Because He Loves Me

This morning I dressed my hubby up really nice because he has an interview at 2:00 this afternoon for a job that he would love to have. I'm writing a small tribute to him while he goes for this interview. Here he is looking ready to be hired:

Eric has been working hard over the past couple months to get a job that he would enjoy and so far he has been turned down over and over. Despite his discouragment, he went out the door today fully prepared to sell himself and convince the Arizona Children's Association that they should hire him to work on their computers. This job fits his skill set perfectly and also matches his experience over the past 18 months doing computer work for a social service organization. Our prayer is that whether we hear "yes" or "no", we would trust that it is for our good and for God's glory.

Besides being good with computers, Eric is also a wonderful husband. I am reminded of this in small ways every day but this week I have been reminded in big ways. On Saturday I went to Urgent Care because I felt terrible and had been coughing with pain in my chest for almost a week. They gave me antibiotics and wrote "bronchitis" on the diagnosis line. Eric has been very patient with all my coughing fits and let me lay on the couch and do nothing while my body recovered.

Yesterday he came with me to a spring training game downtown where the Rockies train. If you know Eric, then you know that he would rather watch football than baseball but he came along and sat with me through 6 innings of a spring training game. We left when the temperature hit 60 degrees and the rain started falling. It started off warm and sunny but things changed quickly.

We also designated last night as "Eric's date night" which meant it was his job to plan the evening including dinner. I do this a lot because I like making nice meals and then following up with a movie or something but this time it was his turn. Although I knew the menu, I was met with an amazing array of tastes in my mouth when this was on my plate:

Yes, those are king crab legs, spears of asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes. Yummy! We had a great time together cracking open crab legs and savoring their wonderful flavor.

One of my friends wrote to me the other day and said, "It sounds like you have married well" and indeed I have married very very well! I am thankful to God for Eric and his kindness, patience, hard work, love for the Lord, and sense of humor.

Hopefully this blog will be followed up with some great news about a new job for my husband. Please keep praying for us as we finish working for GAP and we venture into new territory as a married couple.

The Hidden Canyon

Sunday afternoon Janet, Eric and I started the 6,000 foot ascent to Grand Canyon, AZ from Las Vegas, NV. Needless to say, a lot can change climate wise when you climb 6,000 feet. It was dark when we reached the long road that leads to the canyon from the freeway so we didn't get a clear idea of how much snow there was. When we checked into our hotel, however, there was a weather forecast on the front desk that revealed our fate for the next day: 8-12 inches of snow and winter storm warnings above 6,000 feet. We were unsure if we would even get into the park on Monday.

The next morning we woke up to fresh snow and had to borrow a scraper to clean off the car. (Who owns one of those in Tucson??) We were quite thankful that we had just replaced our tires so there was nice new tread for the little Echo to trek through the snow.

They let us into the park and we found a place to catch the bus to the lookout points. It was snowing at a decent rate and the sky was completely cloudy so when we approached the canyon rim, this is what we saw:

Having seen the canyon splendor before, Eric and I could not believe that it was impossible to see even a glimpse of how beautiful it is. Janet kept declaring that she didn't believe there was a canyon there to see! We were faced with a dilemma: wait around to see if it cleared up and drive back to Tucson late, or try to get a hotel room for another night and see the canyon on Tuesday. After all, it would probably be a while before Janet got to fly out west again. We got some hot chocolate to warm up and sat and practiced our Black Jack skills while we discussed what to do.

With a plan in mind, we walked back to the bus stop to get to the car. Janet was trying to book our hotel by researching on her fancy-shmancy cell phone while we walked towards the parking lot. Suddenly we saw a patch of blue sky and the sun was poking through! We found the nearest path towards the rim and started trudging through the snow to see if maybe the clouds were lifting. Alas, we were met with a large gray cloud again. We started walking back but then Janet saw the blue sky again and turned around and ran towards the canyon. This time we got to the rim and started walking east where the blue sky was and our excitement increased as we started seeing little holes in the big patch of fog and parts of the canyon were coming into view.

The clouds were clearly on the move and it would only be a matter of time before they were completely gone! Finally, we came to a spot on the rim where we could see out into the canyon and Janet was leaping for joy. It was incredible to watch the clouds lift out and clear up and the beautiful snow-covered canyon come into view.

That happened around 3:00 and we spent the next three hours until sunset enjoying the view and taking pictures before our drive back to Tucson. (We also had some more hot chocolate because it was SO cold!) Eric and I were especially thankful because the first time we were at the canyon, it was cloudy and there wasn't a nice blue sky for our pictures. This time, between the snow and the sun, we have some great memories captured on film.

What Happens in Vegas...

My impressions of Las Vegas, NV have always been tainted with negative overtones. Gambling, sex and drinking are usually the first things that come to mind when I think about this city in the desert. Eric, however, has wanted to visit ever since we first had a layover in the Vegas airport and he saw the Luxor hotel with its mile-high beam of light shooting into the sky. So when his friend from back east, Janet, said she wanted to spend some vacation time visiting out here, we saw it as an opportunity to check out America's most popular party city and see what all the hype is about. We were fortunate to have two weeks off in the month of February so we drove to Vegas and met up with Janet (who flew in from the beastly Washington D.C. snowstorm) and another friend, Mark (who drove from sunny San Diego.) Needless to say, there was only one in the group impressed by the sun and 60 degrees.

We had approximately 36 hours to see the sights of Las Vegas, try to find the best possible food that the city had to offer, and make enough money to cover the cost of living while GAP can't pay us. What an agenda! Las Vegas Boulevard is about 3 miles long and is lined with crazy hotels, casinos, fountains, and umm...boobs. On Saturday we spent most of the day on the south end of the strip wandering in and out of hotels and watching the fountain show in front of the Bellagio (a must see if you ever visit. It's free!).

We explored Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio, the M&M store, MGM Grand, the Excalibur and the Luxor before heading back to the Bellagio for some serious food indulgence.

According to the reviews, the Bellagio is said to have the best buffet in Vegas. Although there were plenty of less expensive buffets to choose from, only the Bellagio bragged about having endless king crab legs. We spent more than we have ever spent on the two of us eating out, but for 3 hours we forgot the cares of the world and feasted on crab legs, shrimp, ostrich, lamb, kobe beef, lobster ravioli, sushi, smoked salmon and the occasional vegetable, plus an array of desserts. The hit of the night was the lobster ravioli.

After dinner we went back to our hotel suite to let our food digest and catch up on Apollo Ohno's quest for gold. Our last event of the evening was to take an elevator up the “other Eiffel tower” at the Paris hotel next door. We saw the city in all its glory from 81 stories above. I preferred not to walk to the edge even though we were caged in because it felt like it was swaying.

On Sunday morning we hit up the north end of the strip before Mark had to go home. One highlight of the north end is the Circus Circus hotel which has free circus acts all day. We watched one acrobat that nearly made our hearts stop as she did stunt after stunt in what looked like a hammock high above the stage. We thought for sure we were about to witness her last act as an acrobat. The casino at this hotel also had what seemed to be the biggest slot machine in the world. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it didn't accept our dollar.

We said good-bye to Mark and "fabulous Las Vegas" and then the three of us started towards the Grand Canyon.