Precious H2O

Good water is still hard to find in the desert. The stuff that comes from our faucets is bad-tasting and chlorinated.

So we travel to the oasis to fill our gallon jugs (25 cents each). This great machine is located at the Walgreens a block away, and there is one at the gas station 2 blocks away as well.

You are lucky if you can get a great-tasting glass of water right from your very own faucet.

AZ on the Rocks and #9

I want to talk about #9 first because it's pretty exciting. B & C had their second child (my parents ninth grandchild) this afternoon, and named him Cutler Brett. He was 8 lbs 9 oz, and 19 inches. I don't know any other details, but I'm pumped to have another nephew!!

An and I went indoor rock climbing (with half-off coupons from REI!) on Sunday morning. It's like the climbing wall at Dick's Sporting Goods or REI on steroids.

An, hooking herself up to the rope. While she climbed, I stood on the ground and belayed for her, then she did the same for me. The person who belays is pretty important, as they're the one who prevents the climber from falling.


The room was full of ropes and different paths to the top, each marked with a different color tape. It was a challenge to stay on one color, without using any handholds of a different color.

It was a lot of fun, and we climbed until our fingers could no longer grip. We both want to go back and try more courses. They also had a bouldering wall, which is essentially the same thing as climbing, but without a harness and rope. The wall was a lot shorter, and there were pads on the floor in case you fell or wanted to jump down.

Afterward we ate brunch. I snapped this picture of An playing with a syrup drip.

It was another good Sunday. Definitely made up for my earlier bad day :)

Terrible, horrible, no good

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and the cloudy sky didn't make me feel any better (it's never cloudy here!).

I remembered that it was Friday of SLW. Our ladies "deer hunting" weekend, and I wasn't there. Wasn't there experiencing all the excitement and company.

The frozen yogurt I ate for comfort made me feel sick.

At work, I had a guest apologize for interrupting my dinner, then proceed to yell at me for not giving him a better rate (who supports us during our slow months, huh??).

My boss came in unexpectedly (which is not good when you're reading a magazine in his comfy chair), and told me that not only did I do something wrong, I most likely couldn't have the weekend that I wanted off.

When he finally left and I got to sit down and eat, a guest called with a leaking toilet. After this was resolved, a different guest freaked me out by pushing the emergency button on his phone. Luckily, no emergency.

When my shift finally ended, I rushed out.

I called MK, and he made me feel so, so much better. He was amusing and comforting, and just like that, my very bad day was not so terrible and horrible anymore.

City stuff

We got to go to church again (!) at Elaine's. Richard E came down, and a total of 20 adults attended this time. It was really nice. Elaine even let me pick oranges and grapefruit from her trees :)

Afterward, we went bowling, then out for pizza. It was the best kind of 'za, New York-style. Sarah's boyfriend Tom (who is visiting from MI) paid for all of us, which made it even more delicious ;)

An Bun getting a strike.

There's Tom, and Sarah.

And An and I, having a grand time.

It was the perfect Sunday.

I survived the insanity

12.5 hours of incessant phone ringing, growing stacks of orders, and rapidly dwindling flowers. I made the last order at 7 pm, and it still had yet to be delivered when I left at 7:40. I'm sure there were some unhappy customers (because their flowers were delivered so late in the day), but we were doing our best. And by the end, it was hard to care. Sounds callous, but it was true.

We needed more designers, more delivery drivers, more phone answerers, more, more, more.

I barely had time to swallow a few handfuls of food, but I did sneak a second to take some pictures of my work. This arrangement is an $80 order. I added tulips, calla lilies, and mini green hydrangeas to fill it to value.

This is kind of my style- compact, clustered. And I still love pink! and hate red after today.

I'm glad to have one Valentine's Day in a real flower shop under my belt. As exhausting as it was, it was fun too. We had some good laughs amongst us workers, and we know we're (mostly) making people happy.

V-day

is a chaotic day for florists everywhere. The orders have been rolling in, for Friday, Saturday, and of course, Monday. I'm almost dreading the big day itself. I will probably be at the shop from 6 am to 6 pm or similar hours.

We got an order for over $300 worth of flowers for ONE girlfriend. Insane, if you ask me. I would much rather have money like that spent on more practical things.

I hope you spend your Valentines Day with your honey! Wish I could....

breach of privacy? or a parents right?

Yesterday, the secret came out that my mom read our journals when we were kids. What? I was surprised, a little embarrassed, and a little annoyed. I think I would have been more mad if I had found this out 5 years ago, but the older I get, the more I see things from a parents point of view.

She said if she ever felt like there was a serious problem in our lives, thats when she would try to find out what was going on. She would even look in the boys' rooms.

Teens can sometimes have a hard time confiding in their parents, but do you think it is okay to look through their things, their personal thoughts? What would you do if you knew something was really wrong, but your child wouldn't tell you what it was?

Morning Run Observations

• Our hours of hiking didn't give me as much endurance as I'd hoped
• Snotsdale (just heard it, didn't come up with it) apparently likes to redo buildings, especially if they don't have a fountain in front of them
• The lemon, grapefruit, orange, and tangelo (what are they, anyway?) trees are full of fruit
• You can tell who is wealthy by their front yard setup; grass, two tones of gravel, or just plain gravel
• I saw a gansta' kid pick up garbage. It made me smile
• Down here, people clean up old cacti from their yard and throw them by the curb, instead of tree limbs
• Those plastic things that make the blinds open and close can make prisms on the wall

I rewarded myself for all those observations with a cookie.

Double-decker

When Pokes was here, we went to my first double-decker driving range. It was so neat! We hit off of the top level, and my hits looked way better than they really were. :)

Pokes crushing a ball.

Me, trying to crush a ball.

I learned that I can hit a golf ball over 150 feet :)

memorable moment in time

My dad called me last night, just to let me know that the recipe I asked for was being typed up by Mom in the big box on the 'send email' page. Was that what he was supposed to do?

I reassured him that it was. Apparently it takes two to send an email; Mom knows how to type, and Dad has the email address and login information (although when I tried to see if it was hotmail, gmail, yahoo, he wasn't really sure).

I was smiling when I got off the phone, pleased to be a part of their very first email experience.

And I did receive the email. :)