Desert Living

Alisha is featuring me today over on her blog, check it out.
So I arrived back in California on Saturday night, back to the waiting arms of my husband and my adorable pups. My week was in Tucson was great, just great, that is the best adjective I could use to describe it. Things with my mom's surgery were great, even better than expect, God really protected her and cared for her. Due to God's provision, it meant my mom and I could go out, do some shopping and eating. 

My mom was expecting a 8 week timeframe of her arm in a sling and ability not to use it but by Tuesday night the sling was gone! That is how awesome He is! 

What I did last week:

went out to eat a few times for Mexican for 99 cents chicken tacos, Chinese, dim sum, bbq

shopped and found an awesome pair of ikat shorts at Gap

saw a variety of wildlife from bunnies to javalinas and a rattle snake right next to my parents house

had it rain a few times while I was there

saw the first game of a doubleheader played by the Tucson Padres (the SD Padres Triple A team)

saw this awesome balloon hat

photographed a lot of desert plants

met up with Lauren of Life. Love. Lauren, the only Tucson blogger I know yet, any more out there?

went for a run at 5:30am each morning

saw a dumb campaign sign

felt loved on by my mom and dad

listened to some great podcasts

That's it! Tomorrow, I'll share some sunset photos I took during the week and then I am going to really embarrass myself, I am sharing baby photos of myself here on the blog titled, Where I got my start part 1 and 2. There are photos that capture the things I loved back then and continue to love today can you say baking and watermelon?

Hope you all are doing great! Catch me up on you!

Trip Re-cap

Did you enter my SkincareRx $20 giveaway? 

Ok here it is the long awaited trip re-cap. 

The purpose of our trip was to see our grandparents who all live in the  East Coast.

To begin this trip, Sean started out in Charlotte, NC and visited with his family. I was suppose to go but the day before we were suppose to leave (which was Saturday), I got an email stating I had an in-person job interview Monday morning. This was the second round of interviews for this position and we prayed about it and decided it was important enough for me to stay behind and do the interview in-person even though the company gave me the option of doing the interview via video chat. 

So Sean went to Charlotte and I didn't leave until Tuesday. Our original plan was to drive up to Washington DC on Tuesday and stay there through Thursday. I flew directly into Washington DC on Tuesday, Sean picked me up and we headed to my friend's house who we were staying with. 

The purpose of going through Washington, DC instead of directly to our next destination, Sharon, PA was to allow me to see my Boss's Washington DC office which I have not yet seen in the 6 years that I have worked in his district office. If you aren't up to date on my work situation, my Boss has worked as a representative for CA for 32 years and decided he will not run for re-election this upcoming November. Thus leaving all of us having to find new employment by the end of the year. Another reason we went to DC was because Sean had never visited, Washington DC so I wanted him to experience the sights and sites and feel all the power that Washington, DC holds.

After a delicious dinner on Tuesday night after I arrived, we hit up the Dupont Circle area and then headed back to my friends place to sleep.

Wednesday morning was the big visiting day, the DC office, the Capitol including a tour on the House floor. The House of Representatives was in recess the week we visited which gave us the opportunity to visit the House floor. What a magnificent building the Capitol is, of course with all the history surrounding it.

After the Capitol tour, we walked the National Mall, checked out some of the Smithsonian museums, walked to the Washington Monument, saw the World War II monument and then headed over to the White House. 

Just a few photos of our day in Washington DC for your viewing pleasure.

And if I haven't worn you enough with photos here are just a few more.

After a day of touring we were wiped out but not before another good friend of mine who I knew in college who lives in DC joined us for dinner. That is one thing I love about the experiences I have had and the many places I have lived, being able to see friends in different parts of the country.

The next morning, Thursday, before we headed out to Pennsylvania, we stopped by the Georgetown area and of course had to stop by Georgetown Cupcakes. Yes it was 9:45am and we stood in line for the place to open up at 10am, however, we did hold off and wait to eat the cupcakes until after lunch.

After these few photos, my camera unfortunately didn't take great photos the rest of the trip, major disappointment and I feel like I'm not a proper blogger for you all. 

