Where is home?

For the past six months I’ve been trying to adjust to the fact that I know call sunny and hot Arizona my home. And still refer to my beautiful Colorado as my true home. However, I caught myself calling Armenia home just the other day when a client asked how my trip was and I answered with “there’s no place like home.” This last conversation really made me wonder what a home is and how we define it.

The conclusion I came up with is that home isn’t really just one place, home can be anywhere and almost anything. A home can even be a car, a spouse, a child or a pet. Home is where we’ve left a part of our hearts and in return received a part of someone elses.

I have many homes, and I enjoy traveling between them, and knowing that I am always loved and welcomed there. I have a home in Armenia with my grandmothers, cousins, and aunts. I have a home in Colorado with my parents and brother and friends. I have a home here in Arizona with my husband and Lilly. These are just a few of the homes I have.

Everywhere we go, we leave a part of our hearts, we forever give a part of ourselves to that place, that person, that thing, and they forever give a part of themselves to us.

I find myself liking the idea that my home is truly anywhere where I choose to be happy and where I have loved. Sometimes, I find myself feeling the most at home on the road, in my car with Lilly. Sometimes, it’s sitting across a dinner table from husband. Other times its talking to my dad over the phone, or chatting with my mom over Skype. And yet other times it’s having lunch with my grandfather at our favorite Panera.

Home is where our heart is. Home is being with the people we love. Home is where we choose to be happy and create memories that last a lifetime. 

The last week and a half

I had to keep a little secret from you all… but I had good reason.

My parents are born 12 hours apart… same year and all, and their birthdays happen to be on the 27th and 28th of April. So, I decided to surprise them and drive home to see them, without telling them.

It’s a pretty long story, but I ended up making it without them having a clue … this is why I couldn’t post on here as my mother reads this little blog of mine. Thanks to my beautiful friend Kristin for chatting it up with me on my long drive, Tina Fey for keeping me entertained on my drive home and of course my Lilly bug for keeping me company. I have a post dedicated to the trip coming to you over this week.

I also had the opportunity to take some photos of two of my beautiful friends while in Denver. Here is a sneak peek.

I’ll have more of each of these through the week. I’m pretty impressed with myself, and love these two for letting me practice on them. I’ve learned so much, and yet there is always more to learn.

While in Denver I also got to meet one of my most favorite bloggers! I’ve met Janna over a year ago through blogging and sort of hated her at first, because she is so dang beautiful. BUT then I got to know her better and fell in love!  She is one of the sweetest, nicest and incredible ladies I’ve met and I’m so glad to call her a real friend!

I made it home on Friday, after driving for two days to my incredible husband who had cleaned the floors and done all the dishes!

Also, a beautiful little bracelet was waiting for me when I got home from my bestie Kristin.

I finished off the week by spending some quality time with the Hubs, celebrating the 5th of May with tacos, margaritas and good company, buying a new patio set, doing homework and some awesome power yoga!

It’s Wednesday Love

It’s been a while since I’ve joined in and done What I’m Loving Wednesday with Jamie, so here I am today.

I’m loving that it’s dusting snow outside, the beautiful grey skies and the fact that I can work from home on this beautiful wintery day. I’m also loving that we are officially in the “almost winter” season here in CO. You know they say that our seasons consist of almost winter, winter, still winter and construction. I personally love this, because there is nothing better then a cold day where you can huddle under a blanket with a hot cup of tea.

I’m loving that in  15 days we get to go on a 2.5 week long vacation. It will consist of a wedding, a road trip. A little time in New York or Boston for our anniversary, and Thanksgiving week in DC with one of my favorite cousins and his family.

First stop in Lubbock for the wedding

Next a drive to Tucson, to make sure we actually like the house, and the area.

We’re still deciding on New York or Boston for our anniversary

Then to DC for some family time

I’m loving that I narrowed down a dress choice to two, and I think one will be for the wedding and the other for our anniversary.

 

via

via

Now to only figure out which one to wear to which event.

I’m loving these shoes that should be arriving at my doorstep any minute now.

Nine West Aroundtown

Levity Nicolo Pump

Badolino Varnissa Bootie

I’m also loving that between discounts, rewards and online offers, I was able to get all three of these for about a $150.00 total. I’m thinking I win.

I’m loving the Hunger Games… I know I’m a little late to the party with this one. BUT I read the first book in a day, and cannot wait until the hardcover set arrives at my door so I can read the next two.

And as always, I’m loving my amazing and wonderful Hubs.

