No pictures, sorry.
Yup, a posting is all you get.

Just so you know Briauna this is in honor of you.

Its good to be home.

Thank you Mesa for your warm home coming.

I know I have thrashed talked you, but I'm glad to be back.

Thanks for accepting me again.

A few favorites...

A place to call home, its been awhile.

My place of work.

Its good to be back to working again.

I love all of you that have been in to see me!

Its been fun! I really do love doing hair.

Baxter,

good to have you back Buddy!

Family

Its been a good change on both sides.

My friends!

Tara, Hayley, Briauna,

way too much fun having you home for a holiday visit!

I have missed you so!

Seeing you only reminds me why I love you so much!

I cant go down a list of names here,

but..

There are many who I have loved seeing.

So many of you support, inspire, and just love me.

Its refreshing to be around positive, good friends.

You know who you are!

Having moved for just a few short months was a good experience.

It wasn't easy.

It has challenged me to change a lot.

I'm glad to be back in Arizona.

Were not where we want to be,

but in time we will be.

Its still hard.

I miss my Queen Creek home still.

But for now I am just grateful to know what I have is enough.

My family, a place to live, jobs, good friends!

Its enough.

Coming back

Every time I sit down to write this post I cant seem to do it. I have a hard time with sharing my trials. Others make there blogs look so positive and happy go lucky, that I feel embarrassed to post about my life. But that Is why I guess my blog is called Life as is. This is my life as it is. Life isn't always what I have expected it to be. But I am learning it is only what I decide it to be.

We moved to Utah six months ago. We moved here for several reasons. We had just foreclosed on our home in march, which hasn't been an easy hardship. I hated the fact that we had to move out of our home on someone else's terms other then my own. I have learned many valuable lessons from that home. I still have many dreams that I live there. I actually have had my house key on my key chain the last six months, not having the heart to take it off. Silly really, but I have taken it hard the we foreclosed. I have missed that home tremendously.

We have been extremely fortunate to have family that has helped us these past six months. That is another hardship, having had to learn to accept help when we really do need it. I know that I will never really be able to repay family for the help which they have rendered, for it goes beyond material things. Needless to say, I love my family.

We really moved here because there were a couple of important lessons that we need to learn. I really dont want to go in to much detail, but I feel that I myself am leaving Utah a better person. We have made the decision to move back to arizona. It kinda feels like we are playing a game of musical chairs! I am excited to be coming back. Arizona is home to me. I just wish it wasn't so hot!!

One deciding factor for us to move back has been my job. I have done hair for nine years. I never knew that the decision I made in my youth to go to beauty school my senior year would have such an impact on my future. But I am going back to work and am so excited to do hair again. I have made many good friends from my cliental, it has been such a big part of who I am.

I am excited to be coming back at the begging of September.

We have had to make so many changes in our life this past year that moving back will not be the same. Change is good, not easy, but good. I don't always want to be the same person. I am grateful for the changes that we have made in our lives. Changes which we would not have made if we weren't forced to. So the trials that I have had I know that I should be grateful for them. They have helped make me who I am.

So get ready Arizona here we come (back)!!

Have You Ever

Have you ever let your child dress up for the day?

Well, today I did.

This is what Charlee wore to run errands with me today.

I did get her dressed in normal clothes today.

She loves dress up, it is really one of her favorite things. But because of our current living position , We had to put the dresses away for safe keeping. (Dresses don't hold up on bike rides, sand boxes and so forth :)

But they found there way out today.

So i couldn't say no to her when I said it was time to go and she told me she was "ready".

You cant see the shoes but she even had on her glass slippers that light up!

Yea, alot of people looked at her with either a smile or looked at me to see if I was aware of the cinder girl holding my hand.

Your only a child once, and I am not sure what she will be like in her teenage years, so for now I will take the little girl who wants to dress like a princes .

Hair Day

Um, I'm not sure what to say...

Its pretty bad...

I cried pretty hard...


It's all gone...


Charlee got a haircut. Not done by myself I might add, but by her four year old cousin Lilly.

Short story...

Wednesday morning Joe and I went to the Temple, as soon as we walked out the Temple doors (Literally) I got the call from my sister that there had been an accident. Crying, she informed me that Lilly had cut Charlee's hair. She tried to prepare me for the worst. I have seen a lot of kids cut there hair, but Charlee's haircut was by far one of the worst I have seen. Needless to say, Charlee and I both cried when I got home and saw the damage.




I got right to work trying to salvage what I could...

Her hair turned out better then we all had thought it would. Just don't look to close!

Its pretty short! I had to shave her neck, which made me so sad!! But I say it all the time, hair is hair and it will always grow!

She got in trouble for letting her cousin cut her hair, which I still cant figure out why, but she looks cute. It is taking us a lot of getting use to!

