"I'm never hungry after I eat"

It's funny how the brain works, or forgets to work, when fatugue sets in. Makes you feel like a pumpkin with no brains. This blog is titled with my favorite quote of the week I heard after a conversation with my esposa while walking home one dark, late night. But, she has a husband who can make anyone's brain self-destruct. Take Friday. Anna's first official day back at school to attend orientation for her the Nursing Degree. After a sweet morning, the afternoon quickly lost it's momentum when I arrived an hour late to pick her up. Following that, we drove to a place where she could complete her drug test. It was a hot, hot day and Anna was already dehydrated and suffering from the onset of a cold. But, I parked in the wrong parking lot and had to move. Only, the car wouldn't start. Dead battery. So we agreed to rendevouz after her drug test as soon as I could arrange to get a jump. Luckily I did, but she was still in line for her drug test. So I drove to Autozone to pick up a battery. After 15 minutes of awesome customer service, I finally was ready to roll. But then I remembered I gave the credit card to Anna so she could pay for the test. And the supervisor on shift at Autozone wouldn't let me leave collateral if I could leave with the battery. But 10 seconds before I knew this, my last words to Anna before her phone died while she called me from the drug test site were: "I'll come pick you up." So, Anna began the long trek home, and so did I, two miles behind her. I jogged a bit and we met at our doorstep where we collapsed on our bed. This story doesn't read as well as it played out, but it was a fun afternoon! Then we took off to the Hall's home in Mesa to spend the night in prep for Anna's first half-marathon!! It was in Phoenix, on another hot, hot day, and she did awesome!!!!!!! Battling a cold, a nasty race course, and the hot sun, she stormed through Phoenix like a bat out of our last blog. And this was the first time she has ever run longer than 10 miles. Plus she has a crazy job as a patient tech that leaves her with less than half a week to train. What a champ!!!

Tucson Fall

Fall is my favorite season. Everything about it is so comfortable and cozy. Not to mention fall food is my favorite. I was a little nervous about fall this year, seeing as Tucson doesn't exactly have seasons. HOwever, it's turned out to be one of my favorite falls yet as we've discovered "fall stuff" in Tucson. For example, the bats. There's a bridge by our apartment that for some reason becomes the home of hundreds of thousands of bats in the fall. If you go to the bridge at sunset, they all swarm out at once and fly away. It was so creepy and halloween-ish!


Fall in Tucson has also come to mean

*we can bear to have the oven on and cook again. We've made some really good things, if I may say, but my favorite were our donuts...mmmhmmm.

*windy days

*camping trips (as Spence talked about in the last post)

*General Conference!!! it's not particular to Tucson, but it means so much to have that connection to the church when I sometimes feel so displaced from it down here. Wasn't it awesome?!

*canooing in Thatcher (well, and being in Thatcher period!)

*cheap apples, and thus apple pie, apple cake, caramel apples, apple-cheese sandwiches, applesauce, apple crisp, apple cider, lunch apples, marshmallow-chocolate-apples, etc etc etc.

*high school football games....not as super seniors as you may think, but as Spencer's brother, Jake's fan club. And it wasn't just any high school football game. It was the homecoming in Thatcher, where all the families in the city gather for the big game. The stands were filled with little 7 year olds whose hair was died Thatcher High green, coaches I mean dads, and 30-40 year alums. I love football games. And I love Thatcher.

*orchard picking, which I'd never done before. If things don't work out for nursing school, I will definitely grow my own orchard and cook pies all day, just like Annie, this lady whose orchard we visited.


Anyway...it's been a really fun fall, even without red leaves or chilly nights. Even in Tucson, it's still my favorite season!
And please let us know any fun fall traditions you have that could be done in a warm desert--we'd love to try more!

