Flatiron

I know it's been another long break between posts, sorry, but you can keep in touch with me on Facebook. A lot of you have joined recently and it's been lots of fun seeing you on there. However, it's not a replacement for blogs and I know I need to be better about posting on here. I've debated on catching up on some past trips/events but it's really too much so I''ll go from here and hopefully I'll be better keeping my blog up to date!

I was suppose to go for a snowboarding trip up at Sunrise this weekend, but the snow conditions weren't so good and on top of that it was raining so we decided to cancel it for another time. Instead, I went with a couple of my friends to hike Flatiron up in the Superstition Mountains. I've actually never hiked all the way to the top before and have always wanted to.

It really couldn't have been a better day! The weather was a bit overcasted and the temps were in the 60's. At times we were hiking in the clouds! And the scenery, I couldn't believe how green it was! Absolutely breathtaking, it was like a tropical paradise in the desert.

We originally set out just to hike up to the basin of Siphon Draw. However, we didn't have any other pressing things to do, plus we were a bit motivated to keep pushing forward after Hot Guy asked us how far we were going. Turns out though, once we caught back up to Hot Guy at the top of Flatiron, he was there with a scout troop and a ring on his finger. Story of our lives!

For those of you familiar with Flatiron, you understand what a tough hike it is, but the views are so worth it. I'm sore today, my left ankle is a bit tight and achy after a nasty spill on loose gravel, I have bruises and scrapes down my leg , and gouged my right hand... but just look at the pics and you'll understand why I'm already planning my next trip back.

By the end of February the plants should start blossoming and based on how green it is right now, it should be absolutely amazing! I would highly recommend taking the kiddos out for a nature hike and enjoy the desert. There's a lot of other really easy hikes in the area and it's a great time of year to go.

Halloween

This year we decided to be superheros for Halloween. Suzanne was SuperFrog, Jenna was Sarah Palin, and I was ElectroStatic Girl. (A special thanks to Mel and Joey for their help in completing the final touches to my costume!)

(Yes, those are Joey's underpants I'm wearing!)

Jenna, Suzanne, and Ryan enjoying their free Chipolte Burritos. This is now a new tradition of ours. Chipolte will give you a free burrito on Halloween if you dress like a burrito or wear foil. Jenna made a tie with her foil, Suzanne made a bib in preparation to eat her free burrito, Ryan made a Gun for his FBI outfit, and I made a headband. We decided Chipolte burritos taste even better free!

My friend's family makes a big cardboard maze from refrigerator boxes in their front yard each Halloween. This was my first year experiencing it and I have to say I was pretty impressed. It took Ryan and I at least half an hour to find our way out and Suzanne and Randy were stuck in there for over 45 minutes! However, I will admit I did cheat a little. There was a small hole I could stick my head out and I was able to find my friend who gave us directions.

Status Update

Okay, so not too long after I had announced I was dating Brian, I broke it off. He's a nice guy and treated me well but we did not see eye to eye on some essential issues and I decided it was best to let him go. Just thought I should clear the air on any rumors I had created. Thanks for the encouragement and good wishes. This was for the best and I feel confident I made the right decision.

Sedona - West Fork Trail

10/24-10/25: This was a very last minute trip. I had mentioned to Mel how I wanted to go hiking in Sedona and see the changing fall leaves. She mentioned she would sell me some of their minutes at their time share. So a friend and I took off that weekend and enjoyed the cool weather and fall colors.

Fall Break

One of the perks of teaching is that I get a week off in fall. It's nice but also very necessary. Last year I went with a few friends to Hawaii. I didn't take off to some exotic getaway this year, but I relaxed, got some stuff done, and stayed away from my classroom even though I was tempted to go in and get some work done. So here's what I did:

Lakeside, AZ - As soon as the busses left, I packed up my classroom and headed out as fast as I could! A few of us took off that weekend to Suzanne's family's cabin up in Lakeside. I wasn't quite prepared for how freezing cold it would be and had packed a bunch of shorts. So I only had one pair of sweatpants, which I wore for the majority of the time. It rained and hailed on us Saturday, so we sat out on the porch for the majority of the time enjoying the weather. Unfortunately, Suzanne had stomach issues for most of the weekend and so I spent a lot of the time walking around by myself talking to Sara on the phone. Finally, on Tuesday she felt better. We hiked Mt. Baldy a bit and enjoyed the picturesque views and changing fall leaves. That was definitely a highlight of my trip and I would love to go back and hike it all the way to the end. Too bad we didn't have enough time.

Fall Cleaning - Okay, so I didn't quite get around to spring cleaning this year, but thank goodness I have a week off in the fall to make up for it. So I decided to clean up my files and bills. Apparently I found out it has been several years since I've cleaned it up. Oops! After a couple of days of serious shredding and reorganizing, I think I finally have some order to the mess. I never seem to know what to keep and what to shred. Heaven forbid something should ever happen to me and someone should have to go through my stuff and figure out my mess. Once I had all that completed, my next task was to clean my room. It's been a while since I've done some serious deep cleaning in it so that took some time too. I just wish I could keep it clean! ;)

As You Wish - My friend, Suzanne, and I took some time to paint some pottery. As You Wish is a fun little place where you pick out from a variety of unfinished pottery and custom paint it yourself. You pay a sitting fee where you have access to all their paints and supplies. The cost of the pottery depends on what you get. Suzanne and I painted several tiles, which are one of the cheapest items. The trick with painting pottery is that it's tough to tell how it's going to turn out. The color of the paint is very light but it changes when they fire it and the more coats you give it the more distinguish the color will be. It kind reminds me of taking pictures on an SLR manual camera using old school film. You don't really know how well you did until you develop it. But it's still tons of fun to do and totally worth it.