Arizona here we come

I am excited for this coming weekend. We are going home (AZ) for a few days. Joe has an interview with the mesa Police department. He started interviewing with them back in October when they had gone on there hiring freeze. We had all but given up on any police department in Arizona when Joe had gotten a call to finish the process. We are excited to come for a visit, but we really don't want to have any expectations or high hopes for what this could mean for us. Over the past year and a half we have really hit same snags in the career department. Joe is planing on attending a police academy in Utah himself in January. But whatever happens at least we will get a good visit out of it. There are a lot of things that iam looking forward to doing. ( I have a list of things I have missed)

FRIENDS! Tara, Lynsey, Suzanne, you guys are my first stop! I have missed seeing my friends so much. Its funny because I never saw a ton of them but take the option away and It changes things! Tara, I need a major crash course in blogging! Since you are the one to have convinced me to do so. Lynsey, I am a major mess, I need your mad skills to fix me up! Suzanne, I need some vent and laugh time! I have really been blessed with great friends, each one has a history behind the friendship, and no one can replace them! I love you guys!

EATING! Tia Rosa's and Ned's, that's all I need! Utah defiantly lacks in the Mexican food department. Nothing is as good as Ned's some days. Nothing.

SHOPPING! I miss the excellent assortment of Ross and Target. I never went with out with them close by. Let me tell you how much my love of Target has diminished. Target flat out sucks here. It is so depressing that I don't even want to make the trip to the only one in Utah. Its really bad. Sad sad day when I don't want to go to Target.

I am excited to be surrounded by familiar faces, and places. I am squeezing some salon time on Monday, which I am excited about. I miss my salon and all my fun clients. It will be alot of fun to do hair for a day.

I will be sad to leave the nice weather I am enjoying. We went to a swim park yesterday and It was so nice not to cook in the hot sun. It perfect for the pool. I also will miss all the green. Sorry Arizona, but your not very green. Even though I have been with my sister non stop, I will miss her as well. I love being with her because I am always myself with her. She is my sister, she knows me pretty well.

Charlee will love seeing her cousins as well. So many of them are moving to Kentucky, so we don't know when we will see them again. My big hope and wish for this trip is for my sister in law Sallee, to have her baby. It is her first and I would really like to be there to meet him. So it is going to be a nice get away, Arizona will always be my home.

My Four Kids

This past week i have been able to take care of my sisters three kids. (The girl on the left is from next door). Her and her husband left on Wednesday to California for a no kid get away. They return tomorrow (Sunday). Being that I have only one kid, my sister had her doubts about my sanity. But I can say that this week went better then expected. Don't get me wrong, there were moments that I thought I would lose my patients. I yelled pretty bad at my three year old niece when she was found in the car with the garage door opener, playing with it like a video game. She cried pretty hard when I yelled "STOP IT", I felt bad. Or the time I also yelled at the neighbor kid to be nice to the house cat. But I also enjoyed it to. We had fun as well. We took the kids to see up, which I thoroughly enjoyed I must add, played on the slip and slide, and just had fun laughing. It has been a very worthwhile experience.I am very proud of all four kids for how good they were for me. It makes me feel good that my sister and her husband would trust me with such a big responsibility.

And yes I do know that my header picture is off center, I just don't know how to change it. But I am aware!

Day by Day

I suffer from something I call the Statue syndrome. I first realized I had it when I had my Lil girl. I was a new mom, I felt like I didnt know what I was doing. I had a small case of the blues and would cry alot. The first morning I was on my own after I had her, I had fed baby and she was asleep by my side. I sat in bed for two hours wanting to get up but froze, unsure of what to do and what I wanted. I just sat, frozen, until I had wasted enough time and could pulled myself out of it. This went on for a few weeks. I have done this from time to time since. But it has come back, I spend alot of my time in my "statue" pose. It really is a bother. I spend alot of time freezing up. I tend to do it when I am feeling sorry for myself! It doesn't help, it will only make me feel worse. This is a daily occurrence for me now. I find myself unsure of what to do and unsure of what I want, so I will just sit and freeze. I will sit at the kitchen table, or on my bed or just at the computer desk and just do nothing, for a while. Im talking nothing!

I am having a hard time with all the changes. Change is a good thing, just not always easy. I am not working any more. I have enjoyed my time off, but miss alot about it. I haven't really made any friends yet. My poor sister, I am constantly in her shadow and depend on her for entertainment. Things are just different,Its not bad, just different. Thats what moving does.

It helps when I have things to do. One thing that I love to do is drive and see where we end up. Being in a new state, everything is new to us! We love to see what we can find. We drove to Sundance on Sunday and really enjoyed ourselves. The scenery was so pretty, it was a perfect day for an adventure. Today I went and did all my laundry at the laundry mat. Its easier to do it that way then at my sisters. I took my little girl with me, and she had a fun time helping me. It was a great way to teach her about helping with chores. She even thanked me for washing her blanket, which normally its an ordeal because she is so attached. [It was MIA all week because we could not find it, not fun!] It just helps to get out and do something, I'm even thinking about taking an art class, I have beat the Statue syndrome once, I can again!