The surrey bike and aircraft carrier

I wrote before how our surrey adventure was my favorite part of our trip. It was so much fun. Our hotel was on the bay side so we rode our surrey to the other side of the island so we could see the ocean.

Here she is...







During our surrey trip I frequently sang, "When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!" That's the only part of the song I know so I was on repeat. John liked it but he thought I was making it up. I guess he's never seen Oklahoma...or When Harry Met Sally.

Here we are on the old aircraft carrier.



We're standing in front of the A-4 which is what John McCain used to fly. The old guy who took our picture told us that if we ever see John McCain we need to yell out, "A-4!" If we do that then he'll stop what he's doing and come talk to us.

So if we ever run into John McCain I'll be sure to not yell out A-4. Just kidding. Have you ever been on an aircraft carrier? It's pretty crazy. If you get the chance to tour one, I say go for it. Unless you're really, really claustrophobic. Then it may not be such a great idea for you.

I'm having difficulty getting the pictures from John's phone onto the computer. You'll probably be reading some random San Diego posts for a little while. These are the three pictures I was able to transfer during this sitting. It took foooorrrrreeevvvvver. So I'm done for now.

Fall Break

Last week was my fall break and for the first time since we've lived in Arizona, John took some time off during the break and we went on vacation together to San Diego. It was a fabulous time.

Most of our pictures are on John's phone so I'll show those to you guys later. Here's one from my phone on our patio. We stayed at the Marriott on Coronado Island. The bridge behind us is the bridge between San Diego and Coronado Island.




We had just had some wine so we were a little purple teethed. My teeth especially absorb red wine like nobody's business. I find it a little embarrassing.

Here's the major highlights of our trip:
Monday: Sea World

Tuesday: A surrey ride to the beach

Wednesday: Witnessing illegal octopus fishing while waiting for the ferry, the exploration of a retired aircraft carrier

Thursday: A casino stop before the trip home

The whole trip was wonderful but if I had to pick my favorite, it would be the surrey ride. The back of the surrey should have said, "The Memory Maker". Instead of, "Follow me to the Marriott."

Closing...finally

On Friday John and I closed on our house. The keys have been passed on to the new, very excited owners and we are now able to begin making this new place of ours a home.

All of our extra time lately has been given to getting our old house ready for the new owners. It was a beast of a job. We have so much stuff. We got rid of a lot of things but we both feel like there's so much more we can get rid of.

Goodwill is going to continue to receive a majority of their merchandise from us for a while.

Anniversary Weekend

Friday was our anniversary. We both worked all day but after work we went to our staycation destination-The Talking Stick Resort and Casino. We LOVE staying there.

We had a great table at the Orange Sky restaurant. It was in front of a window overlooking Camelback Mountain and a lightening show. We couldn't see anyone around us because we were sectioned off with curtains.




After dinner I unbuttoned my pants and took a nap on our little sofa. Not really. That would be crazy...but it did cross my mind.

Another year, another fancy dessert with writing on the plate.




After a great evening of dinner and gaming we got to wake up to this view...




I would love to spend every weekend at a resort. That would be fabulous. Next weekend will be a much different weekend than this weekend. We've been slowly moving into our new place (still staying here though) but next Saturday the movers will be coming and taking our furniture and everything left over to the new place.

It will be a bittersweet day for sure.

Our New Digs...

On Friday John and I got the keys for our rental house. We had only seen it online so we were anxious to go check it out. We LOVE it. This will definitely do for us for awhile.

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We made several trips this weekend to unload our things. Tomorrow John is going to schedule the movers for our furniture and larger items. We're so excited to have found such a nice place to live.

Tonight on Etsy I bought a small sign to hang on the doorknob of our guest bathroom door. It says, "Hot Baths 25 cents". I also want to buy a sign to hang on our laundry room door but John and I haven't come to a complete agreement yet. He's not so into the ones that say things like, "Laundry Today or Naked Tomorrow" or "Drop Your Drawers Here."

We did find this pretty sign...




We both really like it so it may beat out the others.


Maryellen

Kita Scare

On Thursday Kita gave us the biggest scare she's given us since she's been our girl (December 1998).

When John got home from work she wasn't at the door waiting for him so he went looking for her. He found her in the backyard in the area she uses for the restroom. She wouldn't come to him. When she finally got up to walk her whole body was crooked and she was having a lot of difficulty.

I got home a little bit later to find a young guy evaluating our house (home inspector for the new owners) and John looking very relieved that I was home. He told me about Kita and we went to the bedroom where she was resting. She got up to come to me and I immediately started to cry. She looked so strange and confused. I really thought she was dying.

When the new owners came to the house to talk to the inspector, we took Kita to the animal emergency room.

This is a picture of her while we were waiting...

