Hey folks,
well as you might have guessed it time has flown by and the BIG TEXAS MOVE IS BARELY A WEEK AWAY!
ok. try not to panic. seriously. we're doing it enough for you.
to catch you all up Staci and I will be moving to the lovely little town of Frisco, Texas (for now) and will officially leave Thursday, August 13th. my dad & I will be driving a Penske truck with all our worldly possessions (including a niftly 'lil motorcycle in the back), whilst pulling a car hauler trailer with a mustang on top. Staci will follow closely behind, keeping her eyes peeled for gas stations, fast food restraunts, and watching for anything that falls outta the truck. -just kidding people, lighten up. :)
on a more serious tone however we have become increasingly nervous due to the many unforeseen hangups that have come up. instead of giving 2 weeks notice where I work, I gave 5 weeks, placed resumés and transfer requests months ago and have just been told if I don't hear news of a solid job transfer by monday, August 10th, they'll have to begin processing 'departure paperwork'. (Tuesday is our last day) Staci is in more or less the same boat with her job, upper & middle management squabbling about 'who's fault' it is that the transfer process hasn't been fulfilled thus far and yet no real leads or notice have been given her. other little frustrations sprang up as well including, **but not limited to** :
bank accounts having no Texas access, Car insurance not being offered through our current company in Tx, and, no employment = no health/optical/dental insurance.
Seems none of us can escape the wrath of the recession. so many of you are having daily struggles of your own, and hopefully no one is experiencing any severe hardships. thankfully we still have money left over from student loans that will last us several weeks /months. obviously we'd rather not use it if we didn't have to. any prayers in our behalf are appreciated. heaven help us all :/
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Guess what we found!!
When Staci and I were first married finding Gluten-Free foods seemed quite a challenge. we looked almost everywhere and were limited to 'Whole Foods' for our GF bread, cookies, etc. the longer we're married though, the more stores are catching on that gluten sensitivity is a very real problem. it's getting easier, but we've still got a long way to go. here's the back story:
a few weeks after our marriage the local Fry's grocery store started carrying GF flour, as well as chocolate chip cookies. several weeks after that Albertson's started carrying GF Betty Crocker cake mixes. about a month later still Safeway picked up the gluten free market and started labeling many products right on their shelves!
now many of you have sent in recipes, as well as blogs and other Celiac-friendly bits of advice. (keep em comin'!) but what got us excited more recently was that now most all Chex cereal is labeled "now Gluten Free" right on the box! very very cool. even Wal-Mart has the occasional GF Cookie mixes and things like that
but last night, oh we hit the jackpot. Fry's food & drug is now carrying loads of Gluten free stuff! take a look at the biggest surprises...
The GF cookies above taste a lot like Nilla Wafers™
that's right people. CHOCOLATE DONUTS!! (I had a pic of Staci eating it but she told me not to post it! .... guilty pleasure I suppose :P
and the biggest surprise....
Gluten Free (& Dairy free) Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! holy cow it's good. possibly better than the reg. cookie dough ice cream I've got in the freezer. I was so surprised that they made it at all. Staci was in heaven :)
a few weeks after our marriage the local Fry's grocery store started carrying GF flour, as well as chocolate chip cookies. several weeks after that Albertson's started carrying GF Betty Crocker cake mixes. about a month later still Safeway picked up the gluten free market and started labeling many products right on their shelves!
now many of you have sent in recipes, as well as blogs and other Celiac-friendly bits of advice. (keep em comin'!) but what got us excited more recently was that now most all Chex cereal is labeled "now Gluten Free" right on the box! very very cool. even Wal-Mart has the occasional GF Cookie mixes and things like that
but last night, oh we hit the jackpot. Fry's food & drug is now carrying loads of Gluten free stuff! take a look at the biggest surprises...
The GF cookies above taste a lot like Nilla Wafers™
that's right people. CHOCOLATE DONUTS!! (I had a pic of Staci eating it but she told me not to post it! .... guilty pleasure I suppose :P
and the biggest surprise....
Gluten Free (& Dairy free) Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! holy cow it's good. possibly better than the reg. cookie dough ice cream I've got in the freezer. I was so surprised that they made it at all. Staci was in heaven :)
Monday, July 13, 2009
moving on,
so, we'll gently skip over the whole Grand Canyon / Family reunion / Four Corners trip for now. as for the Gale Talent Show video of my mom & Aunt Brenda twirling their batons, Ky succesfully posted it on the Gale Blog for me. other than that we're just gearing up for the move!
