It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Life has been going well. The weather is finally nice and cool. We have only been getting as warm as 70 degrees most days, and sometimes even cooler. It rained quite a bit on Friday and Saturday. Arizona reminded me of some things I don't always miss about Oregon... the pouring rain. I had my hair done nicely for my birthday and it just rained all day! I still had a great day nonetheless.

Roger and I went to his sunday school class party/birthday party for me and a boy in his class. They were so thoughtful to invite me to join them to celebrate my birthday. After we left the party we sat at home for a bit and then went out to the store to look for a small cake for me. After going to a few stores we found nothing I wanted to take a chance with besides the cheesecake, but I didn't want to eat it all by myself since roger doesn't like cheesecake (I'm not sure how you don't like cheesecake). So Roger got the great idea to just take me to the Cheesecake Factory. So that's what we did and all I ordered was an original cheesecake with strawberries on top, and it was very good. We then went to a ward Christmas party and everyone sang happy birthday to me... that was nice.

School is over for me until January 14th. I love being free from homework. I did very well in my class. Got an overall grade of 96.7% (A!!!). It really helps when you like what you're studying. Anatomy and physiology was difficult but I loved the lab work we did. Memorizing tissue types, bones, muscles, parts of the brain, spinal cord, and dissecting sheep brains and eyeballs... pretty amazing. The sheep eyeball was a little gross; wasn't sure if I was going to live through that one. I have learned a lot about the body and what a  wondrous creation it really is. It is truly amazing what our bodies do so that we can carry out our actions, whether simple or difficult.

We are sooooo looking forward to spending time with the family this Christmas! Dec 21st can't come soon enough.

We love all of you! Marry Chrsitmas!

Ang & Rog 

More adventures

So things are still going well. School for me is getting more and more busy but I have been getting good grades. The biggest adventure of the week was taking the 11-year-old scouts on a 5 mile hike with Roger in the Superstition Mountains here in Mesa. It was a lot of fun. We felt like we were lost a few times but Roger had a plan B if things got out of hand. We relied solely on three scout's compasses and maps to get us through the hike. They did a great job as you can see since we are not on the news for getting lost in the mountains.

I have been doing more baking in the last month than I have in a while. I've made biscuits, oatmeal with cream cookies, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin bars. Lots of sweets but we usually share with other people when we can.

Roger has been doing more genealogy lately, which is pretty cool. He is such a good example to me, not just in genealogy but in many other ways too.

Roger and I heard about this park that is right next to the Mesa Gateway Airport that you can watch the airplanes land and take off from where you sit. So we're going to go watch some airplanes in the near future. 

Love, Ang & Rog

Life

Things are going well. School started for me about 2 weeks ago and I really like human anatomy and physiology. Right now there are some topics that are boring like chemistry, how the cell works, and what the cell is made up of... it's good to know that stuff but it's not the meat of the course which is the stuff that I'm looking forward to. It is good to do review though. I don't feel very adequate in my chemist abilities but having a review was good for me. Right now I'm working on a lab where I'm learning about epithelial cells and how they make up the tissues of different parts of our body. It will take 5 hours to complete this lab and most of the work is with the microscope and then describing what that epithelial cell is and where you can find it. It's fun but I have have to put in extra work in the lab to get this work done before next week. After working with and using microscopes for about over a year now I finally use it well and I don't get headaches from straining my eyes.

So we have decided to not sell my car since we may need it if I get a job and go to school at the same time. When we move back to Oregon we will most likely sell it if we get Roger's truck paid off. Right now though we really like the luxury of having two cars and feel very blessed that my car is still working.

Roger has been enjoying work and is now working with the 11-year-old scouts. He was called to be assistant scout master and along with that calling he teaches the 11-year-olds in primary. I have been called to serve in the primary as assistant music person or substitute teacher. It's nice that Roger and I end up in the same room now at the end of church so I don't have to go hunting for him when elders quorum and relief society get out.

Well I guess that's all for now.

Love, Ang and Rog

So we made it to our 1 year anniversary!! We have been enjoying ourselves here in Las Vegas. We figured we would celebrate here since it's only about 5 hours from Phoenix. We were going to go to Idaho to visit BYU but figured we would do that another time since it's much father away. It's hard to believe we have been married a year already.

We are all moved in to our new place, and moving is no fun thing. It's kind of old but that's what you get when you move into a place built in the 1980s. Hopefully our next place will be a bit newer. 

On our road trip to Las Vegas we were driving my car until about half an hour into the trip my car started acting up. There is something wrong with the engine we think. I guess my car doesn't deal with the heat very well. We hope we don't have to get rid of the car to buy a newer car since buying a car is the last thing we need for our budget right now. We might just go down to a one car family if we have to. 

I start school on August 21st and will end the semester on the 14th of December. Roger and I will then get ready for our flight back to Oregon on the 21st of Dec. We are very excited to visit Oregon and see family and friends. 

Arizona is still hot as can be and I'm still looking forward to October when the weather cools down a bit.  

Roger and I went to a reception on the 10th to congratulate a girl Roger knew from Washington. When we got there the place was packed. They had the reception in an air force museum. We soon realized that there were four other receptions going on in the same place at the same time. We asked the bride how she felt about it and it turns out that this reception was just a huge reception for the 5 brothers that got married (she married one of the five brothers.) Apparently the 5 brothers all proposed   around the same time and thought it would be cool to all get married the same day and they got their brides-to-be to agree. Just so werid! But very cool.

