Finally an update. Yay!!

Crazy how time flies. Can't believe we are half way through February!! Well where to begin. I last posted in September where TJ had a job a Cabelas and was still making school seem so easy. And of course for me Walgreens is the same. :) In October my mom, grandma and sisters came to visit for the weekend. It was so great to see them and enjoy a weekend of relaxing. It was right before TJ's birthday so we also had a fun night out to dinner with lots of laughs. A few weeks later TJ put in his notice and left cabelas. He loved the job, it just wasn't worth the drive after they cut him down to two shifts a week. Thank goodness not too long after that he was hired at the Planet Fitness gym a few miles down the road. What a blessing that has been. He was hired a week or two before thanksgiving and they were so great to let him leave since we ha plans to be home for Thanksgiving weekend. The day before leaving to head home for the holiday they informed TJ that he would be the assistant manager when he returned to work. So awesome!! Spending time at home with family for the holiday was so nice. I wish we could've spent more time. It was a very eventful weekend trying to catch up with everyone. We also got to welcome Casey's girlfriend Syd to the family when he proposed that Saturday. We had so much fun. Since returning to school and work life here has been non stop. We are hardly ever home and Christmas came and went so quick. Tj did get in a car wreck and we got a nice dent in the truck but besides that all is well. And it wasn't his fault which is even better. I'm just grateful for insurance. A big thanks to all our family thinking about us over Christmas. It was so weird to not have to go anywhere or not have family around but for our first Christmas we had a good day. Tj brother Casey came down to visit for a week in January and it was good to spend time with him. The week was so crazy with work schedules and it came and went so quick but we all enjoyed the time we spent together. Not a lot has happened since then. We go through every week so quick it seems. Tj is up and gone by 630 every morning and not home again until about 9pm and I work throughout the day. We get to spend Friday nights together and Sundays. And that's the only time we are home. I enjoy teaching primary every week. Some weeks harder than others but I'm glad TJ doesn't mind helping me. My sister will be here in a week and I'm so excited to have a weekend off with her. TJ is still doing great in school and why not when he loves going to school. He's learning lots and having so much fun. I'll try to get some pictures posted too but I feel this update is long enough for now. We miss everyone back home but we will be back to visit soon.

Yay for September

Well where to even begin? Once again I went a month without updating and I told myself I was going to try harder to stay on top of this. Sorry. August was a very eventfull month. TJ has been super busy with school yet still doing such a great job and bringing home wonderful grades. He also finally got a job and is enjoying it alot. He is working at Cabela's at the gun counter running forms and background checks for those who want to purchase a gun. It's kept him very busy but I'm excited for us to both be making money. 

He has also been so helpful to keep up on the yard work and keep the house clean. Yay! We have had some great lightening and thunder storms, a few a bit dangerous, but very cool to watch. One night the wind broke a huge branch from the biggest tree in our yard and it crashed down almost onto the car port. Thank goodness for the car port and our yard gate or it would have fallen on the hood of TJ's truck. I really enhoy it when it rains because it smells so good and actually cools everything down a bit. Hopefully there is more to come. TJ and I have also enjoyed watching the dust storms roll in. Only until they get close of course but it looks really cool to watch. This is one of the pictures we got while driving trying to beat the storm. 

 Walgreen's is getting busier as we start into back to school and the flu season. I did get my flu shot and taking all of my vitamins so I should be good. Ha. I also got a small raise and now that we are into September we got an increase of hours so bring on the 10 hour shifts. Good thing I have this holiday weekend to relax and prepare for that. I also found a doctor here that is very good. He started me on a new medicine for all of my headaches and I have been so impressed. Things are starting to look up once again. I think last time I mentioned our ward and my calling in primary. Oh what did I get myself into. Haha. We did our Sacrament talks and that went well and now the whole ward knows who we are. Controlling my wild and crazy primary kids however seems impossible. I teach by myself since I only ever have four kids at the most. All boys and occasionally a girl visits our class but that's maybe once a month. The boys are so wild I sometimes wonder why I even prepare a lesson. We never get through and they never seem to care. I never thought that church could be a workout.

