I've been awake for how long??

I woke up this morning at 4:40am to go running with a group of friends from church. It is now 12:52pm, thus I have been awake for over 8 hours already today! A nap is definitely in store for this afternoon.

I was quite hesitant to run with this group since it is not like me to wake up before 6am, let alone before 5am. But with the temperatures getting hotter and hotter, I decided that I might as well give it a try since my 8am run yesterday was less than enjoyable in the already 90degree heat. And, what do you know...I LOVED it! There were 4 of us who showed up, and it was a great run...only 68degrees! It was so peaceful to be up before the rush of life, and also to get to see the sunrise over the east mountains.

Here is a photo from when I made it back "home" (I'm dogsitting right now).

And..the doggies (Lilly and Stanley)...

Happy Mother's Day!

This year we decided to celebrate Mother's Day by giving something to our moms that they taught us to love! For my mom, it was the coasters as seen in recent previous post--she taught me how to sew! and a package of wildflower seeds because she's also taught me to love digging my hands in the dirt!
And for Lori and Grammie, we gave them tickets to see Carnivelaros at Tohono Chul Park! They are a fun Tucson band comprised of an accordian, baritone saxophone, mandolin, electric guitar, drums and bass(our friend Chris plays bass for them). Both Lori and Grammie have had a significant impact on Ryan's love for music. Grammie bought Ryan his first guitar, and Lori loves to sing and be around music as much as she can.
It was a wonderful evening of dinner, music, and of course lots of laughter.

Ryan, Lori and Grammie down the row...

Melissa and Dominic...with ear protection of course!

Cleaning Calendar!

Melissa introduced me to this "Justmommies Cleaning Calendar" a month or so ago. I got really excited about it right away because with work I felt like I never had time to clean the house and needed something that just gave me small daily tasks such as this. Well, obviously cleaning didn't go so well for me with working and Ryan gone (please refer to previous post for pictures of proof). But, now that I have a little more time on my hands I printed it out this morning, and I'm super excited about it. With their suggestion I may clean places of the house that have literally never been cleaned before! (Although, I'm stopping at the dishwasher, I'm convinced that this should be self-cleaning if it has gallons of hot soapy water flowing throughout it cleaning and sanitizing my dishes!). Another nice aspect about the calendar is that I don't feel like I need to clean the whole house at once...just a little each day. Today's tasks: clean refrigerator and microwave.

*To view the calendar using the hyperlink above, scroll 1/2 way down the page, below the blue box, where it has the months listed out...click on the month you want, and it will open in either adobe or preview.

Sunset on Blackett's Ridge!

On Friday night my friend Meg and I hiked Blackett's Ridge in Sabino Canyon at sunset. It was a gorgeous hike with the saguaros just getting ready to bloom, the sun setting beautifully in the west, as the full moon rose over the east mountains! The light of the moon was bright enough to light the trail for us the entire way down (although I did turn on the flash light a few times to assure that it was a root instead of a rattlesnake on the path). It's pretty amazing to have such wonderful adventures so close to home, and wonderful friends to share them with! I'm glad that I'm spending more time in the outdoor beauty of Tucson and falling more and more in love with "home".

Home Sweet Home!

I don't know how it always seems to happen, but when Ryan is gone for several days at a time...I tend to allow our house to get a little out of hand. I laughed when I stopped to really look at the kitchen counter the other day before I decided it was time to clean up a little before my man returned home...

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but my wallet is in a bowl that has crusted yogurt in it from leaving it in the car after eating breakfast on my drive to work. My shoes are on the counter, along with my work clothes, mail from the past several days, and who knows what else.

While Ryan was up in the White Mountains, I did get a little craftin' in!
Coasters for my mom's belated birthday...

A mother's bracelet that Ryan's aunt special ordered...


Ryan was only gone for 2 days this past time, but I still missed him like crazy! Have no fear though, we got down to playing a game of scrabble as soon as he returned...while having a listening party to the new St. Vincent record that is. :)



Summer is officially here in Tucson...it has been 100+ for the past 4 days and shows no sign of cooling off. One positive thing that comes along with that (and the dry heat), is that I can even hang my laundry out to dry at night and its still dry in less than an hour!

Here comes the bride!

Last weekend we got to go to our friends Katie and Steve's wedding at The Tucson Botanical Gardens! Ryan and Katie have been friends from middle school, and she and Steve now live in NYC. They are a wonderful couple that pour out so much love onto other people...I'm so excited for them and this new stage of their relationship!


My favorite garden within the Botanical Gardens is just on the otherside of that brick wall...wish I would've gotten a photo of it!

Of course you gotta have mariachi music at any event in Tucson!

Last Day for the Cafe!

