TOMILY

Our January Christmas

2012-01-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

The Kennedy family had a late Christmas when EVERYONE got together in Columbia for the first time in years. It was a fun-filled week with cooking, eating, present opening, singing, and playing. It was so amazing to see everyone in one place! I loved watching the kids play and open their gifts. It was wonderful too that Grandma and Grandpa Kennedy came for "Christmas" and Kathy, Mike, Caleb, and Kelci drove in for dinner too. Take a look at our plethora of pictures!

Ellie couldn't wait to open presents! :)

Myra in her new hat :)

Mia loves reading!

This version of Amazing Grace was arranged by one of Josh's friends. It was great to sing!

We also celebrated birthdays and here is Ellie and Mia eating the teal-frosted cake.

We did some top rope climbing at Capen Park. It was a perfect day for it too... in the 60's. After climbing we drove in to St. Louis and it snowed 2 inches that night.

Tommy took advantage of the snow. He didn't have his boots with him. so we covered his feet in plastic bags. It worked pretty well :)

In St. Louis, we stayed with Elizabeth's parents and they were so great! They cooked us dinner and provided us with beds :) The next day we waited for the snow to melt a little before heading to the City Museum in St. Louis. These pictures don't do it justice. An artist/architect named Bob Cassilly (who recently passed away) designed this amazing indoor art installation/playhouse. All the materials are recycled from around St. Louis, such as the conveyor belt rolls, broken ceramic tiles, pilars, glass bottles... It was built in an old shoe warehouse that is HUGE! The roof as a huge slide and a school bus but it was closed till the weather warmed up. It was amazing to play like a kid!

Behind dad, the wall is made of 1/3 pans from commercial kitchens.

The railings are made of painted conveyor belt rolls.

This is like a human-sized hamster wheel!

These are all steel rods that have been rounded to form a slinky-like structure for you to climb in. Dad played too :)

Elizabeth and her debut as a magician.

This is a massive tree house!

There was a 10 story slide!! It was amazing!

Can you tell which picture is right? :)

There were caves and tunnels everywhere!Some of which I could fit through and some I would have been stuck in.

A little acro in the City Museum. If you look closely, the ceiling is full of pieces of silk that have each been cut and placed up there.

After the City Museum we drove to my cousin Kenny's house and helped unload a truck full of furniture and got to see Dee and Bob and Jack, Max, and Sam too! It was a nice surprise :)

All in all, the trip was magnificent. We returned to Tucson refreshed and ready to take on life again.

"You don't stop playing because you grow old, you grow old because you stop playing."

~George Bernard Shaw

Home for the Holidays

2011-12-16T05:09:00.001-08:00

Emily and I have a hard time being away from family and friends during the holidays, but we try to make the most we can out of what we have and get some traditions going for Tucson Christmas.

Most important is Barley's Santa hat. He has to wear this nonstop until Jan. 6th, when the wise men tell him it's no longer hat season.

It has been cold out here! There's already 4 feet of snow at the local ski resort -- not that you'll find us there... His and hers Mexican hot chocolate latte with marshmallows!!

I'd imagine that most people reading this blog already know that Em is an amazing woman, but in case you needed further proof: stockings hung with care, lights and boughs on the mantle, fire in the fire place, living tree with ornaments dating back to 1988, and litlle touches that boggle the male brain while warming his heart.

"Take care of yourselves, and each other," Jerry Springer.

Barley the turtle

2011-10-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

Once again, Barley is a very patient dog :)

Slow and steady wins the race! :) I can't wait to parade him around the neighborhood to embarrass him in front of his friends :)

Our Trek Through Texas

2011-10-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we recently returned from a 1 week adventure through the Southwest. We drove into Texas to see Mary and Michael in Del Rio and Sarah, Dom, and Mia in Houston. The driving a little excessive, but it was worth it to see the family! :)

Our first stop was in Del Rio, TX, where Mary and Michael were fabulous hosts. We traveled around the city and saw the Del Rio sights. We also experienced Lake Amistad and it was a blast! Barley was unsure at first, but with some coaxing he managed a little swimming.

We also ate at some cute local spots around town, including Memo's. We had some fun and did some acro in the grass outside of Memo's, and when we went inside, the patrons gave us a round of applause for our performance (we didn't know they were watching... or could even see us!)

Tommy got into the Texas spirit and almost walked out of the store with the lasso :) See for yourself how good he is with the lasso.

Thank you Mary and Michael for a great trip!! :) You guys were great hosts and we had a blast in your small world of Del Rio! :)

After Del Rio, it was on to Houston for some more family visits. When we arrived, Mia was VERY excited to see Barley! He was pretty excited too, at first, but eventually I think her constant "Doggie!"-ing got to him. Our entire visit, he was very patient with Mia, which was very comforting :)

Our first morning was spent at the Houston Zoo. It was fairly big but very well-kept! Here's a shot Tommy took of a jaguar mid-jump.

Tommy and I went to the climbing gym in Houston. It was pretty nice, but we are very spoiled at Rocks and Ropes in Tucson.

Sarah made me a birthday cake. It was not just ANY birthday cake, but a Kennedy favorite... chocolate parfait cake! It was bowl-lickin' good!

Then it was off to Galveston. Barley loves the ocean!

A little ocean yoga :)

Mia loves her uncle Tommy!

She loves him so much that she feeds him bagel chips without him even asking!

And then she stuffs them in his mouth until he can't fit anymore :)

Sarah and Dom have these great bamboo floors but are too soft to withstand Barley's claws, so we bought him booties to wear around the house. He actually did a great job with them! This is the face he gives me when he's practicing being patient and wants to be reassured that he's a good boy.

Thank you Sarah, Dom, and Mia for an awesome time in Houston! It was so much fun to watch Mia and Barley together!

What a trip! Barley was worn out by the end f it and slept for the entire 17 hour drive home. Though we decided to split the drive into two days. As we arrived in El Paso to spend the night, out poor car couldn't take the 90 mph driving anymore and overheated. We added coolant and made it home the next day, though our head gasket was mis-shaped and it turned into an expensive repair... At least we made it back!

Even God is bigger in Texas!

Yay! Alternative energy! There are quite a few windmills along the interstate in Texas.

"Clearly, we need more incentives to quickly increase the use of wind and solar power; they will cut costs, increase our energy independence and our national security and reduce the consequences of global warming."
~Hillary Rodham Clinton

I have the 9th best job in America!

2011-10-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

Best Jobs in America

This article outlines the best jobs in America and TR is #9! It's nice to see that Recreation Therapy is getting some recognition! Plus, we're two jobs ahead of physical therapists :) I must say though... our median pay is about half of most of the jobs in the top 10.

Speaking of Rec Therapy... my boss Butch is retiring! His last day is December 28th, and then I will be the only Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist at Cottonwood. I have some big changes that I want to make and can't wait to implement them :) I spoke to the Clinical Director and she is really excited about making some changes in TR department. I don't think I'll be promoted for awhile, because we might not hire anyone to replace Butch's spot for awhile... but I don't know how that will look :)

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
~Andy Warhol

Sneak Peek

2011-10-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it has become a tradition to dress up our animals for Halloween. So far, we only have one costume, but it's a great one :)

Baxter got right into character :)

Barley became a little confused too. If you can't tell... he's a lion :)

Ronald McDonald Fundraiser

2011-10-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

This is the third year that Cottonwood Tucson has set up a table at an annual Ronald McDonald fundraiser. Restaurants from all over Tucson serve samples to people at an outdoor mall in Tucson. They also have free wine samples and LOTS of silent auction products and services. I get free admission because we have a table there, but I think it costs $100 a ticket.

This year, Tommy's boss, Richard, did a special ice carving for the table. It is a large block of ice with fresh fish and seaweed frozen into it! And he put lights in it too. It looked awesome! They served homemade ravioli, fresh-rolled sushi and a delicious crepe. The event is also a great a marketing tool, but many times people think we are a restaurant rather than a treatment facility.

Richard putting on the finishing touches.

Tommy's carving of a neighborhood pool. See the diving board?

Service begins.

Red Rock... Gotta love it!

2011-10-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Volleyball

2011-10-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is our lovely volleyball team after a game a few weeks ago :) We are the Arctic Force and have penguins on our jerseys :) It's so nice to be playing again!

New look

2011-09-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

I thought it was time for a new look... now that Willow is a wild woman, I figured we should change the picture too :)

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."
~Gail Sheehy

We officially love Flagstaff!

