The Opries In AZ

Adventure Fridays

2012-03-12T13:23:00.001-07:00

About every Friday (my day off) I go on a hiking adventure. Thus far I have hiked 22 different trails in the Greater Phoenix area, and a few in Sedona. I've decided to document my outings the best I can and let you know where it is I went this week, and what I thought of the experience.

This week I went to Roger's Canyon in the Superstition Wilderness. This was about a 9 mile out and back trail. (I don't have exact details on distance and elevation change, because of lack of cell service to run apps, check the Roger's Canyon link for details.) There is a 600 year old cliff dwelling at the end of the trail, which made the hike super awesome. Here are some photos I took along the way.

View of the Superstitions from the road leading to the trail head. I drove for an hour on dirt roads, our front wheel drive rav4 nearly didn't make it up a hill towards the end. The drive out is almost worth it enough as it is with views like this.

Cliff dwellings at the end of the trail. 600 years old inhabited by Salado Indians.

The inside of a cave that was at one time part of the dwellings.

View out of the cave.

A look into one of the dwellings.

View from my way out. I passed a guy and his son that drove their Honda Civic out. They couldn't make it all the way to the trail head. They were backpacking and were up for the little extra challenge when I offered a ride to the trail head.

The hike was totally worth it. One of the better hikes I have done. The weather was perfect and their were very few people on the trail. The cliff dwellings were an excellent reward at the end of the trail.

I will more than likely not be on an adventure in the next few weeks, I have dentist and eye appointments the next 2 Fridays.

The Battle Within

2012-02-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

The Battle Within is our current series in our High School service. This is by far the most ambitious that I've been apart of. The theme is boxing and so we turned the room into a boxing ring. I took some pictures this past weekend to give you a taste of what I'm talking about.

Each week we begin the service with a rendition of Eye of the Tiger.


This week our worship leader Brad Reece decided that he needed to dress the part for Eye of the Tiger. The kids ate it up.

We have been using the small stage from the Preschool room as a speaker stage. This way the speaker is closer to the students level. It has been a learning experience. This week we were having major issues with the speakers mic.

The worship in this series has been awesome. With having the lower stage, the band has been able to populate the Main Stage so that we can have a legit band. Positioning the members has been tricky, but would be impossible if all the other aspects of the service would happen there as well.

One of the blessings to come out of this service has been that we have a legit lead guitar player. New Life is strong musically, but we have always been lacking in the lead guitar area. Having Preston on stage has brought the level of excellence up ten fold. There is just something about a lead guitar that takes a good worship set to a great worship set.

Some other additions to the stage are the side curtains. Before we just had black walls and the sides of the stage felt very empty. They just add a little something extra. I threw some of our little LEDs behind them for some up lighting. The stage is reinforcing the mood that we want to convey more now.

We had a retired lady in the church sew the covers for the ropes. The ropes are just pool noodles with some fishing line running through.

The corner pieces are old TV boxes courtesy of the Wal-Mart dumpster, cut to shape and painted white. We printed out the Everlast logo, cut it to shape, and used spray adhesive to put it on.


I built this box for our smoke machine and got this fan. The machine is faced inside so that it fills up the box and then the fan shoots it out. We also hooked it up to run through our audio snake so that we can hit a button in the sound booth and the smoke goes.

Another thing that we have been doing is a running skit with Brian as a boxer from Sun City (the retirement town) named Mortimer. His arch nemesis is our Lead Pastor Steve as The Tolleson Terror (causes he's from Tolleson). It has been a mixed live action and video skit. The final week will be The Main Event, where they will face off.

As our game, we have hooked up a Wii to the projectors. Students face off in Wii Boxing. The winner gets to pick 2 or 3 friends to go with them to the VIP section, where we have drinks and some food from Culver's.

This series has been a huge success so far. I will post videos later on and more pictures as well. If you are curious as to how we do a particular thing and want to see a certain element of our services, just comment on this post.

Winter Camps

2012-02-21T10:10:00.001-07:00

Here are the two recap videos from our winter camps. We had a great time. Students really opened up and became vulnerable. It was amazing.

These videos were created by one of our student interns Crystal. She is our video intern. I've been working with her to take on most all video editing. She is doing a great job, these videos are proof.

Velocity (High School)

Revolve (6-8 grade)

This week, we started "The Battle Within" series in Velocity (High School). This is by far the most ambitious service that we have done in my time at New Life. This first week was stress city. I was going to record the service and edit it down to highlights, but that didn't happen. This next week, I will take pictures of the room set up and record parts of the service.

