Bureaucracy

 We had 10 people commit to volleyball and only 6 show up, which was both unusual and disappointing, but we played some good game this week. And I got to go to the pool again (which is tricky because you have to schedule a lane in advance but can only do it 3 days early and people are fiends for scheduling but then often don't show up, which I'm mad about - but also because it's Flagstaff season for unpredictable thunder and lightning). 

This is also the season of renewing all my licenses and insurance which is expensive and annoying because the process changes every year. But I'm officially still a PT, so that's good. We're selling our Mazda to some family and it comes off insurance next month so we have a deadline for that now. 

Pretty views on the drive. 

The drama at work is thus: Basically we've spent a lot of money/resources training new employees who immediately quick after training because their expectations don't match reality. So corporate is giving us a hard time for being over budget, which is why I'm driving to Cottonwood/Sedona 2x per week - so their office is paying part of my income. And even though we figured out the Flagstaff office was accidentally paying one and a half people's salaries that don't work at this site anymore on accident, apparently it doesn't matter. 

Most of our quick to quit employees are NOT on the PT side - because we make sure our fellow professionals are prepared and informed as best we can about the realities of the job. So usually they either quit faster or stick around long enough to actually make the company some money. Which is important because Cottonwood asked me to train their PT, which I only agreed to with very specific stipulations regarding my own productivity. 

So that's what I've been working on at work. 

Roger had a bad week since he couldn't play basketball on Monday due to construction and is currently fighting some pickleball ladies who are hogging the stake center gym for more than their fair share. But he got to go on an archery competition shoot with his buddy Daniel the whole day Saturday and has the entire month of October booked for hunting trips (and probably more, honestly). 

Meanwhile, I got another box of peaches to can. And I still have a few jars left if I want to do applesauce again. (Hard to beat if I can make it up to the free orchard during season.) We also made a delicious new potato recipe and started the LOTR trilogy (extended only) again. 

Cleaning

 A quick flash of the week - volleyball and gym and pool; work including some southern drives; taking photos with an old friend. Now on to the real stuff. 

I've been getting mysterious bug bites for about 6 months. I will get one bite every 2-4 weeks during the night that looks and feels like a mosquito bite. No signs of any other critters and Roger only got one bite that whole time. 

Back in March, I cleaned and dried (on hot) all of our bedding and set up a bug zapper next to the bed. And it was 4 weeks before I got bit again. But also at this point, it was starting to get warm and the next few times I noticed bites, it wasn't waking up with them. For example, after a day outside. So I'm thinking problem is relatively solved...

Roger's favorite past-time still

This particular week, Roger woke up with a bunch of bites on his belly. These were smaller and clustered and looked more like bed bugs, so we decided it was time to super clean the house (just in case). It also happened to be the week that our dryer stopped working. 

Luckily, Roger's aunt down the road was on vacation so we used her drier to clean all of our bedding and couch covers. And I steam cleaned the couches and mattress by hand while Rog cleaned the carpet in our apartment. We took a few breaks for lunch and groceries but were basically at it for a full day and a half. And now our carpet actually feels like a carpet and hopefully any potential problems are solved. (we'll see). 

During our grocery stop, we caught the peach man on the road and bought a box to try to imitate the delicious canned goods we got from Kevin last year. The peaches themselves are divine, so hopefully the canning job did them justice. I even made some peach pit syrup (with one casualty in the steamer). 

Happy Anniversary (among other celebrations)

 Monday was the first day I took off work for sickness in over 2 years. And I masked up the rest of the week, but it was a rough time with chills and fever and sounding like an adolescent boy. Also blowing my nose a lot and getting the hang of a modified nettipot. 

Side note as far as work - we've had a lot of new hires that we spend 2 months training up who then quit as soon as they start working in the field because the expectations given during their interviewing doesn't match the actual job. Which starts to add up (or subtract really, when it comes to our branch profits). With this history and some wishful thinking, we hired a new PT. The other PT and I made sure to take care of her and give her accurate expectations and good training, but now we don't have enough patients and corporate is coming down on us for it. We're all taking the hit in different ways, but mine is that I have to drive down to Sedona/Cottonwood 2x per week in order to stay at full-time. At least in the temporary. 

Aside from that though, our anniversary was Wednesday. Which I only realized halfway through the day because I kept having to write out the date. And Rog was kind of mad about because he was going to surprise me with treats and then make fun of me for forgetting dates like that. (We still got the treats, don't worry). 

the classic photo

We ended up going to TX Roadhouse - Roger's favorite place - and it was the busiest it's ever been. Plus they typed in Roger's number wrong so we were waiting way longer than we should've but he didn't want to ask them about it and I was letting him be in charge. The good news is that we got to go explore Sportsman's across the parking lot while we waited and met a version of Sean Connery's character in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the gun counter. And since Rog wanted a whole porterhouse to himself on this special occasion, he got to eat my leftovers the next night. 

