No Shoes Needed for this Walk

I try to make most of my posts slightly humorous with the hope of being entertaining so you’ll want to keep coming back and sharing with your friends so that eventually advertisers will be dying to place ads on my site and I’ll become famous and live off of my blog earnings (that’s the long-term plan anyhow, but don’t worry – I’m not holding my breath!). After over 20 posts, I’m writing my first serious post so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Also, the beginning may seem like I’m rambling but I promise that I do have a point…even if it takes awhile to get to it (Mr. C learned this a long time ago)!

Religion has always been a part of my life, a bigger part at times and very small during others. I grew up attending Catholic church and a Catholic school. My grandma was a wonderful role model for me. She devoted time every morning to her prayers and lived her life as a devoted Catholic. My father attended church weekly as well, as he still does. He even attends church in Arizona when he comes to visit. I attended mass weekly during school and then again on Sundays. I also had religion class daily at school and learned lots of “religious info”. While this gave me a great Christian background, I never really FELT what I was learning. I understood it but it never really sank in. I began to get lost in the rules and repetition. At some point I began to lose the real meaning of everything and seemed to just go with the flow.

In middle school I decided I wanted to be confirmed Methodist, in my mother’s church. The songs, sermons, people, and laid-back environment made me feel more at home. While my dad wasn’t thrilled, he did respect my decision and was pretty supportive. For the rest of high school I was very involved in the church, participating in the youth group, volunteering, and even going on a mission trip. I loved being active in the church but there was still something missing.

I moved to Arizona and fell out of my church routine. Mr. C attended regularly in the beginning of our relationship and so sometimes attended with him and his mother, however at a certain point we became lazy and stopped getting up on Sunday mornings. We had our ups and downs of church attendance, attending regularly for awhile and then taking “breaks”. Before our wedding we became more regular and were married by an amazing Pastor of our church. We started attending more regularly again a few months ago and had become pretty consistent.

My mother-in-law is pretty involved in many things, one being the Walk to Emmaus, a Christian retreat (to simplify). She had talked to Mr. C and I about going many times but we never really paid much attention (sorry!). She asked us again a few months ago. I had begun to feel like something in my life needed to change. I loved my family, my friends, and my life in general, but I still knew something was missing. Mr. C and I talked about the Walk and decided it was something we were interested in. I figured at the very least my mother-in-law wouldn’t ask us again! The men went one weekend and the women another so my mom had planned to come stay with me while Mr. C was away because I’m still terrified to sleep in our house (or any house for that matter) alone. It occurred to me that my mom could go on the walk to so I asked her and she excitedly said yes.

We didn’t know much about the walk, other than that it was 72 hours long, was in a church, and was supposed to be great. I’m pretty picky about some things, including my sleeping because I have a lot of issues sleeping and prefer to be in my own space, in my own bed. I also NEVER (I really mean never when I say this) go out without makeup on. When I had abdominal pains that lasted for two days, I refused to go to Urgent Care without first showering and doing my makeup. I ended up having my appendix out that day. So, I also worried that I wouldn’t be able to shower and do my makeup like normal. I know this last part may make me sound vain but I tend to worry over dumb things!

Mr. C attended the Walk while my mother and I were having our fun time in San Diego. He returned telling us that he had a great time, but not saying too much else. He didn’t want to give anything away and I didn’t really know what to ask. I did, however, make sure to get the low down on the showering situation which I was still super stressed about!

The week flew by and it was Thursday night before I knew it. I wasn’t sure what to expect and wasn’t too comforted once I arrived! I felt so out of place and there were only a handful of girls under 30. I was soooo glad my mom was with me (I know, I sound like a little kid!). As I left my husband and mother-in-law I was so nervous. I talked to a couple of women and started feeling better, although still a little unsure about the LONG weekend. One of the leaders gave a little talk that night and said something to the effect of us most likely not wanting to leave Sunday night. In my head I was thinking that I knew I’d want to leave Sunday night!

