If you don't watch the office this post won't make sense

Dwight: That’s why you have an assistant regional manager.

Michael: Yes it is…assistant to the regional manager.

Dwight: Same thing.

Michael: No it’s not, it’s lower.

Dwight: It’s close.

SOOOOOO I got the job I wanted! I am the Administrative Assistant at Northern Pharmacy. It's basically a corner-market pharmacy from the outside but it outsources their prescription business to different institutions. I got the news yesterday (March 24th) which was the 2 year anniversary of Ben and I meeting! Who keeps track of that you ask? I do! In case you care about my life we met at Nikki's going-to-alabama/birthday bbq and I'll never forget it! Anyhoo so what a fun day to get great news. Today was my first day and it went really well. I basically do whatever the Manager or Owner need. I was told today that my title is officially Executive Assistant - so take that Dwight!! No ARM here!! 

What have we been up to you ask?

Ben and Caitlin have been thinking...

1. Not having a job is getting REALLY old. I have been to 7 interviews since we've been in Maryland. 2 of which are temp agencies, 1 has rejected me in a letter, and 1 told me I was "runner-up" and that they would call me if the other person didn't accept the position. You'd have to be an IDIOT to not accept a position anywhere right now. But like I always do I kept hope in the back of my mind that that person was in fact an idiot. I finally had to break-up with that interview and move on and realize they didn't want me so they're stupid. On the lighter side I am waiting to hear from the last two. 1 of which wants me to come in on monday for a paid half-day to see how I do. I'll show you how I do, I WORK and you PAY. Deal?

2. School is easy thus far. Ben is doing great in all his classes. He is teacher's pet and takes notes for a disabled kid. How much more Samaritan can you get? But seriously he is doing really well. He plans on taking summer school to speed this whole thing up and get into the Radiography program more quickly. I am kind of jealous that he gets to be in school and sometimes I ask him if I can do his Math homework too so we can check answers - then he looks at me and tilts his head with a slanty-frown.

3. Washington D.C. is cool and surreal. We went there this past weekend and it was crazy to think we were actually there. Like where all the movies are filmed or whenever they say 'headquarters' - we were there! Ben and I really loved the war memorials - they were humbling and moving. Here are some of our favorite moments...

4. We are happy for other people and their exciting news! Please refer to Nate and Lori's blog!!!! HOORAY AND YAY! Also, Colton has some awesome pictures of the Baltimore Aquarium that we saw on Friday night. Please see number 5.

5. I am claustrophobic. We were at aforementioned Aquarium and I don't know if was the muggy-ness and all the fishy smells but I seriously on the verge of a panic attack. Don't get me wrong it was really cool to see the sharks and all the stuff that I never want to see next to me in the water but I thought I was going to freak out! There were tons of people and if I got up close to look at an exhibit or an aquarium and then attempted to turn around and leave I was doomed! Then there were the revolving doors that I thought I would get stuck in. Poor Ben thought I was going to give up and feed myself to the stingrays. I apologize to Nate, Lori and Colton if they thought I wasn't having a good time. I totally was I just wanted to kill myself, thats all.

6. We are SOOO excited for Nate and Lori. We were totally dooped and had NO idea. How sad that we lived here and had no idea? Lori was a champ!

Tag Schmag

1. Where is your phone? couch
2. Where is your significant other? xbox
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your Mother? far
5. Your Father? away
6. Your favorite thing? cuddling
7. Your dream last night? vivid
8. Your dream/goal? kids
9. The room you're in? family
10. Your hobby? soccer
11. Your fear? loss
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? az
13. Where were you last night? bed
14. What you're not? working
15. One of your wish-list items? Hee-bee
16. Where you grew up? Texas
17. The last thing you ate? pancakes
18. What are you wearing? sweats
19. Your TV? bachelor
20. Your pet? buried
21. Your computer? lap
22. Your mood? nervous
23. Missing someone? everyone
24. Your car? snowy
25. Something you're not wearing? makeup
26. Favorite store? target
27. Your Summer? non-existent
28. Love someone? Ben
29. Your favorite color? pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? sunday
32. Something you crave? brownies!
33. Bad habit? OCD
34. Why you blog? stalk

Mom - you're next!

No animals were harmed in the making...

