Faux Fall

I have been missing home lately. Missing seasons, green, shutters, brick, grass, normal trees, normal shingles, fall leaves, wearing sweaters, not being sweaty, etc. This thing we call "fall" in Arizona is a myth. It should be called, "Everywhere else in the county's summer." It's been about 94-96... so you can see why I feel cheated. We did the best we could yesterday and got pumpkin spice lattes. This trip to Utah coming up is happening right when I need it. 

 For the people that live here though, this is considered cold. hahaha The cross country runners didn't want to put their arms out of their shirts because it was in the 70's that morning.

New house numbers and a fall wreath that definitely fits in with all the fall foliage around here. (sarcasm)

 My Babies

Apparently it was bring your baby to work day in the weight room. LOL safety first right? Jk, we only had her down long enough to take this picture. She thought everything we were doing was so funny. Some of the girls in the class asked me why I don't have kids yet. My response was, "I do!" 

Here they are right here! haha It's such a shame I can't bring them to work.
In this picture, we are training the kids to be able to play one on one with dallin and not get jealous. Jake is way better at it than Josie. Dallin is playing with Josie and making Jake wait, and then he does the opposite. It makes it so that they don't fight.

 Our new shower makes bathing them so much easier than in the rental house last year.

It's so funny how cuddley they are after a shower.

They got their hair cut and did :)

Josie is still getting in the pool quite regularly, so I had to gate it off so that she doesn't mess up her hair doo. Lol desperate times call for desperate measures 

The groomers put bows in Josie's hair and she looked so pretty. They lasted for a grand total of 4 hours before she had successfully pulled them out. Ugh what a tom-boy. hahaha 

No bows she just wants to swim.

 Being 27

 I had another birthday. It was weird because I've accidentally been saying I'm 27 for a few months now.
To be honest, it was just okay. As good as it can be when it still has to be a regular work day.

That morning I wanted to run with Jake at practice, but that didn't work out, and this girl was supposed to be our manager and meet me at the halfway point with her car and she didn't show up. But it was fine, it just meant that I didn't have to run on my birthday. And it was funny being those lazy coaches we said we'd never be and driving along side the runners telling them to go faster. hahaha Instead of putting the big long video in here I just did screenshots.

 We had an assembly, and the team was psyched that they got to be recognized. Here they are running out

It was a cool assembly, but hot. We weren't allowed to be in the stands yet because they still weren't approved. It helped with moral for xc to be recognized because somebody pooped in the shower in the locker room and we got blamed for it, and they've felt a tad victimized by that. (Long, weird story I know haha only in high school.) They were in this and the announcements more lately so that helps get it out of their head that the school doesn't care about them. (And yes that guy is wearing a girl jersey. lol)

 The gym is finally finished, and on my birthday was Volleyball's first home game.

 We went out to dinner, and it was also homecoming at the school but I didnt' go. This place is soo good. It's called the Keg in gilbert.

Dallin is such a sweetheart! I told him it would mean more to me if he did a house project than if he bought me something, and he made me a fire pit! He was so sore the next 2 days he couldn't move. (Those blocks are heavy.) Plus, he had a cartoon-like moment where he dropped a huge sand bag onto the end of a shovel. (You know what comes next.) Because the sand hit the curved end, the the shovel proceeded to pop up and clock him in the face. (Hard in the jaw) 

hahaha He had to go in and check that his teeth were still there. 

But #worthit 

Look how good it looks!

 We're going to (eventually) add pavers so that it is more of a defined space. (Dallin has to get over his PTSD first. He hated doing that with everything in his soul. That's how you know it's true love- he's willing to sacrifice the indoor hands for you.)

I got my hair done as a present to myself. Dallin's response was, "Looks good- what exactly did they do?" lol

It's darker Dang it!!! 

 Racing

Recent XC stuff-

Me- "Do you feel like a champion?"

Runner- "I feel like I'm gonna puke."

Different Runner- "I think that's what champions feel like in cross country, so good job!"

We got the first trophies to ever be put in the school's trophy case! Girls got 3rd, Boys got 2nd, and we have had several individual placements. (1st, 9th, 13th, 16th)

This was when "Quiggles" got 1st place in the girls. Judging by her baby giraffe legs, dizziness, and nausea, they were right about what it feels like to be a champion.

I have been so incredibly proud of them. They work so hard in practice day in and day out and then they leave it all out there at every race. This picture is also the team captain running up to make sure she had somebody to hold onto after the race was over. They have such a great team bond and they are all so dedicated. It's truly inspiring to see such maturity come from kids who are 12-17 years old.

Those individual and team rankings definitely mean something when you're running in races this big.

They had to run across the street and use the bathroom at the CVS before a race one time.

 Pre race pep talk by the captain (HS boys)

Their best times yet!

 The Arizona Wild

The Arizona wild is a scary, weird thing. We can hear coyotes so loudly at night it sounds like they're right outside our door. Plus, scorpions and lizards and stuff- YUCK.
Here we are scorpion hunting at the Mayne's.

I think we need a black light too because we found this in our house. Ew.

The Lizard Drama

I felt like I needed to first put an angelic picture of Jake on here, because this story makes him sound like a monster. He's not- he's just got an obsessive personality. (Sound like anyone you know?) haha

So first look at this picture and say, "AWWWW!"

Okay here we go. Remember how Jake has been obsessed with this one bush outside? We found out why. 

There are lizards living in there. And one got in somehow! I came home and saw this.

Zoomed in. 

Then Jake and Josie noticed what I was looking at.

 And the little guy ran for the hills. Kaylynn came over and we looked for the longest time, but we think he went under the piano because we never found him.