The weekend was amazing. Here, I’ll even capitalize it – it was AMAZING! I’m not going to detail all of the wonderful talks and experiences of the weekend because first of all I simply don’t have time for that…my blog would be pages long! Secondly, the best part of the weekend was that we lived in the moment, not knowing what was next and not worrying about anything so I wouldn’t want to spoil anything (since of course there are millions of people that read my posts LOL). I LOVED not being responsible for anything (well not much anyhow). The best way to describe the weekend is that it was filled with wonderful surprises, wonderful women who quickly became friends/family, and a chance for me to find what I had been missing. If the weekend had to be put into a box, I don’t think the lid could shut because the amount of love and prayers received that weekend couldn’t be contained. And, the leader had been right…I wanted to get back to my husband and my puppy and my bed, but I really didn’t want to leave. In the end I didn’t really care about my showers, the lack of makeup, or the snoring at night because the experience was bigger than all that (plus I had earplugs). And, I’m so thankful that my mother-in-law wasn’t too pushy but always remained persistent.

I’m so thankful that my mother and my husband went through the same experience at the same time. I never cry – NEVER. My co-workers call me heartless because I didn’t cry when I watched “The Notebook”, or really any movie for that matter (with the exception of Marley and Me where I sobbed). I think I cried 3 or 4 times that weekend, the most exciting one being at the end when I tried to explain what the weekend meant to me. I think I got about 3 sentences out before I started blubbering and making my ugly cry face in front of a rather large group of people. Even worse than crying is crying in front of a group! Of course everyone understood, no one laughed, and I think some were happy to see that I did actually show some emotion (the rest of the weekend’s crying was fairly low key and I spent the majority of the time simply smiling – I’m good at hiding things!).

Going from a retreat to reality was hard because talking about things is always easier than doing them. However, today I feel like a new woman, with a new mission. I have my priorities in order and at the top of my list is my faith, my family, and my friends (including those who I have yet to meet). I know I have a lot to work on but I feel like this past weekend was a great start/reminder. I don’t know what’s in store for me but I know that God will point me in the right direction. I recently discovered this song and love it so I’m posting a link to it. Enjoy!

San Diego #2

The main reason we went to San Diego was to visit the Zoo. I grew up visiting the Omaha Zoo, which is pretty amazing. The zoos in Phoenix don’t quite match the high standards that I’ve become accustomed to, although some of them do have great attractions such as feeding a giraffe. I love the San Diego Zoo because of the variety, their commitment to their animals, and the PANDAS! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of visiting zoos. I love watching the animals interact with their environments, the visitors, and each other.

We woke up early, got ready, and enjoyed breakfast at the restaurant at our hotel before setting off for the zoo. We found it pretty easily – I don’t think we even took one wrong turn! The zoo has a great bus tour for an overview of the zoo and then express bus stops to expedite visitors through the 100 acres of zoo land. We began with the express bus and then made our plan for the day.

We began by taking the sky ride to the other end of the zoo. While in line, an Indian woman struck up a conversation with us and she ended up riding with us. I felt pretty bad for her because it was a hot day and she had on lots of layers.  I think she decided to take the ride back and forth to cool off!  It was interesting talking to her and I became a sort of tour guide as she asked for suggestions of places to go.  I hadn't realized that I had visited so many attractions in California!  Unfortunately I didn’t think to ask her if she’d mind taking a picture of the two of us.

We heard that visitors could feed the giraffe from 12-1:00 so around 11:30 we hopped on the express bus stop #2. We hadn’t finished with the area we were at but figured we’d feed the giraffe and then head back to our original area. We made it the giraffe stop but the line was VERY long and we ended up just going back to where we started! It was nice to sit though so it all worked out.

Finally we headed over to visit the pandas. My mom hadn’t seen pandas (ever) so I was pretty excited. The father and mother were out but the baby wasn’t being as cooperative. Apparently the zoo keepers use positive reinforcement by allowing a window of time for the pandas to go to the exhibit. If they go out to the exhibit they are given extra treats. If they decide to not go to the exhibit they are not punished but are returned to the indoor area and are not “eligible” to earn treats for going outside for a set amount of time. The trainers then try again later. We waited for a few minutes but since the baby had not been cooperative, the window of opportunity was shut and we were told that the baby would be off-exhibit for awhile so we headed over to the elephant area. I love the elephants! I’m amazed by their trunks, playfulness and huge ears (possibly because I’ve been told my ears are huge and look like elephant ears). We visited the elephants, lions, condors, kangaroos, and then finally headed back to see if baby panda was out. The line was fairly long but soooo worth the wait. The father was making himself comfortable when we arrived (see below).

