Busy, Busy, Busy!

Jason and I have been super busy the past couple of weeks. Jason came back from a trip to Albany, NY and Providence, RI last Wednesday, my parents came in town last Thursday night, and Jason just headed back out today for a conference in Wyoming.
Students came back to NAU on the 20th, and it has been non-stop work since then! Thankfully, I had time this weekend to spend with my parents, and when they leave for San Francisco on Tuesday I'll post lost of picture and details of their trip. The opening picture on this post is from Jason and I in Phoenix two Fridays ago, the night before Jason left for his trip to the NE. Here are the pictures I promised from Angileigh's wedding...
XOXO

Wedding!

My college friend Angileigh's wedding was this past Saturday August 15 in Lexington, SC. She married Eric Hartman, a fellow die-hard Clemson fan and all around good guy. I was a bridesmaid and sang in their wedding. The Wednesday before on August 12 I took the "red-eye" flight out of Phoenix at 11:30 pm and arrived in Charlotte at 8:30 am the next day. With the aid of multiple glasses of wine, I was able to get a few hours of sleep on the flights, and although still a little tired, was eager to see my family.

My mom picked me up in Charlotte, and we went to Spartanburg, SC to visit Tim at his new school, USC Upstate, where he has transferred to play on the soccer team. He is living in a new dorm and despite the 2-a-day practices he is doing great!

We met Richard (on his lunch break all spiffed up in a tie!) for lunch at the Pita House in Greenville, SC - one of my favorite restaurants of all time. We saw his new apartment he'll be moving into in Greenville, and Richard experienced a minor panic attack as he realized all the furniture he was going to need to invest in!
I was fortunate enough to have a visit at my mum's house from my good friend Stacy, and we chatted over a glass of Malbec. Miss you!

My friend David Holmes (D-Day) picked me up in Greenville, and we rode Thursday night to Lexington, SC. D-Day is a friend of ours from college, and was also in the wedding -- we called him a Brides-man. Thursday night and Friday we bustled around Lexington preparing for the wedding, and then enjoyed the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday. Saturday we were up early and enjoyed primping for the wedding, posed for about a thousand pictures, and then got to enjoy the party! My parents and Richard attended the wedding, so I got to spend some more time with them too. I visited with a few people I haven't seen since graduating college; amazingly, it felt like no time has passed at all when I saw them. The wedding was beautiful, and I was really thrilled I could be there to share the day(s) with Ang, Eric and the whole Wingard clan. The whole weekend was such a whirlwind that I didn't take as many pictures as I would have like to with everyone I saw! My dad did take some of the reception, which I'll post this weekend. In no time at all I was up on Sunday, back in the car, and flying out of Charlotte back to Phoenix. Due to exhaustion, I had to stop in Phoenix and do some shopping for an hour (hehe) and then drove back up the mountain to enjoy my Sunday HBO shows and a delicious home cooked meal with Jason and Maddie. Jason greeted me with a glass of wine and a new recipe for stuffed shells...delicious!
In my absence, Jason had a short trip to Reno for work on Thursday - Friday, and spent the weekend in Flagstaff. On Saturday he and his co-worker David went biking on a more advanced trail for a couple of hours, didn't encounter any equestrian teams, but did have to make a few pit-stops for broken chains. Jason fell a couple of times, but only came out of it with a cut thumb...not too bad!
There has been a pretty bad wildfire in our region that started late last week. It is in the Coconino National Forest, about 13 miles from Flagstaff. On Sunday, driving up the mountain, I could see huge plumes of smoke coming up from behind the San Francisco Peaks. Monday was the worst day with a smokey haze and pockets of ash throughout town. Not a pleasant day to walk. It appears to be now under control, and we aren't under any danger. Had the fire spread to Flagstaff, the first spot to be hit would have most likely been Jason's Gore compound. Apparently a fire in a similar area a few years back did spread towards Flagstaff, and Jason's buildings were evacuated for a number of days. Here is an article about the fire


Last thing, my bio is finally up on the NAU website. Here is a link to our roster, click my name, and you'll find my bio.


We have both been trying to catch up on sleep this week. Jason leaves Saturday for Providence, RI and Albany, NY until next Wednesday, and I am working Orientation both Saturday and Sunday. We have been planning our trip to Utah for Labor Day weekend, and looking forward to my parent's visit on the 27th of August! I put a slide show of some additional picture from my visit to S.C. - more of the reception to come soon - enjoy!
XOXO

