DONE!!

I am OFFICIALLY DONE!  After 8.5 years, 5 universities, illness, moving 13 times, and lots of lost credits :)  I am done!

I am walking in graduation tomorrow...pictures to come!  WAHOO!  I am officially a Sun Devil Alumn!

Move From El Segunod to Arizona!

Friday December 3 Ted and I made the final decision to move to Arizona from El Segundo, CA.  We threw the idea out that Monday as a joke, but it quickly took form when Ted started to receive job opportunities in Arizona.  We prayed and sat on it for days before making the decision on Friday.  We took no time to figure out we should move the following week when we needed to be in Arizona anyway for Ted to do a presentation and for my graduation (this Friday!).  

The week of preparing for the move was full of 6 classes of finals, papers, and coursework for me.  Ted had a busy school week with large papers and many hours on campus, and not to mention packing!

Things that kept us going:

Baking...yummm I love it!  Ted had been asked weeks before to provide cupcakes for a birthday party at school, I made chocolate cupcakes with a french silk chocolate frosting. 

I found an example of these flags online and just created my own, I personilzed them.  The Yellow ones were for a classmate of Ted - Carrie and the Redish ones were for his professor Dr. June.

I forgot to take a picture of them in cupcake stand, I tried to get a few on my phone waiting to give them to Ted outside of his class.  

Our El Segundo friends, Foti and Sarah took us to dinner our last night in town.

Sarah gave me frame with a picture of us.  (the frame is special because El Segundo is known for having blue butterflies, they are on logos for most everything in the city, I have a special connection to butterflies so it was a little town meant for us!)  Thanks Sar!

Our last night in our little house.  Lola was so SAD :(

Ted finishing homework on our air matress :)

The last stuff to be packed.  

The Trip:

We were lucky to find movers to pack the boxes and furniture and drive it to AZ for us.

Ted drove the truck towing his Ghia with lola and I to AZ on Sunday.  It only took about 6.5 hours.

Our little detour....we were low on gas stopped at an exit, the only place to get gas was at a raceway were people race their dirt bikes and cars.  

The one gas pump with the visible gas tank, I was laughing so hard!

Lola was mad it woke her up

Back on the road we were welcomed to Phx with an amazing AZ sunset!

WE ARE BACK!  Tons to do but lots of time to do it with!

Our Black Friday

This year we have been shopping in the land of recycled.  The day we made the desk (below a few posts) and went alley picking, we found a lot of extra wood as well, we have been hoarding wood :)

For Christmas this year, don't be surprised to get something home made and most likely recycled from us.  So for our Black Friday we worked on our Christmas present to each other, an ottoman (yea no lines!).  We spent about $15-20 on the entire thing, fabric, foam and all.

This is a very multipurpose ottoman, we can use it as a leg rest, we can use it for step ups for our workouts, and it lifts up with lots of storage space underneath (to hide our weights)

What started out as a few pieces of wood

And some tools

Lots of cutting using an impromtu work beanch and me sitting on the wood as a stabilizer (I have to admit I don't love being close cutting objects and I was a little scared as Ted cut it with me sitting on it)

Seeing if the cuts are right 

(Ted is lucky to have mini me wife, I am short enough to fit inside the box ha ha)

Using my yoga skills to hold the wood with my feet and screw it to the larger piece of wood

Then I went off to a fabric store I had seen, we have a similar one in Arizona, best prices on fabrics anywhere!  They get all the factory leftovers.

I was in fabric heaven!  Got the fabric for the ottoman for $10 and it is thick home fabric, they are going to get sick of me at this place!

Then home to sew, and sew and sew some more....

Before the slip cover is on it

Done

Looks pretty nice I think

Relaxing after a long day of building, finally somewhere to put our feet!

Lola is scared of it, she loves the space heater though ;)

The Final Line Up

Here was the final line up of my 24 hour cooking/baking binge:
(Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, honey butter, apple pie, rolls, bread, monkey bread)  It was a lot of fun to make all of it!

Turkey (19lbs!) and Stuffing

Cranberry Sauce, soooo good!

Rolls (first time kneading and making the dough by hand)

(The dough recipe was huge so I made the rolls and the next 2 things all with the same dough!

Bread - Ted couldn't wait for me to take a picture,

he already had a slice at this point :)

Monkey Bread 

Apple Pie (my first lattice attempt)

Here are picrtures from our Thanksgiving dinner that we had with our good friend Katrina and her daughter.  We are lucky that she moved to Cali from AZ a year ago, she has showed us all the ropes, and now she lives within walking distance of our house!

Stuffing

Place Settings - name tags and all

The food

Katrina and Lexie

Ted and I

Before the meal

After Ted and I fed Lola a thanksgiving meal 

(Stuffing, Turkey and Mashed potatoes - just a little)

She LOVED IT!  She liked her bowl clean a few times!

I made honey butter for the rolls it was good!

Ted carving the turkey

Katrina cutting the pies

We had a great time!  It was fun to have a quiet night last night too after the dinner.  

But we did miss our families a lot!

Pre - Thanksgiving

With a recent trip to Boston, Ted and I decided to stay in our little El Segundo for Thanksgiving.  Our friend Katrina and her daughter are going to spend it with us.  I am in charge of the Turkey, Stuffing, Rolls, Home made cranberry sauce, and an apple pie.

I love the look of Thanksgiving in my fridge!

I started with the apple pie yesterday

Made some messes trying to peel them with my hands (that don't work)

But easy clean up so oh well!

Some actually did get in the bowl

Apple pie ready to be latticed....where is Ted to teach me basket weaving.

After a few arguments, I finnally understood what he was saying,

Look I did it!  Aren't you proud Ted!?

Baked and ready to be eaten!

This morning was an early one, stuffing and Turkey

The bread didn't get crispy enough from leaving it out over night.

I resorted to putting a heater on them, and then broiled them in the oven.

Feewww!  It worked!

The goods to put in the stuffing

The bird getting ready.  I learned that if you stick butter chunks under the skin it really helps to keep the turkey moist.  I just slide my hand all over and put it everywhere.  Then I brush the top of the skin with more butter and salt and pepper.  

The stuffing hot off the oven

Stuffed Bird, YUMMM! 

My Grandmother's stuffing recipe, the best!

More to come with the finished products too!

Ted yesterday while I baked he worked.  We have a deal no working today though.