coaching hoop

Wow, it's been two months since I've last posted, that's bad! Chels reminded me yesterday that I need to get on the ball! I got into wedding planning mode and neglected the blog, sorry.

#22 was to get into some sort of regular volunteering. I kind of knew I wanted to try coaching, but I was scared of it at the same time. Well, the opportunity presented itself when I saw that my church, St. John's, was starting up some basketball leagues. I called the director to see if they needed any help, and it turns out that they did for the 11th and 12th grade girls' team! I would be co-coaching with a guy named Ray. Perfect! I could get my coaching feet wet, but have some pressure taken off by sharing the responsibility.

We started in mid-November and it's been fun! Only one practice a week on Wednesday and games on Saturday. It's really laid back, and pretty fundamental. These are the girls that didn't want to play on their high school teams, but still wanted some exercise. We focus on the basics and get really excited when they make a free throw, sooo you imagine my delight when at one of our games last month every single girl scored!!

This also was our first win, so it was kind of a big deal. :] I can definitely see myself doing more of this in the future.

my new cam cam

As you all know, one of my silly little hobbies is to make "movies." Recently, I'd been wanting to step up my game by bringing a better camera into the equation. At first I thought I wanted a strictly video camera, but after some research and especially after having used Lexi's swanky Mark II for "Rain is a Good Thing," I realized that the DSLRs with video are just as good quality, but with the benefit of obviously being able to shoot stills as well.

I had been eyeing the Nikon D700 for quite awhile, which is on my list as #59. Unfortunately, it doesn't have video, so I found the next best camera that does in the D7000. Costco had a bundle special, so I went for it. I've been quite pleased! I'm still working on figuring out how to best control focus especially on moving objects.  I practiced on my pups (which move like crazy), and the below is the result of that exercise. Still need a lot more practice, but it's fun!

a little bit of cheating?

So, two items on my list I didn't do, but they still got done. This past week when I was back home for Thanksmas, Mom fixed the button on my jeans (#31). I didn't help at all, not even give moral support because she did it while I was sleeping. What a gem.

Also, back when I was just getting into the list, Brian solved the mystery of the rattling noise in my trunk (#39). It was just a stinking baseball! Somehow it had gotten into the spare tire storage area, and any time I would break hard, for instance, it would make a noise like something important was loose. Such a good boyfraaaand.

Maybe I'll come up with two bonus goals to do, since I didn't really have a hand in these. Until then, thanks guys!!

JnJnWaldo

2 for 1 tonight folks, aren't you lucky! This one is a recurring goal, which is to keep in touch with/visit Joe and Jannell who are our dear friends (do only grandmas say 'dear'?)...who are our awesome friends that moved to Louisville. Brian, Storm, Turkey, and I went to see them over halloween weekend, and it was a blasty blast. We wore our Waldo costumes to a Mighty Kindness festival, did some serious geocaching, ate a burrito as big as your head, ran the dogs around the park, and devoured some otherworldly icecream and Cuban tapas. The trip, though fast, was simply delightful!

Where is Waldo?!?

Gosh, there he is!

Still don't totally know what this fest was all about, but it was undeniably mighty and kind.

Did you know that Jannell plays the fiddle? She's freaking awesome at it. 

Here's one of her solos with her band Keltricity (rad, right?) at the fest:

We even dressed up the dogs in Louisville.

I didn't get a picture there, but here they are in Jackson.

See, I wouldn't lie to you

and this one just plain cracks me up. :]

golf with dad

oh man, it's almost been a month since I've posted anything! sorry to all of my (three) loyal readers. :]  I have quite a few goals to catch up on that I've accomplished here recently, but first we go back to Arizona...

So, my dad has been taking a little early retirement. He seems to be loving it, and one of the biggest benefits is the time for golf. I knew he liked to play, but I didn't realize how much I guess...he's been playing nonstop!  It's very cool to see him so into it. I also have caught a bit of the golf bug here recently (heck, I was even on the winning team of Hunter's scramble this year, check me out. ;), sooo I thought it would be fun for he and I to play a round together. (#82)

And play we did! We went to Mountain Shadows mainly because it was practically the only course in the whole valley that was open. (Everyone and their mother was seeding the grass.) It's a super short course, but we still had fun. By "we" I mean Dad and I of course, but also Mom and Steve (Lexi's bf) came along. There was some good boys vs girls smack talk going on, but the boys def came out on top. Here are the pics!...

