Mini-Update (haha)

Well, I've come to the conclusion that I'm a pretty terrible blogger. I always think of things to blog about, but when it comes down to writing it, I just put it off. And off. And off.

And before you know it, it's New Years Eve and I haven't blogged in weeks! Oh well, at least I've gotten a bit better at updating facebook - which seems to decrease the number of updates that I put on the blog. Such is life!

Todd and I have spent about two weeks at home now. It's been wonderful seeing the family and friends again. We had a whirlwind Christmas, visiting four different houses for dinner. Needless to say, we were very full by the end of it! We have a lot of Christmas pictures (which are on facebook, I think).

We're leaving here tomorrow and heading down to Phoenix. We're going to stop in Laramie for the night and pack up Grandma Judy and all her stuff. It will be nice to be home again, where the weather is warmer!

And that's my mini-update. I can't promise pictures in the near future. But I'll try.

Here's to a very Happy New Year for everyone! We're looking forward to a new and very wonderful year!

P.S. Like I said, I'm doing better at facebook now. If you want more frequent updates and pictures, check that out. And someday I hope to be proficient at life, facebook, AND blogging!

*Sigh*

So, it's 1:20am. I just woke up. With pink eye. Yeah, this is one of the downsides of the job.

*Sigh* I guess it's time that I found a doctor here.

Best Place to Work!

I just checked my work email (yes, I'm weird, I do that even when I'm not at work - it's a habit) and found some exciting news! It was in a memo attached to an email, but I'll just copy and paste it here for everyone.


SOUTHWEST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AGAIN NAMED ONE OF
THE VALLEY’S BEST PLACES TO WORK

Non-Profit Employees Recognize Organization’s Fulfilling Environment Despite Difficult Economy

PHOENIX (December 10, 2009) – For the second year in a row, Southwest Human Development has been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Valley through the Phoenix Business Journal and BestCompaniesAZ annual awards presentation. The accolades follow last year’s honor as the number one recipient in the large business category, as demonstrated through rankings by Southwest Human Development’s employees.

“We appreciate this sustained recognition and are proud of the rewarding environment we have created together,” said Ginger Ward, founder and CEO of Southwest Human Development. “Our employees work diligently and are committed to the mission of Southwest Human Development. It is because of their dedication and outstanding efforts that we continue to stand out in the non-profit business sphere.”

As the state’s largest provider of services for children and families, Southwest Human Development offers its employees the chance to take part in changing lives and impacting thousands of individuals. This growing non-profit provides challenging career opportunities as well as an environment where associates are encouraged to learn, collaborate and engage in activities that further both their personal and professional development.

“Receiving the Best Places to Work nomination is an honor, especially in this difficult economy,” said Janet Otte, director of human resources for Southwest Human Development. “Despite budget cuts and financial stress, our employees keep morale up by focusing on the positive impact we continue to have on thousands of children and families within our community.”

The Best Places to Work award, which was established in 2003, recognizes Arizona companies whose employees rank their respective companies as being the best place to work via a third-party administered survey. The survey covers various parts of employee life, including workplace environment, leadership direction, company culture and management practices. Southwest Human Development was recognized, in part, for their comprehensive benefits plan, 401k retirement plan and ongoing personal and professional growth opportunities.

For more information on employment opportunities at Southwest Human Development, please call (602) 266-5976 or visit www.swhd.org.

About Southwest Human Development
Founded in 1981 as a non-profit organization, Southwest Human Development provides comprehensive services for young children and their families in several areas: disabilities, child health and welfare, Head Start and professional training. Now serving 80,000 children and families each year, Southwest Human Development is the state's largest community-based organization of its type. In 2007, Southwest Human Development became the official Phoenix-area affiliate of Easter Seals. Easter Seals Southwest Human Development provides services to children and adults with disabilities and other special needs, and support to their families. For more information, visit www.swhd.org.

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So that's exciting! I enjoy my work and, while there are definitely things that can frustrate me (as with any job), I know that the mission and goal of the agency puts us all on the same page. It's great to have it recognized - and I even learned some things about my agency from the article.

Hope you all enjoyed learning a little more about where I work =)

A Brief Update

Well, here's another entry. I've been actually putting off writing it because I feel like there's so much to catch up on. Of course, in order to catch everyone up, I need to upload a bunch of photos. And that's a pain to do on Blogger. So I'm going to ask Todd when he gets home if there's some easy way to share photos with everyone that doesn't take forever to upload. We have lots of pictures (some from the last time Tom and Sonya came down, of Zoo lights, of random things around the house, and of my new computer).

Yes, I got a new computer. My wonderfully talented husband was able to find all the parts and assemble it for me. And it even works! Haha. In truth, it's a great machine. I love how quickly it does everything. And the video card makes things look very nice.

Right now I'm fighting off illness. I have no more sick days left at work and I'm just trying to make it till Friday. After that, I get two weeks off (YAY!). Todd and I will be leaving early Saturday morning with my Grandma Judy and head up to Wyoming for Christmas. So for all of you there - we'll see you soon!

School is going well. My courses are all finished and I did fine in them. And teaching the youngsters is going well too. There are funny stories every day, but I feel like I might talk about them too much - it's like they're my own kids! Each little triumph makes my day, and they're doing a lot of learning now. The routine is pretty solid and there are only minor behavioral problems. The only thing that concerns me right now is conjunctivitis, a.k.a. pink eye. Yes, it's going around the school. Just typing about it starts to make my eyes itch. The CDA (Child Development Assistant) for the morning class was out today with it. Two kids in the morning class had it. And I think one of my students had it today. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Anyway, just thought I would write a little post before going to bed. Again, pictures will be coming - though they might not have much of an explanation. Someday I'll be superwoman and keep up with my blog, I promise.

Until then, goodnight for now!

2.5 Million Lights!

This evening Ashlee and I joined (Grandma) Judy, (Great Uncle and Aunt) Pat, and Wanda at ZooLights (link). In this annual event the Phoenix Zoo is adorned with over 2.5 million lights throughout the grounds. As you might imagine, most of the animals can't be seen, but there were a few that got stuck working the night shift. One of the elephants was right next to the fence, camels were giving rides, an otter was very active in his pond, and the zebras were just close enough the path to be visible.

In terms of lights, the display was impressive, to say the least. They wrap the tree trunks and limbs with lights, as opposed to wrapping around the very outside where the leaves are. There were several wireframe animals with lights, and many were animated. Even the cacti had been strung.

Facebook users who have Pat Alsup as a friend can see his photo album of the trip.

