Aaron

All posts tagged Aaron

For the last 3 weeks we have been helping some friends of ours with moving their restaurant.  When they first planned the move it would only be closed for 3 days, it ended up being closed for 20.  They were having real trouble with their staff being reliable and trustworthy.

We helped move out of the old space, we ended up being there for 14 hours.  We have also helped almost everyday from the time we drop off X ’til 1 or 2 in the morning.  During this time I have become a professional floor stainer, tile installer, and many other things.  They also allowed me to use my design skills.

Aaron and I really enjoyed being able to help our friends.  They were not close friends but now that they have seen that we are here for them when they need us and all the time we got to spend together I think we have made a great lasting relationship.

Here is my question for you….would you do it?  We have had many people ask us if we are getting free food for a year, coffee drinks for life, etc?  I reply “we enjoy helping our friends, why would we want anything in return.”

Xavier on "The Beast"

On Saturday morning we took some whole bean coffee from Thousand Hills to the Buckeye Fire Department.  I wanted to thank them for taking me to the hospital in October.  I wasn’t grateful for being in the hospital, but I was very thankful that they were there to take me there and at least start the ball rolling in trying to figure out what is wrong with me now.

When we got to the fire house they were in return grateful for the coffee and asked if X wanted to see any of the trucks.  So he wanted to see “The Beast.”  James, the firefighter, let him get in the cab and start her up, play with the radio and all the buttons.  Then James turned the generator on the back so X could use the hose.  X was really excited that he got to water a very dry desert bush.

Yesterday was a hard but great day.  I knew that because Uncle James was in town that Xavier would want to go hiking.  I wanted so badly to join my family on this adventure.  So knowing that my right leg had been feeling very tight and tender, I did something that I thought I would never do….I had my first massage.  She did a great job.  She understood the needs of my muscles and that I have tender points.  She worked for 40 minutes on my leg to release the muscle.   I should have done this a long time ago.

When I got home we took a hike in the trails that are just behind our house.  The views from the top of the hills are great.  The first part of the trail was not a walking trial but a quad trail which made it difficult to walk up, at least for me, the three mountain goats I was with seem do fine with it.  Once we were on the right hiking trails they were great.  I did forget my inhaler, my bad.  But James to the rescue, I could breathe again and continue.

I am so glad the I have been able to get out and enjoy the outdoors with my family again.  I am looking forward the becoming the person I know I want to be and that is somewhere inside of me.

Yesterday Xavier had a school field trip to the Phoenix Zoo.  I was looking forward to being out with my family but not to the pain that would come later.  So I took some precautions in the morning and at lunch and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I did however come home and sleep for 12 hours and I am still feeling the effects form the miles of walking and the bike ridding that we did.

I did realize yesterday that I have miss the way Aaron and I use to be,  afternoon walks and bike rides near the beach.  Those were the days.

I haven’t written in a while.  Some can say I have been lazy but in reality not much has changed.  Last week I felt like I was finally getting a couple of “human” days.  Then as I always fall prey to it, wanted to get things done.  I started to get the house back to the way I love it.  And now I am paying the price.  My lower half of my body is feels as though it’s muscles have been put through a taffy puller.  When I lay in bed at night my limbs start to feel heavy and become so hard to move.  I feel sorry for Aaron, I don’t want him to feel neglected because I love him so much, for everything he is to me and what he has done for me, but when I my body feels this way I can’t stand to be touched or for him to show love to me.  I hate this part because I see the pain in his eyes and I so want to show him how much I care but when it is so hard and painful to move, I am really in between a rock and a hard place.

Aaron had a conference in San Francisco this weekend, so as his trusty side kick I got to go. WordCamp was all day Saturday and they had a Developer Day on Sunday. We flew on Friday morning which was fun. It was supposed to be a non-stop flight to SF, then it got changed to a touch down in San Diego. When we got to SD they said that our flight would be delayed three hours but that they had made arrangements for us all to change planes if we hurried to gate six and then we should be on time to SF. So much for a non-stop flight to SF.

