Halloween

As promised, here are some pics from Halloween. We had a blast at the Bulmer's where we were surrounded by great friends, lots of food, lots of kiddos and even more candy! And thank goodness we were in the company of good friends because I wouldn't wear this costume in front of just anybody!



We were totally in character!



Sheri, Me, Robin and Michelle. Also pictured are Lucas, Michelle's youngest, as Bumblebee (the yellow Transformer), Freddie, Robin's youngest, as a skeleton and Jay, Robin's husband, as a pirate. Jay's costume was fantastic...right down to the wig. The funny thing is, Jay is bald and his hat didn't have a top. So from the back you could see his bald head and from the front it looked like he had a full head of hair!

Three things you should know from that night:
1) Preston does a mean Wii hulahoop, even in his overalls (Michelle has video evidence...that may appear in the blog one day...but I'm not making any promises).
2) The moomoo cost $10 and was immediately returned to Walmart the next day.
3) I have already told Preston....I get to be a princess next year.

Seriously?!?!?

This is what the temperature was in my car when I ran to Target on my lunch break! Yes...it is November. Yes...Thanksgiving is only two and a half weeks away. Yes...it is snowing in other parts of the country. Yes....people in other parts of the country are wearing comfy, warm sweaters and boots. Yes....ok, I think you get the idea.

I'm not bitter though...not one bit!

So what if this was RIGHT when I got in the car and the temperature eventually went down to 93. 93 is still too blazin' hot for November!

But like I said...I'm not bitter...not one bit.

Long Time No Blog

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I know all of our faithful readers (all two of you) have just been waiting on pins and needles. Unfortunately this is going to be a short post. I am actually trying out blogging from my phone...so this is just a tester. I am hoping that the accessibility of being able to blog from my phone now will help with actually blogging. I knew I wouldn't be very good at this blogging thing in the first place so....anything to help! I will leave you with a little teaser that Halloween pics are soon to follow!

- Anna

Eat Your Heart Out Edward!

Mandy (my older sister) and most of her girlfriends (along with the rest of the world) have really gotten into the whole "Twilight" series. I keep up with some of Mandy's friend's blogs and I ran across this picture of my nephew, Drew, on Brooke's blog the other day.

Notice any resemblance?

Don't worry...I immediately texted Mandy and informed her that I need to be copied on emails that she sends to her friends that involve HILARIOUS pictures of my niece and nephew. She then called me and told me that she only sent it to Brooke, so that made me feel better. She also told me the story of how the picture came about: One night Josh (my brother-in-law) was putting gel in his hair and Drew asked if he could have some too. Josh proceeded to put gel in Drew's hair and tried to go for the "messy" look and what you see in the picture was the final product. Of course Mandy took immediate notice of the resemblance and after a little "ok, turn your head down, now look up at me with your eyes and do a little side grin" this was the end result! Isn't that hiarious? He is a natural, I must say! And I laughed out loud when I found this picture of Robert Pattinson!

Oh and a special thanks to Brooke because I stole the picture from her blog! I hope you don't mind!

Tidbit Tuesday - Junk in the Trunk

As I mentioned in my first post, Preston and I live 40 minutes from the U.S./Mexico border. The town we live in, Sahuarita, is located between the border and the metropolis of Tucson. Ok, so Tucson isn't a metropolis but it is the first city of notable size when traveling north from the border. As I also mentioned before, Preston works in Nogales, Mexico and I work in Tucson. Therefore, every morning, I drove north and Preston drives south on the major thoroughfare that is Highway 19.

As a side tidbit, I believe Highway 19 is the only highway in the United States that still has road signs in kilometers, which helps me...ummmm...none. The state of Arizona made this change during the "big push" for the metric system to be used in the U.S. I vaguely remember being told that if I didn't learn conversions and the metric system I wouldn't be able to function as an adult. So as much as I would like to admit they were wrong, knowing the metric system might come in handy whilst traveling on Highway 19. But I digress, on to the real tidbit.

