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I decided today that I don't even know if ANYONE reads or checks my blog! So, if you see this and are reading my blog--leave a comment so I know if there is anyone out there

Three days until IDAHO

We are leaving for Idaho on Saturday morning! Yippee! I am so excited. I have been looking forward to going home for six months, so it seems a bit surreal that it is actually here now. I am very excited. This week and last week have been busy with parties, shopping, DOCTORS, more DOCTORS, shopping, wrapping, cleaning, etc--all of which has led to a very tired Sharon. I do hope I can just be a bum a little bit my parent's house and catch up on some much needed rest. I also hope it will be a good stress reliever for me, because with all of the doctor stuff, I have been a little stressed--I am not going to lie.

Here are some of my favorite things about Christmas
Hanging out with family
Talking to my sisters for hours on end
Going to Target with my sisters twice a day for no reason--except there is not much else to do in Idaho Falls
Thinking about other people and doing good things for them
Eating good food
Taking a nap everyday just because I can
Sitting in the warm house with a sweatshirt while it is cold outside

I hope everyone who reads this (which is probably like 2 people) enjoy their Christmas!

Some fun pictures

I know we have only been gone from Idaho for four months--but alas, the wonder of modern medicine. Four kids in 6 months has to be some kind of record....ok, ok, here are our "adopted" kids and our friend Teri on the right is really their mother.
Here is a picture of Rob and his Occupational Therapy class on the day of their white coat ceremony.
Here is a picture of me hugging Debbie w/Heather in the background. She was chasing me so I got her. She is so funny!
Here is Rob doing a funny face and hugging me while we were at the temple at Thanksgiving.
Here is Heather, me and then Debbie. Debbie is laughing and hiding her face. She does that when I hug her!

Bad Blogger

I am not very good at keeping up with this blogging thing--and when I do think about it, I don't always have tons of interesting things to say!

Here is a picture of Rob decorating our tree. It is weird to be decorating a tree when it is still so warm--but alas, the holidays are here and we are trying to have a happy holiday season--in 75 degree weather.



I tried to upload the photo for Rob's white coat ceremony but it didn't work--For those of you who don't know what a white coat ceremony is, it is a ceremony--like unto a graduation ceremony--where those in the health profession are presented with their white coats. It was fun to be there and see him get his white coat!It was very exciting and I was really excited to see him there. It made this whole thing more real! Two more years!!!

So, that is pretty much the most exciting news from Arizona. Rob is doing good--loving school. I am doing pretty good with my job. I am going to a million and a half doctors--so I hope I still have a job with how much time I have had to take sick leave to go to the doctors. But, alas, I am just hoping and praying that all of the doctor visits will have a good outcome--me being healthy and my body working properly!

We are excited to go to Idaho for Christmas. I am hoping there is snow there because Phoenix doesn't exactly have snow and it has kind of been a depressing holiday season for me. We bought snow in a can over the weekend and I sprayed our Christmas Tree and the window so I can pretend there is snow.

That is all for now!

Lone Woman

My husband is in Vegas right now so I am a lone woman, all by myself in Phoenix.
His sister Heather came and stayed with us this weekend and we were planning on going to Vegas on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. Since Rob is out of school, he decided to go back with her, so they could spend more time with his family. So, I am a lone woman until I go to Vegas for Thanksgiving to meet him.

We had a fabulous time while Heather was here. We went to Scottsdale--walked around a bit, rode the trollley, ate delicious pizza. Then Heather and I went to an outlet mall while Rob watched football. Then we ate Pei Wei and made muffins for my lesson on Physical Health on Sunday. It was a good weekend. My lesson for YW next Sunday is on Preventing Diseases--wish me luck.

I am getting very excited to come to Idaho for Christmas. I miss living in a place that actually has seasons--instead of Phoenix where it is hot and then hotter. This holiday season doesn't even feel like a holiday season to me and that is truly depressing. I need Jack Frost to nip at my nose before I feel in the holiday spirit. When Christmas music is playing and bells are ringing and it is 85 degrees outside, it just doesn't seem right.

