Out with the old... In with the NEW

Its time we say goodbye to this blog.

Somehow when I started this blog years ago (before I had my own gmail account) my mom's gmail got linked to it and its created much confusion. I've tried switching the email to my own so many times but it just won't work. 

I'm finally breaking down and starting a new blog and saying bye to carryingcathy forever.

I also found out that the song "Carrying Cathy" by Ben Folds is about how his girlfriend in high school named Cathy got pregnant and had an abortion.

But thats besides the point.

The point is that you need to come see me at my new blog

j-is-for-jones.blogspot.com

Its a work in progress and I'm not sure how I feel about the name yet but it will make my life just a little easier. And who doesn't want that.

I could say it will make me blog more but that will probably be a lie.

I'm Back!

So I'm not so good at this whole blogging thing but maybe I'll try and be better.

A lot has happened with us this past month.

1. We bought a house! (pics and post to come)

2. We just had our 2nd anniversary.

I'm sure more stuff has gone on but those two things are definitely the biggest.

For our anniversary we went camping for two days and drove down to see the Gila Valley Temple. 

It was so nice to have the weekend to relax and not have to worry about things that need fixing in the house (or doing homework in Ben's case). We just got to hang out together and have fun. 

We also saw this ginormous grasshopper... seriously the size of my hand

Ever since we've been married (and pretty much the whole time we were dating) Ben has had jobs where he works on Saturdays. This semester we worked it out so that Ben could quit his job and focus on school... all 19 credits of it. We LOVE getting to see each other on Saturdays even if we're shoveling dirt in the back yard or making the latest trip to Home Depot. 

I'm making it a goal to start blogging more. 

Maybe like once a week... we'll see though.

Tiffany Haynes Photography

My good friend Tiffany is hosting a giveaway on her photography blog. She is very talented and I always get jealous of how good her pictures turn out (I secretly wish she would have shot my wedding).

I would tell you to enter too but that would leave less chances for me to win.

Check her out

Tiffany Haynes Photography

I would display one of her pictures but there are too many to choose from.... plus I don't really have permission to do that.

Look for yourself... just don't enter the giveaway.

I want to win so bad.

Surprise Vegas

This week for work I had to be in Kingman, AZ for 2 days.

Traveling overnight is something I really dislike about my job.

Luckily I have an awesome husband who drove up to stay with me the second night I was there (shhhh... top secret). When Ben got there at around 4pm he said "Let's go to Vegas"... so we did.

First we stopped at the Hoover Dam
to see the construction of the new bridge

which is awesome by the way.

We got onto the Vegas strip right around sundown
so all the lights were just coming on.

We drove down most of the strip to see everything before we parked since we knew it wouldn't be a long visit. 

We ate at a nice restaurant and ordered the cheapest things on the menu.

Then we went and watched the fountains at the Bellagio
before heading back Kingman.

It was a fun little trip. We both decided though that if we ever go to Vegas again we'd much rather be there during the day. There are too many people that like to drink too much alcohol there at night.

Undercover Karaoke

I'm not usually one to post videos I like on to my blog but I thought this was really funny.

Now all I want to do is listen to Jewel songs.

New England--- Highlight #5 and #6

#5--- the FOOD

Thanks to Abbie and Jake for letting us come on one of their dates to eat LOBSTER. 

And then we went out for ice cream.

New England knows its ice cream.

I had the black raspberry oreo... mmmmmm

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the huge roast beef sandwiches.

Those things were good.

I think we all spent the entire week filling up on meat and sugar.

It was glorious.

#6--- The company

I think Ben could spend all day with these kids and never run out of energy.

We had so much fun just playing.

Those kids couldn't get enough of Ben.

Being with family the whole week was such a blast.

I never wanted this trip to be over.

We should probably make this a yearly tradition.

I don't think anyone would have any complaints about that.

New England--- Highlight #4

ZIP LINING

 

 

This was probably our favorite highlight
of our trip here to New Hampshire.
And we couldn't have done it without a little help ($) from Grandad.

(big thanks Grandad)

I totally psyched myself out on the way up to this place which I do any time I convince myself to do crazy things. I was all nervous and a bit sweaty... although I'm pretty sure the sweaty part had a lot to do with the 97% humidity that day. Either way, we had such a blast and this is something I would love to do again. After the first jump I realized it was less scary and more awesome. The longest zip line lasted over a minute and we were so high above the trees that you could see all the beauty that is New Hampshire. 

I told Ben that I want to work at a zip lining place so that we could go all the time. Definitely sounds way better than the job I have now.

We loved New Hampshire... a lot

New England--- Highlight #2 and #3

Highlight #2 for our trip?

SURFING

Thanks to Danny and Lindsi for inviting us on their date night. 

Surfing was a blast. I think Lindsi won for most times getting up.

Highlight #3

Candle pin bowling

Ellie definitely won for best style points

New England--- Highlight #1

We just got back from a week in New England and it was amazing.

Highlight #1 was visiting Grandad

I think I was 7 the last time I got to see him.

All the grandkids warmed up to him really fast and we all loved seeing all his amazing wood carvings.

I hope the 18 of us (10 adults, 8 children) at his house wasn't too overwhelming.

We miss you already Grandad.

Mesa's Historical Landmark

If you know Mesa, you know Dizzy.

The legendary street preacher of

Stapley and Main

died last weekend of bone marrow cancer.

