Matt and I went to Phoenix over Easter. Initially, we were going to go to St. George Wednesday night, drive the rest of the way on Thursday, look at houses Friday and Monday, and come home Tuesday. If you've been following our blog, you'll know that we are no longer moving to Arizona - so looking at houses wasn't happening. We also didn't go to St. George on the way down cuz we would have been left way late. (It was probably for the best, Monica's house had sicknesses, and they couldn't come down.) So we did the whole drive on Thursday.

We got in kind of late on Thursday night. Susan was at work, so she gave us Morris's number, but he didn't answer. Instead, we hung out at Mari's until Morris and Susan came over so we could follow them to their house. We stayed up talking for a while before deciding to go to bed.

Friday, Morris, Susan, Belle, and Raymond took off in the morning. They had to take Susan to work, and Morris had a meeting. We slept in a little, then hung around the house. We played some air hockey - which was way fun - especially when we played with all four pucks! We were waiting for Gloria to bring her stuff over from Mari's, but she ended up going with Morris. They picked dad up from the airport that afternoon.

Later, the family congregated at Mari's. From there, we went to Friendship Park to play. It was quite windy - but a little too much so for kite flying. Mari had a nice large canvas kite, but only a cheap string like the little plastic kites have to fly it on. The string kept breaking. Fortunately, Chase was there to capture the kite when it hit the ground.

Most everyone went to play some baseball after that, though the little girls played on the playset. I also got bored of watching baseball (like I was going to actually play - ya right!) and took advantage of the duck pond for some pictures. There were some turtles in the pond too. There was one on the edge of the pond, and I thought it was a random statue. As I got closer though, he dove into the pool.

That evening, we headed out to Mesa for the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. First we stopped at Café Rio for dinner (yum!). We had Belle and Jaycie in our car. They were pestering each other, and by extension, us. Yay for locks on windows! I don't know why windows are so fun to play with... On the way there, though, they both fell asleep. It was cute. :)

We got to the temple a little after the pageant started. It was pretty packed, but we managed to find parking at Walgreens just a couple blocks down the street. We got there, but couldn't really see anything from the ground. It was kind of chilly too. Since I was bored (horrible, I know - but the audio isn't that impressive), Matt and I wandered around the temple grounds . It's so pretty! We made it back for the last little bit of the pageant. Upon standing and being able to see some of it, it was much more impressive.

After the pageant, we shuffled passengers a little and headed back home. Protesters make me laugh. There were some across the street from the temple that we listened too for awhile because of heavy traffic and not being able to leave. I wonder if they will ever realize that the things they were shouting at the attendees are the same things the LDS church believes... minus that following the Mormon way will bring damnation. It's so funny that they were trying to "save" us - and we have the same beliefs. Oh well. I suppose it is wise to educate oneself on a matter before trying to argue against it. We eventually made it back, talked a little with Susan and Morris, and went to bed.

Saturday, we headed over to the stake center for Bridger's baptism. Ryan asked Matt to be one of the witnesses. That was nice :) Lucky kid only had to be dunked once. After his baptism and confirmation, we headed over to Mari's. After getting some lunch and hanging out, we ended up at their church's new pavilion for an Easter egg hunt. (Funny how pagan rituals and symbols still leak into Christianity, eh?)

That evening, we headed over to Morris's gym for dinner. It was fun because everyone could play on the equipment. Mari and Ryan's friends also lent their karaoke system, which was set up on the dance floor. We had a grand time running around and singing.

Sunday, we went to church with Mom, Dad, and Susan at Mariona's ward. Well, we went to sacrament meeting anyway. Matt and I decided that since we weren't looking at houses, and everyone had to resume work and school, to head back with Mom, Dad, and Makayla. We finally took off that afternoon. Matt and I first stopped at Petco - for fun. We wandered around and looked at the animals. Mice are silly and geckos are cool.

There was also a huge John Deere factory that had tractors and stuff outside. Matt's grandpa Chris LOVES John Deere - so we went there to get some pictures....but the alarm was going off. We snapped a few as we drove past. Then it was off to St. George!

We got to Makayla's a little after they got there. We mostly hung out until we went to bed. Monday, the kids had school, so we didn't really get to see them much. Lainee was our little friend, though. :) Matt and I both did some homework, which we had been meaning to do anyway. It was so warm! It was nice to sit out on the deck and do homework. We left that afternoon too. We stopped to get gas and pull money out of Matt's account to make his car payment. Then we ended up stopping and another Petco to look at their animals. We also bought Bhuvan some new stuff. Approximately three hours later, we made it to Payson to pick up our cute bird. It was nice to still have Tuesday to loaf around and get the house in order. As well as to miss less school!

It was a way fun trip. Not the best timing with the end of the semester, but a much needed vacation :) Since this post is so long, I think the pics will come in a separate post later.

Hey y'all - I just wanted to drop a line so you know I'm still alive.... I have some serious updating to do with our trip to Phoenix and Easter and everything else. However, at the moment, I am taking a short break from my Psychopharmacology paper that is due tomorrow at midnight (yes, it's started - I have 3 really good articles, one that I can probably use to cite somewhere, and an introduction written - not bad for the first few hours of buckling down to do it). I promise that once I have a little more time (like next week!) I'll start catching all of you up!

No happy sunshine or nice big house for 75K. Matt has put out tons of applications both within Wells Fargo and to random other places. He did have a job offer in Carefree, but didn't take it because that's far away. They said to call at the end of March if he didn't have anything. He also had an interview in Surprise, but they never got back to him. He hasn't even heard back on the other applications. He called Carefree, but they hired someone. So there are no jobs to be had in Arizona.

