One Week to Go...

So it has finally begun to feel like the holidays are here! Despite the abundance of Christmas lights/decorations in dirt covered lawns across the Valley of the Sun, I just wasn't feeling it this year. Once again, Keeper and I are tree-less because a) we are going to be gone for 2 whole weeks and b) we are moving (starting tonight!). But I am finally getting REALLY excited about the trip back east and finishing up my first semester of teaching for the school year.

I will not say the semester has "flown" by, but it has picked up a little in the past few weeks. I am finished with my final exam preparations. The review packets have been handed out and the exams themselves are photocopied and ready to go. Grades are almost done. My letters of recommendation for my seniors are finished. I am *even* planning ahead to the first week back and would love to get my classroom cleaned up a bit before I leave for vacation.

We have two tough games next week for soccer. I somehow got suckered into the "Secret Santa" this year with the girls but the gift has been bought. Thanks to a not-so-great job by the athletic director of rearranging our schedule, my team had two whole weeks of no games (only to be followed by 2+ games a week for the whole month of January). I have a great group of girls this season and they are learning a lot and are a ton of fun to be around. Next Thursday's game is basically in Mexico (right next to it), so we are taking a charter bus for the 5+ hour drive down there as soon as finals are over on Thursday morning. We won't get back until after 1am and then I have to be back at school Friday morning for teacher checkout. Nice. I am even going to squeeze in a much-needed haircut and doctor's appointment before heading to the east coast next Friday.

We are so excited to spend time with family! Our godson is getting baptized next Sunday in PA and we can't wait to head up to Boston to meet the newest little Yimoyines after Christmas! I swear I won't even complain about the cold weather (much) when I get there. On a side note, I would like to say that winter in Phoenix is absolutely lovely. It's the perfect running weather. The sky is just amazing in the mornings and evenings (bright pink, purple, blue, orange). It's cool enough to wear a sweater or light jacket in the mornings/evenings, but you're still good to go with shorts and T-shirt in the afternoon. Love it!

Holiday Visit

Posts are scarce because soccer started a month ago... but we had family visitor last week so I wanted to post an update and some pics.

Joy made her first visit out to Phoenix just in time for .... 2 days of rainy weather. It never rains here! She flew in last Tuesday afternoon (the 25th) and made it in time to see my team win the first game of the season! She came to school with me Wednesday for a half day and then we had the afternoon off to go for a run and hit up Pita Jungle for lunch. We ran a 10 mile race on Thanksgiving out in Peoria. The weather was weird for Phoenix, really muggy and humid. Afterwards , Keeper treated us to a delicious wild boar leg for Thanksgiving dinner. It sounds kind of weird but it was DELICIOUS! I made the veggies and mashed potatoes and we opted for wine for dessert instead of pumpkin pie ( I couldn't top my Grandma's if I tried, anyway). Friday morning we all headed out to the Superstition Mountains and did some hiking in Lost Dutchman State Park. The hike wasn't too strenuous but we got some awesome views and Chloe was very well behaved around the other hikers and dogs. In the evening Joy and I went to Barnes and Noble for a few hours because the club I advise at school (NHS) was doing some gift wrapping as a fundraiser so we supervised that for awhile. We had a pretty low key weekend. I was happy to have some company on my runs and we both spent the better part of Sunday (after church) being lazy. Monday was back to school and Joy ran my practice for me. The girls weren't used to a tough practice but they learned a lot and we need more practices like that because are next game is against a really tough team. I am so glad she came out for a week to see us!
In other news, Keeper is in the midst of midterms, I am in the last push before finals, and we are gearing up for a tough soccer game on the 15th. We are also signing a new lease next week for a new apartment. It's a nicer, newer, larger place in a better neighborhood. Let the packing begin!

Fall Visit

We finally have some visitors for a few days! Mom and Jill came out Friday night and we've been super-busy the past few days... Saturday morning we went to the Heard Museum downtown and were treated to a tour given by Native American (one Hopi and one Navajo) high school students as well as a Mexican art fair in the courtyard of the museum. The Heard Museum is one of those things in Phoenix that I've wanted to do since we moved here and I finally got to! It's a Native American history, culture and art museum that was well-worth the admission fee. After a healthy lunch at Zoe's and a stop at World Market, Mom and I head up to north Scottsdale for my 2nd AZSR race.

