Graduation

Some of you may know that I "graduated" from ASU in May. In actuality, I only walked in the ceremony. Before I can receive my diploma I have to complete an internship and the two classes that go along with it. I am currently doing just that and it hit me yesterday that I am SO CLOSE to being done with school for real! Really and truly done. No more parking at ASU, trying to contact my useless advisor, or writing 20 page papers about books I love on topics I hate. I am almost there. Everyone give out a big hooray! Let's count down to July 25th together!

Viva Las Vegas!

So, Joe and I love Las Vegas! Though it was just the weekend, this trip was exactly what we needed. We had fun, but didn't get too busy. We hung out with friends, but weren't rushed to get from place to place. Our friends, the Whitings, are always gracious enough to let us stay at their house and we get to spend our time hanging out with them and their two kids. Amber is preggers like me so it was fun to here the boys complain over the weekend about what they could possibly do for fun with two pregnant women. So we went to dinner on Friday at this cool Japanese restaurant (with the worst service ever), and Joe had the single most exciting experience of his life. He saw Nigel, judge and producer of So You Think You Can Dance! When he came back and told me I wanted to run out and tell him he had been too harsh on last weeks show, but I think that would have appeared a little crazy. Then we got our hair cut on Saturday. No, I got my hair cut on Saturday. For some reason I only ever get my hair cut when I am on vacation, and Amber's friend Toni was happy to oblige. We went out to dinner that night at Famous Dave's BBQ, saw Spamalot at the Wynn hotel after that, then we hit up some late night dessert. For the record, the play was HILARIOUS! We had to get a few pictures after the play to remember this great event, and Joe and Chris loved the crazy Frenchies best so this picture opportunity was priceless. We had hoped to get a few pictures in the Ferrari Dealership, but they charge you an entrance fee now just to LOOK at the cars! Mr. Wynn is getting a little crazy.Usually when we get to Vegas, Chris is very busy and has little time to actually spend with us. He more than made up for it this trip with all of the quality time we finally got with him! And then, we learned a new game on Sunday (Hand and Foot for those of you who care). So, we are home again. We both have to go back to work tomorrow and hope that we get to see our friends the Whitings soon. Once a year is just not enough.

VEGAS BABY!

Joe and I are getting away for a couple of days. We will be up in Las Vegas visiting friends and enjoying time away from work, school, and the other stuff that stresses us out in Phoenix. Our dear friends, the Whitings, have a great place for us to crash and are some of our favorite people in Vegas. It should be interesting since I am 5 months pregnant and Amber is 6! What are two big pregnant ladies going to do in Las Vegas for the weekend? I hope not much. I am a tired cookie.

Little Joys

I have had a long week. It is only Wednesday, but I feel already like it should be Saturday. I think that I have overworked my little-getting-bigger-by-the-day body and I am just TIRED! I have to go to my internship in a few minutes but I wanted to check my email before I left.

Normally when I open my user account on my computer I am greeted by a beautiful picture of Joe and me at Thanksgiving Point, taken by my talented sister Jennifer.

Every time this photo pops up I get a nice happy feeling that reminds me that there are places where you can enjoy the outdoors in the Summertime, times when Joe and I have time for vacation, and family members willing to let us crash at their houses. What I found this morning was even better. For the first time in a while, Joe got up before me today so he could go to work. Normally we would have sat and had breakfast together or something, but I was far too tired to get out of bed before he left. When I turned on my computer I found this on my desktop instead:

A Calla lily! My favorite flower! My husband left me a flower on my computer! My day has already gotten so much better.

The Phoenix Heat

It is not unusual for me to complain about the Phoenix Summer heat. Most of my friends and family know that I have no love for this city come June-September. Joe and I went for a walk last night at 7:30 and it was still 105 degrees. 105! To add to the ridiculous temperature there is all of the hot wind. Now, I love wind, but only when it is the kind of wind that actually cools you down. Phoenix wind is like the wave of heat that hits you when you open your oven door.

So there is the high temperature, the hot wind, and the fact that grass is nearly impossible to find. Phoenix is a city of cement, asphalt, and dirt lots. All of this just makes the heat seem that much more unbearable. I remember last Summer when I had to walk about 1/2 a mile from my car to my ASU classes, mind you this was at 8 a.m., and I would get to class with my calves and shins burned from the heat coming up off the sidewalk.

With all of this divine radiance to endure I was moved nearly to tears by a Sprite commercial. This could be due to the fact that I am pregnant and most things make me cry, or it is because I want SO BADLY for this commercial to be real. To view my ideal Phoenix scenario, see below:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1latJ7K8zc

Sprite has the best commercials!

One of those weeks

This is one of those weeks when I have nothing to say. I was busy, school and work and all, and I did some pretty fun stuff. But as I sit to type a blog I feel there is no topic I wish to address. I want to be creative. I want to have fun pictures to post. I want people to check on my blog and say "Yeah! Kathryn posted a new one!" But I've got nothing. Sorry.

"Phoenix Water Parks"

Do you remember running through your sprinklers as a kid? Were you the kid in town lucky enough to have the cool fountain attachment for your hose that made this easier? (For an example ask to see Jenn's Ariel fountain.) Do your kids run through your sprinklers now? Do you recall the endless fun that was the slip-and-slide? Due to the fact that Phoenix has little water, and even less grass, I never see this happening. There is no summer fun in the sprinklers. In hopes of giving kids this priceless opportunity, and to relieve some of mom's summer stress, Phoenix has these little waterspout areas at every outdoor mall that I refer to as "Phoenix Water parks."

They are not parks, but it seems to be one of the few options left to kids out here in the desert. While the idea makes me sad, the reality is adorable! Yesterday Joe and I hung out with our friends, Joel and Ruth, and their daughter Mikayla.



