Saturday, January 24, 2009

Hiking at South Mountain

So, I have told you previously that I have been hiking with a friend, several times a week and have meant to get pictuures. Well, here are a few. We are fortunate enough to live just 5 minutes from this park, 'South Mountain Park' it is called, and so it is very convenient. In the summer time we usually go at 5 am, but in the winter it is too chilly at 5am, so we go at 8am. Much nicer. Now, those of you who live in the northern areas of the country, where you are dealing with the cold and snow, sorry....these pictures were taken a few days ago, when it was a balmy 60 degrees at 8 am. Gotta love Phoenix winters!



Above is a view from the first part of the trail.. we have about 1/2 mile of this semi-paved trail, and then it turns into dirt/rocks. The goal is the dip or bottom of the 'v' where the sky meets the mountain.




About 3/4 of the way up the mountain, I needed a breather and took this of our state plant.... the saguaro cactus. This is a fairly young one, only a couple hundred years old or so. ;-)





This is a view from the top... well, the first stop. you can continue which we do sometimes do, but lately we have stopped here and headed down. You can see the trail below. It is quite the hike, and I am surprised my heart hasn't given out yet. Apparently the more we do this, the easier it is supposed to get.... hasn't happened yet!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

puppy

By the way, the puppy is a male. Haven't thought of a name yet, just waiting til something jumps out! Any ideas??

Monday, January 19, 2009

A new years goal...

What is it about a New Years? It is a strange phenomena, one day (Dec 31) we are burdened down with the economy, elections, the housing crash, weight gained and lost and gained, sorrows and joys we felt the last 12 months, and then bam...we go to sleep and wake up the next morning (Jan 1) feeling renewed... like all our previous cares of the day before are gone. When in reality, it is the same week, and we still have our burdens, but for some reason we feel hope for better things to come. We feel like we can set goals and succeed, we look forward to writing a new year on our checks just because it's tomorrow.

I must admit, I am terrible at goal setting and every January, I sit down and write down my goals. This works for a week or two, and then I go back to my old self and go back to my old, habitual ways.

Well, this year, may be the same, but I have a new incentive. I only tell you this because, I am hoping that if I write it down and somebody besides myself reads it, then maybe I will work harder to achieve this. Now if you know me well, you know that I HATE my teeth. Yep, they are not teeth I can be proud of, and for years, I have envied anyone and all who have shiny white, straight, perfect teeth, well perfect in my eyes.

So, my good husband has challenged me...now it wasn't entirely his idea, I planted it in his mind not really realizing it, but it is brilliant. Now again, if you know me well, or not so well even, you know I HATE to exercise and diet... and I have battled with my weight for years now, only to become a living yo-yo. You ask, 'what does this have to do with my teeth?". Well, I will tell you.

The other day, we were driving home from Vegas and I mentioned to Jamie that I would LOVE to have a nice set of teeth....not dentures, but I wished my teeth were different, white, lovely etc...He told me that if I can get down below a certain weight, (no, I am not telling you, but trust me it is substantial), that he would pay for me to get my teeth fixed, capped, veneered, or whatever.

Now he didn't tell me this, because he thinks I am a fat slob, but because he knows I am trying to lose weight and have had trouble with finding an incentive to lose it. So in front of the 12 people or so that read my blog...I am going to strive for this goal, however long it takes! I am hoping though, that by June I am well on my way, because I have a cruise to go on!

Puppy love

Kattie the mom...she is a beautiful dog...we fell in love with her and her pups. Ours is the one in the middle -bottom of the picture...


Today is Martin Luther King day and since Jamie had the day off we drove down to Tombstone, AZ to look at some Springer Spaniel puppies. We have been contemplating on getting a dog again, and have narrowed it down to a Golden Retriever (Jamie's favorite) and a Springer Spaniel (smaller and what I am leaning towards). Jamie coerced his parents into driving down with us, which was a lot of fun, and we went down to check out the puppies.





It's our new puppy....well almost!



After driving 3 hours we arrived at the breeders home. We instantly fell in love with Springers, they were all so sweet, and loving and friendly. Once we saw the puppies, I knew this is what I wanted. Two hours later, we walked out of the house as future Springer Spaniel owners. We found a puppy we loved, and put a deposit down on it. We will be able to pick it up the end of February.


Front view of our puppy.





Sleeping puppy