2014: Looking Ahead

Now that I've capped the fun things we got to do in 2013, let's take a look at 2014.

We already rang in the new year in style... and by "in style" I mean we went to bed and laid there until midnight hit and then immediately went to sleep.  PARTY ANIMALS HERE!!!

New Year's Day we went to the Fiesta Bowl at University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale.  We were fortunate enough to get tickets for us and some good friends from Cassie's dad for free, courtesy of the Boy Scouts of America.  The game was fun, we didn't really care who won, and we all learned that the Baylor Bears love jazz hands and spirit fingers (their fans raise one hand in the air and attempt to make a bear claw, but they also twist their hand back and forth repeatedly, thus confusing the rest of us as to what exactly they are doing).

So what's ahead in 2014?  Well, I will be finishing my MBA program and Cassie will be finishing her Bachelor's.  We are planning a trip to Emmett Idaho and Bieber California sometime this summer to visit Cassie's family and my family because... well, because we want to see them and because of this thing:

That's a baby.  It's kind of hard to tell, but that's about as good of a picture as she ever gave us.  She's not exactly cooperative in there - beats to her own drum like her mom.  I'm in for a lot of fun...

So last year, and really the year before, were full of fun plans and fun trips throughout the year.  This year... not so much (with the exception of the trip we take to Idaho/California.  That will be fun.)  This year will bring a lot of new changes - baby, completion of degree programs (which could bring on other changes as well), and who knows what else.

This is what I do know -

1.  I have never felt more blessed in my life than I do right now.  I am married to my perfect companion - perfect as in she complements me perfectly.  I love her, and she loves me, and we are excited to embrace these changes together.

2.  I am going to be a dad!!! WEIRD!!!

3.  As much fun as all the things were that we've done the past couple years, I'm looking forward to focusing on baby and on other priorities this year - educationally, financially, spiritually, etc.  We have a lot  of work to do this year... and we are ready!

2013: A Year in Review

So... we kind of failed at maintaining this blog last year.  We might continue to fail at it this year, but we will have at least one post!

A couple posts ago,   I recapped some of the fun things we did in 2012 and then listed some fun things we had planned for 2013.  Here is a recap of 2013:

We did go down to Tucson to see Wicked, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was! We loved it!  We ended up giving our tickets to Blue Man Group to our friends in Tucson because the day of the performance Cassie and I both just didn't feel up to making the drive.  We did, however, make an impromptu trip to San Diego for a weekend where we visited the San Diego Zoo and (of course) ate some good food!

Then we got pregnant.

The highlight of the year for me (as far as things we did or saw) would definitely be our trip to Kansas City/Independence/Liberty/Far West/Nauvoo/Carthage.  The Spirit is very strong in Nauvoo, and I love the feeling there.  We saw and did so much, and I really didn't want to leave.  Oh, and we ate amazing BBQ in Kansas City!

We did not make it to the Grand Canyon, but we did make another trip to California to visit with my family for awhile.  I always love getting a chance to see them.  On the way back from our trip to see them, we spent a couple days in Vegas.  We saw Ka by Cirque du Soleil (honestly kind of a disappointment compared to the other two Cirque shows we have seen) and then had a fun time at the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, the CSI experience, and the Bodies exhibit.

Toward the end of the year we were able to see the Lion King musical at Gammage and the Lost Christmas Eve by Trans Siberian Orchestra at Jobing.com arena.  Both shows were amazing!

And of course we got to spend a lot of time with Cassie's family for holidays and otherwise.  We ended the year with a memorial bonfire for Cassie's brother Damond.  Members of Cassie's family shared their testimonies and great memories and stories about Damond around the campfire.  It was an uplifting experience.

2013 started off on a difficult and trying note for Cassie and her family, but through their faith in God and His Plan and their love for one another, they have been able to be strengthened, and they know that their family will be together forever.  2013 turned out to come with many blessings.  2014 will hopefully do the same... I know it will offer some surprises!  Baby will make sure of it... that's for sure!

New Goals

So it is almost a full month into the New Year and I have not made many changes. However, come February things are really going to change.

First, while looking at Pinterest the other day I found this woman's blog that had great recipes and how to prep them so that there would be leftovers and each dinner would cost less than six dollars a person. After looking at that blog I became really excited about planning meals for the month. So I took it upon myself to work out a meal plan for all of February. Meals include chicken dishes, crock pot dishes, casseroles, and a couple meals made by Joe. Unlike goals that have been set before this one is going to work out! :) We have already made progress toward keeping our goal by going shopping for all the ingredients we needed for the next week of meals. Yay for good home cooked food and less eating out!

Second, I decided that in order to save money I need to be putting aside much of my paycheck. Yeah shopping is fun, but I can imagine how much fun being able to get a house would be. So Joe and I have started putting most of my paychecks into saving and leaving me only enough to get the things I need, like gas for my car. I was an extremely poor college student before I married Joe, having a good paying job has ruined me and now I am trying to pretend that I am an extremely poor college student once again.

