Day Seventy-Two

Today was a pefect day for warm home made soup! It was cold and still lightly snowing. There won't be many days left for warm soup. Although I would probably still eat it on a hot day just because I like soups so much. It was hard to get a really good picture of the steam. It was moving so fast it looked more like a blur than rising steam.

Day Seventy-One

I was inside all day at work, but this is what I came home to find. Snow on the first day of spring. I'm hoping there aren't any more freak snow showers. I'd like to turn my flower pot up right and start planting some flowers in there! Arizona game me a good taste of the sun and I'm ready for it to come to Oklahoma.

Day Seventy

                                     

Since we were traveling during the time change none of our clocks at home were changed until Friday. It was a little confusing to wake up on Friday morning and not know what the real time was. Thank God my cell phone automatically changes! PS- my duct tape watch finally died a couple weeks ago. This is the replacement. I miss my old one!

Day Sixty-Nine

While in New Mexico, Mal and I had the chance to catch up with an old friend, Candace! Candace and I had a random chance meeting on Myspace about 3 months before I left for college. Yes, it does sound crazy. I don't remember who found who or how, but we found out we would be freshman at the same school so we started chatting. When we got to school and met for the first time it was like we had been friends for years, not at all like random strangers on myspace. It was great to have the three of us back together for a little bit. It brought back great memories of late night laughs! I hope that the next visit will not take as long to happen as this one did!

Day Sixty-Eight

Meet our trip tour guide Gwyneth. What would we do with out a GPS? Maps are great, but having a gadget that tells you were the gas stations and resturants are is almost priceless when traveling. It was really like traveling with a tour guide through every city.

Day Sixty-Seven

I do not think I have ever been more happier to see the sun rise than I was the morning on the mountain! It was a beautiful sunrise. It had been a crazy night. After the sun went down, the heat went with it. I put on basically all the clothing I had brought up, which wasn't much. We then started a fire for some heat. After that died down, we decided to head to our tents for some sleep. Thats when the wind started. I'm not sure what the wind speeds were, but it was enough to break one of our tents and threatened to break the other one. With one tent broken, we stuffed all five of us into a three person tent. Cold was no longer a problem, but trying to find a comfortable way to lay with five sardines in a can was. Even inside the tent, the wind was blowing dirt and sand in. If my head wasnt covered I was eating dirt. At some point I managaned to cover my head and fall asleep. As soon as it was light out, I was out of the tent. It was proabably the most unfomfortable night I've ever had. We all survived and I think I would do it all over again. Next time, I will be better prepared.

Day Sixty-Six

We made it to the top! It was quite a day of hiking. The first part was basically out in the open trekking up a steep hill with the sun blazing on us. I think it took us about 5 hours to climb to the top overall. We took lots of water breaks and time to let our legs rest. Towards the end of the hike it became more like rock climbing. There were parts that seriously seemed vertical. I had no problem going up, but I was more worried about getting back down the steeper parts. The one mistake I made was not buying hiking boots/shoes. I just wore an older pair of running shoes that still had some tread left. Unfortunately that was not enough. I felt every rock and didn’t have much traction. I really enjoyed every part of the hiking trip. Some of it was hard, uncomfortable, and not glamorous, but there is just something about strapping weight to your body and climbing to the top of a mountain. It was very empowering.

Day Sixty-Five

Welcome to Arizona! Our first night we stayed at a KOA camp in Apache Junction just out side of Phoenix. After two long days of driving, we settled in for a nice sleep on the ground. Even though I brought a pillow for the car, I wanted to prepare myself for the night on the mountain so I let someone else use it. I got creative and balled up my extra clothes for padding. It wasn't too bad. Having a mummy sleeping bag really helped. The only thing I needed was a hat to cover what wasn't covered by my sleeping bag. I woke up early to the sounds of babies and kids crying. I had serious de ja vue and thought I was back in Africa. I had a night just like it, in a tent, hard lumpy ground, and the sounds of kids surrounding our tent all night long. I slept a little better in the KOA camp than I did in Africa. Both are good memories.

Day Sixty-Four

I'm going to be honest, I do not know what state this is in. It could be Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona. There wasn't a whole lot to look at during the drive for most of it, but I didn't mind. I've never been past Oklahoma going west so all of it was new to me. I love visiting new places and seeing new landscape. I'd like to vist all 50 states before I die. When I say visit, I mean drive to the state and actually see what is there. Catching a connecting flight there doesnt count for me. If I only counted airports then I would be a little over half finished with my goal. I think I've got about 30 states left on my list!

