AR!!!!

Woohoo!


- Posted on the Road

Location:Fayetteville Rd,Van Buren,United States

OK

Hangin with the Okies.

- Posted on the Road

Location:H. E. Bailey Turnpike,Lawton,United States

TX

Braving the wind at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo.

E+H 2011 tagged on car #6.

- Posted on the Road

Location:Noel St,Memphis,United States

NM

- Posted on the Road

Location:Coronado Fwy,Albuquerque,United States

AZ

The last of the Saguaros.



NW Arizona. Flat and desolate.


- Posted on the Road

Location:Heber Rd,Holbrook,United States

Officially on the Road

Location:Pima Fwy,Phoenix,United States

Gardiner's Out

It is happening.

Tomorrow the packers will be here and they will load up our lives into boxes that will be shipped across 4 states to find a new home in practically a new land.

I'm guessing at that point, while sitting in our lonely empty house all of this will actually hit me.

We will be gone.

It's the harsh reality that I've been internalizing for the past 4 weeks. Apparently internalized too much because I have a fat cold-sore on my lip and am consistently on the verge of bawling my eyes out.

When we arrived in AZ in Feb of 2006, just out of college, and into a state we had both never set foot in. We had a little white-haired baby girl in-tow and we settled in a tiny little apartment in North Scottsdale. Since then we have added two other beautiful daughters, many adventures, 4 local moves, pets, and countless friends.

We have now finished nursing school, bought and fixed up our first home, explored the state, created the best memories, and soaked up all the sunshine possible in the desert.

We have been close enough to our families to barely enjoy holiday's and special occasions and we have been fortunate enough to have the best friends around when family was too far to make it. Our lives have been incredibly blessed here.

We leave the West rich!

...

Dear Jord - July? Aug? Please get on that plane asap! I don't know how long we'll be able to make it without you.

Dear Aly -- I've loved being so close to you. Let's stay that way. If you get to TX in the next year, I promise to visit. BFF!

Dear Mandy and Tiff -- Seriously, where are The Weavers?

Dear Sal -- Thanks for keeping it real. I love us.

Dear Sarah, Angela, Shasta, and Erin -- They are hiring New Grads in AR. You coming?

Christen -- Thanks for always inspiring me and inviting us in as family. Xoxo!

...

See ya on the flip-side!

Gardiner's Out!

Living Arizona

The Places.
These are our "must sees" in Arizona. Please enjoy. We really do love this place!

1. Kartchner Caverns:

2. Snow Bowl:

The Gardiner's Take Snowbowl from gardiner4 on Vimeo.

3. Sedona:

4. Mongollon Rim


5. Grand Canyon:

6. Bisbee


7. Camelback Mountain:

Urban Hiking from gardiner4 on Vimeo.

8. Fossil Creek

9. Havasupai:

Testing. Testing. 1 2 3.

So now I'm all set up and blogging on the go.

How rad is that??

Arkansas won't know what hit it!





- Posted using BlogPress

SD on My Mind

Ah! Here it is.

San Diego!

I left my Canon at home so the 48 hours we were there were
documented 100% on my new phone.

Crossing to Coronado.

The Day Spa. The Cruisers.

The Food:
Stretch's on Coronado, Blue Water Grill, (totally worth the half hour late it made us to the airport) Heavenly Cupcake, La Puerta, (for Mexican) George's on Fifth, (not so much) and Ghirardelli for dessert.

The Shopping.

The Beach.

The Girls:

Grateful to good husbands and that we didn't miss our plane home.

Or are we?
Wow, my neck is freaking long!

The Poo of Roo

Yes. This post is about Poo. Sorry.

[Roo sink-bathing. A common occurrence around here.]

For the past month we have been troubleshooting the poo of our Roo. To keep it somewhat clean I'll just say that this baby goes through a lot of diapers. I mean a lot.

When she was just a wee little thing, you remember, I started cloth diapering her. It was awesome and I loved it. Around six months she started on solids and at seven months she started teething and I was up to my ears in dirty diapers and super stressed over nursing school. So I decided to simplify and I took a break from the cloth to just get me through the teething.

A month ago a friend of mine inquired about cloth diapers. Sadly, I admitted that I hadn't used them in a while. I wondered why I hadn't used them and then went back to it for a couple of days, but quickly remembered that my Roo's poo is nothing to take lightly. I busted the disposables back out.

It made me think though...

Since solids and teething, had Roo ever had just one dirty diaper a day? No. Had she ever had a nice formed stool? No. It was always often - 6ish a day, everywhere, and awful. Not normal. Not right.

I decided that day to take charge of Roo's poo.

We started with cow's milk since it seems to be a common culprit and easy to substitute as we already drink a lot of soy. She showed little improvement.

Next was wheat. Wheat and gluten. This is a different story and has taken some adjusting to, but it has looked somewhat promising thus far with only 2 or so somewhat normal diapers a day.

I'm taking her to our lovely pediatrician next week. I'm curious to see what she thinks and am looking for more insight. I'm also interested in her weight. I'm thinking that our Roo probably does have a gluten/wheat sensitivity/intolerance and am looking forward to getting to the bottom of it.