Rob starts his next quarter of school next Monday. One down--a lot more to go. But, it is getting exciting because he will be done in exactly two years in December--that seems like light at the end of the tunnel since he will be done with his masters and start making real money.

That is pretty much it from Phoenix. We like having visitors a lot. People actually want to visit us more now that we live someplace more exciting than Rexburg!

Fridays are the best

Today is Friday! Fridays are my favorite days. It was an even better Friday because I got to leave work at 3 because we always get to leave early the day before a holiday--and since Monday is Veterans Day I got to come home at 3:00 and take a nap. It was awesome.
Rob and I have date nights on Friday nights, so we both decided we wanted pizza. We found this pizza buffet place that looked good so we decided to go there. It was like 8 miles away, but we thought it would be worth it. The traffic was horrendous, so it took as 30 minutes to get there. By this time, I am starving. Then we come in, give our money to the ditzy teenage girl cashier and go try to find food. There is old plates sitting everywhere. There is hardly any pizza out and the pizza that is out looks disgusting. We get our drinks and sit down. I ate one piece of cheese pizza and feel a little ill. Then, like 20 more people come in. There is still no people and the food that is out is looking disgusting. I start thinking it is a place like this that gives you food poisoning. So, I decide that I can't handle this anymore. I went up to the front, asked for the manager, and got our money back and we left! I have never done that before--but I felt completely justified. Also, the manager didn't even ask us why--he just apologized. There were like 5 more families behind me coming in and they were all staring at me like I was crazy, but I felt good about not accepting the fact that I paid money to eat there--and then can't eat there.
So, that was my brave moment of the day. Then we came home, ordered a pizza from a place we already know and have gotten pizza before and ate it at home while watching Numbers.

So, that was our day today. Rob is on a break from school--and loving it. He starts back again after Thanksgiving. He is loving school--and loving a break from school. I am excited that Christmas is less than 2 months away and we get to leave this place I like to call the sun and go somewhere where seasons actually exist. I miss seasons.

That is our story for the day.
Moral of the story--ask for your money back if you feel justified. It made me feel better. I would have been really mad if I had paid $15 to "eat" there and didn't get to eat.

More Nieces Pics

This is a picture of Lucy, Jill, & Hanna at Disneyland.















This is a picture of Lucy, Jill & Hanna for Halloween. They are very cute!!!!!

My sisters in Phoenix

My two sisters--Rachelle & Diana--came to visit us here in the hottest place on earth a few weeks ago. Here is me and my sister Diana at the Life is Good Store in Sedona. We are all obsessed with Life is Good stuff. It is so fun! We were really excited because we had never seen a whole Life is Good STORE!!


Okay, this isn't the best picture of me--but we ate lunch at this crazy place in Scottsdale one day and it was a crazy college hang out place and the only thing I could keep thinking was "SPRING BREAK---WOOO HOOO!!!!!!
So here is a picture of me at my pretend Spring Break with my sisters in October.

Cute Halloween Pics of My Sister and Her kids

I don't have any cute kid pictures of my own so here are some of my nieces and nephews.

This is my sister Jeanette with her kids Carson, Hailey & Lindsay!















This is Lindsay as Jesse from Toy Story. I think she is adorable--but I am a biased aunt.

Six Random Facts About Sharon

Some of my other blogging friends have done this and I find theirs entertaining to read--so here goes.

1) I am addicted to Oprah.com & DrPhil.com. I get on everyday after work and read the synopsis of the shows. I don't get to watch them, so I like to read about them. This started when I worked at the INL in Idaho Falls and sat in a cubicle for nine hours a day and didn't have a thing to do. So, I think I read every summary of every show on their entire websites. Now, it is an addiction.

