Serious Discussions

 Per the title, this week was spent on some serious discussions between Rog and myself. The first, and more easily resolved, is which gym Rog will attend. He is a social gym goer and has been wanting to start back up ever since last year's month long fishing trip (where he ate all the leftovers and didn't hike around as much as a typical hunting month). However, he and his boss have been putting off even getting memberships, so finally we sat down and weighed pros/cons of some different options in the area (including adding him to my plan). In the end, his boss surprised us by buying his membership to the gym closest to his home and Roger followed suit. 

Situation 2 that warranted some discussion is our housing. Rog is increasingly cramped in our 500sq ft shoebox apartment, although it does allow us to save some serious money. However, housing prices and interest rates being what they are, the best we could do (assuming my job doesn't cut my hours permanently) is a trailer with rented land. So instead, we've been chatting with Brandt about buying a plot in WY, sitting on it for 2 years while Roger finishes his apprenticeship and can get a plumbing license, and then either building or selling the land. 

The other notable of the week (other than work being frustrating as far as hours and payments and things I shouldn't have to worry about) is that I had another appointment to get my thyroid checked - which had been stable, and no longer is. Which explains why I've been freaking tired, but I got my new meds a couple weeks ago and they are kicking in now. 

Other than that, there's been a lot of family time. Roger's sister is on break from grad school and his Grandma had a game night at her house (that ended up being only Roger's siblings as even his parents were out of town). I found some weird spiders in our house and also my mosquito tormentor is back (to torment only me). And we've started watching the Deadpool series.

AZ Sunsets

 We have a lot of people who have recently moved away (suddenly and unexpectedly) that were part of the main corps of VB players for Mondays. So we didn't get to play this week, but we revamped our text chain to include some other interested parties, so hopefully we get back into it soon. 

Last drive up the Sedona switchbacks.

The devastation of the week was that Rog sprained his ankle pretty good. He was gimping around on it for a few days, did nothing I recommended, and will likely be back to play ball next week. 

Please note the plants that I have been
keeping alive, enjoying the showers. 

The thunder and lightning continue - followed by gorgeous Arizona sunsets. Rog and I took advantage and went on a walk together down our back road to admire the views and enjoy some time together. We also decided we needed to get back on the Come Follow Me train so that resumed this week as well. And we played Yahtzee. Sometimes we like hanging out together. 

The ol' classic. (With a rainbow). 

My fridge was still full of berries I collected, although we ate the strawberries straight up. They were delicious. Rog agreed that it was worth the trip just for that snack. But we wanted to jam or syrup the blackberries - which Kevin graciously tested from his own berry picking excursion and gave us the secret to pectinless, thick jam. I think it turned out ok, but I canned it all and sealed it, so we'll see down the road when our current jam selections are empty. 

Don't mind my squinty eye. 

The only other notable from the week was a trip to Mama Burger's (now Mama B's) - which was being renovated for over a year. The burgers are still TDF, the shakes are just good.

And a view :)

Thunderstruck

 'Tis the season for monsoons in Flagstaff. So far, and to the best of my knowledge, no crazy flash flooding. We have had exceptional thunder and lightning shows with the rain. So much so that our evenings are often spent watching and listening from the futon on our back deck until the rain moves into our neighborhood. We did see several fires that started from one particularly aggressive storm and our 'complex' had to run off the backup generator for a while due to a power outage. 

We had a great turnout for volleyball this week and renewed our reservation of the gym through the rest of the year. Roger has continued fighting for one evening a week for basketball in the good gym and finally won through, with the pickleball ladies agreeing to use the smaller gym for one of their reserved days. 

Lightning as a backdrop.

This is an expensive time of year with license renewals and our 6 month car insurance lump due, among other things. I'm taking the Mazda off our insurance so hopefully we get that sold pretty soon. Roger's brother committed to buying it, but also said he would trade an old truck Roger loves for the car, so we're kind of just waiting on Roger's decision. 

I mostly finished training our new PT in the Sedona/Cottonwood area, so this should be my last week helping out. Due to overstaffing and lack of foresight that may mean I have to take some time off (paid or not, my choice depending on PTO availability). Which sucks, but I am using some of that time to hand out with Mama Sama on her journey down here in September (that I may have guilted her into since she visits the Utah crew so often). 

Also this bucket holds 4lbs of blackberries. 

On Saturday, I made a last-minute decision to head to Prescott to take advantage of their pick your own crops (while Roger was busy working a few side jobs for extra spending $$). It was hot and I left too late. I went through 2 camelpacks worth of water for several pounds of blackberries and strawberries. Some of those blackberries were the length of my fingers and twice as wide! If you're wondering, the secret to finding blackberries is to look near the ground and/or be a mouse. And the secret to AZ strawberries is that if you can't see any flashes of red from a glance, there's likely no berries on that plant.