He's been there ever since I can remember and I get an occasional wave of the middle finger when I drive by and smile at him. Mesa won't be the same without you Dizzy.

Memorial services will be held this Saturday July 10th at 6:30pm at Pioneer Park. Following the memorial there will be a candlelight vigil walk to Stapley and Main to walk his corner.

Funny hats and large headphones are encouraged.

We will miss you Dizzy

Fail

I tried to make this...

found here

And it turned out like this...

I wish I could bake cool things.

Maybe some day.

The frosting turned out really good though.

And we made some tasty strawberry ice cream.

I'll stick to what I know for now.

One day I might attempt this

 found here

But I'm a little discouraged after my failed attempt at a much simpler cake this weekend.
I want to learn though because how pretty is that?

I Love AZ

How cute is this?

Enter the giveaway here

Or buy one for yourself here

(you can choose any state)

Doppelgänger

In the vernacular, the word "doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person.

I have been told a few different times that I look like different celebrities each of which seems weird to me. Twice in college I was told that I look like Avril Lavigne and both times the person asked if I got that "all the time" like it was a compliment to look like a slutty singer.

Next was just a few weeks ago at Sam's wedding when some relative of the Jones or Gilespie family (I really don't know who it was) told me that he and his wife thought I looked exactly like Gweneth Paltrow

which seems like a better compliment but I still don't get it.

There was also a period of time in elementary school when Hanson was super popular that I was told MULTIPLE times that I looked like the super hunky youngest brother Zack... Not something I wanted to hear as a 10 year old girl that I looked like a boy... even though I was a huge tom-boy

Who's your doppelganger?

Live and Learn

To get in and out of our humble little one bedroom apartment you have to pass through 2 doors (one regular door and one screen door) and 4 locks. The doors are old and sometimes the locks are hard to turn with the old keys we have.

So in efforts to make our lives a bit easier Ben and I decided that when we leave the house we would lock the handle, shut the door and then lock the top one with our keys.

One day we locked the handle, shut the door and then realized neither of us had our keys.
We were locked out of our own house.
Very embarrassed, we called our landlord to come rescue us.

Now every time we leave the house I make sure to ask Ben if he has his keys.
Most of the time he closes the door and pretends he doesn't have them.
Then one time (again) he really didn't have his keys... and neither did I.

We were embarrassed again.
But this time we remembered that one of our windows wasn't locked.
So Ben (in his church clothes) pried off the window screen, slid open the window, and jumped through the blinds to let me in.
The whole time I was on the look out for others in our ward to be walking home so I could just act casual like taking the screen off our windows was something we did all the time.

It was then that I realized that we don't learn from our mistakes.
So I changed that (in a way) and put the key to the back door of our apartment on with the spare key to my car and took it over to my parents house.

Since then, I have (by myself) locked myself out of my house two more times... most recently on Tuesday
Each time one of my parents has so graciously brought me the key to my back door.
And each time I tell them to wait for me so I can give the key back because lets face it... it will probably happen again.

This also worked the time I locked my keys in my car at my old job

Things I've Learned...

While sitting at a desk on the 3rd floor of an office building in Phoenix in front of a window.

1. Planes fly into Sky Harbor two by two
2. Rarely is the roof to Chase Field closed (D-backs)
3. I'm easily distracted by birds
4. And I now have an odd appreciation for palm trees. How do they stay standing with their skinny, ridiculously tall trunks and top heavy fanned out leaves?

Normally I'm out of the office a few times a week but this month I will be sitting here at my desk EVERY SINGLE DAY. So please, for my sanity, update your blogs on a more regular basis so that I have something to read when I need a break from writing reports. If anyone has any blogs they recommend I am totally open to blog stalking people I don't know.

And for your viewing pleasure. Meet baby Elliot.

We Crossed the Border

And they almost didn't let us come back

My passport is in the mail I swear

Last week we spent our days playing with our favorite beach buddies

Walking in the cold water

Looking for sea shells

Getting chased by big wet dogs

And eating fish tacos every day

It was perfect

25 years old... my mother she told me so

(what's the next line to that song?)

Last week Ben turned 25 years old

That's 5 times older than when he wore cowboy boots and shorts to kindergarden

He's a quarter of the way to being 100 and

he's now closer to 30 than he is to 20.

To celebrate we went out to dinner at a Venesuelan place called

My Arepa, which we highly recommend

and then met up with Brittany and Brady for an Improv Comedy show

The next day we packed ourselves up and headed off to go hiking and camping

On the hike we got to have our last snowball fight of the season

Hiking was a lot of fun but we didn't plan for enough time. It wasn't too long of a hike but we couldn't finish because the sun was starting to go down and we still needed to set up camp.

We plan on making time for this one again

On our way to the campsite we saw a bunch of wild turkeys

We forgot to bring the converter pump for the air mattress

 so we slept on the cold, hard ground

inside the cold, small tent...

It was cold... real cold

Besides our sleeping arrangements it was a fun trip.

We were the only ones on our hike and the only ones at the campsite.

This is not where we camped

but we found this sweet spot where we'll be camping next time...

Anyone want to come?

Happy Birthday Ben!

Yogurt Yo' Way

Attention all frozen yogurt lovers!

Yodipity is the new Mesa Frozen Yogurt

Better selection of flavors

Too many toppings to count

Colorful, friendly environment

and awesome management.

Come check it out this weekend!

Get your BUY 1 GET 1 FREE coupon.
Free yogurt for bloggers, click here for details.