There's cold, and then there's cold

My (Todd's) classes are winding down, and it feels good. On Friday I picked up a take-home exam (due this afternoon), and yesterday I had two in-class exams. The take-home exam is just about finished, so I won't have any trouble getting it completed before it's 5:00 pm deadline. I have a project due a week from today, but much of the hard work is done, and all that remains is writing up the report.

It finally happened. It's "cold" enough down here that we turned on the heat in our house. I really shouldn't say we, but rather Ashlee. I agree that it was chilly, but I was willing to delay turning on the heat a bit longer. Anyway, the heat works, and it's definitely more comfortable in here. We think Titus likes the cool though, as he seems to be even more crazy during his manic state.

This weekend I'm going to have to back my bags with hats, gloves, scarfs, and boots. I'm headed to North Dakota to spend four days with my grandparents. I haven't been to their house since the summer of 2002, I believe. I'm really looking forward to the trip, but we are all a bit disappointed that Ashlee can't make it. We'll get her up there sometime! This ND trip also means that I'll miss the Phoenix/Tempe TUBACHRISTMAS (link), but there's always next year.

We're both looking forward to the following weekend when we pack up with Grandma Judy and depart for a three day drive to Wyoming. It's so soon!

Happy Birthday Grandma Judy!

Ashlee's maternal grandmother, Judy, turned 70 today. Friends and family gathered in Apache Junction to celebrate the occasion, and Ashlee and I joined the festivities, albeit a little late. It's about an hour's drive from Ashlee's school to Pat and Wanda's house, so we had to reheat our dinner plates, but at least we made it! After we ate, everyone gathered to eat cake and watch Judy open her cards and gifts. It was a fairly big group, including (Ashlee's) Grandma Judy, her sister (and husband), 2 of her cousins (and their spouses), one of her uncles (and his wife), 2 neighbors in the park, and us young'ins. Please, don't ask for all the names ;) It was a fun group and we're glad we could make it.

Happy Birthday Judy!

Time to catch up!

Well, we've been neglecting the blog lately, mostly because we like to post stories with pictures and we haven't had the pictures. But now we have them and we're happy to share with you our Halloween adventures!

Sonya and Tom (Todd's sister and her husband) came down to visit us over Halloween weekend. So, in the spirit of the holiday, we went to a costume store to search out some costumes for ourselves. The costume store was very large and very busy - they even had police directing cars where to park!

We started looking around and this is what we came up with (after buying the costumes, accessories, and makeup!)



And here's one of Todd and I.


So, after getting all dressed up, we hit the town! First we stopped by a bar that was letting vampires in for free. We had a drink there and then decided to head over to Mill Ave., which is the street right next to ASU. There are always things going on down on Mill Ave. - from preachers preaching with megaphones, to people playing guitars or drums on the street corner, to people painting pictures right there on the sidewalk. And going on Halloween was a real treat! When we got there, we spent some time listening to a drum group that was there. Then we walked around for a while, enjoying all the costumes and creativity (almost everyone was dressed up).

As we were walking, we came across a couple with a baby. They asked me "Take picture?" and I thought that they wanted me to use their camera to take a picture of them with their child. I said "Sure," and before I knew what was happening, they were handing me their baby and taking a picture of me with their kid! Todd said afterwards that I must radiate some sort of pheromones that say "Teacher." Haha!

After a while, we settled down at a club and sat on the porch. It was great to sit there and watch people walk by. We definitely enjoyed ourselves!

But dressing up isn't all we did while Tom and Sonya were here. We visited a place called the "Secret Castle." We also had a meal and a show at the "Organ Stop." Both those stories coming soon - right now I'm off to the mall with my mom!

The after party guest

Ashlee just posted about our neighborhood's block party, but the fun didn't end when we walked back to our end of the street. It's a bit ironic, but on the very night of the gathering intended to improve safety on our avenue, we found an uninvited visitor waiting for us at home. Our best guess is that the visitor actually came in last night, but we first found it this evening. Behold:

That's right, it's a lizard. Ashlee saw it before me, but thankfully she was across the room and able to control her hysteria. (She actually didn't freak out much at all.) This clock is in our kitchen, and is mounted above the opening to the sun room. The lizard is inches from the ceiling in this photo.

I've heard that people don't hesitate as much to kill insects, spiders, and "bugs" in general because they aren't like us. They have six, eight, many, on no legs. The may have lots of eyes, or none at all. Maybe this is why it was out of the question to do anything other than return the lizard to our front yard, a.k.a. front desert. Even though it wasn't much bigger than a cock roach and moved just as fast, if not faster, this critter had a ticket for the great outdoors, and not the grave. These pictures really don't do it justice though. It was kind of translucent. Had it just been sitting on a table, you might think it was a toy made out of rubber.

I was thinking about trying to kind of brush it off the wall and let it fall in a bucket, but I realized that wouldn't work. Once I took down the clock and scared the lizard a bit, I realized it was fast and capable of gripping the ceiling. If it fell in the bucket, it might climb out and end up who knows where. So I put the bucket over it, and tried to slide a stiff sheet of paperboard under it (like a spider in a cup). This didn't work; the lizard ended up between the paperboard and the wall. Finally, Ashlee's flash of insight provided the best idea. I grabbed the fish bowl-shaped vase that happened to be sitting on the counter (empty, waiting to be washed) and put it over the lizard. This time the lizard climbed into the vase itself, scaling the glass effortlessly. I easily covered the opening, setting our guest down on the counter, inside a glass cage:

Again, the pictures don't do justice: his rubbery appearance was quite bizarre. Anyway, after this picture, I took it out to front yard and released it on some rocks. He crawled off, moving his legs so fast I could barely make out their steps.

We realized it must have crawled in under our front door overnight. We left the big wooden door open with a fan drawing in nice cool air through the metal grate of the security door. We won't be doing that again. Titus was supposed to keep an eye out for intruders (he loves to sit there and watch everything outside), but apparently he nodded off during his watch.

Neighborhood Block Party

Well, tonight was the night of our neighborhood block party. It's sponsored by the Mesa Police Department as a community event in order to encourage people to meet their neighbors. We were both pretty excited to meet the neighbors and start working our way into the community.

Hot dogs were served and side dishes were brought by everyone, so we had a nice dinner and got to meet the neighbors. It seems like we're on a pretty good street. A couple of police officers stopped by to visit (since the PD sponsors it) and we even had our City Councilman there for a while. It was just the people on our street, so it wasn't overwhelming or anything. While people came and left, Todd and I figured there were probably 20-30 people there. The neighborhood seems really helpful and we're excited to be a part of it.

