{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.

A year in photos

While I began this post nearly 3 days before the end of the year, work and loading all these pictures has taken its time and now we are almost a whole week into the new year. Wow, where did this whole year go? Time sure has flown by. This year definitely had it's work cut out for it, and a fine job I might say that it did. Sounds like I'm giving a report card to someone, right?! {Disclaimer: you may experience a lot of pictures ahead. You were warned.}

This year had many milestones and events that took place and that took Josh and I to a new place in our lives. We spent most of our whole first year of marriage in a new place with new people and new things and learned a lot! To start this year off, a lot happened in just the first two months! Even though our wedding was last September, our first anniversary was this September and it was a big milestone.

In the first two months of this year (Jan & Feb) I graduated (actually in Dec '09), got a job transfer/offer and had to move out of state for this. Woah, woah, woah, back the horse up. Out of state?! Josh and I both grew up in Colorado and have lived there our whole lives, college included. While we've visited other states, never have we lived anywhere else. And especially in a place where we knew NO ONE. What a better test of a newly wed couple for their 1st year of marriage then to pick them up and smack them down in a whole different state away from all of their friends and family?! It was and still has been quite the test. I must say we've had our tough times and our great times, and we've gotten through all of those together. It really strengthened our relationship with each other knowing that we only had each other and we had to rely solely on each other. We've dated and been together for 5 years and just 1 year of marriage. I'm so glad we were able to experience this together. Don't get me wrong, we both miss our families & friends back in CO INCREDIBLY, but we've started to call Arizona home.

Here are some photos from the year, some are out of order, but you get the idea.

Breakfast the morning before we left with some family

Some of our dear friends, who now have those beautiful baby boys, the day before we left

Last stop as we left Colorado

We visited my brother in Oceanside, CA for Easter in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

A trip to the butterfly pavillion in April

A trip to the Botanical Gardens in April

We moved in March

We moved in March

I made homemade ravioli's, one of my cooking adventures, May



Helped my brother move from California to Colorado in June, we're in Oceanside here



Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Yes, I jumped off that (this isn't me though) in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

Our first canyoneering trip in Arizona in June

The boys camping  in Colorado in June

The "titanic" boat incident, camping in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June

Visiting family in Colorado in June



Camping trip in Colorado in June



Josh being goofy :)

Lucy turns 1 year old in July

Steph & Erin get hitched in August

Along those same lines of moving to another state, how about the weather?! That is what I do for a living, forecast the weather. I absolutely love it and wouldn't change it for the world! Though, one of the things I do love about weather is the ability it has to change each and every day. You never know what the next day will bring. However, in Arizona most of the time the weather is exactly the same. No change. Who would want to forecast "Hot today, Hotter tomorrow"? I suppose the weather geek in me was excited to experience 114 degrees, but I'll be honest, it was brutal. And Josh works outside doing landscaping and irrigation so he felt it worse than I did, since I sit in a nice office. He sure has put his brain to work learning all the new plants and vegetation and the way things work down in the desert. Our condo now has multiple kinds of plants & cactus all over the place! Nonetheless, we survived our first summer in the desert!



Some other exciting things that happened this year for us: we got a couch! Yeah, yeah, laugh it out. We thought it was kinda funny too. We didn't have much to sit on in our living area. When we first moved we went out and got 2 chairs that recline a bit but didn't need much else just being the two of us.

We also went on our first real hiking/canyoning trip in June with some friends we met here in Phoenix. We went cliff jumping and hiking through a canyon up near Payson, AZ. What a blast!

For our first year anniversary we went up near Prescott, AZ and hiked, camped and went kayaking on a lake. So nice to explore parts of Arizona. Some of these places make it feel a bit more like Colorado in the higher terrain.

We have hiked South Mountain many times which is in Tempe, AZ right next to where we live. This is a huge mountain park and we haven't been able to explore it all but it is a great little hike to get your heart pumping.