A while back some family and friends were able to go shooting. Dave, Ben's dad, let us use his clay thrower. Pretty fancy and better than throwing them yourself! We had quite the artillery out there. I really don't know much about guns but I heard the numbers, 12, 20, 30-30, 40 and caliber being thrown around. I just grabbed a gun and put shells in it and aimed it at the orange thing.

Our friend Shawna learning and doing awesome.

Stan teaching and keeping a safe distance. 

Dad looking like an older and wiser Wyatt Earp. Or maybe Doc Holiday but without the Tuberculosis. 

Dad and Zack being backup for each other. Sometimes backup would get excited and 

overstep their boundary so then we just played "whoever gets it first."

Dad working the thrower for me. Yes I am wearing flip flops. 

They have been banished to the closet since we've been in Maryland.

Ross was quite the shot. I think he out-shot most of us and we all 

hung our heads in shame. Oh wait that was just me.

Ross being back-up for me. Like I said before some of us got a little excited being back-up and tried to show up their older, wiser and stronger big sister.

Ben made sure and got some great posture and posterior shots of me. How's my stance Dave? I tried to keep my elbow up and my weight on the front foot. Mommy was there too enjoying a good book off to the side. We talked her into taking a few shots of which she did quite well. She gets excited and does a little happy dance when she gets the clay. We all had a great time and wished the whole family could have gone but most importantly learned that saguaros are mighty strong and thick in diameter. Nuff said.

I love to see the temple

Ben and I have been fortunate enough to have a few dates at the D.C. temple. Good thing we have directionally intelligent chaperones or we would've ended up in Maine or something. We did an evening session and then spent the night in the Xterra and did an early morning one. JK JK JK! These are two different occasions. The D.C. temple is quite a change from the Mesa temple. In the surrounding area leading up to it is kind of an animal preserve. Right now they are all sleeping and trying to stay warm, I bet. We hear that during the spring and summer deers, rabbits, and all sorts of hoppity furry life will frequent that area. It's 7 stories and has some cool stained glass along the stairwell. As you're driving up to is on the freeway it just pops out of nowhere! They've actually had to dim the lights on it because at night it was so bright to the point where it actually caused wrecks. On the news they use it as a reference point to describe the flow of traffic. Kind of funny. Its a very beautiful temple but nothing beats the memories made in Mesa :)

we miss these people

- and just for fun these videos are from Christmas at the cabin. the boys built this rope swing suspended between two trees. 

He's so busy

So Ben went to talk to the soccer coach at his school tonight and I guess it went well. He handed him the schedule and said see you next week! They also practiced indoors while he played center-mid. Now I have a college-goin, soccer-playin, hoodie-wearin husband on my hands! I guess the team already has a goalie so Ben will play midfield and be the back-up keeper. Right now is their off-season so they'll only have a few games. Their real season starts in August so that's when the fun will begin! Don't worry I'll make sure he gets his homework done before he goes to practice.

First day of school

AWWWW how cute is Ben coming home from his first day of college? Today he had English, Communications and Medical Terminology. Notice our matching water bottles as we attempt to go green. My day started off with sending Ben to school with a lunch. I did the dishes and then cleaned up the mess from a nosy squirrel that got into the trash on the patio. Paisley and I took a walk in the nice 50ish degree weather. A walk is so much more exciting with a dog. My pink eye is almost completely gone. I got it in both eyes on Thursday and at one point woke up with both eyes glued shut. Finally I got some drops and they are clearing up!

Pink eye much?

Please ignore the paste-y whiteness, bed head

 and large forehead in these pictures!! 

This was the beginning of the eye mystery last night. I have been sick since last Friday off and on. My symptoms have been all the usual of the flu and now I am left with a painfully sore throat, man voice and a baggy pink eye. I call it my weepy one.

Above was early this morning when I awoke with one functioning eye. I had put drops in it before bed and woke up in the middle of the night trying to go to the bathroom with 2D vision. Now I know how hard it must have been for Tom Cruise's character to try and assassinate Hitler in Valkyrie with an eye patch. How's that for stunning, Colton? Pa!

This was after I put a hot cloth on it to try and get the gunk off and out of the my eyelashes. Then I could finally open it!

Here I am as we speak. I'm pretty sure its pink eye, don't you? By the way it snowed all night and morning. I let Paisley out to run and she was sliding around it was hilarious. The freezing rain made a nice hard layer over the snow so she would run and slide and then if she slowed down she would punch a hole in it. I really like the snow and getting bundled up to enjoy it but I am sick and stuck inside.

