Pros and Cons

As I drove to work this morning, I started thinking about all the things I'm going to miss about Phoenix. And it made me really depressed, even though I'm very excited about moving to San Francisco. Phoenix is the only place we've lived that I feel like we could truly call home for a long time. I mean, how could I not love:

1. The actual tan my skin gets here! No laughing, it IS tanner than it's ever been in my life.

2. The wonderful DRY heat that is so nice to lay out in. A lazy river in Phoenix is as good as it gets people. I never knew the sun could be so relaxing. Apartment pools are everywhere and they're open year round with no lifeguards.

3. All the outdoor things to do around here (albeit they are much more fun to do October thru April).

4. Not having to highlight my hair so much, the sun is a more natural way to go. Going without highlights is not even an option. I would highlight my hair over eating. As my mom once said, my natural hair color is "dirty dishwater blonde." YUCK.

5. Phoenix is driving distance to lots of cool places: Vegas, Grand Canyon, Mexico, Flagstaff, Sedona, Las Vegas . . . Vegas is my second favorite city, for many of the same reasons Phoenix is. DRY HEAT = perfection!

6. We can leave the door open for the dog October through April and not worry about the heat or a/c going out the door. No bugs here either, but that may just be our complex.

7. I don't have to stress about big spiders, cicadas, and bugs falling from the trees overhead or off the underside of the backyard deck. Yes, this was an issue back in the DC humidity! It was TERRIFYING.

8. Burning more calories in less time due to an increased amount of sweat.

9. My box of winter clothes stays in storage. The coldest weather here is at the office when the a/c is blasted too high.

10. I'm going to need a whole new wardrobe for San Francisco weather. We Phoenicians wear just enough clothing to cover the bare essentials. Such freedom, I love it!

To make myself feel a little better, I made a list of all the DOWNFALLS of living in Phoenix.

1. Triple digits are expected tomorrow and it's still April!

2. My electric bill will go way down.

3. I won't have to fight Steve on whether to keep the a/c at 82 degrees or 84.

4. I'll no longer get in my car only to find my water bottle that was sitting there all day is not just hot, it's literally at boiling temperature.

5. I won't dehydrate after 5 minutes of hiking.

6. I can wear my hair down for more than 6 months out of the year.

7. I can go outside for more than 10 minutes without sunscreen.

8. I can walk barefoot by the pool, and flip-flops won't be a necessity at all times. Even at the waterpark in Phoenix, one must wear shoes all the way to the slide and hold them over your head as you slide down.

9. I will no longer come home from a day in the sun to wash my hands in the sink only to find that the water temperature gets no cooler than lightly scalding hot between the months of April and October. How refreshing!

10. All this sun = more freckles = me no happy!

I suppose I could give San Francisco a try . . .

California here we come

It's official. I've put in my notice at work so I can officially announce we are moving to the San Francisco bay area next month. Yeah for Steve for his job offer and yeah for it being in San Francisco and not Houston! Boo for the high cost of living. Ah well, there's a reason people are willing to pay so much to live there right?

Steve and I both grew up in the bay area but moved away right after high school and have not lived there since. My family has all moved away as well except one brother and Steve's parents are the only ones left there on his side. From California we moved to Utah for school, then to DC for our first jobs, then to Arizona for grad school, and now we're headed back to California. There were short stints in Houston, Florida, Argentina, and Russia along the way as well. We'll see how long California will take us for :)

We've already started making a list of all the fun weekend trips we'll be taking. Tahoe, Napa, Route 1, Monterey Bay, Yosemite, Santa Cruz. . . there is no shortage of places to visit that's for sure.

We're hoping to take a few weeks off between jobs to get settled in, do some exploring, and take a trip down to Cancun for a few days to relax and unwind before starting this next journey. We're very excited!

Springtime has arrived!