2011-09-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Tommy, Barley, and I piled into the ol' Camry and trucked up to Flagstaff. We went to a bluegrass festival, camped, climbed, drank good coffee and hung out with friends. I completed a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course in Flagstaff a few weeks prior, so we met up with some of my friends from the course. It was perfect weather, though it was getting pretty cold at night.

The first night, we pulled into a recreation area north of Phoenix. Barley was really excited... so we didn't get much sleep in our 2 person tent with him. He tossed and kicked all night. The next day, we finished the drive to Flagstaff, took Barley to the dog park and then dropped him off at a doggie daycare so we could attend the bluegrass festival - Pickin in the Pines. Afterward, he was exhausted and we slept really well that night.

The next day with went climbing at The Pit. The rock was limestone and very different from what we were used to, but it was really fun to climb on! It had pockets in it, as you can see in the pictures.

Tommy climbing "Popeye"

Barley was so tired!

I'm trying to clip my chalk bag to Heather's harness :)

Enjoying the view

Our last day, we spent time in town and has some yummy coffee. Flagstaff has a really great coffee shop scene. Plus, there's some good food to accompany it too!

So, after the trip, Tommy and I decided we will definitely be back soon! Especially before it gets too cold :) I think we'll probably have a summer home there in the future (a campsite...).

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher."

~William Wordsworth

35mm Film

2011-09-15T17:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know if everyone knows this, but Tommy received an award for Most Dedicated Photography Student in high school :) Kat gave him her vintage Nikon SLR and he has begun using his talents again! Here are the results:

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

Climbing

2011-09-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

We have been doing quite a bit of outdoor climbing recently! Here are some pics:

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

Snuggles

2011-09-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Baxter is very snuggly!

The day I picked him up from the pound, he climbed on my back and fell asleep :)

He has a thing for chests :)

And shoulders...

Lazy Sunday afternoon

Nap time

He just loves to snuggle!

True Brothers

2011-09-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here's an adorable video of Baxter trying to climb on top of Barley :) Barley is very sweet with him. He licks him like a mama dog would clean her puppies. They are true brothers :)

Baxter!

2011-09-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

In May, we adopted our little kitten Baxter. He was 6 weeks old and weighed 1.5 lbs, and he was not afraid of our 80 lb Barley! :) He we very sick too! He had an upper respiratory infection, giardia, and something else... So he was sneezing and snotting everywhere and had a lot of trouble breathing. There was a time when the vet told us that we just have to get him to eat or he wouldn't make it... It was so sad to see such a small thing suffering! We did everything he could and eventually he started getting better :)

Apparently, when cats eat medicine that tastes horrible, their mouth foams! It was both sad and hilarious :)

He was so small! And Barley was very patient with him :)

When he was sick, we would steam up the bathroom for him to help him breath.

Brothers... spooning!

Phone pics

2011-05-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Em flashing the crux of clip, clip here5.9 at munckinland. It is a fun overhang.

Barley is a goofball.

Believe it or not, snow down to 3000 in Tucson; it looks beautiful, but that's not what we moved here for. I'm cold just looking at it.

Em's right to bear arms. Barley curls.

Barley's toy fell in the pool, out of his jurisdiction.

Poachers, goat cheese, tom slices, and tortillas. Think goat cheese pizza Napoleon with egg yolk oozing everywhere.

This is a swamp cooler aka evaporative cooler. Our house has dual cooling, which means we can use this thing in non-monsoon (humidity <10%) months to cool our house. It costs tons less to run than ac. Not being from the desert, we had no idea how to work this thing. It was one of our best shopping trips ever.

"A lot of people thing a cooler is easy to work, but it's more like a woman cause it needs lots of stuff but it's not gonna tell you what it needs: you just gotta pay attention to what it wants," the guy at the cooler store.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Recent Fun Times

2011-05-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Homemade pizza with fresh Mattimoe-grown basil!

Our adventure to One Day Wall for rock climbing

Emily at One Day Wall prior to a 15 foot fall... it was scary!

Tommy at One Day Wall, cleaning the climb Emily fell on... also scary...

Phineas (Barley's best friend - on the right) had a 2 year birthday party at the park :)

Tommy's amazing watermelon carving for Easter lunch at work. Notice the bunny and cactus :)

Tommy braving the skate park with Barley by his side. No injuries!

Climbing again! at Munchkin Land on Mount Lemmon

An awesome climb where you "stem" (press between both walls) all the way up!

"I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."

~Thomas A. Edison

Roku

2011-04-17T13:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we made the leap from cable TV to internet streaming! We purchased a Roku for about the same amount that it costs us for cable TV for one month. Now, we are able to stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB TV, Pandora, movie channels, etc. through the Roku to the TV. There are a lot of channels, though some are just silly ones... like a channel about a surf spot, games, etc.

We are saving over $500/year with Roku!! We still have to pay for Netflix, Hulu Plus and MLB.tv, but this way we get to watch the Braves, TV shows that we want, and we can watch Netflix on our TV without using the computer! It's magnificent!

Puppies!

2011-04-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

About 3 months ago, our neighbors across the street found a dog in the wash. She was really sweet to people and a little nervous around other dogs. Well, she was pregnant!! And now her puppies are 7 weeks old and absolutely adorable!! Their other dog, Lily, is jealous of the puppies, as is their daughter Olivia, so they jumped on me with the puppies :)

Rain in Arizona

2011-04-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

We took a vacation last week and went on an Arizona road trip. The weeks leading up to our trip were sunny and hot. We were having record hot temperatures for March! We were excited about climbing in Cochise Stronghold, hiking in Flagstaff, treking through Slide Rock State Park in Sedona, and enjoying an Olive Oil Mill tour topped off with climbing near Queen Creek. We had a full week planned of tent camping and adventure with Barley.

Cochise Stronghold is amazing. It is a large grass field with mountains of pure rock all around. It is an open range for cattle, who are used to the human visitors by now. After driving along a gravel/dirt road for over 12 miles and maneuvering around drainage holes in the road, we arrived at what we hoped was our destination. We set up camp in a shady grove at the base of a massive slab and set off to find climbing. Miraculously, we stumbled on a group of NOLS adventurers and the correct climbing walls we were looking for. It was luck that we found the correct walls. After climbing with amazing views, we trekked back to our campsite to view the sunset.

The next morning we woke early, enjoyed eggs and pancakes for breakfast before packing the Camry and making the long drive to Flagstaff.

Before the trip, we looked at the Flagstaff weather and decided it would be too cold for us to camp up there overnight. We decided to stay in a hotel, and we are SSOOO glad that we did! On the way up to Flagstaff, it began raining... and it was very cold!! We enjoyed a nice hot shower before heading to downtown Flagstaff for dinner. We found a pizza place with some outdoor seating so we could eat with Barley, so we bundled up in hats and coats for dinner. After dinner we found a dog park for Barley to blow off some steam, drove through Northern Arizona University in search of the large Lumberjack (never found it though....), and went to Oregano's for their infamous Pazooki! :)

The next morning we awoke and discovered it was not raining, though still cold, and decided to go for a short hike, partially for us and partially for Barley :) We found a relatively short hike, close to the city and it was gorgeous! There was snow on the mountain too!

Tommy really enjoyed the 500 year old Elder Juniper and "holy" rock :)

After the hike, we checked out of Flagstaff and started the scenic drive to Sedona in hopes it would be warmer and sunnier down the mountain.... It wasn't. When we arrived, there was still a chill in the air, though no rain... yet. We set up camp at Cave Springs Campground in Oak Creek, just north of Sedona. Barley loved the open area and creek that ran along the campground. After setting up camp, we decided to get dressed... for a VERY nice dinner. Tommy's boss, Richard Serna, used to be the Sous Chef at Enchantment Resort's Yavapai Restaurant. The elegant restaurant called for dressy clothes... and that is tough when you're tent camping!

