Dating...

I saw one of our friends who just moved to a new city with a post like this a few months ago and it brought back oh so many memories and now, trueisms:) Thanks for the idea! As you know, I use this blog as much for my personal history and journaling as I do for blogstalker enjoyment! With our move to a new area has come this "dating experience." Let me explain...
Just as when we were single and went on dates to find people we had things in common with or chose NOT to pursue certain individuals (eh hem.), we once again "date" or "consider dating" couples and families that we might have common ground, or a good time with. And just like dating, it s a little tango... Is it too soon to call? I don't want to seem too eager... Do you think they just said let's get together sometime to be nice, or did they really mean it? She smiled at me, would she like to be my new friend? Or, do I have my skirt tucked into my nylons? (that happened to me when I was little...) Should I start up a conversation with the random mom at the library/park/market or would they think I was "desperate?" Oh, they like (fill in the blank), so do we... is that enough in common to "make it work?" Funny huh!
Ok, maybe a bit of an exageration with a pinch of truth. And the answer is, yes, to all of the above... seem desperate! Maybe they'll take pity on me:) and of course, we are a little desperate! Making friends has gone very well, it's just been SO LONG since I "started from scratch" in a new town with not many "leads." Its different this time b/c we have kids and I have a hubby who can't devote much time to the effort, but I'll sell us all and get some friends real. quick. really. Just like in dating, patience little one. patience. I love that word.

And Finally... Mi Casa

Garage! No One has appreciated having a garage the way we do! We actually can fit both of our cars in, though a little tight- it's just a good thing we aren't any bigger than we are:) Our laundry is also out here, along with lots of storage shelving and our deep freeze- we love it!

This is our little entry way between the garage and the front door. It's called an "Arizona Room" with a huge wall of windows. It makes a great sunroom. We hope to grow tomatoes, etc. in here this winter:)

Living Room- lots of room and great big tile flooring (which we LOVE)! My favorite part of the house is this wall with the pictures and the high vaulted ceilings and recessed lighting. It feels like a really big room and I love how open it is. You can see the dining room and kitchen in the back with our room off to the left and the study through the glass doors in the back. Ike and Zach's room is behind the camera to the left and the front door is directly behind the camera. There is a huge wall of windows to the right.

This is the study (appropriately named, huh!) We just bought this extra card table for Ben to keep all his study stuff on. Notice the awesome shelving unit in the back. Provides lots and lots of good storage for our food storage and office. Kitchen/Dining is directly behind the camera. There is a back door off to the right.

Ike and Zach's bathroom and accessories (I had to take pics of these b/c they were soo cute)! I picked up all the accessories at Ross for under $10 for everything:) So excited to have 2 bathrooms!

Oops, I took a pic of myself in the mirror:)





Cute little Ike in the bathtub (how else do you think I kept the house even this clean for the pics?)

Ike and Zach's room- lots of closet storage and the bigger bedroom.

Zach taking advantage of Ike being in the bath- Ike loves his new "daybed"

full length mirrors are Ike's favorite- he's such a ham- always dancing and making faces into the mirrors:)

Kitchen and Dining- notice the permanent set up for painting at the table... not a day goes by:)

My room- and bathroom- not yet decorated, but soon to come:) Gotta save some projects for another day!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. As you can see, I still need lots fo help decorating and probably organizing too, but we're getting there. I so love this place. Not sure the photos do it justice:) I'll have to post some pics of the yard soon too!

Me Llamo Isaac

First Day of Preschool- his booty from school in hand. What a proud boy!

This is outside our house with said booty. He loves playing out here with all the rocks, dirt and cool foliage. We wait til late afternoon when it's in the shade and then spend sometime digging and making "hot bean casserole soup" Not sure where he got that one, but it seems to be his favorite. Oh, and green bean juice is the new juice of choice. He'd probably welcome them both!

So, reason for the espanol title- my kid needs to learn to be bilingual. No, we do not *know* anyone who speaks spanish yet, but, well, let me explain...

