What happened?

I'm sure everyone is wandering what happened to our blog. I accidentally deleted an email that logged into the blog. When I deleted the email, it also deleted me as an author on the blog. There's been a negative response from friends and family so I have decided to start a new blog at this address.

Opening Day.

Today is a big day in Casey's life. It's the Opening Day for his beloved St. Louis, Cardinals. This is the first Opening Day he has missed in 10 years! He's a little sad but excited because the Cardinals play the Diamondbacks in next week in Arizona. We are planning on going of course.

Rockstar.

Mark Driscoll: a rockstar.

It doesn't matter if you are married or not. You should really listen to these.

For men. Hard core.
For women.

It's been a quick week for us. Casey accepted a job at our apartment complex doing maintenance. The lady that owns our apartment complex (friends of my Uncle/Aunt) offered Casey the job Tuesday. We are very blessed. He will start on Monday.

Casey's school stuff.

Casey JUST got home from the last day of his first class. He is loving it and doing really well. He got a 96% in the class. He also heard from Firestone this week about a job. Though he doesn't have the job officially, we assume he will if he passed the drug test and physical he had on Wednesday. And in other good news, we are getting a tax return. We were excited since we had no clue what would happen since I lived and worked in two states in 2008. But it all worked out.

Our weekend should be normal. We go to church on Saturday nights and then I really want to go somewhere fun to eat after. I'm looking forward to it.

Happy weekend to everyone!

Rolls Royce.

Casey and I had a fun morning/early afternoon today. I needed to go to the Gap to return a sweater and the closest Gap is in Scottsdale at the Scottsdale Fashion Square. Apparently they have closed down the Gaps that were closer to where we live. Casey also wanted to meet the Service Master at the Porsche dealership in Scotsdale to establish a relationship. So we headed to Scotsdale which is a good 30 or so minutes away. We stopped at the Porsche dealership first and that went really well. The Service Master was really nice and told Casey to stay in contact with him. Casey was stoked. Then we headed to the mall. It was super nice. I was able to find a the Gap. As we were walking out, we saw a new Rolls Royce parked in the special valet parking. It was crazy. In the same parking area was a Viper and a Aston Martin. Casey was joking because the guy with the Dodge Viper thought he was pretty cool until the Aston Martin showed up. And the Aston Martin guy thought he was pretty cool until the Rolls Royce shows up. We left in our Saturn Ion.

Things are going well. The past few days have started to really warm up outside. I'm sure a sign of things to come. My job is going well. I am learning lots. I like the people that I work with and the ability to walk to and from work. It's super nice. I will start going to a bible study on Monday. Casey is loving school and having lots of fun. He is doing really well and making friends. Shocker. Everyone loves Casey. Today he will finish the second week of his first class. Each class is 3 weeks long. He is almost done with class #1. Crazy.

Inventory.

Casey registered at Sears for our wedding and was able to get a lot of tools. They are useful and make it possible for Casey to fix our cars and do other handyman chores. Unfortunately it is really easy to lose tools especially since we don't have an actual garage and a specific place to put them. They are either in his car or our apartment. It is easy to lose track. So he was busy the other day doing inventory on his collection so he knows exactly what he has.


He also laid them all out on the floor and took a picture. So organized. It's kind of scary.


He really likes Craftsman tools because of their lifetime guarantee. He is apart of the Craftsman Club at Sears because you can get good discounts.

poker.

One of Casey's favorite thing to do is play poker online with fake money. Everyone starts playing in the $250 tournament and work your way up.Casey is now playing in $10,000 tournament because he wins a lot.

He's the player on the bottom of the picture.

Our Apartment.

I'm a dork but you can see our apartment.

Dunes, Jobs, and School

Kristin wants me to let you know that this is casey


I have had my first trip to the world famous dunes. If you don't know what the dunes are, imagine little boys and a big sandbox. Now imagine bigger boys and a much bigger sandbox.

This was the toy of the day...


This was the engine in the toy of choice. If you know anything about engines and horsepower ..yes its an LS7. Not an LS1. Not an LS6, because those would only be semi-ridiculous. LS7

Since we only took day trip Tim wanted to take his stuff home for end of the season. On the way home we had some flat tires. Tires...with an S.

In the middle of the tire situation I was pulled over by Arizona's finest for my license plate light being out. I got off with a warning.

It was a fun trip.

While we were in So. Cal. at a rundown tire shop we sat in the RV and watched MLB TV. In one word...AWESOME!


I have been looking for a job since we arrived in AZ. I have somewhere around 50 applications/Resumes out there and about 4 or 5 prospective job possibilities. My 401k being cut by 65% did not convince me that our economy was bad. When Wal-Mart told me that they were on a hiring freeze I was convinced. I do have some good leads and with all of your prayer hopefully I will have a job soon.

School...

As many of you know I started school this week. I have two days under my belt and so far so good. We have been hearing a lot of motivational speeches and going on tours of the building. (I am about done with that.) I have met a lot of cool people and I am starting to make friends. I was told that tomorrow we will start digging into real class stuff, so I am excited. I am in a class called "Basic Engines". Like I said we have not covered a whole lot of material yet, however I am already learning new things and I can tell that it is going to be a lot of fun.

All of the prayers are starting to pay off!

Thanks so much

We went to the Coyotes and Blues hockey game two Saturdays ago. I was a little bored but Casey had lots of fun. The Blues won.


Here is the rink before the game started.


Casey and I attempted to take our picture while we were waiting outside before we were allowed into the rink. Didn't really work that well but they are still fun.

Casey reaching around me with the camera. Awkward.

