Girls Night Out.

This was the last girls night I would have before I moved to Texas. The night started out with a text from Justin saying that he had some shots for us waiting at the Tavern to start the night off the right way. All the girls finally got to Mill avenue around 10pm and we met up at the Tavern to take our shots.

Thanks Justin!

Taking our Shots Justin got us :) 

Love these girls! 

It was great to have everyone out for a good night. There was no drama and a whole lot of fun. Cant wait to do this again soon!

The Search Begins for Rental Homes in Texas

For months now we have been looking at rental homes in the Arlington/Mansfield, Texas area. This was the weekend we were scheduled to go to look at them in person.  We left for Dallas on Wednesday night around 11pm. We finally arrived early morning on Thursday around 6am, our flight was delayed and with the 2 hour time difference we were exhausted. My boss and his wife let us stay at their house for the weekend so when we got there we took a short nap because we were scheduled to meet with the realtor at 11am. She took us around to a few houses, the first one we really liked, but it was the first one so we wanted to make sure we weren't missing out on something else. We decided we would wait until after we saw all the homes we were scheduled to see that weekend before making a final decision.

Thursday night we took a journey down to Fort Worth to get some sushi. We went to BLUE Sushi Saki Grill. It was a great atmosphere and pretty good sushi, Justin said it was the best he ever had.

I forgot to take a picture so I grabbed this one from their site. 

On the way to Sushi we saw "Texas Street" 

We got home around 9pm and went straight to bed, we were so tired we couldn't stay up any longer, plus we had an even busier day on Friday! I had an appointment at 9am with a client and Justin was going to a networking event with John (my boss). The networking event went really well, Justin met a lot of great new people that he is looking forward to  working with. Justin was able to make a connection with a gentlemen that promised him a phone call later that day. Sure enough he received the phone call and was basically offered a job on the spot, working with a company who is contracted with Home Depot's install team. They are the people that install tile, flooring, kitchen cabinets for Home Depot. The company is run by one of our clients so we look forward to Justin being able to work with them, even if it is for a little bit so Justin can get to know the area, suppliers, and some people in the field should he need to hire extra help.

After both of our meetings we went to look at a few more houses, nothing to promising and we were both kind of let down but still had the first house in the back of our minds, just hoped for something better Saturday. That night we just hung out at John's house, we BBQ'd, played Just Dance for Wii. Leah, John's wife, and Justin kicked our butts, John and I looked pretty goofy dancing. Then we stayed up playing Wii Bowling, guess who won! ME! I love that game!

Saturday morning came and it was the last day we had to look at houses and we hadn't found anything promising yet, with the exception of the first one we liked. House after house was just a let down and so we finally made the decision to put in an application on the first home that we saw on Thursday. We called the rental agency and told them we wanted to put an application in. What do you know, someone beat us to it. We were both SUPER bummed and I instantly went to panic mode. We didnt have a house and we were leaving the next night! I got on Craigslist in hopes of finding something and it must have been in Gods plan for us because there was the perfect house, in the perfect location, for a good price. We drove over to the house, and the drive alone made me fall in love with it.

My future drive to work. So green and pretty

When we got there we were so happy to see that the lawn was manicured and the house was taken care of. We met the homeowner and he was a long time resident of Mansfield and a great guy to talk to. He was open to us fixing up stuff in the house if we wanted and very reasonable on the rent and deposit. He even split the deposit in two for us. What rental company would do that!? We got so lucky on this one.

Our New street. 

Our new Home :) 

Let me tell you this is the perfect house for us. It is just big enough for the two of us and Levi and Indy. The backyard is full of tall mature trees, grass and a covered patio. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. It has a brick fireplace, hardwood floors in the living room, carpet in the bedrooms. We are both so excited for this place, and more importantly cant wait to live together :) Oh, and Justin cant wait to mow the lawn, haha he was already talking about hiring the neighbor kids to do it!

Saturday night we decided we would go out to celebrate so we went to meet up with Missy and Wes. We drove up to their house in Keller, TX, which is only about 30 minutes (with no traffic) from where we live. We had a yummy vegan pizza at their house and then headed down to Fort Worth for a night out on the town.