Almost forgot, cooking! For some reason I got the cooking bug shortly after we moved. I think it was party due to the fact I didn't have anything else to do in my free time. I'd just graduated from college in December of last year and the lack of having to do homework and spend all my time at school had caught up with me. Plus, I didn't have anyone I knew to hang out with here besides Josh. I didn't have my Stephy to hang out with. So I began taking up cooking. I love cooking! I've always loved to cook, but over the course of this year I have really taken off with it. I love reading magazines with recipes, cookbooks, making my own recipes up and the list of daily blogs I read for cooking ideas and meals (and for pure enjoyment!) is quite long. I hope that I've inspired some others to go out and cook. It's really not that hard and a lot of meals can be made quick. You'd be amazed how quick I throw stuff together when I get home from work. Though my dishes may not be "Iron Chef" appearance approved, they taste pretty darn good!

We've also been fortunate to have 2 visits each from both sets of parents, we must be missed! On one of the visits this little bugger (picture above) came along, our nephew Kayden. His first real plane ride. We had a great weekend and loved having our families come out to visit us. The Dewey Hotel is open and rent is free, so plan your trip now! {However, you can't stay forever!}

Well as this post is well overdue and pretty long, kudos if you're still reading, I suppose I better head out.

We're looking forward to another great year full of adventures and so many wonderful things to come. See you very soon!

Holding Hands

I'm back and getting back on track. Haven't had much time lately with work and family/personal stuff to blog or be on here, but I'm slowly coming back and just in time for the holidays too.

Josh and I have had a couple great nights spending time together, including a date night last night which we went to a movie. We saw TRON in 3D, it came out last night. Great movie! Josh wanted to see it and I told him I'd go with him, I always do anyways, and man was it good. I am not a huge fan of the 3D movies, some of them are too much 3D-ness but this was great. Just the right amount. Some parts were normal 2D and then flying things were in 3D so it really was like it was coming out at you. We made dinner together the last couple nights and have just enjoyed each other quite a bit, talking, holding hands, staying up too late, which isn't a good thing since we are both up at 3:30a-4a everyday (for him everyday, for me it changes weekly)!

While I was out of town last week I haven't done much cooking or taking any pictures, so I'll be planning some great meals coming up! I do need to start taking some more pictures. I'm working on training for a half marathon in February, but having had a change of plans last week, I'm way off track. Gotta get back in gear! Work has kept me busy. Training, training, training. Almost getting my "training wheels" off and "flying solo" (pun intended) for the aviation forecaster desk. Things are getting a bit more easy and I'm getting the hang of things, learning more of the "norm" of Arizona's weather. I can't believe it's almost been a year since we moved, almost.

Lucy is doing good, being as crazy as ever. She really is like a puppy though. She follows me around everywhere I go, everywhere, including the shower. That is right, the shower. She sits on the counter in the bathroom as I'm getting ready in the morning, I even share the sink with her when I brush my teeth, since she has to drink out of the faucet. She loves sleeping under the Christmas tree back in the corner. Pictures to come of our tree as well.

Josh has been working but having some shorter days, yay! The cooler weather is nicer to work outside in; 75 degrees compared to 110! He's looking forward to heading up to the high country soon to get some snow action on: snowshoe, snow camp, etc.

It worked out so we will get to spend Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Morning together, before I go to work on Christmas Day. The last 2 years we've both worked on Christmas, and this year we won't have any family down here with us and we won't be going home for Christmas so we'll have to make our own Christmas together, which sounds good to me!

I suppose that is enough updates for now. I promise I'll get better with some pictures and be posting soon! Happy weekend all!

Out...be back later

I've been gone for a while from the blogger world, but I promise to be back soon! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and support.

Have a wonderful week to you all!

Empty Kitchen

Well not completely :) I just haven't been cooking much lately, and not much that is exciting either. Also, haven't taken any pictures. Ah, life. That is just it, life. Life has been getting in the way, geez. I've been working a lot and working on a lot. We've had visitors this month and its been fun but I need to get things back on track. Oh and I'm training to run a half marathon in February. I'm pretty excited about that and I'm going to do my best at training for it. By no means am I going to compete for a great time, just to finish and hopefully run the entire thing without walking or minimal walking is my goal right now. 