We did arrive in SF on time which was nice because we took advantage of the whole afternoon. We found a place that offered a 4 hour tour of The City. In the tour we got to see all the major sites you would normally get to see and then our guide also took us to see some of the great houses of the area. That was a highlight for me, Aaron on the other hand thought that it was all the same. I love the Victorian nature of all the houses and that the more you restore the house the more you really see how beautiful it was in its youth. We also went through all the normal neighborhoods like China Town, Little Italy, and the 60’s Era (that was interesting).

While on the tour bus I noticed a bus poster for Spam-A-Lot the play. (The Broadway Musical that I have been wanting to see for years.) Aaron used his nifty knowledge of the Internet and his wifi phone and got us VERY nice seats for that night. YEAH! So after our tour and dinner at L’Ottavo (Thanks, Beth!). We went to see Spam-A-Lot! The play was awesome. It however was not for the morally faint. As with Monty Python nothing is off limits, they’re British.

While Aaron was at his first day of his geek fest, I spent my time shopping. I was enjoying my time in the 5 story Macy’s, the 3 story Old Navy, and a slue of other great shops. I did over do it though because I had to spend Sunday in the hotel because my legs we too sore to move.

Saturday night there was a WordPress 6Year Anniversary Party. That was Fun. Talk about a range of people. There was a 16 year old kid there was unable to really function that looked like he would get stuck in a locker a lot, a he/she in a goth outfit with a cape and dog collar, a guy named Neil that was about 45 that probably still lived in his mom’s basement that would just not get the hint and don’t forget the guy who brought his dog in his man bag. Don’t get me wrong there were a lot of “normal” geeks there but they just don’t stand out when there is a whole room full of them.

Sunday night we went to Ghirardelli Square. We took a cab from our hotel, little did we know that we were riding with the stereo typical cabbie. He was either always on the accelerator or the brake. Once we arrived there unharmed, we found out the square was closed. The restaurant and the gift shop was the only thing left open. And if that wasn’t enough I had also left my camera in the hotel room. At least the food and the view was amazing.

Well, to sum up my thoughts on The City…..I was enjoyed it but I was disenchanted with the thought of it. I had always wanted to go and see what it had to offer but when I got there it seemed as though I had seen most of this before. The shops were the same, the night life ended early and the ocean was better in SD. In the end, so far, I like Boston in the fall.

March 21, 2009
We gave Xavier the choice of staying in OK an extra day and having no detours on the way home or we could leave on Friday…he choose to stay. But that doesn’t mean that we nothing happened on our home. We did try to stop at two Rte 66 museums and a honey farm on Saturday but they were all closed. We broke our trip back home into two days so we stopped in Albuquerque for the first night.

March 22, 2009
We had a lovely breakfast from the hotel and then went back to the room for church. It was a great message from Dave Ramsey. After we packed we got on the road, little did we know that it would be like the God was doing yard work. The wind on this trip home was blowing so hard that were hitting tumble weeds like there was no other. It was as though God has turned on his weed blower for the medians and they were cleaning out everything. We were driving in sure high winds that we saw a dining room set whipped out of a truck and slam on the ground in splitters. We also saw motorcycles riding at about a 40 degree angle trying to stay upright on the road. We were just on the south side of the Flagstaff a piece of luggage flew out of a truck and we had no other choice but to hit it.

We tried to find something for Xavier to see while we driving home still. We saw a sign that said petrified wood and a dinosaur museum. Once we got there it had to the most disgusting single wide trailer with an add on that had anamatronic dinosaurs with manikins on them. Needless to say the road trip home was not has much fun for X as it was interesting for Aaron and I.

Dino Eating Manikin

Dino Eating Manikin

We have been enjoying our time in OK. We have been doing all the normal things like shooting turtles in the pond, riding quads, reading over 400 pages, “hiking”, and other crazy things.

