The proposal

I started my new job on Oct 14th. But that isn't the only exciting thing that happened that day. I got home and Nick met me in the garage as I pulled in, he was all dressed up and freshly shaved (aka looking super fine) and asked if I'd go on a date with him to celebrate my new job. We went out for sushi and had a great time. On the way home he stopped off at the big park in Anthem and said he wanted to go for a walk. I didn't want to go because we had been working out all week and my legs were killing me but he insisted. So we walk to this cute little bridge with waterfall behind it and we're hugging and just being in love.

Nick gets down on his knee and begins to tell me how much he loves me. I thought he was joking for a minute because he keeps telling me he's going to mess with me about proposing like Jim did with Pam on the office. But then he pulls a little box out of his pocket and asked me to marry him! YES! Of course!

And so, I will soon be Mrs. whateverwedecide. Nick has decided he wants to start our own legacy with our family. So we're going to choose a last name and use that when we get married.

Rocky Point

Last month Nick gave his friend Zach a call just to check up and say hi and whatnot. Zach says he's headed to visit his girlfriend in Rocky Point, Mexico this weekend and invited us to come along! It just so happened that we were on vacation but had decided to stay home with all the house purchasing stuff going on. What a great getaway!

I didn't realize that Rocky Point is really only like 4 hours south of Phoenix so the drive out wasn't too bad. It was raining a lot though and when we got into Mexico the roads were so bad most cars couldn't get through. Zach had a huge (like I needed a running start to jump into this thing) truck so we made it through.

So his girlfriend lives down there and we were going to be staying at her house for the weekend. She actually lived on a little "estate" with her house, the guest house/garage and her parents house. The A/C in her house was out so we stayed in her parents house. The place was AMAZING. I'm going to avoid posting a bunch of photos of their home on the internet but here's the view from the kitchen overlooking the ocean.

The whole weekend was so relaxing. We did a lot of swimming, drinking, eating and lazing around. It was absolutely perfect. Lucky for us Zach and his girlfriend are wine lovers like we are and he brought a bunch of wine from Caduceus with. I think my mouth was purple all weekend lol. 

This photo was taken first thing in the morning, the tide rolls in through the day and all that rock behind us eventually gets covered in water. So we took a morning stroll down to the water and as we were standing there the water kept getting deeper and deeper, it was pretty neat.

All of the things.

Pretty exciting last couple of months! After a rollercoaster of a closing process, we actually did buy the house I posted about before. Its everything I thought it would be. We have so much more room, an amazing yard and we live in the most beautiful community. I couldn't be happier. I love taking this next step on our lives together. This weekend we spent time working on the yard and doing odd things around the house like putting together dressers and hanging up the TV.
Its an awesome feeling, but the thing that makes it best is doing it with Nick. Never in my life have I felt so right-in-step with another person. It was always me following them or them following me all while struggling to find a happy medium. With him, there isn't a question, we are simply on the same page or we work together to make things happen.

Another super exciting development is that I got a new job. I hadn't been happy at my previous job for some time. Not so much the job but that the job wasn't going anywhere, I felt like I had no room to grow and nobody supporting me if I did want to move up. Its a bad feeling and it was making things really hard for me. So I started applying to a few banks that I thought would be a good fit for me. I loved banking but I never thought I'd find a company I believed in and actually liked working for as I did with BB&T. Well, I found a couple of credit unions and one bank and just kept applying at them and a few other various places to see what was out there. I got a call from my new employer telling me that the job I applied for was really meant to be filled internally as it was an operations role and they wanted someone who knew their bank policies first hand. However, they liked my resume and asked if I'd be interested in working in a branch again. Of course I would! My interview was for an assistant position but when I got there they said they had a manager spot open and I interviewed for that. I start October 15th.

As you might imagine the last couple months have been pretty crazy. Hopefully, once I fall back into some semblance of a routine I'll be able to blog a little more! But today I am going to spend outside. Its finally down to the 80s here in sunny Arizona and my beautiful backyard has gotten overgrown so I'll be pruning and trimming to my hearts content all afternoon.

Mystery Uncovered!

A while back I posted about my dad telling me that the swings at the park were "doggie swings" because they had 4 holes. My sister Michelle uncovered their real purpose and melted my heart when she sent me this photo of her twins Tanner and Olivia yesterday.

