All Things Summer :)

Hooray for summer break! I finished up school last Friday and have been enjoying my free time over the past few days. Here is an update on what we've been up to lately, stretching back a little further than Friday :)

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before, Rob and I headed over to a local farm to pick our own peaches. It was warm and crowded, but otherwise quite successful. We managed to pick 22 pounds of peaches! For just the two of us!! (I might have gotten a little excited and carried away with the whole experience.) I made a cobbler early in the week last week, and Rob and I spent a few hours peeling, slicing and freezing peaches. It was not my favorite job ever...we had a giant puddle of juice on the table and sticky fingers, hands and even forearms, but peach cobblers and pies will be simple and delicious for some time to come :) Here are a few pictures of it all...

Peach picking action shots!

I thought the vine of peaches in the tree was kind of funny looking, so I took a picture :)

We had to carry our peaches all through the grove (I think that's what they're called...) and wait in line to pay for them, so Rob carried the box on his head to make it easier. I couldn't resist lagging behind to take a picture :)

So many frozen peaches!

Right after picking peaches, we headed over to Target and bought a grill! Last summer, we grilled all the time because it meant we didn't have to turn the oven on in the summer heat. Unfortunately, we had to climb three flights of stairs to get to the grill, and always managed to forget something from the kitchen. It is so nice to be able to just walk out the sliding glass door and grill...especially when we grill pizza and have tons of toppings and spices to drag along with us. We celebrated our new grill with hamburgers and corn on the cob last Wednesday. Later this week, we are going to have another couple over for grilled pizza and I am going to try my hand at making homemade ice cream sandwiches...store bought ice cream sandwiched between the homemade M&M cookies Rob's mom always makes. Hopefully everything will turn out well! 

Burgers cooking away on the new grill.

This past weekend, Rob and I went on a date Friday night to celebrate my completion of my first school year! We saw the movie Date Night and then had dinner at Cheesecake Factory...delicious! Then, on Saturday we decided to get back into the routine of tackling home improvement work/projects we'd put off for a while. Unfortunately, we kept hitting road blocks. We tried to install ceiling fans, but when the previous owners took the fans, they also took all the hardware that went with the wire box (I think it was called that....the lil box that attaches the fan to the ceiling). Anyway, we put off the ceiling fans until Sunday because we needed to head to Lowe's. We also had to put off reattaching the sprinkler system that was pulled off the side of the house, and the sunshade/outdoor curtain type thing that will help block some of the sun from coming into our bedroom because both needed stucco screws (also at Lowe's). We did manage to reattach all of the vents that we took down when we painted the ceilings and hung a ceiling fan in our bedroom yesterday.

New ceiling fan!

Our bedroom looks super pale here. I think it is the next paint project on the list. Rob is going to finish painting the hallway tonight (we got a little behind due to the semi-gloss/satin mishap and never finished!). I have been looking at a cream and tan striped bedspread at Pottery Barn and am considering painting the walls a peach-ish/orange color. Thoughts? I don't want to do anything dark because the sun sets in that room, but also don't want to pick a lighter color that will make it look like a baby's room. Input is always welcome... :)

Finally, today I planted a small herb garden on the window sill above the sink. Vacha had sent us four pots and herb seedlings as a housewarming gift, but two of the pots broke in the mail. (So far, everything fragile that has been sent through the post office has broken. I'm not particularly happy about it.) I finally found two replacement pots of a similar size and planted the seeds. Hopefully, we will have fresh oregano, basil, rosemary and chives here shortly. I sometimes struggle a little with keeping plants alive, especially when they start out as seeds and not actual plants, but I bought soil that helps with water management and troubleshoots when the plant is watered too much or not enough. Either I'm a victim of marketing again or these lil guys stand a real chance. Time will tell. 

I should maybe try this picture again when there isn't tons of light coming through the window...but here are all four of my pots!

And here's an up close and personal shot of the basil so you can see my little handmade id tags...necessary because I don't actually know what all these spices look like when they sprout up. There are orange and blue tags to match the color scheme of the kitchen. I'm very proud of them...at least today, when they have the potential to grow!

We hope everyone else's summers are off to a good start as well! Miss and love you all, Sarah and Rob

New Life Goal: Update the Blog More Often!!

Seriously, posting here has been on my to-do list forever and a day. Life has been ridiculously hectic for the past month, but with school winding down, I'm thinking that updating the blog will be significantly more manageable. For now, it's time to play some major catch up.

The weekend after Katie's visit and our housewarming party was prom. And I was lucky enough to somehow become the prom sponsor. Technically, the prom sponsor should be the junior class adviser, but because he was slacking (no venue was booked when I stepped in in February...eek!), the junior class Stugo kids asked for my help. I never knew how much responsibility it would be when I agreed!  In two months time, we fundraised, booked a venue and DJ, bought decorations, sold tickets...the list goes on! Luckily the event was a success...no one showed up drunk, brought alcohol/drugs, got in a car accident or engaged in any other stereotypical prom behavior. While I didn't get the extra payment the junior class adviser receives for planning prom, I crowned the king and queen, had a great time with a lot of the juniors and scored the responsibility of senior class adviser next year. The number one responsibility of senior class adviser, you ask? Senior trip...i.e. drive through night number one to Disneyland, chaperone 150 seniors running lose around the park all day, find them all and pack them back up on the bus to (you guessed it) drive through night number two. I foresee a ridiculously sleep deprived and cranky me. At least there's mulah involved in it all next year :)

The weekend after prom, Dad came out to visit! He stayed in the polka dot guest room...the perfect fit, clearly :) We didn't put him to work as much as we did Mom when she visited over spring break, but he did help us hang curtains in the kitchen. These replaced the disgusting slit blind things I struggle to describe and hated a lot. They do a much better job at being functional as well, because they're designed to keep out the heat and reduce energy costs, which is a pretty important feature given that the sun sets at the back of the house. So far, the curtains have been making a big difference. A big thank you to Grandma and Grandpa, as they were our housewarming gift from them :) Here are a few pictures...