Of course...when we got home, we found our home had been broken into. But that's a whole other post. I think I'll let Todd post about it.

A Night In

Thursday and Friday were "No School" days for me - which meant the kids got a break and I got caught up on some paperwork! Luckily, I was able to work from home during those 2 days, which was great. On Friday morning, after dropping Todd off at school, I went to Safeway to do some shopping...

And boy did I do some shopping. I had a little plan in mind...I wanted to have a nice dinner waiting at home for when Todd got done with school. We had gone out the weekend earlier and I thought it would be nice to stay in (plus we like to save money where we can). I got a lot of housework done (look at me, a little Betty homemaker!), but I didn't quite have dinner waiting on the table when he was done. But he didn't have to wait long.


Mmm...There's our food! Let me tell you what was on the menu. The theme? Italian (sorta?)

Here's me, just finishing the cooking in my wonderful kitchen (more and more this house is feeling like home).


For an appetizer, I boiled the artichoke in water, chopped garlic, and a bay leaf. To eat the artichoke, you peel off the leaf and run your teeth along the end. It has an interesting flavor and it's kind of fun to eat.

Then we had pasta with a tomato alfredo sauce that I expanded on. I cooked up chicken in olive oil, with some garlic and chopped red pepper. Then I added the tomato alfredo sauce. Then I added a lot more finely chopped red pepper, plus some chopped mushroom and diced tomatoes. I added more chopped garlic to that, so it came out as a chunky but very flavorful sauce.

As a side we had zucchini and asparagus chopped up and sautéed in butter and chopped garlic.

We also had garlic bread to go along with it. On two slices of the garlic bread I placed slice tomato and some mozzarella cheese (to make poor man's bruschetta!).



To top it off, we had a glass of Blackberry Merlot wine. Mmmm mmm!



We both dressed up (me in a dress and Todd in black pants and a nice black shirt). Then we started a TV show that we've gotten into (Stargate: SG1) and had dinner and entertainment!



It was a wonderful night! I'm determined to do something like that maybe once a week.

And hey, while I'm not a chef, at least I'm cooking more than pancakes now! Right, Mom?

Random thoughts

I hear that it's supposed to get up into the 100's this weekend. Yes, yes, it's October. Haha! I love it here! The warm weather and blue skies make me smile as I'm driving to work. It's so much better than the constant cloudiness and drizzle that we experienced in Pittsburgh.

Another reason that I love the continued warm weather - our pool. It's so nice to be able to use it to help cool off in the heat. I love sitting next to it with a good book in hand. I'm sure that we'll be spending a lot of time in it this weekend (and this time we'll be using sunscreen!).

Speaking of books... I finally found my way to the Mesa Public Library, where I got my library card (along with 9 books to read). I've already finished one book and I'm more than halfway done with the second book. It's a nice library and I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of it! I'm sticking with my usual genre for now, though I'm hoping to branch off some more. Perhaps I'll meander over to non-fiction sometime in the near future. Well, maybe not so near...after all, there's a lot of fiction for me to catch up on!

Well, that's my little update. My class will arrive in a little over an hour...And four hours after they arrive, they will leave to go home. A few minutes after they board the bus, I will hopefully be driving towards home. My bed is calling to me.

-Ashlee, who has been somewhat ill this week with a terrible head cold.

Pictures!

Like Ashlee said, we have some pictures that we kept meaning to post, so here they are, finally. Facebook makes uploading and sharing images really easy, and they don't set any limits.

Pictures of our house (Facebook album)

Did you know?

It's possible to get sunburned in October.

Trust us.

-From Ashlee and Todd, who are both hurting a bit.

Wedding Dance

We should have totally done this.

Wedding Entrance.

It's Cameron!

The voice isn't quite right, but...

Cameron the auctioneer

Lack of Updates

Todd and I are sorry for the lack of updates to the blog. Things have been pretty busy around the house - we're finally starting to feel like we have a home instead of a maze of boxes! We took pictures of the house, but haven't had the time to upload them to the blog.

On another note, this week is parent-teacher conferences, so I'm busier than normal at work.

The weather here is cooling down - we're into the 80's this week, though the normal is usually the 90's. So it's feeling a little cool!

And now I'm signing off - it's class time!

Uh-oh...

There's something going around the site. The morning teacher has been sick all week. More than half of her class has missed school all week...

Meanwhile, my class is at full attendance. Here's to hoping we don't catch whatever is going around!

So, eh, working....

for TFA and SWHD has its perks. Since they are organizations dedicated to helping the community, they get a lot of free stuff. A couple of days ago I got this email:

We've been offered FREE tickets to 101.5 JAMZ’s End of Summer Jam featuring GINUWINE, THREE SIX MAFIA, GS BOYS, JAY SEAN and MORE this Saturday September 26 at 8pm.

****

Unfortunately, Todd and I already had plans for that evening so I didn't get the tickets.

Then, just today I got this email:

HI Corps Members!

The City of Phoenix is offering 3 pairs of tickets to individuals interested in seeing AC/DC perform at the US Airways Center on October 1st, 2009 at 7:30p. The tickets are in the city’s suite, and popcorn and soda will be provided. Parking is on you own!

The first 3 people to email me will receive two tickets each and I will then provide you with more information.

Thanks everyone!

I replied:
Hello!
I would love to have 2 tickets to go to this!

Thanks,
Ashlee

She replied:
Thanks to everyone who replied so quickly! You guys sure are fast.

The first three people to email back and who will receive the tickets are:

Rob Saul, Lauren Jones and Ashley Hoffman!

Congrats...

So...having my email open while I do my planning sure does pay off! Todd and I are going to take advantage of this =D

And I look forward to going to many more events in the future!

Sweeeeeeet Deal!

So, Todd and I just won an E-bay auction (that we heard about from Craigslist). It's a local guy selling his 35" TV.

Bids started at $9.99.
By the end, they were up to $15.99.

Todd and I came out of nowhere at the last minute (seriously, there was 1 minute left on the bid), and snatched the TV for $27.99. Apparently the last guy's highest bid was $27.00.

Ours was $30.00.

Now we'll have a sweet new TV (well, not really new, but bigger than the 19" that we have now)!

Woot woot!

SIGG Bottles

I have several water bottles (Ashlee would say too many), and a couple are made by SIGG, a Swiss company. I suspect several of you may have a SIGG or two as well. When I saw a blog post about them on PhD Comics (link), I thought I should share.

