THIS IS MY STUDDED MUFFIN!

Ok, so I got the "Studded Muffin" from the one and only Bridger Allen.
But I LOVE those words!

So as you know, today is RUSS' 23rd BIRTHDAY!
(WOW WE ARE GETTING OLD!)
Obviously, that means this post will be about this guy!

My DEAREST RUSSELL!

Russ and I have been together for almost 6 YEARS!
We have been through A LOT, but TWO things are for sure.
One- Russ is my BEST FRIEND.
Two- I love him with all my heart!

I know so much about this guy, sometimes it scares him! LOL

He is always SO happy!!

And for those of you that KNOW him, you know that he will go out of his way to help
ANYONE & EVERYONE!
He has the biggest heart!
He loves reaching out to those that are in need.

I have SO many stories of Russ that I love!
We have SO many great times together!
(He's wanting me to stop blogging and go spend time with him, so this is about to end...)

Sure we have our moments, what couple doesn't?
Its nice going to bed each night though, knowing that you are loved, and always will be!

-So to MY DEAREST RUSS, on your BIRTHDAY-
I LOVE YOU, and can't wait to spend FOREVER with you!!

WELCOME TO THE SNYDER RESIDENCE...

Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.

And PLEASE don't touch ANYTHING...
Really though, its hard to keep this way.

*WARNING: This Blog contains 33 pictures. If you don't have time to complete the ride, please signal to the nearest attendant and she will let you off.
Thank you, and please enjoy the ride!

Welcome to our HUMBLE ABODE.

Lets walk in shall we?

To the left we have
Our LOVELY COUCH!! This is our living room!

To the right we have
The T.V, and the most cluttered part of the house... LOL But I LOVE IT!

Back to the front we have
A DOOR!
Lets go out it!
Oh! Its the patio! Nice mess... Russ!

And what we see out to the left?
The backyard?!? That's a WAY busy road, and beyond that... the I-10!

Lets go back inside, its probably too hot out here for MOST of you anyway!

Now we have
The dinning area!
This is where we.. DINE!
This table has been around a lot.. hence the 3 broken chairs...

Lets zoom in on that picture, cause its a BEAUTIFUL one!
Ohhh how I love it!!

To the right we have the bar and the best item on it...
Russ' Baptism program that we love SO much!

And Who do we have here?
ITS BOOZER!
Yes, he survived the trip & He hates Russ... Its really quite a sight!

Around the corner we have
The KITCHEN! I have LOVED this area of late! I really LOVE cooking!!
Its not as clean in this picture as I thought it was.... Oh well!

Over to the left we have
My canister set! That really has Flour, Sugar, Brown Sugar, and Baking soda!
And that ADORABLE Recipe Box DOES have recipes in it!
My mom also made that sign for me, and I LOVE it!!
If you can't read it, it says

Life isn't about waiting
for the storms to pass...
Its about learning to
Dance in the Rain

Then we have a few pictures
Drawn by the ONE and ONLY Melissa Huntington (Now Williams) :)

No description needed.
Below that is the laundry area... its not worth taking pictures of.

To the right we see
The bar/look out.

And in the corner, one of my favorites,
My Kitchen Aid, BOOZER- there you are again!, and another picture that I LOVE!

Now, out of the Kitchen and into the
BEDROOM!
Yes we have double doors, and our room is HUGE!

To the left
More room, and my new teddy!

Looking out see all that you can see.
In the middle
Our CAL KING bed, The 2 Blankets that I made, and the dresser Russ made me!

To the right
Our closet!
Not a chance are you going to see in there!
Its HUGE too!! And we LOVE IT!

Behind us we have
A poorly placed picture that will be moved shortly!
Yet again, another one that I LOVE!

To the left from here
Russ' bathroom- as I call it!

Now out the door and to the left we have
"My" bathroom, or the guest bathroom- depending on the week.
I HEART this bathroom!

To the right
The toilet, and the shower.

Whats behind that door, you might be asking...

We have the
EXTRA BEDROOM!
If ANYONE comes to stay... This will be YOUR room! :)

We've got a
QUEEN BED! Very comfy!

Who is that on the left??
Its TWEEDLE DEE!
Can you see him? Yep right there at the front!
He made it as well!

Behind us we see
Another plaque my Momma made for me, that I LOVE!
Yes- I LOVE A LOT of things in my home!

To the right of the bed we have
This fun little area! I think its PERFECT!

And on the LAST wall! Here they are!
Our MOVIES, Game Systems, Video games and the extra TV! :)
There you have it!

Out the door- to the right- back to the beginning
so if you want to see it all again
hit "Ctrl + Home" and you can go on this ride again!

LOL Well there you have it folks, our home!
Its been fun!!
See you here tomorrow!!!