With all of that said, I will work on cooking up some more goodness and awesomeness, edible that is, and get back on track. Thanks for checking in and reading about all the craziness. Have a great weekend all! 

not my kitchen, though i wish! googled it

Christmas Chili

The only reason I call this Christmas Chili is because of a Christmas party that we've gone to since it started a couple years ago. At this party there has always been a chili cookoff contest and prizes were awarded. I never entered in  chili, I just wanted to go and have fun. But last year I thought at the last minute, why not? So I whipped up some chili taking a few different recipes and smashing them all together to kind of make my own and BAM, I won 2nd place! Granted, there were only 8 entries and the top 3 won, but still! The other chili's were awesome. There was everything from green chili, red chili, all-bean chili, no-meat chili, white chili, you name it. The theme to this Christmas party has always been Cowboy Christmas. It's awesome. Some of our good friends host it out in the country near Johnstown, CO and it is an absolute blast every year. Some years colder and more snowy than others but still a great time with great friends. That is one thing I am going to miss so much about being in Arizona this year. Might have to make this chili just to remember them all!

1 lb ground italian sausage (use ground beef for less spice)
1 onion chopped
1-2 cloves garlic chopped
1 green or rell bell pepper chopped (add another for more veggie if you like)
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1-2 cans diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

Add onions, garlic, bell peppers and a small bit of olive oil to a pan/skillet and cook for a few mintues until soft and onions are translucent. Cook the italian sausage (the secret ingredient!) in the same pan/skillet until cooked through. Now bring out the crock pot. Turn on medium heat, or low if you're going to cook it all day. Add the meat mixture and add beans, corn and tomatoes. **Here you can add more tomaotes if you like. I'm trying to remember if I added more, since I obviously did this on the fly and didn't write it down. Of course you can alter this and make it all tomatoes and no beans, all beans and not tomatoes, etc. Add the spices to your tasting and let it cook on medium for about 1 hour or low for 3-4 hours. I've been known to add more spice (fire) to my meals so here I think I added some hot sauce. Feel free to make this however you want. Like I said, I used many different recipes and ka-booshed them together to make my own.

a milestone along the path of life

"Birthdays are just another day to some..today, twenty five years ago, you had just drawn your first breath, had your first meal and enjoyed the warm comforting arms of someone who, would hold you in highest regards for the remainder of their life. That first hour was all mine and I cherished every moment. Even if no one around you is celebrating..I am. Love is an easy word for such a deep emotion." -my lovely mom

my birthday was on thursday. for me, i always look forward to my birthday each year. i don't think i'll ever be at an age when i don't get excited to have my birthday. while as i get older the parties are smaller and there is less 'celebration' going on, i still get so excited. the night before i find myself unable to sleep because of the excitement. just like before the first day of school, for me anyway. this year was no different. on my birthday this year i had to work, which i will no better and ask for it off next year. it wasn't bad having to work, it was nice to be with people on my day. my mom had flowers delivered to me at work, which was amazing. she is always so thoughtful and thinks of everything. this was the give away how everyone else found out it was my birthday.

josh and i both had a day off together, yay! so friday night we went out for sushi dinner. yum! we had different kinds so we could share and it was amazing. my favorite was all of them! let's back up to thursday. when i got home from work i changed and went down to the pool to sit out in the sun for what was about 30 minutes of sun before it set. i went back to the house and josh was home. he was busy working on making a cake (from the box, but still with love). i bought the cake mix and frosting and he said he'd make the cake. what started out as a chocolate cake soon became a marble chocolate + white cake, since the chocolate cake mix was not enough to fill the cake pan. topped with chocolate + peanut butter frosting (one of my mom's touches). yum-o!

while he was doing the cake, i had a little scavenger hunt to go on, how fun! with notes in random places around the house with each a little clue of where to go next i spent almost 45 minutes looking around. he did good! even had to go downstairs to the neighbor's door for one. at the end of the hunt was a small box with a necklace inside. on the necklace is a small pendant with a small diamond and a bigger opal, my birthstone. "the diamond is for our 1 year anniversary and the opal is for your birthday" he tells me. what a guy! the necklace was definitely well hidden among the clues.