As you may have guessed, there are a lot of Spanish speakers around. We often will hear it spoken when we are out shopping, etc. One day, not long after the move, we hear Isaac speaking total jibberish- I- Innocently- ask him what he is saying, to which he replies-"I'm a speakin' a Spanish!" Oh. Dear. So, fast forward a few days. We are at the mall escaping the 120 degree heat. ouch! As mommy is looking at some REALLY cute clothes, Ike happens to be PRIVY to a conversation in REAL SPANISH between two ladies. Well, he gets up close to them, looks them in the eyes and JIBBERJABBERS with a straight face as if he knew exactly what they said and they would know what he was saying! AHH! It came off like he was making fun of Spanish speakers (good thing he is young)! And we hurried away POORLY PRETENDING that we didn't know what our kid had just done! Oh. My. Thus, we are teaching him REAL SPANISH. Of course, now he is arguing with us... "No momma, casa doens't mean house, hochubala means house!" Crazy kid!

Funny pic- Zachary is clearly Ben and my offspring inheriting a LOVE, a NEED for cookies! Do you see him eyeing that cookie? Just waiting for his chance to take a big ol' chunk out of it? MMM! I'm with you Zachary- look out Ike- a few more months and you'll have to eat your cookies MUCH faster or someone is going to take care of them for you!! Also, notice Zach's collar is full of DROOL! I know, how can you not drool at that cookie?

Today marked Isaac's first day of school (not real school, Joy School- a little mommy coop). Anyway, it's only once a week and we switch between five of our houses, so in a few weeks in will be my turn to host and teach. It was harder than I thought it

would be to let him go! I kept thinking, what am I going to do for TWO HOURS without Isaac? So, I went home sullen, while he was SUPER EXCITED! I worked on my talk for Sunday. He painted, made a cool picture frame and chilled with four really cute other kiddos. It's going to be great for him. He already LOVES it! Mom's going to have to get used to it! I think I'll start planning some shopping- much easier to lug around just Zachy.

Finally getting some good pics of Zach giggling- for some reason I cannot seem to download videos on blogger so, you'll have to use your imaginations!

Cooking with Momma This afternoon... Whoops, notice the knife I left next to my toddler... good thing he's not mischievious at all!

The Staycation

Our Labor Day Weekend was spent right here in Phoenix (I stole the word staycation from another blog... please forgive me)! We took the opportunity to *study* LOTS, well Ben took that opportunity, which I'm sure is paying off. However, he did take some breaks with us to provide a little time out in the desert. We were lucky to have a "monsoon" on Friday and Saturday that really provided moisture (not sure how much) and cloud cover on Saturday. So, I received free passes (how can you argue with free?) to the Desert Botanical Gardens (reg. price $15/adult!) and we took advantage Sat. afternoon. It was strange to be outside without the SUN beating down on us the entire time. In fact, Saturday was the first day since we have been here that the high was below 100! WE soaked. it. up! The Botanical Gardens actually turned out to be awesome and we would HIGHLY recommend going- *next* time we go, I think we'll go after dark when all the cool desert flowers are in bloom- they have lots of cool lighting set up. THAT would be an experience:)

(L) Jamie, Ike and baby checking out some huge Organ Pipe Cacti- Notice- Ike wore his rainboots so he could stop any potential puddle- gotta give him that opportunity whenever it comes around- which is exactly twice a year:)

(R) A "jumping Cholla" jumped right onto Ike's hat- no one was injured, but it was a close call! Ike got a little too close and they sense movement and drop their ends at the slightest movement-LUCKILY- right on Ikie's hat and not his head! Needless to say, he became more careful after that!

Cool butterfly pic Ben captured on some desert plant- any botanist wanna help me with that one?

Ike and Daddy in front of some more crazy Cacti fields- don't wanna go stomping through those too badly...