A House!

This last week or two has been crazy! Tuesday the 31st we decided to meet a Realtor and look at houses. Literally the first house we saw was THE one. We're in the house looking around and an AZ monsoon hits!  So we got trapped in the house for an extra 30 mins or so, then the roads were so flooded we couldn't leave Anthem or go look at any other houses. We decided to have some dinner and see if it let up, it finally did and we were able to see 2 more homes but they just didn't even compare. 

So we slept on it and discussed the options and finally decided to put in an offer. At first the sellers said flat out no. We were asking for nearly 10k under the asking price and the current price had already been marked down about 30k. Its a great home. We have a great lender/Realtor team and together they worked out a deal for us. 

At this point, we've had our home inspection and the inspector said "this is the nicest home I've done in three weeks". He said it was a great first home and we will have very little to fix before we move in. There's 4 tiles loose on the roof and the outlets in the kitchen are GFS protected in places they shouldn't be. Everything else is cosmetic like chips on the patio and scratches in the tile. 

We are very excited. The only things we absolutely have to purchase are a washer/dryer and a fridge. There's a fridge in the garage but its small and doesn't match the kitchen. We got a great deal from a local appliance store since we'll be buying everything from there. 

The last hurdle is the appraisal. What we need is an appraisal to come back saying the house is worth what we're paying for it and we're done. The house is ours. FINGERS CROSSED. If that goes through we could move in as early as the 20th. In literally 20 days we decided to buy a house, found one and bought it. Like I said, its been a crazy couple of weeks. 

If this house doesn't work out, its not a big deal. There's a lot of homes out there and since we're already through the loan underwriting and stuff, if we have to put in another offer it'll go even faster. Truth be told, I secretly hope this is the one. I can see us living there. 

One step closer to the amazing future of Nick and Stephanie. 

I once visited a crematorium where they gave discounts to burn victims.

So, awesome news! Nick and I have been looking for a new apartment because our lease is up. We are doing great with our budget and decided to treat ourselves to this beautiful apartment complex in North Phoenix. This place is amazing. Not just the apartment, but the views, the amenities, everything! We went in there based on the price on the website but we were told that the price online was based on a 6 month lease and included $83 off a month based on this $500 program they were doing. Our rate was higher because we wanted a 12 month lease and the $500 had to be stretched over 12 months instead of 6. We were a little miffed but had talked ourselves into the place so whatever, we signed anyway.

 Nick decides to call the corporate office and verify the website prices and lo and behold they tell us that the prices are based on 12 months and do not include the $500 bonus! So he calls the apartment manager back who tells him "thats incorrect, we post the prices that way as a marketing scheme to get people to call". Little did they know we had both calls recorded. So he contacted the regional manager and told her about the little "trick" and asked for our money back and to be let out of our lease. At first she said no but Nick politely reminded her that this is false advertising and could be considered bait and switch since their website clearly stated "Prices based on 12 month lease" and had the "sign now and recieve a $500 bonus!" but never mentioned it was already included in the price. They did.

 The silver lining to not getting our dream apartment is this: WE DECIDED TO BUY A HOUSE! I am over the moon excited. We've been looking at homes online and in the town we want to buy all week and tonight we're meeting with the Realtor! So for now, I think we're going to sign a 6 month lease and stay in our current place while we shop for our first home together!

 Lastly, I teased Nick that I would blog about this.
 I was watching Nick play Fallout 3 the other day and his Wadsworth told him this joke "I once visited a crematorium where they gave discounts to burn victims.".
Me: *giggle*
Nick: *Stoneface*
 Me: Don't you think that was funny?
 Nick: No, it was kinda dumb.
 Me: A crematorium is where they cremate people...
Nick: Oh...well its pretty funny then.
Me: ...
Nick: I thought a crematorium was a place where the sell salves and lotions.

 hehe.
 Now every time I want to buy lotion I'm going to tell him I'm on the way to the crematorium :P

Chicago (better late than never!)