Real Quick and Nearly Pointless

2012-01-27T11:50:00.001-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention was a lunch meeting that I had with our Lead Pastor, Creative Arts Pastor, and Brian (Youth Pastor). I will go into more depth in my next post.

Finally!!!!!!

2012-01-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

Our Apartment & Phill At New Life Videos

2011-09-06T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here are the videos that we showed at our back home party. If you weren't able to be there check them out. If you were and want to share them, pass the link to our page along.

Intern Support Letter

2011-08-24T09:22:00.002-07:00

Last week, I sent out letters to raise more of my yearly support for the internship. I am attempting to raise $15,000 for the year, I'm currently about 1/3 of the way there. Last year I had 72 supporters and so far this year I have 18. So this letter was an attempt to encourage those that haven't supported me yet to do so.

Something that I have noticed about my generation is that we are in this constant state of moving. (Alyssa and I haven't lived in the same apartment / house for longer than a year since we've been married.) So I am continually receiving return to sender letters. If that is you or if I have never had your address, I thought it would be good to post my letter here on the blog. That way you can download and view the letter.

Feel free to share this with as many people as you would like. The more people that we can get to share in this ministry that I am engaging in the better.

I am also including my response card that is included in the letter. If you would like to join with me in this ministry, print out the card and send it in with your support.

Finally, if you have decided to support myself and Alyssa while we are here, I would ask you to consider being one of our monthly supporters. Many times people feel like they can't do much, but a pledge of $10 a month would do a great deal to get us to our goal. (That is one less trip to Taco Bell every month, so everyone wins here.)

Thank you for considering supporting us, please feel free to share this with your friends and family.

Vacations and Other Things

2011-08-16T10:20:00.003-07:00

For photos from our vacation, check out Alyssa's Blog.

High School Houseboat Camp

2011-07-27T13:58:00.002-07:00

We took our High School students to a Houseboat camp on Lake Mohave, just down river from Lake Mead. This camp was an "in house camp", meaning we did it all ourselves. I was responsible for the services. We did a full set up, sound, lights, and video. I had some cables running through the water. I wish I had a picture of it, but my mind was on other things. Check out the video and see some of the fun that we had.

Revolve Summer Camp

2011-06-21T11:01:00.005-07:00

We went up to Prescott, AZ to UCYC with a group of Jr. High students. It was a great week. Here is the week video recap that they put together. Video

That is just a taste of everything that we did that week. Thanks to all of your support, this week was possible.

God & Us Working Together

2011-05-24T11:46:00.002-07:00

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T19:03:00.001-07:00

Gurus of Tech

2011-02-27T21:38:00.003-07:00

I'm so excited! Tomorrow (Monday) I am leaving for Chicago to go to the Gurus Conference at Willow Creek's McHenry campus. This is going to be an absolutely awesome time. The conference is Monday evening to Wednesday afternoon. It will consist of main sessions, break out sessions, and other awesome activities.

I am going to be in the presence of some of the greatest tech minds in the church body. Over 500 people will be in attendance. Some of the speakers have been doing tech for over 25 years. I'm going to learn so much.

There are sections on Audio, Lighting, Video, Post Production, and Leadership. As I was reading through the descriptions of the break outs, I wanted to be able to go to multiple classes at once. I'm hoping that they'll be recording them so that I can listen to or watch them later on.

Also, on Tuesday night, we're going to get to go over to Willow's main campus and tour the facility. Awesome. And hopefully I will get to meet a buddy of Brian, Chris Thomas. Chris was the lighting guy at Brian's previous church and is now the Weekend Technical Director for Willow Creek. Not sure if you know this, but that's a pretty big deal. So if I can meet Chris and talk to him for a while that would rock.

But know the best part? It is 100% FREE. That is right the conference is totally free. That is one thing that I have noticed about the church tech community that sets it apart from other areas of ministry, they try to make everything they can free or little cost. It is all about building one another up. It's not, "I want to make it a business," its, "I want to share this with you."

I'm so excited about this. I will do an after action report when I get home. But until then I'll be soaking up every bit of info that I can.

Maybe It's About Time...

