Ch-ch-ch-Changes...

I woke up yesterday and, for the first time since moving to Arizona, i was cold!!! It was a cold, blustery day in Tucson, the likes of which I had never seen...I knew immmediately it would be a big day, and it was! The day continued to be full of more changes for me:
-I had milk in my hot chocolate instead of just water and it really did taste better!
-I got my first pay-check in over a year! Hallelujah!
-I played Christmas music even though it isn't December yet, and was ok with it!
-We put up a tree (which we ourselves had cut down in the mountains!). That, in and of itself, was full of changes since it was with a husband, rather than my huge family. We used white lights instead of colored, the ornaments all match, and there aren't any paper-mache or play dough ornaments made by a first grader. It looks fabulous, if I may say so myself...Our apartment looks so happy now. I love Christmas season!

-I put mustard in my dinner and actually liked it...
-I made a trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond without buying anything.
-I had an entire phone conversation without ever saying "What?" "What?"...maybe my hearing is improving!
-I didn't burn dinner (yes, that is definitely a first in our marriage!)
-And finally, I cut off a foot of my hair to donate to Locks of Love! I feel like a little school girl again, but it's so much less maintenance and fun to have a change.

Anyway, it was a pretty adventurous day...We'll see what tomorrow brings! (And forgive the Bob-Dylan title, but it fits!).

Funny Girl

Of course, I have to add a funny memory of our weekend. In Mesa they already play Christmas music on the radio so I turned it up on 99.9 FM. "Walking in a winter wonderland" never sounded so fun but evidently Anna has something against Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. She finally gave in and she slouched into the corner of her seat, trying to distance herself as far from the sound waves as possible. Out of the corner of my eye, not ten seconds later, and with a frown on her face she began singing along to the song!:) Oh, the power of the Christmas spirit!!

Valley Fever....

In our rosy little garret we've been having too much fun for a married couple. Today we just discovered if we concentrate and shuffle our feet around the house, without grounding out on anything, we can give each other shocks that will get our hearts racing. Adds a whole new rush to kissing! I haven't been as faithful at the blog as Anna Bird but I thought I'd add a few thoughts since I'm currently sitting in the eye of the med school hurricane. One week I see a lot of Anna and the next I don't, depending on which Fridays my exams fall. But we've had fun every week still. This past Wednesday Anna spent six hours painting our old neighbors new home and they invited us over for a steak dinner! We miss them since they were our first apartment friends. Anna has been awesome to them and hopefully the little girls can remember their "Wormon" neighbors when they see a couple missionaries walking down the road years from now.
On Friday we packed our bags and went to a session in the temple with the Hall's. We feasted at Buca de Beppo's after and then went to see Ryan and Stacey's new girl, Mabry. After spening the night at the Hall's, we had a great Saturday morning in the temple again and then, after stops at Mesa's Yogurt and Deseret Book, we headed home. On Sunday Anna and I spoke in sacrament meeting. The topic was prayer. Anna gave an incredible talk on prayer, the soul's sincere desire. I love watching her as she bears testimony because her arms and hands jump into the scene as she emphatically proclaims how awesome it is to know and talk with a loving Heavenly Father. Anna is all mind, body, and soul!! You'd think a young married couple would be sitting on the couch staring at each other after a couple months but we've been surprised how fast our schedule fills. In a matter of an hour after church we suddenly had plans for every evening of the night except Monday night, which is now filled with plans. Missionaries, scouts, dinners, home teaching, family...life has never been better.
Life is great in Tucson. This past week holds great memories. Some of the best include coming home at one in the morning after studying to see Anna on the couch, sleeping and waiting. Rarely do I make it in before she's up on her feet and hugging her warm body around mine. If that's too cheesy for you, I'll stop now:) Go Suns!!

Mtn. Biking Pics

The last few weeks Spencer and I have been taking pictures with the main purpose being to post them on our blog, but we of course have been forgetting to put them up...So these are pictures from our Mountain Biking excursion a few weeks ago.

Setting out...
















