Adventures of Dragons and Elephants: 2009

Sunday, December 20, 2009

I've made you wait long enough....

I'm sure most of you were wracking your brains, thinking of all the crazy News I could be telling you. I'm going to bet most of you either thought we'd be announcing a pregnancy or adoption, but no. But you were all close. Very close. Second best to actually being pregnant is........................................................

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MY KEARA IS HAVING A BABY!!!

23 weeks

A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to go with her to a 3D & 4D ultrasound where we learned the sex. But we're not telling...not yet. Gotta keep you all guessing. For those of you who know KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT or I'll punch you in the throat! We want to keep it fun for everyone else.

Keara is hopefully going to start blogging about this new adventure so I don't have to do it for her. ;) Her and Andy are super excited and so happy to meet their new little one in April 2010. I'm SUPER excited for them and it's truly fun to help her plan and shop for little Chuckie/Chuckita, that's what I named the baby when she was 4 months along and told me about her crazy Chuckie (Child's Play) dream because it was so similar to my Freddy Krueger dream when I was pregnant with Jack, we call him "Freddy" until he was born.

My mom told Keara that she has to share her baby with me, and apparently I get the bottom half! LOL We're all betting whether or not s/he'll have red or brown hair and green or blue eyes, so feel free to place your bets in the comments. After everyone votes, I'll let you know what I think. Here's a pic of Andy and Keara to help you decide: LOL I guess this picture isn't the best to help you, but it will have to do for now.

So there you have it, that's the news I've been dying to share with you all. She hasn't announced this on Facebook yet, only their family and close friends know, so please leave your comments here and don't mention anything on Facebook until further notice.

CONGRATS TO ANDY & KEARA!

Jory and I can't wait to meet the wee little leprechaun! ;)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Trying to catch you all up!

Sheesh I make my blog private and I stop blogging. What's the point? Only five people have checked it since I went private. I used to blog for me, but was excited and enthralled to have so many readers! Everyone knows I went private until our court case gets resolved...no reason to give the EX ASSHOLES any ammo, even if it is just my personal feelings, my depression or worse off anything to do with Jack. To be honest, I don't think it has everything to do with lack of readers. Going five months without a job was killing me. Bills to be paid and the money was running out! Writing about it was only going to stress me out further. Sitting around my house, glued to my computer searching for a job that just wasn't out there didn't provide me with a lot to write about.

I did finally give up on finding anything in IS/IT Support and started searching for customer service, which felt like failure. I don't know if I'm alone feeling like I just stepped back 12 years. Everything I worked for, all the experience flushed down the toilet! THEN getting YOU SUCK letters from measly customer service jobs, what a shot to the ego! Then came along my current job.

I'm working for a Health Care company in Scottsdale. Thankfully I make more then all of the other customer service jobs that were hiring, but still, it was a HUGE pay cut! The people are all really nice, what a change from the last place! It could totally change once I'm out of training, but so far, the high school bull shit doesn't exist that I've noticed. Or it isn't as blatant as my former company...seriously Night and Day!

I am continuing to look for a job back in my field, only because I found out the first day that we can't apply for another department or position for A YEAR! AND there is no promise of an IT job even opening after a year! I'd love to stay with this company at least from what I've seen so far, but I just can't do customer service for a whole year.

Adjusting to the butt crack of dawn schedule has been a struggle. I don't know that I will ever adjust being the night owl that I am. It has helped my insomnia quite a bit though. By the time I finally go to bed, I'm out once my head hits the pillow. Although I don't normally get anywhere near to 8 hours of sleep so I zombie through my day at work. That won't work once I'm out of training, this job isn't like other customer service positions, we're dealing with people's health care and we know how passionate we all get with our health care! I can't even understand my own benefits, now I have to explain them to others.

Enough about work, lets get to the fun stuff....LIKE Keara coming home! YAY My Keara is HOME!!! That totally deserves three exclamation points people! I found out no too long ago that she'd be coming home for a bit and since then I've been dying of anticipation! Then as the day came closer and she was packing, I asked her what airline she was flying in on so I could greet her at the airport and she noticed something funny with her itinerary...it was missing her flight from Seville to Madrid. THANK GAWD I asked her about it...she didn't have a printer so she was just going to wait until she got to the airport to check in and print her boarding pass. Come to find out, her flights had been cancelled because she booked it through Orbitz and you can't book flights starting out outside the USA, so she booked a round trip(it was cheaper then one way) from Phx to Spain and obviously returning Spain to Phx...but was only going to use the returning part of the tickets. Ya, I guess that's a No, even though she's done it before, just used the starting out part of the tickets.

ANYWAY...(I know this is SO exciting right?) So an additional $700ish later, she book a new flight and arrived safely on my Birthday. The BEST birthday present EVER! After picking her up at the airport and letting her freshen up at her mom's house, we went and picked Jory up and went out to eat at Famous Daves, SCRUMPTIOUS!

Since then, we've been inseparable. I'm sure Jory's enjoying the extra estrogen in the house he he ;) She picked up with her wifely duties immediately...NOT those duties, you dirrrty perves. You all need a Keara in your lives, she helps me with dishes, brings over chicken noodle soup for our sickly husband, jumps up before you can and feeds the dogs when Jimi lets us know their dish is empty, CLEANS YOUR HOUSE WHILE YOU'RE AT WORK(this just happened Thursday!) and much much more.

I'm trying to soak up all the Keara I can right now, since she'll be heading back to Spain next year. I know it's a YEAR a way, well not quite a year but I truly appreciate my Keara, she's a life saver.