I was a little put out by the 4pm race start (who wants to run a race at 4pm?) and the location was really far from where we live downtown but the course was nice and flat. We were doing a 10k this time instead of a 5k and most of the kids ran well. I ran a 52:30 and ended up winning my age group; Mom got 2nd in hers. We came home to get Jill and Keeper (who was at a medical business conference all weekend) and went out for quality Mexican food. Yum. Yesterday morning we took Chloe for a nice long walk, went to church and then headed up to Cave Creek for our horseback ride at Spur Cross Stables. We had made a 3pm reservation for an hour and half trail ride. As we were loading up the horses we heard thunder rumbling and saw very dark clouds... but we started the ride anyway. I was glad that we had our own private guide just for the three of us instead of being included in the group of 10 people who were there at the same time. We rode off on the trail (that's me on Diamond, Mom on Dustin, and Jill on Hershey) and the clouds just kept getting darker. Our cowboy, Ian (or Slim), told us story after story and we noticed lightning and then we started to get wet. After a while, even Ian got spooked and we had to turn around and cut our ride short. He informed us that all the metal parts of a western saddle made us "human lightning rods" and that he'd actually seen a horse get struck by lightning before and it "wasn't too pretty". We followed him back to the ranch and the owners were kind enough to reschedule us for Monday morning. We drove back downtown with a stop at Dreamy Draw Park to watch the sunset.

We got up bright and early today and were at the ranch again for our 8:30am ride. It was a beautiful, cool, sunny morning and we had a different guide this time. I rode Hershey, Mom again got Dustin, and Jill rode Handsome. We had a fabulous ride and saw all sorts of wildlife (deer, jackrabbits, birds, etc). I absolutely loved being out in the "real" desert. It is so peaceful and quiet. I hadn't ridden a horse since middle school (probably) or even earlier but it was really fun and I will definitely go back to Spur Cross Stables again. The people (and horses) were fabulous. We followed up our ride with a hearty breakfast and a walk around Frontier Town in Cave Creek. We headed back down to Phoenix in time for the first day of soccer tryouts at my school.

Make no mistake: Radiology is every bit as boring as it sounds

Happy Halloween

New Haircut

Stay Tuned. Someone might be dressed up like a bumble bee for Halloween.

Week Off

Well, quarter 5 (of 16) is over, and it ended in a flurry of work. 12ish finals and a term paper brought mixed result. It was probably my worst quarter grade-wise, but one of the more enjoyable. We're getting out of the (necessary) hard sciences and into the doctor stuff: doing physical manipulation, making medicine from plants and the diagnostic techniques of traditional Chinese Medicine (looking at tongues and feeling pulses, who knew?). The picture to the right is not from some strange ND-student party, it's from my final project in botanical medicine: the beginnings of a liver tonic made from real live (dead) plant roots.

Now it's a week off to try to clean our nasty carpet and do other odds and ends.

In other news, I brewed my own beer for the first time, an IPA that we bottled (I had help with the capping from my blogging partner) almost two weeks ago. It gets better every day! I was too busy this time to remember to take pictures, but next time I will.

2 5K's

This was a weekend of 2 races for me. I decided to run the Phoenix YMCA 5K because I ran their half marathon last fall and decided the course was way too boring (and kinda hot by the end) to run it again, but I wanted to support the organization anyway, so I opted for the shorter race this year. The race had a 7:30am start time on Saturday morning, so Keeper and I arrived bright and early. I had been gearing my training towards this race the past 2 months and I was feeling pretty good so I thought I had a chance at a PR. No such luck. I did not warm up enough and did not anticipate the hilly course (it was located at South Mountain Park, which is in fact, a mountain). There weren't many people running the 5k and among those who did, there were a lot of dogs, strollers and little kids. Although it was nice and cool early in the morning and the views on the mountain were nice, I was disappointed in the organization of the 5k. It was an out and back course that did not designate which side of the road was "out" and which side was "back". Looping back brought much dodging and weaving among walkers and cars (which were allowed to drive on the course). Upon finishing, I was told by race volunteers that was no water, 0nly Gatorade. WTF?!?! No water at a race? The shirts, however, were very cool and Keeper and I headed to our favorite breakfast spot for a post-race pig-out.