Madeline's Great Escape

This is a picture of Madeline covered in dirt after her escape into the backyard on Friday afternoon. After work, I took the laptop and a cold beer, and sat on my Adirondack chair in front of the house. After 10 minutes I heard a jingle of a bell that sounded suspiciously like the bell on Maddie's collar. I looked back, and sure enough, there was Madeline, totally covered in dirt, sneaking along the rock wall on the right side of our house. I picked her up and took her inside, at which point I noticed the sliding screen door at the back of the house was open about a foot. Jason mentioned last week that he thought Madeline had figured out how to open the screen door with her paw, but I didn't believe it. Sure enough, she has figured out how to open the door, escaped into the backyard, and jumped the fence to the front of the house. To get the dirt off of her, I stuck her under water in the bath -- you can imagine how that went. She wrestled away, spraying dirt all over the walls and floor, and ran straight for the screen door, and out the back again! After a quick chase, I brought her back in, and rubbed her down with a towel -- locking the screen behind me this time! Madeline always manages to surprise us with her tricks. We have learned our lesson though, and now the screen door remains locked.

After that adventure on Friday afternoon, Jason arrived home from San Francisco and we went downtown Flagstaff for dinner. We finally tried the German restaurant, The Matterhorn. We shared a plate of various German sausages, saurkraut, and spatzle...YUM.

Switch to Jason -- I had a great time in San Francisco this past week. In between taking care of stuff for work, I had the chance to explore quite a bit. I took a long walk, stopping off in Chinatown, City Lights Bookstore (a famous beat hangout), Lombard Street (known for being one of the hilliest and curviest in the world), Coit Tower, and Fisherman's Wharf. In my continuing search for regional cuisines, I found a restaurant called Sotto Mare that had amazing cioppino, which is a San Francisco specialty consisting of a variety of seafood in a tomato based broth. One of the hospitals that I had to visit was right near wine country, so after the case was over I took a sightseeing drive by the vineyards. All in all, it was a successful trip, as everything that I had to do for work while there went extremely well.

Saturday we had a really lazy day. We slept in until about noon, went to lunch downtown, bummed around some stores, and then grilled some shrimp for dinner. Our friend Greg came over for UFC 101, and we enjoyed some homemade mojitos. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any fresh mint (we tried multiple stores!), so we had to use mint extract, but it turned out well.

Jason is traveling this week to Reno, NV, but only over Thursday night. I take the red-eye flight Wednesday night to S.C. I'll get into Charlotte Thursday morning, and join in the wedding festivities for my friend Angileigh and her fiance, Eric. I am in their wedding on Saturday, and fly back to AZ on Sunday. I'll post pictures when I get back!
XOXO

Grilled Pizza

Happy Wednesday! It is still Tuesday for me, but Wednesday to most of our east coast readers! Maddie and I are home alone this week as Jason left for a Gore trip to San Francisco yesterday morning until Friday afternoon. He went to a hospital today to help a new doctor use his product in surgery. I talked to him today, and all is going well. He has another surgery Friday morning, and then he will come home. He has been scoping out San Fran and Sonoma while on this trip; we're taking a trip over Thanksgiving this year, and we're trying to decide between a couple destinations.
This week has been really busy at work for me. I'm serving on a search committee to hire three new advisors, and we had an all day phone interview session today. I have had a lot of meetings this week to begin training on my new team's projects too. Today I also found out I will be advising students in the College of Health and Human Services, and serve as Gateway's liaison to Athletics. I am happy with these placements, especially keeping my contact with athletics.
This past weekend we lay low. Friday we watched a movie, Ghost Town with Ricky Gervais, and made a stir fry. On Saturday we went for a hike on Schultz pass, which we discovered is mostly covered with mountain bikers. The trail has a lot of pretty wild flowers growing; here are are a couple of pictures we took.




On Sunday Jason and I tried a new recipe for homemade pizza on the grill. It was one of the best things we have ever made at home. It is a Cilantro - Parsley pesto with grilled shrimp pizza. Here is a picture of the final product hot off the grill, and a second picture of Jason devouring the pizza.




Here is the recipe:

1 whole wheat Boboli pizza crust
1/2 lb. fresh raw jumbo shrimp, peeled and devined
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley
3/4 cup cilantro
2 big cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
6-8 oz. of fresh buffalo mozzarella, sliced


Mix the parsley, cilantro, garlic and olive oil in a food processor to make the pesto. Heat 1 grill burner on medium heat, and place Bobolli pizza crust, lightly brushed with olive oil, on the unlit side of the grill, with the top closed, for about 1-2 minutes. Place the shrimp on the grill on the direct heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side, or until shrimp is cooked through. Cut the shrimp into smaller pieces once off the grill. Take the crust off of the grill, spread with the pesto, add shrimp, and top off with mozzarella slices. Place the pizza back on the grill on indirect heat, with the top close for 3-4 minutes, or until the cheese melts. Keep an eye on the crust so it doesn't burn. ENJOY!!

Art Walk downtown on Friday, and getting ready for more travel next week - post more later this weekend!
XOXO

Rock Lobster!