For some reason I feel like I can't post on the blog unless I have pictures. This is why a month might go by without a post. Not because we haven't been taking pictures to talk about. But because I'm too lazy to load the pictures onto the computer. The very simple task finally made it to my to-do list for today and what do you know, I'm actually going to be able to mark it off.

So let's see, what's been going on here . . . The weather is starting to warm up. Although it's been going back and forth between 90 degrees and back to the low 70's(which is quite cold for us here in Phoenix). So we've been getting outdoors a lot more lately, that's always fun. I'm beginning to understand why my skin never got anything past pasty white in DC. When it's not winter, it's too stinking humid to go outside for more than a minute or two! Since moving here, my skin color has gone from pasty white to a slightly more golden version of pale. I'll take it! We love Phoenix. We're retiring here, it's official.

Last night we went to the Greyhound dog racing park, something we've been meaning to check out since we realized it was just around the corner from our place. It was very . . . interesting. I had a hard time finding the line between having fun and feeling bad for these dogs chasing the "bunny" around the track. Don't they eventually realize it's NOT REAL?! My favorite was a male named "Late Night Luvah." He came in first in his race.

Steve is on an ASU co-ed softball team made up of the MBA students. Here's the team during their first game.

Steve after a nice swing.

Off and running.

Steve playing outfield.


Now for the Blackjack pictures, of course:

Dogpark dog wrestling. Round 13 or so. These two couldn't get enough of each other.

And apparently this little guy couldn't get enough of Blackjack. Now would this be considered "nurture" or "nature?" :)

This morning we hiked South Mountain again, only this time with the dog, and we managed to stay on the "real" trail and didn't get lost. No rattlesnakes this time either. I love this picture, check out Blackjack's very white underbite. We'll have to think about headgear when he gets a little older . . .


Playdate with my co-worker Mer's chocolate lab Muley, her parents' beagle Snoops, and Blackjack. Muley spent most of the time jumping in and out of the pool retrieving her toy that just "happened" to keep falling in, while Snoops spent most of the time hiding from Blackjack. Eventually Blackjack convinced Muley to play with him and they raced each other around the backyard. Too funny.

And finally, Blackjack really thinks he's a human. Lately he's taken a liking to sleeping up on my pillow with my head. But he's so cute it's hard to make him move.

I'm eligible!

I received my annual Social Security Statement in the mail and it's official! I've earned my 40 credits! I now qualify for retirement/disability/medicare benefits. And it only took a short 13 years in the workforce.

But then of course came the kicker:

"Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2041, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 78 percent of scheduled benefits."

I'm not planning on receiving any type of government sponsored retirement benefits, so it's interesting that their numbers still show a 78% payout prediction. We shall see.

Oops, I just went out and pulled out last year's statement to compare and apparently I was eligible last year and didn't know it. You mean I worked all of 2008 for nothing?! ;)

Happy 1st Birthday Blackjack!

Blackjack turned one last week, time has really flown by! Since we brought him home 6 months ago he's managed to grow a little taller and maybe a little longer and he's put on 4 pounds. According to the vet he's in perfect shape at exactly 25 pounds. Hopefully his growth spurt is over, he's already starting to crowd us out of bed!

For his birthday we took him to the dog park to play with some friends. He and one of the beagles had a really good time rolling around in the dirt, as always.


Later that night he had his own little peanut butter "chocolate" birthday pie, complete with a candle (which he of course tried to eat while lit).

We fed him all night (since that's his favorite thing to do) and sure enough he threw up the next day. Ah well, he enjoyed himself while he stuffed his face :) That's what birthdays are all about, right? You only turn one once, live it up!

Congratulations Dean and Anita!

Last weekend my "little" brother Deano got married in Utah. This was the first time all 10 Clawson siblings had been in the same place at the same time in NINE YEARS!

The happy couple.

The Clawson family.

The Clawson siblings oldest to youngest (Left to Right: Tearsa, Larry, Ben, Bethany, Sarah, Robb, Rebecca, Mark, Dean, Stephen)

Steve and Sarah. We were freezing! Granted we had just come from a lovely 70 degrees in Phoenix.