This morning was another 5k. It was our first AZSR run and was at Kiwanis Park in Tempe. It was interesting to see our whole group of mentors and students together because during the week we train separately (high school and middle school are split). Because none of the middle school kids were my pace and I didn't know any of the high school kids (I coach the middle school group), I was told to just run my own race and see what happened. So I did. It was a much flatter course that looped around a lake and I just felt more relaxed (and warmed up) than yesterday. I ended up with a PR of 23:33 ( I had never broken 24:00 before!) and first place in my age group! The kids did great as well. We liked the race organization and atmosphere and I would definitely do this one again next year. Next up: a 10K with AZSR in two weeks!!!

East Coast Trip

So last week was the much anticipated trip back east to meet my nephew/godson. I had a blast. Despite the delayed flight into and out of Atlanta, I finally made it to Baltimore, although Mom, Joy and I didn't get home until about 3:30am (sorry, guys!). I slept a few hours, then went up to Grandma and Pap's for some homemade chicken pot pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. I'm not making it home for Thanksgiving, so the pumpkin pie was a welcome treat!

Late in the afternoon we headed up to J & A's house for dinner and I got to meet the little BB. What a cutie! At 7 weeks old, he is so alert and responsive it's unbelievable. You can also make him smile and laugh which is just so much fun. On Friday morning, I did a tempo run in J's neighborhood. Although it was warm for October, I love running out in the fall weather with rolling hills and leaves crunching under my feet. We spent Friday pretty much playing with the baby and getting ready for our Lehigh tailgate party on Saturday morning. We set up camp in the parking lot and pigged out. The group consisted of me, Joy, Mom, Dad, J, A, BB, and two of J and I's sorority sisters, their husbands, and kids. It was a beautiful day and Lehigh actually won, although Dad and I were very disappointed with the lack of student tailgates when we walked around. LAME! There were no shotguns, beer slides, and bag-o-wine chuggings to be seen. I got nostalgic for the good old days, although my Dad has far better stories from Lehigh in the 70's then I do. After the tailgate, Mom and Dad left and the rest of us pretty much fell asleep at J & A's house. BB and I claimed the recliner and had a nice nap! A had a boys' poker night and me, J, and Joy had a quiet evening with BB.

Sunday was another beautiful run and a brief shopping trip (with a stop at RITA'S on the way home) with BB. He was a good sport and slept the whole time. I love his blue hoodie (see above pic). In late afternoon Joy and I headed back to York for dinner with Mom and Dad. Monday was spent running and a late lunch with Grandmom Schroeder before Mom dropped me off at the airport. This visit was too short! I am so glad I got to spend a few days with the little BB and can't wait to hang out with him again at Christmas!

Ahh....finally

I would just like to post about the lovely weather we had this weekend. It was/is so beautiful outside. Yesterday morning, Keeper and I took Chloe for a run, then Keeper and I went up to Reach 11 for my AZSR run. For once, the kids weren't dying from the heat and intense sun during a 9am run.

This morning, we went on our long run from 7:30am-9:30am. Beautiful. There was no need to stop for extra water on the way back and no need to drench myself with water during the last few miles because of the heat.

I only hope it stays this nice and you won't hear another peep out of me about the weather until May or June ( swear). I am looking forward to some "real" fall weather this week, though, as I head back to the northeast on Wednesday night. I am so excited for changing leaves, green grass and a Lehigh tailgate!!! Oh yes, and meeting my godson-- can't wait!!!!

I got old...

One of the things Keeper and I miss the most about being a train-ride away from New York City is the music scene. I don't pretend I know much about music, but I do know what I like, and I do know that I loved seeing some of my favorite bands on random nights in the city for about $20 a ticket. It just doesn't happen in Phoenix.

A top band on Keeper and I's list is Sigur Ros. We first saw them in March of 2003 at Radio City Music Hall (Keeper took me for my 23rd birthday). Amazing. We saw them again in 2006 at the Beacon Theater (and had really good seats). Amazing. So we not only love their newest album (and DVD) but were thrilled to find out they were stopping in Phoenix as part of their tour. A Tuesday night show? Who cares; we can suck it up and stay out late one school night. A venue we've never been to? It's Sigur Ros; they'll play somewhere good. We should have been warned after first buying our tickets a few months ago when we found out there was not reserved seating at this venue (there are no seats). This is a band you want to sit down, relax, and close your eyes when listening to. We figured we'd go anyway and were very excited about the show last night. We went to Papago Brewery and had a few beers before hitting up the Marquee Theater in Tempe. Not only was security a pain in the butt (very violating in their pat-downs) but as soon as we were inside the venue we looked around and noticed everyone was.... well, young. We headed out to the outside bar and noticed that most people were using drugs other than alcohol for entertainment (hence the bartender's repetitive, "you guys just want water?" to just about everyone who came up to order). Once we purchased our beverages we headed inside.