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See how crooked her head is? Watching her walk was like watching an extremely drunk person trying to walk in a straight line. We thought that she had a heat stroke. We were wrong, thank goodness.

The sweet, young (very young) vet said that Kita had old dog vestibular syndrome (vertigo). This goes away on its own anywhere from two days to two weeks. She ran some blood work to make sure that nothing else is going on with her and said she could go home with us. The only medication she needs right now is medication for motion sickness. That seems to be helping her a lot.

Kita is still crooked but she's getting better every day.

It's amazing how animals become part of your family. Kita is definitely a very important member of ours. I'm so happy she'll be with us for awhile longer. I'll be a basket case when she's not.

Maryellen

Naked Alphabet People

Tomorrow I'm going to have my students make letters with their bodies. I had found an idea somewhere in cyberspace to make human alphabet soup. I wanted to show my students a picture of human letters.

This is the first picture I came across...



It made me laugh out loud but I think I better keep looking.

What's Up With My Immune System?

I just don't know. I hardly ever get sick. I get periodic headaches but getting sick doesn't happen to me very often. Saturday morning I woke up feeling "weird". By the afternoon I was feeling like I could be getting sick. By Saturday night I was a post nasal drip mess and by Sunday I was full on sick with a temperature.

This is what happened to me Saturday night when I jammed my baby toe into an old stereo...

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I wish I could say that I didn't scream any obscenities when it happened but I can't. Not only did I scream an obscenity, but I screamed the worst one of all. I'll give you a hint: it rhymes with buck.

Update on my ailments: I'm on the mend. My toe is healing, my temperature is gone and I can almost use my nose for breathing again. Right on time for back to work.


Maryellen

Swimming

Today will no doubt be filled with packing, packing, and a little more of you know what. I would like to take intermittent breaks and go swimming even for just a few minutes at a time. We haven't swam in over a week now and I'm going through withdrawals.

We didn't even go swimming in Las Vegas last weekend even though we had plans to do so. The reason is that in the late afternoon the pool at Treasure Island is full of young guys and gals trying to hook up. They all have adult beverages that they're consuming. I'm sure that most of them urinated in the pool.

I think if we had gone swimming there even before the daily mack sessions, it would have burned while we peed for at least a week afterward. I'm serious.

I might be getting sick. Here's my symptoms: sore throat, somewhat of a stuffy nose and a headache. I'm sucking on a halls and I've taken some headache medication. I hope I start to feel better soon or I'm going to have to skip the packing. Darn.

Back to School Shopping

Yesterday I hit the stores to find some basic teacher clothing that will be my uniform for at least until November when it gets kind of chilly around here. I bought a pair of black slacks, two skirts and a shirt.

When I got home I went through my closet to see if everything still fit. I put on this one skirt that I haven't worn for awhile but I wasn't sure why because it's really cute and basic (like most things I wear) so if I wanted to I could really get a lot of use out of it.

Well, when I put my legs in it and started to pull it up it became extremely obvious why I wasn't wearing it. I couldn't get it around my ass. I even looked at the zipper to make sure it was unzipped all of the way. It was.

I waddled out to the living room to show John. He laughed. It's okay, I was laughing too.

He's the best husband in the world because I said something like, "Can you believe how small I had gotten?" He said, "Yeah, you had gotten a little too skinny." He prefers how I look now. Big ass and all.

The Deepest Kind of Sleep

I am a deep sleeper. I mean a really, really, really deep sleeper. I'm such a deeper sleeper that I wake up still exhausted even after plenty of sleep and if I wake up during the night I'm completely confused. John has gotten used to this confusion so it doesn't phase him at all.

Last week I went to bed before he did and after about thirty minutes of snoozing I woke up thinking I was choking. I screamed out to the living room, "John!!! Help me!!" He came to the bedroom and I said, "Just you! Just you! Shut the door." He assured me that there was nobody at home except him and Kita. He also assured me that I wasn't choking. I said, "Oh. Ok." Then went back to sleep.

Last night during the middle of the night I woke up in a puddle of sweat. I was so wet with sweat that in my confused state I thought John had poured water on me. So I woke him up and asked him if he had poured water on me while I was sleeping. He calmly and sweetly said that he didn't do that. I put his had on me so he could really understand why I had made that claim. Again, he was completely cool about the whole thing even though I had made him touch my sweat. Gross.

My Boyfriend

Check him out ladies. Do you know who this hottie is? Bradley Cooper! I met him in Las Vegas at...

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the wax museum. I know, bummer. Isn't he so handsome? It was kind of freaky because he looked so real. If he had been real he would have been the best looking celebrity I've ever met in Las Vegas. In 2005 I met Richard Kind in the Southwest terminal at the Las Vegas airport. He was definitely nice but not quite as fine looking as Mr. Bradley Cooper.