Clawson Sisters (youngest to oldest: Becca, Sarah, Beth, Tears)

Happy 60th Birthday Mom!

While out in Utah for Deano's wedding we had a suprise 60th birthday party for Mom. She was definitely suprised, seeing as her birthday isn't actually for another month!

The "birthday cake." Mom's favorite is the Whopper.


Surprise!!!

Christmas in Colorado

I know this is a little late, but before I start posting February pictures I need to post these couple of pictures from our holidays in Colorado.

Blackjack's 1st snow. He loved it!


His biggest fan, our niece Erin. We found her many times with her hands stuck through his kennel when he was supposedly "napping." Too cute!


The Prius. The night before we drove back to Phoenix there was a little mishap. A family member backed out of the driveway and into our Prius. She didn't stand a chance against the SUV. Luckily a week in the shop made her good as new again.

GO CARDINALS!

I wouldn't call myself a big football fan, however when your local team makes it to the Super Bowl AND they're the underdogs . . . I'm all over it! Go Cardinals!!!

ETA: Ok so the Cardinals didn't win . . . but it was a close one there at the end. Congrats to the Steelers, they really deserved it truth be told.

To Teach or Not To Teach

A few months ago I posted about a possible career change but didn't know what I wanted to do. For those interested in an update . . .

I took a day off work to job shadow an occupational therapist at Phoenix Children's Hospital who worked in Outpatient. She showed me around and I got to meet some of the other therapists both inpatient and outpatient. Then I sat in on her appointments for the afternoon. She had a grad student handling some of her cases so that was neat to watch. And I walked away with this bottom line impression: Interesting . . . but not for me. Just not my thing. But it was really neat to see them at work and how they interacted with their patients who were all so vastly different from each other and how their treatments were so individualized.

A few weeks later I took another day off to job shadow a 4th grade teacher down at a Chandler elementary school. I went in to it with the attitude "I'm just doing this to say I did it." If I did teaching I was sure it would most definitely be middle or high school. But I had to at least say I tried the younger ages. And guess what? I thought it was so fun! How unexpected! Kids that age are so anxious to learn and they're so funny. And they don't have that whole attitude thing developed just yet. I never considered teaching as a career partially because of the pay and partially because of the stereotypes and I just didn't want to do something that was so overrun by females. But I may have to reconsider. And I may stand out like a sore thumb but you know what? Whatever, I could handle it. Over the next month or so I plan to job shadow a middle school and then high school teacher and compare experiences.

One of the afternoons I also went to the local community college and took a math placement test to see what courses I would need to go back and review or take if I decided to become a secondary math teacher. The test was pretty funny. I tested through to the highest Calculus course, and they were impressed at the front when they gave me my score. The funny thing is, I totally cheated my way through the test. I mean, not really cheated, but I didn't understand how to do many of the problems so I just did little tricks like where you substitute in all the answers until you get one that looks the best, etc. If it hadn't been multiple choice I would have been in trouble! I had no idea or couldn't remember how I was supposed to solve many of the problems. I did this all through my math classes when I didn't understand things and it really set me back. Which is why the thought of going back and actually learning HOW to do higher level math sounds intriguing to me, and possibly teaching students the right way from the start and helping them understand when it seems so overwhelming. We'll see.

In the meantime, I've been looking into certification requirements to get a better idea of what a career change into teaching would entail. Or possible Masters programs. School administration also sounds intriguing to me but that career path would start with teaching in the classroom anyway.

I am really excited at the thought that I may have found what it is I want to do. At least for now. Perhaps another ten years down the road and I'll go through another career change, but that seems to be not so unusual nowadays. I must have Career ADD. Is there medication for that?

So . . . did this suprise many of you? I went back and looked at the comments on my original post and I think only one person even mentioned teaching as something they thought I would like. Too funny! Or perhaps people just thought I wouldn't be any good at it? That may be true but only time will tell ;)