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.

The wonder of a shoe

Shoes make me happy. Literally. If I am having a bad day, a new pair of shoes will make it better. If I am depressed or a little blue, a new pair of shoes will make me happy. If I get in a fight with Hubs, a new pair of shoes will do wonders…

I am obsessed and I admit it.

So… the next time I have a bad day one of these might be on its way to my house!

Nine West Around Town

Levity Nicolo Pump

White House Black Market

Something about the chunky heel is fantastic. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my mom would wear them, because they were in. I love the fact that they are super comfy and can be worn all day long. These babies are beautiful and will be making into my closet by the end of the season.

Hope you all are having a great Monday!

Better late then never… right?!

This past Friday, I was going to link up with Natalia over at Ma Nouvelle Mode… except that I wrote up the blog, edited the pictures, but never actually got around to combining the two together and scheduling it to post.

I could spend a lot of time giving you all kinds of excuses as to why I’m late, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about how bad of a blogger I am and how I’m just SOOO tired all the time. SO, without further ado here are three of my styles.

My hair has gotten super long lately, and I have been keeping it pretty dark. My all time favorite color and the go to is the blue-black that my amazing stylist and friend mixes for me. The bangs are new, because I wanted something different. Speaking of something different, I had a few of my extensions died Katy Perry colors. Since I used my extensions when I was growing my hair out and now just use it for volume, I didn’t really need the one inch pieces so we died them hot pink, blue, aqua and purple. They stand out super well with the blue black and I love it. I also feel like I am 12 when my hair is so bright.

Day 2 was just as boring as day one, so I decided to throw in some braids. NOW, I suck at braiding my hair in all kids of cool French braids and twists sooo, I end up with boring braids as in the above pictures. I also DO NOT wash my hair daily… as a matter of fact, I wash my hair every 3 to 4 days. GROSSSSS I know. BUT it is much better for my hair. AND my color does not fade as fast. AND if you look at the first set of photos you can see how puffy and freezy my hair can get… and day two is usually much more tame.

OH… dry shampoo is my BEST FRIEND.

By Day 3, my hair needs to be pulled back, and really styled so that it does not look gross. Hence, the side messy bun. My bangs are also in need of a trim! Hence the side bangs. I usually add a few of my longer extension pieces to make my buns look fuller… however I am lazy and did not feel like putting in extensions … hence the miserable side bun.

I hope you all had a great weekend. I know mine was pretty productive, aside from a few work disasters that are going to make me cry tomorrow morning.

OH and in other news, I am now officially a graduate student and start class in 30 minutes. Can someone explain to me why I am going back to school?!

Oh Hi Dara

My current position has me dealing with lots of people from all over the country, on a daily basis. … and sometimes I have to be on the phone with them. I hate phones. Really! If I could text and email, I’d just do that all day. I don’t mind talking on Skype, I don’t mind talking to people I know on the phone… like my mom and hubs. However, I HATE talking to random people on the phone.

It drives me nuts to have to repeat everything a million times, when in an email its right there, all spelled out. What drives me nuts the most though is people getting my name wrong. I understand it’s a unique name, however when I spell it out to you, and repeat myself 3 times, and than tell you “it’s like Sara but with a Z… as in Zebra” you’d think you’d get it.

Just today, I’ve been called Dara, Tara, Lara, Mara, and several other variations or –ara with a random letter stuck in front of it.

However, one lady from Dallas TX, took the time of asking me exactly how I pronounced it, and wouldn’t stop until she got it right. She also made sure to apologize for calling me Tara first, and then told me my name was pretty.

YOU GO LADY! Totally, made the phone call worth it. Thank you, for taking the time to learn my name, and then complement me on it!!! 

I don’t really think this post had a point. I just wanted to give this lady a shout out, and say thanks.

Just another checkmark on the pro side for Texans.

Fall Traditions

Two lovely ladies are running a Fall challenge, and since it’s my favorite season of all I’m going to play along.

  Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Bliss Bars     New boots and trench coats

Anniversary Trip

We also celebrate every single Halloween, cook up lots of things in the crock pot and start Christmas Shopping. Fall is the best time of the year, and there is nothing that can beat it.   What are your Fall traditions? Head over to Neely and Amber to join in.