Day Sixty-Three

The car is packed and we are ready to go go go! Five of us are heading to Phoenix Arizona to hike/climb/backpack up Superstition Mountains and camp on Flatiron. It's going to be a long car ride, but well worth it for the adventure!

Day Sixty-Two

It's like micro knitting. I'm amazed at how these tiny stiches are made!

Day Sixty-One

In 2008 I spent a month in Uganda. The only contact I had with anyone back home was 2 emails the entire time. However, Kevin made this book for me before I left. He wrote me one letter for every day I would be gone and put them all together in this book. I loved reading those little notes every day. I found this in a bag while packing for Arizona. Kev and I had a good laugh over some of his funny letters. It was much better reading and laughing over these letters with him next to me than it was thousands of miles apart.

Day Sixty

I just had to go to Bass Pro today. We’re getting ready for our camping/backpacking/hiking/road trip to Arizona and I needed to get a few items. I have no problem getting to Bass Pro… but every time I come back I get lost! You would think it would be easy, just come back the way I came. However, I always manage to make a wrong turn and end up far away from where I need to be. Today getting lost cost me 85 cents (plus gas). I was about 5 miles from home, went to get on the exit I thought was the one I needed, but instead ended up on the turn pike. I only had enough change to pay the toll once, so I couldn’t turn around. I was somewhere 30 minutes south of home. I was about to call Kevin and ask him to google my location and tell me how to get home when I saw a sign I recognized. I made it home, but I was slightly panicky for a few seconds!

Day Fifty-Nine

The Perfect Push Up. I came home to Kevin raving about them and how sore his arms were. I tried them... yeah I failed. Three days in and he's been sticking to his workout plan. I think I should start using them as well. It was obvious I have no upper arm strength. Maybe in a couple months I'll be able to give a better report on my push up abilities!

Day Fifty- Eight

This is a placemat that we received as a wedding gift. I really like the contrasting light color with our dark stained table. Someday we will have a bigger table and will be able to use all of them!

Day Fifty-Seven

At Thanksgiving, the hospital I work for gives out free turkeys to all their employees. We never had the chance to cook it until now. So we had an early Easter Celebration Dinner! I basically spent the entire day cooking. It was a work out! I was so tired by the time the food was ready and everyone was here to eat. Kevin and I had fun getting everything ready together. This is an apple pie that Kevin insisted on decorating the top. I think he did a pretty good job!

Day Fifty Six

Friday night Kevin and I hung out with our friends Tim & Mal. Eventually the guys started playing a game called Pente, which is a long, thinking, strategy type game. Mallory and I looked at each other and decided to we would do something girly and dye my hair. However, as I have learned whenever two girls go to a store to get hair dye with only one initially wanting to do it, the other one usually decides to do it as well. I've normally always done it myself, but I can say it was a lot better with a friend. Plus it felt like a mini head massage! I think we were both happy with the results.

Day Fifty-Five

These are my favorite spices to cook with; dill, cinnamon, basil, and garlic. I will usually add one of these to whatever I am cooking or baking. I like alot of flavor, but I try to not use salt for everything.

Day Fifty- Four

While eating this cracker (it started out whole) I got the bright idea to take an up close picture to see if I could get the small details. I looked at Kevin and said, "Here hold this cracker while I take a picture of it" (okay, I know it sounds like a weird request). I took about 3 pictures and was unsucessful at getting a good focus with the lighting. Before I knew it Kevin crunched with cracker into these pieces. I wish I had a picture of the confused look on my face! Thats what I get for making weird requests like, "Hey hold this half eaten cracker while I whip out my camera! Thanks!". This picture turned out better than my original idea.

Day Fifty-Three

Today, the weather has been really nice. Kev and I went for a walk to enjoy some of the nice weather. This is what a picture looks like when you try to take it while walking. I tried to stop to take it, but I guess I had used up all my stopping time earlier in the walk. Kev said I stopped to much. Well, anyway I got a cool picture out of it and I got some good time with my hubby. : )

Day Fifty-Two

On part of my run today I went over these yellow things on the sidewalks. My first thought was that they look like giant lego blocks in the concrete. I used to play with legos all the time growing up. It was like we were on a lego craze back then! Of course, I wasn't busy building rockets or guns. No, I was always building neighborhoods, houses, cars, and furniture for the houses the built. I guess these yellow lego things are used to keep me from slipping out into traffic when it is wet or icy. I guess instead of legos, these are life savers.