By this time, Rog was feeling a little sick too, but not nearly as bad as I had it, which I was grateful for. But then we had a whirlwind of a weekend. My friend Sam was up from Mesa, so we had an early Chick fil A dinner and catch up on Friday afternoon, when I got off work. Then I had a scheduled massage gifted to me with my girl Veronica, who does something magical to my traps. And Roger's sisters were in town, so I met them for second dinner at Carol's house where we chatted until it was my bedtime. 

Saturday, we had a special surprise party for Carol's 65th birthday - so a lot of family was in town and we helped out with that. At the same time, I had some friends passing through Flagstaff and so they crashed with me and helped us celebrate. Shoutout to Rachel & Kassie for hitting me up and everyone else for letting them crash the festivities. 

We stayed late hanging out with family like Becky - the world's best party planner - who bombed down from Wyoming for the trip, and Roger's sisters who were in town for the weekend only. So Sunday was only a recovery & church day. We napped for most of it, but made it to church & a missionary homecoming dinner party complete with outdoor volleyball that Roger even played. And we made it home with an entire sleeve of Oreos, which I ate in one sitting. 

Sandall Reunion

Volleyball & gym stuff are going well. Swimming a lot because it's hot. And even people coming up from Phoenix say that 90° here is worse than 115° down there - the sun is a lot closer and it just hits harder. And it's been mid-90's all week. 

The big news of the week was Roger's family reunion. This is the one we actually care about because it's more people our age and closer related. There was slingshot paintball and a new game I learned called Poison - which is like a mix of golf and pétanque but using bowling balls. Also great food and new family shirts and - of course - a family photoshoot that turned into a bigger thing than it needs to be. 

Homemade pesto from basil I grew + pasta.

Roger had fun staying out there for most of the week, but I was back and forth for work and the pool at my gym. I did get to enjoy some nature and sleep in our trailer tent (mad comfy) and write down Roger's list of more things we need for the ultimate camping experience (which grows every time we go). There was plenty of watermelon and Rog got me some cherry gingerale, which were the favorite carbonated drink of the weekend.

I finished two books I was reading and took a nice nap in Stu & Eve's trailer - which was kept at a cool 80° - which felt so good. And then I went home late Saturday night because I was starting to not feel great. Still not sure if it was heat-worsened allergies or something I picked up from a patient earlier, but Sunday was a suffer and a sleep for most of the day. Also, Grandma passed out and a couple of 4month olds swelled up from the heat - so I'm not joking about it being a rough time. And I like the sunshine.

bigger lake day

When we got back from our Page weekend, we were unpleasantly surprised to find out that our fridge stopped working again. This time long enough that we had to throw out most of our recently bought groceries. Our landlord reimbursed us a bit and I went shopping again and we only made 1 hole in the wall changing out refrigerators. This time, we have a freezer on top/fridge below, which actually gives us more room in the fridge side. 

VB was cancelled this week due to not enough people (which is likely to happen for a while now), but I had a few nice gym days including a chest workout that left me sore. I didn't go swimming because I knew we were planning to head up to Lake Powell again. 

A casualty of non-consenual cleaning.

I had one night where I could NOT sleep. I just had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head and most of them not pleasant ones, which kept me wide awake most of the night. So I decided to test Roger's allegations that I only "clomp" around the house and made some blueberry muffins at 4am that he didn't even notice until long after they were out. Take that you ninny. 

Rog has been feeling like going to the movies lately. Probably because he wanted to watch Viggo Mortenson's The Dead Don't Hurt but didn't look it up until it was out of theaters at watchable times. (It is still in theaters, but only midday on weekdays.) So instead, we watched Horizon part 1, which he still really liked. It's a few strands of story regarding the westward movement and tells it in fairly accurate yet palatable on-screen detail.

Claren showing off his fly boarding skills. 

We drove up to Page on Friday (after some food truck burritos). We were basically waiting for Stu's friend with the boat to be ready to go for Saturday morning so I did some bills and we cleaned out some of Roger's boxes in storage. If anyone was hoping to get his old chemistry notes, I'm sorry. Otherwise, no remorse for consolidating down to a couple boxes. 

Stu, Rog, Carly, Eric, Claren, and I went out on the boat to Padre Bay through the cut (with sometimes only 3ft of water in it). We spent the day swimming and wake surfing and enjoying the views of Lake Powell in the day time. I was suffering a little from 2 weeks of consecutive sunscreen use causing itching hives even faceplanting in the water wouldn't fix. Good times, good company. 

Lake Powell views.

We got back late and starving and hit up El Tapatio for some almost midnight enchilada-style burritos. Then we went to bed. And we made it to Sacrament between all of our Sunday naps, which was good because we got to hear some good quotes from the boys reporting on camp last week:

"What's the point of fish in the ecosystem? To catch them!"

"Bishop taught us about this new kind of firestarter. I don't know if you've heard of it. It's called a tampon."

Wake surfing

"We apologize for the talk of feminine products up here, but that's something I learned at camp too. I guess that's the casualty of war when Bishop spends the day at girls camp before coming to teach wilderness survival with the boys."

Family dinner was delicious spaghetti and garlic bread and some Jarlsburg cheese that had been hiding in the fridge for a while. And after a little more napping and some family history preservation via photo albums, we headed home. (To a fridge that still worked.)