after our sushi dinner night we got to spend the whole day saturday together, a very rare thing for us. we got up and went to the bookstore and had coffee. i think we spent at least 3 hours there roaming through books. josh got his usual plant-disease-cure-what-not-to-eat-or-plant-and-how-to-grow-it-your-self book and i of course got a cookbook which i'm so excited to try out some more food! we went home to get a bite to eat and headed to the movies to see the new jackass movie. very funny by the way, their movies always are. we enjoy them, however at times they can be a bit too much and gross, but overall a great laugh and a great time together. we then went to the store and bought a few needed items around the house and came home and played around with the house-items and headed to bed. it was a great way to spend a whole day together. we definitely need more of those!

as for the milestone....i feel like turning the corner to 25 will bring me a lot more. not that i had low expectations from before or high expectations for the future, but i feel like there is quite a bit more to come. i have no problem telling people how old i am and love the feeling of being the age i am. it's just a number after all, you determine how old you want to act and feel. most days, i still feel like i'm 13 with endless energy and opptimism and not a care in the world, of course with an adult lifestyle of bills to pay. and every now and then i have a day where i feel 21 and need to recover, try not to have too many of those! like i said before, birthdays are very special to me and i love the entire sha-bang that comes with them.

bring on the "quarter century", "halfway to 50", "only 5 years to 30", "got your drivers permit 10 years ago" lines....i'm loving it all!

Chipotle Chicken Bites

I figured it has been a while since I've posted some of what I've been cooking up so here goes. I admit, I haven't been as timely to taking pictures of what I've been cooking. Work has been so busy and I just get home and cook something up and eat it and head to bed. So I'll strive to get better at that. Besides, there are a lot more delishness dishes to come this month. Mainly due to our Thanksgiving on Halloween event. My parents & brother are coming to visit on Halloween weekend and since they won't be here to do Thanksgiving and Josh and I both will be working, we are going to do Thanksgiving on Halloween.

Anyway, on to what's been cooking...

Chipotle Chicken Bites with Chipotle Mayo Dip

I guess I should start off by saying having found these won ton wrappers back a few months ago I've used them for about any use I can think of. And they are perfect! I found a recipe that talked about making phyllo dough chicken wraps or something and it used an avocado dip of some sort....but I've been dying to make this chipotle mayo dip that my good friend Ari gave to me so I botched this recipe and made my own, sweetness!

1 1/2 lb ground chicken

1 package of won ton wrappers (30) though you may not need all of them

1/2 onion chopped pretty fine

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese **optional for those lactose intolerant people :)

1 garlic clove, chopped

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped and seeded (for more spice & fire leave some seeds in)

salt & pepper to taste

The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce can be found in the international cooking asile with pasta and mexican food, small can.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl combine chicken, onion, cheese (if using it), garlic, salt & pepper, and chipotle peppers using some of the sauce in the can. Mix all together. Using the won ton wrappers add a small spoonful to the middle and fold up sides. I make it so it kind of looks like an envelope or a 4 sided pyramid?! Depending on how full you stuff them, make sure they close all the way, will depend how many wrappers you use. You can always get more wrappers or use more meat. This would probably work great using ground turkey as well. Put the bites on a greased cookie sheet and in the oven for about 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Chipotle Mayo Dip

You can add a dab of this inside the chicken bites or just use to dip with. This also goes great dipping fries, tator totes, etc. in!

Equal parts Mayo & Sour Cream (about 1/2 cup each)

2-3 chipotle peppers seeded and chopped (leave seeds in for more spice & fire)

garlic salt, about 1 tsp depending how much you like garlic

lemon juice, about 2 tablespoons worth

Combine all ingredients into a food processor and blend. Wa-la! It is kind of a make-it-as-you-go type of recipe but I absolutely love it!

This snack can be made for a game day treat, an appetizer before a big meal with friends and family or eaten as a meal itself as we've done before. It's great, not bad for you (maybe a little but you can't tell), and fills you up without filling you out!