General Hitchcock

Anna and I have to run away from Tucson to see each other with our work and school shedules. The sad thing is our schedules are self-imposed. Why don't we just take our money and run to Tahiti? Or better yet, to see Edinburgh? Instead, we sign up for this medical school/nursing school mumbo jumbo and get caught in a web of commitment. Actually, we couldn't be more grateful. And as one of the faculty always points out to us nearly evey Monday morning, "for every one of you in this class there are five that didn't get in." After that dish of humble pie we can sit pretty comfortably in our Tucson garrett and dream of our future visit to the castles in the clouds.
But, we do have Mt. Lemmon. Anna and I had a great Friday night camping up in the cool Pines. We made a huge fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We could've topped off our meal with Keystone Light that some neighbors offered to barter our firewood for, but Anna and I are already too tipsy as drivers anyway that we figured we shouldn't drive any closer to the edge on the way home. I've been sounding apostate as of late because I feel apostate for leaving my wife so often to go study at school. So, Ho ho ho, to the bottle may we never go :)
Life is great in Tucson. We're going to try and catch pics of bats tonight so stay tuned...
We love you all.
the bird and shoe fly

ONE YEAR!

Spencer and I had our first anniversary on Sunday. I can't believe it, but I can't decide if that's because it's gone so fast or because it feels like we've always been married. Either way, it called for a celebration...
We kicked it off the night before with dinner at Mimi's Cafe (where we also went for our first date...thank you Mo and Adam!). It was delicious and of course, very nostalgic (and thus romantic). Sunday we had a blessed day of rest.

For dinner, we packed a picnic and went to the prettiest sunset view in all of Tucson, possibly in all the west. As fabulous of a photographer as Spencer is, these still don't quite do it justice--it was phenomenal.
Then, we came home to, of course, eat our year-old cake. I was totally expecting freezer-burned hash. Surprisingly, it was every bit as good as it was a year ago! I couldn't believe it, and I wish we had saved more for every anniversary! PLus, it was all the better since this time we could shove it in each other's faces unabashed...


Anyway, I am so grateful for this last year, which has been the coolest of my life. Marriage has not only made every thing so much mre fun, it has stretched me and helped me grow in ways I couldn't have imagined. And I am so grateful for Spencer--for his OJs, his crazy curls, his Legolas-build and speed :), his humility, his constant love for me, even his crazy food concoctions. Spence--you are the fudge to my sundae!

Even if you don't have the ridiculous Journey obsession I do, this is awesome! I swear there will be a movie about it someday...

The 21st.

Anna's Big Birthday is tomorrow. As I combed my mind for how to celebrate, my thoughts turned to how we would celebrate a wordly 21st. After seeing the following post on the "student affairs" website for Virginia Tech, I began to see what I'm missing for marrying the worthy gal I did:

The Risks:
One-third of women experienced a blackout during their 21st birthday celebration. To avoid blackouts avoid drinking quickly.
26% of women vomited. To avoid vomiting altogether consume fewer than 6 drinks.
30% of women had an estimated blood alcohol level = .28, putting them at risk for serious complications from alcohol poisoning.
To join most students who avoid these risks, take it slow, pace yourself, and take some steps to moderate consumption.
from: http://www.alcohol.vt.edu/21stbirthday/vtdrinkingfacts.html

Anna, the grass is always greener with you...Happy Birthday!! We better raise our blood chocolate milk level to at least .28 tomorrow!

One of the funnest parts of my job is seeing the cute, faithful spouses of my elderly patients. They're always so excited to ask how long I've been married so they can tell me about their 50, 60, 70 years together. Adorable--I can't wait to get to that point. So today there was another one of those moments...sort of. We got a call from the lobby from a husband of one of our patients (wearing suspenders, thick glasses, and carrying a cane) asking if he could come back to see his wife. But our ICU gets kind of confusing because we have three units all with the same numbering. So he, with very poor eye-sight, just asked to be guided toward bed 8. He found it, rushed in, and planted a kiss on the face of the patient lying there, only to find that it was not his wife! Rather, it was a young man! He was absolutely mortified, but I felt even worse for the young man...come in to get your pneumonia taken care of, and next thing you know, strange men are coming in to your room to kiss you! Luckily, everyone involved had very good senses of humor, so we could laugh about it.