Its a bird, its a plane! Its SUPER STEPHANIE! Just kidding. That was me at the Mythbusters Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Just part of the amazing vacation Nick and I took back home to visit the family. PS my family loves Nick as much as I do. Mom calls him her son, Dad said I could marry him and my sisters have their kids calling him Uncle Nick (though as soon as they can talk they shall call him Uncle PoopyPants MUAHAHA). Who wouldn't love this silly bearded fuzzy man peach??

Anyway the whole trip was a blast. We flew in on a Saturday and spent the first two nights downtown at the Wheeler Mansion. We decided to make our own pizza tour but got full after the first two stops! Spent an entire day at the Museum of Science and Industry and our final day in the city walking around Millennium Park and visiting the Bean

After that we headed down to Kankakee to visit my family. Our first couple of nights were spent at my sister Michelle's house so we could spend some time with her sweet baby twins Tanner and Olivia.

Then we headed out to my grandpa's farm and saw his bunnies and horses. Short visit with Brian and Cody and the last night was at my dads house so I could see my cool little brother Jake. I got him a new board game called Tiki Mountain and he made me a home made chia pet!

Of course its grown since then... All in all it was a great trip!

C25K

I am excited to say that I have finally completed C25K! This is an app for your phone that helps you run for a full 30 minutes at the end of 9 weeks. I have been working on completing this program for longer than 9 weeks though. It all started in 2010 when I decided to start running. I would fall on and off that wagon for various reasons, mostly my lack of initiative and inability to truly push myself.

When I met Nick I told him about the program and he agreed to run it with me. We had a rocky start where we would both find excuses to not run and when 2012 hit we agreed to become serious about it. We were at week 4 at that point. A couple weeks into January I sprained my knee on a trampoline and we had to take a couple of weeks off for me to heal. After that it was on. We committed to three times a week no excuses. We stopped other hobbies just to make sure we could make time to run and I am pleased to say that on March 3, 2012 we completed Week 9, Day three with a full 30 minute run!

Running is no longer a struggle for me. It feels good and even when I don't feel like running after I get started I remember how much I love it.

In an effort to not give up we have just started the follow up program B210K.


In just 6 short weeks we should be running a full 60 minutes!

My personal goal is to be able to run in a Mud Run by the end of summer. They look like so much fun and I want to be in great shape so we can run, hike, climb and do all kinds of fun outdoors stuff without worrying about being too out of shape for it.

*Note, thought I am running for 30 minutes now my pace isn't fast enough to actually go 5K but the more we run the faster our pace gets. So if you're looking to do this program too, don't get discouraged. Get the time down and the distance/pace will come with it!

Pandemic

One of our new favorite board games is Pandemic. Its a 4 player game where you all work together to cure 4 viruses spreading across the world. Each player draws a role and not all roles are used, makes each game a little bit different! You travel the globe healing the diseases before the spread too fast and try to minimize outbreaks as you search for the cure. Its pretty challenging, there are several different ways to play to make the game more or less challenging.



Well, as it turns out, Pandemic has an expansion! I just got it and can't wait to play it. There's a new virus strain out there, a new way for the disease to mutate, new and improved roles and a bio terrorist role so one of your team is actually working against you! OMG!

First Vacation of the Year!

We decided to pack up the pups and take advantage of having a three day weekend! After over a year of living in Arizona I finally made it up to the Grand Canyon. It was awesome!
We left early Saturday morning and headed up to our hotel just outside the South Rim. The more north we got, the colder it was! Then we started seeing SNOW! I never in a million years thought I'd be excited to see snow. It was probably because it still wasn't all that cold outside and so you could actually go out and enjoy it.
We arrived at the hotel and got the dogs all comfy and headed out to Flagstaff.

Flagstaff was fun, lots of little shops and places to see. We had dinner at the Weatherford Hotel. This place was cool, it was a hotel that has been around since Flagstaff was founded, they have 11 rooms, 3 bars and a restaurant. We decided to stay there next time we go to town, the waiter recommended room 42. I think that was a sign this place is going to totally rock.
We stopped at a couple of neat little shops, my favorite was a bath store called Fizz. I got some of those stones you heat up and massage with and some shower steamers. Then we found an awesome candle store, you could actually dip your own candles. Very cool, I got some floating rose candles to float around in my bath.
Before we left we stopped at a coffee house/bar where the waiter was either a total asshole or we were stupid. He asked what we wanted and Nick asked what kind of coffee they had, all he said was "double espresso" so I said ok I would like one with cream, he says "ok double espresso" I'm like, "yes, with cream" then Nick says "I'll have a coffee" and the waiter goes "ok two double espresso". According to the menu they had much more than double espresso so I am not exactly sure what happened there but we had our espresso and went on our way. Totally reminded me of the Coffee Snobs