I will say the acoustics were great, but standing on a sloping cement floor for 2 hours was NOT comfortable. We were surrounded (packed like sardines) with college kids, both very drunk and very high. They were rude throughout the show (shouting, talking during quiet parts of songs, taking pictures with their cell phones/cameras), they were smelly, and they felt the need to make out and grope their significant others throughout the entire show. Some comments I wish I could've made to them:

1) Just because you go to a concert doesn't mean you have to take shitty picture after shitty picture on your cell phone. Your friends will believe you. Especially if you wear the T-shirt tomorrow.
2)You don't have to turn around and shout "this one's awesome!" when the band starts a song you like (or more likely, the only one you know). We know it's awesome. It's Sigur Ros.
3)You don't have to pratically get it on with your girlfriend in front of me the entire night. Why not do that in your dorm room while listening to the cd? Honestly, you'd have more privacy.

The band was good. They are very talented. I am happy that they are becoming more main-stream but the show had a very different crowd and vibe since the last time we saw them. I just felt very old... and I hope that wasn't me when I was 19. Seriously.

Smells like Christmas (sort of)

Tonight I was baking some peanut blossoms and finished a jar of peanut butter in the process. I barely had any left in the jar at all so I gave the jar to Chloe. It entertained her for about an hour. Mmmmm..... peanut butter. I feel the same way.

I am meeting with my AVID team on Thursday and since we always meet at lunch, I bake something different (a treat) every time. If for nothing else, they show up for the food. I found a peanut blossom recipe in my Pampered Chef Desserts cookbook but I also found my Grandmom's recipe (which she got from my Mom's Nanny Schroeder). Since I had the ingredients for the Pampered Chef one already, I just doctored their recipe with some hints from Grandmom (and Nanny). Not only did the kitchen (and whole apartment) smell good, but biting into one that broke in half (by accident, I promise) it just reminded me of the holidays.

In the process of transferring the cookies to the fridge, I must have dropped one because I noticed a streak of chocolate on the floor and Chloe gulping something in the living room. I was then reminded of the Christmas that Dolly, our fat yellow lab, ate an entire tray of cookies and a chocolate train (out of the wrapper) while we were at church and lived to get in trouble for it. That dog had a stomach of steel, however.

Anyway, we are on the lookout for an off-season bandana for Chloe. After the Mets ended their season yesterday, Keeper and I headed to Chase Field to catch the second half of the D'backs-Rockies game. I never thought I would cheer for Randy Johnson after he went to the Yankees (and we saw him get lit up by the Mets during a Mets-Yankees game), but now he's back in Arizona in his old age and it was kind of fun seeing him get his 295th win. Regardless, Chloe needs something new to wear from now until April. Any suggestions?

Keeping Busy Until Nicer Weather

I was at a loss as to what to name this post. Maybe I should have called it "The Boring Post". I wanted to throw something up here, but we haven't really done anything or gone anywhere exciting lately. School is super-busy for both of us. I am teaching a new class this year (AP Chem) and it is proving (as expected) to be a ton of work.
The club I sponsor at school (National Honor Society) is also a lot more work (time) this year as I have a super-ambitious president with lots of ideas. This is a good thing for our club, trust me, but as the faculty sponsor, I am giving them a lot of my lunch/after school time (meaning 5 hours of my precious weekend standing outside in 100 degree weather for a car wash). Soccer has started pre-season last week as well. Right now we're only going one day a week but we will up that to twice a week once October gets here. A new committment at school this year is being in the AVID program. This involves me mentoring five girls (2 sophomores and 3 freshmen). We meet at lunch three times a quarter and I check their grades and we discuss different study strategies to help them stay on track in their honors courses. AVID teachers also meet after school once a month and since I was on the "team" that went to Dallas, I am the head of one of our committees this year as well.
I also just got involved in coaching student runners to run the P.F. Chang's Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon this coming January. AZSR (Arizona Student Runners) kicked off this week with practices and I went on my first run with them this morning, at a park north of Phoenix. Our first Saturday run was only a mile, but these kids are not runners (yet!) and it was a challenge for them, especially considering that 9am is still too hot to run outside (for me) in September. The organizers of the program have already tried to get me to commit to their weekday practices but I have opted to attend the Saturday morning sessions for now.
On the business end of things, I am taking 2 online political science classes this fall (one at a time) to fulfill AZ Department of Education's requirements that teachers have college coursework in both the U.S. Constitution and the AZ Constitution. I really love spending one of my weekend afternoons doing reading and online assignments. Grrr. All faculty in my school district just had a huge technology upgrade; we got new MacBooks this week! But with it comes meetings, trainings, and "homework assignments" that "justify" the technology purchase. So in order to get my "extra" $500 in " Group Performance Based Pay" this year I have to attend all of these sessions and complete all of these assignments.
Anyway, this is it on my end for now. I am counting down the days until my fall east coast trip in mid-October. I am so excited to meet the newest addition to our family!