I do understand thought, that unfortunately, this is probably just the beginning....

love. lovey. lover. lovest?

[my valentine's 2011]

I don't deny that I love Valentines Day.

I love any excuse to package up gifts for my favorite people. It's also a big bonus to get their little hand drawn wonders and extra hugs and kisses.

We are having take-out tonight, renting a movie, Easy has surprised me with flowers, and we have already enjoyed a little of the day sewing with friends, exchanging valentines, and eating chocolate. That's it for us though. Easy-peasy.

An extra bonus is that we saw the dentist again today and MaeMae doesn't have to have her front tooth pulled after last month's trip to the ER.


here is another lovey song for you.

Enjoy your Valentine.

Every Last Drop

snoozing roo. 2.7.11

We are trying to squeeze in everything here during our last weeks residing in The Grand Canyon State.

Sunday I took my chickies and the dog to Las Vegas. We met up with my parents, gave them back the dog, and enjoyed about 15 hours in their company before heading home. Gigi had a rough night there so she slept the whole way back. We made it home 4.5 hours. No stopping. It was rad. My parents are also rad and I will miss seeing them so often.

Yesterday our friend Catherine arrived and we have been enjoying her company. We have caught up, baked cupcakes, and heard news about Arkansas and the 2 feet of snow that was just dumped on them. Crap. We are going to die. Catherine is moving to Beijing in less than a month (only a little more exotic than Arkansas) I'm going to have her send me pics to post on The Dirt.

Last night Blondes and Mae spent the night over at their best friends' house and relished in an all-girl-slumber-party-frenzy. We will miss those friends. They have been the best.

Easy spent the Monday through Weds night in San Antonio Texas for work. They went to a rodeo then watched Reba perform. I couldn't help but laugh at his text messages dripping in silent torture of a California boy surrounded in everything Texas and Country.

I'm off to San Diego soon. Can't wait, but miss my little family already.


p.s. This song is very cute. Especially for Feb.

February Faves and Craves

1. How cute is this bag? Too bad the only thing I really need less of are big huge bags.

2. Sprinkles recipe found on Martha. I'm wondering how close it is to the real thing. I've been craving a nice big rich Sprinkles cupcake. I'm thinking a treat is in store before we leave for AR.

3. Cute red shoes.

4. We are totally going handmade with our valentines this year.

5. Check out this clock.

6. I love this idea of having your own love story printed. It's simple and charming.

7. More cute red shoes.

8. Teal heart cabochons earrings.

9. If I weren't bent on making our own valentines I'd go for these.

Word is Out

So I guess there is no use in beating around the bush. The Gardiner's (that's us) will be moving from AZ to AR in less than a month. 9 moves. 7 years. At least we are consistent.

No worries, I will be taking The Dirt with us. You will come, right?

Unfortunately, I just made this awesome new desert banner. Can you find three little girls in it?

What the hell is in Arkansas? Good question. It's for a new position and a new office for Easy. Fortunately for him, us four ladies will follow wherever he goes. Even if it is thousands of miles away from our families and the beautiful west. We have always known that we would move on from Phoenix, but with that time being the present my little heart is breaking. It's better if I don't talk about it so I'm going to quit.

Actually, we hear that AR is pretty nice. The cost of living is low, they have actual trees with leaves that really turn colors, and I will likely have better chances at getting a nursing job (finger's crossed). We can't wait to explore new territory, meet new friends, (although we will sorely miss our AZ ones. sniff!) and carry on with a new chapter in our lives.


Go Razorbacks!

Loving When This Happens

Tuesday morning I knew I needed something to keep my hands and thoughts busy while awaiting my test results. I needed something mindless. So, I literally juiced every orange off our tree.

One after the other.

No worries, it was a breeze with a borrowed Bosch. I have got to find a way to get me one of those babies!

Slice.
Juice.
Slice.
Juice.
Pour.

Repeat.

I'm not so sure how the old compost bin is going to handle all this, but our bellies have handled it well. We downed the first gallon on day one.

Then the girls and I got a little festive.

Anytime these girls can get their hands on a bunch of glitter they jump for joy and are in absolute heaven....

as was I around 10am when I saw my test results and did my own little happy-dance around the house.

Then of course we ended our day with Easy walking in the door earlier than expected, a warm dinner in our bellies, and a dreamy little Chocolate and Orange Layer Cake to celebrate the fantastic day.

When I plopped a piece of cake down on Blondes' plate she stared at it and announced that she "loves it when this happens."

We all laughed but really, I couldn't agree more.

So...

It seems that I killed the NCLEX exam.

And we couldn't be more thrilled about it.

It did put up a fight though. At one point I was staring at the ceiling ready to pour tears out my eyes, another moment I wanted to throw the computer screen across the room...that was when I started to pray...a lot. Finally when the test shut off I ran out of there feeling like I was going to puke up my lunch.


Anyway, I don't know what to do with myself but I really must go make a cake!