That's all for now 

Love, Angela and Roger

Last Friday (July 13) we went to go watch Red Green put on a comedy act. It was very good. We haven't done a whole lot this last week other than signing for our apartment at Waterford in Mesa, AZ. We should be moving in by the end of July. We're pretty excited to have our place again but it's very small and it stinks... like all apartments do. It smells like a ton of dirty dogs lived in there without ever opening the window. I don't understand how some people can be so stinky, or maybe that's just how it smells when the apartment gets older. If anyone has some tips on how to make a used apartment smell fresh again please let me know. It's about 20 minutes from Roger's work and only about 5 to 10 minutes from where I will attend school. My car is getting older and therefore we have had to do some maintenance on it. It's getting a little costly but still better than buying a newer car at this point. I seem to be getting used to the heat. It can be hot at times but all in all it's fine. 100 degrees no longer sounds dreadful. There have been many thunder and lightening storms here and they are absolutely amazing! It's been raining a lot but that's nice because it cools everything down. It is very humid after the rain though. Staying inside is the best thing right now because of the heat, but growing up in Oregon you go outside every chance you get when it's sunny... not the case here and that's weird to me at times. I will be sitting inside and doing homework and wondering why I'm not outside... Oh wait, It's 110 degrees out! I look forward to the winter when It's 75 or 80 degrees all the time. Monsoon season is approaching but nothing bad other than a little heavy rain and some lightning. It is soon to get worse though. 

Roger would like to contribute to our blog this week.

Ask me how my 4th was...

I dare you.

How did you guess?

I got stung...

I went to pick up a board to maybe use to help get a car unstuck, and as I picked it up... it got me

I never saw it since it was dark out and I wasn't looking.

We went downtown early to the biggest fireworks show in the area, but it had rained that morning, and was muggy. Angela didn't want to stay, even though she was the one who wanted to go...so we went shopping, home for dinner, and watched some Repo show, and Bait car.

Well, Angela found another place to go that was closer, however, by the time I ate dinner, and we left, cars were lining the streets to pay $5 to park which inspired us to drive into a field with a bunch of other cars. There was a dirt road about two cars wide, barely, and we followed them. Toward the end of the road/middle of the field, people were pulling off to the left, (ditch was on the right), and there was a dirt mound that was too tall for small cars. Luckily, some little car was too smart to not try anyway and got high centered on the driver's side.

Well... I seem to think I know everything and can help everyone, so I got out of our car, reached down for a board that was lying across the concrete ditch, and felt it bite back, or sting, really. The weird thing is that it got the top of my thumb which was on top of the board... Scorpions like to be under things... We ended up not even needing the board, too which was the worst part.  I just told everyone to get out of the car except the driver, then I helped two other guys that were there lifted on the back of the car and the car got traction and drove out.

After pinching off my thumb at the base for a bit, I called my dad who told me to call Eric (a famous Etymologist friend of ours) who told me to call a nurse hotline provided by our insurance who told me to go to the ER in case it was a Bark Scorpion. I sat in the ER for 1.5 hours, got some Motrin, Percocet, and went home after buying some Benadryl to help me sleep.

It is the worst for the first 4 hours, then gets better, can take up to 3 days. The stinging feels like when your foot goes to sleep, and then it starts getting blood back in it... Eric wanted me to go back to see what got me...not going to happen... crowded field, traffic... Perhaps next 4^th of July we will just stay home and watch Bait Car…

Thank you,

Roger Miller

ARIZONA!

This week has been pretty eventful. I got to Arizona on Tuesday and finally got to see Roger again after 5 and a half long weeks of separation. Arizona is pretty but very dry and brown. Right before Melissa, Ryan, and I hit the Arizona boarder, we got out to fill up on gas (it's kind of different filling up your own car) and it felt like a blow dryer turned on high heat constantly blowing on your skin. I had no idea how I was going to get through this time while we live here in AZ.

We've been visiting some of the malls that they have here and I finally had a 5 Guys burger... it was amazing! Did you know that Phoenix has about 10 malls? Wow. Roger was working late the week we got to Arizona so a lot of my adventures were spent with Ryan and Melissa. One of the activities we did was visit the Wells Fargo museum that is on the first floor of the Wells Fargo building (the building has 25 floors). Roger works on the 5th floor. On one of Roger's breaks he came down and took us around the building and showed us where he worked and who some of his coworkers were.

On Saturday, June 23 we went to Desert Valley Auto... or something like that. It sure was the desert! Ryan and Roger had fun and that's good... but it was way too hot and too many dead cars to look at for me! I got sunburned on the back of my neck the 40 minutes we were there... should have remembered to apply sunscreen there if I'm going to put my hair up. I grilled some corn on the cob that night on the BBQ for the first time.

Church here doesn't seem to be any bigger than wards in Oregon but that might be because we attended a ward that is in Tempe and there aren't a bunch of members there.

Roger and I are still apartment hunting. Apartments here are more expensive than in Oregon but the houses are less expensive. Kind of interesting. Anyway I hope we find an apartment that we love soon that is both close to work and school.

Love, Ang and Rog

I've posted our blog on Facebook.

Leaving June 18th! I'm so excited to see my husband again. I'm looking forward to seeing what Arizona is like :)

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Roger! I hope we have a lot of fun together for his first birthday as a married man :)

So I'm starting up a blog so that I can keep everyone up-to-date on things that Roger and I will be doing while we are away in Arizona! I hope to blog about once a week. There should be a link to our blog on my facebook.