Year: 2014

Time keeps ticking.

Tick tick tickin’ away.

It’s kind of amazing. I’m surprised what has happened in life. I feel like I have a kid who hates me. I have a job where I can’t ever seem to do anything right.. and I’m still back where it all started.

So much time has past.

I’ve watched Big Love from start to finish. (A great show)

Someone hit my car while it was parked.

I’ve bordered on losing my patience with management at my workplace.

I’ve started – but not finished ‘the Circle Maker’

I’ve failed miserably at getting my family to be a prayerful family and to be reading everyday.

I’ve upgraded to the iPhone 5S (after being horribly disappointed in the iPhone 6).

I’ve started going for the LA Dodgers as a ‘family’ team.

I have started working 5 days a week.

Also have gone through another Australian time change.

Spent close to 6 months getting the repairs on our car right.

Stopped listening to music at night.

Gone to a Coyotes, Diamondbacks game and a Cardinals workout.

Made multiple trips up north and to California.

And on the positive side we aren’t homeless yet.

just Pray
(If you can)

When we take a trip we make sure that it is anything but boring. On the way to Alamosa Colorado, we stopped at the Four Corners (see Ara in all 4 places at once). We also stopped in Durango. It was a really cute little city along the way. We were able to stop and see some waterfalls along the way too.

Before we knew it, we were at Gram’s place. The first thing that Gramps did it walk up to her house, knock on the door and when she opened it he gave her a kiss (on the lips) and walked inside. I didn’t think it was too crazy, but the wife was like… WHAT?! hahaha, she said she was glad she missed that.

Here are a few more photos of that visit. Arabella was all smiles after meeting her Gramps and Gramps just a few days apart from each other.

On the way back we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park. Once back in town we took them to Fountain Hills and found a water park for Arabella to play in.

They mentioned that they enjoyed the visit to me so I hope that we can have them out again. The time that they spend with Arabella and Maryia is rare, which makes it very special.

After they left we went to pick up some free Diamondback tickets. Free is free and Arabella had yet to go to a professional baseball game.

It was fun and the photo would have turned out if Ara would have kept just a little more still- but – she is a ball of energy.

Monsoon has not been disappointing. We got 1.64 inches of rain (the prior daily record was 1.46). The thing about when we get rain, it usually happens in 20 or 30 minutes. Sometimes less. It makes for great walks in the rain.

The last thing before I forget – MONOPOLY IS BACK! One of the best games around to play.

just Pray

note: this post was published on 09/30/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of September 2014 to keep chronological order.

It is hot in September. A lot of people don’t think it is still hot in Arizona at this time. Our cool weather doesn’t really begin until the end of October or the beginning of November. Right about that time is when we get great weather.

See what I mean?

It isn’t all bad. With the hot temps, you get storms.

We encountered a very well-formed Haboob rolling into the valley. I love monsoon and the storms it brings. It brings life to the otherwise barren desert.

One of the nice things is that typically with a strong storm like this you also get a bunch of rain. As we did!

Another nice thing is the beautiful sky that is spotted with clouds. I took this photo before going to work. I wanted to add a photo of Jake, because I get sent photos of Arabella, or Jake, or sometimes Arabella and Jake. Either way – this one is typical Jake. Cuddled up on the couch and waited for someone to come to pet him.

It is crazy that September 11th is here. I wasn’t aware that American Express was impacted by it- or at least I didn’t ever think to look it up. This year they had a memorial in our center in memory of the employees who died that day.

We went to Walmart and got something for Ara to hold (so she doesn’t get into anything) and she lit up with a football in her hands. I think she remembered going to see the Cardinals.

We rented a car in preparation for the upcoming visit of Gramps and Ellie. I have been trying to convince them for some time to visit- I finally said you know what? We will book the tickets, there is no excuse to not visit. Come out whenever you can and we will make it happen. We want to spend time with you. We would also like to do a trip with you.

That is all it took.

They arrived at Sky Harbor International Airport (arriving from Portland) and we made our way up north.

