Hiking Picacho Peak

Last weekend I went hiking with two friends from college, Angie and Emily. We had a grand time. I confess it was a tough hike (I'm so out of shape!) but it was so much fun :D

We enjoyed chatting and catching up as we climbed Picacho Peak. For the first part of the six mile hike you meander through cacti and other desert vegetation, then as you approach the peak, the fun starts. The terrain gets ridiculously steep and you have to use cables mounted on either side of the trail to help pull yourself up the rocks with you arms. It was lots of work, but the view from the top was worth it. Coming down was a challenge, just as much of an adventure as getting to the peak. Later that night Casey and I met up with Angie, Emily, and Angie's husband Ray for dinner and a friendly game of Catan. It was an all around lovely day with lovely friends.

Hiker chicks :D

Look at me, I finally made a post! :D

Been really busy with school since it started, looks like its going to be a tough session. I only took 8 credits last session and I had more free time than I wanted so I added physics to this one at the last minute. I wont say I regret it, but I do wish I would have remembered how much I struggled with physics in the past. Fortunatly my other two classes are easy and enjoyable. Logic and design is almost remedial. I think I learned everything that will be covered my first month working at HP, but its an easy A and I might pick up something I didnt know before, so i'll stay put for now. Intro to Game and Simulation Programming is my other class. The hardest part about it is not sinking too much time into assignments, I spent upwards of 20 hours on this week's. Its a simple maze game that should have taken about 2 hours to finish. I wasnt happy with the resources that were provided so I made all my own art and added in a bunch of mechanics that wont be discussed till later down the road. I'm pleased with the final product tho, and I wanted to upload it here so you could download it but we seem to only have the ability to do that with photos and video. Let me know if you want a copy and I can email it to you, its only 1.4 mg zipped and I would be happy to have some additional feedback :) Hope life is treating you well

Christmas at home (posted a little late)

So here I am...finally writing a post about our wonderful Christmas. We were fortunate enough to get to spend an entire week back home in Boise. Divine intervention was definitely involved because I had only been at my new job six weeks and I got Christmas week off. (That is simply unheard of in hospital-land!)

We got to spend lots of time with each of our families and some of our friends, but the week flew by so fast. There were more people we wanted to see, but it just wasn’t feasible. Hopefully we’ll see more people on our next trip home. We flew in Christmas Eve Eve and our journey home was completely uneventful which was a very pleasant surprise. I watched the BSU game with my family and Case hung out with the guys. The next day we got to sleep in a bit (yay!) and then we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house. (Side note: it snowed overnight! So beautiful!!!) We had lots of fun making gingerbread houses with my cousin Katie and enjoyed time with my family. Then we had a wonderful Christmas Eve feast. It was so good and tasty! Candlelight service at church was great as always and we got to see some old friends. We then headed over to my in-laws for some quality time and more food before midnight Mass. The service was serene and meaningful. After Mass we headed up to my grandma’s house to spend the night, just like I have every year since birth.

Christmas day we opened presents and did stockings with my family, then headed over to Casey’s parents’ house for presents/stockings with them and a delicious Christmas dinner. The rest of the week was really fun, but went by so quickly. There was lots of Wii playing (Katie got one from Santa), a few indoor soccer games, tons of food, and oodles of quality time with loved ones :D I loved being at home where it actually looked like winter. I was more than happy to trade in palm trees for snow for Christmas! I just love Christmas time…getting to hang out with our families and friends, eating tasty, comforting food, and the overall warmth of it all. Here are some pictures from our week back home:

My grandma whipping up some scrumptious Christmas food!

Mama and me

Casey working on our masterpiece.

Titus the reluctant Christmas cat.

My talented mom and grandma.

Patti and Harv (my in-laws)

Wohoo!

Through the glorious powers of the wonderous communication tool that is Facebook, my friend from high school, Nadine, and I found out that we both just moved to the Phoenix area. We got together for lunch this week and had a good time. It's was great to see a familiar face in a brand new, unfamiliar place. Yay for friends in Phoenix!

Good Day

I really don't have anything too exciting to post, but it's been a good day so I thought I would let everybody know :D First, I got good sleep after I got home from work Friday morning. Good sleep always makes for a much improved day. Then for dinner/breakfast (depending on how you look at it now that I’m working nights again) Casey and I tried a Persian restaurant by our house. It was SO DELICIOUS! The smells and flavors were so aromatic and tantalizing. I had a dish that I don’t know how to pronounce or spell for you, but it was roasted chicken with saffron and curry served with basmati rice featuring almonds, bayberries, baked apples, saffron, and I can’t even remember what else. But it was fantastic – quite possibly one of the best meals I’ve ever had. After dinner we went out for frozen yogurt and then rented a movie at Blockbuster. Nothing too exciting happened, but it was an all around wonderful day. Oh, and it rained. I love it when it rains in the desert!