Fall Update:Boulder, Martin and reuniting with family.....three things that truly touch the heart deeply

Well, so much for frequent updates. 2 months later since my last post, lots have happened.
Half way through fall now, we are starting to enjoy some days below 90 degrees :) Erik surprised me with a wonderful birthday gift, we enjoyed some fall travel (Jersey and Colorado) and we are both 3/4 done with our first semester down here in Arizona.

So we had our very first friends visit us! Dana and I worked back in Bozeman at Bagelworks. She and her husband were driving through Tucson from Tx back to San Fransisco. So we enjoyed a day together! We went to the Tucson Desert Museum. There was a tarantula there.....gross! Jeremy rocked the "Bat ears" and before they left we enjoyed a refreshing trip to Sonic. Its wonderful how in life, our paths will cross with people and recross with them at the most peculiar times.


Well the Curfman family finally broke our long overdue absence of a reunion and all of us (Les, Lar, Eryn, Molly and Annie) got together. 7 years since we've been all together! Eryn and her husband Mehdi and their two girls came back to the US to renew their visas so they could continue to live in Saudi Arabia. Since they were in New Jersey getting all their paper work done, we all met there.

Les and Lar flew in first and then Molly (and Johnathan) and I came in afterwards. It felt so good to have all of us sitting around the table for dinner. I didn't realize how much absence can weaken the heart over time. But when my whole family, all 5 of us, sat there together, my heart grew. I felt so blessed to have such great family time there. I LOVED spending time with Mari and J-ri...Eryn, I abbreviated there names if you couldn't tell :) My two very beautiful nieces and my nephew Jonathan. We spent some long walks, and enjoyed the beginning of a Jersey Fall. One afternoon, we met up with some of Eryn and Mehdi's friends and enjoyed very authentic Indian Festivities. The food was fantastic. Molly and I also got henna drawn on our hands. It was quite fun!

Dad with Jonathan! Les, Lar, Mol, J train and I on the Jersey side of
the Washington Bridge, NYC in the background

Of course time went by quickly and we soon had to depart. Eryn and Mehdi are now back in Saudi Arabia getting settled in Ha'il (spelling E?) and Eryn is starting a new teaching job there. I think Ha'il will be better for them. Its in the mountains and has cooler weather, if that's possible.

For our trip to Colorado, Erik and I flew to Boulder and enjoyed the wonderful wedding of our friends Cameron and Keely. They got married surrounded by aspens and with Crested Butte int eh background. BEAUTIFUL! We were able to meet up with lots of friends, the whole Crandall Gang! as well as the entire Harpel family. Fall in Colorado....wow. It was breathtaking. We had quite a fun time spending time with Chuck and Barb too!




After our world wind adventures, we enjoyed celebrating my birthday (the big 2-5!) by riding our bikes over to a small bar to listen to Martin Sexton. He's one of our favorite musicians and we had seen him in Bozeman before. The neat thing about this time was there were only about 40 people there and it was just Martin by himself. He didn't have a play list and was taking suggestions. So I naturally requested Angeline....love it. The time was great! Erik is very good at gift giving. I am told that I am quite good at gift receiving. The perfect match ;)


Leslie opened for Martin...she was great. Look! Is that a halo above Martin's head ;)

On the less eventful end, weather is SLOWLY cooling down. We did have a week of weather in the 70's and we thought Fall was making its way down south. But for the last couple weeks it has remained in the 80's and 90's. Not that I am complaining, it is just hard to get used to wearing shorts and flips all day :)

Erik is in his neurology block right now and has been working extra hard. There is quite a bit of stuff to learn. Who would have thought, right?! But he loves it. He has been working in the cadaver lab (preserved dead bodies). They have been dissecting and it has been an amazing/weird experience for him.

He loves school, even though it is TONS of work. Thankfully he has been finding time to go running. We are both training for our first marathon (Erik) and half marathon (me). We are running it in December. Kylie and Zach are coming down to run it with us. We have been running at night since it has been cooler then. Erik runs with a head lamp in front of me. It has been quite fun and adventurous. On one run, we spotted our first javalinas (wild bores)!!

Lastly, I am enjoying a somewhat rhythmic pace at school. We had Homecoming last week. Everyday at school was a theme. My favorite was Neon Day. I scored a sweet neon suit from Savers and rocked it with some neon shoes that I am pretty sure gave me athlete's foot. Oh the price for fashion :) We won our football game against Pueblo and was graced with the presence of a streaker (wearing a jock strap). He was later arrested and suspended. High schoolers....gotta love 'em.

Well that is all for now. Hopefully I will be better at this but it probably wont happen. I hope you enjoy the updates. Next one hopefully won't be as long...hopefully.

Update 2 of 2: Truckin' on into Tucson

Now to the second half of the update, we are in Tucson. Erik started med school the last week of July and I stared on the 2nd of August. I did a week long (in the library) training which was a lot of information to absorb all at once, but it was great to meet all the other new teachers that would be in the same school district as me.

