Some Paisley Pictures

As of last week, we are all booked for our annual summer trip to Rochester! George and I will be flying in on Friday, July 13 and flying out on Saturday, July 21. This year, we will be doing something a little different...we are going up to Pineridge. Pineridge (see their we bite: http://www.pineridge.cc/) is a place up in Canada that my family used to go to when we were younger. And actually, my dad went there with his family when he was a kid too. I have really great memories of spending time with our cousins up there....fishing, jumping off the rocks, pushing each other off of the dock, roasting marshmallows, doing crafts, etc! Despite the mosquitos, and "rustic-ness" it was always a blast. It is going to be so weird to be back as an adult!! I can remember the place vividly so I am anxious to see how accurate my memory is. Anyway, we will be up there for 5 of the days.

I haven't been too great about posting pictures lately, so I figured that I would catch some of you "non-Facebookers" up on Paisley pictures....





This one is a video. She was cracking me up...every time the music came on, she would shrug her shoulders....kind of like she was trying to dance. I was trying to capture it on video....

Design Center

Happy Monday! George and I survived our design center appointment on Thursday evening. I wasn't too sure what to expect, but it ended up being really exciting. The design center for our builder is just a mile or so from my parents' house. We got there and jumped right into our all of the decisions....and we had a TON of decisions to make. Basically we had to decide on everything from the flooring to cabinets to electrical outlet locations. We struggled a little bit with the counters and the railing, but everything else was smooth sailing :) They are going to send us samples of all of our choices in the next few weeks and I will be sure to debut them on my blog.

What else??? I have been busy transitioning over to my new team for work. I find that it takes at least a few weeks to get adjusted to a new position. Fortunately I am already familiar with the business and the position....but it is still a new area and new people.

OK, I might fall asleep on my keyboard if I keep writing so I will update again later this week.

Officially BACK!

Here is my first official post as an Arizona resident (again)! It feels so great to be back and settled...for now anyway. It is amazing how just one month of travel feels like forever.

I drove my company car back to Arizona on Friday night. I actually worked the entire day and then hit the road. Everyone advised me against it, but I was determined to just get the drive behind me. So, being the stubborn person that I am, I made the trek out here. It was going fine until there was a huge car fire on Interstate 10, about 75 miles outside of Phoenix. I sat there, VERY late at night, waiting for the firefighters to get there. It held me up for a good hour and a half. By the way, the guy in the car was OK.

Paisley's brithday was Saturday and of course, we were all really excited. Terrisa planned a very, very cute circus themed party. Paisley was on her best behavior...cheerful as usual! She got some nice presents: a little car, play house thing, lot of clothes, a couple of dolls, and a lot more :)

Sunday was relaxing...church, hanging around the house, and a date night. Our date consisted of checking out some model homes for ideas, visiting the lot that our house is going to be built on, dinner at Sauce, and a trip to Home Goods. Haha, a lot of "house stuff" and dinner!

I am already knee deep with my new team here in Phoenix! My boss actually took us to a spring training baseball game today. It was a first for me.

Last Week

Hi All! I have missed blogging over the last couple of weeks. I have been to and from CA over the last three weeks and it has been tiring me out. The good news is that it will all be done in a few days. I head back to Phoenix for good on Friday. I am so excited to just be at home :)

George flew out here to CA on Saturday and we drove a Uhaul with all of our belongings to Arizona on Sunday. We really don't have much stuff in comparison to other people, but we were commenting on how much stuff we have accumulated over the past couple of years. My mom drove out here with me in June 2010 with all of my stuff in my SUV. George just came with his truck and some small furniture in the bed of the truck. I guess that's what happens over time...

In between all of the craziness of moving, traveling, and work, George and I managed to find ourselves a place in Arizona.....WE PUT AN OFFER IN ON A HOME! We are actually going to be building the home so we won't move in for 6 months. It's hard to believe that we are going to be homeowners, but VERY exciting nonetheless.

The name of our new neighborhood is Morrison Ranch. It is in Gilbert, AZ...just 5 minutes from George's parents, 20 minutes from my parents, and 5 minutes from Brian and Terrisa. The neighborhood is old farm land and they actually still have functioning farms within the neighborhood. We are in love with the look and feel of the neighborhood. It is going to be so exciting to watch it be built over the next several months. And actually, the builder is the same builder who built my parents home in Las Sendas (Blandford).