Some background: Years ago (when I was in middle school or junior high) Nalgene became the cool bottle to tote around with you, and more recently it's been SIGG. In part, this may have been because there was a scare over plastic bottles leaching out BPA (link), which is thought to be dangerous for humans to consume, so metal bottles were thought to be safer.

The problem: Ironically, the SIGG bottles aren't bare aluminum: they are coated on the inside with some propriety polymer film, and it contains BPA. They recently started using a different coating that they assert is BPA free. Now they've started an exchange (link) (not recall) program. Interesting.

Will I send in the two SIGG bottles that I have to get them exchanged for brand new ones with the better coating? Maybe, maybe not. There are so many unknowns, and by that I mean that we aren't sure about what BPA does to a person, we have no way of knowing how much of it really came out of the old SIGG coating, we don't know how much is absorbed from the water into the body, and we don't know how much we get from other plastics products. What do you think?

Walmart Run!

Well, the house is coming along nicely. I might try to take pictures tonight before I go to bed or maybe tomorrow evening.

Today was a busy day for Todd and I. We bought ourselves a new bed (Queen size!). It's just the mattress and boxspring, but it's very comfortable. Craigslist wins again. We're currently searching for a sleigh-like headboard and footboard to go with it. And thanks again to Uncle Pat for letting us borrow his truck. I don't know how we would have gotten moved into this house without it!

Then, after getting the mattress, we made a huge Walmart run for some of the little things. We got a lot of stuff that we needed and we're in the middle of getting it all set up in the house. I think I am most excited about the curtains we bought! We're thinking of putting them in the family room. They're a nice olive green color and block out all the light, which will be great for cooling down the room and cutting down the glare on the TV. Unfortunately, we can't put them up yet because Todd doesn't have a drill =(

I think a drill is going to be our next bigger purchase. We desperately need one to do some of the home improvements we have planned around the house.

After Walmart, we went to Home Depot again. And now we're home. We're both sitting down because we feel like we've been moving around all day long (which is also the reason I don't have pictures yet).

Once we get some energy, we'll do dinner...

Then maybe pictures =)

TFA Party

So, Todd and I got an email a week or so ago about a TFA party this weekend. Deciding that we really wanted to work on building a community here in Phoenix, we went.

I just want to say this:

Teachers know how to party.

~Ashlee, who is having fun

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a sectional!

Yeah, that's right. You heard it here first - Todd and I finally got our sectional!

Now, for those of you who have been chatting with me, you know how I feel about the sectional. I think it's the one piece of furniture we truly needed. It gives us a place to sit, to chat, to watch TV, and to play our new PS2. It ties the room together.

So, with that in mind, we've been scouring Craigslist for a nice deal and a nice sectional. Todd wanted leather. I wanted microfiber or very high quality leather. We both wanted a nice deal.

Then we found a fabric sectional for $200 on Craigslist. Interesting. So we went to see it. And, despite our need for a sectional, we had to pass it up. It just wasn't anything close to what we wanted.

That night, as we briefly scanned Craigslist...oh my...could it be? A sectional! Priced at $200. Microfiber and leather. With an ottoman.

After emails, text messages, going out there only to be told they needed it for a couple more days, then them calling (only about 15 minutes later) saying that we could come pick it up, but that they had marked it wrong and it was really $400...

It was a fiasco. But we got it. We compromised and settled on $350 for it. Todd and I think that we ripped them off (i.e. we got a screaming great deal).

And now, without further ado, here is our sectional!
Hey, it's heavier than it looks. I needed a rest afterwards. And Titus was very curious about this new piece of furniture in his domain (especially since it smelled like it had been freshly shampoo'd - which it had!).

Here's a pictures without Titus and me obscuring the view.
It looks a lot better in person. It's pretty much exactly what I was looking for and I love it.

And it's super comfortable!

Yay!

~Ashlee, who is now going to go chill on the chaise (that little part that sticks out of the sectional - where she was sitting earlier)

Craigslist? Wut?

Just fyi, I know that "wut" should be spelled "what." Just in case you thought I lost my mind. But 'Wut' is internet slang, denoting confusion. Or maybe laziness in typing.

Anyway, moving on! As I mentioned in another post, Todd and I have been buying a lot of stuff of off Craigslist. And it occurred to me that some of you might not know what Craigslist is. So, allow me to introduce you.

This is Craigslist. It's a website that has different regions. For example, Todd and I search for things in Phoenix (duh). The site itself has a ton of stuff (like personals, job listings, discussion forums, etc.) but Todd and I mostly look in the 'For Sale' section. You can type in what you're looking for (e.g. Stainless steel refrigerator) or you can go to a broad category and see what people are selling - like appliances.

As with anything, it's important to be careful. We always go look at the item before we commit to buying it. But you can usually get great deals on things, especially when people are in a hurry to sell stuff. I imagine that the majority of our furniture is going to come from there.

So now you know. ;)

~Ashlee

Ring ring!

That's right, I got a new phone!


It's a nice phone and I'm still discovering all sorts of neat things about it. I'm on a different plan now (but I have the same number). But now, I have unlimited texting! So, all those people that I told not to text me like crazy because it cost me money? Forget it. =D

Now, I just need to get used to the keyboard...and all the things that it does. So far, I haven't even figured out how to lock the keyboard so that I don't press random buttons during the day...

~Ashlee, the new phone owner and home owner

What a mess. What a house!

I've been getting comments from several different people on our lack of pictures of our new house. I had wanted to get pictures put up here as soon as possible...but I just kept delaying. I mean, shouldn't those boxes be put away before we take a picture? Shouldn't all our clothes be hanging up? Shouldn't we be really settled in?

But I was told today that it was okay if our house didn't look perfect when we posted the pictures up. After all, we just moved in. So here's your warning: Our home looks like a disaster area right now. We're in the midst of setting things up and all our stuff is everywhere. You've been warned.

(And mom, this means you can't make any comments on how messy it is and how it resembles my room when I was younger!)

First of all, here are our washer and dryer that we bought from Craigslist.

And here's the laundry room. The washer and dryer are behind the door. We have a table, a shelf, and cleaning supplies stored here.

Next, we have our refrigerator that we also bought from Craigslist. We really wanted a stainless steel and black kitchen so we're keeping an eye on Craigslist for other cheap appliances. The fridge is great -no marks. We're already putting up magnets! Oh, and there's Titus in the picture too.

Titus is enjoying the new house. I think he's still unused to all the space. He usually hangs out in whatever room Todd and I are in. Right now he's sleeping next to my chair in the office. Anyhow, back to the pictures. Here's looking at the kitchen. Obviously we're still in the process of filling our cabinets.

