A So Cal Girl in the Desert

85239.com just did an article on the New Year's Resolutions of some of it's residents, and my resolution got in there! I've never really believed in resolutions (but, of course, wasn't going to pass on the free publicity) because I think people should do what they want to do every day of their lives, not just wait for the first of the year. I'm not saying I always live by that, but I try to. Happy New Year to my three or four faithful readers! Maybe my resolution should be to find some more people to read my blog.

Todays home, home, on the range update: doors are going in and base boards are being installed. The door/wood trim/baseboard crew were working on the house when I went by this morning, so I couldn't really go all over the place, but I got a couple of shots. Here's one of the front door. You can see the coat closet door in the foreground. We're moving along, now!

...there was stucco...

Last night we went to the Insight Bowl at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. We got free tickets (face value...very expensive) from the director of Maricopa Parks and Rec. department because we've been supporters of their programs. It was pretty cool, because us Maricopans took up almost three rows. We felt very fortunate to be a part of it.

The game was great! ASU vs. Rutgers, and we won! It was a hard-faught battle. Rutgers was in the lead by two touchdowns at the end of the first half, but we came back to win with a final score of 45 to 40. I've just recently gotten really into football since B played flag football this past season. I watched football with my dad my whole life, but never really understood the rules. Kind-of like when he tried to teach me algebra. He got really frustrated because it all seemed so simple to him. Well, now that my eight-year-old understands the rules, I figured it was time for me to really learn. And I get it pretty well now! And it's awesome! Now instead of asking questions of my dad like, "What's first and ten mean?," I'm asking questions of my husband like, "Why would they choose to do a blitz in that situation?" I still have questions, they're just a bit more advanced.

The stadium, Chase Field (recently changed from the name "Bank One Ballpark"), was really impressive. It has a retractable roof that they closed soon after the game started. I guess to keep all the body heat in. There are also huge open-air "windows" that afforded us a beautiful view of the downtown buildings, until they closed those, too. They closed like giant double doors, and when shut, had giant advertisements on them (of course). The stadium is usually used exclusively for baseball, so they had to bring in a football field and extra stands just for this one game. I guess for capacity or something. Or maybe it had something to do with Insight. It was the "Insight Bowl," after all.

It kinda bugs how commercial these things are getting. We've had these stadiums called certain things for years, and then some big company comes along and buys the damn thing and puts their name on it. Like I said, when we moved here five months ago, the building was called "Bank One Ballpark." Then Chase bought Bank One, so now it's called "Chase Field." When my husband told me that the game was at "Chase Field," I didn't even know what he was talking about. Whatever. And then when you get in, there's "Insight" plastered all over everything. Totally overkill and tacky, if you ask me, but, hey, I've used the word "Insight" in this entry about a million times, so I guess the advertising takeover is working on some level. I still don't know what the hell they do, and I'm purposely not going to look it up. So there. I'll let my memories of the game stay with the game.

Here's a photo of the stadium roof closing. The windows are still open.



And here's a shot of the windows closed.



Here we are enjoying the game. My boys can't handle the flash. Ever. They close their eyes in every picture. Must be genetic.

When I went by the house this morning, we had a stucco pile in our front yard, as promised! I love it when people do what they say. Here's a picture:



They put the texture on the interior walls yesterday. Here's a shot of that:



Merry Christmas Eve!

Aside from my wonderful family and friends, my health, and all that great stuff, we just received the best holiday present we ever could have hoped for: A CLOSING DATE ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!

We received a call last night saying that our final walk-through will be on February 27th, and we'll get the keys on March 7th. I'm a bit bummed that it's March and not February, but just to have a solid date feels so good that I don't really care. Now we can plan financially, tell the movers when to come, tell our apartment manager to shove it (just kidding), plan new furniture delivery, and, best of all, have something to look forward to!

The texture to the interior walls was applied today, and the stucco pile (I'll get a picture of it...it literally looks like a huge mountain of dust) will be delivered today or tomorrow. The exterior should be stuccoed (is that a word?) and the interior painted with all the baseboards installed by the end of next week. Then they'll hang all the doors and on January 9th (hubby's b-day), they will deliver the cabinets! Yahooooooooooo! Finally, some serious progress. I can't express my excitement in words.

A few days ago I met the father of one of our next door neighbors. I saw an un-construction worker-looking man lingering around the house next door and decided to introduce myself. His daughter, son-in law, 15-year-old-drum-playing son, and FOUR DOGS (one is in a wheelchair), are just as excited to move in as we are, and just as irritated with the process. He seemed really nice, so I'm sure our neighbors will be, too. And they have four dogs! And one is in a wheelchair! Four dogs with one in a wheelchair! All the stars are aligned. We must be soul-mate neighbors.