Dinner was amazing! Richard had told the Chef at Yavapai that we were coming, and they took GREAT care of us! We started dinner with starters of Maine lobster tacos with smoked chiles and avocado in a ponzu sauce, and we enjoyed slow cooked pork belly in a root beer glaze with a saffron and curry sauce with corn puree. DELICIOUS! We were then served a roasted beet salad with a yogurt dressing to cleanse our palate for the main entrees... Tommy enjoyed four lamb chops served on a ragout of farro, bacon, and camboloza cheese. I indulged in three large scallops served with Osetra caviar on a lobster risotto in a beurre blanc sauce. We finished dinner with a chocolate lava cake served with a raspberry sherbet (though I had a cinnamon gillato) and expresso. We were so stuffed with yummy food that we returned back to camp and slept very well :)

It was a lovely dinner and evening. The morning however... is a different story... we woke up to rain and hail! We quickly made a run for the car and decided to head into Sedona for breakfast, since camp-style eggs and pancakes were out of the question. After breakfast, the rain let up and we returned to the campsite and learned that they were expecting SNOW! 6-12 inches of snow at the site... so we decided to leave. We packed the wet tent and wet dog and decided to head down to Queen Creek to camp there. We thought, it's outside of Phoenix, should be dry... warm... no. It was cold! Again! So, we unloaded everything, built a fire, cooked dinner, s'mores, played with Barley :) It was a cold but nice evening. The next morning, we awoke to... RAIN! Crazy! So... rock climbing and Queen Creek Olive Oil Mill were out of the question... we packed the car in the rain and decided to just head back home... Mother Nature did not want us to camp anymore.

We plan to head back to Queen Creek and Sedona when the weather is more... cooperative :)

Barley... and then some :)

2011-03-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

What a dapper dog :)

Bye bye built-ins

Protective eyewear is very important :)

All gone!! Now what?

It looked so good parked in the driveway...

Tommy and I did the Urban Assault Ride - a bike scavenger hunt all around Tucson.

This is the before...

And the after!

And this is the after... after...

Homemade pizza muffins! Delicious!

He loves his mama

Poor Barley had a blister on his paw and had to be carried home... He liked it!

Climbing

2011-01-21T05:58:00.000-08:00

Em and I don't make it outdoor climbing too often.
We went to Jailhouse Rock on Mt Lemmon last weekend.

Early January, half way up the mountain, it's 75 and the sun is hot!
While Atl was snowed in, we were worried about sunscreen.
Barley wanted some pb more than I did; he is an awesome crag-dog.

This is Tommy hangdogging on dragon's back.

Em told me to do a yoga pose. It's hard when you're anchored.

This is a beautiful green spire with amazing views. Next time I'll bring a camera up with me.

Barley loves climbing more than anything.
When he sees our rack and rope go in our bags, he could burst at the seams.

Goal for next time: more pictures of Emily.

sushi

2011-01-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

Acro

2011-01-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

Acro flow

Em does a front layout into back fly

I catch her butt in my feet and grab her feet with my hands

She "engages her core" as I push her butt up and pull her feet down.

I plant my elbows on the ground, and Em stands up on my hands.

She is thinking, "Flex every muscle in my body and don't try to balance."

I am thinking, "Pull feet through and don't drop my wife on my face."

Now she places my feet for folded leaf as I drop her.

I have it easy here; I just straighten my legs.

Em flexes every muscle in her body and tries to keep from falling on her face.

Straight through bird to folded leaf

Folded leaf is one of the easiest positions, very relaxing and therapeutic.

I can massage her shoulders, pull on her spinal cord, or twist her.

Success!

Round Two

From standing we hop to throne.

Let's hold hands...

Unhook our legs. Prepare for pop.

Em is thinking, "STRONG ARMS! ENGAGE CORE!!"

I am going to dip her before kicking my legs.

Em's hips fly up in the air, she kicks her legs back for bird, and ENGAGES!

I kick her up, wait, and try not to hurt her too much when she lands.

From bird, drop to folded leaf.

Passarita. Em begins the twist by grabbing her right leg with her left hand.

I help (marginally) by pushing her shoulder.

She locks her legs into pike as I begin the spin, pulling my right foot.

Spin!

I catch her pike with my other foot.

I don't usually don't wear socks, but we were packing up to go a did these pics.

We have a lot of fun with this, and it's a killer workout and balance for climbing.

Awesome!!!

By the way, this is the week before Christmas at about 6pm, about 60 degrees.

Bisbee

2010-12-17T21:03:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Tommy and I had 2 days off in a row together! This happens so rarely I can't remember the last time we experienced it! So, I decided we should take a short trip and see some other areas of Arizona. I made us (Tommy, Barley, and me - of course) a reservation at an adorable vacation rental in Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee is an old mining town that has turned into a tourist shopping and sight seeing destination. It is famous for it's copper mine tour, well-preserved history, stairs, eclectic shops/galleries, and small town Southwest charm. Most of the homes are built on the hillside, so they are not reachable by car, so you must park at the bottom and take stairs to the houses. Our guesthouse had 75 stairs leading up to it. I can't imagine moving in this city! :) It is a "Mile High" city, at about 5200 feet above sea level.

A view of the city from the highway. Bisbee is surprisingly hilly! We walked everywhere during our stay and it was tough! :)

Tommy and Barley enjoying a stroll in downtown Bisbee.

Bisbee draws many artists and there are a lot of galleries in downtown.

Tommy enjoying his morning coffee on the porch of our guesthouse. We stayed at the Doublejack Guesthouse.

Barley really enjoyed himself!

We also bought a new camera recently... so we were having fun with the features :)

Acro Yoga with Babies!

2010-12-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Mia and I attempted some acro yoga during her visit :)

This pose is called bird

This is a new pose, not quite as easy with 2 adults... :)

A Tucson Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving we had a Kennedy Klan (minus the Paris Kennedy's) to our house. We were a full house with 6 adults, a baby, a cat, and a dog, but we somehow made it work :)

Sarah and I were relieved when we found out that Mia LOVED Barley!

I was shocked and how well he behaved around her :)

He also LOVED her :) He gave her kisses any chance he had...

Barley was trying his best to be good around all the yummy food :)

Tommy worked on Thanksgiving, so we went to Cottonwood to eat lunch there. It was DELICIOUS (of course) :) Then, he came home and helped cook another Thanksgiving dinner!

Whew! We wore him out that week :)

Mia also had her first Sweet Tomatoes experience. It went pretty well :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well! :)

Cheers!

Twins!

2010-11-07T15:19:00.000-08:00

Growing up, we used to record movies off of TV onto VHS. Illegal... I know... Well, one of those movies was Twins, with Arnold Swartzenegger and Danny DeVito. I loved that movie! So... Here is our rendition of the duo:

This is Barley and his best friend Phineas :) They are so much fun to watch playing together! Occasionally they will both stop at the same time and stare into the distance together :) it's adorable!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Barley Claus

2010-11-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Yet another bed succumbs to the wrath of Barley... :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Ice Cream and other updates :)

2010-11-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

So, Tommy and I are in the processing of preparing for my family to visit over Thanksgiving. We're trying to clean and collect items for Mia, etc.... But the most important thing that we are doing it making ice cream! We made a pumpkin ice cream with a whipped cream swirl (don't know if the whipped cream part will work out or not...), and a HOMEMADE Phish Food ice cream!! I'm extremely excited about the latter! :)

On another note, Tommy and I have a new hobby. It's called Acro Yoga. It basically involves acrobatic moves with yoga breathing and poses. There are some elements or massage as well :) Here are some pictures of us:

In this picture, Tommy is completely supporting me on my upper arms.

This is me trying star... it's a really tough pose! Eventually, the goal is to bring the legs up straight and bring the arms to your side. You use your head to balance you :)

These two pics are of us with our friends Naya and Miguel. We met them in an Intro To Acro Yoga class and have met up with them on the U of A campus to practice :) It's nice because we all need spotters for the harder poses :)

These pics are ok, but I hope to get a video of us doing a flow so you can get the whole effect :) Though it might be awhile since we are without a camera right now :)

________________________________________________

On another note, Tommy and I went to San Diego for my birthday! It was my first time to California. It was so beautiful there!!! Though... it felt pretty fake... We took Barley with us on his first road trip and he did great too!! :) We took him to a dog beach and he got in the ocean. He was a little leery at first, but got used to it pretty quickly. We stayed with Tommy's Aunt Amanda and Uncle Bob. They were so open to having Barley at their house too :) It worked out great!!!!

We can't wait for the holidays!! I guess they already started with Halloween :) We went through 7 bags of candy for Halloween! Our streets were lined with cars of people who drove to our neighborhood to trick or treat. We see this as a good sign for the neighborhood :) We are definitely kid-friendly and safe :)

I hope everyone is well and will write soon! :)

Namaste :)

Barley's turn :)

2010-10-15T13:32:00.001-07:00

Barley says Happy Halloween too!