2) I like wearing long sleeve anything. Weird, living in Phoenix, but I love long sleeves. I didn't entirely realize this love of mine until I moved to the Sun and have been unable to wear long sleeves since June because it is too hot. It got up to 97 degrees here yesterday. I don't know how to enjoy a Halloween unless I have a snowsuit on, because that is the only kinds of Halloweens I have ever had. I have put on long sleeves twice, just because I wanted to, and then had to take them off because I got too hot. I didn't always love walking around Rexburg in sub-zero temperatures, but I sincerely do miss wearing long sleeves.

3) I love to read. One of things I am most excited about when we have money--which is not now--and when I get to stay home with kids--hopefully someday--is to be able to go to the library, read a lot of books, and buy a lot of books. I love books. There are some LDS Fiction books that I have probably read over 30 times. Once I read a book that I love, I can read it over and over again and never get bored with it. I can't wait until I get to take my kids to the library each week so that we all can get great books to read.

4) My favorite food in the whole world is PF Changs/Pei Wei. I love eating there and would eat there once a week if Rob would let me. It is also nice because living here there is a PF Changs two miles away and a Pei Wei that is three miles away. I have even started finding some of their recipes online and trying to make them myself. I have been pretty successful with the lettuce wraps! Delicious!!!

5) Rob and I's new favorite random show to watch is Reba. It has some pretty stupid humor sometimes, but it is incredibly funny. It is a very clean show, when so many aren't so we like to watch old episodes of those when they are on. My other new favorite tv obsession is the Food Network. I love ThrowDown, Dinner Impossible, Iron Chef, The Next Iron Chef, etc. I wish I had the time to cook interesting things, but since I don't, I like watching other people cook interesting things. It also takes money to buy all the special ingredients--this poses a problem.

6) I have severe multi-tasking disorder. I can't just do one thing at a time. If I am watching tv, I get up during the commercial breaks and clean something. If I am working on a project, I do 20 little projects in between. For instance, while I have been writing this blog, I have done about 25 other little things in between. It is extremely difficult for me to concentrate on just one task (watching tv, cleaning, etc.) at a time. I usually try to do like three at a time.

October in Arizona

We are going to a trunk-or-treat tonight for our ward. It definitely doesn't feel like Halloween. Especially because the high today is supposed to be 95, so it is hard for me to feel like Halloween without snowsuits, hats, coats, boats, and freezing to death because that is the only kind of Halloween I have ever hard.

Life is going good. Rob is enjoying school. He has finals coming up in a few weeks, so he will be glad when those are over and he has a two week break from school.

We are really enjoying our new-to-us grown up car. It is a 97 Camry with 60,000 miles on it so it runs like a dream and is like twice as big as our last car. I am thoroughly enjoying it. I also bought an older i-pod from one of our friends here and am thoroughly enjoying that--especially since our car doesn't have a CD player.

That is it for now!

Funny Picture

One of my in-laws sent this to me and it took me about ten minutes to get it, but when I did I laughed out loud. I knew they looked familiar...it just took me a minute to place them.

Fall?

I am still undecided on whether fall even exists in Arizona! It was 98 degrees today--but it feels so much better to be in double digits instead of triple digits.
Our Daewoo has passed on from this life and we are owners of a new to us car. We tried to go start it on Thursday and no cigar. So, Rob tried to replace and fix some things and no change. So, I didn't go to work on Friday because I couldn't get there and we thought we might be able to fix it on Friday morning. So, we went and traded in the unstartable Daewoo and got a Toyota Camry, 97. It has 66,000 miles on it and drives like a dream! I hope that this will last us a while. We are on car #4 since we have been married--ridiculous!! So, hopefully this car lasts us until we are out of school, etc.
So, that is our story! Living in Arizona has proved to be expensive!!!

Well, that is our story--sorry the blog only happens once in a while. When you don't have kids it isn't as exciting and I don't have as much news.

