T - I - G - E - R - S!!

Jason made it home safely from Chicago on Thursday, and I played housewife, cooking him pork chops and pepper kabobs on the grill for dinner. On Friday, I was busy with Orientation, and Jason caught up on work in the office. He was pretty exhausted from his trip; here you can see he and Maddie enjoying some naps on the couch at about 8:30 pm Friday night -- our Friday nights are getting pretty lame!

From BBALL

Saturday morning I went to my first spin class at the gym, and can officially report that it isn't that bad. Other than a sore toosh, and some pretty horrible music selections from our instructor, spin was a great workout, and a good way to start the day! We headed down to Phoenix Saturday afternoon to watch Clemson's baseball team play ASU. After a few pitchers and too much food at Four Peaks Brewery, we went to the game. Our seats were standing room only, and after 5 innings we took a cab back to the hotel to watch the remaining (disappointing) 4 innings in the bar. Here are 2 pictures we shot just after the sun went down. The first is a self-portrait, and the second is a picture of Barry Bonds (I am sure you can guess who took that one).

From BBALL

From BBALL

On Sunday we did some shopping in Phoenix, and I dropped Jason off at the airport for his flight to Copenhagen. He flew Phoenix direct to London, and caught a flight from London to Copenhagen. He called this morning at about 9am to say he made it to Copenhagen, and it was already past 9pm there. He has a meeting tomorrow, and will fly back Thursday. I'll be occupying my time with more orientation this week, taking classes at the gym, and a birthday party Wednesday night for a friend at work.

I am off to finish laundry and clean up before heading to yoga in a bit. Much love to Mary Beth and Adam -- she's almost here:) Have a great week!

Vegetable Garden Bandit

Here you can see Jason cooking up a gourmet dinner Friday night (checkout the Southwestern apron!). He cooked clams with spaghetti in a garlic white wine sauce...very yummy.

Saturday morning Jason left for Chicago for a conference. He will be there until Thursday, and gets to see his brother Kurt while in town. They already have plans to see a Cubs game, go to Second City, and watch a play.

Saturday was a very rainy day in Flagstaff, so I cleaned the house most of the morning, and went shopping and to dinner with a couple of friends in the afternoon. Saturday night Maddie and I curled up on the couch to watch Twilight. The movie was pretty good, but I definitely think the book is better than the movie. So far, I've read the first two books in the series, and I'm planning on reading the third book on our trip to Massachusetts in July...it is great plane reading.

Sunday I went for a 2 mile walk around some trails with great views of Mt. Humphries and Mt. Elden in Buffalo Park. After that I just ran a few errands, and hung around the house all evening.

One nasty discovery I made over the weekend is that some animal has been turning our new vegetable garden into a personal litter box. There is a neighborhood cat (not sure if it's stray or belongs to someone) that jumps our fence sometimes, so he is the top suspect at the moment. So, I cleared the evidence today and put up a little plastic fence around the vegetables. I also read online that planting marigolds helps keep cats out of gardens. Apparently they hate the smell. So, tomorrow after work I am making a pit stop at Home Depot for some marigolds. Let's hope it works.

Advising at Orientation has been a lot of fun. I've been meeting mainly undeclared students, so it's never a dull moment. Four more days of Orientation this week, and a couple of dinner dates with some friends in town. Have a wonderful week!

XOXO Helen & Maddie

Hemmers Heart Three-Day Weekends!

Happy belated Memorial Day! Hope everyone had a great day off; we absolutely made the most of our three-day weekend. This is a picture of some plants I potted and put at my front door. We are hoping we don't get any late season frosts, and they stay alive!

We also visited a local nursery to ask what vegetables and fruits grow well in this area. We planted one eggplant, one zucchini, one bell pepper, and one jalapeno in a little bed the owners had in the back yard, and potted two cherry tomato plants. Here is a picture of our baby vegetable garden. If I can get at least one vegetable out of this I will feel a sense of success!

From Plants

Friday, we went downtown Flagstaff with some friends for dinner, and "hopped" to a bar or two. We went to San Felipe's for fish tacos, checked out a new martini bar (that had Boddington's on tap) and a bar called "The Green Room" that had a live Grateful Dead cover band. The band was pretty bad, but we had a few good laughs at the crowd, and brushed up on our "hippy dancing". Here is a picture of my friend Amy, Heather, and I.

From Online Edits

On Saturday, Jason woke up an adventurer and decided he wanted to hike up Kendrick Peak, which is 10,000 ft. at its highest point. I was slightly skeptical, but I'll let Jason fill you in on this adventure...We only made it about half way to the top of the mountain before a thunderstorm approached, at which point we decided to get the hell out of the area. We will return soon though, and make it to the top of the 10,000 ft. peak. I'm sure we'll get some good pictures from there, and next time around Helen will be more enthusiastic about the journey....maybe:)

We are beginning to experience the monsoon season in Flagstaff...hence caught on a hike in a thunderstorm. Much of memorial day was dreary, and as we were about head to a friend's house, the clouds opened, and covered us in rain, thunder, lightening, and hail...yes, hail. It is a normal occurrence to have summer rainstorms with HUGE pieces of hail - Madeline is not much of a fan. Here are a couple of pictures of Maddie - one of her viciously attacking a computer cord, and another of her hanging on the couch with Jason.