Pre-Halloween Dress Up

2010-10-09T19:18:00.001-07:00

Willow is getting everyone in the spirit! :)

Sweet dreams

2010-09-10T22:33:00.001-07:00

Barley loves his bed. This is seriously the fifth bed we've been through...

Willow's second haircut! The lady said Willow was too fierce to finish the cut.

Images from Mount Lemmon

2010-08-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, we didn't take the camera out during the hail storm... but here are some pictures from earlier in the day :)

Our Mount Lemmon Adventure

2010-08-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

So, a couple weeks ago, Tommy and I had 2 days off in a row together (this has not happened in probably over a year...). We decided that we would take a small car camping trip up to Mount Lemmon. We were so excited to do some hiking and climbing and wake up to see the sunset from the mountain :) I researched some camping sites and we drove up there rather late on Saturday night. When we approached the top, it was pushing midnight and we were tired. We drove by the camp sites I had found and discovered that they were full. We didn't know where to go from there, so we drove to the very top of the mountain. There is a parking lot at the top and we pitched the tent right next to the car.

Barley slept in our 2 person tent with us... on our legs. It was adorable! :) We woke up to a beautiful view and perfect weather :) We boiled some water for coffee and had some breakfast (energy bars), packed up our stuff, and then headed down a trail for some hiking. It was a magnificent hike! There were wildflowers everywhere, a natural spring, and the views were incredible. After the hike we enjoyed sandwiches for lunch and then drove into the small town on the mountain, Summerhaven. On Sundays, they have "Music on the Mountain" where they have a stage and bluegrass bands play live for free. We listened to the music for a little while (the band wasn't that good...) and then decided it was time for climbing.

We went to a climbing spot called Ridgeline. It's at about 8,000 feet and it has a fairly short approach along a stream. When we arrived we met others at the wall and started climbing. On our second wall, Tommy was climbing and it started thundering. It sounded far away and so we didn't think much of it. About 5 minutes later, the sky opened up and started hailing and pouring rain! Tommy was still climbing and didn't want to come down because he would have had to leave some equipment on the wall. Poor Barley (who hates getting wet) was hiding under tree branches and looked so sad! After Tommy completed the climb, he repelled down to the ground while I started packing up our stuff. By this time, there was a river of water flowing at our feet and we had puddles in our pack. I went to stuff everything in our pack when I slipped on the rocks and landed on my forearms. It was PAINFUL! I looked down and saw two huge bruises already formed on one arm and a lump the size of a lemon. I was running on adrenaline and didn't feel it though. The thunder and lightning were cracking above us and poor Barley looked so sad and scared... After we got everything packed, we started for the car. We ran through the woods, down the stream, and then proceeded to butt slide down the rocks (it was too slippery to stand on them). Barley was scared and kept looking at us like we were hitting him with the hail... it was so sad...

After much pain and falling and slipping, we made it to the car. We were soaked to the bone and cold. Once in the car, we dried off as best we could. I showed Tommy my bruises and he immediately thought I had broken my arm. It wasn't broken (luckily), just swollen and painful. I iced it on the way back down the mountain. That was probably the scariest storm I have ever been in, and I felt so horrible for dragging Barley into it.

Through the grace of God, we made it off the mountain and arrived home (a day earlier than expected). We hung all of our wet equipment and enjoyed the evening on the couch, re-cooperating. Barley slept well that night.

The next day, we found ourselves with a whole day and no plans, so we decided it was time to paint! We cleaned the walls, taped, and painted our entire living room a beautiful pale green. It really brightened the room and plays well with the purple hues on the ceiling that Kat painted. Now that we have a wondering living room, we are looking forward to painting the kitchen and then the bedrooms and hallway.

It has been almost 2 weeks since our adventure and Barley is back to his usual self (such a resilient pup) and I'm still watching my bruises fade, but grateful that we are all in one piece :) Pictures to come later :)

"Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."

~Kin Hubbard (American cartoonist, humorist, and journalist)

New breakfast place

2010-08-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

We haven't had the food yet, but it looks awesome... and it's packed. Sonoran hot dog scrambled eggs, anybody??

"Helen Wait is in charge of all our rush jobs. If you are in a hurry, you can just go to Helen Wait," sign on the wall.

Gone!

2010-08-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

I donated 13 inches of hair yesterday :)

American Cheese

2010-08-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the commercial for American cheese? "This is America... And this is our cheese"... It speaks volumes for America... Processed, fatty, unnatural, artificially colored, fed to most kids, coats the roof of your mouth, probably emits some kind of harmful vapor when cooked...

I eat it! Best food with American cheese?... English muffin and scrambled egg sandwich with cheese :) yum!

Homemade dog food

2010-07-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

We are officially spoiling Barley :) He has had multiple bouts of "the runs" and we have found that his digestive tract is sensitive... Our vet suggested boiled chicken breast and over-cooked rice during these bouts. But now whenever we switch him back to dry food, the runs return :-P So, with that said... we are cooking our dog food. For breakfast today, Barley had two eggs scrambled with cheese and rice. For dinner he devoured his chicken and rice with broccoli, carrots, and yogurt. He is eating better than we are! We sometimes have to go grocery shopping just to get his food :)

Part of me likes making his food... I feel better knowing what he's eating, and I come home to a clean crate. I also feel good about taking care of him... My maternal instinct I guess :) but it is a hassle! Hopefully we will eventually find him a dry food that doesn't upset his stomach.

"We are what we eat."
~?? (who knows who said it first...)

Big cupcake... eaten :)

2010-07-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yum! :)

Laughter

2010-07-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

I have been doing some research for a presentation I'm giving to Cottonwood Alumni in a coupld of weeks. I've been looking for resources and information about things they can do in Tucson. Check out what I found!

Well, we all know that laughing does wonderful things for our mind and body. I have recently discovered a new phenomenon, Laughter Yoga! It involves laughing exercises and stretching and breathing as well. There is a class in Tucson that I'm thinking about going to... I'll keep you posted :) Here is a website with videos of the Tucson class in action. It looks rather intriguing :)

http://laughteryogawithgita.com/about-laughter-yoga.html

There are also Laughing Clubs all over the world that meet once a month and laugh together. They are led by certified instructors or leaders too :) Love it!

The Park

2010-07-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

So, there's this park that is a block from our house... It has a large grassy area and a playground area. Barley has decided the park belongs to him. We take him every morning before work and every evening at sunset. This has proven to be time-consuming, but worth it because his energy is expended at every visit -- thanks to the other dogs who visit Barley's park. When we go to the park there is typically a pack of dogs there. Once we arrive, Barley proceeds to go say "Hi" to everyone and thank them for visiting his park. Any new arrivals are quickly welcomed as well :) Once the "Hi" 's are complete, Barley begins to run in circles and give kisses to every dog he sees. And then he jumps on their backs and bites at their feet as they roll around on the ground. These dogs include Andre (the old grumpy one), Sam (the boring, lazy one), Freah (the young playful one), Stella (the anti-social wanderer), Gaz (the barking herder), Charlie (the ball dog), Phineus (the smaller twin of Barley), Dallas (the old, wise one), Lulu (the scared, isolative dog), and some other characters as well.

When it is finally time to say goodbye, Barley has difficulty leaving his park. He stalls, smells the ground and lags behind. The walk home takes twice the time than the walk to the park.

This has become our routine for Barley's play-dates and it couldn't be better :)

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

~Roger Caras

Fourth of July

2010-07-05T12:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a GREAT day! It started off with delicious coffee on the couch. Then, off to Mount Lemmon for some rock climbing. We met some awesome people at the crag and Barley made some puppy friends too. We returned home and cooled off in our delightful pool with watermelon margaritas :) Then, we finally ordered a new clothes dryer (ours is overheating and we would prefer NOT to burn down our house). Finally, a night snack and a ridiculous movie (Crank2 - not recommended). No fireworks, but a wonderful day! :)

Home sweet home

2010-07-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Once our family frenzy had ended, we had a birthday party for Tommy and Glenn (the husband of a lady I work with) at our house. So, it was cleaning time! I took advantage of the clean house and took pics of it :)

This is a typically day with Barley running around the yard like a maniac :) He has an unlimited amount of energy!

