6710 Grand

Owning a home has been, to say the least, interesting. I've found it to be no unlike living in an apartment--I just don't move every year. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's OK if everything isn't painted or decorated just the way I want it right away. I have no plans to leave (sadly) anytime soon. That being said, like apartment living, there are things about our house that I absolutly hate. There's certainly plenty that I love--our huge backyard, having a garage, the beautiful staircase and wide open floor plan. I love having a room just for my workout equipment and I love having my laundry room on the upper level. I love that we have four bathrooms (even though only three of our toilets work). I don't love my kitchen--it's too small. I don't love that half of our windows don't open. I don't love the patch of carpet in our living room, though I'm learning to appreciate it. I don't love that our stairs are too wide to...

It’s no secret that I detest Phoenix. It’s hot. It’s brown. It’s dusty. I miss the snow. I miss fall. I miss just knowing that the weather will change. At 91 degrees today, the seventh of April, I turned on my air conditioner. True, winters here aren’t icy or frigid, but they’re not what I’ve grown to believe what a winter should be. It’s just not…cold. There is absolutely NO CHANCE for snow. I’ll never have a snow day living here. I’ll never get to wear my beautiful, winter white, heavy coat. There’s just no need. Knowing all of this, we are about to finalize the purchase of a house in this desert city. Why? So many people ask me this. Why am I here? Why am I buying a house in a city I can’t stand? It’s really quite simple. When I discovered it long ago, I felt peace in my present-tense. I am here because this is where God has led me. For now, this is home. For now, for an unknown amount of time (unknown by me, that is), I will stay here and thrive. I am not running or hiding from a d...

Anything that’s on television that isn’t animated is dubbed hosible by Ivy, which is her way of referring to General Hospital. She’s figured out that real people on any show (except Jon and Cake, as she calls it) is something that she doesn’t want to watch. Generally, my time to watch whatever show I’ve decided worthwhile is in the morning while I’m getting ready for work. Usually, it’s before the girls are up, but this past Wednesday, as I was watching The Biggest Looser, Ivy woke up early. Iris and Nick were still asleep, so it was just the two of us, eating our breakfast on the yellow table (our coffee table, which is actually light brown). Ivy had finished her cook (a cereal bar) and had moved on to a cookie (graham cracker). Ivy doesn’t usually watch any television with rapt attention unless it’s Bado (The Incredibles) or Mucket (Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit). As I sat sipping my coffee watching Jillian beat someone into submission (in case you don’t...

Since Iris was born, I have found myself often watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 . What a fun show! I would tell myself that if she could do it with eight, I could certainly handle two. Today, I watched the episode when they went to Park City, UT. They we skiing, ice skating and Jon went snowboarding. I've never been skiing or snowboarding. The closest I've ever come was riding the ski lift in the summertime at the Snowbowl in Flagstaff. It sure looks easy, but I'm told it isn't--at least not right away. Jon was describing how great it felt to be back on the snowboard. He felt younger and more alive. He said "You just lean back on the board and it's wherever God wants to take you." Wow. What a neat thing to say. What a wonderful feeling to just be able to do that--lean back and go wherever God wants to take you. It's no secret that I dispise living in Phoenix. It's just plain hot. And brown. Nevertheless, we're going through the process of buying...

Nick decided to give up coffee this year (we'll see how long it lasts), so I decided that I had to pick up the slack. I brewed my full 12 cup pot this morning and broke out the big mug--my Disneyland Minnie Mouse mug that holds 6 cups. I got so many lovely coffee gifts for Christmas this year--I'm very excited. My brother Andrew gave me a Starbucks gift card (for those mornings when I'm running late--there's about 4 of them between home and work), my parents gave me two boxes of Gloria Jeans French Vanilla K-kups (WHOO HOO!), and Nick got me the Kurig K-kup My Cup coffee filter (so I can use any kind of coffee I can find in my Kurig brewer). I plan to have a very coffee new year.