Tuesday Travels: Tucson, AZ

Our trip to Tucson was mainly for one reason… to find a house. BUT I was hoping that we’d get some sight seeing done, and get familiar with the city. We were successful in the first goal, but failed miserably in the second.

We spent all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking at houses (a post about this later this week) and only got Thursday evening to explore. So here is our Thursday in pictures:

We got to Tucson around 2:00 PM local time, and were greeted by the first of many “man cactuses” we would encounter. We figured a picture in the airport was appropriate, as this is our first time in Tucson.

We got our rental, and I decided to take pictures even though I should have been navigating. The Hubs GPS decided to poop out and we were a little lost, until the stupid thing found the signal again.

The drive was pretty. We have mountains in CO, but it always seems like they are so far away AND they are only to the West. In Tucson, the mountains were everywhere.

This is a portion of Downtown Tucson that we only drove by, and did not have time to actually visit.

After finding our hotel and checking in, we decided to head out to explore and have dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend. Blanco. The food was decent, but more California Mexican which we are not huge fans of. However, the Blood Orange Margarita more than made up for the okay food. HOLY YUM!!!!

We had spotted a gelato shop in the outdoor mall where we had dinner, but were so stuffed that we had to walk around to digest before stuffing our faces again. The Hubs decided he was going to “pose” for my picture and did a little James Bond look. He’s hot. I know. I tried to copy him, but failed.

We also ran into a little cactus palm tree. This guy was little, but cute. 

This is the only sunset we got to witness, since we were looking at houses the other three days. I was hoping for better pictures, but these will do until November.

We enjoyed some Italian Ice cream with this view.

I was slightly annoyed, since I was hoping to do a lot more than this little sightseeing, but what can ya do?!

I was also a little annoyed, because I dragged my DSLR all the way out to Tucson, and forgot to bring the charger or the spare battery. #epicfail

Tuesday Travels: Tucson for the Weekend

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while, and I figured it’s time to get back into the swing of things.

I have to admit, we are in desperate need of vacation and unfortunately will not have one until we figure out the house ordeal. We have decided to reward ourselves with a tropical vacation as soon as we close on a house. SOOO within the next 4 to 6 months… Depressing!!!! Especially when you it has almost been a year since our cruise.

There’s a lot more coming your way in regard to travel in the next few weeks, including a few posts about planning, spending and of course saving for the perfect vacations. But for now, we’ll talk about our little 4 night, 5 day trip to Tucson to check out our new town and find a house.

Our itinerary looks something like this:

09/29/11 around 2:00 PM – Arrive at Tucson International Airport

09/30/11 – Touring neighborhoods

• Since neither Husband nor I have ever been to Arizona or Tucson, we’ll be checking out some of the neighborhoods that our Realtor recommends
• Then we’ll maybe see a few new build homes, and talk about time frames and costs
• We’ll explore a few places such as the malls, entertainment and so on based on recommendations from friends who have lived in Tucson

10/01/11 – House hunting begins

• We’ll spend the day looking at a few re-sale homes that we have picked ahead of time
• Taking lots of pictures and hopefully starting to narrow down neighborhoods

10/02/11 – More of that house hunting crap joy

• We’ll see a few more houses…
• I’ll take more pictures…
• We’ll fight… become stressed and start emotional eating. This may also lead to us instinctively booking an overly expensive vacation and blowing our down payment on new shoes, twin turbos and a new transmission for the 3000GT…

We will be fling back to Colorado on the 3rd… hopefully with a better idea of what we want, where we want and what we are willing to spend on a certain type of house.

One thing we are going to try and do is visit the Gates Pass, since it’s located right outside of downtown Tucson.

Gates Pass

 

The Gates Pass is located off of the Speedway and along the rout to West Saguaro National Park. It is said to be a very popular sightseeing area, especially when it comes to viewing sunsets. According to TripAdvisor there are many pullouts and two overlooks where you can stop to view the surrounding scenery.

Have you been to Tucson?! What would you recommend doing? What is your one-must see/do in a new town?

I know we’ll be testing out a few Mexican restaurants, since the Hubs is OBSESSED with tacos, and the closest Barnes and Nobel.

Lots and lots of things to love

It’s Wednesday, and I don’t know where the week has gone. I’ve been so busy trying to finish up a last few things before I go back to school mid-September that I’ve lost my mind. Work’s also been super busy, and I missed blogging.

So today, I’m linking up with Jaime from this kind of love to share what I’ve been loving these past week.

First and foremost I am loving my amazing hubby, who has been everything and more to me. He’s the most hard working, dedicated and handsome man I know.