Family

2010-07-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

June was family month for us. We spent over two weeks traveling to see family and then returned to Tucson with family :) Here is a rundown of our family frenzy.

June 3rd to June 9th - Fly to Atlanta... dinner with Dad at amazing Italian pizza restaurant... drinks with friends... little sleep... caravan for 4 hours to Thomasville, GA... rehearsal dinner for Gregg and Anna's wedding... reception setup... drinks with friends... little sleep... explore Thomasville downtown... cute coffee shop visit (twice)... shop... pool time at hotel... wedding... reception... drinks with friends... little sleep... reception cleanup... drive 4 hours back to Atlanta... outlet mall shopping... dinner at Angie and Corey's amazing house... drinks with friends... little sleep... relaxing morning (yay!)... rock climbing... dinner and drinks with theSiegel's... little sleep... carpool with Angie to Knoxville... visit HPER building... lunch withDocand Dale... Market Square shopping... dinner at Tomato Head (Yum!)... drinkswithfriends...little sleep... drive back to Atlanta at 7am... Siegel'spooltime...Mary'sapartment and goodbye to Michael... delicious dinner and drinks with Dad and friends... little sleep

June 10th - Fly to St. Louis, MO... drive 3 hours to Santa Claus, Indiana... eat dinner at horrible "Amish" restaurant... welcomes from Kennedy Reunion Klan... little sleep on rickety futon...

June 11th to June 13th - Holiday World!... sit in muggy Indiana heat with family... babies falling asleep in our arms... pizza for dinner... little sleep... wake up to coffee... adorable nieces and nephew... boys go on hike... fun with Ellie... sit in muggy Indiana heat with family... lots of pictures... babies galore... late night cards with the fam... little sleep... repeat...

June 14th to June 17th - drive 5 hours to Columbia, Missouri... meet Josh's girlfriendElizabeth... babies galore... cards with the fam... little sleep... hang with family... walkdowntownColumbia... amazing coffee (thrice)... babies galore... pool time (amazing!)...yummy food...cards with fam... little sleep...

June 18th - Drive 2 hours to St.Louis... Fly home to Tucson... Pick up Erin and MomatGuadalajara Grill... return home to stuffy house... GREEN pool... little sleep...

June 19th - 23rd - Shopping with Erin and Mom... yummy food... Mom painted our ceiling in main room (YAY!)... frown at green pool... return to work... celebrate Tommy's birthday... play with animals... little sleep...

June 24th - Erin and Mom leave on trek back to Atlanta... empty house... couch time :)

It was SSOO amazing to see everyone in June! I can't believe that we fit it all in! Though it was busy, it was a great vacation and break from our Tucson life :)

Here are some pics of the frenzy :)

The Grandbabies :)

The boys preparing for the hike :)

Not much better than a baby sleeping in your arms...

Great Grandpa and Grandma :)

The boys and their childhood toys.

Uncle Tommy :)

Auntie Em

Mia just chillin in the pool :)

Amy and her babies :)

Tucson Update :)

2010-05-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am on the "Green Team" at work - a group of us dedicated to helping Cottonwood become more sustainable :) We adopted a section of the road that Cottonwood is on and clean it twice a year. I am in charge of the Sweetwater Drive Clean-Up :) Here we are with some of the trash we collected :) Someone found a working iPhone in a ditch!

I finally have my own office at work :) It's AMAZING!! Having my own space helps me decompress and de-stress. Plus, I can now have patients in there too :)

Barley's bath time. He does surprisingly well in there!

This is how Barley lets us know he is ready to come inside :) Too cute!

Phone pics

2010-04-11T14:08:00.001-07:00

We took Barley to Catalina state park. It was awesome... Except for the hookworm.

On our hike. This was the first place we hiked in Tucson. We've gotten used to the flora by now.

This is the view of Catalina highway from business time wall... Short approach!

This is our friend Dalton leading at business time. I think this is a 5.8 or 5.9 trad. We did a 5.10c by accident next. I did not do it cleanly by any stretch of the imagination, but I did it. I wouldnt have even tried it but we thought it was a 5.8; my mind can be my biggest limitation. There is a waterfall in the valley below... Picturesque climbing.

Kids have it too easy today. This is the vandalism department at our local ace hardware. Montana paint and every tip imaginible.

The Avett Brothers are coming to Tucson, and we will be there!

Em and I spent the morning walking to Avenue coffee (best coffee ever) with the dog and ate lunch in the park. The hardest decision we'll make today will be whether to lay out by the pool or go to the climbing gym. Life is good to us. Thank you, life.

Our son :)

2010-04-05T10:11:00.001-07:00

Tommy and I have been rock climbing and bouldering outside lately, and it is such a joy to bring Barley along with us! He just follows us around everywhere and eats his sticks :)

First Impressions

2010-02-12T17:06:00.001-08:00

Barley and Em getting acquianted. Check out the panzon (pot belly) on that boy!

I didn't get a kiss like that when I met Em, but I wasn't as cute as Barley either.

Our Many Changes

2010-02-04T17:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we last posted on here... and we have had some big changes!

Numero Uno:

We bought a house!!! We moved in the last weekend of January and are still unpacking... Here are pictures:

The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all one big room.

We have a pool! :)

And yes, this is a built in murphy bed :)

Numero Dos:

So, I have always said that as soon as I'm in a house, I'm going to get dog. Well.... WE DID!! We finally found a perfect addition to our family :) We moved into the house on Friday and Saturday and then adopted Barley on Sunday :) He is a mutt, but probably a mix of black lab and border collie :) He is 3 months old and weighs about 20 pounds. He is going to be a big boy! Enjoy the adorable pics :)

Willow is doing surprisingly well with him :) This pic was a very short moment... :)

He LOVES his bed :) And we love his speckled belly :)

Numero Tres:

Now that we are homeowners, we have planted a small garden! It was Tommy's way of buying me flowers for Valentine's Day :) He's such a sweetie :) It's amazing the small things you don't think about when you're renting :) Here is our beautiful Valentine's Day garden:

Black left to right: Cape Honeysuckle, Lavendar, Rosemary; Front: Ranunculus

We are so excited about our recent changes and are having an amazing time as home and dog owners :)

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living."

~Gail Sheehy

Self Sufficiency

2009-12-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

My Dad got us the ice cream maker for my birthday in June. In the six months we've had it, we haven't bought any ice cream. And everyone knows how much ice cream Kennedys can go through.

Finger Rock Hike

2009-12-21T19:37:00.000-08:00

Finger Rock is a landmark on Tucson's northern skyline (did I mention the city is surrounded by mountains?). Since we moved here in January, I've wanted to get on top of one of these northern skyline peaks. This way when people ask, "where did you hike this weekend?" I can just point.

Finger Rock looks like the formation making a fist with the index finger pointed up. To the left is Prominent Point and to the right is something else. This is the view on our way back down to the car. We made it about two thirds up the right side of the pinky knuckle. I have no clue how tall it is, but if I had to guess I'd say 290,000 feet.

I met up with my hiking buddy, Ross, at 6:30 am as the sun was coming up because we had no idea how long this was going to take.

We shuttled to Pima Canyon Trailhead and started up that way for an hour or two. Then it was off the trail up a side canyon. The trail quickly disappeared, and it was a hard, painful scramble that got harder and more painful as we went on. Here is the progression.

At the start of the side canyon, there was boulder hopping.

Then we saw where we were headed. Ouch. This one's gonna hurt.

Then we come to this stuff. 10-15 foot waterfalls. "Technical Scrambles," if we fell though, it'd be hard terrain to have to drag somebody out of. On the upside, I like this kind of thing, and it was breathtaking the entire way.

This is what the view looked like back down the canyon. These pictures were taken nearing the top in pretty close succession. Check out the change in perspective on the horizon.

I took this one like ten minutes and 800 vertical feet later.

This is as high as I got.

Getting close to the top of the peak we saw the base of Finger Rock. It's rougher than it looks. It's saying, "don't mess with me, boy; I'll straight whoop yo ass."

We didn't get up to the base of the finger. I thought I'd be more disappointed this catastrophic failure, but I am even more excited to go back next time. It was scary up there. I saw the route to get up to the base. It didn't look to hard, but I was worried about getting down. That, and getting up. This isn't the environment to test out your abilities sans rope. From where I took this picture I would have fallen only twelve feet; I'm sure I've fallen twelve feet when I used to skateboard, so I thought, "no big deal." But a fall from any higher, and who's covering closing costs on our house is no longer the biggest of Em's concerns... You can pry tell I was lying when I said I wasn't disappointed.