So I will briefly re-cap the rest of the trip for you. We arrived in Sharon, PA to visit with Sean's other grandma and hung out with one of his uncles and his aunt that night. After lunch on Friday, we hit the road again going West to Toledo, OH where my grandma and one of my aunts live. We saw them for dinner and lunch on Saturday. After lunch we headed north to attend my youngest cousin's high school graduation in Troy, MI. After enjoying his party we crashed at my uncle's house that night and then headed out to Ann Arbor where my sister and her boyfriend lives. We enjoyed a short rain shower during lunch and then the rest of the day the sun was shining as bright as ever. After dinner, we headed back to Toledo Sunday night so we could see my grandma one more time on Monday before we flew out Monday afternoon.

Is anyone tired from reading all that?? I was tired before the trip just thinking of all the visiting and all the driving we had on our agenda.

Overall, it was a great trip seeing a lot of family.
p.s. 3 days after the interview, I got an email saying I didn't get the job, the search continues!

I'm back....

Although a bit tired, we got in at 1am this morning. I have mounds of laundry to go, grocery shopping to do and of course a vacation re-cap for you all. Sean and I are really glad to be back with our pups. I didn't really mention where we were heading but I will give you a bit of a teaser. These photos were only one location we visited on our five state journey.

Again, a huge thank you to all the great posters who helped me out while I was away. Can't wait to catch up with all of you and find out what is going o in your lives.

Flora and fauna of the different islands

It's Thursday! Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the homemade coasters by the lovely Allison of Moments Like This. It ends tomorrow so click here to check out the post and enter! I am continuing my vacation post, I have one more after this. Thank you all for sticking through with me on my vacation post. Hope you have enjoyed them all and thought about visiting the Caribbean one day if you haven't already. Some of you have mentioned which islands you have visited and told me great stories about visiting with family or getting engaged or married!
I appreciate each of you taking the time to share with me!

One aspect I wanted to feature about my vacation is all the different types of flora and fauna of all the four islands I visited. Seriously, there were some greenery that I had never seen and I was very interested in all of them. Here are a few photos of the varieties that I saw listed with the island that I found them at, enjoy!

 St. Thomas

St. Thomas

St. Thomas

St. Kitts

St. Kitts

St. Kitts

St. Kitts

Aruba

Aruba

Here are a few photos of the ship, our room, bathroom because I know you all are dying to 
know what it looked it! 

Boarding the ship and away we go!

The pool on the deck of the ship

Our boat

In Curacao

Getting ready to leave

Our room with the ocean balcony!

The name of our ship

Our tiny shower

Departing the boat to go back home and to reality, we may look happy but we weren't

Vacation Post - Outfits

Before I begin this post, I am a bit of mixed emotions today for an event that happened a year ago today. I haven't mentioned what my husband does for work, he is an assistant coach for a university's cross country and track team. A year ago, the team was driving up to their high altitude training camp traveling in 3 vans. The team was almost at the camp when one of the vans was involved in a deadly crash with another car.
Here I was three weeks newly married and if my husband wasn't a few second behind the 2nd van, he could have been the one involved in the accident. My husband's university lost their cheerleading coach, and there was very serious injuries involving the athletes. Here is a link to an article about the accident, I'll let it speak for the details about it, I'd rather not get into it. http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-cal-baptist-fatal-crash,0,78579.story
I am thankful to God that my husband wasn't hurt, but my heart hurts for the family that lost a wife and mother. As a result, things for the first year of marriage were a little bit more tense and scary because I associated the accident with my husband's job and resented him being gone a lot more than I cared for. Just reflecting today a bit... and thankful that my husband is with me... sorry there is no real clear point to this opening it is just on my mind...

As you can see today's category is fashion, I took photos of all (well, most) of the outfits I wore on the cruise. Honestly this was something I was really excited about prior to the cruise. Of course I was looking forward to the islands but thanks to my wonderful Sean I was stocked up with plenty plenty of cute and adorable outfits.  Thank you honey!

Ready to go out and about St. Kitts, dress from Forever 21

St. Thomas here we come! White shorts from Old Navy, top from Forever 21, sandals from Old Navy

Dinner one evening, dress from Forever 21, I call it my firework dress

Curacao, last day on an island, skirt from Ann Taylor Loft, top from Ann Taylor Loft, bag from Old Navy

Bracelets I wore, pink bracelets were a gift, flower bracelet from Cost Plus World Market

White shorts from Old Navy, top from Nordstroms

Aruba, Jamaica, oh I wanna take ya...

Unfortunately I missed a few outfits, sorry about that and two were a really cute maxi dresses as well. I preferred to wear the maxi dresses when we were spending all day at seas rather than trying to walk around in 90 plus degree weather with humidity.