Sunday morning we woke up extra early and headed to the canyon to see the sunrise. Unfortunately they were having a snowstorm and it was too cold/snowy/cloudy to see anything. So we drove around to the watch points seeing what we could see and learning how to properly layer in freezing temps. We went back to the hotel for awhile and went back to the canyon later after it cleared up.

Lucky for us, Monday was clear and sunny! We got to spend all day on the rim, letting the dogs play in the snow and taking in the sights. All in all it was a great vacation. Here's the album of photos:

Grand Canyon 2012

Christmas/Birthday time of year

If you know me you know I love unwrapping gifts almost more than actually getting a gift! I knew Nick would use that for my Christmas gift, but I had no idea just how far he'd take it. I thought I'd get something that needed batteries and get individually wrapped batteries or something like that. I never expected to wake up and get to unwrap my apartment!!



Aside from that I got an upgrade to my graphics card, some Aperture Science glasses, caffeinated root beer and the best possible thing to drink said root beer from...A replica of the Top Gun Stein from Battlestar Galactica!!! OH and I think he got sick of me taking all his dollars to try and win a DOMO from the crane game at the grocery store, because he got me a lil Domo too :)

I got him the outfit Dexter wears to kill people (he looks incredibly hot in it), a book of photos of us from 2011, a gift card to buy some climbing gear at REI and some tools for his cool new toolbox so he can be manly and fix things.

My birthday is Sunday and in the spirit of never being a real grown up this year my birthday party is going to be at a place called Xtreme Air jump park! My family went in together and bought me a Kindle for my birthday. I opened it by accident the other day thinking it was the Furminator I bought for Ginger and Enzo. Needless to say I was STOKED to find it.

My friend Shannon found a dog about a month ago. He was wandering around her neighborhood for some time so she decided to take him in and try to find his family. He was malnourished and skiddish but she did a good job of making him friendly again. She called Animal Control to see if anyone had reported him and decided not to turn him in because she didn't want to risk having him being put down. Animal control told her to post on craigslist to search for the owner.

She posted on Craigslist and around the neighborhood looking for the possible owners but nobody responded. After about a month of searching she made the decision to go ahead and just keep him. He's a nice guy and makes a good playmate for her other dog.

Yesterday Shannon got a call that her dog was out. Apparently the UPS man didn't close the gate fully after he left a package. Someone read his tag and called her, she was at work so by the time she called back they had called Animal Control to come get him. The animal control person was actually at the house when she called and told her that it was required that he take the dog even though she's on the phone saying she's coming to get him right now.

Upset, she called the police station to see if there was any way they would talk the animal control guy into just letting her have the dog. They agreed and gave an address to meet him at. When she arrived he asked for her ID and when she gave it to him, he refused to hand over the dog because the address on her ID didn't match the address on his tag. Whats worse, is he actually said "didn't you call me a month ago trying to see if someone lost this dog?". He knew she had been taking care of him yet still wouldn't let her have the dog. He also threatened to give her tickets for keeping the dog and for letting it get loose again. He was condescending and very rude about the whole thing. In the end, he took the dog, refused to give her the address of where he'd be and just kept repeating "he'll be at county". "Where is county?" "Maricopa County". Seriously dude?

Anyway. So she's gonna have to pay tickets, fees and fines to get this dog now. A dog she took off the street, tried to find a home for and fed and cared for.

***UPDATE***
Though she had to pay the fines and overnight fees from the pound, they spayed and microchipped him as well. So it ended up being cheaper than a vet visit. A little light for a very upsetting situation..

Also, upon research of the Maricopa County Animal control she found that there was a lot of issues of not giving pets back, putting pets down and just bad customer service all around.

Story about a guy that raised a stray kitten and brought it in for medical help. tl;dr: The humane society took it, wouldn't give it back and put it down within hours of having it.

