Where is the year going?

These two pictures are of a storm that is slowly making its way into the valley. As I was driving home last night, I had to take a picture of the clouds rolling in. It is amazing how much moisture Arizona gets. When we moved, we thought it would always be sunny, but we have had quite a bit of moisture. It rained all last night, and the whole desert is green. It is a beautiful time of year right now, and we are loving the green. The locals keep telling us to just wait for summer...all the green turns to brown, and it gets HOT! Bet we will be glad we have air conditioning when summer gets here.

Here are a few of the nice things Ted and my mom gave me for Valentine's. I gave Ted a little Teddy bear that says "I Love You", but I think Ted out did me with the tulips, roses, Sparkling Cider, Cupcakes (which I shared with everyone at work), and balloons. Those balloons are huge! Especially the one that says "Happy Valentine's day"! It is as big as I am, and they are still floating around our house. Gotta love it!

As I came to check my blog, I couldn't believe that today is the last day of February. It feels like time is ticking away much faster than it did when I was a kid and had to sit in class all day. Maybe the fact that I watched the clock through class would help explain why my days used to drag by. Nonetheless, time is passing much too quickly, and I feel like my days are hours, and my hours are minutes, and my minutes are seconds. Just like today, it is already afternoon, and I feel like the day has barely begun. Life must speed up as we get older.

Well, on another note, life in Arizona is going really well. Ted and I had a wonderful date night on the night before Valentine's Day. We went to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Morriston (about 5 miles North of where we live), and had an amazing dinner. The meat is smoked in an outdoor smokehouse, and it felt like we had went back in time. The name of the restaurant/bar is, Western Trails Ranch. It reminds me of Bar J Wranglers in Jackson, except without all the tourists. The owner went around and talked to everyone, and they were super nice. We will definitely eat there again. And, the rest of the month has been great. All we do is, eat, sleep, work, and drive. It is a simple, but crazy life. I found a new route to work, and love it, so that is exciting. Other than that, our life is great! We are coming to Idaho this next weekend for Adam and Morgan's baby blessing, so we are excited about that. It will be good to get away for a couple days. Well, hope all is well for everyone else! Sorry my life is so boring. Well, it really is eventful at work, but nobody wants to hear about work drama, so I will skip that part! :)

Garling Homestead Adventures

The Aqua Fria wash after a huge rainstorm where we got a half a year's moisture in one day. Usually this wash is dry, but the day after it rained, there was a huge, muddy river. I love the mountains in the background. This picture was taken from my car as I drove over the bridge on my way to work.

This picture is from this last Sunday. The clouds were so big, white, and puffy, like cotton, so I had to take a picture. I also loved the contrast of the green fields with the blue skies. Notice the fields are green? It is the middle of February and the fields are still green! Amazing! My family would love farming down here...year round farming.

This is a pancake Ted made for me. It is almost as big as my 12 inch plate! Crazy huh?

These are the cowboy cookies Ted and I made for my Young Women's activity tonight. I didn't have any heart cut-outs, so I just used these. The Valentine's activity was like grade school, where you wrote everyone a sweet note and gave them candy. It was a lot of fun! I got some pretty cute notes from the girls! It made my night!

Well, life has been pretty fun around the Garling Homestead...Ted and I have been cooking from our food storage since we moved to Arizona, so we have become much more creative when it comes to food. Instead of having fresh fruit, vegies, and all the things you take for granted, we now eat a lot of breads, pastas, meats, and bake a lot of sweets since we have flour, sugar, pasta, and frozen meat. The other morning, Ted cooked the biggest pancake I have ever eaten (almost eaten...I only got about half eaten before I felt too stuffed to eat any more). Today, we made cookies for my Young Women's Valentine's Day activity. Do you like how the western cookies are pink? Ted kept making cowboy boots, because he said there needed to be two boots per cowboy. As I frosted the boots with pink, it reminded me of my first pair of horse show cowboy boots...they were the same color of pink. Good memories. I bet only Sarah and my mom remember those boots, along with me.

On Sunday, we went over to Sarah and Brenton's house for the Super Bowl! It was a lot of fun! We had a BBQ, Lime Rickey's, and lots of yummy treats. We even got freshly fried potato wedges from their new Frydaddy! Imagine that...my dear Idaho friends, an outside BBQ in the middle of February! I know, it is crazy! Wait till summer, we will be having inside BBQ's while you are having them outside. Anyway, the night was a lot of fun. Us girls sat and talked while the boys watched the game. We played the name game after the Super Bowl, and it was a lot of fun. Sarah and Brenton are all about playing games, so whenever we go to their house, we learn a new game. It is great, because we hardly play games, and we need to learn more of them. The last time we went to their house we played a truth or lie game, and it was pretty funny. Everyone was really serious, except for Ted. He kept lying, just to see if we would catch him. It was great. We are sure glad we have friends like Sarah and Brenton to help us have fun and make us feel welcome in our life's adventures.

I hope everyone else is having fun this time of year, and has a wonderful Valentine's! If anyone has suggestions as to what to do for Valentine's on a budget, let me know! Thanks!

Watching the Clock

So, everyday for work, Ted and I both get to drive over an hour. We have an hour into work and an hour back home from work. It's not so much the commute we mind as the construction. The main road we take to work is Grand Ave/HWY 60, and it is under extreme construction. There are six lanes of traffic that get siphoned down into one lane of traffic for each side. It is insane. We only have to travel 25 miles for work, but it takes a good hour. So, all of you Idahoites, enjoy the open roads for us! We sure miss them!

It's Official!

We just licensed Ted's car with Arizona plates! Guess that means we are getting another step closer to being official Arizona residents! :)