Tuesday, July 31, 2012

New Hair

For the last few months I have been going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to get my haircut. I always enjoy being able to put my hair in a ponytail when I'm in a hurry. I finally decided enough is enough and I made a hair appointment for tomorrow. I have such incredibly thick hair that it's much easier to maintain when it's short. I am getting it cut as well as colored (not sure what color I am going to do). Here are a few ideas for the cut:





These are style that I'm considering. I have had my hair much shorter than this before, I am excited and can't wait to post a picture!

Monday, July 30, 2012

Monday Again?!

Another weekend has passed and as always dreading Monday. I don't work but there is just something about Mondays that is awful lol. Especially since I have been up since 7am waiting for the bug guy to get here. 

Before I get to our weekend, I need to acknowledge a special birthday: Our sweet cat, Fishy, turned 5 on Friday. I found him underneath a house when he was 4 1/2 weeks, he was deathly ill with an upper respiratory infection and I knew I had to take him. He has been such a joy for us and couldn't imagine our lives without him:




We had a great weekend spent mostly relaxing except for Saturday. We drove up to the Phoenix for the day and went here:





We had so much fun at this water park! Growing up we had one in Vegas but they closed it and I was so bummed. When we found out there was one in Phoenix we knew we had to go. It was a decent size and had a ton of great rides that left you saying "holy crap what just happened". There was one ride in particular:


Mammoth Falls


You are in an tube that fits 3-4 people and you go down a 3 story drop into a half pipe type thing and if you aren't hanging on you are flying out haha. It was awesome!!!


We had a great day there and started the 3 hour journey home. We always manage to come through rain and bad weather but it wasn't the rain that had us scared. As we were driving, I watched a dust devil come across the highway and catch a vehicle 2 ahead of us and slam it into a cement construction barrier. It was scary! Thankfully there was a cop behind us, I hope the lady is ok. 


The rest of the weekend was spent laying on the couch and watching the Olympics. It was a great way to end the weekend. 


I hope you all have a great week!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Decisions Decisions

Since we moved to Arizona we knew that we had a limited amount of time to decide where we wanted to go after the career course. We had our minds set on two possibilities:


Fort Lewis


Fort Carson


Well a text message a few weeks may have changed our minds and altered our course. When Kyle was with the 82nd he worked as an FSO (Fire Support Officer) in an Infantry Battalion and he had an outstanding Battalion Commander and I became very good friends with his wife. When we left that battalion, the friendship stayed in place and we spent 4th of July with them and I had lunch at least once a month with Kim. 


When we were in Disneyland I got a text from Kim asking if we would be interested in going here:




Her husband will be taking a brigade command there in January and asked if Kyle would like to come work with him again. I can honestly say that we were honored. To be asked personally by a Colonel to come work with him again is a huge boost of confidence for Kyle. We have weighed the pro's and con's and to be honest there are not many con's. We even know that if we go there that Kyle will be deployed again and we are ok with it. It will only be 12 hours from home and that is something we wanted. We are hoping that if things go as planned on both ends we will be traveling to our new home at Fort Bliss (which is only 5 hours from us now, I am ok with that short drive) mid-January! 

If you could keep our fingers crossed for us that would be wonderful!!!!







Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Yummy goodies..I think?!

I am so thankful that I love baking but don't enjoy eating what I make haha. I made these today for Kyle's class:





chocolate dipped peanut butter pretzel sandwiches.

Kyle says they are good so I will take his word for it.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Birthday Weekend!

Since my birthday this year falls on a Monday (tomorrow, I will be the big 27!! Ahhh), Kyle and I decided to do something fun yesterday for it.

We got up and decided to drive to the outskirts of Tucson and go to the Colossal Cave Mountain Park! We were not disappointed! The cave was stunning and they believe it to be over 17 million years old. We saw a ton of stalactites, stalacmites and halactites! We were in awe of the beauty of this cave. It took us about 50 minutes to go through the guided tour and our guide was awesome, stopping and showing us all the fault lines that exist in the cave and a few rocks that resemble a witch and mr. magoo haha. Here are a few pictures:


Amazing!!



Kyle in the Drapery Room

The Drapery Room

The Witch

 Mr. Magoo!



"Bone Crusher" A tour guide broke his nose on this last year

 The Silent Waterfall
The view from atop the hill




After we finished up at Colossal Cave we decided to drive into Tucson and get lunch then check out the mall. We of course went to one of my favorite places: In N Out!! We walked through the mall for a while and then headed off to the Super Target (I love super target) so I could spend some of my birthday money.


We ended the night with Kyle grilling steaks for dinner and watching "Tombstone" (if you have not seen this movie, it's a must!!!! It is one of my all time favorites). Afterwards we played some games on the kinect (we traded our Wii in for it) and had a blast!


I am very thankful for the amazing gifts I have received so far from family for my birthday:


 I have been wanting a new camera and Kyle got me this beauty for my birthday. I love it and use it all the time!


My sister, brother in law and the kids got me this awesome new Harvey's Seatbelt Bag!! It's beautiful!!

My Dad and In-laws gave me money for my birthday which is always a good idea! I was able to get new clothes and then I plan on getting my hair done as well.