(Russ fell asleep while I was doing this, so I'm sure I need to go entertain him.)

TODAY..

Well I was going to post the "Tour" yesterday, but we were doing this most of the day.

(Getting a tan at the DRAG RACES!)

Then I was going to post it today... but I have something MUCH better to post about!!
Its our 6 MONTH "ANNIVERSARY"!!!

So that's what today's blog will be!
We have been through a LOT together in the past 6 months,
and I have loved EVERY MINUTE of it!
I married my best friend!
I love EVERY SECOND I get to spend with my dear Russ!

There will be a post dedicated to my dearest Husband this week.
(his birthday is on the 10th!)
So I will write all my juicy feelings then! :)

HOPEFULLY tomorrow you will FINALLY see where we spend ALL our time!

LETS GET LOST TOGETHER... SHALL WE?

Today work as tomorrow... Right?

So (almost 2 weeks ago) Saturday we
(and our NEW FOUND FRIEND, Jeremy)

decided to head up to the "Arizona Mountains".
We went to Wickenburg for any of you who know the lands down here.
And they really are mountains, just with a lot of THIS

instead of this

We headed out at 8:00 in the AM, and had "planned out" the route we were heading.
We started driving. We had lunch around noon, and about an hour later met some furry friends. As we rounded a bend, about 10 little pups came running out of a fence. Russ put his hand out the truck and they all came running to him. If Russ got to pet the dogs, then SO did I!! I jumped out and ran to the back of the truck. They all came crowding around. They were SO darn cute! Mutts for sure! But DARLING! No one was around, and I was really REALLY tempted to take one! They were so friendly too! Russ said no, I was heart broken... Ok not really, they are someone's dogs, but man were they cute! I miss having dogs around! ANYWHO...
OH at 2:00 we realized that we had NO idea where we were!! A Jeep passed us along the way, and told us which direction to head. He also said, in his direction giving, that our trucks could make it FOR SURE, but most people can't... Wonderful.
So we headed in the direction he told us to go.
Russ and Jeremy were not too sure we were going the right way. At one point we came to a fork in the road, to the RIGHT we had a PERFECTLY paved path, and a path that looked promising. To the LEFT we had a steep hill, a SWAMP, LOW TREES, and a VERY TALL HILL on the other side. Call me crazy, but I recommended the right path. The boys chose the left path. Something about "if you keep making left hand turns, you end up where you are going".. ?? Whatever... I don't think I spoke for a good 15 minutes, all the time wondering if we were ever going to make it out. All I kept hearing was... "If it gets too late, we are just going to camp out here." Camp with WHAT? We didn't bring blankets, we don't have food, there is nothing to start a fire with, and its going to be COLD tonight! We'd go up on big hill, to round the bend and see MORE MOUNTAIN and NO CITY! It was "Mountain" after "Mountain", I was getting rather upset. We were going 5 miles an hour, and knew that we had 17 miles to go until the main road! It was almost 6:00. We knew the sun was going down at 6:15, 6:30 at the latest... There was a HUGE,ROCKY, DANGEROUS hill in front of us. I told Russ that if we didn't see the city after this hill, I WAS going to cry! At that VERY moment, Jeremy's 4 Wheel Drive went out (Jeremy was in his own truck)... I was seriously done with Wickenburg! I had enough, and never wanted to come back. Russ had to get out and hook up to Jeremy. I couldn't wait, I HAD to see what was on the other side of this hill. So I tied up my boots, and headed up to the top.
To my relief, there it was!! The City!!! We got Jeremy out, and got OVER the hills. It was about 9:00 by the time we got to the main road... Thank Heavens for that! It was a FUN trip, but next time, I told them we will have a map that has CORRECT directions, and isn't from the 1700's.
Here are some pics, taken from the day.

We saw a Lot of this...
Parked at lunch
We came across this cool lookin rock!
It looked like a Whale Mouth from a distance, not too sure what it looks like up close...
US! :)

Me BEFORE we got lost!
I really did have A LOT of fun though folks!My BIG HUNK!
Nice face hun! LOL
Russ and Jeremy on a walk... Can you see them?
That's better!
What we KEPT seeing after each turn.
It sure is BEAUTIFUL though!This is how the night ended... LOL
So that was our fun adventure! We got lost for almost 4 hours, but had a grand old time!
In Utah, its SERIOUSLY not that hard to get lost!

So whats next?
A TOUR OF THE NEW APARTMENT!!

I HAVE THE WORLDS GREATEST MOMMA!!

So I will tell my little "adventure story" tomorrow.

But for today, I must tell of my WONDERFUL weekend!

My momma decided when we moved that she was going to fly down at the end of February to see where we lived! Time FLEW and before I knew it,
she was on her way!
I was so excited for my Mom to come down, and more excited to see her cause it had been a few weeks! I miss home, and I needed a little taste of Rach to help me get over that sadness.