Erik had his White Coat Ceremony. They do this every year for 1st years to signify the step into a long rigorous 4 years. I finally got my classroom set up and we both got all of our school supplies. We both have been learning quite a bit. We have gotten to know some of the people in each of our circles: my co workers and Erik's fellow med school students. They are all nice but we felt like we couldn't relate much to either group.













Then we found Northminster, not to be confused with Westminster :) Northminster is a Presbyterian Church we discovered, when I got lost and missed my turn. We instantly liked it and in fact there is a young married couples group that is made up of some wonderful people. We feel very blessed. It has been great to socialize with all of them.

Also at school, I was approached to see if I was interested in starting to develop an Allied Health/Sports Medicine program at the high school. I was more than thrilled. This was my true genuine dream, right in front of me. I was on cloud 9, but I quickly brought myself back down to reality: I am a 1st year teacher. After talking with several other teachers who have developed programs at the school, they strongly urged me to wait a year and first focus on developing myself as a teacher. I think that what they said was very true. So I am still going to develop a program, but not until next year. I am first going to focus on my teaching and bettering myself as an educator, and then direct my career in the direction I greatly desire to head towards.

To answer the lingering question, YES, it has been hot here! Very very hot!














Most of the time, we are inside so we don't have to deal with it much....except when we get into our cars, watering the lawn, watering the dogs, having to have the AC running all the time and then boxing up our down blankets and any clothing that goes past our elbows and knees. Aside from that, the idea of the heat never really crosses our minds :) We did discover that Sawyer and Wyatt love drinking out of the facet of the bathtub. They coming running every time we turn it on :)

One of the coolest things here are the storms. The thunder is so loud and the lightening decorates the sky on a regular basis. We doubted these so called "monsoons" and then the rain finally hit. They really aren't monsoons, but when you have been surrounded by dirt and sahuaro cactus for a month, you begin to doubt. But when it rains, it is really cool. We open our doors and have the screens bring in some cool air. I love to just sit and watch them. Now they are pretty much gone, so we'll see them again hopefully next June.

Enough about us. While we have been down here, lots of things have happened in the lives of our friends and family. My sister and her fam moved to Boise, Sierra had a baby girl Zoe, Brittney had a beautiful boy Weston and there were lots and lots of weddings! Jake and Rachel, Richard and Amanda, Pat and Anne...Congrats to you all!! Also, Christi is finally back on this side of the world! She has been teaching in South Korea for the last year and a half. I am so happy she is back! Also, my fam is eagerly waiting to see when my oldest sister, Eryn and her family will come back to the states. They are living in Saudi Arabia, where my sister is teaching. Once they get to the states, I plan on visiting them. I haven't seen them in over 3 years. I have met my youngest niece, Ria, and my sister is pregnant with their 3rd! My goodness! I will keep everyone posted on how it goes. They may come in a matter of weeks!

Random pic of a guy riding a weird bike. We saw him when we were driving down from Mount Lemon.






Well that's all my hands can handle typing before they fall off :) Next time I won't wait two months to update. I need to work it into a regular routine. If I haven't posted in a while, ask me about it. Thanks Steph for the motivation :) Below are some pics from Tucson so far.

Update 1 of 2: Ranger Rick?...no, it is Dangerous Dave!

So instead of posting one very very long blog, I am breaking it up into two parts. The first part brings everyone up to speed about what we did prior to officially moving to Tucson.

Erik and I had a bet going on about what the gender of my sister Molly's baby. Well since she had a boy, I lost. The penalty, climb Longs Peak.

For the record I have never climbed a mountain. I have hiked, but this was a step above and a couple notches below legit rock climbing. It was one of several 14-ers in Colorado. A 14-er is a mountain at or above 14,000 ft elevation at the summit.

So since we were starting in Fort Collins, we were at an elevation of around 5,000ft. Then we drove to the base (9,000 feet) which is just outside Rocky Mountain National Park and very close to Estes Park. We arrived just a little after 5 am. Some people were just coming down from the mountain. I guess people like to mountain climb at night...um no thank you. We logged in and there were already over 2 dozen who have already hit the trail. Our goal was to summit by noon at the latest. Apparently there can be nasty storms that come in the afternoon that are very dangerous. Several people die on the mountain every year. I of course found this out AFTER we climbed.

We finally made the summit at 11 am, about 6 hours after we started. I must be honest, we almost didn't summit. There is a part on the climb called the Key Hole. It is an area where all the wind gets bottle-necked and can almost blow you over. If that wasn't enough, once you get through the key hole the back side of the mountain pretty much goes straight up. At one point I became very scared and panicked. As I type this right now, I get back some of that adrenaline rush as I am recalling the adventure. We headed back towards the key hole, with me feeling very disappointed in myself. We worked and hiked for so long and not to summit? This would just not do. So after we sat and I gathered up some gumption, we trekked on back up the mountain.

At one point, I was hyperventilating and crying, all the while, Erik behind me and encouraging me until I was able to calm down. We finally made it to the top with our hands red and swollen from climbing in the shadows and snow of the back side of the peak.

YAY, the summit! Now I can enjoy my gummy bears. Ones I had been saving to reward myself at the top, but the view was way better than any German made gummy bear. Marmots everywhere sun bathing and a sea of "mountains beyond mountains".

