A few of our favorite Arizona things....

Because the Hub and I were so excited to be moving back to Georgia, there were a few great things I left out of my blog once Carlton got this job. I guess I got a little ahead of myself, so bare with me while I backtrack a little bit to share a couple "finishing experiences" from our life in Arizona.

One of Vespa's most favorite "go for a ride" destinations was getting to visit Naomi. Naomi was Vespa's groomer in Scottsdale, and I absolutely loved everything about her! Naomi worked at Groomingtails, a swanky yet competitively priced grooming service near our house. She was always so incredibly friendly, and I never saw her without a smile on her face. I could tell that she really loved her job. As a Christmas gift to all her puprents, Naomi always makes these adorable Christmas ornaments:


On festively bright green construction paper and outlined in a pop of red glitter squiggly-stripes, ours is still on the fridge! I could ask Vespa, "You wanna go see Naomi?" and she would totally freak out with excitement... more so than her usual tail wag for a car ride or a walk through the neighborhood. After picking Vespa up from her three-hour beauty routine every four weeks, I could NEVER resist taking a few pictures of the fresh cut and fluff of that silky coat. Naomi could leave Vespa's little toes cut just-so, so that they came to a tender little point in the middle. Her ears were always cut so short, and that made them super-cute when they would do those crazy-Vespa-ear-tricks. And I don't know if it's Vespa's natural coat, or if Naomi had a shine-enhancing Naomi brush infused with fairy dust, but Vespa was so silky and shiny when we got home from her appointments that it was really quite captivating! See? So shiny! And so totally cute pupicured paws!


Another beautiful experience I had while we lived in Arizona was working at the pottery shop called As You Wish Pottery Painting, or for short, AYW. Or, as we employees called it, FUN! Coming in to work every day was not always what we wanted to do. But lemme tell ya, once I got there, all I wanted to do was skip and hum to the music in the studio. The walls were painted so brightly. The underglaze paints were organized so rainbow-colorfully. Plus, with paint colors named What a Yolk (a yellow the color of... your guessed it!... a yolk) and Happy Go Lucky (a sort of apple-y green), what's not to love?


And the girls. Oh, the girls I worked with! It was a great mash-up of quirky personalities. We worked hard, but we worked efficiently and happily. It almost as good as Disney World. In this picture, Maci was explaining how the underglaze paints worked to a table of noobs. Maci was always such a laugh! She tried her darndest to immitate my southern accent, and would even speak to customers with the fakester accent like it was completely normal... leaving me rolling with laughter in the back glaze room where the confused customers couldn't see me.


I even got to celebrate a new life while working at the pottery studio: coworker Cynthia's baby arrived, and on top of a very fun baby shower in the studio, Cynthia brought the baby by pretty often, and she frequently styled the heck outta that knit blankey I made her!


While we complained and whined and moaned and groaned that we had no friends or family in Arizona, I'll admit now that it was just a tiny exaggeration. Obviously, I enjoyed the visits with Vespa's groomer. And work was a blast for me. And family? Okay, okay! I do have a cousin... wait, a second cousin there in Arizona. When I was a little girl, I was the flower girl for Kris, my mom's only girl cousin playmate from her childhood. Kris and her husband Dave have three kids: Melissa (the oldest), Michael (the only boy, and the middle kid), and Michelle (the yougest girl of the family). We got together three or four times over the course of the year we lived there in Arizona. We were always blown away by Michael's ability to eat more than Carlton and myself combined (he really is a growing boy)! We were always entertained by Michelle's outgoing personality and willingness to order from the menu for herself, thank you very much. And Melissa... oh, Melissa and her iPod earbud tucked underneath her hair and pecked inside one of her ears all throughout dinner. Her texting at the table and the rolling of her eyes at her dad's jokes, and at her siblings' boisterousness. She was my favorite, with her own quiet personality... when she did talk, she always had something witty and captivating to say. And listen closely, because she only said what she had to say once. The restaurant of choice was always the Olive Garden, and it was always good food with great company.

I got our hostess to snap this photo of us all together after our last dinner as a group in Arizona. Above, from left to right, back to front: Carlton, me, Kris, Dave, Michael, Michelle, and Melissa (Look! A cute smile!)

Of course we missed Georgia when we lived in Arizona! Of course we are happy to be back home! But let me tell ya, there are plenty of things about our experiences in Arizona that are very, incredibly miss-worthy.