2011-01-26T01:28:00.003-07:00

...I started my own blog. I'm wanting to continue to blog, but it seems the things I'm often wanting to blog about have little, if anything, to do with the ministry we're doing here. For now, we'll stick with just this guy, but I may switch it up to allow for life and ministry updates here while all the other stuff can go somewhere else. I mainly say that because now I'm wanting to post (at 1:30AM before a 12 hour shift beginning in less than 6 hours) about hair accessories!

I love these. I want 57,903 of them in various colors. Find 'em here.

How freaking awesome is this? I love the deep eggplant color and I've become a huge sucker for peacock feathers as of late. Find it here.

Aaahh! Look at this adorable little sweetums! I will most DEFINITELY adorn the heads of my future children with things like this.

I had my eye on these once before. It's so simple; simply pretty. I would add this to my "fool 'em into thinking I made an effort to style my hair" repertoire. Find more here.

I have so much love for this crown piece, it's almost ridiculous. I would instantly feel so pretty with something so simple, sparkly, and happy atop my head! This piece has gotten pretty popular, too.

Ok, maybe I actually love this best??? I can't possibly pick a favorite. There are so many wonderfully, creative people out there!

Ok then. That's enough. I SERIOUSLY need to get to sleep. Crap. I have to wake up in 4 hours. Goodnight! Good morning?

BTW-Why is 'goodnight' one word while 'good morning' is two words? Hmmm...

Our God Is Risen & Reigning!

2011-01-23T22:34:00.021-07:00

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEKEND! The title of this post comes from one of the main songs we sang at camp this weekend. It went pretty much just like this (but awesomer because we had hand movements).

I will always be a Cotubic girl, but I really, really loved this camp. The directors, staff, facilities, and obvious love for the Lord at UCYC made for an incredible 36 hours of action-packed good times. While these kids made some amazing life-changing commitments this weekend, I had some massive earth-shattering awakenings myself. THANK GOD FOR HIS UNDYING LOVE AND UNCONDITIONAL GRACE. The theme of the weekend was about recognizing, and learning to overcome, our "Life Avalanches". Some of these kids carry some rough baggage, but this weekend helped them to see that they have a Heavenly Father who will always be there and that they also have a loving church family who wants to be able to help out in any ways possible.

I also had the wonderful opportunity to become close to some pretty awesome girls. I told Phill that this short, delightful trip helped me to really feel I have a purpose and to feel a belonging at this church and with this youth group.

So, as promised, here are some photos! I didn't take a single picture, but my dear friend (and fellow female leader) Caitlin has a talent in photography and a snazzy new camera :-)

Caitlin & Me. We danced harder than any jr. high student there, we had more late night energy than our girls, and we had a BLAST leading the girls together!

Some of the kids with rocking face paint. Check out the little dude, Jared, on the far left. Hahahahaha!

You may be asking yourself, "I wonder what sort of things the girls discussed during their late night discussions." Boys? Clothes? Justin Beiber? No. Here is the answer: FARTING. Aren't girls super?

Here are the girls (minus Vanessa) from left to right: Caitlin, Tanya, Liz, Stanze, DeMara, Bailey, me.

Face Paint!

Caitlin & Me again. We're silly. I look like a boy because I was in hiding from one of the UCYC male leaders during one of our weekend games

One of the big events of the weekend was COUCH OLYMPICS! Btw-WE WON!!! Each group got a couch, decorated it, named it, and then competed in several events to earn the most points. Our couch was named Crazy Jesus (hey-zoos) Taco. Awesome, right? The 1st event consisted of 4 students lifting the couch for as long as possible while 1 leader lies on the couch. Apparently, I was the lightest leader. Therefore, I was on the couch. They held it for over 3 minutes!

Then, there was some running with the couch hoisted above heads. Everyone lifted is up, but only Brian and Lars ran with it. They kinda ended up biting the dust! And yes, that is the Taco Bell logo painted on the back of the couch.

Now, this may look like some sort of Elián González event, but it's actually the Couch Drag. It was a race (of course).

Then, we tossed the couch end-over-end many times. Another race (duh).

This is the kids earning bonus Couch Olympic points by getting a pic with the Speaker, John, with the couch.

Then, we threw the couch. Isn't this picture awesome?! We totally won this event.

Finally, we hoisted the couch high in the air and dropped it, hoping to cause as much damage as possible. We had 3 attempts. The total amount of couch damage done at UCYC this weekend was crazy awesome! RIP Crazy Jesus Taco.