She is just about the cutest little albino to ever grace the water parks of Arizona. While the number of children using the water park was a little scary at first, she was soon splashing the best way she could in the Arizona heat.





While Ruth chased her to prevent her from running off to shop...

the men were doing what men usually do...

It was so much fun to watch the kids get so excited about playing in the water, and it was a great chance for Joe and me to get some practice chasing down a little girl! I can't wait to buy Baby Girl Jackson a cute little swimsuit!

When It Rains, It Pours

Not literally of course. We do live in Phoenix after all. But A lot has started this week. I'm still working part-time at my IRCA job, and my internship started. In addition to my internship I have 2 classes that are the capstone to my major. Probably because I have already walked for graduation, I have ZERO motivation to do homework.

So this is what I do: work at my job 3 days a week getting as many hours in a day as I can, intern 2 days a week for 8 hours a day, and do my homework at night. All of this to try and get out of the way by the weekend so that I can clean my house and do laundry at some point.

I feel, however, like there should be a similar term, but with a positive connotation. "When it rains, it pours" has a very negative feeling attached and I think that I need to sub-head this post with the positive version. Last week we had, not one, but two birthday parties to go to on Saturday. 2! Joe and I are lucky to hit 2 parties in a six month period. And then on Wednesday we had, not one, but two social gatherings with friends. We had a DELICIOUS dinner with our friends Derek and Michelle, and we had our usual "Top Chef" party with Tadd and Kelly. Most importantly, the night provided 2 dessert opportunities!

While meeting up with friends is just one more thing to add into my schedule, I have found that excluding such outings from my life makes me a cranky girl! At Derek and Michelle's I was thinking that I could not remember the last time I had seen Joe be so social. It was so much fun to meet NEW people and have NEW conversations. And the food was so good I almost asked these guys for their Turkey sloppy-joe recipe, but thought it would make me seem like a silly house mommy. And don't get me started on the Key Lime Pie! YUMMY!

So sometimes the pouring rain is really just what we need to get us through the other stuff in our week. Like Phoenix, I could use a lot of this kind of rain.

the past and the present

So, as some of you know I have an old blog page. It is so old that I can no longer remember the password and I don't use the email address they have registered for it anymore. Because of all of this I have no way of logging in to my old blog; hence this new one. I can, however, still pull it up to read. I was reading through some of my past blogs and I was laughing at my trials with ASU, my job, and some of the other silly things I thought were vital at the time. One particular blog stood out to me as being one I could post today with few changes at all, and it would still be exactly how I feel and important to me. It is so important in fact that I want it on this new blog for people to read and so that it is attached to the blog that I hope I will keep up with for the coming years. The blog was titled "My Husband." I have made a few alterations to allow for the time difference but it goes like this:

I love my husband Joe. I have been married for 2 years and 8 months now and I have loved almost every minute. (Let's be honest, no one has ever loved every minute of nearly three years.) He does so many great things that I just don't thank him for enough.

1. He will have dinner ready for me on nights he knows I had a bad day at work.

2. He rubs my sore pregnant-lady legs.

3. He holds my hand while we sleep.

4. He sets his alarm 15 minutes early so that he can get back in bed to cuddle with me before he leaves in the morning.

5. He has so much patience for my reading obsession.

6. He expects a lot from me with school, work, and home, and I am glad most of the time.

7. He understands that growing a baby makes me very tired!

8. He always takes out the trash.

9. He always cleans the bathroom, including the bath tub.

10. He does the dishes on the nights that I cook.

And so many other things that pop into my head in the day! Most of the time I just know that he is wonderful,but every now and then, I am overcome by how much I love him and how happy I am that he married me. I tell him often that he is my favorite, to which he replies, "Favorite what?".

He is my favorite:

person to play games with,

movie buddy,

massage therapist,

chef,

maintenance man,

Barnes and Noble companion,

teacher,

volleyball player,

maid,

chauffeur,

provider,

alarm clock,

and person all around.

I LOVE JOE!

Brother's Smell Like Poo

This is what I get for asking for people's opinions. BOTH Ben and David have complained to me that my list of baby names does not have a "none of the above" option. Like typical boys they have plenty of complaints about my names, but no alternatives to offer. I realize that the names are not typical, that was intentional. Joe, being a Joe, does not want to pick a name that is used too frequently. I remember our sister Jennifer complaining that every class she was in had 5 Jennifers in it. We WANT more rare names. The trick is avoiding weird in search of rare.

(Brothers David, Nathan, Jon, and Ben)

I realize that some of the names seem boyish; they call this UNISEX! I did not search boys lists for a name for my girl. So, yes, Sloane, Riley, Avery, and Harley are girls names too! Some of the names we picked came from a list of Irish names since Joe's family is predominately Irish. The exceptions to this are Irelynd (totally American), Savannah (Spanish), and Shelby (Old Norse).

The names that seem to get the most derision are Irelynd, Harley, and Shelby. I realize that Irelynd is odd in spelling but we wrote out Ireland and it seemed too homage to the homeland. I was surprised when I googled Irelynd that this is actually not a new way to spell this name. Harley, believe it or not, was a name for a person before it was a name for a bike! And Shelby is not just a car either! Boys. Silly.

Joe and I are still open to ideas for names if anyone wants to volunteer any. But don't call me up to whine if you can't give me a better idea! And, Ben, I checked "Freakonomics" and I am not naming my kid Lucien, Glynnis, Beatrix, Ronem or Oona!

I feel like I should mention that, as of now, Jon and Nathan are not on the "smell like poo list." But that can all change at a moments notice.