Friday the 5th of November

My happiness from Thursday continued through the weekend. Friday was the 6th year anniversary of when Ryan and I went on our first date. I will never forget how nervous I was before he came and picked me up. Overall, the first date went great. The only 2 things I still remember being bad was our movie choice and Ryan's driving. We decided to go see Grudge and it was a terrible movie. We ended up talking through much of the movie and talked about leaving it early even though we never did. Ryan's driving --- he was driving so fast en route to the movie (i'm sure to impress me) & I was slightly scared for my life. I now feel much more comfortable telling him to slow down in car rides when he gets his heavy foot.

Friday we thought we would go see another scary/weird movie. He talked me into seeing Saw 3D and what a terrible choice. I was so grossed out after 10 minutes, I had to leave the theater. Ryan followed me and we left. I still can't believe people actually want to see movies like that...it was disturbing. To celebrate our 6 year mark, I decided to find a picture from each of the 6 years to see how we have changed.

2003 - out during the first week we met

2004 - random trip to chapel hill

2005 - with my family in Cancun

2006 - Ryan visiting me in New York City

2007 - Raleigh before we graduated

2008 - summer mountain trip

2009 - OIB beach trip & celebrating ryan's acceptance into law school

2010 - our wedding day

ohh HAPPY DAY

Thursday was a good day for me...maybe I should say great!

More importantly I found out I got the JOB I wanted! Since moving to Arizona, breaking into the pharmaceutical industry was a goal of mine. I knew it was a hard and sometimes impossible industry to get started in. So it was a goal that I really didn't talk about a lot because I wasn't sure it was feasible for me. Let's just say I have reached that goal and will start my new position Dec 1st! I will be working for a third party company and will be promoting three Astrazeneca drugs. I am super excited!

Thursday night, I had a Junior League meeting and then when I got home Ryan wasn't here. I was confused and could tell he had been home earlier. I called him and he acted all funny on the phone. A few minutes later he came through the door with a pink rose, card, Safeway cheesecake and some Andre champagne to celebrate my new job (can you tell we celebrate on a budget). Sumo was convinced the rose was for him and pouted once he finally figured out Ryan didn't bring him back anything. I am so blessed to have an amazing husband (& spoiled dog who thinks everything is for him).

Weekend with the BF

My best friend and maid of honor flew to see me in Tucson this weekend. As always when we're together...we HAD A BLAST & a packed weekend. I think part of the weekend we thought we were back in college. Below are some highlights of our fab weekend!

Sara flew in Wednesday midday in perfect timing for me to scoop her up from the airport after my job interview. Praying that this job works out--I'll talk more about it if I get it. Of course H&M was one of the first stops. Sara had a gift card and spent it plus some in no time! We spent the rest of Wednesday afternoon around Tucson then had dinner at one of my favorite places - Guadalajara Grill.

Thursday morning Sara treated me to pedi's and then we got ready for our trip to Phoenix. Ryan had an interview Friday morning so we decided to go up the night before with him. Fingers crossed Ryan gets this summer job. Thursday night we got to get dressed up for Casino Night @ Gainey Ranch Fitness Club in Scottsdale. Ryan's family friend manages the club and was nice enough to invite us to the event. Sara, Ryan and I rocked the craps table all night & I'm ready to go to VEGAS now! We were so into the game we missed the fabulous dinner they had at the club. It was all fake money but we had so much fun learning how to play while enjoying a few cocktails.

dressed up for Casino night

Friday evening we had a chill night at our place and had some people over. We needed our rest for the Arizona-Washington game Saturday. We had a great day tailgating for the game. Ryan---Mr. President of PAD is in charge of putting on all the tailgates. We had a camper, flip-cup, cornhole, grilling, a DJ set-up and lot of great friends. Sara & I spent most of the day regulating the corn-hole.

tailgate set-up

camper, TVs, & a DJ

Group tailgating pic

...more weekend recap details to come

Saturday Morning

I started my day bright & early @ 3:45am. I got dressed quickly and headed out to Sabino Canyon to help volunteer at the "Hearts for Diamonds" race. I have been involved with quite a bit of volunteer work lately with the University Medical Center. I have met some great people & will explain more about this in some later posts. We were setting up tables and getting the registration tables ready using flashlights since it was still dark outside. Arizona does not observe daylight savings time so the sun still rises very early -- and by 5:30am it was light enough to see your way around. The sun was up over the mountains by 6:00 when the race started. The sun rising over the mountains was breathtaking and I can't believe I forgot to take my camera to capture a picture :(