Stay Tuned!
Stay Tuned!
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Latest / Getting ready for Texas
So here we are, in the midst of our final summer in AZ (whoo hoo) and life is good. Hot, but good. Lately we run our air conditioner most of the time we’re home and the electric bill can prove it. Doesn’t matter much to either of us though, we’d go without many other ‘luxuries’ before the air kicks off for sure.
Staci graduated with her bachelor’s degree from NAU last month (Summa Cum Laude –BAM!) and she’s excited to look for opportunities elsewhere to branch out in the working world. I’m so proud of her for doing an amazing job; she received her final letter stating she’d made the Dean’s List every semester of her NAU career! Now that we have her diploma we still need to buy that display case she wanted…. :D
Now that we’re into June we’re planning our big move to TEXAS! Our lease is up 3rd week of August and we plan to be gone before that. For now we’re both transferring our current jobs (her at Staples and myself at WaMu / Chase) but we’re not sure how long we’ll be with them once we get there. Truth be told, we’re looking into buying our first home! The time is right, but there’s a lot to do beforehand! Saturday we plan on calling the realtor and a few mortgage people to see what we can afford. My banking background has already helped me a lot to understand the process! I’m sure we’re both still in for a wild ride though.
It’s been very stressful lately planning out our lives in what feels like a moments notice. Seems as though we know when we’re leaving, but not where we’re going :) - haha. We’ve planned out much of what we’ll do, but still haven’t decided the specifics. Where will we live? Where will we work? What will I do about school? We’re as prepared as can be at this time (1/3 of our stuff is already in boxes!) but still have a lot to do. If any of you have relevant advice, shoot it our way. We can’t guarantee we’ll follow it, but helpful advice is always, well, helpful. :)
Staci graduated with her bachelor’s degree from NAU last month (Summa Cum Laude –BAM!) and she’s excited to look for opportunities elsewhere to branch out in the working world. I’m so proud of her for doing an amazing job; she received her final letter stating she’d made the Dean’s List every semester of her NAU career! Now that we have her diploma we still need to buy that display case she wanted…. :D
Now that we’re into June we’re planning our big move to TEXAS! Our lease is up 3rd week of August and we plan to be gone before that. For now we’re both transferring our current jobs (her at Staples and myself at WaMu / Chase) but we’re not sure how long we’ll be with them once we get there. Truth be told, we’re looking into buying our first home! The time is right, but there’s a lot to do beforehand! Saturday we plan on calling the realtor and a few mortgage people to see what we can afford. My banking background has already helped me a lot to understand the process! I’m sure we’re both still in for a wild ride though.
It’s been very stressful lately planning out our lives in what feels like a moments notice. Seems as though we know when we’re leaving, but not where we’re going :) - haha. We’ve planned out much of what we’ll do, but still haven’t decided the specifics. Where will we live? Where will we work? What will I do about school? We’re as prepared as can be at this time (1/3 of our stuff is already in boxes!) but still have a lot to do. If any of you have relevant advice, shoot it our way. We can’t guarantee we’ll follow it, but helpful advice is always, well, helpful. :)
Thursday, April 23, 2009
the last few weeks
wow, it's amazing how long it takes to finish something you aren't working on. it's been too long since I published something new but have not the time to explain in detail. I'll run through the last little while:
Renaissance festival. Tons of fun, turkey leg, the whole nine yards. I'd never been before but was really glad we went.
Mom's B-Day. we invited my mother over for her birthday dinner complete with cake and everything. Staci bought multiple cake mixes to make a 'checkerboard' cake for my mom (a family favorite of mine) but the cake sort of swirled together at the last moment and Staci wasn't too happy with it. she suggested I just buy one from the store but after Staci's finished baking and had icing on top, it was better anyway. so Mom got 2 cakes for her *37th* birthday. (*she didn't even laugh at the candles '3 7' on top of the cake :P )
two days later (on Easter) mom & dad had their anniversary. we let them celebrate ALONE for most of the day, but then they invited us over for honey ham. sooo good. congrats mom & dad.