Are You My Mother?

While doing an early morning 11-mile training run this morning, Keeper and I encountered a coyote. Twice (same one). We couldn't help noticing some similarities... Then I was doing some reading and found out that coyotes can breed with domestic dogs in areas where both live. Like here. Hmmm....

California Trip Part 4: Sonoma

After San Francisco it was on the Sonoma for dad's birthday. We headed over the Golden Gate bridge, through the fog and into wine county on a Sunday morning and after a lunch in "downtown" Sonoma (some very good Mexican food), we headed to the Villa to meet the rest of the crew.

The Villa was beautiful. The pool overlooked vineyards and a horse stable owned by the crazy people who own the house. There were post-it notes w/ instructions pasted throughout the house with rules on just about everything you could imagine, and the applicable surcharge one would pay for breaking said rules. Heating the hot tub, that's a surcharge; leaving the pool uncovered overnight, that's a surcharge; turning the AC on, that's a surcharge; staring as my sandals, you better believe that's a surcharge. We didn't need the AC, so that wasn't an issue, but the hot tub might have been nice. The owner of the house, who came and went as she pleased during the week without talking to us, finally turned on the hot tub Thursday, it was hot by Friday. We left Sunday. But I digress. One more house note. For such a beautiful place, it contained a plethora of broken coffee makers and microwaves. Just odd.

In the Sonoma the wine flows like wine, my friends. During the week (before the Friday booze cruise, which gets its own paragraph), we hit up Cline and Jacuzzi, which were a few minutes from the house. We were also treated to a lovely time at Folio. I won't pretend to know how the biz works and the details are fuzzy, but they have something to do with Mondavi. We drank wine there.

We also had some very nice meals throughout the week. The Girl and the Fig had some interesting charcuterie. You heard me. Charcuterie. It consisted of many odd pastes to be spread on toasts, none of which were particularly appetizing, and was the second best charcuterie I had in Sonoma. My pork belly was pretty bomb-ass however. The best meal I had was at The General's Daughter in Sonoma. We were there for the final night of that particular restaurant's ownership, and it was amazing, and had a borderline hilarious $50 wine corkage fee (for every bottle past your 2nd). I ate duck. Mmmmm. Duck.

The golf was very good, and very scenic. I beat Corbs once, and he beat me once. I still need to collect on the 3 bucks dad owes me :>

On to Friday. The booze cruise was great. We hit Paraduxx, Vine Cliff, Darioush, and Trefethen. Quick reviews of the facilities themselves, not the wine: Good, Great, Eh, Ehh. Vine Cliff was awesome. It was on the smaller side, and was the most personal of the four. They had a nice little tour of the vineyard and the cellar (cave?) and we had a great little picnic next to their pond. Paraduxx involved a private little table and a free-form enjoy-at-your-own-pace tasting. Darioush was a demented Disney World looking Iranian Palace. We got a good chuckle over an $800 backgammon set, but my picture with the guy in the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad costume came out blurry. The people at Trefethen acted like we were being done a favor by paying to try their wine.

Bonus picture: Julie playing conceptual art / mini-golf! Never thought you'd see that sentence typed out did you?

Bonus fact: In case you were wondering, it takes 12 hours 2 minutes to drive from Sonoma to Phoenix. If not for some Magic Mountain traffic outside of LA, I would have rocked 12 hours. You better believe I tore ass on the 10 in Phoenix in a failed attempt to do so.