Our last moment. Caitlin and I with our girls. What an absolutely fantastic weekend!
From left to right: Stanze, DeMara, Bailey, me, Tanya, Liz, Caitlin, and Vanessa in front.

Here Goes Nothing

2011-01-21T14:32:00.003-07:00

Alright, folks. The weekend is here. This means...JR. HIGH WINTER CAMP! We'll be leaving in about 2 hours and arriving back home Sunday at 2PM. Please pray for the sanity of myself and Phillip and all the leaders there!. Also, please please please pray for all the students and the speaker for the weekend! I'll try to bring my picture to take pictures (or maybe I'll just use Phill's new super awesome phone...yeah, I'm jealous).

Sleepy Day

2011-01-18T13:16:00.004-07:00

Today is day 2 of waking up at 12:30 yet still feeling sleepy. It makes me feel kinda worthless waking up when Phill comes home for lunch, but not too awful when I realize I'm still tired so there's probably a physiological reason for my strange sleeping pattern.

Yesterday we went to the AT&T store to get me a new phone. Phillip knew he was eligible for an upgrade so we figured I would be, too, so I was planning to go forth and get me that iPhone 4. It turns out, however, I am not eligible for upgrade until April. So...we ended up basically switching phones. Phill upgraded to the iPhone 4 since he was eligible and I am now using his old phone (but still with my number). I hate his phone because it misses text messages on a regular basis and it's like any typical phone--difficult to navigate. So, if you shoot me a text and I don't respond it's because I won't get it for another 3 hours (if at all).

I put the last coat of paint on the TV stand. I'll probably move it back inside and in place later today so hopefully I'll get to show you some pictures! I went wild with color and I love it! I think Mr. Phillip is still getting used to it...

All you readers are lucky today. I'm sharing the recipe for tonight's ridiculously easy roast recipe. I made it once before and Phill really liked it. It's seriously beyond easy.

CHILI COKE ROAST
1 beef roast, 3-4lbs
1 can (12 oz) Coca-Cola
1 package onion soup mix
1 bottle chili sauce

Place all ingredients in crock-pot and cook for 7-10 hours depending on size of roast.
The meat will flake apart when done. Serve over mashed potatoes (or whatever you feel like).

HOW CRAZY EASY IS THAT?! I can't share a personal opinion on this, but my favorite meat-eater seems to really enjoy this so I bet you will, too!

I will leave you with pictures of this sweet little dear :-)

Yummy, Yummy Berries In My Tummy

2011-01-16T23:07:00.005-07:00

Seriously guys. This is good stuff. I just had to share it. You ready???

RASPBERRY CRISP!

The name may only credit raspberries, but I took some artistic baking leverage with it and went ahead and added some blackberries and some additional love. It's super easy and double super good tasting. The original recipe came from the wonderful Ree aka Pioneer Woman. She has some mad cooking and baking skills. So, without further ado...

Raspberry (or other berry) Crisp!
Ingredients:

2-2 1/2 cups raspberries (blackberries, whatever...)
1 heaping Tablespoon cornstarch
2/3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cups oats
1/4 cups chopped pecans
dash of salt
3/4 sticks butter, cut into small pieces
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, for serving (DUH)

Preparation Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Rinse berries. In a medium bowl, combine berries, cornstarch, 2/3 cups sugar, and vanilla. Stir it together and set it aside.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar, oats, pecans, salt, and butter pieces. Now, the original recipe utilizes pastry cutters and fancy shmancy stuff for the next step, but here's all you really need to do: With super clean hands, mash all of that lovely stuff together until you've got a nice coarse, crumbly mixture.

Add the berry mixture to a small baking dish or pie pan. Sprinkle the sugar topping mixture all over the top (Are you getting excited, yet?!). Toss it in the oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is nice golden brown. Once it's all done cooking, contain yourself and let it set for 10 minutes before serving. THEN! Go at it! Scoop it on out with a big ol' spoon and top if with whipped cream or ice cream! I loaded mine up with whipped cream and it was like tasting berry heaven.

If you aren't drooling...you should be. Phill does not drool over treats like these because he is a freak and doesn't like fruit. No, this is not a joke. My reactions to his craziness are as follows: 1) More for me 2) You're going to die too early! Please stay here with me!

Obviously, the picture isn't my creation since it's only raspberries, BUT it basically looks just like this and since my phone went down the toilet...literally...I had no super handy way to upload a picture. Hooking my camera up to my computer has apparently become a chore.