From Plants

From Plants

Orientation starts for me tomorrow, which is exciting. Jason leaves for Chicago on Saturday for "Digestive Disease Week" conference...yes, that is really the name. More to follow soon. XOXO Helen & Jason

Sunday Cookout

From Around Flagstaff

Sunday brought beautiful weather to Flagstaff, so we had a couple of friends over for an afternoon cookout. Our friends Amy, James, Heather, Greg, and Heather & Greg's two kids, Max and Jane came over to enjoy our newly spruced backyard, and fire up the grill. Jason was master of the grill, cooking up some delicious pork tenderloin, chicken, and steaks -- his grilling got rave reviews. Here he is hard at work...

From Cookout

It took two engineers to get the blow-up kiddie pool going (which was hilarious), but once going, it was a hit with Max and Jane (as you can see above!). Madeline was a hit, and found two new best friends in the kids. Here is Max following her around "talking" to her in cat language -- so cute.

From Cookout

We have a lot in common with the two couples, and enjoyed making the most of our backyard on a great Sunday. It's the beginning of what we hope is a great summer!
I made a slide show of a few more pictures of us hanging out in the yard.

Work is fairly steady for Jason and I this week. I did move into my own office space today though, which was very exciting! I am slowly starting to feel like I know what is going on, and when orientation begins next week, I'll be meeting with a whole slew of students -- can't wait! Jason has a few trips planned, one to Chicago, and another to Copenhagen in the next couple of weeks. He is VERY excited about the up-coming three-day weekend (yay!) and we've got a great UFC to look forward to this weekend too.
If anyone wants to get out of the humidity, come visit!
XOXO Helen & Jason

From Slideshow

This is a picture of Jason and I at happy hour on Friday with some "Gore" folks. It was beautiful weather, and we sat outside, and did some Flagstaff people watching, including a guy walking his dog on a unicycle, and a dude with really big hair and really short shorts...gotta love Flagstaff. I only slightly embarrassed Jason when my flip flop broke walking from the car to the restaurant. I was FORCED to go purchase a new pair of flip flops...

We've also been doing some work in our backyard. We bought an old school gas-less lawn mower today to tackle the random sprouts of grass, and fixed up the pond in the back. If you remember, we found fish in there a couple months back. But, the pond was evaporating in the dry air. We discovered a filter, plugged it in, and now we have a nice waterfall in the back yard. We put a couple of Adirondack chairs on the back porch, and enjoyed sitting back there with a glass of wine tonight (major great price at Home Depot -- check it out!). I also included a picture of Tyson our "guard cat", who lives on the back porch. He keeps Maddie company when she's sitting by the porch screen door.

We're having a couple people over tomorrow for a cookout -- enjoy your Sunday!

XOXO Helen & Jason

Quick update on our week -- last night I played Bunko with the girls in my neighborhood, and I WON! That should confirm that Bunko is a game of luck, and not skill. I generally don't enjoy games, but seeing as how Bunko is merely a vehicle to drink wine and laugh, it is doable, AND I walked out 15 dollars up, Also, today I got my own office at work. I had been working in a computer hub space close to my trainers office, but starting Monday I'll have my own office space -- yay.
I'll post again soon; enjoy the weekend!

Trip to Sunny Carolina

Congratulations to the newest college grad in the family -- Richard! Jason and I visited S.C. to watch him graduate from Clemson on Friday May 8th. We had a great time watching him walk across the stage, suffered through the remaining 3 hours, and celebrated with family all weekend. Here is another picture of that night...

From Drop Box

On our short to visit to Clemson, we crammed in a visit to Vickery to see "the boys", a happy hour with the work crew, and plenty of time with our friends still in Clemson. We realized that while we do not miss the town of Clemson, we have some great friends in the area, and it was amazing to spend some time with them. To top it off, two days after dragging Bethany out, she and Bryan welcomed their first son into the world...we think the bursts of laughter and Peppinos did the trick! Congratulations guys! Here is a slideshow of our shenanigans around town...


Jason came down on May 7th, but I flew in the week before on April 30th. I was able to join Angileigh Wingard and friends down at Edisto Beach and Charleston for her bachelorette party. I managed to hang on the beach without getting a sunburn, and enjoyed spending some time with Angileigh and D-Day. Can't wait for the wedding in August! Here is us with the bride-to-be...

From Drop Box

After the beach, I headed back to Greenville to spend a few days with mum, and we went up to Charlotte, NC to do some shopping, and visit my friend Monica and her one week old son, Jackson. We both forgot to get a picture, but it was so great seeing them! Mum and Dad are still trying to sell their house in Greenville to move to Myrtle Beach, so mum is mostly in Greenville preparing and having showings. We had a showing while I was in town; here is a picture of Helen the Gardner planting a few flowers out front (please note the boots)...

From Drop Box

Madeline managed without us for a few days, and we were happy to see her when we came back in on Sunday. I've been busy unpacking and cleaning a week and a half worth of clothes, and settling back into our routine. We don't have anything too exciting planned for the next few weeks; we will just be hanging around Flagstaff, working around the yard, and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we have right now -- today was 75, sunny, and slightly breezy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all our great hosts in S.C.; we are so thankful we got to spend some time together -- now it's your turn to visit!
Much love,
Helen & Jason XOXO