 The next day, I come home to a lizard shaped blood stain. It also had a blood trail going into the closet. And Jake was obsessed with the closet. Would not leave it.

The next day, he was obsessed with this tiny crack in between the wall and the cabinet in the laundry room. He would not look away. I shut the door, and opened it again and spotted the thing on the ground, but of course my reaction was "AHHHHH!" 

Followed by shutting the door really fast. So that clearly helped. And googling "how to catch a lizard" doesn't help either. 

The next day, Jake was obsessed with this "caddy" (Dallin makes fun of me for calling every side table a caddy, so that makes me do it more of course.) in the front room. We saw it, and made a plan of action before we did anything. That little sucker was fast. So I picked up the caddy and dallin trapped it under a bowl. Then I slowly dragged the bowl to the front door. (All the while Jake was freaking out because his favorite toy was being evicted.) While dragging him I saw the little dude's chunk of a tail on the ground and almost vomited. At the door it took some coercion to get him out, because he did not want to go out.

(This is a screenshot of the video Dallin was taking. Most of the video is my butt because Dallin was staring at the lizard and not the video. lol)

After we got him outside I took a picture of his gross tail stump.

 The weirdest part about this experience was the different reactions. My reaction was that we either had to move or burn the laundry room to the ground, and I will never be able to use that bowl again. Dallin's reaction was kindof indifferent. He looked up online whether lizards can do any damage to you, your house, or dogs, and when he found out they're harmless it didn't bother him. Lexi's reaction was the same as Jake's. "OMG so cool! Let's keep it!" hahaha
My mom's reaction was, "I don't know what to tell ya. This is why you should never have moved to Arizona." lol

Paddle Board Pro's

Lexi and I are hands down the best paddle boarders in the world. LOL we can do this cool thing where we both put one foot on each board. For a whole 5 seconds before we slide into the middle splits.

 Tempe town lake is fun and cool. Makes me wanna go back.

 ALAGN

We were all excited we finally had a gym when disaster struck. This metal cover came off of a light on the ceiling and fell onto a boy's head. Luckily he's okay, but they're definitely checking that ceiling  a million more times to make sure it's safe. Freaked me out. 

 I finally have a locker room to shower in after practice and get ready in. It's slowly coming together. All we need now is PE equipment.

The J's love Dowin

Heart warming :)
Josie literally waits at Dallin's feet to be picked up and cuddled.

 I don't care you y'are.... that's cute.

Getting Gussied up

We're doing family pictures with my mom's family when we're in Utah so we've been getting outfits and stuff. I have also been so insanely busy lately that I literally cannot fit it all in. So I did my nails and made a collar for JoJo while waiting in a Jiffy Lube for the car getting an oil change while they were at the grooming appointment. It was okay because we got it all done, but I feel like my traps are rocks and I am not sleeping well. 

 This was the collar that I made. I wanted Jojo to have more fall colors because her sweater is just plain Oatmeal color. That navy one is Jake's new one for pics.

 Being Social

I complain about being busy and stressed, but it's stupid and I know it. We're busy because of all good things, so it's fine. We are trying to be more social lately and get back to having a work and everything else balance. We try and do other things besides just work, but that just makes it so that we're really crazy busy. So in essence, we're getting what we wanted. 

Like I said, I went to get sushi with Kaylynn. It was fun but we didn't take a picture. Completely everything we ate was fried. So my gut loved that. haha

I tried sushi again and still didn't like it. Maybe one of these times it will happen for me. haha

 We went to Elizabeth and Joel's for dinner one Sunday and it was so good. Joel even made us creme brule!

 The event we've been waiting for all year! HARRY POTTER AT THE SYMPHONY!!!!
Omg it blew my mind. They played the entire first movie up on the screen and the symphony played the whole soundtrack. It was the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. When they first started Dallin and I just kept looking wide-eyed back and forth between each other and the stage, and laughing hysterically. People were cheering for the characters or the parts they liked and booing the people they didn't like, and it was funny because most people were dressed up in Harry Potter costumes/apparel instead of normal symphony clothes. Afterward we went to lunch at this sports bar and I bet Dallin he was a Slytherin, (I've known for a long time I'm Hufflepuff. Cuz why wouldn't you?) and he took the test online and I was right! haha

Good times.
Us, Spencer, Christa, Michelle, Jordan

 They had such good muffins and lattes there too.
I had to go there straight from a cross country race so I didn't necessarily feel pretty, but we made it happen, and I was so happy we weren't late because we were cutting it close. Story of my life lately.

Hard times in the world lately.

Sung by one of my top 10 favorite singers. This is perfect for what's been going on lately. 

Hurricanes, tornados, floods, shootings, etc. What else is going to happen? This is crazy. You can't even go to a concert anymore. I feel so terrible for all the people who've been affected by all the tragedies lately. It serves as  a major reminder that anything could happen any day. My good friend from high school passed away, and it was his birthday just the other day. (10-4) Nobody's invincible, and it makes me count my blessings. My heart goes out to his poor wife and mom. I can't believe that Dallin goes to Vegas every year for work. It could've been him. Everything happens for a reason I guess. 

These two videos really inspired me. On my way to practice Monday morning I cried for these people when I found out. 58 innocent lives taken just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Crazy.

There are plane crashes and car crashes and attacks that happen, and yet Dallin travels and he's safe. I'm so lucky. He went to Utah just for one day recently and he always likes to take pictures out his window. 

I think that the things we're going through right now (homesick/busy) are nothing when you really think about it. Arizona is beautiful in it's own way. And we have so much to be grateful for if our biggest problem is not getting a fall season. 

-Syd