And, here's turning around to face the family room...

Here's one with a little more light.

That couch isn't going to be there much longer. We're going to look at a nice leather/microfiber sectional tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to put that in there (that's my goal). And that couch will either go in the office (until we can get a futon) or out in the living room for seating purposes.

Speaking of living room...right now it's our place to store empty boxes.

We've got one bookshelf in there so far. Let's go on to the office. We just got it somewhat set up today. We've got both desks against the same wall. We want to put a futon against the opposite wall, we think.

Sorry for the poor lighting. I was obviously the one taking these pictures. At this point in the evening, Todd was doing homework. And now, the guest bedroom (which is acting as storage right now).

Here's the master bedroom. Most of the stuff is set up, but we're still in the process of putting all our clothes away. It's really roomy right now. In fact, we're keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a Queen or King (or California King?) bed set. We'll see how it goes.

Again, sorry for the lighting. The sitting room has become my space. My dresser is there, along with a 3-drawer piece that holds all of my make-up, hair stuff, etc. And of course, my walk-in closet.

The last thing I want to show you...

OUR POOL!


It's pretty large. The deep end probably gets to 9 or 10 feet deep. Todd and I have already enjoyed a couple of nights in it. We've had fun splashing around and even Todd says he's happy the house has a pool (he was originally against the pool idea). It's so nice to play in and it helps with the heat. We're also looking on Craigslist for some cleaning supplies and such to keep it looking good.

So that's a brief rundown. The three-day weekend was a nice time to get stuff together. We still have a ton to do, but we're not rushing or stressing about it. After all, life is too short. We're taking our time, enjoying it, and enjoying the pool. ^_^

House drawing

Tonight, after dinner and while Ashlee was relaxing some after another busy day of trying to get our house to look more like home, I pulled out a tape measure and my laptop. This is the result:

Because I rounded to the nearest inch for everything, and because I was a bit lazy, the values I used to make the drawing may have been off by an inch or two. At this scale that is really negligible though. Anyway, there it is, complete with "scale box."

Update: Per Ashlee's suggestion, I labeled the rooms.

Exhausted but Moved In

So much has happened this past weekend and I don't know how much I'll be able to detail before I need to get moving on to other activities (like setting up the classroom for today's activities).

My update today is coming from the school, since we don't have internet at the house yet.

We were supposed to close on the house on Friday, but the loan documents were late in getting to the Title Company. So we didn't sign until 5pm and by then it was too late to send the documents to the county in order for the process to be finalized. So we couldn't technically get the keys until Monday... =(

However, our Realtor drafted a "Pre-Occupancy" agreement, whereby Todd and I could occupy the residence until the papers were finalized. We were hoping that the sellers would sign it Friday night. Unfortunately, they didn't sign it until Saturday night. So we spend 3 hours moving stuff from the storage shed into the house on Saturday night. We couldn't move longer because the storage unit closed at 9pm. On our last trip, we arrived with a carload and a truckload of stuff and opened the garage door...
...

...

And little things scurried across the floor of our garage. Not just any little things. Cockroaches.

I stood there, paralyzed by my phobia of bugs. I must have been pale because Todd asked if I was okay. Being the caring person he is, he took the box from my hands, set it down, and said we could go to Walgreens to buy pesticides.

We bought an arsenal. We had the Instant Death Raid cans. The foggers. The bait traps. And the powder to go in crack. Mind you, this is for the total of 3 cockroaches we saw.

The rest of the night, I walked around, Raid can in hand, ready to defend my life. If I saw a bug, I would squeak and shoot the spray all over trying to hit it. This stuff was potent though. A little bit went a LONG way towards making those little buggers twitch and die. Before we left for the night, we set off the fogger in the garage. Those bugs will NOT be around for long.

We didn't get back to Apache Junction until late. We were in bed at about midnight or so. And we wanted an early start on Sunday.

The early start was early, but not as early as we would have liked. We got to the storage unit about 8:30am instead of the 6am we were hoping for. We moved stuff all day long in the hot sun. But, it's done. The storage shed is empty, we have a washer and dryer and a refrigerator (pictures will be coming of our new appliances!), and most of our stuff out in Apache Junction is cleaned up.

We are going to head back out there tonight after work and clean the rest up. We were just too exhausted yesterday to do much else than hit up fast food Mexican, lay our bed down, and sleep.

Oh, and jump in our pool. Because it's ours. And it's awesome. Even Todd admitted that he liked the pool. It's pretty big and we think it gets maybe 10ft. deep at the deep end.

So, we're in the house now, but we don't have internet. Hopefully that will get hooked up soon.

More updates will include pictures, plus a little entry on Tom, Sonya, Katie, James and their kids (Bobbie and Megan - our flower girl and ring bearer). They all came down to Phoenix towards the end of the week and we had a great time hanging out with them!

And now, I need to set the classroom up for my class!

First Day of School...

Today is the first day of classes. I've looked over my online courses a little bit and I've come to a rather disturbing realization...

I'm going to school full-time.

Now, I knew this, of course. I knew that I would be considered a full-time student. But the online format had me fooled into thinking that there wouldn't be as much of a time commitment as there was for me as an undergraduate.

I think I'm wrong.

It's dawning on me that I'm going to be going to school full-time while working full-time. And it's going to be a really busy 2 years.

It wouldn't be so troubling if my full-time job didn't involve so much paperwork, observations, recording, meetings, etc. But I have a lot to do for my job...and a lot to do for school.

Someday, things will slow down a tad.

Or at least that is what I keep telling myself.

And now, off to work - to begin another week! A week in which we MOVE INTO OUR HOME!

Eeep!

We just experienced our first Arizona monsoon! The rain thundered on the roof of our little unit this afternoon. Todd and I quickly lifted the blinds to look outside. Here are some pictures of what it looked like here after only a few minutes!

This is looking across the street from our unit at my Uncle Pat and Aunt Wanda's unit. Their little PT Cruiser almost looks like it might float away. Okay, not really. But there's definitely a lot of water there!

Here's a look down the other side of the street. Mind you, this is only after a few minutes of rain. Luckily, it doesn't rain much longer than that here. It's already cleared up.

Here's a look down the street. All of that water drains into a a spot at the other end of the park. They say that the canals and ditches in Arizona are really dangerous because they can flash flood in mere minutes since the soil doesn't retain much water.

So that was exciting for us!

