A Weekend of Driving

While we were living in Kansas City I remember Matt telling me about how cool he thought these Tesla vehicles were. Once he started his job in Scottsdale he found out one of his friends has a son that works for Tesla. He got us in contact with them and a few months later we got a test drive! Matt was so excited, and I must say I was looking forward to it. 

We each spent a few minutes testing out how the car works. Matt's favorite part was "opening up the throttle." He says it went 0-60 in about 4.8 seconds. 

The guy that drove with us told me I was the first person he knew to drive one with flip flops! I felt like I was on a roller coaster. It was a very smooth, quiet ride.

The car screen is huge! Everything is touch screen-the Bluetooth radio, navigation system, heater and A/C, everything. The door handles retract once the car is in drive to make it more aerodynamic or something sophisticated like that. I actually saw one on the road a few days later and thought the feature made it look pretty sweet. Give us a decade and maybe we can take you for a ride in our own Tesla. 

While we were in Scottsdale we used a handy-dandy Groupon to check out a new winery and explore Old Town and the Art District. 

 We had a great time; I think we will be back!

Sunday we took my grandparents' convertible out on the open road-i.e. through the Indian Reservation/desert.

My fabulous driver

Hitting the open road

It felt so good to get out and enjoy the open road with the top back. Normally I don't do selfies but this time I just couldn't resist.

Selfie time!

 

We enjoyed our trip on the open road, and I think we will have to head down to drive the convertible around some more this summer. Thanks for reading!

Scan & Go

So I have something new to share Matt and I have tried out. We have been doing most of our shopping at Walmart. Normally, I prefer not to go there just because. I like smaller grocery stores, and if I could live at Target I would. So going to Walmart ruins this for me. Nevertheless, we still shop at Walmart. We usually go on Sundays and it is so busy and they NEVER have enough checkers. We would stand in line for over 10 minutes sometimes. It is ridiculous. So one day as we were impatiently waiting in line, we discussed how cool it would be if you could just scan your groceries on your smartphone and then just pay on your phone or as you walk out it could calculate everything you bought. We thought it was our idea was genius and would be our ticket to not working for the rest of our lives. Well apparently Walmart beat us to it because it already exists!!! So you can't just walk out, but everything else is basically the same. And seriously, we probably would have never actually made the app so thank you Walmart. Let me explain all the features to you.

List

We started just using the list feature which allows you to build your list and then check off items as you go. It is a big upgrade compared to my hand written list I prefer to write! And if you take extra time to type in the exact name of the product it can show you the price. You can also tag items as favorites for those weekly items so you can add them quickly-i.e. milk, orange juice, grape nuts and tortillas for us. According to the app store you can also speak or scan the items to make your favorites. I still type mine.

Store mode

Once you get to your store you click to enter store mode. 

Once you find the item you want, scan the item, 

put it in your reusable shopping bag, and you're done! It's so simple! It also keeps a running total so for all of your budgeting families, you can help keep yourself on track. Once you have all of your items you head to the self check out stations. You have to make sure there is a sign above the self checkout stand that says Scan & Go, I think all of the checkout stands at our store has them. However, also if you are using cash like we do (I know no one else will probably have to worry about this) make sure you pick a machine that accepts cash.

We could not get the weight machine to print out the receipt for the few produce items we bought so we still had to scan those in. However, the self check outs have become much more user friendly in scanning produce items.

Other features

There are multiple tabs on the app including a cart for online and it tracks your eReceipts. The eReceipts are nice because it keeps track of all the receipts in store so if I ever need to return anything, it will be right there.

Features we have not yet used

There are some other features that sound really cool, but we have not figured out how to use them yet. The app store says you can check to see if items are in stock in your store, find items by using aisle location, and find the price of item. They all sound great, but we haven't taken enough time to find these features yet.

 Nevertheless, we think it is great because it saves us significant time and helps us stay on budget. The only downfall is that I didn't use reusable shopping bags before so I sometimes forget to bring those into the store. But when I remember, it works great! The app store says there are currently Scan & Go stations in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska and Oklahoma so go check it out! Let me know what you think of it.

(Disclaimer: I stole all these pictures off Google images. Those were not our hands. Also we have no way of taking a picture of my smartphone.)

No Bake Energy Bites

I cannot believe I haven't posted about this yet. I LOVE THESE!!! I shared these with my family, and they eat them ALL THE TIME! These are ssssoooo good! and kind of healthy!!

Here's what you need: 

1 cup (dry) oatmeal  

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1/2 cup ground flaxseed (or flaxseed meal is fine)

1/3 cup honey 

1 tsp. vanilla 

1/2 cup (dark) chocolate chips 

Here's what you do:

Mix the first 5 ingredients together. 

Once those are stirred well, I add the chips. 

Next I roll them into balls. The honey make them a little sticky so you may feel a little messy. No worries!

I like to store them in baggies in a pack of three. 

