Gambling & Wicked Weather

Sorry for my lack of posting my friends, work has been busy! I am officially in week 3/4 for my first training class of new associates. I've had my fair share of up's and down's regarding my first class, but for the most part it's going great! I have a class of 22 students which I co-facilitate with two other colleagues. I'll be ready to just have the first class under my belt and over! 

This past weekend, MB stayed with me a few days while they were working on her apartment. She talked me into going to the casino to spend the day since it was supposed to rain anyway. I walked in with $60 and walked out with $173... I'll take it! 

After the casino, we decided just to drive around a bit, and found ourselves at the summit of South Mountain, and what a view! The pictures don't even do justice! It had just finished raining, so there were a lot of clouds so we didn't get to see the distances that we could on a clear day, you can even see the rain coming down in the distance in the pictures! 

The next day (Sunday) I was enjoying my normal Sunday routine.. surfing the internet.. when I heard what I thought was thunder. It could have been the stupid neighbors upstairs because they constantly sound like they are rearranging the entire place, but then I saw a flash of light and heard the familiar rumble of thunder again! Oh how I love when there is a bit of a thunderstorm here...... or so I thought.

This storm was not the normal rain, a bit of wind, some thunder and some lightening type of storm... oh no.. this one was different.

It began to rain, and as I've become accustomed to, I like to open the door and sit out on the patio as the rain comes down. This time as I opened the door to go outside, out of nowhere came this huge gusting wind and I immediately saw the trees begin to bend and then I heard branches snapping off left and right.... maybe I should just close the door and stay inside. Then I could hear the wind whooshing down the fireplace... that's sure never happened before. Then the power began to flicker on and off, and then it went off for good. Great.... this is really going to cut into my 'True Blood' and 'The Leftovers' HBO time.

Just as quickly as this little storm began it was over, in the span of about five minutes. Storms are a great way to meet ALL your neighbors by the way, as everyone began to come outside and confirm everyone else's power was out as well.

We were all also able to see the damage that had been done too. I was told 'Welcome to Arizona' and 'this is the worst I've ever seen' and several occasions, good to know this isn't the norm. I took a little walk around our complex to survey the damage and this is what I found.... some apartments had their windows blown in, luckily no one's car had anything fall on it, and we don't even know where that big piece of what looks like a roof came from.

... what a mess right? There was debris and branches and limbs all over the place. The great gardeners/grounds crew here works fast though, and they had it all cleaned up by time I got home from work on Monday.

Just look at this before and after! Minus the obvious missing branches from the trees you wouldn't know anything had happened! 

I know my Audrey and Oliver fans are surely wondering what is up with those two... well I'm happy to report they are kinda friends now! 

They chase each other around, one time they come running through and Oliver is chasing Audrey and the next Audrey is chasing Oliver, it's funny to see them play. They still aren't BFF's yet, but they do at least share the bed now.

I couldn't find them the other day and then I heard some noises coming from the bathroom, I turn on the light and look in the tub and find this! I'm sure they were up to no good right? 

The Chicago Cubs are in Town!

The loveable losers made there way to Arizona for a three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and they lost. At least some things never change.

It was weird watching baseball indoors but the air conditioned 79° compared to the outside 101° was a very welcome addition... I think I can live with baseball indoors.

We got lotto tickets at the game and won our money back! 

Superman was there too! 

Missing In Action

I promise this time I have been MIA for a legit reason. You see my friend MB has been working hard to lose weight and has been doing an amazing job. She talked me into signing up for a gym in the big work city and then took it another step further when she talked me into the personal trainer program at the gym, she got a week head start. 

The program "Fat to Fit in 84 days" promises to kick our butts into smokin hot shape by time fall rolls around. It's 6 days a week for an hour- hour and a half working with a trainer and food program. We alternate weight days and cardio days and increase the intensity. Our weights are mostly done with kettlebells so far, and I'm kinda loving it. 

Monday- Weights light day
Tuesday- Cardio light day
Wednesday- Weights medium day
Thursday- Cardio Medium day
Friday- Weights heavy day
Saturday- 8:30 am cardio heavy day
Sunday- Rest

I survived my first week. It wasn't exactly easy and dare I say kinda fun. It's been great having someone to workout with and to help me push and motivate myself. The food part of this consists of 80g carbs per day/20g fat per day/24g of protien per meal and eating six small meals every 3 hours. We meet at either 6 or 6:30pm with the trainer so I've been working some overtime hanging out in work city to pass the time, then getting done at the gym around 7/7:30 with a 45 minute drive home, you can see where I haven't had enough time to blog; but I promise in the coming weeks I will work harder to get some blogging in. Be prepared though it may become a slightly more exercise/healthy food zone and me venting/sharing my struggles as this time goes on.