Don't you think it would be very strange to have a replica of yourself made out of wax? If I had a wax version of myself I think I would want to be posed doing the wiggle dance.



Maryellen

There's Always Something

John sent me four potential rental houses (we'll be renters again for a little while-don't worry, it's a good thing for us) for us to move to. We're moving soon, but we're not sure where yet. We haven't hit panic mode yet so we're being somewhat choosy.

I decided to drive to all of these places before calling to make an appointment to have a tour. Boy that was the right thing to do. One was placed right up to Highway 60, another one was on a street that was so narrow two cars wouldn't be able to pass each other at the same time, the third one was a little too far out from the places we work but the 4th one was pretty nice.

I looked at the 4th one online again when I got home from my parade of homes. It looked pretty crappy on the inside. I don't think it's been updated since it was built. Believe me, a little updating for this place would be very good.

We found a perfect place last week and were the first ones to fill out an application. We thought all systems were a go until the property management lady called to tell me she couldn't process our application.

Here's the reason:



Apparently, Kita's mixed with something that the company thinks is aggressive. I really fought for our girl but no dice. So the search continues.

Testing

I want my comments back but I'm having trouble. Let's see if this works...

our weekend view

Ah, Vegas. We love that place. We stayed at treasure island. I now want a treasure island bed. It was like sleeping on a giant pillow.

I've never gone to Vegas and had a bad time. I just don't think it's possible to have a bad time there. My only regret from this weekend is that I didn't get my picture taken with the mini Elvis. I totally missed my chance.

Maryellen

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barrel of monkeys

At the bottom of our sticker drawer I found these little guys. This turned out to be a very fun drawer. It was definitely better than the utensils drawer. No surprises there.

Maryellen

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Blogs I Follow

I'm going to be removing the blogs I follow. I'm still going to be following these blogs but I'm not going to have them posted on my page anymore. So, if you come to my blog to check out one of the cool people on my list I'll give you some time to bookmark them before I take them off.

Comments

I decided to disable my comment section. If you want to email me I think you all have my email account. I have a new one I use for discounts but if you want to email me on it you can.

maryellenmaxfield@rocketmail.com

The Kitchen is Closed

We're moving soon. Very soon. So, I've been kicking it up a notch with the packing since I'll be back to work on the 3rd. The packing is going great. We're more than half way done except for the walls. Our walls are still decorated (except for the dining room) and they will be until we're ready to move.

I completely packed up our dining room on Monday and stripped the walls of art work. The result was I got pretty teary. So from then on I have left the walls alone and my tear ducts have stayed clear.

Today I packed up the kitchen. I made a bunch of burritos before I shut her down. I should have planned better and cooked something more exciting for the last meal I cooked in our kitchen like Julia Child's beef bourguignon.

Maybe I'll just have to save that meal for the first thing I cook in our next kitchen.

My French

Have you ever said something to someone and got a laugh and then you said the same thing to someone else and got nothing? Well, apparently that's not the case with my French. I've shown off my skills twice and have gotten a laugh twice.

Last night we were watching the U.S. women play France. Inevitably I started speaking French. I said, "Oooooo Fondue...." in my best French accent. I would have continued with words like plie and pirouette but I guess all John needed was fondue because he started laughing.

If he likes my French then he'll LOVE my Chinese.

3:36 a.m. is Way Too Early

This morning I was woken up by loud thunder and Kita making her way in between John and me on the bed. She was scared by the thunder. I was happy by that because our old girl can't hear too well these days so it's great when she shows us that she hasn't completely lost her hearing.

It was also raining. Thunder and rain in the morning is one of my very favorite things especially living out here in the Sahara. However, it just happened too early. When I woke up a couple of hours later the rain had stopped. Boo to that.

Saturday Doing Nothing...

Well, not completely nothing. In the morning I used up all but the last ten minutes of the four hours given to me to take my elementary education proficiency test. Um, I may be taking that again. It was kind of hard.

The rest of the day John and I spent at home doing things like playing Texas Hold'em. I lost. Our bets: John wants to give me another golf lesson (I lost a previous bet). I told him he didn't have to make that his bet because I would do that anyway. He said he wanted a guarantee. Probably a smart idea. My bet was for a romantic comedy that he had to watch with me without making jokes about it.

We also watched several episodes of Party Down and ordered pizza. It was really relaxing. We haven't had a Saturday like that in a long time. Last Saturday we were in Texas, the Saturday before that at a wine tasting party in a land far, far away (Peoria), the Saturday before that we were in Ruidoso and the Saturday before that my brother and his family were in town. My memory is a little foggy about any other Saturdays.

There's a free viewing of Frida's story at the Phoenix Art Museum today. John asked me if it was the one with Madonna. Aw, I love John.

A Thing

John says that I always need "a thing". Something that guides me through my day to days. I have to agree with him. Some of my things came from places like Hawaii when I came back with the Aloha spirit. I was so at peace with everything until I went back to work in triple digit temperatures and my Aloha spirit was murdered.

