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!

GWU Graduation

Many friends and family already know that I completed my Master's Degree in Paralegal Studies back in December. After some encouragement from Jared, I took the opportunity to go home and participate in commencement exercises on May 15th and 16th, and visit with family and friends in the Northern Virginia area. Michelle Obama was the key note speaker for GWU's graduation on the National Mall.
Several of my colleagues and I were inducted into Lambda Epsilon Chi, the National Paralegal Honor Society, for graduating in the top 10% of our class and with a 3.9 0r higher (I had a 4.0!). The hard work paid off--I was provided a special honor chord to wear during graduation, and a framed accomplishment certificate along with a lapel pin. :)

It was nice to put faces with names and meet several of my online classmates in person, including my girlfriend Lina, who was kind enough to let me borrow two extra graduation tickets for my rather large immediate family. It turns out that she lives in Virginia Beach, and her daughter goes to high school with my sister, at my old alma mater, Princess Anne. Small world.

During my trip to VA, I was also able to meet my new nephew, Micah Conner Bussey, for the first time. He is a cutie! Poor baby has a hernia and is scheduled for surgery on June 7th; I am sure it will make him feel better, and help him to be less fussy for my sister. He sure does look like a "Bussey" here.

It feels great to be DONE with school...at least for a little while!

Arizona, the Grand Canyon State

Jared's mom Judy joined us in Arizona last week. During her 10-day visit, we traveled up to the Grand Canyon. It was a 6(ish) hour drive from our home in Sierra Vista, but well worth the trip! The views were spectacular.

Highlights from our trip across the South...

Sunday Drive

Jared and I drove to Parker Canyon Lake this afternoon after church. It is on the southern side of the Huachuca Mountains (we got an additional 30 minutes of sunset) and is about 5 miles from the border.

Hence this sign:

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Wait a second--what? Is Jared...HIKING?

And did he just ask me how you are supposed to pay for camping "next time" we come here?

Our New Home

We arrived here in Arizona last week after some terrific flights back to America (no delays or lost luggage) and no snags with the cats. I will tell you though, it has taken a full week for the cats to want to snuggle with us again--I think they hated us there for the first 3 days. Poor babies. A 10 hour flight with at least one hour's worth of strong turbulence is no fun for pets!

Although we were planning on living on-base, the housing the Army base offered us was unfortunately very small (1400 sq ft) and very dated--1950s to be exact, with no character to the lawn or any other part of the house. And, the house on base did not come with a W/D--only the hookups! Jared was actually the one who first wanted to decline it, if that tells you anything (and we all know he is not picky). We could have been wait-listed for new(er) base housing, but it would have been a 6 month wait or longer, so we signed a rental agreement on Friday for a 1800 sq ft 4 bedroom home out on town.

It is a nice corner property about one-quarter mile walk to the mall. Since we moved in on Halloween, we were able to hand out candy and meet a few of our friendly neighbors and their kids, though a few of the neighbors teased us about not having any furniture in the house yet! The gas is supposed to be turned on today and I can't wait--we have been taking cold showers and haven't had use of the dryer or the rangetop in the kitchen.


I love the backyard--it even has an orange and a lime tree! Rock garden all the way! I am going to miss my green-thumbin'!

I am glad we bought those gorgeous pots back in Okinawa so we can use them for water accents here--they will fit right in!

The property has a 2 car garage, W/D in the home, and is only 5 years old. We were lucky to come upon it and grateful it is below our BAH rate so we have some extra money to contribute towards utilities.

This picture is the view we see when we look out one of the two front bedrooms. In the background are the Huachuca Mountains, and technically, the Mexican border. The base is located in that general direction. Also, the sun sets in that direction, so it actually goes down fairly early--530 or so--because the mountains block it from view rather quickly. The sunset is beautiful!

Thank you for all your well wishes and prayers. Everything is working out great!