California Trip Part 3: San Fran-Tastic!

We left Big Sur and headed up the coast after checking out of Treebones on Friday, July 25th. We enjoyed the scenic drive and arrived in San Francisco for a late picnic lunch at Chrissy Field. I loved that the weather was cool and breezy enough to wear a sweatshirt! After walking around the park a little and checking out the beach, we headed in town to our hotel. We stayed about a block from the Chinatown gate, at the Baldwin Hotel. Although we found driving around the financial district a pain in the ass, we liked staying right in the heart of major shopping, food, etc. We hit up a nearby sushi restaurant for dinner and then walked down to AT&T Park for the Giants-D'Backs game. The D'Backs slaughtered the Giants (yay!) pretty early on, so the game wasn't too exciting but the park was beautiful. I especially liked that the hot chocolate vendor pours you a steaming cup right at your seat, complete with a topping of whipped cream. Who needs beer? After the game we headed out for a few hours with one of Corbin's college friends.

On Saturday morning, we slept in a bit and after a filling brunch, started out on Corbin's walking tour of San Francisco. No cable cars for us! We braved the hills all day long. We walked all the way to Lombard Street and then to Fisherman's Wharf. We had great weather and although the city was crowded with summer tourists, we had a fun day. In late afternoon we had a dim sum snack (my first dim sum ever) in Chinatown as we headed back to the hotel. After a much-needed nap we went out to a very nice French restaurant for dinner and then hit up a few bars near our hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend stay in San Francisco but were looking forward to a week in the country...

California Trip Part 2: Big Sur

After our wilderness adventure in Corrizo Plains, we headed west in CA on Wednesday, July 23rd. We stopped briefly in the town of Cambria for a coffee, then drove up Route 1. We met Corbin and Claudia at Hearst Castle close to lunchtime. In all honesty I had never heard anything about Hearst Castle before but I quickly found it in my guidebook and read up. After learning any tour cost $24 per person (and this was a "state park") Keeper and I made the executive decision to sightsee elsewhere for the day. Corbin and Claudia stayed to tour the grounds (and said the castle was fabulous) and we headed north, through San Simeon and Piedras Blancas. We stopped and took pictures of the elephant seals (smelly and loud) and decided to go to Sand Dollar Beach for some coastal views. We hiked down to the shore and spent some time relaxing by the waves. We lunched at Lucia Lodge and then headed into our home for the next few days, Treebones Resort.

Keeper and I re-pitched our tent and were amazed at the view from our campsite. Corbin and Claudia stayed in a yurt. We decided to explore a trail through the resort and got as close to the shore as we could. We hiked back up to our campsite and had a dinner picnic of cheese, wine, and gazpacho that Keeper had prepared. We were up early on Thursday morning and made our way to the lodge for some waffles and coffee. The four of us piled into one car and headed up the coast for what we thought would be a day of serious hiking. Because of the wildfires, all of Los Padres National Forest was closed (no access to hiking trails) as well as some of the state parks further north as well. We ended up spending most of the day at Limekiln State Park. They had three relatively short hiking trails, so we did them all. We saw redwood groves, an impressive waterfall, and of course, the limekilns. I was more than thrilled to be wearing pants and long sleeves in the cool forest (these Phoenix summers SUCK!). We had a picnic lunch down by the water and stopped for another jaunt to the coast on our way back to the resort. Keeper and I decided a nap was in order and we woke up in late afternoon for some quiet reading at the resort. We had another picnic dinner (with wine) and borrowed some games from the lodge to play in Corbin and Claudia's yurt. We saw a pretty amazing sunset that night.

I can't get over how beautiful, quiet and relaxing Big Sur is. I was disappointed that some parks were closed, but in all actuality, it gives us an excuse to make another trip out there (when there aren't wildfires) and we will definitely stay at Treebones again!

California Trip Part 1: Corrizo Plains

So we've been back from our 12-day CA excursion but both Keeper and I started back to school this week so I knew the blog updates would have to wait until this weekend. We had a great trip but it would be super-long post to do everything together so here is part 1...