Last Thursday we headed down to Phoenix (in 115 degree weather) to stay over night, and catch a flight early Friday morning to Providence, RI to visit family & friends in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. We arrived at SkyHarbor Airport Friday morning all packed, ready to go, with smiles on our faces, until that is we go to check-in and realized we were the last people to check in, and had been booted from our flight! We have never flown Southwest before, an airline who apparently overbook every flight, and you must check-in the night before to guarantee #1. a seat and #2. a seat with your party. Silver lining was we were re-routed through Philadelphia, comped for all of our tickets, and in the air within minutes. The drama was over (or so we thought!). Storms in Phili kept us in a holding pattern for and hour and a half, and on the ground in Philidelphia until 10:40 pm. We finally landed in Providence around 11:45 pm, about 6 hours after we were supposed to arrive. Here is a picture Jason took of me in the Philadelphia airport after waiting for a few hours, wrapped in my pashmeena to keep warm; you can see how thrilled I was to be there!


When we got up Saturday it was a beautiful sunny day in Massachusetts. After a quick lunch of greek pizza and salad (and of course a cannoli!) with Jason's parents, we headed to North Deerfield, Massachusetts for Matt Daelhousen's and Meredith Mascia's wedding. Matt is a friend of Jason's from college, and we usually see Matt and Meredith on our trips to Boston. They also came to our wedding last year. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a great time chatting with friends we do not typically get to see. Below is a picture of Jason and his college buddies with the groom.


Sunday was a good family day; we went to lunch at the Mon Kou, one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Here we got to meet up with Emelie, our almost 14 month old neice, Jason's brother Erik, and sister-in-law Cindy. Emelie seemed a little overwhelmed at first by the new people she hadn't seen in awhile, but soon started running wild in the restaurant. We found out later that she had a temperature of about 102 degrees, so Jason and I are hopeful it was the virus and not scary Auntie Helen and Uncle Jason! Sunday night we ate at Friendly's; for anyone not from the Northeast, Friendly's is a regional chain that serves diner food and great ice cream. It was a favorite eatery of mine and Jason's during our high school years.

Monday we ate at the Grist Mill, an old mill built in 1745, converted into a restaurant that serves traditional New England fare. Jason and I got our lobsters; Jason even had two as you can see in the photo at the top of the blog. Afterwards we drove to Bristol, RI, one of the most quintesentially American towns in the whole country. It is right on the ocean, with a lot of original and preserved architecture, more American flags than I have ever seen, flowerboxes everywhere, and even street lines painted red, white, and blue. If you are ever in Rhode Island, I highly recommend it. Jason and I have been probably 3 or 4 times now. We took a walk along the beach and through downtown, and had a couple of drinks with Jason's folks at our favorite spot right on the water. I made a slideshow of this part of the trip below so you can see how amazing the views are.


That night we spent some more time with Emelie, this time at her house, where she ran around, danced, did some tricks for us, and threw toys...it was a blast! She is growing so fast, and she is a very confident and outgoing baby. I tell Jason she'll be strong willed just like her Auntie Helen:) Here is a great picture of her toothy grin.


Monday we arrived back in Phoenix without a hitch, and made it back home to Madeline by 7:30pm. Thankfully, my friend Heather and her 3 yr. old son Max took great care of Maddie while we were away. She was happy for us to be home, but no accidents or mess! For the next couple of weeks, I think we will be laying low; I fly back east again in two weeks for a friend's wedding in S.C., and Jason is going to be traveling again soon for work.

Thanks to a few storms, our vegetables have grown even more in our absence. There are 14 tomatoes growing on one plant, and 18 on another, and it looks like we'll have tons of veggies soon. We actually pulled and ate our first tomatoe before we left; it was fantastic! We took this picture of it below:


There will probably be more of those pictures to come soon. Enjoy (what is left of) your week.

XOXO H, J, & M

Summer is Here!

It was SO nice and warm in Flagstaff this week; it finally feels like summer around here! I put some pictures up of the front of the house I took this weekend. Here is one of some flowers I potted a couple weeks ago -- pretty proud of it!

This past week, besides doing the work thing, we went out on Thursday with our friends Heather and Greg to watch Bruno. Although the consensus is that Borat is a better movie, it was fun and we laughed A LOT. If you have a craving for crude humor, it is your movie. Earlier in the evening, I also went out with some people after work for a glass of wine at the Wine Loft to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Things are picking up at work, and I am beginning to feel more a part of the office. There are some very fun people at Gateway, and I'm looking forward to working with them more this year.

Also, I found out this week which "team" I am going to be working on; the Student Success team, which facilitates probation & suspension, and a grade progress tracking system; basically any program that works with at-risk students on campus. It seems like it is going to be a good match for me. On Tuesday, Jason attended the quarterly meeting for his business unit, and gave a brief presentation on his product; he is getting a lot of positive feedback from co-workers, and is getting more involved with different projects.