Third, my sister-in-law Linsey is planning to put together a team to do a 5k run in Yuma, AZ called Color Me Rad. Pretty much contestants can run or walk as a team or individuals and at different stages of the run they have colored cornstarch thrown at them which colors their clothes and skin. I have heard more than once how awesome these color festivals and races are, so although I am nowhere near in shape to run a 5k I have 67 days to train. AHHH!!! Ok I can do this. I had already planned to get into better shape earlier this month by buying a Latin dance exercise pack... but it hasn't been opened yet. Yeah I should work on that, starting tomorrow. Looks like I will be looking at Pinterest to learn the best ways to get into shape so I do not feel like passing out at the Color Me Rad race.

Well for now that seems like a good amount of goals to focus on. I probably will think of some more but enough for now.

I Like to Read Books.

I like to read books.

Cassie and I have been planning our Nauvoo trip (as y'alls know), and all this talk of sites we want to visit has rekindled my interest in reading books about church history.  Before my mission I started The Work and the Glory series - I read the first book in about a day.  I love the way the book was written and I was excited to continue reading.  However, after giving it some thought, I decided that I should probably spend my reading time studying the scriptures.  Not only was I preparing to serve a mission, but I had only been a member of the Church for about a year.  I clearly had much to learn about basic gospel principles.  So at that time, I put my Work and the Glory plans to rest.

Many of you may not know or remember this, but I moved to Utah for about a year in January 2008.  It was kind of a transitional waiting period between Rexburg and whatever was to come next (a short stint in Southern California followed by a couple more months in Orem followed by the move to Arizona).  While I was there, I didn't make "friend-finding" a priority, so I had a lot of time on my hands.  I went to Deseret Book one day and purchased the paperback copy of all of the books in the Work and the Glory series (all that were available in paperback anyway.  I don't remember if that was the entire series).  I was excited and had every intention of reading the series.

And then I discovered Guitar Hero with my roommates...  I eventually sold the books to a used bookstore without ever reading them.  Oops.

Anyway, fast forward to yesterday.  I decided to look the books up on Amazon to see what kind of price paperback copies were going for.  It turns out that the new paperbacks were pretty pricey.  I did find that many used paperback copies were selling for less than $1 (with $4 shipping), and I thought maybe now would be the time to order the series again.  I added them all to my cart and almost purchased the entire set for something around $60.  Buuuuuuut I didn't buy them.  I didn't want to spend $60 on a series of books while I am trying to save up for the Nauvoo trip.

This all brings us to today.  The wife and I had the day off.  She wanted to go check out some things at Goodwill and of course I tagged along.  I spent my time looking through the books.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I did see some random LDS books on a few of the shelves.  The thought came to me that, "wouldn't it be funny/awesome if I found some of the Work and the Glory books here?"    Welp... on the other side of the bookshelf look what I found!!

This really made my day for a few reasons:

1.  It was only $1.99

2.  It was the only Work and the Glory book in Goodwill, and it happened to be the first book in the series.

3.  This discovery set our course for the next couple hours of our afternoon... because of this little gem I discovered, we went to another Goodwill and to Desert Industries seeking more treasure (and I did, in fact, find treasure at DI in the form of the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for $1)

And now, a haiku:

I like to read books.

Book has been found at Goodwill.

Work and the Glory.

A Good Year in Store

I'm pretty excited for the year ahead.  We did a lot of fun things in 2012, our first year together.  We went to San Francisco, had our honeymoon in Vegas, enjoyed the beach and some church historical stuff in San Diego, visited my family in Northern California - which included a fun fair and some site-seeing, went to the Forgotten Carols and The Nutcracker and so on and so forth.  We already have some plans in place to make this year just as fun.  Here is a list of a few of the things we have planned already for this year:

1.  See the previous post - I can check the Sonoran Hot Dog off my list!

2.  Wicked - I have heard so much about it, and Cassie has been wanting to see it, so when I saw that it is coming to Tucson this Spring, I jumped on that opportunity.

3. When we went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon last year, one of the shows I was most excited about was the Blue Man Group.  I loved it!  So much fun, energy, humor, and excitement.  Well, after getting tickets for Wicked, I noticed that Blue Man Group was also coming to Tucson this spring.  The tickets were pretty inexpensive, and I decided there was no way I could pass up this opportunity.  So Blue Man Group  take 2 will happen in April.