This month along with busy school and work schedules our washing machine broke so I had to order a part and TJ fixed it for me. Thank goodness the part was in stock and I have a very smart husband we only had to go a few days without doing laundry. We don't have tons but TJ only gets two school shirts and two work shirts so laundry is continuous for us. We have found some great recipes and enjoyed cooking together. One thing that we love to do together is cook. We even had a great night that cooled off so we got to try out our dutch oven. TJ had a family recipe and once it was all done it was like our own version of Rumbi. I loved it because I miss Rumbi food so much. He did a great job and the smell of charcoal and camping smoke was nice to enjoy.

One night we had made cookies and had the tub of frosting on the stove top. TJ had helped me clean up the kitchen and change out the dishwasher. Our kitchen is not very big and there is limited space to move around. After that I was sitting at the kitchen table working on my primary lesson when I started to smell something funny. As we started to head up to bed I told TJ it was getting worse. It kind of smelt like fire but nothing strong. We looked inside and outside then thought it maybe was just coming through the AC from somewhere. As we turned out the lights to go upstairs I figured it out as I realized the smell was burning plastic. I looked again and found the light to the stove on and it had heated up the thing of frosting. While putting dishes in or out of the dishwasher TJ had bumped into the oven and hit one of the knobs for the back burner of the stove. I'm so glad we caught it or the small black burn mark in my hot pad and the frosting container would have turned into a bigger mess than just melted. Of course we laugh about it.

We are still enjoying our humming birds. One day I was getting a tan while keeping TJ company as he worked on his bike when all the sudden we look over and there was the humming bird trying to eat. He came back a few more times and once we were a bit more quiet and still I finally got some good pictures. Enjoy! I love seeing these birds here all the time.

While TJ was sitting on his bike the bird would eat then look up and peek around the glass to look at him then eat again and repeat. It was funny  but so fun to watch too. Well I think that about does it. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend. We miss everyone but are getting use to it here more and more. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Thanks for keeping up with us. Hoping September brings great things to everyone as I know it will for us. Love ya all!!

Another Month Gone By

Wow I can't believe it has been another month already!! Week to week seems to go by so slow sometimes but then you look at it and it's already August. I guess that is a good thing, means we are a little more settled and staying busy right? Well good news, TJ finished his first block of school with a 98 percent and ended with a perfect score of 100 on his last test, and now finished his second block with another 98. He is doing great in school and just loves it. He also just recently got a job with Cabela's at the gun counter. I'm so excited and grateful. He will start that on August 12 with a few days of training then be put into the schedule. Yay!!  We have seen quit a bit of rain and storms and heard of a lot of flooding in the area. I'm so happy we kind of live on a hill. We found a few leaks in our town home but the owners were very nice to quickly get a handy man to come check it out and fix everything.

We wanted to show really how small he was so this is a penny in the jar with him

We don't do a whole lot on the weekends but tend to our tiny yard and clean. Last weekend I tried to plan a cheap date and go play mini golf in Scottsdale. I was so excited and we had a great time for the first 4 holes, then it started to downpour and wasn't going to let up any time soon so we went home. Ha at least I tried. That Saturday TJ decided to fix some sprinklers, cut some of the trees in the yard and spend almost the whole day outside killing bugs and catching them and enjoying the heat while I stayed inside and cleaned the house. He found and caught the tiniest baby lizard we kept it in a container for a few hours to look up what it was then let it go again. Hopefully he survives the dang birds. 

TJ had to set up his tent for more shade while fixing the sprinkler under this bush. And you can see all the tree branches and flowers he cut to make our yard look nicer. Hopefully with some of the branches out of the way our grass will get some water and grow better too. I have no idea what he would do without a yard to mess with. He would go nuts with nothing to do. 