Even though tomorrow is my actual birthday, it has been a great celebration so far!! I plan on relaxing and doing nothing.


I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Sad

Many of you who have followed my blog for some time know the struggles that we have faced trying to have a baby. I normally try to stay positive but lately I have been very down about it. Since Kyle and I got married in 2008 we were anxious to start a family and so excited when we got pregnant in April 09, when we lost that baby at 6 weeks we were devastated. We never gave up hope and I became pregnant in July, we lost that baby at 10 weeks. Another pregnancy in October would end in miscarriage at 5 weeks. 


We had no idea where to turn and then we found Dr. Parker. We tried several rounds of clomid and 2 IUI's cycles. Finally in April 2012, our 3rd IUI was successful! We were over the moon excited and felt that this was meant to be. 1 week later I was in the ER in the midst of our 4th miscarriage. 


I have never felt so useless and sad. I see so many of my friends announcing their pregnancies (and yes I am happy for them) it does make me sad, angry and a little jealous. We finally decided to just let things happen the way they are supposed to. We stopped all fertility treatments when we moved to Arizona and are hoping that it will happen naturally. 


There is nothing I want more in this world than to have a baby and to make Kyle a Dad. Sorry if this post is depressing I just needed to get this out and vent.


To our 4 Angel Babies: We wanted you all so badly, we love you so much and wish we had gotten to know you. 



Monday, July 16, 2012

Happy 1st Birthday, Grayson!!!

On Friday, Kyle and I drove to Vegas to celebrate our nephew, Grayson's 1st birthday. I can't believe he is already 1!! Time has flown by so fast and he is such a sweet boy. My sister did an amazing job putting together his party and we had a great celebrating with a pirate theme. We love you so much and are so happy we could celebrate with you! We are a very proud Aunt and Uncle. Here are a few pictures from his special day:



Getting his hands on his smash cake


He was having so much fun! haha

Beautiful Family

Us and the birthday boy

Sweet siblings: Kylie and Grayson

Little pirate boy!

My Dad and Grayson

Dessert/Favor Table

Our group (close family and friends)


It was a great day!! I am so glad that we were able to make it to the party. Living in North Carolina we missed out on so many of these events. It is great to live closer to home.


I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Tombstone (lots of pictures)

Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated by the old west and the history of Tombstone. When we moved to Arizona we realized how close we were to Tombstone and I was so excited! We decided to drive there yesterday and spend the day. It was probably the most amazing day trip we have taken in a very long time!

We started out the day by going to the Bird Cage Theatre. This is the only building in Tombstone that has not been changed or restored. It was in business from 1881 to 1889. It was a bar, gambling hall and brothel. In the lobby near the bar you can see several bullet holes and knife marks. When the original owners left they just boarded up the place and left everything inside. When the new owners took over they left everything as it was and turned it into a museum. It is the most haunted place in Tombstone.




The actual faro table that Doc Holliday dealt at.

This piano was handmade and shipped via railway to Tombstone

The Black Moriah: An actual hearse used in the 1880's

The room where Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus stayed

Actual Whiskey Barrels


Next we went to the reenactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral where Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton were killed.



It was about 45 minutes long and a great show!!!


Next we took a stagecoach ride around Tombstone and learned about all of the historical buildings and places people were killed during gunfights:


View from the stage coach

That green house was once the town Hospital



Once we were done on the stagecoach we walked down to the Courthouse, they have it filled with pictures, artifacts and the actual courtroom that was used during the 1880's. 


Barbed wire


These are not the original gallows where 7 men were hung (the original burnt down) they were built in 1902, but this is the exact spot of the original.


After walking around most of the day we were starving and decided to go eat at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. It was amazing!!!! They had the movie "Tombstone" playing and everyone was so nice. Even had a live piano player singing and joking with everyone. 


We had a Ghost and Murder tour set up for 7pm and we needed something to fill the space so we decided to go on a mine tour. This tour took us underground into the Good Enough Mine. This was the first mine in Tombstone where silver was found. Ed Sheiffelen was the founder of Tombstone and made a lot of money on his silver discovery.







This black stuff is actually Silver!!!! Crazy, huh??!



We grabbed some dessert at another local restaurant and then headed off for our Ghost and Murders tour. We were taken to all of the haunted spots in Tombstone and told some pretty amazing stories. We went to Boothill Graveyard and shown some pretty awesome graves:

The graves of the 3 killed in the Gunfight at the OK Corral

The grave of Newman Clanton (father of Ike, Billy and Fin Clanton)


Most people don't believe in the paranormal, but I do. I have had a few experiences of my own and believe that town is very haunted and very active. Some of the pictures I took after dark are pretty awesome. Especially in areas where shootings took place.


We had an awesome day!! Learning all of the history of Tombstone and feeling so close to history. If you have never been there and have a chance to go do it!!!! You will not regret it! 


Morgan Earp was shot in this exact building

On this rooftop 5 men waiting for Virgil Earp to exit the Crystal Palace and shot him, but did not kill him

This is the Oriental Saloon where Wyatt Earp spent most of his time

One last picture before we head home.