4.  Last summer we spent a few days outside Boise, Idaho at the Haws family reunion.  On the way home, we gave up our seats on our morning flight and agreed to take a flight later that day.  In return, we received two vouchers for $350 toward future flights.  We had to use the vouchers within a year.  $350 can cover a round-trip to flight to pretty much anywhere in the continental U.S., so we considered a few scenarios.  We thought about flying to New York, Boston, or DC and doing some site-seeing out there.  We considered going to Universal Studios Orlando and Harry Potter world.  We also thought about using the $350 toward flights to Hawaii.  In the end we decided on something that I am very, very excited about.  We are going to spend a few days visiting church history sites in Missouri and Illinois, with the bulk of our time spent in Nauvoo!  Cassie has been there before, but she wanted to go back to see the Nauvoo Pageant and to just spend some more time out there.  Other places we plan to visit are Liberty Jail, the Far West Temple Site, and Carthage.  Oh, and we're going to eat some BBQ in Kansas City.  I can't wait!

5.  The Wife has lived in Arizona her entire life and has never visited the Grand Canyon.  I find that many of my native AZ friends can say the same.  I find this to be a little sad, and I too have never been to the Grand Canyon.  While we aren't 100% sure when we will go there (maybe sometime in May or after the summer), we will definitely be making a trip there this year.

In addition to these plans, we will also most likely visit my family around fair time again, and I am sure we will end up making it to the beach again sometime.  We are definitely taking advantage of the time we have before Cassie finally lets me have a baby... until then we will enjoy our lack of responsibility!

Tucson - The City of Sonoran Hot Dogs

The Sonoran Hot Dog

I'm not sure how long ago I heard of the Sonoran Hot Dog on Man vs Food, but I do know that ever since then I have wanted to taste the processed goodness that I witnessed on TV.  Tucson isn't tooooo far from here, but I decided that an hour and half drive was probably too long for a hot dog.  BUT, I am now married to a lovely lady who has a best friend that now lives in Tucson.  So today, we took a trip down to the dirty city to enjoy the day having fun with friends.... oh, and because I had a date with greasy meat-parts destiny!!!!

We were originally going to leave around 1 or so, but finally left Tempe around 1:45 (after the normal wardrobe and hair changes the wife goes through every day while trying to find the right look for the day).  The drive went a lot quicker than I thought it would, and in no time we were sitting in Sam and Melissa's apartment.  We sat around and chatted for a short bit, but since we were all very hungry it was soon time to head down to El Guero Canelo to stuff our faces.

When we arrived, Melissa first pulled into the parking lot where a drunk man was sunbathing, but Melissa took Sam's suggestion and parked in another spot.  We got out of the car, and as we were walking to the building, the drunk man's friend approached us asking for change.  None of us had cash, but the lady said she was just hungry and wanted something to eat, so Sam and Melissa, being the kind people that they are, ended up buying the lady a burrito.

Inside the restaurant, I saw that the menu was pretty small, but that made no difference to me - I knew what I was there for.  The wife was a little apprehensive about trying adventurous things on the menu so she ended up ordering a bean and cheese burrito and an horchata.  I ordered the same... along with the deliciousness known as the Sonoran Hot Dog.  This is a hot dog wrapped in bacon and stuffed in a special bun, and then smothered in beans, tomatoes, grilled onions, fresh onions, mayo, mustard and jalapeno sauce.  I ordered mine without the onions.  Ladies and gentleman, I just don't know what to say.  This hot dog was easily the best hot dog I have EVER had.  I wish I had ordered two hot dogs instead of the burrito (which was actually tasty as well).

The good news is we will be going back to Tucson at least two more times this spring.  We purchased tickets to see Wicked in Tucson in March and Blue Man Group in April.  I can assure you that I will be eating Sonoran Hot Dog on both of those trips!

Oh, and the rest of the day was fun, too.  We went back to the Whitmer's and played some games - Pandemic, Things, and a new version of Apples to Apples.  Awesome day!

New Family Blog

This entry will be short. I just wanted to take a moment to welcome you all to our new family blog! We decided this would be a great way for both of us to share the "exciting" aspects of our life together. We made it through our first year of marriage with flying colors! I hear people say the first year is supposed to be the hardest. If that is the case, then we are in store for a pretty awesome marriage!

I would say we had a lot of fun and got to do some cool things in 2012! We spent a day site-seeing in San Francisco, spent a few days in Vegas and saw some amazing shows while there (Cirque du Soleil Mystere, Blue Man Group, Phantom of the Opera), spent a few days in Idaho at a giant family reunion, got to spend a few days in Northern California visiting my family, and did fun stuff around Phoenix too! Cassie took a ton of pictures of all our adventures and posted them on Facebook, so be sure to check them out there. I am sure that throughout this year she will post a lot more pictures there, and a select few will be posted here to the blog.

We don't know what this year has in store, but we are planning to take a trip to Nauvoo this summer - and that will be AMAZING, I'm sure. Anyway, welcome to our blog... where we keep it Strickly Family (get it? play on words there? Strickly instead of strictly... because our last name is Strickland... get it???)

K, bye.