Today was the last day the cafe was open to the public. Next week we'll go in for a couple of cleaning days. As much as I'm looking forward to sleeping in a little bit later and spending some more time at home, I'm really going to miss working with the trainees. It is such a unique community of people...some are homeless, some have a great sense of humor, some are illiterate, some are very serious, some are developmentally delayed, all have mental illness and are extremely hard workers...both in the cafe and in their recovery work. They are such an honest community to be apart of, I just love it.

(please note that we were just having fun with wearing our hairnets that way! :)

Kindergartners rockin' out!

Well, no Ryanhood on The Ellen Show today...but, they did get to learn some pretty great dance moves from a group of Kindergartners that they played for at Rachel's school! The show was for K-8, but it was the Kindergartners who knew how to break it down in the front row...without any cues...they just wiggled their little tooshes and played their air guitars, it was fantastic!

I had a nice relaxing day off! I spent the morning doing yardwork, and then got back into a little jewelry making this evening. I love the work I get to do with Cafe 54, but I'm also really looking forward to some time off to work on other things that involve my creative juices. My last day at the Cafe will be next week, when they close for the summer (it's too hot to sit outside to eat here in the summer..imagine that Michiganders!). :)

Ellen Update...

Sooo....Ryan got several emails and then a PHONE CALL from The Ellen Show today!! No guarantees yet, but their youtube video of them singing "Oh Ellen" may air on Monday's episode of Ellen! And they also said they'd like to have Ryanhood on the show before the end of the season (4 weeks away) if possible! If I watched TV (other than our dvd series of Little House on the Prairie), I have to admit that I'd be a regular Ellen viewer...I think she's hilarious. So, the thought of Ryanhood being on there is very VERY exciting for me. I asked Ryan to ensure I could be in the audience for any taping that they may do, and he informed me that he already told the interviewer that I'm a huge Ellen fan...I'm just praying that she doesn't make me dance...I have serious stage fright...although Lori did get me a book for Christmas that shows you how to do everything from changing a light bulb to doing the worm..maybe I should resume practice on my worm dance skills.

Should you also choose to learn how to do the worm...here is a good youtube tutorial...

Community!

Tonight we hosted the Young Marrieds Dinner at our house. We feel ultra blessed to be apart of such a wonderful community of friends!

Ellen is going to teach Ryanhood to dance!!

For those of you more technologically savvy than myself, you'll understand this "twitter" thing more than me...nonetheless, it's news I'm excited about!

Remember the "Oh Ellen" video I posted recently? Well, we had been waiting for the youtube play count to get up before we sent it to Ellen...BUT, she found it FIRST!! This afternoon Ellen twittered (tweeted?) and said, "Look what I found...(she then inserted the youtube clip here)...I think we need to have them on my show to teach them to dance!" Wahooo...I'm really hoping she means it...my sweater vest is packed and ready to go! :)

Can I get a what what?!

I just got home from the U of A Platinum Bash Concert...what a night of lots of loud music! Good thing for handy dandy earplugs. :)

The show was exceptionally fun...I never thought I'd see Jay-Z in concert, let alone be blown away, but he was an incredible entertainer! The same is true for Kelly Clarkson...she can definitely sing! And from my brief interactions with her, she seemed very humble and sweet.

So here go the photos...

Ryanhood!! They rocked the stage! It was fun for me to be able to be in the audience singing along and dancing while they played...the operation had their own merch people to take care of our sales.


The Veronicas...


Third Eye Blind...


Kelly Clarkson...


Jay-Z...

brown paper packages tied up with strings!

I'm missing Ryan like crazy...2 1/2 weeks is the longest we've been apart in a long time (maybe even ever?), and I've been feeling pretty sad about the long distance. So, when I came home today and saw a PACKAGE in my mailbox, I got very excited!! My friend Megan made me the cutest bathmat ever, and I have to say it has made my whole week! In fact, I'm planning to go take a bath after I write this, so I can take full advantage of it! (please note the red rectangular patch that says "clean feet" and then the two footprint outlines!)

oh me, oh my...the butterfly!

As I was walking through the Botanical Gardens to the cafe this morning, I thought to myself, "Wow, I really work in the most beautiful place!" It's so exciting to see new plants in bloom, trees gaining their leaves back, big lizards, and over 50 different species of butterflies!

Here are just some snapshots I took today...


Note how the one on the far right looks like a leaf when closed...

And then soo beautiful when open...



This beautiful cactus only blooms for one day out of the year...

The prickly pear just starting to bloom...

Outdoorsy Kiddos!

Monday (my day off) was my get out and explore the great outdoors of Tucson day! My friend Eileen, her daughter Kaia, and I went for a nice hike at Sabino Canyon! It was a pretty toasty morning, but soo beautiful to be surrounded by the canyon! And, so fun to be around sweet Kaia whose latest trick is kissing her stuffed animals, or anything you hand her...love it!