Wicked in LA - Sept. 20th

What a trip! I took off with this guy I barley knew and his two sisters and a friend of theirs. I ended up driving out late Friday night all they way to Buckeye to meet him at his sister's where I got to meet the whole family. In the course of that night, I went also to his house, to his parent's, and then finally to his other sister's house where I stayed the night. Wow, talk about overwhelming! We left Saturday morning and after getting lost in the city, fighting LA traffic, and stopping to get food and gas, we arrived to our hotel in Beverly Hills about 5pm. Unfortunately, that didn't give us much time to relax before having to get ready. Once again, we had to fight traffic and find something super quick to eat before getting to the show. With just seconds to spare, we literally barely made it on time before they closed the doors. Phew! This was my second time seeing this show and it definitely didn't lose its savor. When Alphaba sings Defying Gravity and is hoisted up into the air, I get goosebumps! After the show we were all still pretty hungry, so we headed to the Cheesecake Factory. I had this super yummy pasta dish and strawberry lemon cheesecake. Usually I find when a restaurant offers a wide range of cuisines, and The Cheesecake Factory has the most extensive menu I have yet to see, the quality of the food diminishes. However, I have yet to be disappointed with anything I've gotten there. So Sunday morning we all slept in and didn't leave our hotel till noon. We decided to go check out the mall across the street to see what it was like to shop in Beverly Hills. After a couple of hours, we headed over to the Wax Museum by the theater. I've never been to one before, can't say I was overly impressed but it was fun and made for some good pics. We didn't head out of town till early that evening. On the way back, we stopped at a shady convenient store and found one of the few DeLorians from Back to the Future II. It had the flux capacitor and even the Mr. Fusion! So of course we all had to take pictures of it. The man who owns it is doing a cross country trek and logging his journey on his MySpace (I believe his online alias is punchcard). This particular car wasn't actually used in the movie, because they only used pieces of it for filming purposes. I ended up not getting home till midnight and was pretty exhausted at work the next day, but I had a great time and it was so worth it!

Another way overdue update...

So it's been awhile. I know. But you gotta give me some credit, at least I post more often than Krista. ;) But a lot has happened in these past two months, so I figure it's time I post and update you all on the happenings of my oh so wonderful life.

Rumor Control:

For those of you who have heard the rumors, yes it's true, I've been dating someone. Although, I'm not quite comfortable giving our relationship a title yet or becoming exclusive, we do spend a lot of time together. He treats me really well, despite my indecisiveness, and tells me I'm beautiful. So for the time being, I think I'll let him stick around. ;)

Back to Work -

I'm back in the classroom! For those of you who didn't know, last year I didn't teach any classes. Instead, my job consisted mainly of administrative type duties as the Special Ed. Dept. Head at my school. My list of duties included lots of meetings, paperwork, emailing, testing, etc. It did pay me a little more, but the stress wasn't worth it and I really did miss being in the classroom. So far this year it's been good, sure the kids can drive me crazy at times, but for the most part they're lots of fun.

San Diego 8/8-8/10:

After an attempt to try to end things with Brian, we got back together a week later and took off to San Diego where he grew up. We left Friday evening and stayed with his grandparents, who made sure to make me feel welcomed in their home, though I quickly came to learn that grandma wears the pants in that family. Talk about feisty! On Saturday he took me out hiking, kayaking, boogie boarding, we watched the sunset, and then walked around the temple. We then woke up early Sunday morning to go to his cousin's homecoming, which was about an hour away. We spent the afternoon with his extended family and then headed back to the valley.

West Clear Creek 8/23-8/24:

Brian loves canyoneering and this is one of his favorite places so he thought it would be fun to drag me down there.

Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out the way he was hoping as I am coming to learn that I do not quite share in his love for this. Don't get me wrong, West Clear Creek is an absolutely beautiful place and I would love to go back, but he loves walking through the creek where as I prefer to stick to the trails. There was just something about constantly slipping on rocks and bush wracking that didn't appeal to me. He says he can get a better view of the scenery walking through the creek, but if we hadn't got back on the trail we would never had seen the hieroglyphics on the rock walls. :)

Zion National Park 8/29-9/1 -

A small group of us took off to do some camping and hiking up in Zion for Labor Day weekend. I had never been before and Brian was a little nervous to take me there in fear that I wouldn't like it either. I absolutely loved it! He had really wanted to take me through the Narrows but because of the rain and high chance of a flash flood, we decided it would be better to come back another time. Instead, we hiked Angel's Landing, Observation Point, and a couple of small hikes. The weather was great. It rained a little Saturday evening, and throughout Sunday, but nothing too much and for the most of Sunday afternoon it barely sprinkled. This made hiking really nice and not too hot. If you've never been to Zion, I would highly recommend it. It is absolutely beautiful and a very family friendly place with all sorts of hikes for all skill levels. There are free shuttles that take you to each of the trail heads from the visitor center, which is directly across from the campsites. The campsites have facilities with flushing toilets and a water spicket outside safe for drinking. You can hike as much or as little as you want, either way you'll love it. I'm thinking of even planning a big family trip there, but Mel and Sara think I must be crazy. So maybe it would be too much with all the little ones right now, but for those of you whose kiddos are a little older, you should definitely go. On the drive back we stopped at Horseshoe Bend. This was only a half mile hike to get to and absolutely breathtaking.