I'd like to come back here with rope and know-how and get up on this beast.

I feel like I made the responsible decision.

Looking south over the city. Santa Ritas to the south on the left edge of the pic. The Tucson Mountains are the hills on the right edge. The look puny from up here, but they are legit mountains. The canyon in front is Finger Rock Canyon, and our car is parked at the base of it.

It was a beautiful day for hiking. We hung out up here for fifteen minutes then headed. back down.

This was a great day of hiking, all 8 hours, ~50 cactus spines, 7000 calories, and I haven't been able to move my legs for three days of it. I want to get Em to come out with me, but she'll have none of it. I think I have some of the glutton for punishment left over from my skate rat days.

"Chad is out there wrecking his body for this video," Toy Machine ad for Welcome to Hell.

New Best Ice Cream

2009-12-08T19:25:00.000-08:00

Cinnamon Banana with a Cinnamon Caramel Swirl!!!!!!
This tastes kind of like bananas foster.
Willow Tested and Approved.

If you have a Kitchen Aid and like ice cream... you need this.

Growing up

2009-11-29T21:56:00.001-08:00

Em and I went biking today. We went to the farmers market where we met up with some friends, and we all went to get lunch at a nice cafe (atlantans think henri's). Then biked around looking at houses--not like spectators but as buyers. We will be buying a house soon, which isn't as daunting now that we've been saving and looking.

So there we were riding through some nice urban neighborhoods thinking to ourselves, that house is at its potential, and it hit me that I'm not a little kid anymore. Moreover, I think in lots of ways I've become the grown person I hoped to become when I was a little kid. Even moreover, When I looked up and saw Em on her bike, hair blowing in the wind, pants rolled up over her high purple socks, her purple softshell, and her eternally radiant smile, I knew had married the girl of my dreams.

So, in short, it's strange to me how I had this image of my future in my head, and years later through many a toil and snare, I see that it has become a reality.

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." My main man, O. Wilde.

Birthday Camping

2009-10-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Em's 26th bday we went camping in the Santa Ritas. This is the range to the south of Tucson. The base of the range is 2000 feet higher than Tucson, and this is evident in the friendlier flora of the area relative to the angry desert succulents. We've been camping together a few times with variable success. We have the goal to camp more and become more efficiant with it (read: stop forgetting things like tent poles...).

Our first camping trip together, pry 3 years ago... hopefully our last without tent poles.

Of course, we're both too tall to fit in the back of Troop-Troop.

This trip was a great success. We made it to the campground in time to get the last spot, get the tent set up, fire lit, and dinner cooking with a some dusk. Our smores were delicious. It is so dark out here, and the stargazing is amazing. So good in fact that there is an observatory on the next mountain over. When we moved here our landlord told us the there aren't many streetlights in Tucson because of all the observatories nearby. Cool. We are at the stage in our lives where it's time to replace our aging handmedown camping equipment. Everything works... but our sleeping bags are almost as old as we are... I got Em a new bag and pad for her bday, and she slept like a dream. In the morning we had coffee and headed out for a hike.

I've been hiking down here a few times without Em, once to the top of Mt. Wrightson; it's an amazing area. Fifty feet from our campsite there was a trail head that made a 6 mile loop up to a cool springs and back. This was a tough little hike. The way up was a rocky double track that was super steep. It had some awesome boulders right off the trail. I don't know much about bouldering, but it looks like fun so we checked it out.

In other news, we made the best ice cream in the history of the world. We both love cookie dough but sometimes wish the choclate chips weren't all crunchy in there. So we made some cookie dough sans chocolate chips. Don't get us wrong, we love chocholate but melty chocolate like in hot cookies or really good dark choclate at room temp... So we decided to add the chocolate in the form of ganache. So it's vanilla icecream with plain cookie dough and chocolate ganache folded into it. It's as dangerous as it is delicious.

Before:

After:

Willow like the ice cream too:

"I scream cream; you scream; we all scream for ice cream." -Willow

Anticipation

2009-10-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

The holidays are coming soon! YAY!! Tommy and I are having my parents and brother over for Thanksgiving and we are so excited! It's our first time to have family over for a holiday meal :) It makes me feel grown-up. My little grown-up self will be going to bed before 10... Now I just feel old...:) good night.

UGA

2009-10-10T18:28:00.001-07:00

:( This is a sad day for Georgia Dawgs... A sad season actually... I guess we were in need of a building year after losing 3 really good players to the NFL... I am scared for Mark Richt's job right now, though he is a GREAT coach! We'll just have to see I guess... Florida will be a HUGE game! Well, I had better stop whining now... :) tata.

Staying Centered

2009-10-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

Em took me to a yoga class at Rubber Soul almost three years ago.

I went because I was mountain biking a ton and my body was tight. At first, I thought this is for women; I might get a good stretch but pry not any appreciable workout.

I was so wrong. I pretty much got hooked on yoga since then. I went from thinking it was silly to respecting as a workout to respecting it as a way of life.

Warrior 3 on a boulder atop Mt. Lemmon.
Yoga is huge in Tucson. I go to Tucson Yoga

Em looks so elegant when she does anything, even though that's not the point of yoga. Tree pose.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Our photog asked if there were any pics we wanted him to take... The best part about this pic is the corners of our mouths.

"If one practices yoga twice a day, they will start a revolution," C. Clements.

A song from an amazing album!

2009-10-05T17:48:00.001-07:00

Head Full Of Doubt / Road Full Of Promise

There's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what's wrong and what's right
And it comes in black and it comes in white
And I'm frightened by those who don't see it

When nothing is old deserved or respected
And your life doesn't change by the man that's elected
If you're loved by someone you're never rejected
Decide what to be and go be it.

There was a dream
One day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage a broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid, with a head full of doubt
So I scream till I die and don't ask for those bad thoughts to find me out

There's a darkness upon you that's flooded in light
In the fine print they tell you what's wrong and what's right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I'm frightened by those who don't see it

Hug O' War

2009-07-26T12:30:00.001-07:00

Hug O' War

by Shel Silverstein

I will not play tug o' war.
I'd rather play hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls in a rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

2009-07-26T12:28:00.001-07:00

Our adorable cat :)

Cabo!!

2009-06-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

We went to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon. Most accounts of Cabo sound like a UGA sophmore's account of his weekend: I was so wasted... Em and I have thankfully outgrown that phase of our lives and were able to get a clearer picture of a beautiful corner of the world.

When we got out of the airplane and looked around, it looked exactly like Tucson, angry brown desert. It looked like home to us, but I can't imagine if we'd come here (to a tropical paradise) from greener parts of the world (GA or MO) and seen this. Only when you get close to the ocean (resorts) does the color green emerge. Our hiking tour guide told us that the resorts have massive desalination plants that they us for landscaping purposes. They did an incredible job too. We brought some cute outfits just in case we went out, but people here got dressed to the nines every night. So we decided to fit in. The food and service were outstanding.

Cute Couple!!!!

This is the best trip I've ever been on. The entire time was the perfect blend of R&R and activity. We typically like to be more active than lounging poolside for five hours, but this was our honeymoon, not a regular vacation. After months of unending wedding to-do lists, it was a relief to leave the little notepad and pen at home and just be.

This is our balcony. Looking out over the western edge of the Sea of Cortez at Land's End and Lover's Beach. You can see the pools down there.

We had fun haggling for this sarong. There were giant Hibiscus flowers everywhere.

The beach was not nearly as popular as the pool. I think because it doesn't have a swim-up bar. I love the ocean and had fun swimming around in it. The waves here crashed directly on the beach with no chance to body surf; they were some big waves too. A few beaches over there was a surfing beach that we're saving for next time.

Playa de los Amantes. We took the water taxi across the bay to check out this natural wonder. We are on the Sea of Cortez side with the Pacific side behind us. This side is calm and called lover's beach; the Pacific side is fierce and dangerous and called divorce beach.

This is looking west along the beach from our place to the marina.

I like taking yoga pictures wherever I go. Up on a rock on Lover's beach.

The water taxis are on the verge of scary and invigorating. This guy was posing for tips.

This is the famous Arch. It's famous for a reason. This is looking through the arch out to the pacific. From the water taxi.