Stevie and Camelback

Get it Gurrrl. She got a golf ball stuck in a palm tree; that takes skill.

Ahhhh, to be in shorts right now! It's freaking 43 degrees here!

the winners

While taking this picture, Dad shouted, "It's a hole-in-one!"  I had to look; what a sucker. :]

apple annie's punkin patch!

Lexi is a senior this year down at the UofA, and I wanted to visit her because I haven't since she's been in school. Soooo, when I was in Phoenix a couple weeks ago, we planned for a day that would fit her schedule and I found 3 road trip buddies to join me: Barbie, Chels, and Jenny...a Moody girls adventure! The night we arrived we got to see her house (so cute!) and meet her roommates (so fun!), and then we headed out for Mexican (so good!). That was followed by some geocaching on campus and then a slumber party.

The next day was when goal #28, shooting pictures with Lex, was fulfilled. For those of you who don't know, Lexi is a very talented photographer. You can see some of her work on her blog here. I've wanted to shoot with her for awhile now so that I could learn some of her techniques. What better place to accomplish this during the fall than at a pumpkin patch! Chelsea caught us both in action:

It wasn't just pumpkins, there were also sunflowers

overexposed, but they're so darn cute that I had to include it

also multi-colored pepper plants

mom is such a beauty

our pumpkin wheel barrel

we ended the day at apple annie's orchard

here are some of lexi's shots

the apple pie the 5 of us (almost) took down 

beautiful, right?! I still have a lot to learn...

turns out I love to garden

Before I ever tried, I thought gardening was difficult and a lot of work. I figured there would be a slim chance the seeds would even take, and if I was lucky enough that they did, then I'd probably mess up the watering. Or even if the watering worked out, then I'd probably not tend them properly and they would get overrun by weeds, fried by the sun, or something along those lines. Luckily and thankfully, that hasn't been the case for me. I've found that gardening is easy and fun! Maybe it's just the low expectations for results and only having 3-4 things planted at a time, but still! 

Last year, I took over a little planter space in our condo's courtyard. A neighbor started it the previous year, but moved, so I thought it would be fun to keep it going. It was a salsa theme, and we had great success with jalapenos, cilantro, and chives. Even a couple bell peppers came out towards the end of the season. The only tragedy was the kale which was overrun by caterpillars. (Perhaps they knew that these didn't fit the theme.)  

Fast forward to this year and accomplishing goal #55- start a new garden. I wanted to continue the hobby, so I made sure to add it to the list. There was a twist this time around though, as the courtyard space became a community garden. My enthusiasm and flourishing "crops" garnered admiration from the neighbors and they wanted in too. This was awesome because I didn't have to be the only one to remember to water, but also kind of lame in that my least favorite neighbor didn't contribute but still helped himself in excess to the bounty. (As in, not only did he take the biggest, ripest pickings, but I'm pretty sure he uprooted an entire freaking basil plant. The only one. Seriously, who does that!?)

Clearly, I could go on and on about gardening (I'm pretty sure this is my longest post yet), but let's move on to some pictures and a little summary of season: I planted the seeds back in April...

The cilantro was the first to come in. This is my favorite food to grow. I put it in everything!

The chives were a bit slower to start, but they stayed strong and steady all season. I'm sure I took pictures of these at some point, but I don't have access to them right now. Turkey chewed up my external hard drive cord this week.  :(

My last space was for the basil. These seeds didn't take at first outside, so I ended up starting some inside in my handy dandy little aero garden. When one sprout started to mature, I transported it outside. It took well to its new environment, and grew into a healthy bush. One day I wanted to make some bruschetta so I went to pluck some leaves....grrrrrrrrrrrr.

The coolest thing this year was that a pepper plant came up but I hadn't planted any new pepper seeds! I almost plucked it because I thought it might be a weed, but then I realized that the leaves looked familiar. I moved it from underneath my neighbor's squash plant to give it more room and it ended up thriving!

mmmm, Sunday's chicken salad

and omelets!

I love plants!!