She got in at 1:40- Her plane had some "Problems" in Utah, and after they "Hot wired" that problem? They were on their way.
Russ and I got a little lost (as we always do) at the airport, but we figured things out before she landed.
We sat in a Cell lot and watched to the info on her flight.

* SIDE NOTE: Can I just say, Phoenix drivers are a MILLION times worse then Utah drivers! They don't look before they get over, They come to a sudden stop... then decide to SLAM it into Reverse and just start going, even if you are 5 feet off their tail, they are just BAD drivers!*

Anywho, so she called and said they had landed safely (I had a sigh of relief- since they had issues in Utah). We picked her up on the side of the curb. Best thing I have EVER pick off a curb!
I was SO excited to see my mom! I was like a giddy child right before a great dessert! I got to HUG my mom!! And SEE HER! I was happy to see my mom!!!

So we went to... Linner? It was about 2:30 by this point.
Chili's was on the menu.
We had some great catching up, and then we decided to drive to Jen's house.
To A See where it was, and B know how to get there unless we ever needed to help them out.
This was SUCH a HOOT!! We got SO lost! I think Russ will never take directions from a Beasley again! LOL We hit every dead-end, drove in a field (and ticked off a dog), thought about driving over a canal, and made a lot of turns. Well, we finally called Kyle, and with a little help, found our way. Rach and me were laughing SO hard, I don't think Russ found it very funny.

We then went home, and I gave her a tour of our HOME! She looked in my fridge and got very disappointed! All I had was juices, water, and FROZEN foods. She said we HAD to go shopping, and then I admitted to not knowing how to cook. Ok folks, I KNOW how to cook, I took 3 years of classes in High School, I watched my mom for 22 years, I know how to read a recipe, but I never have the INGREDIENTS that are need to make "Rach quality" food.

So we went shopping for almost 3 hours! Russ stayed home, THANK HEAVENS! We had SO much fun! We got food to last us a while! We even went to Food City (a Mexican Store for those of you who wouldn't have thought that FOOD CITY was that) and got FREE Potatoes!
Rach sure knows how to shop.

We got home, watched a movie, and before it, our first day was gone!

Saturday we went to Melanie and Scott's (our Cousin's) saw their new house (AMAZING) and hung out with Remington! Such a cute little guy!! I had a blast there! Then we went to the Shepard home (other cousin's). Troy had promised Russ that the next time we came over he would cook us a Steak Dinner. So were stayed, hung out, and had such a blast there!
We got home around 9:00. Fixed the meat for Sunday's dinner and watched another movie.

Sunday was church. It was fun to be with my mom at church again! Its always nice to have her around EVERYWHERE now that I am mentioning it! Then we got home and had our WONDERFUL Brisket! That I MADE! :)

We took our Sunday naps, and then cooked cookies! Oatmeal for Russ, Chocolate Chip for me. When Rach is in the kitchen you are always laughing! She is a HOOT! If I could, I would carry her around in my pocket all day long, just for the laughs!! I am not sure if she would enjoy that, but I would! We watched ANOTHER movie Sunday night. I think she watched more movies then weekend, then she has all year. But I guess that's what US Snyders do!

Monday my Momma watched while I made Crescent Lasagna
(she just added little things here and there).

In case you didn't believe me!
We went to lunch at Red Robin, hit Snyder's Pretzel place, so she could take some home with her. Then Momma and I came back and just laid in the extra bed and just chatted. I sure miss times like that! Again nothing but laughs, we also counted our movies... That's between me and her, cause she made me see just how much money we have spent on movies in the past few years....
Crazy I tell ya!

And then we had to take Rachie to the Airport. :(
We got there faster then I thought we would, and I had to say goodbye. I ALMOST cried Momma! I fought it though! I didn't want this goodbye to be as sad as it was last time! But I was close! You were going where you needed to be though. The dogs need you more then me! :)

To Momma:
Thanks for being the best Momma in the WHOLE WORLD! You are one of my BEST FRIENDS! I love our chats, I love our MANY laughs, I love just watching you! You make me so happy and you are the best example I have ever had! Thanks for being SO patient with me! You are so giving, so selfless, so caring, so loving, and SO DARN HAPPY- All the time! Its addicting being around you! I miss you tons already! I am glad you came down, I am SO glad you taught me how to cook, and to show me that its not REALLY as hard as it looks! Thanks for getting me ALL my kitchen needs, even though I told you I had everything!
Thanks for making this weekend so great!
I am glad you traveled home safe!
I hope I see you sooner then later!!!
I LOVE YOU LOTS AND LOTS!!

On the agenda this week?
Well I will finally put up the FULL DAY Adventure...
Then how about a tour of our new home?? I think that sounds GRAND!