Fort Worth at Night 

Horse drawn Carriage in the middle of Fort Worth

Awesome Architecture 

Missy, Me, Justin and Wes

At Pete's Dueling Piano Bar in Fort Worth

Sunday morning we woke up to a thunderstorm and then drove down to Arlington to go to Church. It was an overall great trip and we both look forward to moving there in a few weeks. 25 more days until we are official Texans! Yeehaw!

Happy Easter!

Ever since I can remember all of my family would meet at Fort Lowell Park in Tucson for Easter sunday. I have a lot of family in Tucson and the only other time we really see each other is on Thanksgiving so it is nice to get to see them. This year Justin got to go with us and we all had a blast. We all meet under a park ramada where we say Hi to all the grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunts and uncles. Grandpa cooked some breakfast that morning so we had some left over chorizo and eggs. Yum!

Me and Grandma - And all the yummy food behind us.

Each year all of my cousins bring their little dogs to the park but this year our cousin Eddie brought his big 150 pound Malamute. It was funny to se the little 4 pound Yorkies up next to this guy. He was massive!

Justin and Yukon

As tradition goes we always say hi to everyone hang out for a few hours, at about noon we play a softball game with the whole family. Oh but lets not forget one of the most important parts of the day, and one of the reasons our Easter rocks!

Getting ready for the Softball Game :) 

The whole family plays softball except for the grandma's they just cheer us on from the dugout. We pick teams and the game begins, I knew that my cousin Joseph was good at baseball and so is Justin so I told them they couldnt be on the same team! We all ended up  on the same team and STILL lost. I got on base all three hits and Justin hit a home run!! 

Me, my mom and my brother

Justin in the outfield 

After the game we all head back to the ramada for some steak, pasta salad, beans, chili and tortila. We all ate more than we should have, it was so good! After we let our food settle a little bit we played a short game of Volleyball with another family at the park. Made me want to play volleyball some more, maybe Justin can teach me a thing or two. 

We ended up leaving the park around 4 or 5, my little brother drove us home since we had a few drinks and we were exhausted from all the days activities. On the way home we stopped at Picacho Peak for gas and some ice cream at Dairy Queen. In the Dairy Queen they had a little gift shop with just about anything you could imagine. I was looking around and I spotted a little cowboy statue. I thought it would be super cute for the new house, he didnt have price tag on him so I looked around and saw others were around $25 to $30 so I just let it be. Justin came walking up and said "I'll buy it for you" so I was pretty excited, we went up to the counter to pay and the guy went to look for a price and came back with a price of $2.99. How cool is that! 

Best $2.99 purchase we've made! 

View of Picacho Peak 

After we got home we just relaxed and watched movies all night. It was a great day and had a lot of fun with the family. 

Mt. Lemmon Climbing

This weekend we took the RV down to Tucson, AZ to meet up with our friends to go rock climbing.  A little concerned about the windy roads we left the RV at their house and took our friends jeep to the top. On the drive we were both shocked that we were climbing so high in elevation that pine trees were starting to show. Good spot for weekend camping we'll have to keep in mind.

Once we got to the top, the boys unloaded and got the gear set up. They were having a hard time getting the ropes to the bottom of the rock because of the wind. Here is the view from the bottom of the rock, they are at the top!

They eventually had to tie their bags to the ropes to get them to the bottom of the hill. Once everything was set up it was time to climb. Everyone took their turn, except for me, I decided I just wanted to watch this time, next time I will do it for sure, looked like so much fun.

Here is Justin with David, we met him that day, he knew everything a 12 year old could possibly know about climbing. Pretty entertaining little guy. 

 Almost to the top!

This side of the rock was a little more tricky for the boys to climb. It looks like there is a lots of spaces to hold onto from the pictures but the shadows are deceiving, so they say.

Here is a video of Justin Climbing! 

We were there for a few hours and the weather was gorgeous, a little chilly breeze but nothing to complain about. I'm pretty sure that Justin is hooked on climbing again. On the way home we googled all kinds of places he could climb when we move to TX.

Looking forward to a few more climbing adventures before we leave. Thanks again to Trevor and Mikala for inviting us out!