Our trainer Annette is amazeballs. She is so nice and encouraging that you can't help but love her and want to do everything she says, I really do feel that she believes in me more than I do myself right now, but hopefully I'll get there.

My biggest struggle this week has been the food. During the week I didn't even notice, but these past two days have been a little rough. I want pizza and I want McDonalds. Ugh how awful, it's just the knowing you can't have something that makes you crave it I think. But don't fret I didn't give into temptation, I just kept thinking how bad I want this and it's only up to me to screw it up, and I'm not going to. During our 84 days we need to follow the plan to the T. Once the 84 days, in moderation, there will be room for those kinds of things, hopefully I won't want them, but there will be a place.

84 days in the gym will conclude on October 19th. By then, Annette is bound and determined that I will be smokin hot. So we shall see. Six days down, 78 to go. Monday is a new day and a new week, let's get this!

PS
If you have any good recipe that will fit into my plan please share. I'm already getting blah'd out on salads.

Ferris Wheel and a Sweet Treat

What a weekend and then just like that it's over.

Friday night was spent at the fair riding the Ferris wheel, bumper cars and the tilt-a-whirl. I was 10 points away from winning a price at skeeball, oh so close. We finished off the evening listening to the band rockin. It was a fantastic night!

Then Saturday after a little OT at work, I hit the road and traveled to Page Turners town! She left the farm to follow her dreams of owning a candy shop in her small town and Saturday was the grand opening! Here are pictures from her adorable little candy shop on main street. I almost didn't recognize her when I walked in with that giant smile on her face.

She has all kinds of candy to choose from, the banana salt water taffy was excellent, I got a taste test of the Dr. Pepper Jelly Belly's (delish) and some rock candy on request from mom, which she reported back was also very delish. I'm so glad that her little dream has turned into reality that everyone else can enjoy too. Although I miss her at work, I'm glad she's in a better place ;) 

And today I headed to the big city to catch a movie with NiBo. We went all fancy today and saw it in IMAX. Pacific Rim is a movie about mosters from under the pacific ocean and the machines we built to kick there butt. Probably not most people's cup of tea but I actually really liked it, and add the fact that Charlie Hunnam (aka Jax Teller) was the lead role in the movie didn't hurt one bit.

Hope everyone had a great weekend... back to the grind tomorrow :(

Keep It in the Zoo!

Summer Bucket List Item: Go to a Zoo... .check!

I've never been to a big zoo in my adult memory, so I decided to take a day of vacation and head out of town with my friend MB and hit up the St. Louis Zoo! It was hotter than Hades I won't even lie. I wore a tank top and got a bit of sun. The St. Louis Zoo is free to get in... um plus! It's $15 to park close or park free and hoof it with off street parking. The only things we paid extra for was $4 to pet the sharks and stingray... more on that later, and $4 to see the sea lion show. Here's some of the highlights of the day...

Anteater and a large rodent animal

Rhino

Hippopotamus, hip hop, hip hop anonymous? (get it? Big Daddy, Adam Sandler?)

Mama elephant and 2 mo old baby elephant

These elephants were doing all they could to keep cool

using their trunks as a hose and spraying off

The sea lion show

Gorilla pickin it's nose

Chimp backside.. he wouldn't turn around :/

Grizzly bear.. just paced in a circle

Camels and a baby camel

Kangaroo and baby kangaroo

Small Giraffe and larger Giraffe

Flamingos

This guy was a total GQ Model, totally posin

This turtle may or may not be dead...

Zebra family

I was bummed all the big cats were no where to be seen. I mean really, you live in Africa, can't you handle a little Midwest humidity!? But other than that we got to see almost all the animals! We forewent the birds, who cares about birds. My favorite part was getting to pet the stingray, who knew they actually like being petted? They would line up like a little stingray parade and actually come up to your hand to get a pat. The sharks were a little less enthusiastic but still would come up to you. They felt not like I expected them too, they were slimy feeling but at the same time not slimy and kinda velvety. It's hard to describe, I highly recommend trying it out! Oh and don't worry, they had their barbs removed so no chance of a Steve Erwin encounter (still too soon?)

I was also very very glad that there was lots of shade around, that helped a lot! They even had the mister fans set up around the park to help cool you off. It was very very humid and sweaty hot, but the sun was shining and the rain stayed away, can't ask for much more!

One Year Ago today...

I was on a plane bound for my first foreign adventure in Germany. I had so much fun and new experiences on that trip. The travel bug definitely bit me and hasn't let go, though paired with a finite number of vacation days and a limited budget, it leaves for a rather non-existent travel schedule. But here's a short trip down memory lane with a few of my favorite pictures from Germany