Road Trip...

So i'm posting a picture from an airplane. It doesn't make sense I know. But it is Utah and that is where we are going! We will be staying with my Brother and his wife for a week and I haven't been this excited for a while. There is something about Utah, especially at this time of the year. I'm a sucker for the fall colors and cool air, it's magical. A place that is almost too perfect to actually exist.

I haven't been keeping up with this blog like I had hoped, but I hope to get back on track soon. We added a new member to our family and he has been consuming my time. We got a puppy! Buckminster (bucky) Brimhall a.k.a. Chocolate chip, the buckster, buck nasty, and so on...Taylor brought him home as an anniversary surprise and things have been crazy ever since! house training, vet visits, chewed up articles of clothing... it's all a learning experience. I don't know how people with babies do it. I have a newfound appreciation.

Introducing....


It's pretty impossible to say no to this face... and those eyes.

Taylor and I have been married 5 months today. Wow has it flown right on by.... time please slow down now.

And then it rained

Yesterday. For dinner we had filiberto's super nachos and a diet coke. What is it about fili b's diet coke? or any soda from there for that matter. Is it simply the styrofoam cup and how every sip is ice cold? the fact that I can barely hold it with one hand? or do they just pump it with extra syrup? Maybe it's all of the above, but there is no way I can turn down a soda from that place.
I was hesitant to spend 8 dollars for nachos since we are trying really hard to save every bit we can right now. But when they handed us the bag that weighed about a pound I remembered why it was a good choice. Usually i'll pick through the nachos and save the "best chips" (you know, the chips that are so smothered in cheese and sour cream that they are almost soggy) for last. But when you get super nachos, every chip is the best. No fighting for the good stuff here, the whole thing is delicious and terrible for you. These are definietely a favorite.

Rain, rain, rain. The storms that have brought the most rain recently have looked the least intimidating. We had nights where dark cloud masses taunted and teased us but they brought only light sprinkles and we felt so deceived. Unexpectedly, last nights yellowish white sky really did deliver. It rained, it poured, puddles accumulated for our car tires to splash in, and I loved every minute of it.



The songs taylor was singing went right along with the sound of the storm, as if the cement were an instrument and the rain played it well.


Believe it or not we had another birthday celebration. It was my sisters birthday July 24th. I am very sad to say goodbye to the month of July. Here is to having just as much fun in August!



We love Cooper. He reminds us to relax and just laugh at life.

Tomorrow. We leave on a camping/hiking trip to Fossil Springs. I am so excited to get out of the city and be in nature. The hustle and bustle has really been getting to me lately. It should hopefully be a good chance to take some photographs as well.


Tonight. Packing and shopping for the weekend trip. Get excited.

nothing at all in my head to say to you, only the beat of the train i'm on

Life has kind of gotten in the way of blogging for a little bit. When I say life I mean actually having work to do, a holiday, birthdays, and having my husband home on the weekends. It's been nice. I have a lot of pictures that I need to upload onto my computer at home and I will probably post them later. For now, here is a short summary.

Work is the same as always. We have a team building activity tomorrow at an aquarium followed by arcade games and free food, all the while getting paid. I'll take it. This will probablly lead to some things I never thought I would see.


Holiday The fourth of July was a lot of fun. It's not independence day without multiple barbecues to attend in the days leading up to and following it, right? so we had a couple of those, had some delicious red white and blue waffles (maiden voyage of the wedding waffle maker was a success), swam, almost burned Taylor's parents house to the ground (another requirement of the holiday) and managed to teach cooper what fireworks are.


Birthdays are always fun. Received 4 cakes (one of the cookie variety) some very sweet and much appreciated gifts, breakfast in bed, roses, quality family time, and a trip to sunsplash with my sweet husband. That trip lent its own gift to me, a little bit darker skin tone, which is a good thing.

Husband being married is fun. I think we are starting to get the hang of it; However, I still have not learned to keep the flowers/plants he gives me alive. A couple weekends ago we saw toy story 3 together and laughed more than anyone else in the theater. Every time I laughed I glanced over at him because I knew he would be laughing too. I loved it.

So for my birthday I forgot to drop hints that I wanted this book. I would love to see these photographs in person but for now having a collection of them in a book would be fantastic.




Check out more here. Am I the only one completely loving these? Note to self- Begin dropping hints that you want this for a Christmas present. Men don't think the same as woman, this may take some time ;) ps the presents I did get for my birthday were great and heartfelt. I am by no means complaining or wishing for anything other than what I got.


This post would be much more exciting with my pictures. I've got a swimming dog, waffles that will make you salivate, picnic baskets, and pyrotechnics. Stay tuned!!


Office update- I think the janitor (a forty-something hispanic woman) has a crush on me. Avoid the restrooms at all costs when she is cleaning so as to avoid another awkwardly stated and forward compliment.

cause you were all yellow

Life lesson. If you see something at goodwill that you like, buy it right away. Do not wait on it because it will always be gone. I've learned this lesson before but always make the same mistakes. I fell in love with a chair and was going to wait to see if I could get it half priced. It was in perfect condition and was my favorite color as of late (yellow). I hope it found a good home. I did get a shirt in a lovely shade of yellow but it definitely didn't make up for the loss of the chair. Now all I need to do is find the perfect color of navy blue nail polish, maybe that will cheer me up. I might also run by a little vintage furniture place called the "shabby shack" in mesa. I've been hearing about it, but I haven't checked it out yet. Think they have any perfect little yellow chairs?

