Desert Life

Well, after an unusual but decidedly restful Thanksgiving day spent with friends, Dave and I finally got to get out and do some exploring. I received two free passes to the Desert Botanical Gardens located in Phoenix from a co-worker and Dave and I decided to use them Friday. What an amazing place! We saw all kinds of different cactus plants, wildflowers, trees, and even a desert oasis. This is a highly recommended outing if you are ever in Phoenix. After the gardens, we made a stop at Papago Park and took a few more neat pictures. It was near the Phoenix Zoo and I'd really like to make a trip there sometime, but we were both tired so we headed back home. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

A pathway on the main trail set up for Las Noches de las Luminarias.

The desert oasis.

A very tall saguaro cactus.

The Teddy Bear Cholla is not very cuddly!

A cool looking Prickly Pear Cactus

Dave is trying not to knock this boulder over!

A nice view of Hole-in-the-Rock at Papago Park

The long-awaited apartment pictures

Our porch...freshly painted.

Our front door...on the right behind the steps and the tree.

Our kitchen...washer and dryer are in the pantry-like spot between the fridge and the cupboards.

Living room setup...surround sound of course!

The master bedroom/bath...has a slider to the porch.

And finally, one of my favorite things...a picture taken while standing inside the closet.

Carryin' on

Things continue to hum along here in Phoenix. We're working hard every day and still have only had one paycheck to speak of. Next friday we'll each receive a paycheck...and that will be very nice! We're still trying to figure out where we'll be doing our grocery shopping...Meijer's is so awesome...I miss Meijer's.

Dave's work has been slow and that's frustrating for him. Not really sure if there's a busy season here...hopefully work will pick up soon.

I've been working very long days at school...we had conferences last week, which I did not deliver, but was present for. I'm really loving it though...I feel very blessed to have landed in such a wonderful school. Also, my fist grade team is AWESOME! If I need anything all I have to do is ask and it will be there for me. It's more than I could have ever hoped for! On Wednesday evening around 5:00 I was just getting ready to pack up and head home for the day. I decided to quick check my email and found a message saying my voicemail workorder (I needed to be issued a voicemail password and this took nearly 3 weeks) had been resolved. Not wanting to wait another three weeks, I immediately tried my new password just to be sure. I got in and spent the next few minutes setting up my outgoing messages. It said I had three messages...one was for the ex-owner of the room, one was from a parent regarding a missed conference, and the last one was from the office. It seems I received a new student as of 2:20 that afternoon. Now...I was really lucky to have happened to check my email, and happened to have gotten into my voicemail. They sure didn't try very hard to get this information to me. The kicker is that Wednesdays are Professional Learning Community days and all faculty were meeting in the library at 2:20, just about 50 feet away from the office. At any rate, I got the message and Donna and Linda, my two veteran teammates happened to walk into my room as I was listening to the message. They immediately sprung into action helping me find supplies for this new student. I don't know what I would do without them!

We were off today because of the Veteran's Day Holiday and I'm super excited to have a three day weekend. Hope all is going well in Michigan...send us some pictures of the snow when it arrives!