From the snorkeling boat.

These are some waves on the Pacific side.

After a few days of lounging we were itching for activity. We went snorkeling one day. The next day we hiked in the Canyon de la Sora. Fox Canyon is a natural spring in the middle of the desert with waterfalls, pools, and cliff jumping. It was beautiful.

That is the stream down a few hundred feet below us with a 30something foot waterfall. If you haven't been to Tucson yet, that's pretty much what it looks like (minus the water). This tour is not very popular: Our guide took this picture of the entire group daring enough to brave the harsh landscape.

Em is swimming in one of the majestic pools. The water was cool and clear, and there were no fish. From the pools, you can look up the steep and lush (by Tucson standards) canyon walls, awesome feeling.

Em in Mountain Hardwear's summer hiking line next to a strangler ficus tree. These are cool trees that don't grow in Tucson.

This is the waterfall from the first picture. Pardon me for not sucking in. The guide told me the best way do this is to relax... I went totally zen on the way down. It can be dangerous to tell a yoga person to relax. This was a rush and an incredible picture taken by an incredible woman.

Now we are back in Tucson smothering Willow with our love and getting back into the swing of things.

"There ain't no law in Mexico. It's just a pack of rogues." C. McCarthy

Work

2009-04-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the hardest day that I have had at work so far. Here was my schedule:

7:45-8:30am - Stretching and meditation class
8:45-11:45 - Rock climbing
12-1 - Lunch
1-2:15 - Challenge Course with adolescents
2:30-4:30 - Kickboxing

I had a long day... After kickboxing, I went to the adolescent unit to pick up my bag from the challenge course and things fell apart. A patient threw a HUGE tantrum and cursed and screamed at the staff from her bathroom. I was concerned for her and what she might do but I was also concerned for the impact this had on the other girls. It was REALLY tough. The other patients began to cry... and then so did I. I really had trouble holding it together!! I sat with the other patients to talk about the incident and what they were feeling. After 2 hours of this, I was EXHAUSTED! My water works would NOT turn off! I just could not stop crying... and it was embarrassing for the other patients to see my like that. They showed concern for me, but I was trying to redirect them back to how it affected them. I finally got home at 8pm... what a day... I have got to find a way to think different thoughts or something to keep from crying, because I know there will be more incidents like this in the future...

What a day...

Life on Mars

2009-04-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

VIEW!
I took this picture when we first set up the office, where I'm sitting now, but never posted it. The building in the foreground is the other building in our complex (ours is two stories). The northern part of the city secretly unfolds for about 10 or 15 miles behind the sparse trees until the dramatic rise of the Catalina mountains. With little exception, the city is flat and surrounded by mountains that dominate the skyline. From any mountain around the city you gain enough elevation to see all the way across the city to the mountains on the other side, and the dust that rises throughout the city blurs the bottom of the mountains into the city, making the mountains look like they are just floating in space. It's too surreal for me to appreciate.

HONORED GUESTS!
Mary and Michael were our first visitors. We had a great time with them. We did tons of cool things with them like mountain biking, hiking, concert, brewery, and in typical Mattimoe fashion we had to cook and eat (and take pictures of the process).

They are scared to be outside of Tech's library for too long, but they were brave and did great.

Ceremonial chickens grilling themselves on Em and my $25 craigslist charbroiler (the same one my parents had when I was a boy). I put diamonds on all my food. My Mom got me that veggie grilling pan a few years ago, and I recommend it. The leftover peppers and onions make the best pasta sauce I've ever had.

Dinner is served! I love the way food looks on our peacock fiestaware plates, and they're durable. We are getting to where we have a respectable house - a far cry from all my other wartorn apartments. If you didn't know us better, you'd swear we were grownups.

FOOD
Roast chicken is my new favorite meal. It's healthy, cheap, delicious, beautiful, and cetera. Between the two of us, we eat like royalty and have leftovers for under $10. My favorite part is saving the carcasses and making Chicken Stock; my chicken stock is so good, I drink it by the glass.

Emily hd to hold the chicken still while I took this pic. I follow Jacques Pepin's recipe from La Technique, the best cookbook and the final word on preparations of classics.

I season the bird with lavender, grains of paradise, ground bay leaf, and some other stuff for heavenly citrusy floral overtones along with the solid base of classics like S, P, garlic, celery salt, and cumin. I would freak out if there weren't parsnips in that pan too; they give the dish a wonderfully clean earthiness (I think the earthiness the have is more like what mountains would taste like rather than the forresty taste of good fungi).

This is the worst range in the world. I hate induction tops because they get a film of grease on them and look gross, they heat in a nonlinear fashion, and we can't use our tin-lined copper on them.

This is what's for dinner. I've been experimenting with using yogurt instead of butter or cream sauces. After working in a French kitchen and gaining twenty pounds in a matter of months, I don't care what traditionalists say. I make a concentrated flavor sauce base, blix it into the warm yogurt, and then sieve it. They are getting delicious. The main consideration is the acid in the yogurt; I deglazed this sauce with white wine before adding chicken demi and if I'd used butter or cream to thicken it would have been balanced, but it had too much edge with the yogurt. Still a delicious.

Pretty bird.

Not bad for $10.

Em and I are currently busy with work and wedding planning. We are running like dinner with our heads cut off. That's life, and it's made palatable with good cooking and delicious with good company.

"There are some people who lived a lifetime without finding the one who relieved the heart's overflow." -E. Welty

Speaking of...

2009-03-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Tommy and I bought art! I feel so grown up... It's from a local artist who we met at a street fair. She paints beautiful Arizona skies!

Speaking of being grown up... I haven't stayed up past 11pm in a VERY long time! I usually am in bed before 10pm... It's pretty sad, but I need my sleep! :)

Speaking of sleep, I'm catching up on sleep from when Mary and Michael came to visit! It was SSOOO much fun! We got to tour the city with them and do things we had intended to do but hadn't yet. It was a fun and jam-packed week and nice to have company! :) Plus, they we VERY flexible with the car, which was perfect... considering we only had 1 car and 4 of us :) Willow enjoyed their visit a lot too because Michael gave her TONS of attention :)

Speaking of attention... I've been paying close attention to the NCAA Basketball Tournament because I filled out my first bracket this year. Which is another reason why I feel grown up, because it was a work bracket that me and my co-workers always talk about over lunch :) I'm not doing very well though... but it's still fun! Tommy has Mizzou going all the way! Our fingers are crossed!!

Speaking of Mizzou... How about that AMAZING shot that Mizzou made at the half-time buzzer from beyond half-court!! It was incredible!!!

And speaking of incredible... Tommy and I just ate an incredible dinner, and now I must go to sleep :)

Good night.

Willow the Menace

2009-03-03T18:03:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share with everyone our new addition to the house. Tommy made Willow a fantastic scratching post in hopes of deterring her away from wrecking the couch... it hasn't worked, yet :) But it looks great and she uses it! This just brings us to the fact that Willow is very spoiled. She has taken to having conversations with us more. Whenever we come home she greets us at the door and tells us how her day and how lonely she has been. She then goes on to blaming us for her sorrows and then running up to her room. Willow has also managed to train us to give her ice cubes anytime the freezer is opened. If she hears the freezer, she will constantly whine until she has at least 3 ice cubes strategically placed in her water bowl. She then commences to watching the ice cubes melt for the next 2 hours. It is rather entertaining for us! In order to further understand Willow, we have been dissecting her past with us and we think we have found the problem. The following pictures are evidence:The poor thing... :-P Her life has been so hard!

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
~Unknown

"Like sledding on jagged rocks"

2009-03-02T16:12:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from my last ride. Don't worry, my bike wasn't harmed and is still running smooth. I was skeptical about getting this Giant xtc frame, but I've done this to it many times without the same issues that plagued the "crackandfail" cannondale.

This is an awesome trail system in Tucson Mountain park. It has plenty of this super technical rock sledding, fast windy singletrack, some tough hills, nasty staircases, and too much wash riding. A wash is an empty creek that's filled with rocks of all sizes and has no bottom. The primary purpose of a wash is to make bikers wonder why they got off the sofa, which has the same ability to swallow entire humans.

This is the second time I've fallen hard on this section. Both times I was glad I didn't fall into the ravine (wash) on the right of the trail nor on the cacti bordering the left. The rocky trail is the least worst choice to land upon. The first time I fell, my bike went in the ravine, and I was terrified something had happened to it. It was perfect. Good bike.