I'm really getting into this whole blogging thing, huh? I seem to have taken over this thing, but Phill has been seriously busy lately.

OH! Wanna hear some super awesome news? Tonight was the High School service time switch and when I swung by after work, kids were still hanging out and Phill said this week's attendance was up 6x last week's! I'm happy mainly because, now, there's concrete proof of Phill and Brian's, and everyone else's hard, hard work to make this happen and make it what it needs to be in order to reach out to the kids who really need to hear what God is all about. I'm so proud of Phill. If you think of it, shoot him a little encouraging email, text, or phone call sometime this week. Sure, he'll read this post and know all about it, but I have a feeling it would be pretty special. This weekend is the Jr. High Winter Retreat. Originally, I wasn't going to go because of cost, but Brian wanted another female leader so I'm on board without any extra personal expense for Phill and me! Please keep all the workers, volunteers, and, of course, the students in your thoughts and prayers all this week in anticipation of this weekend and the impact it could potentially have for some of the kids planning to go.

Today was day #2 of awesome work days. This weekend was lovely. That recipe up above? I found it today at work. Yeah. I had free time. At work. Earlier last week I didn't even get to sit and go to break until 5PM. I work 7A-7:30P. Yeah.

GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING IN ARIZONA!

PROOF!

2011-01-15T22:18:00.002-07:00

WHAT IS THIS?! TWO POSTS IN ONE WEEK?!?! Yeah, man. That's what's happening.

Today was so refreshing. This was, by far, the most chill day of work I've had since our move, possibly since being a nurse. It. Was. Awesome. I left work with a positive attitude. Thank You, Lord, for this break from the norm!

Then, I came home, watched the Miss America pageant (This just in--apparently I cry at this program. Thanks, mom.), and now it's 10:24PM and I'm so amazed at how hard my sweet husband must be working since he's not home yet. He's been working at the church all day and he'll likely have to be up at 5 to start the gig tomorrow morning. Oh wait! Maybe he won't need to be up quite so early tomorrow because...tomorrow is the BIG DAY. High School service is no longer at 9AM, but instead at 6PM! I'm seriously hoping and praying this change allows God to show through with these kids.

Also, I actually did some painting! I had a blast buying some goodies at various thrift stores, and, finally, I got to painting yesterday. I still have one more coat to go on the TV stand. Once I finish, I'll post pictures.

On a sad note...seriously sad...last night my iPhone fell in the toilet. After numerous frantic tries to save it, we are still left with a non-workable gadget. *Sigh* We're still not sure what the next step is. Crap make-shift phone? Decent replacement? Go ahead for the upgrade a bit early?

Another breakthrough: I really love finding simple, wonderful recipes. No, I don't absolutely love cooking. I do, however, really enjoy finding success. When I find a recipe, make the food, and it works out beautifully, I am suuuuuuper pleased. I've recently stumbled across the blog of the blond, cupcake savvy version of me. I love her wit. I adore her style. I copy her recipes.
You can, too: http://redvelvetgirls.typepad.com/emma/

Random thought: P.F. Changs is overrated and overpriced.

<3

Sorry About That

2011-01-11T01:51:00.008-07:00

We're just not too great at this blogging thing , are we? Sorry friends! I think the main problem is I feel like something significant needs to happen in order to warrant blogging, and when life just continues to creep along (you know how it does) nothing seems too interesting, let alone significant! Therefore, I vow to blog and keep you dear people up to date on our lives even without a SIGNIFICANT EVENT.

Here is a list of things that have happened since last post:
*We went home and saw several of you lovely people! It was nothing short of incredible to spend time with friends and family around the holidays (even if it did go incredibly quick).

*We reached (and went just above!) our first years' fund raising goal! This is great, of course, but then I remember, "Oh shoot! This is a 2 year internship." Soooo...more fund raising is in our near future (really, the present).

*I have been viciously attacked by the crafty bone due to my recent blog stalking of some of the cutest, craftiest people ever. Today, I went thrifting (YAY!) and bought many gems and decorative items to be used in sprucing up this little home of ours. Tomorrow, I PAINT! I'm super excited. Then, I learn to sew! I received an absolutely lovely sewing machine for Christmas and I can't wait to put it to use. However, the task is very daunting. The only sewing experience I have is 7th grade HomeEc when I made a ladybug pillow. I need help. Any advice? I'm afraid the manual may just further confuse me so I may just go over to Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's and ask if they offer any class (or if they simply pity me enough) to teach me to sew.