We laughed so hard at this sign, but should have learned from it (as you can see...)







This was my big woops...but I felt so lucky that on a trail strewn with cactus, I fell into one of the few bare spots! Thanks goodness or I'd still look like a pin cushion!

More Tucson Adventures...

What an awesome week! I know I say that every week, but it's cuz every week is so much fun in this Tucson town. It felt like a really busy week and flew by with going out with the elders, scouts (with a 100% increase in numbers as we went from 1 scout to 2!), institute, mucho studying, Jake's football game, mountain biking, baby showers, etc. etc. Busy, but very fun.
So, on to our questions:
1-the scariest moment of the week for me was probably way back on Monday when I went grocery shopping. Being from the city of Zion, there was this understanding that after grocery shopping, you could wheel the cart back to your house, then bring it back later. That way, you could get all you want and not have to grow extra appendages to get it home. So I walked to the grocery store, bought all we needed: a ten lb bag of flour, 6 lb bag of sugar, some milk, plus 5 bags full of other things. I set out to wheel the cart home, when I get to a big sign that says as soon as you get out of the bounds of the parking lot, the wheels on the cart will lock. And sure enough, right outside the parking lot, there were a bunch of carts turned on their side, obviously discarded after they stopped working. So I gathered up all the groceries and set out towards home. It wasn't long before I started seeing tears in all the bags. And then everything seemed to drop all at once. ketchup rolling down the street, apples fillling the gutter, a glass jar of something broken and strewn all over, and very smooshed bread with the milk on top (one of my pet peeves inherited from my mom). And I was still a block from home. I started scouting for places to hide the groceries so i could come back with a car, scared that they would get taken or something. Then, out of the clear blue sky came this sweet elderly couple, decked out in sunhats, overalls on him, sundress on her, and full of giggles. They pulled over, hopped out, helped lme gather up all my groceries and took me home (even carried the groceries to my apartment!). It was so sweet of them and I couldn't have been more grateful/relieved at the sight of them! They totally came to the rescue in my scary moment!
2-I think the scariest moment for Spencer may have been when we went to Target to shop for a baby shower of a friend. We sat there, staring at the baby clothes, lotions, trinkets, etc. and could not say a word to each other. Finally he asked if he could go look at the movies...I think we'll be a family of two for a while!
3-I don't know if I could pick a very favorite activity of the week...I loved them all, but i especially loved going to Jake's game in Benson. It was the most amazing high school game I'd ever seen with two touchdowns in the last 45 seconds, it was awesome to be with the Hansens, and, for the first time since coming to Arizona, I wore was cold! Hooray-almost like being home! It was a really fun night. However, mountain biking was just as fun--and super exciting, with my biggest fall of the year. And equally fun, though in a different way was watching Gettysburg with Spencer. It was an amazing eye-opener to me and it was cool to see Spencer's passion for history and our country.
So, it's been an awesome week. Spencer is still taking care of me and finishing raising me. Last week, he brought me breakfast in bed one day, made me lunch, bought me M&M's, came grocery shopping, and (even though he wouldn't admit it) he even read Martha Stewart with me...what a trooper! I've never been happier, thanks to him.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Super Woman Week