In other news, as you can see, Ike has perfected his FAVORITE sleeping position. He likes to be "Cold," as he puts it which means he wants his pillows cold, etc. So, we often find him with limbs hanging out of the bed in an effort to keep them their COLDEST:) Funny little boy. He will not accept a pillowcase that is anything but cotton and would never sleep with a fleece blanket- too warm.

Ben and I both received callings last week as well. We feel like our ward will be a great place for us to learn and grow. It is huge! We have over 200 sisters in Relief Society (not all there every Sunday, of course), but that gives you an idea. Ben is an 11 year old Scout leader (he moved up a year from Laramie)! He is excited to be working in boy scouts and to help them through this "critical" scouting time (apparently 11 years old is a fundamental foundational year to help them earn some stuff they need to achieve their biggie goals like Eagle Scout (I can hear Ben cringing in his sleep as I, of all people, try to explain the scouting program- not my forte) Sorry.

I was, coincidentally, called as the 11 year old primary teacher (again, cringing from lack of terminology). They have two classes of 11 year olds and both are only boys- there are no girls this age! So, I teach a group of about 6 kiddos. Should be fun. They are a fun bunch of boys. I am a little stressed about not having any primary experience, other than mine growing up. Let me tell you, growing up in a small branch with maybe 10 kids tops, is a lot different than having Junior/Sr. Primary both packed full of kiddos! It will take some getting used to, but like I said, I am happy to have the experience;) I trust that this is where the Lord needs us to be!

Ike loves going to church and to nursery especially. He is in the older nursery class (only a few months left untils Sunbeams) and in his class, there are no toys or playtime besides books and puzzles. I think this is great! Their lessons are longer and they are learning more songs too. Cute times. He has a great teacher and there are a few more boys than girls, so he's in HEAVEN! I think he's going through major withdrawls from all his girl cousins and friends that are girls back in Wyoming! He hasn't seen a GIRL TOY in a month!

This is a funny pic we took the other night. I decided to put Zach in Ikie's bed while Ike was still in the bath. I teased him and told him Zachy was going to sleep with him that night. Anyway, he went along with it and was SO EXCITED for a bunkmate! They laid together for quite awhile smiling and Ike was singing to him while we made faces at them and chatted. Ike BEGGED to let him stay- "I won't squish him!" "He won't fall out!" Empty little promises:) Someday he'll be begging for his own room, but not today!

Also, as you can see, Ike has finally graduated to a toddler bed! He could climb out of his crib, but never did, so we left it a crib until the big move. He LOVES being in a big boy bed and is still so good about staying in it, though he sometimes decides just to sleep on the floor (coldness factor). He also loves coming in when he wakes up to "surprise" me every morning. Luckily, he is going to bed around 9 now and waking at 7:30 or 8. What a great kiddo!

First Week of School!

It's official. I am a widow to dental school! Things have gone very well, so far! Ben is doing as he should and studying his lights out. Luckily, he feels a need to be at home too and so is trying to devote at least a couple of hours each night to coming home, eating dinner and playing with the kiddos. I think this will prove very healthy for him. He has a lovely little office in the back of our house that we can close off and he can study. I plan to equip it with everything I can to entice him to stay at home to study whenever possible... Something about knowing he is right there makes a big difference:) His first exam is Tuesday, so we will find out if he's doing an effective job soon enough. I really do think that our *years* of waiting to be accepted have actually help us appreciate any amount of hard work, long hours, boring biochemistry, etc that comes our way. We really and truly are just happy to be here! So, let me remind myself of that in a few months when the newness wears off... This time has been our goal officially for five. long. years. We really are just so excited to be going down this path!

This picture is of his first day of school... What proud wife wouldn't want to capture this moment forever? He was embarassed at the time and I'm sure would be embarassed if he could ever find and read our blog that I'm posting it of him, but I'm also sure that his mom will love to see it:) Our little Binkham (as Isaac calls him when he can't get his attention- just as his mom did) all grown up:) He gets to alternate between scrubs and business casual everyday (the only school on campus to require business attire at all times... he's not thrilled about saying adios to his tshirt collection- I told you, growing up...) So, these days, the clothes are a little more dressy than the first day... too bad, poor Ben! Ok, I must admit I'm not too sad to see the tshirt days come to an end- shh, don't tell him- I should be "mourning" with him!