Sabino Canyon has a 3.7 mile paved road up to the top of a canyon. I found some pictures I took at the canyon back in the spring and have shared them below. What made me a little uneasy about hiking here in the near future was the sign at the base of the trail stating "mountain lion activity high." On the weekends, bikers are banned from using the paved trails but this weekend bikers have been encouraged to ride the trail because of the high frequency of recent mountain lion sightings. I think I'll wait and hike when the mountain lion threat goes back down or until I invest in a hiking gun :)

sabino canyon

view from one of the many hiking trails

another view of sabino canyon

view from the start of the paved trail via

I was home by 8:00am and going back to sleep didn't sound appealing at the time. I woke Ryan and Sumo up & we all walked down to the Farmer's Market. Sumo was exhausted when we got back and I was happy with my purchases. My purchases included:

- head of lettuce

- a big carrot

- 2 small red potatoes

- clove of garlic --- best/strongest garlic I've ever used :)

- ryan bought a small apple pie and it was gone within 2 hours of being home

- a small pumpkin to help me welcome the Fall season --- these 100 degree temps are making me miss NC

- a sample of some organic dog food that sumo consumed in about 2 seconds

- a bag of chicken tamales from our favorite lady (her daughter helps her @ the market since she doesn't know english) ---- only 1 tamale still remains

my purchases

Don't give up, don't ever give up

Today is one of those days I'm thinking deep. I'm sure many of you have watched the famous speech from the legendary coach Jim Valvano. If you haven't, then you should...it is so inspirational and one of Ryan's favorite youtube videos to watch when he is feeling down. Beware if you are anything like me you will be sure to shed a few tears.

If I have learned nothing else since I've been living out here in the southwest, I learned how important family, friends, & faith are to me in my life. As I still search for that perfect career to make me both successful & happy, I realize at the end of the day all I am searching for is a way to have a fulfilled life with my family and my friends.

Being thousands of miles away from my family & the friendships I have cultivated has made me realize to enjoy every minute that you get to spend and share with these people. Don't forget to LAUGH, THINK & CRY everyday like Jimmy V tells you!

No matter what you are doing in your life right now or where ever you are, don't give up, don't ever give up.

with my family visiting Tombstone, AZ

the bestest friends anyone could ask for

Hello September

I would have loved to title my post today Hello Fall but I do live in the desert now and we have a couple more months of blazing temperatures. It is still reaching triple digits during the day and hopefully only another week of this nonsense. I can tell though that the evenings are beginning to really cool off. Imagine 75-80 degrees with no humidity. Talk about an amazing evening that always needs to me coupled with a glass of wine on our front or back patio.

This will be my first year not experiencing the Fall in North Carolina. I have an obsession with watching the leaves change colors. I believe Fall is the best season & we'll see when and if these desert trees and their leaves change colors? I am not holding my breath for that one though.

A lot has happened in my life over the past few months....

- Married the love of my life and have decided to share some of our wedding days pictures.

- Started my new career in real estate. I am working on a real estate blog & hope to teach people about the ins and outs of the market and learn something myself while doing this...I will share once I get it ready to be read

Finding My Way

Ok...so I did not fall off the face of this earth. I just got away from blogging for a while but I'm back to fill y'all in on my life!

Yesterday I signed with a real estate company!! I started real estate school in May and took my 2 state tests last week and I'm on my way to being a Real Estate Sales Agent in the Long Realty Foothills Office. I start in their training program July 12th and am so excited about my future in real estate. I can truly say I have found something I think I can be passionate about for a long time! I interviewed with a few real estate companies and was hoping the whole time Long would invite me to join because I had a great feeling about them and they are by far THE real estate firm to work for in Tucson. The branch manager invited me aboard yesterday morning so I started all the company paperwork in the afternoon! I will have to link you all to my Long website after I set it up :)

I have a lot to look forward to in the next few months: 2 months away from marrying the man of my dreams (don't mean for any of you to gag :) ), spending some time with my family, my bachelorette par-tay in miami and starting my new career! I can't wait to start staring at the ocean water in miami...i am water deprived out here in the desert!

Ryan and I moved last weekend into our new place that we hope to stay in for the next 2 years. I love it here! We are still right at the riverwalk, walking distance to the farmers market, dining, & shopping and it finally feels like a home! Below are some pictures I took. I will update the pictures as we finish rooms!

Entrance to our front patio (complete w/ cacti & palm tree!)

View from the street...our southwest home.

Sumo is scared to walk outside bc it got stuck with the small cactus on the right

We like to drink wine @ the bistro table in the evening...no humidity or bugs!

View from the porch.

Living room into the kitchen

Took a chance with the orange wall...& love it!

Our southwest modern look....orange rug coming!

Living room looking onto the covered back patio

kitchen

guest bedroom

our bedroom...work in progress!

office photo #1

office photo #2

guest bathroom

laundry room

another back patio photo

our bathroom #1

our bathroom #2

closet...finally!

looking onto the back patio from the bedroom