So as you can imagine, Preston and I see some pretty interesting happenings while traveling to and from work. Preston, obviously, witnesses A LOT more than I do seeing as he actually crosses the border every day (hmmmm....I believe I just discovered another subject matter for Tidbit Tuesdays). But one thing I probably see more than Preston does is something I have dubbed "Junk in the Trunk." Clever...I know. Which brings me to the above photo. This is something I see, almost on a daily basis, when I am headed home (south) after work. And let me tell you....those Mexicans know how to pack a truck! From what Preston has told me, it is cheaper for Mexicans to buy things in the United States than it is Mexico. That totally contradicts my thinking and so many theories but Preston would definitely know better than I on this subject matter. So apparently they load up in the U.S. and take all of it back home to Mexico. The unfortunate part is this guy had to unload all of this mess at the border for them to inspect and then reload it again. Preston and I joke that there has to be a Mexican guy some where in Tucson who is the "professional truck packer." We've even teased about said trucker packer's marketing slogans: "Got enough stuff to fill an 18 wheeler but all you have is an old Ford pickup? Come visit Pedro, the Professional Truck Packer!"

If there is a Pedro out there he should be making the big bucks because I consider THIS

an art form, my friends.

Congrats!!!

Congratulations to Chris and Millie on their engagement!! They are both amazing people and we are so excited to see what God has prepared for them as husband and wife!

*Just as a side: My family is super excited because we think Millie McAlilly is the cutest name EVA!*

Tidbit Tuesday

Since our blog is titled "The State We're In," I have decided to start "Tidbit Tuesdays" where every Tuesday (ok, maybe not EVERY Tuesday) I will post something really interesting (ok, maybe not REALLY interesting) about Arizona or the area we live in. This is also an attempt to get in some form of a routine with this blogging thing.

So here is the first "tidbit." This is an interview that aired on ABC Nightline which features the town and neighborhood Preston and I live in. This is the scenery we see everyday, the grocery store we shop in, the restaurants we eat in, the pools we swim, the sidewalks we walk on....you get the point.

Before you view the video there are a couple of things I would like to point out:

1) At the very beginning, the shot of the street AFTER the shot of the lady with the stroller is actually our street.

2) If you notice an unusual amount of senior citizens in the shots of the restaurant, this is because there IS an unusual amount of senior citizens in the area we live in. The town of Sahuarita is right next to the town of Green Valley which is a retirement community. This makes for not only interesting driving situations but also interesting run-ins in Walmart on your first full day of living Arizona which, to you, might as well be a foreign country at that point! But that was three years ago and I am obviously over it.

3) Yes, there is a lake with trees and grass. None of it is natural, it is all man-made but this has been somewhat of a "saving grace" for me, Preston and even Lottie. We love walking around the lake and Lottie LOVES to go swimming. It's like our own little oasis in the desert!

4) Yes, there is a small water park in our neighborhood with a huge bucket that dumps water on you. There is really a small train for the kids to ride on, along with a small put-put course, game rooms, basketball & tennis courts, baseball & soccer fields, a skate park, a gym and miles of sidewalks! As you can tell, Sahaurita is quite the opposite of Green Valley. It is an excellent place for young families with children.

So without further adieu click here for you viewing pleasure! Enjoy!!

To Blog or Not to Blog

Seriously though, this blogging thing is a lot harder than it looks (to me at least). In fact, I am still a little unsure of the whole thing....obviously, since the last post was made two weeks ago. I have to admit that over these past two weeks I have been questioning why we even decided to start a blog. For those of you that know me (all two of you that I have actually told we started a blog), know that I am not very good at "putting myself out there" and I totally feel that is what I am doing when it comes to this whole blogging thing. This is a HUGE step out of my comfort zone.