Funny Random

So, I'm going to try and blog more often, now that I have the big painful one out of the way (I hate when I get so far behind and then just feel like I'm playing "catch up" in my entries). So, the weekend my dad went home (a couple of weeks ago), I, of course was feeling a little blue... Like thinking to myself, "Why oh why did anyone think to settle here ON the sun?" Anyway, we spent Saturday trying to do fun things and find positive things about Phoenix (by the way, we found lots of good things and are really trying to find a niche... but, as you can imagine, it was a tough day). Ben must've felt bad for me because he even agreed to a trip to Ikea! After our most of the day excursion to Ikea, we decided to drive the 45 minutes back home a different way and see a different (mostly ghetto) part of the city. For some reason, I just have a need to see every "area" of the city to feel comfortable (maybe Clay would suggest that it's because of my innate google mapping ability... I'm getting there Clay!)
Just as we're driving out of the ghetto area, we spot a ghetto grocery store! Ben's favorite! It was called something like grocery discount and we both thought maybe we could get some good deals on essentials... like green beans, Ike and my favorite veggie. So, we park in this ghetto lot and get a ghetto cart. The grocery finds were not great (we came out with some bilingual mango- guava poptarts, the best find). However, as we are looking at the ghetto yogurt, someone comes up to us and says, "Did you guys just move here from Laramie?" Hmm. Ben and I look at each other.. "How did he know?" We look for any sign of Wyoming apparel on us. none. Then we realize, he looks a ton like Adam Erickson. Ah! And there is his wife and two boys. It registers. (Thanks Jeffi) We have heard all about this little family of Ericksons! They just moved from Laramie too and are going to the same school as Ben. Weirdest place ever to meet up b/c it is really far from our house and we'll probably never ever go back, but it was the brightest ray of hope for my sad Saturday. Some Laramie friends. Yeah! I hope they don't think we were too weird, just so excited to talk to someone from home. Someone who can relate to their skin feeling like it'll crisp right off their bodies b/c our mountain skin just wasn't made this tough! Someone to complain about Wyoming sports with. Someone. These guys seem great. Now, one problem... can't seem to locate their contact info. Ughh!

We're here!

Our new house! We're so excited about it:) You can't see the tops, but the tallest trees are palm trees (Ike calls them pineapple trees)

Outlook over Phoenix-- hot hot hot! The entire expanse is city as far as you can see in any direction and still there is more city beyond that. Whoa.

Ike and Zach at the Science center (Ike is a Knight... because it was the only shiny costume not princess related)!

Cool spot along the way

I'm sure you've all heard by now that we've safely and happily made it to Arizona. I'm not sure how many hours were spent in the car... We left Laramie Friday afternoon- a very bizarre feeling knowing that this is no longer a hub central to your life and you may never travel that awful I-80 corridor to return to your own home... weird after 8 years (of course we'll still visit, but it won't be "home"). Saturday morning we took a little "time out" and drove from Salt Lake to Logan to attend Ben's cousin's wedding- what a beautiful experience! Attending the temple is always such a great "time out" to realize what is really important and help you remember your family and the bonds we have there.

Beautiful Wedding.

We were lucky to get to see a good part of Ben's family too and spend a couple of hours with them before our long journey. Ike suggested we eat at Wendys (a Pieper favorite-- I think it made his Grandpa proud!) So, we did that too! Saying goodbye has been really really tough for us and this one was no exception. We have been blessed to see Grandma and Grandpa Pieper and the animals more often this year than ever before... it will be a strange concept to not be able to see them as often!

