book review: A Cast of Stones

I really enjoyed this book! It wasn't an entirely new concept and there were some holes in the plot and grammatical errors, but I finished this 428 page book in two days! "A Cast of Stones: The Staff and The Sword" was a mixture of fantasy, adventure, romance, and mystery.

I can't wait for the remaining books in this three book series!

once there was a snowman

We live in Southern Arizona where it is usually sunny and hot. Toward the end of February, we got a little different weather: snow!

I grabbed Corban (notice the shorts) and let him run around in the snow and catch snowflakes. We both got cold and went back inside. 

About 5 minutes later, the snow stopped, melted, and the sun came out again.

craft: TP art

I saw this on Pinterest. I thought it could be pretty cool and started my own collection of TP rolls. I even moved a bag of TP tubes to Arizona when we moved! I started a show on Netflix and started gluing all the cut up TP tubes together.

I glued all the pieces I had cut up and it happened to fit the wall I wanted to put in on--happy mistake! So, after everything was dry and re-glued (my 1 year-old got a hold of it and ripped a couple lines apart) I took it outside and spray painted to look like this:

I didn't really love it. I think I need to paint it a different color. For now, it's resting peacefully in my garage.

counting sheep decor

About a year ago one of my sisters and I were commiserating about a sister in law's etsy shop that is doing pretty well. My sister and I decided that we needed to think of something we were good at and start our own etsy shop. We literally spent an entire Sunday brainstorming ideas and couldn't think of ONE THING we were good at! Maybe we were being too modest. Yeah right!

I don't know how long after that one Sunday, but I eventually came up with an idea! I designed children's art and opened Counting Sheep Decor. Here are two examples of my art:

I offer animals ranging from farm animals, to safari animals, to insects, and miscellaneous animals. I've spent a lot of time researching prices and logistics of how I would/could sell these prints. My successful SIL told me a lot about etsy and everything scared me! 

What if I spent all this start-up money and no body bought anything?

So I came up with another idea: finger puppet patterns. I based the patterns off of my art and made an ebook of 16 patterns, which you can purchase through the link on the side. 

I just recently made this blog public and no longer needed my Counting Sheep Decor blog to sell these patterns. One day soon, hopefully, I'll open an esty shop and sell my children's art! I'll keep you posted.

trees for tucson

I've been clearing rock in our backyard for a deck, garden, and a tree. I used to work for a conservation district in Utah where we held an annual tree sale where you could get A LOT of trees for not a lot of money.

I did some research for my local conservation district and they led me to the website for Trees for Tucson. They work with Tucson Electric Power customers to provide shade trees for your house in hopes of lowering your heating and cooling bills.

We chose the Desert Willow for our tree (our house and yard isn't the biggest so we opted for just one tree). Like most trees in the desert, they aren't very pretty, but they have the cutest flowers that are supposed to bloom all year long. This is what they look like:

We ordered our tree for $8. The Desert Willow, at our local hardware store, cost over $25!

I'm excited for our tree to get here!

AZ wants me dead: Part II

Before I get into Arizona's death wish for me, I want to toot my own horn and show off what I accomplished before I ran into a ginormous spider.

It all started a long time ago ... just kidding. My grandma would try and entice me, my sister, and our friends into picking up rocks from her yard by calling it a rock party! Sigh. It didn't work, but because she was my grandma, of course we helped out. Even my friends. You guys rock! 

Our current back yard is a disaster! The previous owners foreclosed on the house so we got a killer deal, but the contractors and such came and ransacked the place for things they wanted like a patch of fake grass in the back, hence the big, bald, rockless area comprising most of the back. 

I love to garden now, not when I was younger. I love being outside and growing something that wasn't there before and connecting with my maker in different and profound ways. A little nerdy, but it helps me reconnect and be more at peace ... anyhoo. 

My plans for our backyard consist of 2-3'x6' raised vegetable gardens and a pallet deck that you can check out yourself here. So, it's basically spring/summer here (I don't know that AZ has a spring. It's either hot hot or cold) so I took the kids and went outside to weed and move A LOT of rock. 

This is where I started. I had help from both Corban and Jovi but the quickly lost interest and moved on. After a stop for lunch and a stop to put Jovi down for her nap, I made it this far:

This is where the deck and gardens are going. Notice the little pile of rocks in the second picture. Do you see them? I was moving rock when I noticed some weird webbing, like a spider web. Gross. I couldn't handle how much was there, so I moved on, saving that patch for Joe to clear. I'm such a good wife.

The rock party pile, and, of course, Corban conquering the pile! He called it his cave for most of the day--SIDE NOTE: After lunch Corban didn't want to help any more, but play video games. I guess he noticed I wasn't putting the rock on the pile any more, but spreading it across the bald spot. He paused his game, told me to finish his cave, and closed the door. Well. There you go.

I moved on to the other side of the yard where we are going to plant a tree we're getting from Trees for Tucson. I was progressing quickly when I noticed a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye.

Do you remember the scorpion and that flash of movement? I quickly looked down and saw the BIGGEST, the HAIREST, the FASTEST spider I have ever seen. It ran right past my leg and almost up my shorts!!! I was looking right at it when it stopped and I couldn't find it!

Done. I was done.

I dropped my shovel. I took off my gloves. And I haven't gone back outside since.

The rocks are mostly picked up and the weeds mostly gone. I'll head back out eventually. Maybe after a day of swimming.

sonoran hot dogs

Imagine a plain old hot dog. Wrap that hot dog in bacon (does this seem wrong to any one else) and add beans, tomatoes, onions (if you want), fried onions (again, if you want), and a variety of sauces. Put all this into a yummy bun and you've got yourself a Sonoran Hot Dog; put 2 of everything in a bun and you've got yourself a Sammy Hot Dog. And, apparently, they're famous in Tucson.

Joe and I had to try one so we headed over to El Guero Canelo's on Oracle RD, where they are THE BEST. It was a little weird, I'm not gonna lie. All the different textures and tastes. The bacon was a little too flimsy for me, but overall, it was a good hot dog.

Hands down, the best part was the bun! I think I could have eaten three of them! The kids shared a Sammy. This was Jovi's first hot dog ever and she loved it! Corban finished his in record time and asked for another one. Oops. I had a momentary memory lapse and forgot he loves hot dogs and eats 2 at a time. He had a little melt down but Joe and I finished our dogs and we left.

ah-ha moment

I've been married for 6 years this year. And for probably all six years I've occasionally felt that marriage is unfair, unequal, blah, blah, blah. I always felt mad when things weren't going the way I wanted them to, that I had to change (sounds a little selfish) to try and fix it. Why didn't my husband have to work as hard on our marriage as I was?

The truth: he was. He is.

The injustices I kept seeing were failed attempts at communication on my part, on his part, on both our parts. No matter how awesome I am, I can't read minds and never will be able too darn it. If something is bothering me, it's my problem and I need to change or fix it; which could be as simple as asking him about it.

This was my ah-ha moment.