So all of you planning to visit...mark your calendars and tell me when you're coming! I'm so excited!!!

85239.com is profiling me this week! If you go to the home page, you'll see a link to my profile in the lower left corner, but here's a direct link. I'm not sure how many site visitors actually read the "Getting to Know" colum, but I always do, so I'm pretty excited about it.

UPDATE 12.23.05: My profile has been removed and I've been replaced by Santa Claus! Sheesh!

This week has been busy! On top of all our usual antics, we have also been doing lots of fun things to help get us into the holiday spirit...

Last weekend we went to Santa's Village at Firebird Raceway. It's a mile of rides, games, shows and food, all with a Christmas theme. It was pricey, but well worth the memories. Little B had a BLAST, and said he wanted to come back every day. By far, my favorite part was "The Doggies of the Wild West Show." The doggies did tricks and stood around and looked cute, and it almost made me cry, it was so great. The best part was that the dogs who weren't performing a trick hung out in their own little stagecoach. It was too, too cute!

I wanted to ride the tilt-a-whirl, but the boys thought they would get sick. I got in line to ride by myself, and then noticed a sign that said "no single riders." While I was trying to persuade the boys to go with me, this sweet little girl said, "you can ride with me and my little sister." Great! So I let them pick which buggy we should sit in, and everyone seemed happy and so excited for the ride. Then as soon as we moved one inch, the little girl started screaming, crying, wailing... I didn't know what to do! Her older sister covered her mouth and put her in her jacket and said to me, "I don't want anyone to hear her because I don't want to get off the ride." She was screaming that bad. Seriously. Like the operator would have for sure stopped the ride if he had heard. All I was concerned about was getting thrown up on. I've noticed that lately I haven't been enjoying rides as much because I've developed a fear of being vomited on. Who cares if you're terrified, little girl, just don't you dare throw up on me. I just tried to take her mind off it by laughing, saying "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee" and "Yahooooooooo" and "This is so fun!" Here are the crappy pictures my husband took, but you can see how terrified the girl is, and then how her sister is covering her up, and how I'm just trying to laugh...it's probably nervous laughter thinking that that open mouth could produce some serious projectile.

The trauma...



Then the covering-up so we can stay on the ride...



That may have been my last tilt-a-whirl ride, unless I can find someone I know well who won't cry and who can guarantee me that they won't throw up. I think that can be hard to come by.

We got hot chocolate, the boys went on the bumper cars, we went into about a million fun houses, and we played games. I told the boys they could play as long as they promised NOT to win a stupid giant stuffed animal. Let me tell you how well that worked out...



But when we got home, the dogs were thrilled. They had a toy that they could wrestle with, play tug-o-war, and hump! It only lasted a couple of days before all the little white cheap stuffing balls came out. They were so upset when they had to say buh-bye to "screwey the squirrel."



On Sunday we got our Christmas tree and decorated it. We planned to get something REALLY small. Like three or four feet, but, of course, we ended up with a six foot tree. It's beautiful, though. We honored our tradition of making and drinking cider while tree-trimming, which is always a treat. Hot cider is the best! We were a bit sad because my hubby and I both have ornaments from our childhood that are very, very sentimental, but they are all in storage. We never once thought we wouldn't be in our new home for Christmas, so we never thought to bring them. We had to purchase a few new ornaments, which we like, but it's just not the same. Our tree does look nice, though.

On Monday night, we toured Maricopa's "Holiday Homes on Parade" with the D family. Maricopa residents sign their decorated homes up to the contest, if they like, and then the townsfolk (hee hee) drive around with an "official" ballot obtained from the local paper or city hall and vote on the best theme, best use of color, best overall...and then there is a write-in choice, where you write the address in of the house that should have entered, but didn't. We all piled into the D's SUV, drank hot chocolate, and sang holiday tunes as they came on the radio. It took us two hours!

Tuesday night was Little B's holiday concert. He had practiced and practiced, and practiced at home. And practiced. The third grade class performed "Deck the Halls" and "Here We Come A-Wassaling," which I always knew as "Here We Come A-Caroling." I guess the original version is "Wassaling," which my son informs me means the same. Little B is the first visible kid to the right of the music teacher in the back row. The auditorium was standing room only by the time I got there, so the pictures I got aren't the best, but at least we've recorded the event.