Anyway, late afternoon we finally pulled it all together and took off again on the open road. I should mention that my dad did take the "opportunity" to drive down with us (what a HUGE HUGE blessing). While we went to the wedding, he took our Penske (Pinksy as Isaac refers to it...) down the road to Cedar City, where we met up Saturday night and then switched off driving with both of us the rest of the way. Sunday morning we all went to church and then packed back up for another "adventure" through the mountain passes from Cedar City to Kanab, UT and then to Flagstaff, AZ. What beautiful country! Beautiful mountain passes! Slow, slow Pinksy!! The mountain climbs and curves made it very interesting for a 22 foot truck pulling our Honda, but Ben was a master driver and everything went really well! We stopped in Kanab for lunch/dinner and ate at a place called Denny's Wigwam... food was average, but the atmosphere was really cool- much like an "old west" village with lots of quaint little features- I highly recommend it, if for some unknown reason you ever find yourself in Kanab! Then we also stopped at Glenn Canyon Dam. Beautiful! When we got out of the car it was finally HOT and we were WORRIED! I think it was around 90 or so and I kept telling myself, "Oh, this isn't so bad..." Feeling the heat and seeing a very different climate has been my biggest fear... strange, I know.

We pulled into Flagstaff that night around 8pm for one last night in the mountains before our descent into, well... Phoenix. The air was nice and cool. Flagstaff has about the same weather as Laramie, as far as we can tell. It will be our mountain home away from home when we need a "quick fix." We made it to Phoenix by 3pm Monday afternoon. The boys were so so good on the trip, well at least the little boys were! Ben and my dad were SO SICK for driving the "Pinksy" and I was sick of following it! Though, we did average over 40 mpg with the Accord following them at 65 mph and under (sometimes 40 going up mountain passes)!

Our move in went very smoothly! As we were pulling into the valley my dad says "So, are you worried that your house may not be what you are expecting?" Umm, not until then... So, it was an even bigger relief to get here, see it and know that it will work out just perfectly for us. The house itself is in great shape and the room sizes are perfect. There are so many little things that I never knew I was missing until now (like the ability to do laundry at whatever time of the day or night... or wash dishes, for that matter! I also love having a yard (even if it is too hot most of the time to play in right now) and a double car garage! We have never been so happy to be able to purchase groceries and carry them directly inside without a huge exhaustive trip up to the third floor with two sleepy kids and arms loaded (the week before we left, I made 6 trips up and down the stairs carrying in groceries and kiddos- whew!) Anyway, all of our kitchen stuff is in the kitchen (no food storage in our bedroom closet anymore). Crazy.

Cool Splash Pad Near Our House

Now we are adjusting well. Ike still makes a crazy whiny noise everytime we step out into the direct sunlight (which is all the time) and REFUSES to go anywhere without his ball cap and sunglasses (not sure what we'll do if he ever loses either... must purchase a backup soon! On the other hand, if Zach is at all fussy in the store, he immediately quits as soon as we step into the 110 degree heat! He LOVES the HOT HOT HOT car and just basks in it! Too funny. Ben also makes that whiny noise (ha!) and even plans his clothing so as to attract the least amount of sunlight... I have determined that any temperature outside above 95 registers with my body as way hot... there's no difference between 95 and 115 (both of which I have felt down here)! I do, however, love that it's 90-100 at 8 or 9pm when we are swimming outside.. you don't even get cold when you get out of the pool! Speaking of pools, we have been going across the street to swim about 5 nights of the week and Ike is becoming quite the swimmer... he is independent now with his "lifejacket style" suit, but of course, we still watch him like a hawk and are ALWAYS right there with him (this is one of my biggest fears).

So, yes, life has certainly changed for us! We have been so lucky to have Ben home with us for a few days before school started. I wish we could live the life of unemployment forever... ok, not really... but, we have really been able to enjoy each other and explore the city (el cheapo style). Monday starts the school phase for us, but we are geared up and more than ready (we've had 3 years to prepare)! We just feel really blessed to be here, even if it means we're living on the sun and far away from family and friends (missing everyone desperately)!