TAXES! - took me alot longer than planned, but mainly because I thought I needed a 1098-T form from school but ultimately did not. we await our return any day now. VERY excited.
School. going very well for me, getting caught up and taking care of business as usual. Staci is blowing the competition out of the water (especially with her phenomenal 30+ page paper she is finishing). can't wait to get it all over with.
Flagstaff trip on the 18th; Staci and I wanted to tour the campus she'd be graduating from in a few weeks! it was a fun day around 'Flag' with our friend Marie as well, going all over campus then to Bookman's (how did THAT happen?! -hey, we got "The 3 amigos" out of it :) then off to help Marie with groceries. (it's tough without a car. been there, don't EVER want to do it again).
Softball. lately I've been REALLY getting into church softball. we have played every other Tuesday / Thursday and so far are 4-2. the 2 games lost included 1 forfeit (because we only had a few players, not enough for a team), and the immediately following game, where we could only play because we let 2 ten year olds play with us. still alot of fun though!
now, working MANY hours a week for both of us (we've gone to Chase' hours an now open at 8am - some days I work 7:30 to 6:30!) and Staci is still putting in almost 40 hours at staples. somehow we'll get through the end of this semester but it'll be tough! see you on the otherside :)
Renaissance festival. Tons of fun, turkey leg, the whole nine yards. I'd never been before but was really glad we went.
Mom's B-Day. we invited my mother over for her birthday dinner complete with cake and everything. Staci bought multiple cake mixes to make a 'checkerboard' cake for my mom (a family favorite of mine) but the cake sort of swirled together at the last moment and Staci wasn't too happy with it. she suggested I just buy one from the store but after Staci's finished baking and had icing on top, it was better anyway. so Mom got 2 cakes for her *37th* birthday. (*she didn't even laugh at the candles '3 7' on top of the cake :P )
two days later (on Easter) mom & dad had their anniversary. we let them celebrate ALONE for most of the day, but then they invited us over for honey ham. sooo good. congrats mom & dad.
TAXES! - took me alot longer than planned, but mainly because I thought I needed a 1098-T form from school but ultimately did not. we await our return any day now. VERY excited.
School. going very well for me, getting caught up and taking care of business as usual. Staci is blowing the competition out of the water (especially with her phenomenal 30+ page paper she is finishing). can't wait to get it all over with.
Flagstaff trip on the 18th; Staci and I wanted to tour the campus she'd be graduating from in a few weeks! it was a fun day around 'Flag' with our friend Marie as well, going all over campus then to Bookman's (how did THAT happen?! -hey, we got "The 3 amigos" out of it :) then off to help Marie with groceries. (it's tough without a car. been there, don't EVER want to do it again).
Softball. lately I've been REALLY getting into church softball. we have played every other Tuesday / Thursday and so far are 4-2. the 2 games lost included 1 forfeit (because we only had a few players, not enough for a team), and the immediately following game, where we could only play because we let 2 ten year olds play with us. still alot of fun though!
now, working MANY hours a week for both of us (we've gone to Chase' hours an now open at 8am - some days I work 7:30 to 6:30!) and Staci is still putting in almost 40 hours at staples. somehow we'll get through the end of this semester but it'll be tough! see you on the otherside :)
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
what an inspiration!
Wow people, oh my goodness I'm married to a GENIUS! (Who's dangerously attractive might I add ;)
My beautiful wife Staci will be graduating SUMMA CUM LAUDE with highest honors from NAU! (4.0 GPA !!)
she'll walk May 8th, 2009 @ 2 pm and I couldn't be any more proud. She really is an inspiration to me, both in education and otherwise. At times I get discouraged with my schoolwork, feeling so far behind with kids in my classes being 5 years younger than I am, but Staci has helped me (and continues to help me) push myself and get it done. WAY TO GO STACI! WOOT WOOT!!
YEAH BABY!
My beautiful wife Staci will be graduating SUMMA CUM LAUDE with highest honors from NAU! (4.0 GPA !!)
she'll walk May 8th, 2009 @ 2 pm and I couldn't be any more proud. She really is an inspiration to me, both in education and otherwise. At times I get discouraged with my schoolwork, feeling so far behind with kids in my classes being 5 years younger than I am, but Staci has helped me (and continues to help me) push myself and get it done. WAY TO GO STACI! WOOT WOOT!!
YEAH BABY!
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