However, he does have the opportunity to work for Monarch Honda doing actual accounting. So after a really rough weekend for both of us, he will probably go work there. It's a better job in lots of ways. He can do accounting (which is what he is studying) and not banking. It pays more. He gets to work at the motorcycle shop. He can wear jeans and let his hair grow back out. He doesn't have to deal with people. The hours will be more conducive to school. (Sounds perfect, right?)

However, this information hit the week before we were going to go down to Arizona and look at houses. I don't handle changing back and forth well. (I finally had to give him an ultimatum last time we looked into buying up here - one week it was yes, the next it was no. Just pick one!) I was really upset. I've worked it all out for moving at the end of June. It would have been a chance to reset some things. Matt could drive to rehearsal in five hours, meaning less work missed, and me not worrying about him driving alone. We could actually afford a house.

Matt still wants to buy a house, even though we're staying up here. However, we cannot afford a house in the Utah market. Anything available is the upper end of our limit, and not anything I feel is worth buying. He still thinks we're buying a house here (we're not).

Anyway, it's been a really rough weekend, even with conference.

Yesterday was so good! School was so-so. Mormonism was boring. In psychopharm, we learned about anti-depressants. That was kind of fun. Archaeology was cancelled cuz Dr. Klaus is out of town. I had a call from work during class, so I called back and they wanted to know if I could come up and help out with banking. I said maybe today (Friday). I went up and had lunch with Matt, then I went to Borders because I had a coupon and to see if they had what I wanted to get Matt for his birthday. (They didn't.) After that, I figured I could either head further south to look for the present, or head up to work for an hour to try to get stuff done so I could sleep in today. Work was closer to the RTC, so I went there.

I'm amazing. I cleaned a TON of surveys in the 1.3 hours I was there. Alas, I went in today after class for three hours too... but at least there was less to do! Then I headed up to the RTC. The road still sucks, btw. I got there early in order to tune bagpipes. When I got there, two of my boys came running out, shortly followed by the third. While we chatted, the fourth (whose milestone it was) came out. It made me happy they were still excited to see me. It's been almost a year since I quit. I got to meet all the boys there. I miss it, I'll admit. Not the bad pay and hours... and the CRAPPY road (yes, it had a factor in quitting), but hanging out with the boys.

Anyway, we chatted for awhile. Jared seemed a little annoyed they all came running out to meet me, but that's too bad for him :) After chatting for a bit, I went outside in the bitter cold (SO windy!) to tune and warm up a little. Around 4:30pm, we headed downstairs for the milestone. It was so nice. I'm so proud of him for coming this far. Now maybe we'll get to chat sometimes. That would make me happy too! We did a lot of crying.

By the time I played at the end, my reed had gone way flat. I shoved it in, but high A and F were ugly. I fixed the A a little, but it was being a pain even when I was tuning. My poor reed is dying - it needs to be retired. Maybe I won't bother. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll just see if Don has any. At this moment in time, I'll only be around for two more performances before moving.

Back to the story - it was just really great. AND I finally got a hug :D. On my last day, I got hugs from most of the boys, but as much as me and this particular boy would have loved to have given each other a hug - he was honest enough to realize it probably wouldn't be a good thing for him at that point. I was sad, but knew it was best. And I was proud of him to admit that and refrain. So to get a hug at his milestone was AMAZING! He has come a long way. I just hope he keeps it up and realizes some of the potentials I and others have seen in him.

I hung out for awhile after while we waited for pizza, then ate with them. It was nice. I left so happy - and I was happy for the rest of the day! The timing was great, too. I left, and took Geneva down to Parkway just in time to meet Matt after his class. AND, band was cancelled because we didn't have the building, so we hung out... like we are now - we're in the same room but not really hanging out with each other. Oh well, I'm still okay with being in the same room. :)

Life must be good or something. So today while I was checking one voice mail, I got another. (Don't ask me why it didn't go to call waiting, because I don't know.) Anyway - one of my kids from Timpview RTC called - and he's having a milestone tomorrow! He left a number, and I kept trying to call, but it was busy. Luckily, he called me again - so we got to chat for a second. Yay for no work tomorrow so I can go see him and the rest of my boys who are still there! Happy day! Later, he called back and asked me to play my pipes for his milestone too. I can't wait to see them :D

The semester is drawing to a close (about time - now if only the homework were over), I have three major things left out of my four classes before I can truly feel at peace. 1- Poster symposium for Family Financial Management (easy, just time consuming and needs to finish). 2- Archaeology paper, and 3- Psychopharmacology paper. I have 2 weeks left before the Archaeology paper is due (kinda stressed!). My teacher is going on a "conference tour" for the next three classes, so he won't be around. I told him yesterday that I was having a hard time finding sources. He said he had a couple, so I stopped by his office this morning and he lent me a couple and printed of a list of books that would be useful. I was also able to ask if there was a source requirement (because I couldn't find one). 10-20 if anyone is wondering. I also told him that I will be out of town on April 9th and 14th (the paper is due the 9th). So I asked if I needed to turn it in earlier, or if I could just email him on the 9th. Luckily for me, he said he'd make the exception and let me email it! woot!

On the plus side, since the poster symposium is on the 6th, foods day (in place of our 3rd test in FFM) is on the 10th (but I'm bringing stuff on the 8th), and Archaeology paper is due the 9th - it will be smooth(er) sailing coming back from Arizona. It also means I can enjoy my vacation more without thinking, "I really should do some homework." (Just thinking because very little homework ever actually gets done on vacations, no matter my intent.) After that, I'll have almost two weeks to do the Psychopharm paper. After I turn that in, I'll have like 6 days to catch up on Archaeology reading for the final in that class. So things are spaced pretty well, but I just need to survive the next two weeks! Wish me luck... I hate papers.

I just registered for my LAST class of my undergraduate career! Now I just wish I were on the other end of it....