Twins

As I was making my yearly sausage egg bake for Christmas morning breakfast, the first egg I cracked had two yolks and I knew it was going to be a good day! :) How cool is this? Anyone else witness this anomaly before? I just swapped over to organic milk and organic/cage free eggs so perhaps it is because the chickens are healthier? At any rate, I figure it is pretty rare. Merry Christmas!!

Heavenly Snowmen

We are all works of progress...

Gifts from Arghanistan

I received a package from Jared this week and it was pretty exciting because it wasn't just stuff he wanted to mail home so he doesn't have to carry it back in February. It was actually full of a few gifts he had hand-selected for me!

The first item is a hand-carved wooden camel--just in time for Christmas decorations.

Jared also purchased sterling silver hand-crafted mini jewelry boxes. I have been keeping one on the windowsill in the kitchen so I have a place to store my wedding rings while I cook, bake and do dishes.

Last but not least were four handmade soaps. They are all different scents and were molded after rocks. I am using my favorite shape first. It is pretty neutral smelling, and it hasn't dried my hands out after using it. He said he paid about $20 for the four. That's steep if you ask me, but I suppose the seller needs the money more than we do.

Thanks again to everyone who sends him mail and gifts. He really looks forward to mail call!

Sweet Nephew

Just some pics from Thanksgiving weekend. I enjoyed hanging with my little nephew, who is 9 months old already. I can't believe how fast time flies!

Bountiful Baskets

I am really enjoying Bountiful Baskets harvests! Thanks to several friends at church, we now have a fruit/veggie Co-Op to participate in since a delivery truck is finally stopping down here in Sierra Vista. The baskets typically contain 50% fruit, 50% vegetable. You can't choose what comes in the shipment, but I haven't received anything I despise or couldn't easily share with others. Last shipment we got artichokes. YUM! This time, we receive a pineapple and some pears. You can look to see if your area has one at the website, HERE. For $15.00, and giving local farmers business, you can't beat it! The picture below is from the first week I participated, but was taken after I gave away a stalk of celery, a stalk of romaine lettuce, a big bunch of champagne grapes, half of the sweet potatoes, and several bananas.

The Avenues

I participated in my first ever craft fair during the second week in September, and visited my "longest" friend--Alisha--who has been one of my best friends from when I was 12 and who I had not seen in over 4 years!The Avenues is one of the most attended street fairs in Salt Lake City. I've been told there were more than 10000 people waltzing down the streets looking at the various vendors. I was excited to give it this a try as my first.

It was a challenge, but I succeeded in carrying everything, including my clothing, inventory, and table display items, carry on (go ahead--say it--I even impressed myself! :p). I didn't want to check ANYTHING, in case it got lost.

Alisha, myself and one of her friends split the booth three ways so the up-front fees were not as painful as doing a booth alone (the one I am doing alone this weekend is $100! ...gulp...). Alisha sold earrings and baby wraps (the earrings may been seen HERE on her etsy site), her friend sold hand crocheted items, including ice cream pint cozies (me and my Ben and Jerry's couldn't resist so I am not a proud owner of one), and I sold my baby items (may be seen HERE on my etsy site). I felt especially excited because I am "legal" now--I have a business license, a tax ID number and an EIN. Pretty cool!
Alisha, by far, had the highest return rate. I think she made over $200. I made a little over $100 and her friend made over $50. Combined, we made 6x the booth fees, so I think we did fabulously.

The most relaxing part of the weekend was attending a temple session at the Salt Lake Temple.

The most rewarding part of the weekend was seeing Alisha as a mom. She has married and given birth to two little ones since I last saw her, and it was enjoyable to see her and her mothering skills...which were awesome. I am glad to have a friend like her! And her kids are cute!

If you live in Sierra Vista, come check out my booth at the Fort Huachuca Holiday Bazaar on Saturday Nov 6th from 9-5 and Sunday Nov 7th from 11-4. It will be held at Barnes Field House (the gym), is FREE, and open to the public!

Little Red Riding Hood

Happy Halloween!

September 11th, 2010

"Dear Sister Blake:

...We have been informed that your husband, Jared, is serving in Afghanistan and has been meeting with other members of the Church at his deployed location. We appreciate your support to him and know you join us in asking that the Lord will giude and protect him during this time of uncertainty and turmoil...

...We express gratitude to you and your family for your selfless service and sacrifices in his behalf...

...We pray for the time when the gospel can be taken to all the world in prepartion for the Savior's second coming. For those who are separated from their families at this time, may you find peace and comfort in Christ, the Son of God, who came to bring peace to all mankind if they would but follow Him. We know that the Lord is mindful of you and the challenges you face as Jared valiantly serves in Afghanistan...