We left Tuesday morning, July 22nd for Corrizo Plains National Monument. Keeper tried to pick a park that was around a day's drive west of Phoenix. We considered Joshua Tree, but that is only four hours away (with climate much like Phoenix) so we had to get creative with our pick. Corrizo Plains is a little known place that apparently has great wildflowers (in season) and is a great place to view wildlife. I was a little concerned about it being too hot to camp here in the summer, but the nighttime temps were definitely lower than in Phoenix and we really wanted to try out our new tent so we figured what the heck.

We left the highway around Lancaster/Palmdale, CA and found ourselves on dirt roads in the middle of oil wells. There weren't many other cars around and we soon were on unmarked dirt roads that were only wide enough for one car. The views up and around the mountains were amazing although it was kind of a scary drive looking over the cliffs. When we found the entrance sign to the "park" we thought we might see some more people (or more signs at any rate). We didn't. We were following Keeper's Google Maps directions to the letter until we came to .....a fence. I would like to say that it was not a gate, but a fence. Nice job, Google Maps, nice job. We back tracked and turned up a road we "thought" might be in the right direction. After about 30 minutes of not seeing a single soul except one lone wild cow, I started royally freaking out. I had visions of a flat tire, running out of gas, being lost for hours in a place in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service. Keeper tried to calm me down but I was getting hysterical.

We finally found ourselves on a road that actually appeared on one of my 3 maps (the whole national monument, according to any of my maps, did not have a single road going through it). We started heading in the direction of Los Padres National Forest and I thought, at the very least, we could camp at one of the campsites listed on the map. After a few miles, however, we saw official-looking signs (with mileage!) directing us to various places in Corrizo Plains National Monument (like to the campsite Keeper had previously looked up). We decided to give it a 2nd chance (now that we were no longer lost) and soon found ourselves in an incredibly beautiful (but desolate) place.

We pitched our tent at Selby Campground and I was still a bit apprehensive about being the ONLY ones in the whole place camping for the night. We decided to go for it. We had a lovely dinner of PBJ sandwiches and decided to go hike some of the Caliente Ridge Trail. We saw a gorgeous sunset followed by a starry sky like no other we'd ever seen in our lives. We did, unfortunately, pitch our tent over the burrow of some sort of rodents who spent the night scurrying and digging around the tent so neither of us got much sleep.

We were up pretty early to break camp and drive around the park some more. We walked down to Soda Lake (if you look closely you'll see Keeper standing out in the middle of the lake)... and found that it is completely dry in the summer. It was a very
unique and peaceful place. I think it would be really cool to go back in springtime and see the wildflowers. Overall a very interesting adventure. We left mid-morning and headed towards the coast...

Inspired in Dallas

I just returned from a week-long professional development trip in Dallas, TX. I attended the AVID Summer Institute held at the Hilton Anatole and returned....totally inspired, rejuvenated, and ready to teach another year. It's hard to believe this fall marks the start of my 6th year teaching. It feels like it's really flown by, however, after this past year I left for summer vacation feeling totally worn out. My students, god love them, really drained me this year. I was exhausted after finals. My teaching schedule will be changing this year and I had to get some training in the AVID program.

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination. It's basically a program for kids who have the potential to take honors and AP classes and want to go to college, but who don't have the support at home and are most likely the first in their family to go to college. It's a program that provides a support system within the school and pushes these students to excel instead of fall through the cracks. Once identified, the students are asked to apply and interview for admission into AVID. If they are accepted, they take an AVID elective course in their schedule each year. This one period a day offers them tutoring, study skills, and guest speakers. Teachers trained in AVID are basically taught a whole new way to teach their classes. We studied right brain and left brain functions and learned a variety of methods for inputing information and hundreds of different ways to have our students process the information (output) to ensure a greater understanding. We also are then ACE's within our school (Academic Counselors Extraordinaire) which means I will have six or seven students this year that I will personally keep track of. Our mornings at Summer Institute consisted of a four hour class in subject specific areas. Mine was obviously science. It was completely worthwhile and I learned so much. In the afternoons we met with our site teams for 2 and half hours to plan things out within our school. We had evenings off.

Not only did the group I went with from North Canyon consist of some really cool people, I met even more great teachers within our morning sessions. Staying at the Hilton didn't hurt either. I braved the Dallas humidity for a 6-7 mile run each morning on the paved outdoor jogging path. My site team and I enjoyed dining out each night and we even got some shopping done. We hit up North Park one evening and the serious shoppers among us bargain hunted at Sam Moon.