A perfect on-the-go snack that tastes like a Reese's peanut butter cup!

 Nutrition facts: I made about 24 balls = ~100 cal/ball

Today was National Autism Awareness Day so Matt and I showed support wearing our blue. Thanks for reading!

Halfway Done

I forgot to add this earlier. Last Sunday we took a little bike ride on our local path. Right in the middle of our ride this is what we found.....

                                              

Yes, you are correct, those are pigs. Where are we?! If I saw this driving around back home, I would not be surprised one bit. But in the middle of the city? Is this even legal????? Anyways, we thought it was comical so we thought we should share.

I finished my 1st Level II fieldwork this past week. YAY!!!!!! One step closer to quit being a student forever!! I definitely learned a ton, but am looking forward to my next place. My supervisor gave me a book I am really looking forward to reading and my other supervisor gave me a gift card. I also had some really awesome patients I will miss dearly. Of course, they will eventually leave too; I just had to leave before they did. One room of my patients brought me flowers for my last day. How sweet are they?!? I was so shocked; it was incredibly nice of them. 

Of course we had to celebrate my fieldwork being over. We did go out for some BBQ with Matt's aunt and uncle. After living in Kansas City, we know good BBQ. I have to admit, now I am always a bit skeptical to try BBQ. But holy cow am I glad we went. It was incredible!!!!! It rival OK Joe's (my personal favorite in KC). We will absolutely be taking all of our guests to Waldo's BBQ in Mesa from now on. Even better, it's so close to us!

Also, how cute is this Mason Jar? And I highly recommend the strawberry lemonade.

Sunday, we did take a chance to head out for some hiking. We headed over to Papago Park to hike around. We didn't hike up anything but just enjoyed the weather and gorgeous views.

This red rock is incredible. It is the only like it in the whole valley. We also ran into a roadrunner while we were out. 

I just finished day one of my second fieldwork, and I think I am going to LOVE IT!!! I also enjoyed some sun at the pool. So next time you see me, hopefully I am a little more tan. Happy Opening Day! Thanks for reading! 

Also, be sure to check out a new recipe I found-Taco Turkey Casserole. It was super easy, healthy, and really tasty!

March Madness

I must say we are LOVING Mesa in March! The weather is always gorgeous!!! My grandparents left this week so we are now on our own for weekend meals. My aunt DeDe flew down to drive them back home after my family left last week. It was very nice to see her again but sad to see them all go. It was great having them down here, but I suppose this is a sign we now need to go make some friends our own age. 

We took another Saturday to go explore this beautiful part of the country we are living in. Again, we were mesmerized by the natural beauty of this place. This week we journeyed to Tom's Thumb in Scottsdale. Matt can see this from work everyday and asked a colleague about it. His friend recommended the hike so of course we jumped at the opportunity. What was so cool about this place was that we were really able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just see nature. Instead of looking out to the city and desert we saw mountains and what appeared to be colder weather. We even thought to bring a real camera this time instead of just my phone. Be prepared for a little picture overload, we were in love with this place, and I got tired of carrying the camera which means Matt had it. And if anyone has been around Matt when he has a camera...well you don't need to be there because he documents EVERYTHING!!!

Hiking, hiking, hiking. My legs are very sore today!

Here is what is referred to as Tom's Thumb. From Matt's work it looks man-made compared to all the other mountain peaks around it (which you cannot see from this picture...)

 

There are always such beautiful things to look at. So luckily, I take lots of breaks to catch my breath and take in the beauty.

Almost there...

We finally reached Tom's Thumb. Obviously, it is not fake.

 We were also told you could see Fountain Hills along this hike. It is home to the world's fourth tallest fountain that shoots up once every hour. We just so happened to walk by a place you could see it when the fountain was turned on.

Off in the distance we also saw four peaks. We are hoping to hike this during the summer once the weather is too hot to hike here and finally warm enough up there.

 Saturday night we went to Lady Antebellum!! It was at Ak-Chin Pavillion which was really cool. We bought lawn seats because they were much cheaper. Turns out, it was really fun! We brought a blanket and could lay and listen to music and look up at the stars or stand and enjoy the fun. Kacey Musgraves and Kip Moore opened and were also really fun. My throat is a little sore today from so much singing! Next time, maybe we should choose a band we don't know the words to all their songs! We took some pictures during the concert but they really didn't turn out that great. If anyone is going to Lady A in Omaha this week, enjoy! It was a lot of fun!!

(And yes, I cut my bangs because I was tired of looking at my forehead all the time.)

Since I did title this post March Madness, I would like to point out some highlights on my bracket. There is no need to see the rest of my bracket, since I already dropped to third in my family bracket challenge in the first round. But just look at these upsets!! Mind you, Tennessee was a play-in game. Let's go Vols!

This will be my last week at my first fieldwork site. I can't believe it has been 12 weeks already! I will miss my current place but look forward to new adventures! Hope everyone had a great week!