In case you're interested, here is the link to pictures of the model home...ours will be the same set-up and floorplan, just without the furniture and decorations :)
http://morrisonranch.blandfordhomes.com/res3_virtual-tour.php#series

We have our "design center" appointment next week where we get to select our flooring, counters, cabinets, paint color, etc. I'm sure this will be a topic of my blog for the a bit. Haha.

I'll be back to my normal blog schedule next week. I am so out of my regular routine right now! AND...I have a horrible cold :(

Goodnight, everyone!

Update From Phoenix

I apologize for the lack of updates! I have been traveling to/from Phoenix and things have been kind of crazy with work. FIRST, I have an official "move date"....March 9 will be my last day working in California. I take over a team here in Arizona on March 12. My team will consist of 10-12 Sales Reps and my area is Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, etc...I'll find out more details next week. I'm so glad that the timing worked out well.

Going back to last weekend...

I flew in on Friday night for the weekend (until Wed). George and I went out with a bunch of our friends on Friday night to Oregano's. Glad we had fun on Friday night because I was sick as a dog the rest of the weekend. OH MY GOODNESS, I had to flu so, so bad! Terrible way to spend our anniversary weekend, but we made the best of it. AKA, we sat around the house for a couple of days :) It seems like I get the flu like that once every three years or so....SO, I should be good for awhile.

I am back in Arizona this weekend until Tuesday. I have some work stuff on Monday and Tuesday and then I head back to California. We are preparing for a visit from our CEO on Thursday of next week. Kind of stressful.

New Technology

Well, George is safe and sound in Arizona! He left this morning and arrived around 5pm or so. I head there tomorrow until Wednesday.

The theme of this week has been new technology! First, I got an iPhone on Tuesday!! Yeaaah! Everyone always talks about how great the iPhone is and I kind of thought it was too hyped. BUT now that I have one, I get it :) I mean, "if you don't have an iphone, then you don't have an iphone." RIGHT?! Haha (Apple commercial anyone???)

My work is also going through a big technology transition. We are migrating over to a new system/server...I'm actually not sure exactly what's going on, to be honest, but something like that. So, for me, that meant a new laptop. Not a macbook, but hey, I'll take it. The only bummer though is that I'm not able to upload my pictures from my gmail account anymore. Normally that would not be a big deal, because I typically just use George's macbook for 99% of everything I do at home, but George had to take it with him for homework (can't remember if I blogged about it, but George started a Master's program in Human Relations at Northern Arizona University...he is able to take his classes online). George was so kind and left the ipad for me though. Basically, what all that means to you, is that I won't be able to upload pictures to my blog for a little while. And that's too bad too because I had some good ones to share!

If I was going to show you a couple pictures, the first one would be of the flowers and Salted Caramels that George gave me on Valentine's Day. I first tried the caramels at Costco last week. I liked them so much that George went back to get them! They are Kirkland brand (Costco's brand). I think Costco has a very smart approach to their business. First, they are very selective about what items are sold in their stores. They go for very high quality and don't necessarily care about the brand. Overtime, their customers have had good experiences with Costco products and come to trust their selection of products. So, Costco customers are willing to try new items...including those Kirkland branded. And, of course, Costco makes more on their own brand than they do name brands. Very clever.

I also took a few pictures of George and Keziah saying goodbye :( He will probably wonder where George went!!

Well, off to bed. Goodnight

Almost Moving Day

Well, it is almost moving day for George. I wish I was going with him. Hopefully my turn will come soon :) It should, it should...

Actually, I can't complain because I will be in Phoenix a lot over the next few weeks. I leave this Friday and come back next Wednesday. I conveniently have a Nestle recruitment event at ASU on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Our big 1 year anniversary is on Sunday! We are planning to go to a nice dinner somewhere in Phoenix on our actual anniversary. AND...we are treating ourselves to a trip to New Orleans at the end of April for the New Orleans Jazz Festival. http://www.nojazzfest.com/ I've already started researching restaurants :)

We sent Brian, Terrisa, Brent, and Chrissy home with our first load of stuff yesterday. They took our Hyundai back and it was as stuffed as possible. I am working on laundry tonight and tomorrow we will pack some of our clothes. I hate packing!

We had a great time on Saturday at Disneyland. A big shout-out to Carrie and Alonso for getting us into the park for free! They are both animators for Disney here in Southern California. Speaking of animating, we did this thing at Disney called Animator's Academy. Basically, they just teach you step-by-step how to draw a Disney character. The character during our session was Winnie the Pooh. Afterward, we had Carrie and Alonso vote (b/c they are real animators) and.......they selected mine. So, I might be moving on to the big times soon. Haha.