My favorite holiday activity was on Thursday, when we attended "Las Noches de Las Luminarias" at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The paths and buildings are lined with hundreds of luminarias, and the trees are lit with white lights. It is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Apparently, it takes fifty people thirty minutes to light all of the luminarias. When we arrived, we ate dinner outside. I had posole pork stew with homemade flour tortilla. Yum! After dinner, we grabbed some hot cider and strolled the garden. Musicians of all sorts were playing throughout the garden. They were perfectly placed so that as you were walking along and the musician you were just visiting started to fade, you'd start to hear the next one you were approaching along the path. Our favorites were "Del Sol," a Latin guitar group that played against a lit, cactus-dotted mountain backdrop, and, of course, the bell choir. The whole evening was just amazing. Walking around in the cold with warm drinks, listening to great music, all lit by candles and white lights. I simply can't say enough wonderful things about it. We plan to go every holiday season for the rest of our lives. We loved it so much, we purchased a year membership to the gardens. Can't wait to go back. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera, so the picture here was taken from the Web site.

My holiday spirit is pretty much gone after today, though. We went Christmas shopping! Ugh! Boy, it's unbelievable how crowded places get. I usually try my best to stay away from the stores during the holidays, but we waited until the last minute to purchase one very specific gift, so we had no choice. We finally found it after about four hours and fifteen stores. Now I'm off to do some wrapping!

Happy Holidays!

The drywall crew started on our house on Friday morning, and now they are about halfway done. We're hoping that they finish hanging on Monday, then do the mudding and finishing touches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then we'll be ready for exterior stucco! Our house looks like a disaster area right now, but it's beautiful to us. Here's a tour...

Here the workers are drywalling the upper part of the living room. The kitchen is off to the right.



In this picture we're standing in the living room looking into the dining room.



Here's the living room...



The master bath. That doorway is where the toilet will be.



Here's a photo taken from inside the master bath. You can see the plumbing for the sinks and the cut-out where the medicine cabinet will go. The little cove to the left will be a linen closet. Hubby is standing in the master bedroom.



The master bedroom...



Here's me standing next to the fireplace in the master bedroom.



And here's a picture of the upstairs hallway. Nice mess, eh? The loft is to the left, and that's the master bedroom straight ahead.



It's starting to look like a real house, now!

Wow, this is my week for publicity! I also got quoted in the inaugural issue of 85239.com news, a newsletter they send out to their mailing list that highlights local small businesses. Nice to know that my 85239.com advertising dollars are getting some extra miles. Maybe next time I'll say something bad about the site just to mess with them. I clipped out the section where my quote is. Check it out:

85239.com put out an article today on that gathering we went to last Sunday, and I got quoted. Pretty cool!

Yesterday morning I noticed that our sprinkler-created puddle was frozen over! It's been below freezing in the morning all week. I've been bundling up before going out, but this morning I actually wished I had gloves. Too bad my ice skates are in storage, or I could have practiced my spins!

...you have to tell your kid to turn down the music. Oh, crap. Here we go. I can't believe it happened, but it happened last night. Here I am, working away on the computer, innocently enjoying my new "Relaxing Christmas Jazz" CD when I hear a choir of out-of-tune children screaming "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." I say screaming and not singing because I don't think it qualifies as singing. It is none other than the "Kidz Bop Christmas" CD I bought for B a few days ago.

Blasting.

In the bathroom.

Where it echoes.

So he can look in the mirror at himself checking his pretend list "twice" and better not "pout"-ing.

'Cause SANTA CLAUSE IS COMIN' TO TOWN! Did you hear me? SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN! Yes. SANTA CLAUS IS COM-IN' TO TOOOOOOOOOOOWN!

I'm only 29. He's only 8. We have a long ten years ahead, don't we? And the worst part? He found the "repeat" button.

So by now you all know about 85239.com and the open forum that has brought the community together in an incredible way. I've made both personal and business connections through the forum. It's great! Well, yesterday afternoon, "Little Acorns," who happens to be one the people I've made a personal connection with organized a forum "meet and greet" at Ramsey's American Grill. For a set price, each of us got to partake in an appetizer buffet and cocktails, and we got to spend time with each other in real life! Each of us had name tags with our screen names (mine's CApoppy) and our real names. I already knew several of the people, but I got to meet some new people. Funny how you don't at all picture someone like they truly look. There were definitely some surprises. Mrs. D (frj143) took some pictures and posted them on the forum. Here's a picture of hubby (RayneMan) and I talking to one of our friends and another of B and Little D enjoying the spread.

The party was a ton of fun, and it looks like we're going to try to get everyone together every couple of months. There was quite a good turn out yesterday, and even the kids had fun. They were running around a bit crazy, but the adults were, too, so it was all good. Funny thing...our son, B, went into the restroom with a couple of friends. I stopped hubby in mid-sentence and said "Would you mind going with them? Boys + Bathroom = Wet Paper Towel Mess." Hubby said "Oh, they'll be fine." Five minutes later they all came out with dripping paper towels hanging from their ears. I didn't even have to say "I told you so."

A good time was had by all!