I am also a little doubtful of my blogging skills and subject matter. In my state of doubtfulness I started thinking about what elements make for a good blog. So I began to look at other blogs that I enjoy reading and that I find interesting. I found that the majority of the blogs I read are, of course, people I actually know and care about what is going on in their lives. I also discovered that most of the people I know actually have interesting things going on in their lives such as having babies or moving to a new city. For example, we have Kendall and Will. Kendall has been one of my very best friends since 7th grade. She has been trying to get pregnant for almost two years and after a lot of prayer, patience and doctor appointments they are expecting twins!! Now that is something to blog about! :) Then we have Anna Katherine, Scott and Max. Again, Anna Katherine has been my best friend since 7th grade and not only is she pregnant with a sweet baby girl to be named Ellie Rose, they are following God's call for their family and going to help start a church in Vancouver, Cananda. Definitely blogworthy. On to Mary Stewart, Jon Paul and Mitchell. Yet again, Mary is another best friend since 7th grade. She and Jon Paul welcomed Mitchell into their family just over a year ago and I love seeing new pics of Mitchell and how he is growing. Again, blogworthy. And the list goes on.

Then we have those blogs that I have just happened upon and have, for some reason, kept my interest. I think the main reason these blogs caught my eye was the writing. These women have been through some incredible situations such as Adrienne, who has had multiple failed pregnancies and also multiple failed adoptions but has a beautiful son she and her husband adopted from Russia and is now in the process of adopting a little girl. Then we have Angie. Angie is married to Todd Smith that sings in Selah. They have three daughters and a little over a year ago Angie gave birth to their fourth, Audrey Caroline. Audrey went to be with the Lord several hours after being born. On to Jennifer. Jennifer has four children and their youngest, Stellan, was diagnosed with a heart condition in the womb and was not expected to live. However, Stellan is now 9 months old but he continues to struggle with persistant SVT and has been in and out of the hospital several times in his short 9 months. Like I said, all of these ladies have been through tremendous obstacles in their lives but the ongoing theme through each of their blogs is faith. I honestly believe that God has gifted each of these women with a talent for writing (among MANY other talents) and they are using that gift to reach the thousands of people (seriously, thousands) that read their blogs.

So maybe you can see why I feel our blog might be slightly inadequate. I am not pregnant with two little miracles (or one little miracle for that matter), Preston and I don't have beautiful children to post adorable pictures of (yet!) and my writing skills are FAR from eloquent. Yes, we did move across the country but that was over three years ago. We have settled into our life here (somewhat) and so our everyday life feels like, well, everyday life and that doesn't seem very interesting.

With all that said, I am not ready to give up on the blogging just yet. The other day I had conversation with one of my friends, Drew. Drew just recently picked up his life and moved to Chicago. As you can see, he started a blog about his new life in the big city (please note his url address). Drew was feeling the same way I do about blogging and was considering deleting his blog after only two posts. In our conversation, I told him that he shouldn't give up yet because I was thinking that it should get easier after the first couple of posts (and I am still hoping for that). Drew said that I was so loyal, even to blogging. I told him he made it sound like I was a basset hound and his response was, "I like to consider you more of a golden retriever."

See, I AM trying to be loyal and give this blogging thing a chance. We'll see how it goes....

-Anna

Hopefully the First of Many

Welcome to our blog! We decided to set up a blog so our friends and family can get a better glimpse into our everyday life and maybe learn a little bit about life in the Sonoran desert and the grand state of Arizona.

For those of you not familiar with our story, here is a little history. We are both from Tupelo, MS where we were married on December 31, 2005. We lived in Tupelo for just three short months before moving to Sahuarita, AZ. Preston took a job with MTD in Nogales, Mexico as a lean coordinator and continues to work for them as a material manager. He crosses the border, eats Mexican food and speaks Spanish everyday...life couldn't get much better! I (Anna) drive 20 minutes into Tucson to Tucson Business Interiors where I work as a commercial interior designer. And last but definitely not least, our family expanded in January 2006 before our move to the desert. We welcomed a sweet and very petite chocolate lab named Lottie.

So welcome to our life. We aren't promising anything exciting. This is just the state we're in.