I have to carry more speed to clear the rocks, but that makes it scary. I can either ride this at a speed that I'm comfortable falling at and fall, or I can go a too fast to really consider falling a viable option, be terrified for a second, and then get the rush that keeps you coming back out. It's all about attitude.

In either case, falling is not comfortable.

Other obstacles I haven't encountered include but are not limited the following:
smuggling, illegal immigration, and vertical horizons.

"take care of yourselves and each other," j. springer.

Netflix!

2009-02-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

Netflix has changed our lives! It is amazing! I'm not an advertiser, but I'm telling you... Netflix is incredible and I highly suggest it :)

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my two cents :)

Lunar Landing

2009-01-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

We drove through south Texas to get to Tucson. Wow. The dramatic shift from the neon green jungle bayou to the moon got me pretty excited about getting outside once we'd gotten settled. There's no need to describe the stark olive drab expanse of the desert because everyone's seen western movies. Here are some pictures of comparing the southeast and the southwest.

southwest

southeast

southeast

Hiking

Em and I love hiking. Lots of other people do too, so we don't feel too bad about it. We went to the Smokey mountains when we lived in Kville. They are amazing. If you live in the Southeast and have never been there (or somewhere like it), you are wronging yourself. The natural beauty of this region is overwhelming but approachable. Anyone can look at a hundred year old moss covered oak surrounded by smooth brooks, river rocks, ferns, and fungi and see its beauty and worth.

Upon first arrival to the Catalina mountains in the Coronado National Forest, Em and I felt like we were on the moon. Overall, it looks dead. It's hot in January. And the sagauro cacti are kind of freaky at first, random pillars of thorns that look more like a dada sculpture than an piece of flora.

Romero pools are filled with snowmelt and people.

A little creek way down in a draw (southwest term for a holler)

The trails are intense and our hike became more of a scramble. We are not in bad shape, but there were times I thought we wouldn't make it where we were going. Thank God we are both stubborn.

Mountain Biking
These are two of my favorite places in Athens and Knoxville. The Woods swallow you. Tall trees block the sun. The soft soil and dense underbrush make the trail seem more like being inside some creature rather than outiside at all.

Then I got out on some trails over here. I never thought the east was tame (here are phone pics of Hill of Truth and a road on the way to I. C. King park both in Kville). I thought Kville was rugged compared to Athens and rightly so. There are legitimate mountains in east TN. That's not a typo on the sign; 19% is steep, even if you're from East TN. Hill of Truth is a long killer climb at Haw Ridge (that I nor anyone I know could clear) and will make liars out of 99% of people that call themselves bikers.

It is a different world in Tucson. My first five minutes of riding is spent mostly off my bike, scrambling up the same stuff Em and I encountered hiking. Downhill here is more like sledding down large (softball to volleyball sized), loose, and jagged rocks than mountain biking. Switchbacks are not just technically demanding but intensely scary.

This is a crazy staircase. Twelve to sixteen inch steps. It looks natural too. Why is this a bike trail? Hike-a-bike in my Sidis.

Our New Jobs!

2009-01-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!

We are finally getting settled in here :) I am REALLY enjoying my new job at Cottonwood de Tucson!! I have been facilitating a challenge course (low ropes course), taking the patients kickboxing and on outings (local museums, hiking trips, canyons, caves...). I am also working with aftercare patients who have left Cottonwood and are staying in a more independent house. I am doing leisure education with this groups, in order to introduce them to tasks they can do once they are discharged back home. Working with people with addiction isn't as challenging as I thought it would be! It's similar to working with children and adolescents because they basically stunted their development when they started using. It truly is incredible to see the improvement in the patients.

While I was filling out paperwork with our HR lady at Cottonwood, she mentioned there was a position open in the kitchen. I mentioned it to Tommy and he applied and got the job!! The food at Cottonwood is SSOOO incredible! We have all non-processed and all natural food. I think Tommy is just glad to have a job in this economy. And it'll be nice for him to work in a kitchen without drug addicts and more accountability. :)

Tommy and I did some cleaning today and here are some pictures of our place :)Standing in the kitchen, looking toward the front door.
Standing in the living room, looking toward the kitchen and backyardOur huge kitchen! :)

Our master bathroom.

We're working on the upstairs right now, so stay tuned for more pictures :)

Love,
Emily

WE MADE IT!

2009-01-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Tommy and I made it to Tucson! It is amazingly beautiful out here! The following is a recap our crazy, yet exciting, December :)

In the beginning of December, I was stressed to the max about completing my masters program before leaving town. I found out 1 week prior to graduation that I did NOT have to complete my internship requirement before I could graduate. Previously, I was required to complete 4 months of "internship" (my job in Tucson) before I could received my masters. This meant paying for 3 hours of tuition too. With that said, I officially received my Master of Science on December 13th! YAY! Because I found out one week before the graduation ceremony, I did not get to walk though.

Immediately following my graduation excitement, Tommy and I had to focus on packing! An empty ABF trailer was dropped off at our place in Knoxville. We packed the front of the trailer, using as little space as possible and then put up a partition (we only used 10 feet of the trailer length!). It was incredible how well Tommy tied everything down!

So, the truck was completely packed on Friday, December 19th and an ABF driver came to pick it up while we drove the dependable Camry to Atlanta for Christmas. :) It was VERY convenient!

While in Atlanta, we had a BLAST!! On Sunday the 21st, Tommy's sisters threw us an AMAZING engagement party! It was held in a completely renovated community center in There were delicious snacks, a fire place, wine, champagne toasts... it was so much fun!! We had so many wonderful friends and family come!

On Sunday, we went to Aunt Sarah's for her annual Christmas brunch. It was delicious! It is always nice to catch up with his family because they unfailingly have great stories and they love to laugh! I think their chattering volume rivals my family's! We ate so much scrumptious food during our week in Atlanta that we could have hibernated through the rest of winter! On Christmas Eve, Tommy's mom made perrogies from scratch and Aunt Annie brought over a salmon loaf and cookies! The butter I ate at that meal helped to lubricate my joints :) Then we went to a midnight mass at a monastery outside of Atlanta. It was so different from what I am used to! I really enjoyed observing and taking part in all of the Catholic rituals and traditions.

On Christmas day we went to Tommy's dad's house and cooked up ANOTHER feast! :) We had prime rib, macaroni and cheese, potatoes, green bean almondine, yorkshire pudding... Sport, the new puppy, had a BLAST at Christmas too! He and Willow became acquaintances over the week we were in Atlanta... but not quite friends :)

On December 27th, we left for Tucson on a new uneventful drive. We drove through New Orleans into Baton Rouge the first night. We then met up with my parents, Josh, Sarah, and Dom in San Antonio on the 28th. It was a random rondevous where we were all in San Antonio for very different reasons :) Sarah and Dom were there to visit friends and Dom's son Aiden. My parents and Josh were there for the Mizzou Alamo Bowl game, and Tommy and I were there on our way across the country. We then travelled into Las Cruces, New Mexico the next evening and then into Tucson the next day.

We finally got to see our new home in person, and we were VERY impressed! :) We LOVE it here! The city is completely surrounded by mountains, which we can see from our townhouse. We are only 14 miles away from a state park with amazing trails through the Catalina Mountains. It is very surreal. We equated it to being on the moon because the landscape is SSOOO different from what we are used to. Here are some pictures of our place through a progression. When we finish unpacking, we'll take pictures of the final product.

Well, I'm off to bed because my first day of work is tomorrow! Have a good week and we miss everyone dearly! :)

Love,
Emily

New Blog

2008-09-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog. Our goal is to keep people up to date with all the minutia in our orbit without boring anyone about the details.
Here are some pictures of our Kville residence.

That is the front of our building. The plants really balance the late communist architecture. We have a couple chairs, a bunch of plants, and two bikes outside. It's not a great porch, but it gets the job done for now. Watch out for the attack cat.

Inside, out place is homey and efficient. When we were moving in, we didn't think it was going to be possible to fit all our crap in this place, but there it is. All in all, it's a great place to live for a few months. Location is everything in East Tennessee. Not really, but this place is biking distance from everything worth doing.
We have hung lots of pictures, mirrors, drawings, prints, etc. when we first moved in to make it feel homey. Now, part of us wishes we'd left some stuff in some boxes because we're about to do it all again in Tucson. Argh.