I can feel the monsoons begging to move in and I can't wait. I enjoy all of it, the smell of the desert rain, the wind, the dust, and even the power outages. Oh and don't forget the thrilling live shots of people stuck ontop of their trucks because of a failed attempt at driving through an obviously flooded wash. There is just a feeling in the air around this time of year that is hard to describe but easily felt. I don't care what anyone says, I love Arizona.


(I didnt take this, thank you google images)

Well, it's going to be a long day even though I get off 2 hours early. Wish me luck.

Getting me through the day...

routine, killing me

I dont remember where that image is from, I just know I liked it. I get a quick break from the tedious job i'm doing today. Basically I've been searching a database for names that usually aren't there. Names that usually differ from the name before it by a single letter; For example, William johnson, Willie Johnson, Will Johnson, Wayne Johnson Wayman Johnson and so on.... When I dont find them I put a zero down on a spreadsheet. Yup... that's it, for 8 hours.

I could be in California by now or well on my way to somewhere else more exciting. I think about that a lot when I sit at work doing nothing. I think about how far I could have driven in the time i've been chained to this desk. Hours wasted, miles lost. Everybody's working for the weekend right? Except my husband who doesn't even get those anymore. Fourth of July is this weekend. I'm usually in Utah viewing the great "stadium of fire" from afar. It will be missed along with the snacks, people, and weather that coincide with it. Hopefully i'll get to see and/or set off some fireworks of my own this year. I've had a bundle waiting in my trunk since new years. Every time I load or unload groceries there is a little spark of excitement in my heart (pun intended) thinking about setting them off. And the pyro in me smiles. Does anyone have anything exciting going on for the holiday? I'm excited about it, I like getting into holidays no matter how corny, made up, or ridiculous some of them may be.

The only reason I got to take this quick sanity break was beacuse there was something wrong with the database I was working out of. I'm catching word that it is fixed now and the torture must go on. Two more hours until sweet freedom will once again be mine.

Yesterday. I fell asleep at 8:30 p.m. Woke up at 1:00 a.m. shared a musical, lucid moment with my husband to the tune of ray lamontagne, Woke up at 6:00 a.m. for work and realized I had slept the entire evening away. Kind of depressing, kind of refreshing. 2 day headache is gone, body and mind are rested.

Today. Sleep normal hours.

Tomorrow. Hump day.

Well, we're all in the mood for a melody

So Saturday's exploration had to be postponed. It started out a little something like this....




lots of laundry and cleaning. When I was younger if you would have told me someday I would WANT to clean and it would actually be my choice and that i'd enjoy it, I would not have believed you; However, that is the truth today. When it's my house and my stuff there is nothing better than making it look the best that it can. A clean house is just the best feeling. BUT I will always hate laundry and with Taylor's work uniforms, and a dryer that isn't functioning properly, it never seems to end. Blah. So after I got the house looking good I was going to still head out for some photos, but then I had to help my mom out with a dead car battery. I gave her a jump and then followed her down to checker auto to get that taken care of. Never fun. By that time Taylor had actually beaten me home so I decided the photography would have to happen another weekend. I did however have a mini photo shoot with the lemonade I made on Sunday. Can you tell i'm desperate to start taking pictures again? I wish my work computer had photoshop on it, these are edited with microsoft paint :) and when I say edited I mean resized, and that's about it.




It was so good! Taylor was out working hard on the lawn sweating like crazy and I had to run to walmart, so I decided to pick up the stuff to make it while I was there. Best idea ever. Then while I was making it at home I got the idea to do the sugar around the rim of the glasses... scratch what I said before, this was the best idea ever. I dipped the glasses in lime juice first to make it stick and it was so yummy, try it! it added a sweet touch to the tangy lemonade. We drank way too much of this.

Yesterday. Taylor tuned the piano that his mom gave us. This was actually the piano that he learned to play the piano on. Where it all began. There is something so sweet about watching him sit there and play it, I think about little Taylor playing it and how I wish I knew him back then. He borrowed a tuning kit from his old roommate Trevor and jumped right in, he amazes me sometimes.


(Note the refreshing glass of lemonade atop the piano)

At last count I think he had done 16 keys and had 80 something left?? yikes. He wont stop until it's perfect.

So that brings us to Today. Back at work. Still not a lot of work to do. This is when people get bored and start to make up things to do. We are having a Wii mario kart tournament and "healthy snack day". I brought in some of my zucchini muffins which aren't really healthy at all. But if it has zucchini and nuts in it I say count it. They are already gone, I guess people liked them. Must find something interesting to do today.... I'm going to dinner with my friend Vicki tonight so at least I have something to look forward to. Until then... I am taking suggestions.

Tomorrow. Well not really tomorrow but some day in the near future I want to take the kayaks out. Taylor went and got them from his old house. That is something i'm really excited about doing. We went once when we were dating and had a blast. I remember how nervous I was to get in my swimsuit in front of him, and how I wanted to make sure and act tough like I wasn't completely scared about being horrible at it. So funny how things change. Where are good places to go kayaking in Ariona?