I felt so proud of myself. I did it. I then turned to Erik to tell him that I was happy we did it, but I probably wont climb a 14-er again. Then a fellow climber chimed in behind us, "Oh don't worry, Longs is one of the hardest ones, the rest are a piece of cake".

WHAT?! I just assumed all the 14-ers were this hard. At first I was a little peeved that Erik failed to mention this little detail, but in hinds sight, I am glad he didn't. I probably would have backed down.

Speaking of backing down, we finally needed to head back down so we make sure we get back down before it starts to get cold. We headed back down and passed a handful of people coming up the mountain. Some people hike up 1/4 of the way up in the afternoon and camp out and finish the next day.

We finally made it to the bottom in about 12 1/2 hours and pretty worn, but not defeated. We were able to take lots of pictures and I wanted to save them till the very end of the blog. So here they are. Enjoy!! We sure did!

Promise in Tucson

Wow, quite a bit has happened since I have last blogged. Erik and I went down to Tucson to find a place to live and get some things squared away with his schooling before he started. Just a few days before the 4th, I got a phone call from the principal at Sahuarita High School asking if I could interview the following Tuesday. I happily agreed and we decided to head down on Sunday the 4th just a few days earlier than planned.

We drove through the coolest lightening storm (the true fireworks) for the majority of our way down to Colorado City. We saw at least a dozen fireworks shows all going on at once. It was absolutely beautiful. Chuck, my father-in-law, has a property in Colorado City where we were going to stay so we could break up the 14 hour drive down to Tucson into 2 days. We got to the general area of the property late at night. That is when I realized the only tools we had to find this place were the headlights on our car (absolutely no lights in the area) and the vague directions of "its just past the bush and if you get to the brick house you've gone too far". Well there were lots of bushes and a number of houses spread out, so it was hard to tell if we had a ways to go or if we'd gone way too far. Erik finally got out and tromped around through the brush with a headlamp and found our "roadside inn". Thankfully Erik checked all the mouse traps before we went to bed that night. Below are some pictures of our set up :)
























Onward ho! We headed out early the next morning in hopes to cross paths with Erik's relatives, Aunt Jan and Uncle John and Erik's cousin Amy. They were in Albuquerque and we were able to stop in and have lunch with them before they had to be on there way. It was really great to see them and to get a brief view of some New Mexico culture. We finally got down to Tucson and I started to prepare for my interview the following day.











Things we saw: dead rat that Erik stepped on at a gas station...Truth or Consequences, New Mexico....and a fireworks stand, on fire.

Tuesday morning we had time to kill since my interview wasn't until 11am. I went into the local Safeway to grab a few things before we drove down to Sahuarita. As I was fighting with the self checkout machine I got a phone call. ..It was Jody, the woman from my first interview. As she was apologizing to me for not getting back to me sooner, I was playing tug o war with the dollar machine at the checkout working hard not to mutter something regrettable. As my focus on our conversations was going in and out, something she said caught my attention, "I'm happy to be calling you to offer you the job." what?! I was stunned and stills struggling with the stupid self checkout machine. I got the job?! Wow, I was so thrilled. I thanked her and I ran out to the car.
Erik hugged and kissed me, then we realized it was an hour and a half before my other interview. I didn't want to waste the other school's time so we drove down to Sahuarita. On the way down there I saw our system of measurement change into kilometers. This second job may have been a little too south for me. So I am very happy I received a job from my first interview.

The rest of the day just got better and better. We went to UofA campus and we were able to get things squared away for Erik. He got his catcard (id card) and got his background check done. We even talked with a very friendly woman in the financial aid office about what our best options are for schooling finances. Once that was done, it was house hunting time.

We established a couple different walk through appointments prior to us arriving in Tucson. Prior to our first appointment, we drove around areas that we "thought" we were interested in. Let me tell you, pictures only tell you a 1/4th of the whole story. Some places that were decently priced were in some not so decent areas. All the ones we drove by were x'd off our list. Then we went to our first appointment.

This house was in a nice area and it was close to campus. It was a 2 bedroom 1 bath place with a big fenced in yard that had "grass". Now Tucson's version of grass is a bit different, not so lush and not so green. But it wasn't rocks and it wasn't dirt. We were interested in the place and quickly realized many others were interested in it also. So we decided to go with it and were pretty happy with the decision. So 24 hours from when we arrived, I got a job, Erik got set up with school AND we had a place to live. It was turning out very well for us.













For the rest of the time we were able to relax, go swimming at Reid Park, just a couple blocks from our house and even get a deluxe golf cart tour of U o f A Campus. Overall, it was a wonderful time and we are really looking forward to living down there...minus the hot hot weather and the fact that they moved all of spring training up to Phoenix...we are trying not to be bitter.















The sub at U of a is built so that the areal shot of it looks just like the USS Arizona. In fact the original mast from the USS Arizona is on the building and they even have dog tags used as wind chimes. Pretty cools stuff!







Next week, my parents are doing us a huge favor and helping us move all of our stuff down and helping us get settled in to our new life. More later. We hope you enjoyed all the pictures!