I seriously have the coolest little brother.

I love having lots of brothers and sisters. I love being the oldest because I got to see each of them grow up and turn into different and interesting people. The youngest of my family is Jacob. He's 11 right now and really starting to take interest in some fun things. I wish I lived closer so that I could be there to show him cool things and see what he does, lucky for us, our dad is a bit of a geek too so he encourages Jake in all his interests.

They were a little disappointed that he didn't fall in love with sports because his older brothers seemed to enjoy them. Dad hoped he would be a boy scout like he was but Jake didn't really like that either. He likes puzzles and creating things, he likes seeing things grow and change, he likes trying things nobody else would. He's going to be something great someday.

Jake started making videos of the things that he did and sending them to me. Dad recorded him on his old Nextel phone from work so the quality is always low. Don't worry, I got Jake something really special for Christmas so we don't have to worry about bad video anymore.

Here are a few of his videos. I've been posting them to YouTube, I think I'm going to make him his own channel.

We've been getting a lot of packages lately! Christmas gifts for each other, for others, from others and things we just order for everyday life. If you know me, you know how much I LOVE boxes. So Nick gets a box from his Reddit Secret Santa. he has me come sit down next to him and see what it is! Oh the excitement!! He opens up Portal Kombat for the game Munchkin Quest.

At first I was like omg what a cool gift I LOVE Munchkin Quest!! But then I realized...wait...I love Munchkin Quest.

The look on Nick's face was priceless. He just opened one of my Christmas gifts right in front of me!!

Needless to say we pulled out the game and he thought he was going to beat me in it so I had to wipe the floor with him. I was an Elf Theif with 4 arms (one coming off my head) wielding (among others) the Sword of Slaying Everything Except Squid! Have I mentioned how much fun that game is?

I have been spending a massive amount of time playing Skyrim lately. I can't get enough of this game. I know this will shock many other players, but I wasn't a huge fan of the previous games. Yes the stories were amazing but the gameplay was just not what I liked. Not to mention archery, one of my favorite skills in games like this, was difficult to use and just not powerful enough. Skyrim does a great job with my fav set of talents: archery, sneaking, one handed, pickpocket and lockpick.

I seriously find myself gossiping about what happened in game. Especially right now, I am in the middle of the thieves guild questlines and its a twisty turny web of secrets and lies! SO much fun.

I like that Nick plays too because we have different playstyles, so I get to see all the ways the game works. I like to talk to every person, do every side quest and really immerse myself in the role playing asepct of the game. I really like that my talent trees are all built off skills I use a lot. Because of this, I level slower and spend more time exploring than killing and pillaging. Nick is on his third playthrough, still looking for the perfect combination of talents to be uber powerful. He spends more time crafting, sticking to quests that reap big rewards and leveling up skill trees.
This game is great for any type of player and its one you'll be playing for a long time. Definitely worth the time and cost.



Another game I've spent a lot of time on lately is Dungeon Defenders. This is the first tower defense game that I've ever played (aside from mini ones on my phone like fieldrunners) so I have no other comparison but this game is SO much fun. The characters are funny little kids that were left alone in a castle and they unleashed an evil they must put back! The montsters are all after a crystal that you have to protect. The original game had a huntress (traps and explosives), monk (auras), squire (spikes and barriers), and an apprentice (missile towers). You can play co-op or alone and if you play alone and have several characters you can switch them out in game. For example, you can have your squire set up the initial blockades, switch to apprentice and get some missile towers behind them and play the course on your huntress. Its really great.

They have had several expansions, adding new maps and characters. Skyrim has distracted me so I haven't spent a lot of time on the more recent stuff :P

Going to bed has become an adventure.

Nick and I moved in together October 1. So far so good except one thing. One of us has to be an adult when it comes to going to bed and neither of us are willing to do it. Here's a typical night:
-We spend about 15-30 minutes talking ourselves out of whatever we're currently doing (playing a game, watching a show, browsing the internet)
-play with the puppies and put them to bed
-get in bed
-talk about what we're going to do when we wake up again
-talk about whatever stems from that
-talk some more
-feet fight, covers war or some other form of silliness
-add 10 more minutes to this if someone farts so we can endlessly giggle about it

seriously. the. worst. :P

Actually things have been going great. We are working hard at making our lil place a home, especially for the holidays. My sister Cyndi came over from Cali to do Thanksgiving with us. Cyndi and I did the sides and Nick cooked his first turkey. It turned out really well. We spent the rest of the weekend shopping, drinking and playing Rock Band.
The Christmas tree is up and we're working on setting up some traditions we can do every year. Its really nice to be able to not only enjoy our current time together but set ourselves up for a great future too.