The mother and baby were both out and were chomping down on some bamboo. I don’t know what it is about these animals that just amazes me – maybe it’s their mickey-mouse-like ears, the way they use their paws, or their playfulness. Either way, they are the cutest things ever, even the adults. The baby was showing off and I got a few pretty good pics. Here are a couple of my favorites.

We visited the meerkats in the afternoon and had fun watching their pop their little heads out of the many holes in their enclosure.  I began having whack-a-mole flashbacks.  There's one meerkat who acts as a lookout.  The others watch him and if he (or she) senses danger, the others are alerted and quickly scurry into their holes.  While we were watching them a plane few overhead.  The meerkat on lookout duty alerted the rest of the cute little meerkats of the huge danger that was lurking.  So heroic!  It was super cute to watch and I got a great picture of the lookout as he monitored the plane.

Our feet were exhausted around 4 so we decided to call it a day. We were on the Monkey Trail which ran into the Hippo and some other trail and couldn’t find out way out, even with the map! Luckily an employee walked by and pointed us (and another couple) in the right direction. I mention the other couple so you understand that it wasn’t just us having issues!

We went back to the room and cleaned up. The plan was to head to Ocean beach so we could say we saw the beach and then to find a little café around there to eat. Mr. C and I have been to many beaches around L.A. so I figured the San Diego beaches would be the same. I guess I should have done more research because the beach was not what I had expected. It was dirty, full of smelly kids smoking while skateboarding (yes, I do understand that this statement makes me sound old). Perhaps we went to the wrong part of the beach but neither one of us were too impressed. We hung out for about five minutes and then quickly walked to the car in search of a better area. I drove for probably about 15 minutes, having no clue where I was going. We tried using the GPS system to find a mall or theatre since we assumed there would be restaurants around there. Eventually I came up with the brilliant plan to search for an Olive Garden because wherever an Olive Garden is, there will be more places. We found one but didn’t like any of the surrounding restaurants to decided to head back to our hotel. We entered the info in and found out that the hotel was less than 2 minutes away. After laughing about our amazing navigational skills, we drove to the hotel, parked the car, and walked across the street to a great Mexican restaurant for dinner. The evening would have gone much smoother if we had simply done this in the beginning but it made for an unpredictable evening.

The next morning we headed to the Desert Hills Premium Outlets and did a little shopping. I even picked up a few Christmas gifts! The trip was great and although I love my dad and Mr. C, it was wonderful spending some one-on-one time with my mom.

San Diego Part 1 (#97 from my 101 in 1001 list)

Wow, it seems like forever since I’ve blogged!  When I sat down to write this I wasn’t sure I even remembered how to write a post!  Obviously I figured it out.

The past couple of weeks have been insanely busy!  I barely remember the day my mom flew in for her ten days with me/us but I do remember looking forward to it. 

My mom’s arrival marked the beginning of our girl’s only vacation.  Thursday night I arrived at the airport early and waited for her plane to arrive.  I don’t know anywhere better to people watch than the airport.  Wal-Mart might be close but I think the airport wins.  On the way there, I saw a man going to pick someone up on a small motorcycle.  Perhaps I ask too many questions but all I could think about was where the luggage would go.  Did the passenger not take luggage?  Do they have to carry it on the motorcyle?  Do they strap their suitcase to their back?  I was dying to know! 

I arrived at the gate, found a spot and got comfy (as comfy as you can get in the airport chairs).  After a few minutes a girl, her mother, and her very tall boyfriend sat in front of me, completely blocking my view of the passengers arriving.  I strained to look around the VERY tall boyfriend while listening to the girl’s high-pitched voice as she went on and on and then on some more about her shoes, her makeup, her day, and anything else about herself that her poor mother and boyfriend may have missed.  Apparently she was going to meet her boyfriend's mother for the first time.  She reminded me of Snookie from Jersey Shore so hopefully his mother is a fan!  I prayed my mother would arrive simply because I’d have a reason to get up (I did also want to see her for other reasons)!  Finally I saw her!  We got the luggage, found the car, and I managed to only take one wrong turn on the way out (remember that I’m directionally challenged).  The TomTom GPS and I are BFFs.  I don’t know what I’d do without that thing.

