• Family - Fun

    A Parent’s Summer Bucket List

    July 18, 2017 - By 

    Apparently, some teenager wrote down her summer bucket list and then forgot it in an Urban Outfitters dressing room.  The bad news is now all the internets knows that she wants to pet a giraffe and other, less-PG things, although the good news is all she has to do is log on to Twitter to remember what she wrote. While I can identify with some of the things on her list (binge new Netflix series? check.  eat cotton candy? check), there are some that, sadly, as a thirty-something mother of two I just do not identify with.  (have a super…

  • Fun

    Moving Day

    April 20, 2017 - By 

    It’s a little strange to walk through the home you’ve lived in for the past seven years when it is no longer yours.  Your things are packed and gone, and you tour a series of empty rooms, feeling like a stranger in a familiar place. Our belongings are boxed in a moving van, and some new family will move into our house and make it their own.  It’s almost shocking how simple the paperwork process is when you’re the one selling… less than an hour and the process was completed on our end. We are officially no longer Arizona homeowners.…

  • Fun

    Goodbye, Arizona

    March 22, 2017 - By 

    Arizona will always hold a special place in my heart. That is a super cheesy thing to say, but – well – it’s the truth. Arizona is where I learned to reach outside of my comfort zone to make new friends. It’s where I met my husband, fell in love, bought a home, and started a family. It’s where I watched my tiny babies grow into little boys. Their first smiles, first steps, first “I love yous.” But things change. The one constant about life is that it is never constant. And as our little family grows, we find ourselves…

  • Fun - RemoteDance - Throwback

    TYSE #4: Hospitality Mints

    January 16, 2011 - By 

    Since I have been sort of unfairly picking on Chris these lasts few posts, I suppose it’s time to make fun of myself. I haven’t done a “Things You Shouldn’t Eat” in a while so it seems fitting to share this bit of advice with you all. Last Christmas, Chris and I were invited to a Christmas Party to be hosted at one of the restaurants in downtown San Diego. Specifically, at Dick’s Last Resort. If you haven’t heard of it, the basic operating premise is that the waitstaff are total a-holes, and people do crazy things like wad up…

  • Family - Fun - RemoteDance

    Party Like a College Kid

    December 27, 2009 - By 

    After Christmas in Iowa, it was time for the annual (although a first for Chris and I) Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Edward 40Hands Party. Here is how you play. Find a safe venue with plenty of blankets and pillows so that no one has to drive home after the party. Invite all your friends. Make sure they know that if they participate in the game they will be staying the night. Beg, buy, or borrow an overly-festive sweater.  Purchase two 40-oz beers for yourself and any other players with whom you are supplying beverages. Ignore the strange looks from the…

  • Fun - RemoteDance

    Say What?!

    September 16, 2009 - By 

    Every so often, I overhear people say things that are unintentionally funny. Here’s a collection of great quotes from the last few months: “Aren’t they looking for you at the school?”-A customer, speaking to her young-looking waiter at the Olive Garden “You need to get rid of that Twilight Princess, yo. You’re playing ‘T’ for ‘Teen’ man.”-Relationship advice from one guy to another at the Home Depot “I wanted to get off on the right foot… I just had to decide which foot!”-A new acquaintance, on what type of first impression he wanted to make at a party “You can…

  • Fun - RemoteDance

    Camping Miracles

    July 10, 2009 - By 

    And now we have come to the finale of this Fourth of July Camping Adventure. Next to our campfire, left behind by the previous campers, was a giant log. Someone had obviously dragged it there, with the intentions of burning it, because there was a tie strap still twined around it. They had gone to a lot of trouble to get that giant log next to the campfire, but never ended up burning it. We had a theory. We figured they had been sitting around the campfire late at night (there was almost definitely alcohol involved) and two or more…

  • Fun - RemoteDance

    Camping: an Introduction to our Fourth of July Adventure

    July 6, 2009 - By 

    For the Forth of July, Chris and I planned a camping trip with four of our friends (and their 3 Chihuahuas). The average temperature in Phoenix that week was 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and Southern California was hitting the 100’s, so everyone was ready for some 75 degree weather. Due to thunderstorms clouding the skies from LA to Phoenix, we opted to drive instead of fly the plane. (Read: small aircraft and thunderstorms do not mix well). Aside from a brief moment of panic when the air conditioner cut out in the middle of the Mojave desert (it came back on)…