We went to Illinois for a baby shower in September, that was a lot of fun. My sister Lindsy is having a baby in a couple more months and my other sister Michelle is expecting twins shortly after. I'm going to have 2 nephews and a niece soon!



Aside from visiting family I would say the highlight of the trip was going to Chicago. We spent the entire day exploring the Museum of Science and Industry, walking through Navy Pier and riding the Gondola and getting some delicious food. I miss the food back home.

The mini choppers

I can't seem to hold onto a mini chopper to save my life. Its a small kitchen gadget that chops up nuts, veggies or whatever. So when I first moved into my own house my mom got me one as a housewarming gift. For one reason or another at the following Christmas she bought me another one. I laughed and told this story for years because I thought it was silly.

I moved out of that house when I moved to South Carolina and I didn't take much with me, including my two mini choppers. So when my mom came to visit for Thanksgiving she had to buy me another one. Mom mini chopper tally is now 3.

So I moved out of that house and again didn't take everything, including my poor mini chopper. So Mom came back down to SC to help me get situated and was astounded to find that I again lacked a mini chopper. She bought me my 4th mini chopper.

Mom, ended up staying with me for several months before moving back to Illinois and when she left she TOOK my mini chopper :(

So 4 mini choppers later, I still don't own one and I decided to give up on the idea that I could have one of my own.

Today I'm moving out of my apartment and into another one and I just emptied a cabinet and lo and behold THERE IS A MINI CHOPPER IN THERE. I swear to all things I have never seen this thing in my life. After what I've been through with the other mini choppers, I would know if I actually had one. A mini chopper materialized out of nowhere or someone is playing a joke on me!

Cute idea that turned into a priceless memory

A few months ago Nick took a vacation to Japan to climb Mt. Fuji. We had just begun dating but things were going really well, so I wanted to do something special for him. I decided to get a box of cards and write to him.



I made one card for various points on his trip. They were things like "Open before you leave", "Open before you go to sleep", "Open when you miss me the most", "Open when you get to the top of Fuji" ect..



He loved it!

Just after he returned from his trip I came home from work to a candlelit dinner. On the table was the box of cards I had given him. He had me open each one and inside he had written back to me...



Now we have this adorable box of love letters to each other, one of my most cherished items.

Its here!

One more piece of awesomeness to the board game collection. I present to you...MUNCHKIN QUEST!



Its the board game version of a popular card game called Munchkin. I played it the other night at a friends board game night. Have I mentioned the totally awesome people that I've been hanging out with lately? I never knew I could actually know IRL more than a couple of real geeks but as it turns out, there are TONS!
This game is cool. You start out at level 1 and you spend your three moves exploring a dungeon. Explore a new room and face a monster, each room has a special ability or dis-ability as it were. Cards determine your items, class, race and abilities. Use them with other players or against them! Get to level 10 and face a boss to win. SO. MUCH. FUN!

Bitchin' Text

We are almost through ALL of the seasons of The Office! I love that show, btw. The other night there was a scene where Andy sent Daryl a pigeon text. I wanted to find a video to post here but couldn't, so here's the Wiki:

Andy becomes overzealous about their friendship in "China" by constantly texting Darryl to his annoyance. When Darryl gives Andy an ultimatum that he's one text away from being banned by texting him, Andy wagers it into telling him that his next text will be so good that Darryl will have to high five him. This is proved when Andy finds pigeons eating an ice cream cone and texts Darryl to witness it.

After the scene we're giggling and such and Nick turns to me and says "I'm gonna send you a pigeon text". What I heard was "I'm gonna send you a bitchin' text" which I thought was hilarious and made total sense, I love getting totally bitchin' texts. Apparently in my old age I forgot that bitchin' wasn't what the kids were saying these days.
I think pigeon texts are bitchin' anyway