Obnoxious snowman

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Old friends

The last few days, I got to visit with some friends that I don’t get to see very often. Yesterday, I drove to Gilbert to see my friend, Omana. She is from India. We became friends 3 yrs ago when she moved to Pinetop-Lakeside to work at the hospital where I work. I trained her to work in our Nursery. She has been a NICU nurse for many years, so I really just had to show her our paperwork and computer stuff. She only worked with us for about a year and then moved to the Phoenix area to work. I haven’t seen for about a year even though she doesn’t live that far away. I learned to appreciate our country more from her. She worked in Kuwait for many years and told me about how they were not permitted to practice Christianity there.
Today, Helga (my friend since I was 4 yrs old from NY) came to Jenny’s to visit. She is in AZ from Florida visiting her husband’s sister with her family. I haven’t seen her since probably 6 years ago.  She helped me through so much as a kid. It is very rare to be friends with someone for so long. Someone who knows you so well and knows where you came from. She reminded us that she has been to AZ twice and we have never been to Florida to visit her. I hope someday soon that we will be able to visit her at her home in Florida.
Next week, I am hoping to see my friend Marcia who lives in Tucson. She plans on being in the area. We saw her summer 2008 when we went to Tucson for a Little League tournament. Marcia and I have been friends since grade school in NY and have kept in touch all these years.

Hiking South Mountain

Tara, Jenny and I hiked South Mountain yesterday. It took a total of about 3 1/2 hrs round trip. The hike is 7 miles long. I have been having pain on and off in my hips for the past few months so I wasn’t sure how I would do. There was a lot of climbing involved too. There were loose rocks so you had to be careful not to slip as well. When we got near the top, I realized that I had a blister on my right heel that started to hurt like Hell. The shoes I wore were really old and the plastic in that area was worn off. We shoved some tissue in my sock but it only helped for a few minutes. The rest of the hike, I tried to ignore the pain because there was nothing else I could do. We took a pic when we got to the top (see Moblog). Going down was much easier, but took almost as long because of the climbing and loose rocks. Jenny actually slipped on some rocks and fell. She hurt her ankle a little but was able to walk fine. Jenny remembered right before we got to the bottom that she had breastpads and I could’ve used one to pad my shoe. So now she is to blame for the blister!! When we got to the bottom, I threw my shoes in the trash! Tara wasn’t even fazed by the hike. She could have slipped on a dress and gone to the prom without even showering.
We had to rush home because we had plans to go to the Phoenix Zoo to see Zoolights. We took showers, ate dinner and took off. It was packed, so we had to park at least a mile from the zoo. I am not exaggerating. They said that there was a shuttle bus, but they lie. We walked the whole way. Then we walked around the zoo. I won’t lie, my hips were hurting. There was no way that I was walking the mile+ back to the car, so Sam and I waited at the zoo entrance while the rest of them fetched the car and picked us up. He said he didn’t want to leave me alone, but I know he was just using it as an excuse to sit.
Before we went to bed last night, we looked up online about the 7 Summits of Phoenix. It is 7 mountain trails that people hike in the area. The trail we hiked on South Mountain is considered “Difficult”. It is second only to Camelback Mountain, which is considered “Strenuous & Difficult”.
Jenny’s ankle is a little sore and swollen today but not too bad. She is able to walk just fine. My legs and hips are sore today, but are getting better as the day goes on. The blister is the worse part. It hurt every time I tried to move in bed while I slept. We MAY hike one of the other 7 Summits next week. Eventually, we will hike them all. We think we will conguer Camelback Mountain in February. I hiked North Mountain last year with Jenny and Alex, so that one is already crossed off our list.

Patrick update

Early this morning at about 2:30 am, we recieved a phone call from Patrick. He was in Kyrgyzstan (yes. I had to look up how to spell it) which is north of Afghanistan. He traveled there from Ansbach, Germany to be deployed to Afghanistan. He was in a McDonalds on a base there and could see the mountains of China from where he was. He told us in November, when he was here, that he would be deployed on Dec 15th. He called last week and said the date had been changing on a daily basis, so he didn’t know exactly when he would be deployed. Needless to say, we have been wondering for the past few days what was going on. Well, now we know. We don’t expect to hear from him for at least a month. Even if you don’t normally pray, please take the time to pray that Patrick stays safe and strong. I will keep you all updated. God bless America!