The highlight of my week was most definitely the AVID luncheon held on Thursday. We heard three student speakers who were just amazing. I am sure there was not a dry eye in the place. Although it was hard to leave Keeper & Chloe for another week after just traveling for a month, it was well worth it. I am totally geared up for another school year!

East Coast Trip

I am finally back in Phoenix after a month-long trip to the east coast. My main reason for the trip was to see family. I can't even put in words how hard it is to be thousands of miles from family. When we do get to travel back east the trips are planned down to the minute and little time is left to actually visit and relax. This trip allowed me to visit people at my leisure and really spend time with those who are important to me. I was done with my school on May 22nd and Keeper still had classes until this week, so I made the trip without him. A month was really too long for us and next year's trip will probably max out at 3 weeks. I guess I will just go in chronological order and post some pics of the past four weeks....

My family and I spent a week at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Our beach house was actually just south of Corolla and we went down with a group consisting of Mom, Dad, J & A, me, and Joy squared (my youngest sister and her friend, also named Joy). We really missed Jill and Keeper but they had work and school, respectively. The Saturday we got down to the beach we stopped at the Wright Brothers Memorial. We looked around the museum but did NOT walk to the monument. This was the start of that 4 day 100+ degree heat wave the overtook the northeast in early June. It was so hot and humid!!! Our week was spent on the beach, in the pool, shopping, and an adventurous kayak trip (me, mom, and Joy squared) one morning. We had a great week and it was very relaxing. I love North Carolina beaches. I just can't say it enough.

After the beach I spent a few days at home reading, running, and relaxing. I am following Pfitz's 5 week post-marathon recovery plan and it is going nicely. I really enjoyed the scenic (hilly!) rural PA runs. I miss the challenge of a good hill run (thanks, Triple Crown) and the cool, shady Rail Trail Path. I am happy to report---no injuries!!!! One day I went down for lunch with my Grandmom and then next day, Mom, Joy and I had lunch with my other grandparents. I, of course, requested chicken pot pie. Enough said.

I then headed up to NJ to visit a few people. First up: my hairdresser. I have not found anyone in Phoenix to replace Sarah at Lighten Up. I suspect I will continue to make a hair appointment with her the next few Junes I make the trip back east. (The things women do for a good haircut!!) I then headed to Hopatcong to stay with Ally, Fred, and the girls for a few nights. I went back to my old school (Morris Hills) to spend a day visiting and gathering some helpful material for my new AP class that I'm teaching this year. It was very weird to go back, but good to see everyone. If there's one thing that's lacking at my AZ school, its the close-knit, friendly group of colleagues. I really miss my NJ teacher friends!!! Another event worth noting that happened in NJ: I broke my 3 1/2 year no-movie streak....to see Sex and the City. It was totally worth it. Enough said.

I then made a stop to visit our Hackettstown family. It was so good to see Rix, Lexi, Aidan and finally meet Owen! We had great morning visiting & playing in the green sand!

Saturday, June 21st was my sister's baby shower. We had a mix of family and friends come for a cookout. We played a few cheesy games, opened lots of presents, and ate tons of good food. It was great to see everyone!!! Sunday was spent going to church, running, and shopping with Jen. Can't ask for a better day than that!

After the shower weekend, I headed back to York for a few days of quiet relaxation. Joy, Mom, and I somehow managed to get invited BACK down to the Outer Banks with our cousins. We decided to go Tues-Fri and stayed with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and a few of their friends. The house they rented was two lifeguard stands up the beach from where we stayed. Small world. We loved the ocean front house and I was glad I got to see my cousins.

After Outer Banks, Part 2, I spent the rest of my trip in York. I ran, read, and relaxed. I spent a morning visiting with one of my oldest friends and her son (who is now 15 months old). It was so nice to catch up with her and spend some time with her son. What a cutie! Tuesday I drove down to Baltimore to hang out with my best friend from college. Eric showed me around his 'hood and we had some uplifting discussions about the importance of PMA and being happy in what you do. We made a quick trip to Fells Point (had to stop at Sound Garden) and then I headed home.

My last night in PA was spent eating Imperial Crab with my family. I had a fantastic trip and it was so good to see everyone! It would have been better with Keeper along, but....we are now 1 year down of med school (almost)! If you want to see more pics from this trip, email me.