Our new ward is great. We had the opportunity to help a guy in our ward (one of TJ home teaching families) move a new couch into his apartment. He was very kind and it was a good day. I got called to the primary to teach the ten and eleven year old class but haven't got any information from the president yet. We also have been given our speak in sacrament assignment for the last Sunday in August. It's definitely different but everyone is very nice.
Work is getting better, I have my days but who doesn't. Walgreen's is going through some major changes, some good and some not so much, I am grateful for all I did and learned at home because I do have a bit of an advantage over the other techs. It is suppose to start to really pick up come the end of august and through September. I'm excited to hopefully get more hours and get busy again.
TJ has proved to be a pretty dang good cook. We have tried anything and everything and made up our own little recipes. At times it has been interesting and we worry but for the most part everything has turned out pretty good. The other day he told me that not everything on Pinterest is edible, so I made him cook dinner for the next few nights ;) We have fun cooking and making it work.  Well we miss everyone so much but want you all to know that we are making it. A big thanks to everyone for all of their love and support and prayers. It's been rough but slowly starting to get easier. We are still trying to adjust to the heat but it's getting better. I'm excited for it to start cooling off and enjoying the outdoors a little more. If we are not too busy by then. I'll try to keep this more updated.

Still Makin It

This last week I feel we accomplished quite a bit. TJ loved his first week of school and is so excited to be learning.  I have come to enjoy my new job and co workers.  We have unpacked a little more and I did the first cleaning of the house. Cleaned both bathrooms, vaccumed everything and cleaned the kitchen in a total of like an hour and a half. Ha I like having a small house.  We have used every new kitchen tool we have I think. TJ was very excited to use our blender to make smoothies and we have made cookies and all sorts of food with everything we got from the wedding. At least its all broke in now I guess. This week we realized that we have a small leak under our kitchen sink. TJ blames the idiots that "jimmy rigged" the pipes together for connecting everything in a stupid way. I'm just glad it's a cheap fix. 

TJ with our cheap works for now lawn mower

Friday night we went out to dinner with my new co-workers and some other friends. It was an adventure. I sure do miss my Lehi Greens. Saturday we decided we would fix up our cute tiny yard. Why we chose a day it would be 113 degrees I have no idea, but it looks a ton better. TJ trimmed the little patch of so called grass we had and raked up all the leaves and garbage. We planted some grass seed and hopefully we will see it in a few weeks. We found out that we have ants and ALOT of them. But all is good now we sprayed for them and all other bugs :) When we moved in we had a random pot out in the backyard. TJ moved it and cleaned it up and told me if I found a flower or plant I really liked he would plant it for me. On one of our many trips to home depot I found a Hibiscus plant and I love it. It barely survived the wind storm of the first night but bloomed so pretty in the Sunday morning sun. 

While doing yard work we also learned that we have two humming birds living in the corner tree of our yard. I got a feeder and am so excited to watch them even more. I hope this keeps them around for a long time. Today is the 4th and we are just enjoying the rainy day. The weather is so perfect it has finally cooled off a bit and the smell of rain is wonderful. We plan to just bbq and probably watch some movies. And I did get to see my hummingbirds enjoy the feeder today! Finally!!

First Week!!

Well we survived a week.  So far so good I think....with the exception of a break in scare, which was my picture frame falling off the wall at 2am and TJ slicing his finger open then burning his hand I think we are good. Tuesday we went to the school orientation for TJ and now he is all set and ready for school and I'm even excited. The school will be great and all the supervisors have been so helpful with everything. That night we had our first "date night" here in Arizona. We drove to Mesa to the temple and after a session we came home and made waffles!! The next morning TJ had a job fair at his school. He ended up finding more at home on the internet but either way hopefully something will work out. I have completed two days at my new Walgreens and, well its very different. I'm a little bored because it's so slow but it's a job so it's good. We are slowly unpacking boxes and getting settled in. We have adapted to the heat pretty well and learned to keep our air up and only do laundry at night to save money and we found stuff to flavor our nasty tasting water :)  TJ loves his BBQ and has loved being able to use it. Today he was dying to use our mixer and make Dr. Pepper Cake.  He did a wonderful job, and all from scratch! It really is sooo good. Sunday we will meet our new ward and hopefully fit in since we live in a very quiet and kinda older community. (possibly a majority snowbird community) Ha anyway onto the weekend and another week!

Just getting started

Let the adventure begin. Been here in the heat of Phoenix for a week now and well it's hot. We found a cute townhouse and thanks to both of our parents it's finally home. Tj got all settled with school and is very excited to start on Monday and I'm heading to my new Walgreens tomorrow. More to come on the whole move in but like I said, we're just getting started :)