Lovely morning

I am having a lovely morning and felt compelled to share it. It's a little chilly in Scottsdale this morning, so when I got up I turned on the fireplace. I am now sitting in front of it, eating oatmeal and a grapefruit and enjoying the warmth. I am toasty and I am happy!

Ostrich Festival 2008

Last weekened we witnessed the most hilarious and ridiculous sight ever. We had the privlige of attending the 20th annual Chandler Ostrich Festival! It all started when I was driving in my car and heard a commercial for the Ostrich Festival. I had never heard of such a thing, but of course my interest was peaked immediately :D I did a little web research and knew right away that I had to partake in this festive occasion. After one short conversation Casey was on board too, so Saturday we drove 20 miles south to Chandler to on an unforgettable experience. The whole set up was kind of like a mini version of the Western Idaho Fair. There were carnival games, rides, tasty fair food, booths, and the usual attractions. And then, there were the ostrich races...

Bleachers jam-packed with spectators encircled an arena where we witnessed 450 pound birds race around a track, mounted by ostich jockeys. It was crazy! These birds are so huge and so weird looking and have the most peculiar bodies with such long necks...and they were racing. What made it even more entertaining was the obvious lack of intelligence of these feathered beasts. To get the ostriches to go the direction they wanted, the jockeys would wave a little stick to one side of their head. The bird would see it and think "Ahhhh! A scary stick, I should run the other way!" and then would turn away from the stick. Within moments though, the jockey would wave the stick on the other side of its head and it would be turning again. Poor dumb birds. There were two different styles of racing. The first was what the announcer referred to as "featherback" racing (i.e. bareback). No saddles, no harnesses, just you and the bird (and the stick). The second was Ben Hurr-style chariot racing. These contraptions were harnessed to the ostriches and a jockey stood in it and ushered it onward to the finishline. What a spectacle. I am trying hard here to describe what we saw, but words really cannot even begin to convey the mayhem. After the races we went in search of dinner - Casey had an ostrich burger. (We joked that the ostriches were encouraged to win the races so that they would not become dinner.) Ooo, and we had our favorite fair food - tortatoes! The band Vertical Horizon played a great concert that night (free with admission!) where we met up with some friends. What a fabulous day it was.

"featherback" racing

chariot racing

Thoughts that have been swirling around in my head and my heart...

It's no secret that for a while now I have been wanting to have a baby. I've wanted to be a mom for about as long as I can remember, and now that I'm almost 25 and we've been married almost 2 years, the urge is stronger than ever. I know right now isn't the ideal time in our life to have a kiddo, but I can just never quite shake that longing feeling in my heart to become a mother. We are planning on waiting a while until Casey is through school and we are no longer living in the desert, but each day the thought of having children ignites this excitement and contentment in my soul that I just cannot silence. The problem with this though, is that lately I feel like I have been focusing too much on the future and not taking the time to enjoy what we have now. Don't get me wrong, we are really happy and love spending time together, but I feel like I am constantly planning things for when our "real" life starts. When Casey's done with school, when we've moved back home, when we buy another house, when we have kids, etc. Finally the other day, though, I had this ah-ha! moment when something clicked in my brain. I am still anticipating our future with unparalleled joy, but I suddenly realized real life happens every day and right now it is fabulous and I should enjoy every moment of it as much as I can. I can sleep in until I wake up (on my days off); I can have popcorn and a glass of wine for dinner without worrying about feeding something healthy to the kids; we can travel and explore our temporary home state as much as we’d like and at the last minute. I know most of you are probably saying – DUH! – why did she just now figure this out? But really I have just had a change in my thinking that has led me to a happier, healthier place and I like that :D Life is wonderful and each day should be enjoyed to its fullest!

Weekend Adventures

Casey's parents and sister came to visit last weekend and we had a great time. We ate lots of tasty food, had a few margaritas, went on two different hikes, and just enjoyed spending time with each other. Oh, and Harv hung ceiling fans in the office and sewing room. They have made such a big difference. Thanks Harv!

Case and I made lemon pepper shrimp with homemade alfredo sauce for dinner on Friday. It was really really tasty and we used all of our burners to make it so I felt compelled to take a picture:

The first hike we went on was at Spur Cross up near Cave Creek (north of Scottsdale). It was a nice hike with lots of variety in terrain. Here a few of my favorite shots (to see all of them click on the link to the right to get to our Shutteryfly gallery):

Who knew the desert could be so beautiful?

The whole crew (except for Aunt Kate who took the picture).

So lush and green...I don't think we're in Arizona anymore Toto.

Old dead saguaros make good benches :)

Cactus vs. Casey 2008

I LOVE this one! There is something about water in a desert

that is just beautiful and wonderful and unexpected!

A perfect ending to a great hike.

The second hike was more urban, but just as fun. We climbed Pinnacle Peak on Sunday. The trailhead is by no means rural and as you're hiking you can see enormous houses and several holes of a golf course. It was definitely a unique setting. We went sans Casey though as he was at home working on physics homework. I've never taken physics myself, but I'm pretty sure I would much rather be climbing a mountain than doing physics! Here is a pic of Kassi and me on the trail:

So all in all it was a good weekend. Yay :D

Life...

Life has been fairly uneventful around the Babendure household lately. Casey has been busy with homework and I'm still at the same hospital. The kitties have a new trick... They have for some unknown reason taken a liking to knocking over their water container which spills a half gallon of water all over the floor! Not fun to clean up. We've tried to reprimand them into behaving like civilized little kitties, but so far it's not working. Casey's latest method is to use the offending cat to mop up some of the water. Even if it doesn't stop them from continuing to knock over their water, it's at least kinda funny to watch! I haven't been doing much sewing lately, but I have been trying to spruce up the house a bit and make it feel a little more like home. I framed some wedding pictures and hung them up in the living room and arranged all of our dishes in the hutch so that they weren't all just helter skelter in there. (I know those seem like little things, but they made such a difference.)

Oh, I did sew some linings for these cute storage baskets we got at Ikea in the fall. I have a few more sewing projects on my to do list, though. I would tell you what they are, but some are gifts and if you are lucky enough to be a recipient I don't want to ruin the surprise! Casey's parents (and hopefully sister - HINT HINT KASS) are coming for a visit this weekend. We don't have anything too exciting planned, but it will be good to see them :D Alrighty, I think that's all for now... Oh, to any of our Hodia family that is reading this entry, have fun at Ski Camp this weekend!!!