seven years

a couple weeks ago e and i went camping for our seventh year anniversary. we drove to the mogollon rim for some cooler air and beautiful scenery {it was also our last weekend with rusty}.

we drove up on friday afternoon and set up camp. e and rusty went for a little mountain bike ride and then we had delicious tin foil dinners that night. early saturday morning e and rusty went on a 10 mile trail run in the mountains. after that we headed to willow springs lake. we hiked down to the lake and jumped in. it was so refreshing and fun {rusty even jumped in}.

after our time at the lake we went back to our site and then took off from there on a little hike to another lake {woods canyon lake} that we had been told had bald eagles nesting in the surrounding trees. when we got to the shore of the lake, the AZ game and fish department had high powered telescopes set up to check out the nest. there was a 12 week old bald eagle in the nest! and not 5 minutes later the mom bald eagle showed up too. we got to watch them together in the nest and it was one of the coolest things we have ever seen. to see those beautiful birds out in the wild was amazing. we stayed there for a good 30 minutes checking them out then headed back to camp. we had hot dogs and chili that night over the fire. sunday morning e went for a short mountain bike ride and then we headed home. it was another great anniversary spent camping.

Rusty

we found a new home for our cute rusty dog

it was really really hard and i miss him like crazy

i've shed quite a few tears which i'm mostly attributing to the hormones

he's in a good home with a new jack russell friend named rocko

how it all worked out is an answer to prayers and a huge blessing

i feel at peace but it's still hard not having him around

rusty filled a hole for us and it was so great to have him in our lives

the house feels empty. but soon we will have these babies here to fill it again

 me and rusty august 2002

 me and rusty august 2011

thursday thoughts

on monday i was sitting next to a woman in the doctors office that was 34 weeks pregnant. i was pretty much the same size as her. i'm only 24 week, fantastic right. here's a 23 week shot of my belly.

we saw the twins on monday. they are the cutest little skeletons around. it is so amazing and CRAZY that we are having two.

we're looking for a new home for rusty. so so so hard for me right now. which might seem silly but he just has this piece of my heart and it's hard to let that piece go. it also doesn't help that his face is adorable.

fyi: i don't have a bellybutton anymore.

here's the one and only cantaloupe from our garden. almost ready to pick and eat.

we're heading to UT next week and we're very excited! i am dying to get out of this heat, it is killing me.

barks lower canyon

on monday we went on a beautiful hike in the superstition mountains. rusty was so awesome. he wanted to be right up in front the whole time. part of the hike was in a creek bed and there was lots of boulder hopping and he hopped right along with us. it was a beautiful winter day in arizona.

12 thoughts before christmas

oh hello, here i am again.

we're busy and there's lots going on but just not anything that exciting to post on the blog. E has told me a couple times that i need to post something, but i've got nothing.

i would like to post some pictures of the house but i haven't taken any pictures of it yet. plus the kitchen hasn't got repainted and maybe it wont for a while. there are other rooms worth photographing but they're just not put together yet, like i want them to be.

i love having the rusty dog around. he is so funny. my favorite is how excited he gets when i get home from work and his little tail is wagging so fast that it makes his whole body move.

we didn't decorate for christmas and we didn't get a tree. so sad.

i'm really diggin this this this and this

we are going to CA for christmas. i am very excited to see my entire family. haven't seen them all together in a long time.

my favorite part about christmas with my fam... the homemade gifts. it is so much fun and i am very much looking forward to it.

i spoke in church last week. glad that's over with.

i love my job and my co workers, they are the best. like a second family, they are.

from one of my favorite books: "Mostly tonight I feel sort of lost and alone, like now I am up on a windy hill and looking toward a new direction where the wind never blew before. I am afraid to leave all that I know, nothing familiar will be nearby to keep me going. I will have to stand on the hill alone."

i got new contacts a couple weeks ago and now i can see. i also got a prescription for some glasses. i am deciding between these or these. thoughts?

a whole bunch

it was so nice to have five days off. i loved it and i spent most of it doing nothing which means i didn't complete nearly as much on my to do list as i should have.

but we did finish painting the master bathroom. we also hung the mirror and light.

we went to costco and target on black friday. but didn't buy anything... except for a costco dog.

we rented the new donkey kong and golden eye for the wii and tried them out. they were relatively enjoyable but not worth spending 50 bucks on each game to buy them.

i cooked my first turkey, along with some mashed potatoes/gravy, corn and rolls with honey butter. we ate our turkey dinner sitting on the couch and watching a movie.

we went for an ice cream run the evening of thanksgiving day. i kept telling E nothing was open but we found a CVS open and bought a carton of vanilla ice cream.

it was kind of lonely but a little alone time is always good.

we were thrilled with the utes win.

i am loving my new calling... YW secretary. great people and great girls. reminds me of redlands and the great leaders and girls i served with there.

i took rusty on a walk or run almost every single day. he loved it and i loved it.

and one last picture of the dog. here he is after the stitches were removed.

another one so soon...

here's the rusty dog when the drain was still in

here he is with the stitches, but the stitches come out today! 

we aren't going anywhere for thanksgiving. i will miss that family time but it will be nice not having to travel. i think this is the first time E and i have been alone on thanksgiving.

can't decide what i'm going to do. i think i'm going to get a turkey from sprouts and then just make some sides... like mashed potatoes and gravy, mmm.

i am determined to get some things done over my five days off. like re paint the master bathroom, finish unpacking/finding a place for everything, make some homemade christmas gifts and practice some photography.

not so much

i thought i'd be back to blogging after that last entry, but after nine days between posts, i guess i'm not. and my plate is full right now, so i doubt i'll be back again before another nine days pass.

last week i went to the enlighten: lite class by blue lily photography in scottsdale. it was fantastic. there were about 8 of us and wendy instructed us on all the basics. i finally feel like i internalized a lot of the photography lingo. i had an idea before of what everything was but i would always forget and then question myself. but now i feel like i truly understand it and how it works, which means i'm much more confident shooting in manual. it's very exciting because shooting in manual = better pictures. now i just need to practice.

my parents arrived (with rusty) on thursday night for a quick visit. friday started off fantastic. we went to the mesa farmers market and then to the riparian institute in gilbert for a little walk. after that we ate lunch at joe's farm grill {it was very tasty} and then headed back home and relaxed a little. in the late afternoon we decided to take rusty to a nearby dog park.

well, the dog park didn't go so well. rusty got attacked by a pit bull and E's finger got bit as he was trying to save rusty from death's grip. we ended up taking rusty to the emergency animal hospital and E to urgent care. E's finger is alright but sore and very bruised. rusty is one lucky little dog... he could've easily died. but the bite by-passed all major organs. they bandaged rusty up for the night and we took him home.

on saturday morning we took rusty to a non emergency vet and they checked him out again, decided to put a drain in the wound and stitched him up. while all that was going on {pretty much the whole day}, we went to the gilbert temple ground breaking, which was very nice {i drive by the site to/from work everyday, it's so fun to see the progress}. my parents left in the afternoon and we picked up cute little rusty dog from the vet. he gets the drain taken out today and the stitches out in another 10 days.

i am anxiously waiting for this week to end. I worked late monday and wednesday night and i can't wait to do absolutely nothing over the weekend. and then it's thanksgiving, which will hopefully be anxiety and stress free break from everything.