simplysaxy

I started a new blog. You can now read about mine and Robert's life at robertandalicia.blogspot.com. Thanks for reading!

Hello? Is anybody still out there? I know it's been forever since I have last written, but this blog wasn't really too high on my priority list.  However I seem to have quite a bit more time on my hands lately...  So here it goes...

Since I have last written I have moved down to Mesa and am currently working as a technician at a Aspen Physical Therapy.  I really like my job, but it isn't my "real" job yet. I decided that I want to go to Physical Therapy Assistant School at Gateway Community College. Sadly, I decided I wanted to do this too late to get in for next fall. I'm working on getting on the waiting list for Fall 2011 - a whole year and a half away! But I am only planning on working at Aspen for about a year and it's already been 6 months.  My solution to this timing problem is to become a personal trainer.  I bought a book to study for the test...Now I just have to start.  Here's my thought process though. Study for a couple of months, take the test, pass the test, become a personal trainer, and then if in 2011 I still want to go to PTA school I can.

I have also started running again and it is amazing! The weather has been perfect (although I'm a little worried that it's only February).  The only time I had the chance to wear my coat this winter was when I made a trip up to Flag to visit friends. Oh well, the rain has been nice... Anyway that's all I have for now. I'll try not to wait 6+ months to update again :)

I almost posted a couple of days ago, but it had been a really stressful day and I realized that I would be mostly venting.  So lucky for everyone who reads this - this entire post won't just be me complaining. :)  Today I went mountain biking with my roommate Aubry and it was amazing!  The trail we went on was great, it had challenging uphills and steep downhills.  Now that's one more thing on the list of reasons why I don't want to leave Flagstaff.  Seriously, I had so much fun and I didn't even crash...more than once.  Ok so I crashed. And got some pretty sweet looking bruises, but that just adds to the adventuresomeness of it, right?  After that I went bowling and got the 2nd highest score of the group with 72 points!  And yes I am actually happy with this score.  I know it isn't good, but it also isn't too embarrassing.  Which is pretty much all I hope for when I go bowling. 

This past week seemed to be about a month long.  I worked 9 hours everyday with crazy little kids.  I still enjoy being a camp counselor, but it is a little much also working in a daycare.  Thankfully, I won't be working at the daycare for too much longer.  Intersperesed with all of the working I had all sorts of apartment issues.  Our management was threatening to kick us out cause they found out we had someone living here who wasn't on the lease.  We went down and got that all straightened out but then found out that our lease ends a month later than we thought it did.  That means an extra month of putting up with the management. yay.  On top of all that, the fan in my living room stopped working and they won't fix it.  Apparently they don't install fans into the apts, so it isn't their responsibility to fix them if they break.  Although they did say they would put in a new one if we bought it...

There have been ups and downs but overall it's been a pretty great summer.  Over the 4th of July I went down to Yuma with some family members and was able to visit my sister and her family, as well as meeting my nephew for the first time!  It was a fun weekend trip filled with swimming, visiting, movies, and games.  Other summer adventures include going to Sunsplash, hiking, creeks, reading, watching movies, and just generally enjoying the outdoors.  Here are a couple of pictures:


This is me and Michelle reading at a field on campus


Playing catch


What a great day in Flag!



Michelle at the beginning of the Lava Tubes


Me and Louie the Lumberjack


Well that's about all I can think of to post for now. Later days!

It was another amazing summer weekend full of adventuresome fun.  Since I had Monday off of work I went down to Mesa to hang out with family and chill in the sunshine - it's been pretty rainy here lately.  I love the rain, but sun is good too.  It was great to see my family especially those who I haven't seen in many months.  Sunday I even happened to randomly run into some old friends and catch up a bit with them.  Memorial day my family celebrated by having lunch and playing frisbee at a park and then going over to my grandparents house and swimming.  It was my first time swimming in a pool this summer, and the water was perfect.  It was a few hours later when I was back in Flag that I realized I had a pretty sweet sunburn on my face and shoulders.  It wasn't too painful though and definitely worth it :)

I started training/orientation, for the summer camp that I'll be working at, on Tuesday.  It's been pretty fun, and I'm really looking forward to camp actually starting next Monday!

This has been a pretty great weekend.  Friday I actually had kids the whole time at work (unusual for a friday) and then went and saw "Angels and Demons" with some friends.  I liked the movie - and now there are only 2 movies in the Flagstaff theater that I haven't seen...Saturday was another good day at work and then right after I went with friends down to Sedona to hike Beaver creek.  It was so great!  The hike was fun, and the swimming was amazing. My shoes cut up my feet a bit, but luckily I have amazing friends who offered to switch with me on the way back.  Then to top the evening off we had a delicious chili dinner with root beer floats.  I love the summertime!