Sincerely,

Robert C. Oaks

Military Relations Division

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

What do Florence Prison and garden squash have in common?

On August 10th, my boss and I took the opportunity to visit one of our clients at Florence AZ Federal Prison, a maximum security prison in southeast Arizona. Since you all want to know, he was convicted of a civilian crime involving sexual assault with a minor. He was convicted and will serve a 3-year term. Because it happened while he was in the Army, the Army had to find a way to separate him from the service so Americans don't have to waste their tax dollars on his paycheck while he sits in civilian prison. That is why we went to visit him--to provide him with an election of rights and try to explain how this conviction would affect him in the long run. CPT Mark (the sole and Senior Defense Attorney for Fort Huachuca Trial Defense Service--I am his paralegal) and parked the car at the main parking lot in the complex and moseyed our way over to a bench where crowd of people had gathered. A few moments later, a guard beckoned us in to the complex, and we walked through a chain link fence. We were led about a quarter mile up to the visitor's section check-in. What was funny was the first person, a women dressed rather scantily, went in and then shut the door behind her. Hard. Like she was trying to keep us out. Then another man was ahead of us, but he wouldn't go in. Being newbies at this, we waited about one minute and then CPT Mark gave me a look, and a few moments later, caved in and asked the man ahead of us if he was going to go in.

Turns out the man had obviously 'been there done that' before because you are only supposed to go in one at a time! After about 7 or 8 minutes, it was our turn and we started filling out paperwork at the front desk for our visit. A correctional officer asked us what our client's inmate number was. They don't have names...they have numbers! So we gave it to her and she said she didn't have him on the list, so I was concerned because it had been my job to make sure we could visit him. Expecting the worst--our entire 2 hour trip being for naught--I started getting discouraged. She finally turned to us and told us we were in the wrong complex. It turns out there are 8 or 9 complexes spread out over several miles in Florence. They are all various security levels, and different housing arrangements, too. As we headed back to the car, we complained to each other about everyone at the prison not giving out any more information than they were required. We were legal counsel, for heaven's sake, and no one had bothered to tell us or explain to us what complex the client was in, or ask if we needed anything since it was our first visit. Then again, prison isn't exactly customer service oriented. On our way to the right complex, you couldn't help but notice inmates painting buildings, doing yard work, and gardening. They all stick out like sore thumbs against the desert landscape. In fact, you are not allowed to wear orange, khaki or brown in Florence prison, nor would you want to, since all the prisoners wear that color. Tell me how to get the privilege of being outside and "free" if I am ever sent to a maximum security prison...

We finally got to the right prison complex front gate, and a guard did a quick car search and let us pass through. We walked in to the complex our client is held in and had to go through a metal detector. Let me tell you ladies--don't wear an underwire bra! Simple as that. When we passed muster and we were admitted in through one door, where it shut behind us before the next door opened. At this point, I was taking in everything I was seeing because I was curious and I was wondering what he would be like in person. We were led to a high school cafeteria looking room with muliple square tables that fit four. To be honest, although he looked a little rough in his prison photo, he was in fact, a very squared away person and was very respectful and intelligent. He had obviously done his research about the type of separation he was receiving before we even showed up--which is more than I can say about 98% of our clients. We did what we needed to do, and it only took about 20 minutes to square him away. I am, however, glad we went to visit him because of what happened next.
As CPT Mark and I were on our way back in to town to the Florence McDonalds to pick up his mom (she was in town from New York City and accompanied us on our road trip), we spied a store labeled "Prison Outlet" on the corner at a big intersection. Our curiousity piqued, we had to stop and check it out. As we pulled in to the parking lot, we were greeted by several prisoners, again in orange jump suits. They were sitting on top of large bales of hay, waiting to load them in to any future customer's vehicle and were polite and chatting amongst themselves.

When we went in to the store we discovered a treasure trove of trinkets, woodworks, artwork, and clothing. The deal is that the inmates set a price on their items and get to keep 75% of the profit. The other 25% goes back to the state of Arizona. There was everything from paintings to keychains to license plate purses, to jeans and pajamas and even vegetables. It turns out the prisoners tend gardens, too. There were nice big zucchini for 50 cents a pound, and I grabbed 4 of them. The older woman who runs the shop, Betty, was very friendly and explained the purpose of the store as rehabilitative and tried to peddle their wares upon us. It didn't take much effort though, because everything looked so interesting! She was very supportive of the inmates and loved her job working for the state. She was also obviously patriotic/pro-military because CPT Mark was in uniform and she gave me the zucchini for free (thanks CPT Mark)! It was the largest zucchini I have every seen and I have now made my favorite sweet bread, zucchini bread, three weeks in a row! I still have a squash sitting out on my counter for later. As a parting note, I wanted to share the slogan printed on a t-shirt I bought for Jared while I was at the Prison Outlet:

Arizona State Prison Bed and Breakfast
*Room Service *Work Opportunities *Cozy Cells
We'll tell you when you can check out

Today I am grateful for my civil liberties!