This is blog entry dedicated to Anna. She is Super Woman in all shapes, forms, and actions. Just check out her super, supine stretch down the half-pipe! We had a great week in Tucson. If anyone is looking for a place to live with Awesome weather, now is the time to cash in on the area here. Everyday I ask Anna if she could have the weather a constant temperature the rest of her life, would she want it how it is now? I would be tempted to ask my genie for such a wish. We've had fun adventures this week. On Monday night we planned to go out with the Elders. They arrived at our house without dinner so we gave them the lion's share of an awesome homemade pizza Anna created!! We were said we couldn't give them more. Then we booked it to the southern boundary of the ward. The contacts were not home but we made some street contacts with some snickering, smoking youth. That's a rough part of town that reminded me of the nights walking along the back streets of Rio de Janeiro. Preaching the gospel is fun.
Tuesday night we had cub scouts and Anna arranged the make sugar cookies with the boys. We have one more buy now so our attendance has increased %100. Anna has magnified every aspect of her calling and every duty she's undertaken since we got married. She is so caring that I think she even felt the pain of the dear pork chops she accidently burnt for dinner. Those poor babies :) Seriously though, it's awesome to me as I go throughout my day to see how much more drive I have to be a better person as I live with Super Woman.
Yesterday we went mountan biking at Fantasy Island. It's a bunch of trails coiled together in a desert patch right on the edge of town. We had a great ride, full of falls, thorns, and Christmas trees.
Our first question this week is: What was the scariest moment of the week? I was scared when I saw Anna riding through the half pipe. We had never ridden the trail before so we had no idea what to expect. She made it up an incline and then paused to see where the trail was going. The sandy trail gave out and she started teetering. The next thing I saw was Anna extended parallel to the ground, arms outstretched, holding on to the bike until gravity sucked her down the little ravine. After riding past miles of cactus, I was scared Anna would become Mrs. Porcupine. She seems to be doing all right.
Second question: What we think scariest moment for spouse was: On Friday when I went to school, Anna jumped in the shower. She found a bee in the bathroom and they quickly became friends. The bee stuck around all day and when I got home I saw the bee in the bathroom. I left the bathroom and gave Anna a kiss in the hallway. While we were kissing I slapped my neck and yelled, "Ouch!" Her face was priceless :) I think I scared her the bee relationship had backfired on us! Out bee friend is MIA.
The final question is what was the favorite activity of the week: The mornings are great times with Anna. The morning Sun pours down through the eucalyptus trees in the morning and since we live on the third floor, it looks like we live in a forest if you look straight out our front porch windows. On Thursday morning we made breakfast together, omeletes and fruit and cottage cheese, and talked about Infinite Atonement by Elder Callister. I learned much from Anna Thursday morning.
Life is great. How could it not be when you live with superwoman. And how could it not be when your wife wants to watch Gettysburg with you on a Saturday night? Thanks Anna!

Utah and Back Again...

It's been another awesome week for us! I felt spoiled--we got to spend the whole weekend with my family up in Utah! It was so great to see them! We had a blast mountain biking, playing/watching football, catching up, and eating like kings. Spencer and I even had fun driving up (10 hours both ways!). Spencer had a test last week, so he had practically lived in his books. So, it was so great to just be with him again. So, to answer the questions: My favorite part of the drive was the hoover dam on the way up. It totally looked like it was straight out Lord of the Rings! It was so huge and looming, with subtle light and no visible humans. And to make it all the more intense, Spencer and I were playing the soundtrack to some eerie movie, so there was just the intense drum beat going. I wouldn't have been surprised to see an army of orks chasing us!
My favorite part of mountain biking was just that--mountain biking, doing it! Everything about it is so fun and it felt like it had been too long. I hope we can find more trails around tucson! I also loved having pedals...something I appreciate now :)
Something I learned from being with family this weekend was something more just re-inforced to me than taught. I realized again how cool family is in that there doesn't have to be catch up time, re-aquainting, or readjusting. Even with the biggest change and the biggest move of my life, I feel the same with them. I'm still "Earth", all our jokes are still the same, and I still rely on their support as much as ever. It was so cool to be with them and really feel that--Thanks so much to you guys if you read this! I love you!
I know I've already written a lot, but I wanted to write just a few more tender mercies of this week: One was Wednesday morning. For the first time in our whole marriage, I left in the morning and Spencer stayed to do homework and it turned out to be such a GOOD thing! He was sitting there studying when all the sudden he heard a huge whoosh and the main pipe to our sink had exploded! So water shot all over the kitchen and was headed toward flooding our apartment. Luckily, he had the presence of mind to get maintenance as fast as possible, and they had it cleaned up within an hour, leaving us only a few cracks in the floor and a new faucet. It was so ironic that happened the ONLY morning Spencer was home, but thank heavens!
Anyway, it's been a grea week and I'm excited for what's coming!