Other than that, we are just relaxing tonight. I took my AEPA earlier today (Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessment) with hundreds of other educators. It's required for the state. I didn't really study for it but I think I did alright.

And Todd went and picked up our new washer and dryer today. They're GE front-loading and we got them cheap from Craigslist! I'm sure we'll put up pictures of them soon. We get excited about things like that =)

ASU, here I come

My last day of work at Sandia National Labs was Thursday the 13th, leaving me with one full day to wash clothes, pack up my belonging, clean the room, and prepare to depart the next morning. Ashlee's arrival at 1am (Saturday) was exactly what I had planned for, and we went straight to bed after her long day.

We considered riding the Sandia Peak Tramway before we left Albuquerque, but two $17.50 round trip tickets were a bit more expensive than we were willing to spend. Instead we enjoyed the a scenic route back to Arizona along U.S. Highway 60. We got to see the Very Large Array and passed through a couple national forests. Had we gone straight to Pat and Wanda's place, it would have be about 90 miles less driving then the interstate route, but once we went to downtown Phoenix to drop off Titus, it was about the same total distance.

I don't start classes at ASU until next week, but I have some orientation events this week, not to mention all the paperwork that comes with starting work/education at a new place. Citizenship verification, ID photo shoot, tax forms, etc have been taking up my time.

I'm sure many of you are curious about what exactly I'll be doing at ASU, so I'll lay out some of the details here. I'm starting as a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering. I'm in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, specifically the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, or MACME. Notice that including an 's' (for school) in the acronym allows it to be pronounced "smack me." This is one of several units in the engineering college, and the full list is here.

Returning to what I'll be doing, that's still a bit up in the air. Hopefully I'll have a better idea tomorrow after I've met with Mark van Schilfgaarde, who will be my advisor. PhD projects are driven by the proposals that get funded. Last spring Dr. van Schilfgaarde knew he would have enough funding to support another PhD student, but was hoping to get more funding relating to the stimulus money. He wants to start some energy-related projects, which I might end up working on. In any case, his (and my, eventually) specialty is simulation and modelling of electronic structures of materials. The location and behavior of electrons in materials is really what gives rise to many of the properties of materials, meaning that the more understanding we can gain of the electronic structure of a material, the more we can understand the material in general.

Because I already have my materials MS from CMU, I'm able to apply 30 credits toward the coursework requirement for my PhD. That, combined with the way the requirements work, means that I only have to take five lecture classes at ASU. Four are cores which everyone has to take, and one is an elective, meaning any grad-level materials course. I'll be done with all my classes in one year, which is good because it means that I'll be able to devote all my time to research sooner.

One final note: I can hardly believe it, but we are closing on the house a week from tomorrow!

Weekend Catch-Up

Well, we've once again been swept up in a whirl of busy-ness. This weekend was the weekend that Todd returned to Phoenix.

I left Phoenix after work on Friday and drove to Albuquerque. It was a long drive and I was pretty tired by the time I arrived (around midnight). The next morning we got up, packed up Todd's stuff, put gas in the car and ice in the cooler, and left for Phoenix again.

Titus came with us this time and I have to admit, it was great to see my kitten again. Once we got to Phoenix, we dropped Titus off at the apartment of a fellow Teach For America member. We can't keep him here in the park with us because there are no pets allowed in this section of the park. I'm sure he'll be fine for the next two weeks.

This week Todd is kind of hanging out. He has a day or two of orientation and I'm going to take him to the school with me. Having him there to help me clean out some storage rooms will be nice, plus it counts for volunteer hours!

Anyway, I'm getting a little ill, already. My throat is extremely sore in the mornings. I've been told that I'm going to be constantly ill for this first year until my immune system builds up a little bit. I just hope it builds up quickly!

Now it's time to head to work! More updates to come in a bit. I just wanted to catch everyone up on our weekend.

Signing off,
Ashlee

Happy Anniversary, Home, and Off to Work

So, there were some issues with the house. First of all, it didn't appraise for what we offered. Those of you familiar with the process of buying a home know that the loan agent won't give you more than the home appraises for.

So we had to change our offer to $10,000 less than what we originally offered. And we've been worried since then that the seller wasn't going to accept it. It's been a pretty large concern of ours and we've been anxious about hearing back from the seller.

After a lot of back and forth (and even seeing our house go back on the market, which made our hearts drop), we heard back definitively from the seller.

HE SIGNED THE ADDENDUM. WE'RE BUYING THE HOUSE FOR 10K LESS THAN WHAT WE OFFERED!

I was so ecstatic last night that I had to run over and tell Uncle Pat and Aunt Wanda. It's a good deal for the house and a huge relief to Todd and I.

We're considering it an anniversary gift from the seller to us. =)

And now, I'm off to work! The 20 kids don't scare me now. I HAVE A HOUSE!

Transition Days...And Tomorrow

Monday and Tuesday have passed and I have survived. And I don't even have to add a "barely," to the end of that sentence. These past couple of days have actually been pretty good. Ten kids in the classroom with 2 teachers and a parent or two makes it pretty nice. The days were relatively calm, though we did have some crying kids. It's to be expected that some kids would cry, especially since a lot of the kids haven't been away from mom and dad before.

On Monday, we had two kids who cried. One little boy's mom slipped out of the door while he was busy playing with dinosaurs. As soon as he realized that mom was gone he threw himself at the door - luckily I was there to catch him before he could bash his head through the door. I picked him up (getting tears, snot, and slobber on me in the process), and took him to the quiet area for a while. We just sat there while he cried. And about 15 minutes later, he was just fine.

And then there was the screamer. A little girl who screamed the most blood-curdling, movie-worthy scream that I have ever heard when her dad slipped out of the classroom. As luck would have it, she had just started screaming when another family was coming into the classroom. They stopped in the doorway and their eyes got a little wide. I'm sure that they were wondering what kind of torture we were inflicting on the kids.

But all things considered, the day went fine. Until we left a little boy in the classroom...On accident...

This little boy was eating really slowly at the lunch table. I was on the carpet with the rest of the class doing activities, singing songs, and going through our routine. And then we lined up to go outside. We walked outside and through the gate to the playground...

"Where's [Little boy's name]?" asked Fari.

"..."

"Oh shoot!"

By that time, Celeste (the AM teacher) was walking the little boy to the playground. So he was never really alone in the classroom.

Needless to say, we're implementing a counting routine before we leave the classroom and after we're done at the playground.

And we didn't forget anyone in the classroom on today!