I was grateful my mom visited for a number of reasons.  The first was that it was wonderful to see her.  Second, there was an insanely fast, large spider in the kitchen that made an appearance the night she arrived.  Had I been completely alone, I may have stood on the couch all night waiting for the spider to leave.  Unfortunately for the spider, my mom was there and was able to "take care of him"...if you know what I mean.   Lastly, it is CREEPY being alone at night.  Every little noise makes me think that there's an intruder.  I don't know what my mom could have done had an intruder broken in but I was very happy to not be alone.  I do think that between my mom, myself, and my super scary dog, we could have defended ourselves!

I had to work Friday so as always my mother put herself to work cleaning what I hadn’t cleaned in our house (which wasn't much).  I am not offended one bit by her cleaning, however I do feel bad that she doesn’t just relax!  I joke (is it a joke if it’s true?) that our sliding glass doors never get cleaned unless she does it.  I’m sure it will be covered with puppy nose prints by the next visit.  She sewed buttons back on the numerous pairs of shorts Mr. C needed fixed that I had been avoiding, and cleaned things that haven't been touched since we moved in such as the lights that have to be reached with a ladder.  It was wonderful!

Saturday morning we started out for California at 6 am.  We decided to stop at Burger King for a quick breakfast on the way.  Freeway exits were closed and I was not yet accustomed to our new (and apparently improved?) GPS system.  It took us 45 minutes to find Burger King.  45 MINUTES!  Did I mention that we were still in Phoenix at this point?  Luckily the rest of the drive went much smoother and we arrived in San Diego around noon.  We drove around until we ran into an area with a ton of cute little restaurants.  Unfortunately I did not take pictures (remember how my thinking isn’t straight when I get hungry?).  We found a wonderful café with fresh sandwiches  and salads and had a great lunch.  Then we headed over to Balboa Park to find a parking space which we figured would be a piece of cake.  I think we may have been able to bake a cake in the time it took us to find where to park and then a parking spot!  Somehow we finally found a spot!  While it was a ways away, it gave us a chance to walk by the dog park, over a beautiful bridge, and through some flowering trees (not literally THROUGH the trees but you know what I mean!). 

I had been to Balboa Park one time before, however we went in the evening when everything was closed so we didn’t really see much.  Nevertheless, I fell in love with the park.  I love the beautiful, old architecture (I was a design major after all), the flowers, and the people.

After parking and walking, we only had a few hours before the park closed and decided that our time would be best spent at the San Diego Natural History Museum.  Neither one of us had been to a museum with dinosaurs before so we both were pretty impressed!  My favorite thing was the ginormous shark hanging from the ceiling.  I need one of those in my living room.  On second thought, he wouldn’t go with the décor but I still think it's super cool!  To sum it up - we learned a lot, saw some cool stuff, watched a 3D movie about dinosaurs, and just had fun doing something different together.  I’m posting a few of my favorite shots on here.

The last time I went to San Diego with Mr. C and Max Emerald (my BFF’s blog code name) we stumbled upon this AMAZING Italian place.  When I say amazing I mean that this is probably the Italian food that is served in heaven.  We had been driving around after a day at the zoo.  Max Emerald and I were in the front and Mr. C in the back, and I was in the mood for Italian.   We had no idea where we were going and I got us a little lost.  After having to reverse down a hill because I couldn’t turn around, and then almost driving into the FedEX landing strip, we somehow stumbled upon a restaurant with the cutest little outdoor patio.  Miraculously the restaurant was Italian!  We all agreed that it was the best Italian food EVER.  The restaurant is Jack and Guilios and obviously I recommend it.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.  So, because of the amazingness, it was obvious that I had to take my mother there.  We checked into our hotel and were happily surprised to find that it was within walking distance of the restaurant.  Our hotel layout was confusing and we again got lost that day, this time in the hotel!  We did manage to make it to the restaurant eventually and it was sooooo worth it!

 We ate outside in the beautiful weather next to the fountain.  My mom and I had planned to have the same thing so after she ordered I said I’d have what she had.  A few minutes later I found out that she had changed her order and I wasn’t getting what I had really wanted (the names were hard to pronounce if you’re wondering how I didn’t figure this out earlier).  I decided to just stick with it and when it arrived it tasted wonderful as well.  Unfortunately I did not think of pictures at this point either so I cannot show you the amazing food but I can tell you that the pasta was freshly made, the sauce was full of garlic, seasoning, and the food was just plain wonderful.  After dinner we wandered around Old Downtown San Diego, listening to the music on the street, stopping for ice cream (not a healthy night obviously), and buying jewelry from a very unique boutique. 