*Phillip and I have finally gone hiking! We both really enjoyed our experience so we're going to keep it up! We're planning to go out again tomorrow when Phillip gets home from work. When we were hiking up the hill the other day I was just baffled at how incredibly different our climate is here compared to what we've always known of January. There's basically snow everywhere else in the whole country except for this little Sun Valley.

*More political drama and turmoil. Please pray for all those affected by the shooting in Tucson.

*Phill is going to be really busy all this week preparing for THE BIG MOVE. Beginning on Sunday, High School youth service will be moving from it's present time of Sunday morning at 9:00AM to 6:00PM Sunday evening. The primary objective of this switch is motivated by outreach. How many unchurched high schoolers do you know that would be willing to wake up on one of their weekend days to go to church...where they probably know only a few people...where they feel uncomfortable...where they may feel persecuted and confused? Exactly. We're hoping this time change will be easier for these kids. Plus, I don't think the regular attendees will mind the additional sleep time :-) Later this month is the Jr. High Winter camp and then later on, in February, we have the Sr. High Winter camp. I'm planning on attending the Sr. High camp so I'm pretty jazzed about that.

*The Colts lost :-( It's very sad.

*I am going to be a bridesmaid, and Phillip is going to be a groomsman, in the wedding of fellow intern Lars and his fiancee Lindsay! The wedding is in March and it is going to be wonderful. We went dressing shopping the other day for our bridesmaid dresses. I'm so happy with the dress because I will definitely wear it again and the sizing was definitely in my favor. Plus, the color scheme of yellow and grey is blowing my mind with awesomeness. Tehe.

Cute kids, right?

*I dyed my hair tonight. I'm fairly certain my hair is just resistant to foreign pigments. I was shooting for 'Black Cherry'. Yes, a sheen of color change can be detected at the part in my hair, but otherwise, aside from the smell, you wouldn't notice a change. The box was so convincing with it's color chart! It showed what a change would look like even for black hair, which would have been totally rockin', so I figured since my hair is not quite as dark as black that I would definitely have noticeable results. -sigh-

Well, this seems like a decent place to end. Plus, it's 2:16AM (This is actually an improvement over the past 2 nights. Saturday night/Sunday morning I had just gone to bed and was still lying awake when Phillip's alarm rang at 5:00AM). My body really likes being alone and awake in the dark of the night, I guess. Well, goodnight my darlings!

2010 Christmas Trip Itinerary

2010-12-13T13:06:00.002-07:00

We'll be in Indiana and Ohio for the week after Christmas, December 26 - 30. We would love to hang out with everyone that we can. To help you know when we will be around, here is our trip itinerary to let you know when we'll be around.

Phillip & Alyssa’s Christmas Trip Itinerary

December 25^th

11:45 PM - Leave Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

December 26^th

5:59 AM - Arrive in Philadelphia Airport

7:39 AM - Leave Philadelphia Airport

9:44 AM - Arrive in Indianapolis Airport

12:00 PM - Arrive in Huntington

December 27^th

Open in Indiana

December 28^th

9:00 AM - Leave Huntington for Fremont

12:30 PM - Arrive in Fremont

December 29^th

Open in Ohio

December 30^th

9:00 AM - Leave Fremont for Huntington

12:00 PM - Arrive in Huntington

5:30 PM - Leave Huntington for Indianapolis Airport

8:55 PM - Leave Indianapolis Airport

10:51 PM - Arrive in Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport

Hope to see you soon.

Eat Your Heart Out

2010-11-19T13:51:00.002-07:00

Today is November 19. I'm writing this blog at 2 pm in the afternoon. Where am I? Sitting outside of a Starbucks in shorts and a t-shirt. There is a cool breeze and the sun is shinning. If this were the Midwest, I would be under a blanket in sweats. I'm loving this.

Ok, summers here aren't ideal. But I'll take 100+ heat to get this sort of weather in the winter any day of the week. Alyssa probably wouldn't agree. She misses the cold.

She'll be able to get her fix soon though. We will be landing at the Indianapolis Airport the day after Christmas. Alyssa's aunt Cathy has been awesome enough to buy us plane tickets to come home. We're really looking forward to it. Our time out will be short, we're only staying till the following Thursday. It'll be a great time.

We'll be sure to let everyone know our schedule so we can hopefully see everyone. See you soon!