Lots of sun. Seems to be a theme in Arizona. It's nice.


The benches we were sitting on had a colorful and fun tile pattern on them.

1. Today is Casey's first day of school. He was a little nervous but excited. I was really excited for him.
2. We went to Palm Valley Church on Saturday night and really liked it. It's only 20 minutes away.
3. Casey is still looking for a job. We feel like we have 3-4 good leads but nothing yet. We are praying.

Our apartment and In and Out!

Casey left my camera in my Uncle's motor home because they went to the dune's yesterday (more about that later) so I can't do a video tour right now. But here are some pictures so you can see glimpses of our life in Arizona.

This is our apartment complex, Desert Gardens II. The complex is really nice and right across from Luke Air Force Base. About 70% of the residents that live in DGII are working on the base including our neighbor next door who welcomed us with a late night party on our first night. He apologized and said that we were invited whenever he had music going. :) Funny.


This is the leasing office where I work. My Aunt is really good friends with the lady, Cathy, that owns the complex so that's how I got a job and our apartment. It's nice to be able to walk to work.

This is our apartment building. If you go up those stairs, our apartment would be on the left.

This is the heated pool which is open all year long.



This is the clubhouse. It has a kitchen and big screen TV inside. The mail boxes are on the other side of this building.


There are 6 ramadas in the complex with BBQs. You aren't allowed to have personal BBQ's so everyone shares these.



Casey and I went to the pool last weekend. Here is the basking hunk. He's excited about getting a tan.




We actually live in Glendale, AZ but this is a sign from Avondale where Casey's school is. It's really close to our apartment.

There are lots of palm trees and desert plants everywhere.


So it might be easy to be jealous of Arizonians because of their weather but you should really be jealous because they have In and Out. Very jealous.




We ate lunch at In and Out today. It was my first time since living here and it was so good. You have the option to get grilled onions on your hamburger. Mmmmm. Plus I was reading the information on the packaging. They buns are handmade with no preservatives. They use cholesterol free vegetable oil to cook their fries which they have been since they opened in 1948. The lettuce is hand leafed and the meat is fresh and not frozen. Obviously makes a big difference because the hamburgers are really good.

Casey has a lead on a job at Discount Tire which gives us a little hope.

We have been very blessed in moving to Arizona. We are SO thankful. We didn't occur a lot of expenses that we thought we might have had to originally. We have a great apartment. So....so many things.

We think it's going to be a fun year and we are excited.

Video of apartment and In and Out pictures coming soon. :)

We are loving Arizona. We have not had one bad day of weather. It's been sunny and warm. Casey LOVES it. He is already saying he wants to live here. It's only been one week! But there's lots of things to do and it is a fun area.

Today we went to church at Cornerstone and it was very cool. Unfortunately it is kind of far away so we'll see what we decide to do.

Casey starts orientation tomorrow! Yay! I'm excited for him to get started.

My job is going well. I am learning a lot and my trainers have told me I am picking everything up pretty quick. There's just lots of little details so it can make my mind hurt at times. But I am working in the apartment complex we are living in so I don't have to drive anywhere and I can come home for lunch. It's a blessing.

So we are enjoying this time in our lives. It's been a crazy past few months and it's nice to finally be here.

skater-like.

We had a nice Saturday. We started with a nice walk this morning. It has been really nice and sunny outside. After we got back from walking, we went to the mall. I needed to get a haircut and we did a little bit of shopping to update our wardrobe for Arizona. Casey got a new pair of shorts. They are really cool and skater-like. It's a popular style here. And I got some sundresses.

Tonight we went to a Coyote's and Blue's game. Casey was really excited about it and one of the few Blue's fans. But that didn't stop him from cheering like he usually does. They won so that was good.

Tomorrow we are going to Cornerstone church in Chandler, AZ. It's like 54 minutes away according to the directions but hopefully it's not that far away. We are excited.

Casey is currently looking for a job. He has put his resume into a handful of shops but didn't get a solid lead on anything. No one was really hiring. We found some more opportunities today on Craig's List so hopefully something will work out. We're just praying.

Cactus League.

Casey is super excited because Arizona is home to spring training for the Cactus League (major league teams that are here for spring training). Unfortunately the Cardinals play in Florida. Sad.

But he went to a game today and saw the Padres vs. Mariners play. He had lots of fun and got a foul ball but gave it to a kid near him-his good dead for the day.

RoadTrip.

Yesterday we moved into our apartment. We love it. It's really nice. When we walked in for the first time there was a sofa, table, lamps, a bed, dresser, and kitchen table already set up. My Uncle and Aunt were able to set us up with some supplies like plates, silverware, a toaster, and lots of other good stuff.

We are having lots of fun and enjoying Arizona. We like the new landscape and weather. There's lots of things to see and do. Last night we discovered Westgate where the Arizona Cardinals and Phoenix Coyotes play. There are lots of restaurants, shops, billboards, and water fountains all around. It was very cool and overstimulating all at the same time.




It's been nice to just hang out and get settled. Last night the neighbors next to us had a party that kept us up most of the night. I guess it was a "welcome to the neighborhood" party. Casey called the police. All of that to say, we are pretty tired and worn out.

I start work tomorrow. Casey starts school on March 9th so I have to keep him busy for two weeks. :) He wants to find a job and get all the details for school worked out. But I'm sure my Uncle will find lots of things for him to do. Friday he tagged along with my Uncle to a sponsorship meeting with John Force a 14 time NHRA funny car world champion. Apparently he's a big deal in the NHRA world. Casey had a blast. They were able to watch qualifying before the meeting.