All in all, the day was great even though we had a few navigational challenges.  I had been planning to write about both days but I guess I had a lot to say so I figure this will have to be a two parter.  Up tomorrow - the San Diego Zoo with some very cute panda pics!

#38 and #39

I used to imagine myself sitting at home during the snowy winters, curled up on the couch knitting beautiful scarves.  There are a number of issues with that picture.  First off, I have no idea how to knit.  Second, I live in Phoenix where it never snows.  I guess I could buy some of that snow in a can stuff, cover my windows, and crank up the air conditioner in an attempt to Nebraskaize (yes, I did just make up that amazing word) my house.   

I should actually say that I HAD no idea to knit.  After years of waiting, I have finally learned how to crochet(close enough)!  Since I really only cared about making scarves and things, I’m subbing crocheting for knitting in my 101 in 1001 things.  Right after finding out that my friend would take me shooting, I discovered out that she knew how to crochet also AND was willing to teach me (yes, I know – it was a weird conversation that these two things came up at the same time)!  She grabbed her hook and yarn and by the time I left an hour or two later, I had an idea of what I was doing.  Now, I’m not the most patient person in the world and I’m pretty sure I would have smacked myself if I had been the one teaching myself to knit (this is assuming I’m two people – the teacher and the student) so it's honestly impressive that she was able to teach me.  I’ve been practicing ever since.  Lucky for me, I got a lot of practice because I kept doing things wrong and then I’d have to undo it all and start over.  Well not really lucky for me, but I'm trying to look at this as a glass-half-full thing.  A few times I missed a stitch and the scarf was lopsided.  One time I just completely made up a new method of crocheting which wasn’t really a method at all.  I’m pretty sure I've crocheted the same scarf at least three times now.  It’s not actually done yet because at a certain point I just couldn’t stare at that color anymore.  I finally picked another color and somehow though I managed to complete one!  I’ve actually done three by now (sorry, I’m falling a little behind with my blogging!) and I'm posting some pics for your enjoyment.  It's ok, you don't all need to comment on how wonderful they are :)  If you don’t look too closely they look wonderful!

Scarf #1!

This weekend my mom and I are heading to California for a girls-only trip so you’ll have that next post to look forward to!  She'll be here all week keeping me company while Mr. C is away on a retreat for the weekend.  If you've been reading my posts you'll understand why it's just common knowledge that someone had to come stay with me.  I might be 25 but I'm still terrified of staying alone!

It's Fall Damnit!

Fall has always been my favorite season.  Unfortunately for me, the weather of Arizona seems to be unaware of the season of fall.  Growing up in Nebraska, I loved the change when the days become cool and the nights could only be described as crisp.  The trees would change to beautiful, rich colors and even the sky was transformed to something more beautiful at night.  I enjoyed curling up at night with a blanket and my delicious, hot apple cider that’s only available during the fall season.  I better be careful, it sounds like I’m writing a poem here.  Let me now tell you about the season of Fall in Arizona.  After temperatures over 100 last week, I can report that today the high was only 97 degrees.  Did you catch that  key word - ONLY!  I don’t know about you but 97 degrees screams crazy summer heat to me rather than cool fall temps.  After waiting and waiting for something to change to make it feel like fall, I decided last week that it was going to be fall.  I put up my fall decorations, changed out the summer Scentsy and candles to cinnamony smells, and began dressing like it was fall.   The first two items on my checklist went alright but the last one didn’t really work the way I had envisioned.  I wore a tank top with a cardigan sweater to work one morning.  I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion on the way to the car.  Apparently my “it’s going to be fall whether it likes it or not” decision didn’t really change anything and only resulted in me looking like a fool who was in denial about the crazy hot temperatures. 

I was feeling a little down that I was the only one celebrating fall and then on my way to work I saw this beautiful tree whose leaves were changing.  All of the trees around it were green and then there was this single tree with orangeish leaves.  Apparently this tree understood my frustration and it too, decided that it’s time for fall.  This was the best picture I could take without getting run over or walking a distance.  Enjoy!  Hopefully the other trees and weather will get with it soon!  In the meantime, my tree friend and I will just keep on pretending.