Overall, I think it went well. It's certainly going to be a challenge, but I'm not freaking out about it. I think that any time you're in charge of a classroom of 20 four-year olds, you're going to have a bit of a challenge ahead of you.

Tomorrow is the first day where all 20 students will be in the class. It's going to be interesting, for sure. I sense that it's going to be pretty chaotic.

I'll let you all know how it goes!

Classroom and School Tomorrow

The day has arrived. My first day in the classroom.

Or at least that is what tomorrow will be for me. I'm pretty nervous tonight and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to sleep early. It might be hard because of the jitters I have. Tomorrow I will have half the class (10 kids) and then I'll have the other half on Tuesday. Wednesday is my first day with all of the kids. It will be me, Fari (my assistant), and...20 four-year olds.

Should be interesting.

I thought that I would show you some pictures of my classroom. As some of you might know, pre-school classrooms are usually divided into 'centers.' My classroom has about 9 different centers, sometimes more, depending on the day. The kids can go to the different centers depending on what they feel like doing during the day. It's all up to the kids and the choices they make. Kids at this age learn best through play, so we try to make the day fun and interesting. We also have to do certain things during the day, since we're a federally funded program. Here's my schedule!

12:30-1:00 Arrival/Wash Hands/Lunch
1:00-1:10 Wash Hands/Brush Teeth
1:10-1:20 Large Group
1:20-1:50 Outside Time
1:50-3:50 Come Inside/Wash Hands/Free Choice/ Small Group
3:50-4:20 Wash Hands/Snack/Wash Hands
4:20-4:30 Goodbye Circle

As you can see, we do a lot of hand-washing. I'll likely explain more about the curriculum we follow and the themes in the classroom as time goes by. This will just be a little introduction to my life as a Head Start teacher.

But first, a little tour of the classroom...

This is what the classroom looks like as you walk in the front door. Everything printed in the classroom needs to be in both English and Spanish, so you can see 'Welcome' and 'Bienvenido' up on the wall. I made those! I must say that I was kind of excited that they turned out. My mom will be the first to tell you that I've never been very good at cutting things out with scissors.

This is a little glimpse at our 'Welcome Area.' It's a space in the classroom where parents can sit with their children if their kids are having a hard time separating from them. So we put a lot of pictures of the families and try to make it look welcoming.

This is a close-up of our Large Group circle area. The rug has the alphabet on it. One of the blue canvas things on the wall has the calendar and the other one has our daily schedule on it. The little school house will have velcro on it where the names of the children will go if they're in school today.

This shows our block area. The construction paper on the wall is the space for each child in the classroom to display their art. My class is black and red and the morning class is the black and purple. Each display has the child's name and their picture.

This shows the science area and the computer area. It also shows our quiet area (on the right). The quiet area is supposed to be really soft - like the physical manifestation of a hug. It's where the children can go if they're upset or having a difficult time.

And this is the teacher workspace. The AM, PM, and all-day classrooms share this.

So, that's just an introduction.

And now...I'm going to try to relax and get to bed. I'm still really nervous about class tomorrow. But it will be alright. It will just take time.

Oh! And Aunt Wanda made me a little hip apron to wear. It's going to be super helpful to carry all things around.

Maybe I'll get a picture of the apron sometime.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...

!!!!

July 4th Mt. Adams trip, addendum

Slide show with selected pictures from the trip.

http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=ddffnn&SID=256004&Show=Y&p=&shareShow=N

A Skunky Story

Well, it's been a while since I've written a blog post. And that's not due to the lack of stories. Rather, it's due to the busy days that I've had. But there is a story that I've wanted to share for a bit now.

And I had best do so before the week starts again.

After my first week of work, my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Pat took me out to dinner. We went to a nice little restaurant in the marina by a lake. A balcony overlooked the lake and docks lined the shore. It was a beautiful sight and the food was good.

After dinner, Uncle Pat and I stood against the railing on the balcony, enjoying the view of the dark lake. As we stood there, I heard a rustle in the bushes near the edge of the balcony. I paid the sound no mind, thinking that it was only the wind. But the rustle came again and I looked down, terrified that I would see a snake slithering through the bushes.

Thankfully no snake was in sight. Instead I saw a bundle of black fur with a white stripe going down the middle...

"Uncle Pat! It's a skunk!" I said, stepping back quickly and pointing over the ledge.

I had never seen a skunk before (at least not a living one) and I stood there and watched it as it waddled along the edge of the balcony and out of sight.

The next evening, as I opened my front door to head over to my Uncle Pat and Aunt Wanda's home for dinner...I found another one.

The biggest skunk ever. Under my car.

Here, take a look at this thing.



I stood there a moment, my hand over my heart and my eyes wide. And then...I remembered where I was...and who my uncle was...And I took a closer look.



...A stuffed animal. Laughing to myself I walked over to their house. As I walked through the front door, I could hear both Aunt Wanda and Uncle Pat laughing.

Aunt Wanda said that Uncle Pat even referred to me as "Skunk Girl," and that he had been waiting all day for me to walk out my front door.

I love them both, dearly... Although I bet none of my neighbors at my new house will leave me little gifts underneath my car.

At least I hope not.

New Mexican wonders

I spent part of Saturday at national park that I would have thought would be a monument, another part at a monument that I thought would be a park, and the rest on highways that I thought would never end.

Ben, another intern in my department at SNL (who turns out to be a CMU student) picked me up at 5 in the morning and we struck out in the general direction of Texas. The first attraction was the Valley of Fires, which turned out to look more interesting on Google maps than from the road. It's an old lava flow (not formed by any recently volcanic activity) but pretty much just looks like a boulder field. There is a stretch along I-40 somewhere around Gallup, NM where you can see some lava flows, and I actually think those are more interesting.

We continued on to Roswell. Ben wanted to get pictures of the outside of the alien museum, but otherwise it was essentially just a quick drive through. They have really capitalized on the alien hype, and it seems like every other storefront has some type of Martian in the window. I was quite amused. Now I can say I've been to Roswell, and just need to come up with some abduction story to go with it.

