The Economy

So times are getting tough and money is getting tighter.... today I had a run in with this, sadly :(

I was sitting at work with about an hour and a half left of the day when the sudden craving for a Mountain Dew hit me!

(This is not a rare occurrence for me)

I think to myself how lucky we are to have a soda mahine in our break room where the soda is only 25 cents! YES, 25 CENTS! What a sweet deal!

So I dig in my purse for some change .... I find a nickle .... I find another nickle, getting closer ..... I find.... a Dime, okay that's good ..... ..... .... candy wrappers, gum, old receipts .... WHAT! no more change!?

*SIGH*

This is all my hunting brought me:

Well it looks like my craving will not be satisfied today :(

Apparently quarters are becoming quite rare in my purse.......

2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

(Yeah I'm corny and took a picture of our actual New Years kiss. hehe)

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Love the Ropers! ♥

(This was us last year on New Years Eve)
One year older and wiser...

(This year on New Years Eve)

Christmas Day PICS!!

I picked up these cute ornaments this year for mine and Josh's first Christmas together.

This is how our day started. On a ride-along with my HOT hubby Josh, in his uniform :)

10 Hours later...... we get to have our Christmas

Josh and the Police Man nutcracker I got for him

For some reason Bentley does this in most of the pics I take of her... silly girl
This one worked better. ahh cuties!

Me and my babies. Miki and Tinkerbell.

(Mom, you will notice the presents stacked up behind me... these are the ones I didn't ship to you guys. I guess they will be waiting there for everyone until January when you come down to FINALLY visit us!)

Here's Josh with all his treasures....

all of our loot, before the unwrapping!
I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Times

We went to see the Temple lights for our FHE a couple of weeks ago. We had it planned for a few days and then when the big day finally came it rained all day long. I asked Josh if he wanted to postpone our cafe rio & temple lights trip for another day, but he would have none of it.

We still went according to plan, ate some Delicious Cafe Rio, and then went to the Mesa Temple. It was only sprinkling while we walked around the temple grounds, which made it seem a little more Christmasy. (And we got to wear our coats!)

Since I wasn't around for all of my mom's yummy holiday treats, I had to make some of my own. I didn't get pics of everything, but I spent several hours one night making 10 dozen sugar cookies and the next day Josh and I frosted them all. Blah WAY to much work!

Snickerdoodles!

Holly Candy

Christmas!

Christmas is my favorite time of year and I'm so sad that it's over already! It's been a weird Christmas for me, very different from all of my past ones. Usually for Christmas I go and stay with my family and spend several days with them celebrating. We make all sorts of Christmasy goodies and delicious food, and wrap presents. Then on Christmas morning my little sisters are always so excited to open presents and it's so fun to watch. The whole rest of the day is spent playing with the new toys and eating leftovers from the big Christmas Eve dinner.
This year was a new experience. It's mine and Josh's first Christmas being married, and sadly, Josh had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day! A couple of months ago I was pretty sad about this, but as time went on I got over it and realized that as long as we were together it would be a good day.
On Christmas Day I went on a ride along with Josh. So we woke up at about 5am to make the long drive to downtown Phoenix. When we first started Josh got a call about a lady's house being robbed on Christmas Eve. (sad). But after that it was pretty slow. A bunch of the other cops in Josh's squad went to breakfast with us at the only place we could find that was open. It was some little bar that actually ended up having pretty good food. The rest of the day was cold and a little rainy, and not to much going on. I guess most people try to be good on Christmas.
After our 10 hours were up we headed home to open presents and eat some dinner. Josh wanted to eat first, but I wanted to open our presents, so we did. I got exactly what I wanted and I think Josh liked what he got too. lol.
Then we had our Christmas Dinner.
I have to say that I was a little nervous to be the one to make a special dinner for Christmas, but I think it turned out pretty darn good. Yeah we forgot about the green bean cassorole I had sitting in the fridge, but everything else was yummy.
I'm glad to say that our frist Christmas together (and on our own) turned out pretty good! I had a great time riding along with Josh and just being with him, we got good presents, and our food was great! Merry Christmas everyone!

In these past 3 years...

I've been at my job for over three years now..... To be exact it has been 3 years, 4 months and 2 days!

Here's a kind of funny thing, most people (my family included) really have no idea what I do for work. They know I work in an office.... but that's about it. And to some extent that isn't even right because I technically work in the Back of an office building in the warehouse side. It's one huge open space with neon lights and absolutely NO windows. There are a bunch of cubicles of different sizes set up in this space, ranging from the large ones with doors they can shut for "privacy" (even though everyone can still hear everything going on), to the small ones hidden in the corners. I graduated from my smaller cubicle a couple of months ago, only to be moved into a bigger one that I will eventually have to share with someone else when they decide to hire someone for me to supervise. The place is usually as quiet as a library, excluding the humming of all the electronic equipment and servers we have back here. I'm the only one under the age of 35 and until recently was the only female employee.
Anyways... for anyone wondering, my official title is Support Administrator, basically that means I administer support to whoever needs it. lol. I do all the the Invoicing, purchasing, maintenance renewals and office management work. (I know you were all DYING to know. lol)
I've had three bosses, or supervisors, in the time I've been here. My current boss and I had some issues in the first year he was here, but we have since moved past those and now get along a lot better. (which is good because he is the one I had to go talk to to ask for a raise)

In the past three years a lot has happened outside of work. I have moved 5 times, bought my first house, bought a brand new car, had about 10 different roommates, met my husband, got engaged & married, added a 2nd & 3rd dog to my family, and bought a house with my Joshy and moved into it.
That's the bigger stuff in a nutshell.... weird. Three years ago I had no idea I would be where I am today. I hoped that I would be married, but didn't know who that would be to. I don't think I even knew I would be at this same job after three years, but I'm glad that I am.

In three more years I wonder where I'll be.... I hope I will be a stay at home mom with at least one baby. Living happily in Maricopa with all of the houses in our neighborhood built and the town having at least a movie theatre... haha.

Anyways this is not where I planned on this post going, but it got me thinking and pondering and hey, I guess it works.

Here are just some random pics from the past:

Favorite Gift Last Year....

My mom thinks she is SOOOOOOOOO funny. Actually I'm not to sure if she was joking or not when she bought me this book for Christmas last year..... But apparently it worked, cuz I got myself married to a good man. hahaha
Actually I never did read the thing. I opened it at random pages and read pieces aloud to sisters and my mom and we all laughed at the craziness of it.
I'm thinking of regifting it this year... who should be the lucky one... I guess we will see. hehe