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It was a little early in the day to take this picture...the sun glare makes it a little hard to see them tied back.

On Friday night we took Dad to Oregano's for the best Chicago style pizza and pizzookie ever. He was quite impressed, I think. And now Rob and I are a little sad that our string of visitors has slowed and we don't have an excuse to go all the time! We hiked on Saturday morning in the Superstition Mountains, and worked our way up a good bit of elevation. Here are a few pictures from the hike...

It is probably hard to see without enlarging the picture (just click on it), but in the middle of the photograph, between the cacti and mountains, is the parking lot where we started. We are probably about halfway up to the point where we turned around here.

Mountainous Landscape Scenery.

Little lizard friend who surprisingly didn't scurry away when we came near it (most do). Luckily, this harmless lil guy was about the extent of desert wildlife we saw. I was a bit nervous most of the way because this is the time of year when the snakes come back out.

We went to a baseball game downtown on Saturday evening, and spent most of Sunday relaxing, cheering on the Cavs and making a quick trip to Costco. I love family visits. It's fun to show off Arizona, and makes me feel better about living here. I've felt like I've been missing a lot lately, between prep for Shelly and Jenn's weddings, bridal showers, graduations, Mother's Day...there are so many weekend events that I can't make. It's nice to bring to light the fact that Rob and I are settling in well here...we have good jobs, good friends and a house! I definitely wouldn't have expected to hear myself say any of that when we first moved out here.

Finally, to wrap up the catch up on life/Arizona weekend stories....this past weekend Rob and I went camping. In a tent. Me. In a tent. (We stopped at Starbucks for half priced frappuccinos on the way up to Payson. Clearly, wilderness woman, I am not.) I exaggerate a bit, possibly. I enjoy everything about camping except for the sleeping and the dark. The woods are creepy in the dark. And rocks and ground tend to hurt my lil body when I don't have an air mattress (electric pumps aren't so great in the great outdoors). Also, I'm a tad picky about the cleanliness of the bathrooms I use. Aside from that...s'mores are my favorite food, roasting marshmallows is a pretty excellent ability I have and I like relaxing in the outdoors. It was a little chilly the first night...Rob said probably 55-60 and my teeth were chattering like mad...but I survived. Rob made me pancakes for breakfast over the campfire, which, I'll be honest, I was ridiculously impressed by. Plus, they were delicious. And, in the afternoon when Rob went exploring a little creek and tried to do some fishing, I created myself a little nook in the rocks and read a book. It was quite calming. We had to drive into town after a bit to use the clean(er) toilets at the Wal-Mart, but I survived. We cooked hot dogs on the campfire for dinner and I ate my body weight in fantastically toasted marshmallows and s'mores. But then it was the night thing again. We ended up heading home after only one night. I felt like a little bit of a camping failure until today, when Rob talked to Davina at work, and she shared the greatest camping idea ever: cabins in Sedona near wineries. Mmmmmm wine, electricity, campfire in the backyard and shower and bed inside. I think wine-cabin-camping might be more for me. We are going to look into planning an adventure for June. :) Up next: documented evidence of the camping trip...

Me on the first night...kind of creepy dark woods, no? :) 

yummy wheat pancakes with chocolate bar pieces mixed in cooking away!

my rock reading nook at the creek.

kind of an overview of the campsite set-up. 

Roasting marshmallows, my specialty.

Oh, and one last piece of news that I almost forgot because it didn't have a picture/event associated with it! I am teaching summer school! (I think ! at least.) It will be middle school summer school. I find out more about the grades and curriculum in a few weeks. Despite the lazy students I am sure I'll encounter, it is the perfect job. It runs June 7-30, and is only half days with three day weekends each week. The extra pay will be really nice because our district doesn't issue paychecks in the summer months for teachers only contracted 9 months out of the year. It also will be good to have a regular routine, but still plenty of time to relax and get done the work I've been putting off for summer break. And I get to teach The Giver, which is something I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping that it will be a positive experience. For now though, I'm focusing on surviving the last 8 days, and enjoying the two weeks with nothing to do before summer school starts :) My summer to-do list is the best to-do list ever...watch the World Cup, bake soccer ball cupcakes, get sucked into horribly wonderful reality tv shows like the Bachelorette...I'm honestly not sure how I ever thought I could survive a job that didn't have a built in summer vacation :)

I'm a little embarrassed because I just realized there are zero pictures of Rob on this post. He's been here for the last month, I swear. (What would possess me to go camping alone?) He's had a busy few weeks at work, and was also dragged into the joy of chaperoning prom. He is coming up on one year of working at Quantum, which will hopefully result in every Saturday off, but who knows if that will come through or not. He did, however, get a raise for the pay of the hours he flies with CFI students. 

That probably should conclude the life update. Rob will be home soon and we need to decide which is a better plan for the evening: working out (we did join the YMCA out in Queen Creek after losing the little bootleg gym in our apartment complex) or finally hooking up the DVD player, renting a movie and popping popcorn. :) Hope everyone is having a great Monday and actually sees this because they still, miraculously, check in for updates. I promise to make them more frequent! Love, Sarah and Rob