Life, Love, Laughter

2010-11-02T13:47:00.007-07:00

So...perhaps it's been a whole month since any update. I would say my reasoning for lack of update is because nothing exciting has been happening, but that would not be true at all. In fact, the reason I'm finally posting now is because I'm rounding out one of the best weeks I've had in a LONG time! Most of you who follow this blog are probably well aware of my recent happenings because you played a major role in making my vacation wonderful!

My visit back to the Hoosier state has been nothing short of wonderful. I spent copious amounts of time with my very best friends in the world, I partied with the best family a girl could ever ask for, shared drinks with my brother and company, and slept at crazy weird times. Mall shopping, cool weather, apple cider, carving pumpkins...*sigh*. Looking back on the past 6 days brings a smile to my face (I better not grin too wide, though, because the people in the airport will undoubtedly judge me).

Odd, though. I can't believe I never once went to Red Eye of Steak 'n Shake. I did, however, get to go to the Rusty Dog and 4Cups with some pretty awesome company. AND I PLAYED EUCHRE!!! :-D

While my time back home has been great, I'm eagerly awaiting the moment when I see my husband and puppy later tonight! I love them so.

Freak Hail Storm Hits Phoenix

2010-10-06T13:31:00.001-07:00

Long Hours and the Sleep That Later Ensues

2010-10-06T12:50:00.003-07:00

Mom and Dad Oprie arrived here in Phoenix Saturday and thus far the only time I've spent with them has been our late evening dinners. The main reason for this was my work schedule: I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday, & Monday. All of these days are at least 12.5 hour days, therefore meaning, I worked 50+ hours in those 4 days. I really didn't feel too awful after all that work time crammed into a few days, but the events of Tuesday would say otherwise:

Alyssa's Tuesday
12AM-12PM sleep
12PM-1PM lunch with Phill at home
1PM-5PM sleep on couch
5PM-5:30PM marvel at storm outside
5:30PM-6:30PM shower, get dressed, prepare for dinner
6:30PM-8PM watch TV with Phill
8PM-9:30PM dinner with inlaws

Did you catch the 17 hours of sleep there? I'm happy to announce that I also slept a full night the next night (last night). I've never achieved so much refreshment in one day. Wow.

I, also, mentioned marveling at the storm. This time, the storm was worthy of being called a storm. Often times, Phillip and I make fun of Phoenicians (is that the appropriate term??) for what they believe to be "crazy" or "awful" weather. These same people treat, what we Midwesterners know to be, a regular rainfall AS a MONSOON and OH THE MADNESS BEGINS! Ok, so maybe the National Weather Service does recognize a 'Monsoon Season' around these parts, but when the rains do fall down, the water has no where to go due to the lack of proper drainage/sewer systems and it backs up on the roads. Yesterday, the rains actually lasted all day, but not in the way that I'm familiar with from Indiana. When Phill came home for lunch I was still laying in bed (I know, I know) but then a severely loud roll of thunder clapped and abruptly ended that blissful slumber. Then, the sun shone through and it appeared that the storm had passed. However, more heavy rains accompanied by hail and heavy winds came while I was lying on the couch. Again, following this bout of storm, the sun returned and Phoenix was as it usually is. Round 3 of rain came right around 5:00PM and it was probably the worst of it. Our area of the valley was probably the luckiest, actually, because when we watched the next we were seeing pictures of golf-ball sized hail, houses and cars damaged, cars stuck on the side of the highway with above knee-deep water leaking into the car. Some people had their rearview windows knocked out of the car due to the severe hail.

This weather was incredibly atypical of Phoenix and I LOVED IT.

I'm not sure exactly how many people regularly keep up to date with this blog and the happenings of our lives out here, but I feel this is a good place to let everyone know that I'll be traveling back out east to Indiana the end of this month! Sadly, this is a solo venture as Phill has church workings going on here (and the cost of another ticket would really be pushing it). I'm desperately hoping I'll be able to spend some much needed time with and give out many needed hugs to all my friends and family when I arrive. Much time will be allowed for the casual hang-out with pals, and I have discussed with Mom about having a family get-together/game night/awesome time so that I can have the opportunity to see as many people as possible while I'm there since Phillip and I have no clue when/if an opportunity like this will come along again!
I'll be arriving in Indy Wednesday the 27th and heading back to AZ Tuesday Nov. 2nd.

I can't wait =)