Well I've had several different people tell me that they are tired or reading about my spring break, so I guess it's about time that I updated again.  Graduation was this past weekend so I am now officially a college graduate!!  Even though the announcer said both my first and last name wrong - it still counts.  I mean seriously though.  I even spelt it out for him A-lish-a. And Fife? You don't get much simpler than that.  After the ceremony i went out to eat with the members of my family who were able to come up.  Then pretty last minute I decided to ride back down to Mesa with them - just to get a break from Flag and roommates for awhile.  I'm glad i decided to go out of town even if it was for only friday night and saturday.  I did some shopping and went to see the new Star Trek movie.  Even though it was a little intimidating(?) going with a bunch of trekkies, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 

That's about all that's going on with me recently.  I'm glad that the stressfulness of finals is over!  I am taking a class this week that will go over different jobs/opportunities that are available.  Hopefully that will help me decide what it is I want to do with my life.  My summer camp job starts in a couple of weeks so I'm also looking forward to that.  But speaking of which, i gotta go to work now! later days-

Now that it's been a week since spring break I figure I should write about it.  I spent the first half of the week in Mesa with my family, some of the things I did include: going to the Renaissance Festival and the Phoenix Zoo with my sister Elizabeth, a family bbq, and going to the movies.  I came back up to Flag on Thursday and spent the rest of the week working, reading, and setting up my new (borrowed) laptop.  It was a fantastical week with no school, and I wish it could have lasted longer.  But now that it's over it means only 5 or 6 weeks left of school. 

Today I'm planning to ride my bike for the first time since before winter started and then going to a ward dutch oven cookout / bbq (not really sure which).

This year seems to be flying by.  Normally I start counting down to spring break a month in advance, but it starts in just a few days, and I think I'm actually going to make it before I burn out.  This week has been extra stressful though. First my monitor stopped working, and of course I had several assignments trapped on my computer due the next day that I couldn't get to.  Luckily I have an amazing family who brought me up a working monitor all the way from mesa.  Other then that it's just been the usual stressfulness of midterms, oh and I lost $10 :(  which turned a perfectly pleasant tuesday into a not so great day.

I think the weekends are the only thing getting me through this school year with any hint of sanity.  A couple of weekends ago my sister Melanie came up to visit - and that was a ton of fun.  The weather was amazing and we were able to do fun things like getting ice cream, wandering around Barnes and Noble, ice skating, and taking a trip to Gerome where we went on a sad excuse for a hike.

Well I guess I've wasted enough time and  should get back to studying.  Later Days!

My apartment has had the overpowering aroma of flowers in it since Valentine's Day. I really like flowers, and I think they smell great. However, there is a limit. It's like when you walk by somebody who is wearing way too much perfume. Oh well, I guess there are worse things that my apartment could smell like...maybe I'm just jealous cause none of the flowers are mine :) Here are a couple of pics. I took of them:

       

The lilies were from Loren's Dad and Aubry's boyfriend gave her a bouquet of different colored roses, but this one is my favorite. 

It was another good weekend of hanging out with friends.  There was an institute dance on Friday which I went to, and spent most of the time playing ping pong.  Then a bunch of us watched Cloverfield in honor of it being Friday the 13th (although I think it was technically the 14th by the time we started it).  Saturday night I went and saw He's Just Not That Into You with my roommate Loren and friend Michellle.  I enjoyed it - but definitely a chick flick.  Then we went and played wall ball (or butt ball as the guys called it) at the institute - which I hadn't played since Jr. High.  It was great - even though I was really sore the next day...

I just walked home through the most intense blizzard ever! It is really coming down out there. NAU closed early, which means that I didn't have to go to my last class - a 3 hour lab. yay for the snow! It was crazy walking home though. Of course I was walking into the snow and you wouldn't think that snow could be so painful. I had my coat zipped all the way to the top my hat pulled down as far as it would go and my hood on. Unfortunately I didn't bring a scarf, which I think would have helped with the face stingingness. Also, my pants were soaking wet and it was good and bad when my legs finally went numb. They didn't hurt as much, but it made it harder to walk...Oh and finally hardly any of the sidewalks I was walking on were shoveled, so that just added to the intenseness of the experience. So what it all comes down to is that I really love snow! I hope it continues on and we have a full on snow day tomorrow. My trekking adventure home from school was totally worth not having to go to class.

I had a good weekend too. I went to a restaurant called Black Bart's with a bunch of people. It's kind of like dinner and a show, cause all of the waiters and waitresses get up and sing - sometimes together, sometimes separate. It was a lot of fun. Of course the food was pretty pricey, but I got around that by splitting an appetizer with a friend. Then we all went out to a different place and did karaoke, where I witnessed a wedding proposal. Saturday I worked and played games with friends at night. All in all a good weekend.