Major League Baseball Game

Rob and I got to go to an Arizona Diamondbacks game last Saturday. It was awesome to be in that huge stadium at a real Major League Baseball game. I think it is something that everyone should have to do once in their life. It was really fun and we had really good seats for free. One of our couple friends had two extra tickets so they invited us to go. The Diamondbacks lost, but it was still really fun to be there and see it in real life.

Rob is surviving his first week of school--trying to get back into the swing of things. Every first week of school is an adjustment to get back in the groove of things.

We are both enjoying our callings in the ward. It is fun to be needed in a ward and that you feel like you make a difference. It is also nice to be in a ward that is so diversified. There are young and old and in between and those with ten kids and those with none. It makes us feel more like we belong because everybody is in a different place in life so it is not like we are behind or stand out because we have been unable to have kids so far.

I did get the okay from my boss to have a couple of days off of work after Christmas, so we are coming home for a week. We would love to see everybody while we are there!! We are very excited to look forward to coming to cold Idaho for Christmas!

I have gone jogging in the mornings this week at 5am. This morning when I left the house at 5am it was 89 degrees. They broke a record yesterday by having 29 days this year that were over 110 degrees. They think we will have a few more days above 110 as well. Craziness.

Well, that is the Semon Family news this week.

(Sorry I don't have very many fun pictures to look at. When you don't have kids, you don't take or have as many cute pictures!)

Rob started school!

Rob FINALLY started school yesterday. He was SO excited to finally get it started. He has been bored this summer since we moved to Arizona so it is really good for him to start and be excited about school. They had a family BBQ yesterday that I left work early to go to. It was fun to be on campus with him and feel the first day of school excitement. He is one of only two boys in his program. They told us most of the programs at his school have more girls than boys which I found interesting because it is all medical field related so I thought there would be more boys.

R0b and I were talking about how surreal it is to finally start. We feel like we have been waiting and hoping and waiting for this moment the whole time we have been married and it is finally here. I asked him if he would still remember me in December of 2009 when he is done since I am going to be a graduate school widow!

My mom wrote and asked me if it had cooled down here at all. My response was that it was 93 degrees when I watched the news this morning at 5:45am. I would daresay that it hasn't cooled off yet. Some people were telling me yesterday that it doesn't really get cooler until November-ish. That seems crazy to me.

Well, that is the Semon Family story today.

August in Arizona

I decided to give this blogging thing a try. My friend Ashley does it and I really enjoying reading her blog and catching up on her life, so I decided to give it a try.

We are doing good, hot but good. It had only been getting up to 100 the past week or two which was a nice change. But, now it is back up to 110 and above. We are liking Arizona most of the time however. As long as we stay inside during the day we are okay. One thing I am not liking is the sitting in traffic for two hours a day. The other night it took me two hours to come home (which is only 25 miles). There was a huge wreck on the freeway which is seven lanes wide. They had blocked 5 of those seven lanes so all seven lanes had to squeeze through two lanes to get by. It was a total nightmare.

We are really loving our ward and all the people we have met. We have made some good friends already. People are really friendly and we feel really at home. Every other ward we have been in we have felt kind of ignored so it is nice to have people care that you are actually there.

We really enjoy the scooter. Rob is really liking it. His school is only 4 miles away so he is excited to be able to drive that to school when it starts on the 22nd.

We both have new callings in our ward.
I am the Miamaid Advisor and Rob is the Blazers Assistant. We both start on Sunday (tomorrow). We are excited to have callings that require some real service, time, and energy.

I am enjoying my job most of the time. I am hoping to start my Masters at ASU in January since I can go to school for $25 a semester since I work at ASU. If I take two classes every semester I can be done with my Masters at the same time Rob is done, so we shall see what happens with that.

We are excited to be starting this next chapter of our lives. It is fun to be in a new place to explore and kind of start fresh again.
Here are some pictures from "Waite Family Fun Days " in June right before we left to come to Arizona. Also a pic of Rob's graduation in April.