I am loving that I finally ordered my 50mm f/1.4 and it will be here TODAY. It is out for delivery and will be in my little hands by this evening. I’ve heard so many amazing things about this lens and cannot wait to get my hands on it. Especially since I’m helping a friend with a shoot on Sunday!

I am loving that today is the last day that I have to worry about the accounting freelance work I was doing, and in about 3 hours I will be done with it forever. No more accounting papers to write. This also calls for a celebration. So I may be heading up to Castle Rock to reward myself with a new Coach purse… well maybe not… since I just bought the above lens for a good chunk of change.

Love, love, loving our new bed. The latex mattress is really well worth the money. I’ve been sleeping like a baby lately, and waking up with no back issues. Thanks again to my amazing Husband who did all the research to make sure that we get the right matrass.

I’m also loving that it is now completely official that we will be moving to Tucson, and that the process of hiring the hubs for the new position has officially begun. We should know in a few weeks time when the approximate move date is. We’re both hoping that we’ll have until May of 2012 before we move, so that we can spend another ski season and Mammoth season here in Colorado.

Loving that we decided on buying a house in Arizona and spending a few years there before moving to Texas. And loving that in two months time we’ll be heading down to Lubbock for the wedding and then spending 10 days in Arizona to look for a home, check out ASU and the area in general. We’ll spend our second anniversary in Phoenix or Flagstaff, just the two of us.

I also wanted to let you all know that I am loving every single one of you, and appreciate you so much. I know I’ve been on and off here, but you have all stuck with me. I know I promised a whole bunch of new material on the blog… and it is coming, once I catch my breath which should be after today!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!!!

I’ve traveled a bit today…

 

I’m over at Taryn Leigh’s today! Head on over and check it out.

PS… come back here later for the my big news.

What Happens in Vegas …

 

Today’s Guest blogger is one of my all-time favorites, and another one of my daily reads. Raven blogs over at A Momma's Desires and Pacifiers, and keeps me entertained with the tails of her cute babes, rattle snake killing and other adventures in life. If you don’t know her, you are seriously missing out. 

Hey all you fab readers of Eat, Shop and be Married! I don't know about you, but those three things are some of favorites to do! Well, at least two of them are. I'll leave it at that. (wink wink)

I write a lot about being a mom on my personal blog, A Momma's Desires and Pacifiers, so I thought it would be very refreshing for myself to not even MENTION my little bambinos over here and just write all about mwah. Even though I love those little angels to death and they are my life, sometimes we all just need a little adult time, no? And what better place to go when you need a little vaca than the ultimate big person's playground, Las Vegas!

 

I've been to Vegas a few times, including that one time when I moved there for 10 days. Packed up everything I owned and hightailed it to the Land of Sin. One week and three days later, I rented a uhaul, packed up my shiz once again, and drove 18 hours straight home. Stopped five times for gas and that was it. But that is a whole nother story in itself. (Which I do plan to tell really soon).

 

But today I'll talk about my most recent trip to Las Vegas. My husband and I went with our friends and oh my, was it amusing.

 

The crew...

 

We had a limo pick us up at the airport (because we're big ballers like that. Not really. Did you know that is costs just about the same to take a limo as it does to take a cab? My secret is spilled.)

 

We also had the limo driver stop at the liquor store. Obviously.

We ain't newbies at this shit.

 

 

What would a trip to Vegas be without toasting with mini bottles of jager? Not a trip at all, of course.

 

 

You know what else I love about Vegas? You can drink to your hearts desire since you can just go to your hotel room and pass out and not have to worry about taking care of little humans.

I also love that my husband takes the best pictures when he's a little...tipsy.

 

(Yes, that may be a cheesy smile, but it's better than anything he gives while sober!)

 

My friend and I are so hot that we always attract the best looking guys. Naturally.

 

(See? Told ya)

 

And finally, when you are in Vegas, you are sure to see some crazy, crazy people.

I think our expressions in the pic below concrete that fact.

(It really was the weirdest thing I have ever seen)

 

So there ya have it! A little bit of my adventures in Sin City. If anyone wants to pay for me to join them, I promise to show ya'll a good time. ;)

 

I would also like to add that I am not a boozin' momma. As fun as that sounds, I take my responsibilities at home very seriously and my family always comes first. But hey, we were in Vegas, and as cliche as the saying is, it's true.

 

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Raven, thank you so much for being over here today! I cannot wait to hear about the move to Vegas. That has got to be an awesome story. OH, and you are more then welcome to come along with us whenever we decided to get our butts down there.

So now that you’ve met her, head on over and read some more of her stories. I guarantee they will make you laugh enough to fall out of your chair and get some killer abs.