Happy 5th Anniversary

Dear Jerry:

Where has the time flown?

I love our adventures, I love our fun and I love you.

Here's to 55 more (plus!) happy years.

143,
Adri

Deployment

OPSEC and all, but J is going down range in a few weeks. Just wanted to pass word to those interested.

Mesa Vacay

Jared and I enjoyed a weekend in Mesa over the July 4th weekend. There had been talk of him deploying, but nothing was confirmed, so we lived it up just in case. Glad we did since he left on 24 July!We stayed at the Mesa Holiday Inn. Jared is often gone for work and stays at Holiday Inns and is thus, a "Preferred Customer". We enjoyed several perk assocuated with this during the trip, in, including a free upgrade to a suite (one was available), free bottles of water upon check-in (instead of $3 dollars a pop for the ones in the wet bar) and complimentary late check-out.The Mesa Holiday Inn boasts "the largest outdoor pool in Mesa!" I really enjoyed the waterfall and the fact that the deck was very open and sunny no matter where you sat. There were many pool chairs and a maid placed fresh towels on the deck every hour or so. We goofed off in the pool playing with "noodles" a little bit each day, and I didn't even get a sunburn! Jared was very vigilant in that department. ;)On Friday evening we enjoyed some subs and found a movie theater to escape to due to the heat. It had to be 110 degrees outside. I am surprised the station wagon didn't die on us. That car is giving us a lot of trouble lately! Anyways, we enjoyed TOY STORY III. I laughed outloud, as did Jared, most of the time. Our most favorite Friday activity was stumbling upon a pottery-making studio called "As You Wish". For about $30 and 2+ hours of entertainment, we were able to decorate/paint pottery. We were able to "rush" the kiln heating time and pick it up in 2 days instead of three days time (we were leaving on Monday morning, so I am glad we found the place on Friday night--we had just enough time to complete our art projects!). Our finished products have allowed for Jared to eat his night time bowl o' cereal in style and me to eat my Ben and Jerry's in coordinating dishware. I even figured out how to label my bowl so everyone knows not it is not theirs and not to eat any of it. I have to admit I am a terrible sharer. Maybe it comes from being one of seven kids?

On Saturday, we went to an arcade at Golf Land that had "Free Play" mode for the morning. What that meant was that we paid $10 per person to play video games without needing quarters for the next 4 hours. I got to level 9 in Pac Man (it finally got too fast for me) and Jared was able to kill lots of bad guys in various shoot-em-up games. Some 16ish looking blond boy challenged me to a game of dance dance revolution and totally smoked me. It was then that I realized I am getting old. That kid was a huge dork, by the way. Wish I snuck a picture of him.By the time Free Play ended, the DQ Blizzard Mobile had FINALLY showed up at Golf Land. Little did Jared know that I planned our entire weekend around the event. Hehehe. Below is a "happy Adri" picture with BOGO free Blizzard coupons.

It was nice to get away from the Vista and enjoy some vacation time together!

Surprise!

Unbeknownst to Jared, I planned a surprise party for him this year since he was turning OLD.

We had a super turnout and enjoyed brats and (root)beer.
Here are some snaps from the festivities (thanks for being the photographer, Devanie):

Totally surprised! "Happy happy birthday, Jared dear..."Jared, Devanie, JonBackyard guests

Mazzanti Family

Jared's dino pinata after a few hard hits What Jared always wanted to do as a boy, but only had the opportunity to do as an adult

Happy Birthday Jared

Jared turned 30 today. Of course, being the loving wife that I am, I made him his favorite breakfast--biscuits and gravy--from scratch. It made for a big mess, but a happy hubby!

Happy birthday, dearest.

How's THAT for customer service?

When I went home to D.C. for graduation, I made sure to pack my super sweet new polka dot umbrella. On the first day I was there, I visited my girlfriend in Occoquan and I was thrilled to use it for the very first time (obviously we don't get my rain here in AZ). However, I was not able to use it before I dropped it on the ground as I was fumbling with taking off the cover. As soon as I went to extend it, I realized that I had bent the frame when it was dropped. Total bummer!! And I was iritated until I remembered that ISOtoner umbrellas have a lifetime warranty. I shoved it into my luggage and tried my luck at getting it fixed instead of having to purchase another umbrella. I filled out the warranty form that came with it when I purchased it and obediently tucked a $5.00 check into the envelope for "shipping/handling" fees. Within a week, I received this letter and was able to void the check out in my checkbook: And within a week, I received this new umbrella via UPS:

Way to go ISOtoner! I am a customer for life!