Waking Up

Every once in a great while I get this feeling like I'm mentally waking up.  You know what I mean like the majority of the time your just doing your day to day functions, not necessarily a bad thing just mindless.  I know that part of this was brought about from my birthday. Every birthday seems to snap something in me.
This year was a great birthday, nothing exceptional had happened at the time but there is so much to look forward to in the coming years and I know the harder times have helped me appreciate things I could have never recognized without them.
Part of my present this year was getting a whole day of Todds time.  He is in his last stretch of school, final semester, and finishing up his thesis.  We are so excited that after 7 years of full time school, not counting my schooling, we can officially get on with life!!! 

Here are some pics of our day out at the Gila Cliff Dwellings

He informed me that he didn't need gloves because he could put his hands in his pockets.

One of the Rangers warned us that it was muddy and I might get my "nice white tennis shoes dirty".  I wasn't worried about it but Todd went and grabbed our hiking boots anyway.  Of course the mud was Joe's favorite part of the whole trip.

If you ask Joe will strike a pose for you

We had brought the backpack to carry Joe in but he was happy to hike the entire 1.25 miles

A day in Midland

I had a few free minutes so I thought I'd post an update.  As of the last entry we were waiting to hear if Todd got his internship.  He did!  We're living in Midland right now as a matter of fact.  He started a few weeks ago and is loving it.  The people here are incredibly nice and the company he's working for seems great.  We're just having trouble finding things to do when he's not working.  It's really hot here in Midland and it's not a large town so it seems like we have to drive a couple of hours to find family entertainment.
We still had a lease to fulfill in NM so we left most of our belongings there and just moved the minimum needed.  I'm able to use internet at the clubhouse and we didn't hook up cable.  I had this crazy idea that it would be fun in a kind-of romantic way to go without as much as possible, kind-of like a very long vacation.  Unfortunately it just feels like living inconviently.
Overall though it's been nice to have Todd around more and to be able to play house mommy for the summer.  We can't wait for the next year to go by so we can get back to living like adults- not students.

Quick update

Just thought I'd give those of you who don't use FaceBook a quick update.
Todd had one last interview for a summer internship a couple of weeks ago.  He did great and earlier this week they made him an offer.  We are so excited, I actually started screaming.  I am so proud of him, his hard work is starting to pay off already!
The internship will be in Midland, Texas with Mewbourne Oil.  It seems like a great company, they're a small independent company that's been around since the mid 60's. 

The interview was in Oklahoma so we made a little road trip out of it.  
Also, this week we moved Joseph into the bigboy bed.  When the mattress was delivered we realized the crib made into a full size bed not a twin.

These last couple I took earlier today.  They were so cute I had to post them!

December in New Mexico 2010

Todd and I have a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree every year.  It hasn't always worked out quite as planned, luckily this years traditional went down without a hitch.

While we were waiting for Santa to finish feeding the reindeer we went through the museum.  They even have a Gila monster.

Todd assembling Josephs toys

The tree turned out pretty nice

Christmas morning

Thanksgiving 2010

My version of Christmas enchiladas (green sauce inside,  red out).

And both red and green homemade salsas!

My first attempt at Grandma Bee Rolls- not perfect but pretty good

My pumpkin roll was perfect though!

Thanksgiving dinner

Grandma Parr making a gingerbread train with Joseph

 We were lucky to have Belva and Randy visit for Thanksgiving! 

We took our visitors to see some of the sights they didn't have a chance to see when they helped us move, we didn't get to everything but this was a good start.

Todd attempting to sled on the sand using a sign- it didn't work, we'll bring snow sleds next time.

Farmers Market

We had been looking for a chair for Joseph since his birthday and finally found a good one on a Black Friday Sale.

 Sorry I've been so bad about keeping this up to date I'd like to say I'll be better, but that would just be lying.  Working full time and the holidays have really thrown me through a loop as far as keeping up with everything.  Now things are settling back in I think we're just about as adjusted as we're going to get.

The University has an amazing geologic museum.  Joseph and Belva are checking out some petrified wood.

Hueco Tanks

Halloween 2010

Joseph had a full on Halloween this year.  Along with the normal carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating (well trunk-or-treating) we took him to a costume party and the daycare put on a full week of celebrations.  We didn't get to do quite everything we wanted to though thanks to all of us getting sick.  I really hoped we could have made it to the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mesilla, hopefully we are able to go next year.

The idea was suppose to be "Tarzan, Jane and their monkey"... may be Todd will dress up next year.

Next year I'm going to have to do a better job decorating the trunk.

He does this cute teethy grin whenever you ask to see his teeth.

We let him paint his pumpkin since he obviously can't carve, or even draw a face on it yet.

 The daycare had a different theme each day this week.  One day was pajama day, another crazy hair day, ext.

Today we went for a ride and found this crazy cactus.  It feels odd to be wearing shorts and t-shirts still, it's kind-of throwing off my sense of time.

Lots of random stuff

I can't believe I'm already getting behind on this blog- it will probably be Christmas by the time I get around to adding my Utah visit- Oh well.

On  our way home from Hueco Tanks today we saw Thunderbirds performing in an airshow- Todd promised to take me and Joseph to an airshow next year, I'm excited already. 

Todd has been taking more pictures lately.

This is my favorite, I'm not sure it's going to show up correctly on here though.

 Last weekend Kristen took me and Joseph to the farmer's market since Todd and her boyfriend were gone to the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous.

 I also got the fall decorations out while Todd was gone, since he loves them so much.

I love bugs and this one was just too cool to not take a picture of.

His shirt says "I love Dirt"

We went to Heuco Tanks again today- they were having an interpretive fair this weekend and once we got there we realized the stuff we wanted to see, like the dancing and storytelling, was yesterday- we'll plan better next year.  It wasn't a waste though Todd got to climb a little.

Yesterday we went back to the Outlets, mainly to buy me work clothes but of course it was more fun to shop for Joseph.  We found him a really cute jean jacket, and shoes.  I started my job this week.  So far I'm just studying for the state licensing exam from home, so I don't need my entire work wardrobe yet but I only need a few more things so I'm not stressing over it.