excited I was able to see them. I'll admit, I'm one of the people singing as loud as I can (who cares?!) to every single song. They are all great!

I'm thankful to have a friend to attend these shows with. Thanks Jessica :)

Baking cookies in 116F degrees, in a car in Phoenix

Normally when it is hot outside, the last thing anyone wants to do is...anything outside. Forecasting temperatures can be tricky. Trying to figure out just how hot it will get. A degree or two can mean a record is at stake, a Heat Warning could be issued, and the general public don't like to see temperature values go up, up, up. Especially when you approach that 120F degree mark. That's just insane!

So, deciding to bake cookies in a car to see if it could be done, why not? Not something that you hear about people doing everyday. So this was done for a few reasons. One, why not? Try it out, see if it will work. Two, a reminder as to just how hot it can get in a vehicle in the summer. So many PSA's out there about vehicle heat and safety with children and animals, this could have been seen as one of those as well. If it's hot enough to bake food  then it is obviously too hot to leave animals or children in a car. Three, just how hot does it get in Phoenix? Well, it was mostly for fun. 

This was done back on June 29, 2013. Phoenix Sky Harbor (official observation location) reached 116F degrees. The next day, we reached a record high of 119F degrees.

The LA Times did a great article on this event, and you can read it here. 

Our Facebook post went viral, and nearly 100,000 people saw this. That was exciting and hard to believe! 

P.S. Have you 'Liked' The National Weather Service Phoenix Arizona page yet? Check it out!

A couple different news agencies caught on and wrote up some stories. Read about them here: 

Skye-AOL Weather

LA Times

The Today Show (by the way, it wasn't 2 guys!)

Cookies baking away

Cookies after they were baked. And yes, I did eat them!

Look closely and you can see my reflection!