I've been really lucky to have great girlfriends in life, let alone keep them for so many years. Keara came into my life when I needed her most. She was the first friend I told about my pregnancy symptoms, she was the first person I called when Jory and I saw "PREGNANT" on the test. She was there with me for every step of exciting baby shopping and ultrasound pictures. And most importantly, she was there for us when Jack was born and died too soon. She cried with us and made us laugh. She watched hours and hours of mind numbing TV with us while we learned how to breath again. She knows when I'm faking it and need her to acknowledge how much life sucks.

Since this blog is private and only Keara and I read it, I guess it's ok to announce some really awesome news! Are you ready for it? Seriously, Are You READY? LOL I'm entertaining and boring myself at the same time here...I've lost my touch, this blog sucks, you should just move on.

I guess you'll have to check back later for the AWESOME NEWS! he he This will prove only Keara and I visit my blog ;) I'm so mean.

Peace Out

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving

One year ago today was the last time I talked to my dad. He was up at the cabin alone, really appreciating life for the first time. He was so happy to have the winter off work and was planning on coming to see me for xmas. He told me he loved me and how proud he was of me. I told him I loved him and was excited to see him soon. I didn't know it was the last time I would hear his voice. I love him and miss him so much! Happy Thanksgiving Dad & Jack!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Video of the elephant

The noises were coming from the kids standing next to me, not the elephant.

A Day at the Phoenix Zoo

Friday night Darby asked if I wanted to join her and Todd at the Phoenix Zoo on Saturday. Since Keara and I failed to go while she was still here, I figured it would make for a fun day.

When we arrived I noticed the water out front and remembered Keara telling me how a lot of people who can't or don't want to care for their pet turtles anymore, bring them to the zoo and put them in the water. Occasionally the turtle population gets out of control and it's left to the zookeepers to handle. So when we went over the bridge to enter the zoo, I wasn't surprised to see all the turtles on the logs. It was Turtle Heaven!

I thought these guys were really cute. Not scare of humans at all. We literally could have reached out and touched this one. He was super interested in what I was doing. He reminded me of Jimi, sitting all Teddy Bear style.

Fatty McFatterson sat and ate the entire time we were watching them. Look at his belly!

This is when I regretted not renting a bike. It didn't feel as steep as it looked, but there was a point when I really wanted to hijack a lady's Rascal Scooter! I don't know why the zoo doesn't rent Segways, they would make tons of money!

This is Arizona's first Governor, George W. P. Hunt's Pyramid Tomb located in Papago Park, overlooking the zoo.

Sleeping Tiger Hidden Dragon?

Apparently it was nap time at the zoo. The Lion and his Lioness were having a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Mazzy & Jimi sleep like this all the time!

The Rose Garden smelled Awesome! I could have sat there all day!

Pink Flamingos for Gary!

WARNING...Zebra Junk in the next photo!

I'm working on a Modesty Patch, but wanted to get the photos posted so Keara would stop yelling at me. ;)

Proceed at your own risk!

Elderphants! Elderphants!

I L O V E Elephants...it's not just that they symbolize Jack for me, but they are also a symbol of wisdom and fertility. I took some video of this one swaying back and forth. At first I thought "oh how cute, it's dancing", but as I've just read, it's not dancing. Only elephants in captive sway back and forth, it's thought to be symptomatic of stress disorders, and probably made worse by a barren environment, rocking behavior may be a precursor to aggressive behavior in captive elephants! Poor Elderphants!

The Orangutans were the hit of the zoo! The baby girl is 3 years old. We never made it passed the crowd to the front so I could get some real good photos. I just held my hand up above my head and starting taking random pictures. I never imagined I would have caught these three!

To prove we actually went to the zoo....Here's Darby and Todd.

I was there too...see!

Monkey Island

Monkey Village was my favorite part! You actually get to go inside the habitat where the Spider Monkeys could actually jump on you if they wanted to! They moved so fast I'm surprised I got any good pictures.

This one was right above my head, I think he might have been deciding whether or not to jump on me!

After Monkey Village, my Miami Blister from HELL returned with a Vengeance and I was in so much pain, I couldn't enjoy myself any longer. I split off from Todd and Darby and headed for the exit. At the pace I was walking on my heels, I knew they could enjoy the rest of the zoo while I limped my way to the car.

Overall it was a great time! I wish I could cut my feet off and buys some new ones because it's really impeding on my good times! But before I go SAW on myself, I will find some good walking shoes and leave the flip flops for shorter walks.

I took this picture today, after I did surgery on both quarter size blisters! Walking my mile to work tomorrow is going to SUCK ASS!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Mazzy Star

Jimi Page Hendrix

Jory and I spent Halloween at Todd & Darby's house in Queen Creek. We were literally dodging kids in the street driving through their neighborhood. Quite the opposite was happening in our own neighborhood so it was fun to see.

After watching Rob Zombie's "El Super Beasto", the boys played Tiger Woods golf so Darby and I decided to put knife to pumpkin and carved up two works of art, if I say so myself.

After two hours of sitting outside on the cement porch, carving, scraping and poking, our master pieces were complete! I'm sure you can guess the Grateful Dead Skull is mine and the Kitty Kat is Darby's. What do you think?

Gratefully Dead Pumpkin

The best part of photography, is you never know what you're going to get. Some seriously kool effects happen when you can't hold your hand still and here my friends is why you don't delete photos before you view them on your computer. I LOVE this one.