NEW TRUCK!!!

Yep that's right! Chance and I have a (new to us) truck!!! Woohoo! It's a 2005 Ford F250, with all the bells and whistles! It isn't the brand that we were looking for exactly, but it was in our price range and had everything we wanted and then some. This beast even has a sun roof, say wuh?! On a truck! Crazy. And for your viewing pleasure....

The story:

We knew our old truck was going to bite the dust, and we still owed $5,800. Boo. So we saved our pennies and had about $3,000 to put toward a new truck. (BTW it is soooo hard to save money, especially when you need other stuff along the way. It was so worth it though!)

We shopped around online and decided we wanted to go with Trucks Only in the valley. They seemed to have what we were wanting coming and going, so we decided to wait for a good deal. One presented itself and we decided it was time to put in for pre-approval. Sweet! A fella from T.O. called the next day, but we weren't able to make it to the valley until a week later. At any rate, we went on Wednesday and were sooo nervous about getting there! Chance's cousin (who had a truck and trailer just in case) told us to just go, and if we broke down he would come rescue us. (Thanks Collin! :)

We said a prayer, and hoped for the best! We made it through Globe, and then Superior! No problems! We made it to Apache Junction and onto the exit ramp... then we hit the stop light at the end of the ramp. DEATH OF TRUCK! Yep, our trusty, rusty steed made it most of the way, but not all of it. (It wasn't really rusty, that just sounded funny to me!) We didn't know what to do; we were about 5 miles from the dealership. Some nice road worker guys helped us push the truck out of the way, and into a separate turn lane that wasn't heavily used. WHEW! Chance decided to call the dealer that talked to us earlier that week and see if he could be of any help. WOW!

They came and picked us up, called a tow truck, gave us $4,500 for the broken truck (way way way more than what we were even hoping for!) and gave us a great deal on the new truck to boot. We had originally signed for a 7% interest rate and thought we were doing great since our last loan had an 11%. But when we got home with the new truck the dealership called... they had found a lender that would give us a 4% rate! We needed to sign new papers within a day or two and Chance had to work the next day, so driving back to the valley that same day was our only option, but I had a meeting at 6 and mutual at 7 that I had to be back for. Chance asked if the dealer could maybe meet us somewhere, and we decided on Superior. We signed the papers and made it back home just in time! Trucks Only seriously rocks my socks. Picking us up, buying our broken truck, finding us the best interest rate and bending over backwards to get it to us.

To top it off, we have TWO runnig cars now, and I will never be stuck at home again!!! WAHOO!

Random Adventures

Chance has been working a lot of overtime lately, so I have been left to my own means for entertainment a lot more than usual. (That's a recipe for disaster if there ever was one!)

Today I made my second attempt at Dulce De Leche. It's a delicious, gooey treat made from sweetened condensed milk. Normally, you can just boil the whole can (unopened) for 3 hours, but I am hesitant to try that method, as there are risks involved (ie. the can can EXPLODE). Can I please, oh please, blow up my kitchen? No? OK. Anyway, I did a little research and found that you can get the same results with a double boiler. I tried it for the first time a few months ago, but wasn't patient enough to wait the hour for it to cook. This time, however, I waited. I set the timer and walked away... without the timer.

While I was happily frolicking in blog land, anticipating my yummy desert, my double boiler ran out of water and burned most of my dulce de leche. *bring on the pouty face* Fortunately, I was able to save about half of the delicious treat by pouring it into a bowl before it burned all the way. I enjoyed it with an apple, and ate almost all of it! Mmm!

Duke continues to learn the naughty things. I thought I had out smarted him when I put a lid on the kitchen garbage, but he soon found that if he pushed on it, it would swing open and reveal the goodies inside! Now I put the lid on, AND put a gate in front of it. HA! Take that, smarty pants dog! All that aside, he is still my little pal and I love having him around! He makes me laugh all the time! When we get home after a few hours away, he is just too excited to see us; his lips curl up and he literally smiles with his front teeth! Funniest thing ever! Whenever he wants out, he jumps at the door, then looks at me and barks. Sometimes, I bark back, then him, then me, etc. We can go back and forth for a good long while before he gets bored with me! It's hard for me to know when he really needs out though, because he loves to chase lizards and anything else fast and small! I wish we had a fenced in yard so I could let him out and not worry about him wandering too far. Someday!

I am planning on making a jean quilt in the near future, but I think I will hold off till fall, as my house still gets into the mid 80's on the hotter days. It will be a lot nicer having a mass if fabric on me when I am trying to keep warm instead of cool!

Our garden is... huge. I have started watering it every day, and that really helped our vine plants, but I am pretty sure it killed our corn. I totally have mushrooms growing in there with it. Yuck. The vine plants are doing great, however! I have zucchini, cucumbers, and cantaloupe that are producing like crazy! My watermelon and pumpkin are in there with the corn though... neh. There are weeds everywhere, and they are thriving. There were too many to keep up on, so I quit! (Sue me!) Just kidding, judge away! I just didn't want to brave the heat of the day to tend my garden after 2 months of it. It's almost the end of the season for it anyway. AND we have grass now! It's not that wonderful, and is till rather sparse, but I love to look out my front window and see green instead of dirt. Or even weeds for that matter.

That's about all for my ramblings of the day. If you made it to the end of this post, then good for you! :) Sorry no pictures!

Ah-ah-ah-aaaaaahhh!

Well, that was supposed to be like what you hear at the end of a Disney movie from the choirs of awesomeness. I don't know if it came across that way though... anyhow!

I feel the need to blog today, since it's been a while and all, but I really don't have much to blog about.