I have a cold and its cold outside

 Its been snowing all morning and I've been watching the news as they cancel all these schools. I remember the good ol' days In Texas when we would get like a quarter inch of flurrys and they would cancel school. I'll never again get to watch my school go across the bottom of the TV as they announce the cancellations. I wish they would tell you what works were cancelled. That would be nice.

The Moooooove

Day 1: AZ, NM, TX, OK

We started early on Monday while the sun was still down and headed up to Camp Verde to see Dave and Debbi. This was the hardest day for me so I wasn't up to taking many pictures. Plus the states we went through didn't have much stuff to take pictures of! It was cool to see the state signs as we entered each one, especially Texas. We stopped late Monday night in a ghetto Econo Lodge in Elk City, OK. We went to like 5 different hotels to see their rates and they were the cheapest! Ben slept by the door and put the desk up next to. All I needed was a bed, shower, and a door lock.

We saw some fabulous pollution in Joseph City, AZ. I hope Al Gore doesn't see this!

Day 2: OK, AR, TN

We stopped late Tuesday night in Crossville, TN because it started to snow and Ben didn't want to drive in it at night. We found a pretty reasonable Days Inn and got settled in and started to defrost when Ben noticed the uhaul trailer had a flat tire. He called uhaul that night at like 1 am (12am AZ time) and they said they would come in the morning. We had to wait for them to come and change it and didn't get on the road until 9:30 (8:30 AZ time). 

If anyone knows me they are aware that I HATE windmills. I hate the ones in California and now I hate the ones in Oklahoma. I woke up to these beauts on the side of the road. I had to face my fear and take some pictures of them. The one below looked like it was going to rip out of the ground and fall on top of us. Eww! They were everywhere... you can even see the baby ones in the background. They look small to you now but wait till you get closer.

We crossed the ole Miss when we were coming into Tennessee from Arkansas. Arkansas was pretty much the same as the other states except they had some cool houses and wildlife. We saw a huge flock of something  (Ben thinks geese) that flew above us in all sorts of V formations. A picture wouldn't do it justice. It looked like something you would see in Plant Earth. 

The city lights above are Memphis' and the river below is the Mississippi. We went over this bridge as we entered Memphis so I was trying to take the pictures while going over bumps and attempting to not throw my camera over the edge.

This Memphis egg was in front of the welcome center. I don't know why Memphis has a big egg but it looked cool. After all it is the home of the blues. Not quite sure how those are related.

I tried to be rock-n-roll until I realized the sign said "Home of the Blues." Maybe I should have looked sad.

Day 3: TN, VA, WV, MD

After our late start due to the flat tire Ben was discouraged that we wouldn't see Virginia or Maryland during the day. We saw everything in Virginia during the day and then it started to get dark as we were crossing Harpers Ferry into West Virginia. This road curved back and forth from VA to WV to MD back to VA then lead us back to MD. This was all at night and over bridges so it was a little uneasy. When we got to Nate and Lori's we pulled in and Ben went to play basketball with Nate and some ward guys. All of the boys came back and helped us move the stuff out of the trailer which was really nice of them. 

Here is some more pollution in TN. These plumes were sitting in the middle of a river which looked cool but was soooo not cool.

Here we are breaking our New Years resolutions. Hey you try driving across the country without caffeine!! Then again I didn't drive one mile this trip. I had to support Ben though... we do everything together.

Once we got closer to the east coast we saw a lot of Military vehicles that Ben drove. He was always excited to point them out to me and tell me their functions. Some of the vehicles we saw were Humvees, Bradleys (a tank) and a PLS (Palletized Loading System) <- (its main job it to carry missiles to MLRS  (missile shooting thing) which shoot those missiles at North Koreans if the war ever went there )

This was our first snow in VA. Virginia was full of a lot of land and rolling hills with really cool houses on top.

This is proof that we are actually here! Ben and Nate of course had to bust out some Halo. Notice Lori's cute decorations that I feel very insignificant next to.

Here is the front of the house. 

This is the view if you walk out of their front door and look to the left. Its a canal with a frozen river in it right now. 

We are very excited to be here! Its going to be a great experience plus with Nate and Lori around it will be even more fun. I love all the trees and grassy areas and can't imagine how pretty it will be in the summer when everything grows back.