For many years I adopted Lee Iococca's proactive way of listing six things in a day that he needs to get done and then prioritizing them. The thinking is that if you get through all six things then you can make a new list. If you only get through one or two things then at least you've done the most important tasks of that day. I've been doing this for about six years. That thing is done.

I've even tried to do the seven habits of highly effective people. I hope my principal isn't reading this but that's a little too involved for me.

My two new things have come from the Zen Habits and Martha Beck who writes for the O magazine. From the Zen Habits I was very interested in an article about living without goals. The thinking here is that if we're so focused on certain goals then we've already pre-determined our path and it's difficult to let other experiences into our lives. Or we're so focused on achieving that we don't appreciate the experiences that get us there. Another thought is that if we don't succeed in the goals we've made then we're disappointed but if we didn't make the goal in the first place we can't be disappointed. If you would like to read the Zen Habits post you can click here.

My other new thing is Martha Beck's thoughts on what to do if you want to change the behavior of a loved one. The answer is to love them and not give a damn what happens to them. If you want to read that article you can google Martha Beck unconditional love. I tried to put the link for you but there was an error.

I think that my two new things are very much related. Both of them involve not setting expectations.

Well I'm off to do...something.


The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.-Albert Einstein

Life Lesson Learned at Little Caeser's...

Here's the lesson: If someone holds the door for you before going into an establishment make sure you say thank you loud enough for the person to hear you. If not you will for sure be told, "you're welcome" twice in a tone that really says, "a thank you would be nice b!@ch."

John with Another Mare

Last weekend we went to Ruidoso, New Mexico, for a wedding. It was at a friend's property that was really lovely. It had a beautiful view of the mountains. My favorite though was John with this girl...

Looking good Johnny...and Mare.

Turning 34

A week from Monday I'll be turning 34. I know many have said it before but it's still true, I can't believe I could be on the show Thirty Something. I used to think those people were so old.

I was going to re-cap pictures from my thirty somethings birthday pictures but they're not on this computer. So we're left with one picture from last year. This picture was taken soon after my 33rd b-day.




It's kind of a goofy picture which is fitting since I'm kind of a goofy person. I was a little nervous about eating my Surf n' Turf plate. My Surf was a little pokey.

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little boy in a big jacket

Last weekend we were in ruidoso for a wedding and got to be cabin mates with john's sister and her little Cutie. M was amazed by john's jacket. He wore it until he inevitably tripped and fell. Luckily he just fell into the sofa.

Don't worry family, I didn't laugh until I knew he was ok.


Maryellen

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Summer Vacation...

It's a beautiful thing. I love summer and I think summer loves me back. She gives me more sleep, more time to spoil myself and John, more time to see family and friends and she allows me to take time to appreciate what I do for a living.

I really do love teaching. I just also love a long break from it every year. Yay, summer.

Have you been watching The Voice? If not, you should start now. It is a fantastic show.

it's summer time

Friday was my last day until August. It was crazy hair day. Color hair spray turned out to be crazy itchy.

While john and I were eating breakfast today he said he thought I should just take it easy today. I like that idea a lot.

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master

I'm going to frame this and send it to my momma.

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Mother's Day

Mother's Day is a loaded holiday when it comes to emotions. It brings up emotions about the past, the present and the future.

Here's our Mother's Day photo.





Happy Mother's Day!

Mysterious Upload

Last night on our way home from some friends' party for their one year old, I took my picture...ok, pictures with John's cell phone. I do that from time to time. Today when I logged onto Facebook here this picture was.

I didn't upload it. Later, when I asked John about it he said he didn't upload either.



Conclusion? His phone is haunted.

Are you there blog friends? It's me, Maryellen.

Hi Guys. I think I've turned into a pretty pathetic blogger. I've been crazy busy lately but I know you all have been too so I have no excuse.

Today is pretty chilly and rainy out here (currently 46 degrees) so I'm taking advantage and wearing my current favorite sweater. After this weekend I probably won't be able to wear it again for another year.




Last night I ate a pasty for the first time. Delicious. Any Pulp Fiction fans out there? I had a Royale with cheese. That was a tasty burger...pasty.

Update

Last week was my spring break. It began in Texas where John and I got to see my sister and her family. Eliza is a truly delightful little girl. I think I'd be saying that even if we weren't related. We also spent time with some of John's side of the family. They only live six miles away from Jen. Amazing and very lucky for us.

The middle brought on some feeling under the weather and then the end of it brought cleaning and errands. I LOVE spring break.

Here's a joke I put in John's lunch bag yesterday:

Two peanuts walked into a bar. One was a salted.

I have a strange fascination with peanuts walking into bars jokes. I have more if you'd like to hear them.