Our first real destination was Carlsbad Cavern. I suggest following the link to read some of the facts and figures. The biggest room in the cavern is 750ft below the surface, so either you walk down a mile long path, or ride down the elevator. We elected for the scenic route: the path. It turned out to be in better condition than most roads in Pittsburgh. The asphalt surface is about 4 feet wide and lined with stainless steel railings along (both sides of) its entirety. I brought a flashlight, but it was more of a burden than anything else. The place is adorned with over a thousand bulbs (and tubes). You can't always see everything around you, but most of it. The cave itself is amazing. My spelunking experience prior to this is derived completely from Tongue River Cave (near Sheridan) and would scare away anyone with claustrophobic tendencies. There you have to think skinny, hunch down, crawl, and watch your steps. Carlsbad Cavern is more like a cathedral. I spent more time looking up at the high ceilings than anything else. The stalactites and stalagmites made me think of pipe organ plumbing and ornate woodwork you might see on old church. It was definitely a cavern in a big wide openings sense, and not a cave. At the bottom disabled visitors can even share in the experience on the wheelchair accessible portion of the path. The link has pictures, so take a look, and remember that everything is actually bigger than how it looks in the image. By the way, the cavern is a national park.

After returning to the car we started our return trip. We took a westward bearing, and eventually pulled in to the White Sands National Monument visitor station. I actually enjoyed this part of our trip the most. 275 square miles in middle of the desert is covered with gypsum sands. The granules are actually crystalline, and would normally be transparent if they were bigger and polished. The scratches on the surface (from blowing around in the wind) are what make the sand white. Again, follow the link for pictures and some facts and figures. We went on the sunset stroll with the ranger, and I took a bunch of (film based) photographs. Her little talk was interesting, and it was also fun to watch the young kids play in the sand. Here are some things that I found most interesting:

• They plow a road through the dunes just like you would in snow. In fact, you could take pictures that would look like they were from the Pacific Northwest or Michigan's UP or something. The sand is that white, and they pile it up on on the shoulders just like snow.
• This is one of three gypsum dune areas in the world. Gypsum is water soluble, so it normally gets washed away, but this area has no outlet for runoff so the gypsum collects. It's something like the salt flats in Utah: the gypsum runs down streams from the mountains, and just sits in the basin.
• Kids were 'sledding' down the dunes on disks and such. Again, you could almost be fooled by a picture into thinking they were on snow, but their clothes would give it away.
• If you dig down in the sand, you eventually hit water, and it's really shallow. The hole they used to demonstrate was only about 3 feet deep. The water is foul, and has a strong odor to it. Remember water doesn't flow out of this region, only in.
• The government has a large missile range that essentially surrounds the monument. The Trinity site (where the first atomic bomb was detonated) is in land that is now part of the range. Ben and I actually drove within 20 miles of it. They only allow visitors two days a year (once in April and once in October), so we couldn't stop.

We watched the sunset and drove around a bit more, then got back on the highway and started heading home. At 1:30 Sunday morning I was finally in bed. I had spent most of the day on asphalt, even the 2-3 hours we were underground.

Home Layout

Okay, once again you get to experience the amazing artistry of Ashlee using Microsoft Paint! Here's my rendition of the layout of the house. Please note that not everything is scaled to size. But at least it will give you an idea of what the house looks like, especially when combined with the pictures.

The House

Many people have been requesting pictures of this house that Todd and I submitted an offer on. So I'm going to go ahead and post some for you now! Unfortunately, I thought that I could use some of the pictures from the listing to augment my own collection, but I can't find the listing anymore (which is a good thing since that means the seller changed the status from "Active" to "Pending."

This is a picture of our front yard. It has a desert landscape with a huge cactus in front. We also have a grapefruit tree in front! Todd and I are thinking that we would likely leave this landscape in place. It's easy to take care of. All I would do is make the path a little more defined with the rocks.

The carport leads to a finished 2 car garage. The garage door needs a little fixing up (something about the track not really being right), but the contractor who is fixing up the house for the seller mentioned to us that he was having someone come by to look at it. But, let's go inside!


This is right as you walk in the front door. There is a decent sized living room and the doorway leads right to our kitchen. You can even see that past the kitchen is another small room (13' by 7.5') with a window to the backyard.


This is still standing in the living room, right before the doorway to the kitchen. To the left of the living room are the bedrooms. Two smaller bedrooms are on the left side of the hallway. The first doorway on the right side of the hallway is a linen closet. The second doorway is the main bathroom (decent sized, with enough room to put some sort of shelving or storage thing in there). The third doorway on the right leads to the master bedroom.


This is going through the doorway to the kitchen. The kitchen connect to a rather large family room (23' in length). There's a large window in the family room too!


Now, this is the room that is past the kitchen. The doorway behind me leads to a patio area and to our backyard (that has a pool!). Todd is taking the picture from standing inside our laundry room. The doorway to the kitchen is on the right side, just past the doorway that Todd is standing inside of.


This is a picture of the laundry room. The washer and dryer would go behind the door. The whole left wall is open and we could easily install some shelves or a counter back there. There's also a rack for hanging clothes. Overall, it's a nice sized laundry room (and inside!).

Now, let's go back to the bedroom side of the house for some pictures!


This is the main bathroom.


This is a picture of the master bedroom. As you can see, there is a main bedroom and then a small sitting room connected to it. The French doors from the sitting room lead out to the backyard (and the pool)!


This is standing in the sitting room looking back at the entrance to the Master Bedroom. There is a nice sized closet right against that wall. Then, directly to my left is the walk-in closet (it's huge!). Also on the left would be the master bathroom. And through the doorway to the master bedroom you can see the doorway to one of the other bedrooms. Here are some pictures of those...


This picture shows the bedrooms and the windows in each. Each one also has a closet like this (though in the other one it's a little smaller and the corner of the room has built in shelves):





Anyway, those are some pictures. As some of you know, the inspection went well. There's nothing major that is wrong with the house. The inspector found some small things, but almost all of those can be fixed up relatively cheaply by Todd (the handyman). Also, while the inspector was conducting the inspection, the contractor for the house came in. The inspector gave him a copy of the inspection report and the contractor said he would fix a lot of the little things (replacing a single shingle on the roof, putting shower heads in the bathrooms, etc.). We're glad he was so helpful! To be honest, though, we're not counting on him fixing up all those things. That won't be a condition on whether or not we buy the house. There's not a lot wrong with it and we can fix most of it easily (and it doesn't need to be done immediately). So we've put our earnest money down and we're gathering the documents now for the loan. The closing date is August 28th. We're so excited!

For now, I'm staying out in Apache Junction with my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Pat. I start doing some things for the Head Start tomorrow and then I get Tuesday off. Wednesday and Thursday I go through an orientation...and then I'm not sure what I'll be doing. I do know that I start home visits before the students come to school (which will be August 10th).

I think I'll hit my little "Publish Post" button and call it an evening. I want to make sure I have everything ready for the morning!

P.S. I'll go ahead and try to draw up a layout picture for the house and get it posted tonight too!