Temple Open House

In October the new Phoenix Temple was open to the public before it was dedicated.  I wasn't able to volunteer to help with the open house as much as I wanted, but I did do parking duty a few saturdays.  I loved directing people and thankfully the weather was great.  The only thing that killed was watching other volunteers get to drive around on the golf carts, cause it looked so fun.  Thankfully I always had good buddies there while I was there so the time went by fast.  

I invited my whole work team to go through the temple on our lunch.  We had a fun ride over talking about how there is no way they could ever pay tithing.  During the video part, we kind of had a crying baby, but walking through the temple was really cool.  The first time I went through was at night, so it was cool to see the temple during the day.  Im very blessed to work at a place where we can talk about the church and what we believe.  You cant beat a work lunch at the temple. 

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the weeks I watched my friend Jen's kids while they volunteered at the temple. It was only a few tuesdays after work that I wrangled the kids into eating dinner, playing piano, cleaning up their sprinkles and getting to bed.  I was grateful for the time we got to spend talking about gatorade, them teaching me how to play mario cart, tuesday tacos/ice cream at burger king, Rita's and a drive by of the temple.

Take Your Kids (or brothers) to Work Day

Monday the kids had school off and so my work planned a "take your kid to work day".  As a child, I remember a few times when my moms work had the same kind of day for us.  I enjoyed it as a kid and thought it would be fun for Bill and Court.  So I picked them up early, they gave us breakfast and then I showed them my desk and tried to show them the work that I do.  They had some activities for them to do that I left them down for and then we took a tour of the building and they got to check out a few trucks. The president of the company came to talk to them and as well as my favorite Keith Knight.  They had chicken nuggets for the kids lunch and even gave them a Knight football when they left.  I was stressed because I was so worried about them being crazy and thought they had a horrible time, but just the other night Court asked when my work, take your kid to work day was going to be, and he said that he had fun there.  Maybe they will be truckers one day! :)

Art in the Park

We woke up super early (4am) and drove all the way to Boulder City to go to art in the park and visit my aunt Claudia.

On the way home we walked past the boulder city bowling alley and decided to play a game.  

I won't say who won, but we had a lot of fun!!!

We had some dinner at Totos and then drove right back to Phoenix. 

IKEA Birthday

Its strange how much birthdays change as you get older.  I took the Friday off work and went with a friend to Ikea to pick up some bedroom furniture. We walked in wanting a dresser and came out with two flats full and a cart full of purchases.

On my actual birthday I was in a leadership training conference.  While the whole week was miserably long and draining, those in my group really made me feel special, and I was extremely grateful

Saddie Hawkins

I didn't go to a single dance in high school, and hadn't really heard of a sadie hawkins dance until I was much older.  A friend had asked to be a chaperone for her daughter and friends while she was out of town.  At the same time a friend had told me of a brother who would be in Mesa.  I figured if I had to go as a chaperon, I might as well take a date myself!

We started the day out rock climbing, which really just made me realize how out of shape, and how long it has been since I have been out really rock climbing.

There were several points when I didn't think I was going to make it to the top.  I thought of giving up way more than one should, but after so many attempts I finally made it!!! It was very gratifying.

Our date started out picking the kids up.  We drove down to tempe town lake a rented a boat to ride around in while we ate dinner-sub sandwiches.

After the boat dinner we headed over to laser tag and let the kids play a round while we went and got sonic drinks.  Of course once the kids saw that we got drinks, they wanted drinks!

Then we were off to the dance.  I was def not impressed with the music they played, nothing I would have danced do.  We sat in the back on some tables they had and talked about religion and the hard life of an old single mormon. :) For my first saddie hawkins it def was a night I won't ever forget I imagine.

Lady Tubing

One saturday we headed to Lake Pleasant for a fun day in the sun.  I basically screamed almost the entire time we were on the tube, but thankfully I never flew off.

New Truck

I feel like Ive always had a truck, until gas prices sky rocketed and it was extremely expensive to drive a 4Runner that got 12 miles to the gallon.  It took me 3 months to decide to buy a car.  I based my decision soley on the best gas mileage and went with a 2005 corolla.  It def was a great decision when I was driving 80 miles a day for work.  But for some reason, I have always felt like I needed a truck.  I searched criagslist, would go to check out this truck or that truck, trying to get the best deal.  I had gotten back from Utah when I realized instead of things that didn't bring me value I would get rid of everything in order to get what would make me happy-a truck. I ran across this old APS truck with a crushed side.  I was able to get the price down as much as I thought and decided to make the purchase. I spent a few weeks fixing the door and cleaning with a steamer the entire inside.

I really wanted a backup cam in this truck as well as a new radio….So of course I got on craigslist and found this guy trying to sell a radio for a hundred bucks.  I offered him 40 and asked if he could meet me but he said he didn't have gas money to drive.  So I drove all the way over to mesa and got the touch screen dvd player.  I ordered the backup camera online for like 6 bucks, ran some wire to the tail light and with a few tries I finally got it to work…and I freakin love it, its so handy