I just went to Girl's Camp last week! That was fun! We were supposed to go to the camp in Alpine, but with the Wallow fire, it just didn't happen. We went to Virden, NM and stayed in tents instead! Wo-hoo. It was freakin' hot! I will say that the nights were very pleasant though, and I got to sleep under the stars the second night! I had a cot I was going to bring to sleep on, but I had SO much other luggage (being a cabin leader, I had to bring a few extra things for the girls to have ;). I decided to fore go the cot and rough it! Ouch. Just plain ouch.

I was over the second levels and had 10 girls in my "cabin." Our cabin theme was the "Lovely Ladies." Our scripture was Proverbs 31: 25-30. Well right here I was going to insert a video of our cabin's skit (which was hilarious!), but blogger won't let me add the stupid video! I am sorry you can't see it's pure awesomeness. Maybe I will try loading it to facebook or something!

So on our second day, we went on a two mile hike... in the heat. But then we got to go swimming! We all loaded up and hauled the girls to Lordsburg, NM. I didn't swim, but the girls seemed to love it! Another thing about camp is that there were no showers... for the girls hehehe! There were only two showers where we were at, and they were reserved for the leaders only. Some of the girls were upset when they found out. But, they got to clean up a bit at the pool, so it wasn't that bad.

I am pretty sure I got dehydrated while I was at camp. On the last day (the day we came home) I had a sore throat, but figured I just needed some more water. I drank two route 44 waters from Sonic and then some. Boy did I have to pee all day. I am sure you were dying to know that, right? Anyway, I think it turned into something else, because now three days later I still have throat issues. Although it isn't sore, today I have a lovely little cough. Eck.

And now, to give you nightmares for life, a lovely picture of a lovely bug that was in our lovely tent. He wanted to be a "Lovely Lady," too.

Totally gonna give you nightmares now, eh? :)
My job is done.

Well Crap :)

So today is my birthday! Yay me! I'm 22! For most for my life though, birthdays bring crappiness, and today was no exception!
Chance and I were going to go to Tucson with our cousins, Collin and Hannah, and their cute little girl Jorgan! Well, they got to go with out me because... (drum roll) I have strep! For the second time this month! Poop. But fear not, for I have fun stuff planned for the weekend! And it will be wonderful to see my sister and her family! I am so stinking excited! Love me some family time!!!
Also, a shout out to my Birthday Cousin, Rachel! Happy Birthday!!! :)

Lately

I have to say that I am actually excited for the summer heat! The swamp cooler on our house has been fixed for about a month now and I am LOVING it! Last summer was... terrible. We had a window AC unit which went into our bedroom... so I spent all day, every day in our bedroom. Lame. Good thing we had a tv and a ton of dvd's, and I have an obsessive amount of books, otherwise I would have gone CRAZY. This summer will be WAY different than last summer! Not to mention we have a garden this year! And we are going to plant some grass seed too! I have flower seeds planted, but they are having a little harder time growing since birds keep eating them. Poo.
My sister Heidi is coming for a visit at the end of this month! I can't wait! We are going to have so much fun! I like to consider it to be a late birthday present! ;) (Hehe love ya Heidi Jo!)
Duke is on my list. He digs into every garbage can we own, and no amount of discipline will discourage him. Any advice on how to keep him out of the dirty garbage? Please? I try to keep doors closed and the kitchen garbage blocked off, but I would rather not have to do that forever. Don't get me wrong, Duke is still my little pal and I love him to pieces! He just has an icky habit that needs to be kicked. It's the cutest thing ever to watch Chance and Duke play when Chance gets home from work! Duke gets more excited than ever when he sees Chance after he has been gone all day! (I swear he is more Chance's dog than he is mine! I don't mind though!)
We recently went to a family picnic with my mom's side of the family! We had it for Easter at a park in Mesa (I can't remember the name), and had lots of fun seeing extended family! AND Chance and I got a rare picture together!

Don't we just look super cute! (I think we would look cuter without the sun glasses though :) And I cut my hair about a month ago! It's very fun! And short! It took some getting used to, but now I don't even miss the 6 inches that were cut off. Ok, I seriously think that's all I have for now.

Well... and woohoo!

All of the puppies died. I'm so sad. They can't figure out what happened to the last two, but the Vet. told them something about "failure to thrive," whatever that means. Poor Chloe searched and searched for her little ones, and when she figured out they were gone she was heartbroken. She cuddled with my mom all the next day. Poor thing. She cheered up a little when my dad gave her a ride on the four-wheeler though (it's her favorite thing ever). On a happier note, my sister Heidi is flying down from Idaho next month for a visit!!! Her awesome hubby surprised her with a ticket just in time for her to get off of work! I am soooooo excited! We haven't seen her for quite some time! We are going to have a lot of fun! Junk food, girl-talk, pictures, and more! I love me some Heidi! Hehehe!

Puppies! And other stuff....

Hello again! I just had to share the latest! My mom's Toy Yorkie, Chloe, had 4 puppies last Saturday! Unfortunately since then, only 2 are still living. But the two that are left are cute and fat!

Soooo cute right?! I think they're going to be little balls of fluff very soon!

Chance and I have decided to try our luck with a garden this year! My dad came last weekend and brought his tiller! We had our garden planted in 3 hours! It was a lot of work, but I am already starting to see some of plants pop up through the soil! It is so exciting to already see the fruits(ish) hehe of our labors! I can't wait to be able to harvest our plants to can and/or freeze, or enjoy fresh!

Duke is still just Duke! He is fun and playful all the time! He loves to cuddle my feet, and I love that he loves to cuddle my feet (they get cold ok?). Funny dog! That's all I can think of for now!