Our vegetable garden is exploding! I put some pictures below for you to see what a difference a couple months makes. We have one tomato that is almost ready to be picked, and 5-10 others growing. Our zucchini plant is HUGE, and has tons of veggies growing, and we have one jalapeno that is going to be ready soon. We'll have a tomato, zucchini, jalapeno salad! Here are some pictures...

A good shot of the HUGE zucchini plant and eggplant

Can you see the jalapeno hiding behind the leaves?

Lots of baby tomatoes!

Our first tomato is almost ready to be picked.

We've been relaxing a lot this weekend; Jason took a long bike ride on Saturday with a friend from work -- they were gone for 2.5 hours. Overall, it was uneventful, but apparently they took a wrong turn on the trails and ended up in the middle of an equestrian event. They didn't realize this bad move until they rode up on a group of on-lookers who (not so kindly) informed them to get off the trail--at this point Jason looked back and saw a teenager quickly approaching them on a horse...quite an adventure! I ran errands on Saturday, and then went to a Mary Kay party at a friend's house. Saturday night we went to a downtown restaurant called Diablo Burger; Jason had a burger with green chilies and cream cheese, and I had a salad and frites. Everything is local, fresh, and delicious -- a really good, casual meal.

It is Sunday today; we've just been bumming around, and after lunch we're going to take a walk and do a little shopping. This morning we had home-made scones with raspberry jam and fresh cream. It was my first attempt at home-made scones, and they came out really well. Here is a picture... of course, we had them with tea!

On Thursday, Jason and I are heading to Phoenix, and flying to Massachusetts on Friday. We're staying with Jason's parents on Friday, and Saturday driving to our friend's wedding in Western Massachusetts. Sunday - Tuesday we'll be back with Jason's parents, and are looking forward to spending time the family. We are also hoping to do some serious seafood binging. As you may imagine, we don't get too much fresh seafood on top of a mountain in the middle of a desert. We'll post some pictures and give an update when we get back -- have a great week!

XOXO
Helen & Jason

Relaxing Weekend in Flagstaff

It is finally starting to feel like summer in Flagstaff! This week it was consistently in the 80's during the day and sunny, and we experienced our first "monsoon" rainfall. In July and August in Flagstaff it is typically dry and sunny, but most days around 5 or 6 o'clock the sky drops HUGE raindrops (and sometimes hail) for about 15 minutes, and then the sky is clear again. It took us by surprise this Saturday, but was pretty cool to watch.

Our week was pretty routine, and Friday we took Madeline to her new vet (who was wonderful!) for her annual exam, and to run a few tests. Maddie is getting older, and has demonstrated a few weird behaviors lately, but the vet thinks she is doing ok -- we'll know for sure early next week. After that we just hung out around the house and cooked a delicious dinner - it was a new recipe for fettucini with pancetta -- delicious!

On Saturday I took a walk through Thorpe Park with my friends Heather, Amy, Heather's son Max, and Amy's dog Luna. It was a beautiful day! We also walked through downtown to check out the traveling Vietnam wall that was in Wheeler Park, and got Max some ice cream. Jason took a long bike ride through some trails by our house. He says "It was Awesome" and he "Put his new mountain bike through the paces" -- those are in fact direct quotes. Afterward, our friends Heather and Greg came over to have a few beers and do some people watching on our front walk, and then Jason, Greg, and I went to a restaurant to watch UFC with our friends Josh and Mary Hampton and a few other Flagstaff folks. If you aren't a UFC fan, it was UFC 100, which is a big milestone. I started watching somewhere around UFC 50, and Jason remembers watching the 1st UFC with his dad when he was younger. The restaurant, Jackson's Grill, was a good place to watch the fight, and the food was "ok"...it does have a great outdoor patio though, which would be great for happy hour sometime this summer.

Today we cleaned the house, ran errands, and drove out to Lake Mary to take a walk. Living in the desert has its advantages, but a disadvantage is that we don't have close access to many bodies of water. Jason and I increasingly miss the water:( So, we got our fix today walking around Lake Mary. It is a bit crowded with boats because it is the only lake within an hour, but it was pretty and an easy walk. Above is a picture of the lake that I found online. Unfortunately, our camera broke a couple weeks ago, so as you can see, we don't have any personal pictures of our fun weekend. But, we bought a new camera online, and it should arrive sometime this week, so hopefully we'll have pictures soon!
Here is a great picture we got this week though from our sister-in-law Cindy of our niece Emelie. It was finally warm enough in Massachusetts for Emelie to wear the dress Jason and I sent her for her 1st birthday -- isn't it too cute!

We are heading to Massachusetts in July for a short trip, and can not wait to spend time with her (and the rest of the family!)
Not much going on this week, but looking forward to next weekend when we can hang around town more and enjoy the great weather!