Xavier has been outside about 95% of the time. If he is awake we can’t keep him in. He is usually dirt from head to toe. He has been enjoying quads rides with anyone he can convince to take him. We went “hiking” the other day to see some caves and springs. Dave told us that there would be a great cave that had a natural spring coming out of it and you could get to it from the from the trail on the Gator. Little did I know that we have go down a small hill, cross a creek, up the other side, down the other side to cross the ravine and viola we were there. At this point Dave was not my favorite father-in-law. Along the way back to the Gator we all got pretty muddy and Aaron and I each lost a shoe.

For St. Patrick’s Day Stacie bought X a bag of green toys. One of the toys was a whoopee cushion. He made a go of everyone sitting on it, even Great Grandma! Later that day he realized that he could make the dog sit so he got Ninja to sit on the cushion. The dog’s face was priceless. I so wish that I had it on camera.

As for the other crazy things….DANIEL and Aaron took culverts to the top of the hill and rolled the down in them to the bottom of the field, not once but thrice.

March 12, 2009
Aaron, X, and I start off on our road trip to end up in Oklahoma. We decided that we would take time getting there and have fun as a family. Our first destination would be White Sands, NM. I had thought that I had done my research and White Sands would be right there on our way. Come to find out later that night it was an hour an fifteen minutes out of the way. Who knew?

March 13, 2009
We have a tradition on vacation that we try to eat at places we don’t have at home. So we set off to in the direction that we thought the White Sands sledding park was in for a great place to eat. We find a little hole in the wall to eat at and a very nice local that explains that we headed in the wrong direction.

After we had ate breakfast, we drove to the White Sands National Park. Where they charged us an arm and a leg for three sledding discs. We then entered the park and drove to find some “naked” dunes. Once we found the perfect dune, we had some fun. I couldn’t be left out of the fun so I did the “bunny hill” a couple of times and the “big boy” hill once. However, Aaron and X did both, mostly the big hill, for about 2 hours. We had sand coming out of everything.

From there we decide to detour to Roswell, NM. When we found out that it would only add half an hour to our drive Aaron and I couldn’t pass it up. We love the sci-fi stuff. We didn’t stay long, but did take the time to do the UFO Museum and have Xavier take a picture with R.A.L.F. (Roswell’s Alien Life Form) their mascot. On our way to Roswell we stopped by a pistachio farm/vineyard. We acquired some very fun food items like a Pistachio Wine, Huckleberry Honey, Pistachio Coffee, Pistachio Honey and a Pomegranate Wine. It was an altogether great stop.

On we went to Amarillo, TX, where we would stay for the night. But the trip wouldn’t be boring. Xavier got to see his first snow fall. The temperature had dropped from 56 to 32 real quick. It snowed from an hour outside of Roswell to about half an hour outside of the Oklahoma/Texas line. In all it was about 4″. Being that the last time X was in snow he was about 2, he was having a ball.

If you know me at all you will know that I like my space to organized and clutter free.

We have steadily out grown our house that we have been in for about 4 1/2 years, so we thought that a little extra space would be helpful while we are waiting for the right house to come along. So we started out our Christmas vacation by building a shed. By we I mean, Aaron, Dad and Cody. Occasionally Mom, Rachel, and I would hold up a wall, sweep, etc. They had the shed finished by New Year’s weekend, which isn’t too bad for guys who had no clue what they were doing. They did a great job and I now have 120 sq feet of space to put Acholi Beads, which used to live in my living room, Christmas and Fall decor, and misc nonsense that we are keeping until we move.

Don’t think I wasn’t busy during this time the boys were building. I took this time to completely “gut” Xavier’s room. I took out all of his toys and went through them and got rid of so many that I think that we could of started a toy store. Then I went and got a ClosetMaid Cube, fabric buckets, and plastic tubs and sorted. I think he is now the most organized 5 year old in town, maybe even in Arizona. I went a little crazy.

And that’s not all, I have now, simultaneously started to reorganize the kitchen and the office. Who knows what’s next? I think that I have taken this New Year’s resolution thing a little far or maybe the meds the doctor has me on are just making it so I have many more better days.

Watch out…your pantry might be next!