We took them to see the Red Rocks of Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, and more. Here are just a few of the photos we took along the way. We aren’t done yet. We will be going to visit Grams (Maryia’s mom) over in Colorado. Let’s get this show on the road!

just Pray

note: this post was published on 09/30/22 but moved the publish date back to the middle of September 2014 to keep chronological order.

Hey again,

We have finally gotten our car back from Sanderson. They didn’t install the nameplate correctly (much lower than it should be). Also, there were some items in the trunk that were installed incorrectly. Really poor service. I would never recommend Sanderson Ford Lincoln for any auto body work. We talked with them about it and they said they would take our car in later on in the month and will try to fix it.

To try to take our minds off of that frustration we decided to go out to eat. We tried something new: Valle Luna. It wasn’t bad, but probably isn’t somewhere we will go again.

We were able to go to the fan festival for the Cardinals. It was pretty cool (see the photos above). The girl was even able to meet and take a photo with Big Red – she was pretty excited but only wanted to look at him rather than taking a photo. Before I knew it the weekend was over and I was back at work. The following week went pretty close and I was back at Church the following week. Above is a photo of Arabella waiting with us before church.

The following Friday we dropped our car off at Sanderson and they provided us with a loaner car for the weekend. What does that mean? TRAVEL! Free miles, and a free car to add a bunch of miles on. We zoomed off to Los Angeles. We visited the filming location for one of the wife’s favorite movies – “Til There was You”

It is always a cool thing to me when you visit a filming location. The history of these places that are forever captured on film. Plus in a lot of cases, they are normal spaces used by regular folks each day.

After we went here, we met up with my parents and headed over to the beach. Arabella loves getting wet up to her knees. I’m sure if we let her she would try swimming but that is not happening. We walked the beach afterward and noticed that there was a memorial hidden on the side of the beach pier.

It was an Alaska Air flight 261 Memorial. It crashed on January 31st, 2000.

After spending some time taking photos of the memorial we made our way back home. Getting back in the Phoenix area close to 6 am the next day (also arrived to a beautiful sunrise).

Jake was excited to be back with us and he would lay down and just purr right next to us. I can’t say he minds when we leave for a day because we fill up his bowl with food to last him until we are back.

Work again, here is a photo of the multiple windows I have up on one of my monitors. There is another ECCO popup that normally fills the black area when I’m on a call.

What else? The wife took some cute photos of Ara while I was at work. Having a picnic with her favorite stuffed animals.

We went to one of those crafty places to make a tile for my parents for Christmas made with imprints of feet. Arabella had some dirty feet afterward – but I think that it will turn out great. I leave you with a photo of the girl all happy to be up and about at a local Starbucks who took it upon themselves to create a mural of the Starbucks logo and left the face off so that anyone could be the logo.

just Pray

note: this post was published on 09/30/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of August 2014 to keep chronological order.

We came back from our Southern California trip and the next day I went straight to work (see below). I get these cute photos sent to me throughout the day (see the photo below of the wife with the girl). It makes my week much more bearable – even if I have to be on the phone most of the time.

There is a not-so-flattering photo of me and the girl making a super cute smile. The wife caught this as I was looking at the doppler radar to see if we would get any rain on our way up to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is a really pretty park – these photos we captured do not do justice.

It was too exciting for Arabella as she passed out before we even left.

For a while now the wife has wanted to eat at Rainforest Cafe. We made it finally come true! It is a fun experience and almost feels like one of those exotic movies you would see in a movie.

The monsoon is in full effect. Below are a few photos we captured while chasing storms.

The car is finally repaired – we had an issue though where they put the car name on incorrectly. They had to order another one and we are waiting for that to be fixed.

Jake still LOVES being around Arabella – can you tell?! If she moves, he will move to wherever she is. Even when he looks like he is sleeping, he is paying attention.

At work when I take my lunch break it takes me 5 minutes to eat. I spend the other 25 minutes watching TV and typically Cash Cab is on. Sometimes it makes things go by quickly, other times not so much. Also – it bothers me if they don’t finish the people and their turn before I go back. It’s the small things.

just Pray

note: this post was published on 09/29/22 but moved the publish date back to the end of July 2014 to keep chronological order.