I then spent the afternoon babysitting for our friend Jen's daughter, Corban. They are moving up to Phoenix TOMORROW, and she had many errands to run. Corban loves to bury herself with woodchips at the park...so we had to go and do that! And, the park just happens to be right next to the Community Foodbank, which also has a community garden (and chickens!).

Breast Cancer Walk!

Last Sunday I did the breast cancer walk with Mary, Lori, Rachel, Sydney, Jacob and Dominic!

Happy Earth Day!

So, in light of Earth Day, I thought I'd do a product promotion for all the ladies out there...and men who might be looking to buy your lady a special gift. :)

GLADRAGS! Yes, that is right folks, reusable cloth menstrual products. So cute looking and fresh feeling that you'll never want to go back to disposables. AND, as a special plug for those of you who travel frequently, there is nothing better than The Keeper. No need to pack lots and lots of pads and tampons, just The Keeper will do for your entire cycle.

In all seriousness, I started using Gladrags and The Keeper 3ish years ago, and I'm totally sold...they are wonderful and will leave you feeling wonderful about yourself and how you are treating the environment! And, if you don't believe just how much I love them from what you've read here, feel free to check out my "publication" (I love to call it a publication, as if it is in somesort of well-known journal) on the Gladrags blog as a guest blogger here.

Sick of Ice Cream, Really?

So, I've had friends who have had summer jobs at ice cream shops tell me that they get so sick of it that they don't even want to eat it anymore. And I've always had mixed feelings about this. One, I LOVE ice cream, hands down it's my favorite dessert, so there is part of me that is sad for them that they get sick of it. And on the other hand, I wonder "are they telling the truth?" or are they just trying to look like they have good self-control? The Botanical Gardens Cafe has a frozen yogurt machine and I think there has been less days than fingers on my hand that I have not sampled it while at work...and LOVED every taste of it. And on days like today when we clean it out and have to use up any frozen yogurt in it, I have about 3-4 samplings...of course in the good company of my co-workers who I coerce into having an ice cream party with me. I'm happy to know that I don't think I'll be getting sick of ice cream anytime soon. :)

Stadium Concert, here we come!!

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your votes for Ryanhood to play at the U of A Stadium next Wednesday...they won!! They will be opening for Jay Z, Kelly Clarkson, Third Eye Blind, and The Veronicas! Yowsas! The place will seat 17,000 people and has 5 locations for merchandise sales...this is crazy! :)

Here is the article that was in the Caliente about them winning!

Oh Ellen...

Ryanhood's latest song (which even I didn't hear until the show last weekend!)... :)

Happy Easter!

I love Easter! It has become a tradition of ours to go to the Sunrise Service at our friends' ranch. I didn't take any photos there this morning, but here is a photo from 2 years ago...

It's an ultra casual service with a wide array of people...we gather not far from the stables, and sing with the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar, listen as Ben gives a sermon, and partake in communion. It's just beautiful. Afterwards we all hang out and share in a potluck breakfast.

As I was leaving the ranch, I saw a sign that said "Agua Caliente 2 miles"...I couldn't resist! For those of you not from Tucson, Agua Caliente is a tropical oasis that somehow doesn't evaporate with the rest of the water in Tucson. It's also a mecca for bird watchers, and wildlife enthusiasts. As I walked around, I saw a roadrunner, rabbits, a muskrat, LARGE turtles sunbathing, quail, ducks,...so glad I made the stop.


Our church had an art exhibit this morning to go along with the Easter service. A couple of weeks ago, they had passed out 4X4 sheets of paper asking people to create whatever they wanted to on it, and bring it back. Some shared recipes, others metal work, some poems, etc. I'm not the type who gets a 4X4 piece of paper like that and thinks, "I know just what to write/draw!" But, I really wanted to participate. Last night I sat down and started sketching out a plan on a scrap piece of paper...even as I was sketching, I didn't have much in mind. I finished my doodling, and sat back to look at it, and thought, "Wow, I think God is trying to tell me something here." I realized I had drawn out all different parts of my life right now. Things that I really love, but often don't take time to just ponder and ENJOY. I felt like God was saying, "Enjoy NOW. I often like to daydream about other places I'd like to live, wonder what life without touring would be like, get excited about the thought of having a family someday, etc., that I don't stop to enjoy the moment that I'm currently living in. I love so much of what my life is giving me right now: the fact that we live in a place where I can go hiking in the mountains on a weekly basis (daily if I wanted!), I love line drying my clothes...even though I know this is partially out of necessity since our dryer doesn't even work and we can't afford to get a new one, I love the upgrade from Rav4 touring to conversion van touring, I love the simplicity that comes with living in a van and out of a duffel bag, I love lots of quality time with my husband, I love our road family, I love our Tucson (and non-Tucson!) friends, ... This was such a great exercise for me to do. Live in the moment, love the now.