We have a new house!!

After months of wrestling with the bank, mortgage officer, and anyone else that wanted a piece of the action....we finally own a new house. We now live in the Southwest Valley and are extremely excited to move in, especially with a pool in the back yard.

We officially moved in last weekend, and it was a long experience that I would not want anyone to experience. Now that we are moved in, Todd is 20 minutes from work, I am 23 minutes and Kerri is just under 30. Todd has a much shorter commute but Kerri and I added about 5 - 7 minutes each.

We are very excited to go from a $2700 month mortgage to $800/month, we had to put $26k down, but have a 30 year fixed rate of 4.25%. I will have Todd post some pictures of the new house...2600 sq ft with a pool built in 2006. We are in a very diverse area (meaning we are in an Hispanic area and being white is most certainly the minority, but it is a cool experience). My new neighbor mentioned that a couple of the people on the block even speak English... It will really help my Spanish. I hope all is well and look forward to more post and information.

The Phoenix Smiths

Wow, the blog is running full force...Yeah

Great to hear from everyone and that everybody is healthy or at least recovering and soon on the way to the golf course. I had not checked the blog for a week or two and all of a sudden there was news, post, and information from almost everyone, kind of like getting the actual written round robin, except it was up to date information. Too bad the weather sucks in Iowa, been very nice here in Phoenix. We are not looking forward to summer but enjoying every day under 90 that we have left.

Kerri and I are still working at our current jobs and things are well. I have had an extremely busy first quarter, maybe the best start to the year I have ever had. The juniors are way down, parents are saving money on the kids I guess, but my adults are extremely busy. I changed the way we charge for lessons a little over a year ago (shorter, cheaper lessons more like a gym membership) and it has paid off. I have been working a more than ever and am hearing stories of other Teaching Pros being very slow and leaving the business.

Kerri and I (and Todd) will be moving in the next 30 -45 days. We have an offer on a house in the SW valley and hopefully will be moving in to a new house in mid May. We should find out in the next couple of days...maybe even tomorrow. Hopefully things will work out in our favor and we will be moving into a house with a pool (Kerri's only requirement for the new house). I will try to keep the GFRR up to date.

It is great to see lots of activity on the GFRR and hopefully if we continue to use it will become a more of a daily or weekly habit and entice the other cousins to join in.

Smitty

We Can Do It!!!!

If everyone would just spend 10 - 15 minutes per month on one post per person, this Round Robin would rock! It is freezing in Phoenix, mid 50s today, please where are you Spring?

Smitty

Bueller, Bueller

I guess this RR didn't take off very well. How was everyone's holidays? Things in Arizona are good, weather has been incredible this month. Business has been busy for me at the golf course, so that's good considering we are in a recession. Hope to see some replies and get this RR up and running.

Smitty

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are going to try to smoke our turkey this year, should make for an interesting bird. I think that I am going to get stuck doing all the work, so if it is not fabulous we are going back to Kerri's wonderful turkeys. Not much is going on in Arizona, a few showers today which is very rare. Todd and I thought about heading to Las Vegas to see the Hawkeye Basketball team play, but figured we would spend to much money. So just chilling out on Thanksgiving and watching football. Hope all is well with everyone. Happy Holidays....

Ahh, the pain of broken ribs...

So in my last post I mentioned that during overseeding (golf course closed for 2 weeks, forced vacation) I was going to Colorado with a student/friend and play in a golf tourney and then head to Mexico to relax on the beach..... CHANGE OF PACE.

The day before the golf tourney we were out ATV'ing and having a great time. Went for about 3 hours up into some mountains, around 10,000 ft elevation. Helmet, goggles, gloves, the entire setup. After we were done, we headed back to my friends cabin and he has a steep driveway. So we unload the ATV's and Joe says "follow me, we have a shortcut up the driveway". Helmet, gloves, and goggles are no longer on, we are parking the ATV's in the garage. Needless to say he takes me up a 20 ft incline of around 80 percent, he had no problem. I followed and managed to get to almost the top and then flip over backwards several times back to the bottom. Several broken ribs later my golf tournament was ruined. 11 days later and it still hurts to laugh, cough, breath heavy, move or stretch.

I still managed to play in the golf tournament, but no full swings, just chipping and putting. We finished 8th out of 24 teams, and they paid the top 7 teams. Ended up having Kerri come up and spent the week at the cabin, enjoyed the beautiful Rocky Mountains and the views they provide. It was a very relaxing week and we had a great time. We have to go back to work tomorrow, but it was pretty funny(painful)to flip the ATV. One day I will realize that I am pushing into my early 30's and can't keep up with my 21 year old body, HA, HA.

Arizona cooling way off to the mid 90's, almost cooooolllll

So life in Arizona is humming along, work, eat, sleep, air conditioning. That's about it. Man, we are boring. Mid September and the summer is slowly ending, cooler in the evenings and mornings and only hitting the mid 90's during the days. I am supposed to get my wisdom teeth pulled, not sure when, why or how much. Going to go to Colorado and play in a golf tournament with my best student during overseeding the weekend of Oct 3, 4, 5. Hoping to head to Rocky Point, Mexico and lay on the beach and swim in the Ocean for several days the next week. That's about it from Arizona, I wish I had more excitement for everyone, but I don't.

Smitty

Summer time...

It sounds like Iowa is finally sending all of the water to Missouri and possible drying out. It has been over 110 degrees in Phoenix for 12 straight days (the record is 18 straight days). Kerri and I are both averaging around 12 hours a day at work, 5 days or possible 6 days a week. Life is Good??????

Todd is in Hawaii for a friends wedding and we are working hard. We managed to head up north in the RV last week for several days to get out of the heat. There is a campground that is 97 miles away and 7600 feet elevation, 6500 above Phoenix. It is consistently 25 degrees cooler, very nice.

Not really much going on just wanted to leave a quick note and have a great time in Rapid City!!

Parkersburg

I keep seeing pictures and video's on the internet of the Tornado in Parkersburg, it seems unbelievable. It is incredible that anyone managed to live through that destruction. I looks like it is only 20 miles south of Uncle Eldie and Aunt Jo, did you have any trouble with the storm or did it completely miss the town of Greene. Good luck with any cleanup.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Great news on Uncle Eldie, hopefully he continues to improve both his health and golf scores. We are having an unbelievable Memorial Day Weekend. It was cloudy, overcast, rainy and cold on Thursday and Friday. It was 110 degrees last Monday and Tuesday and in the 50's and low 60's on Thursday. Saturday, Sunday and Monday the highs have been in the mid 70's and low 80's, 15 to 20 degrees below normal and heavenly.

Kerri received May 14 - 19 off from work at the last moment, so we took the RV and headed to Rocky Point, a small town on the Baja of Mexico that is 212 miles away. It is not very far but takes 4 hours or more to get there because of crossing the USA/Mexico border and you need to have Mexican car insurance, USA insurance does not work in Mexico. We parked the RV 27 steps from the beach, and just relaxed. It cost $22 per night to camp with full hook ups and we just chilled on the beach and swam in the ocean every day. Went downtown to the fish market a bought some fresh shrimp, grouper, and sea bass and grilled it up each night. It was fantastic. A very relaxing and inexpensive vacation.

Not much happening in Arizona, except that we are still dodging the hot summer temps, yeah! Kerri is getting ready for a busy summer at the hotel pool bar and I am preparing for Summer Junior Golf Camps. With the economy in the tank and the cost of gas in the stratosphere, we will unfortunately not make the family reunion in Rapid City, sorry. I hope everyone has fun. Hopefully you can get everyone up and running with this blog this summer and we can start to have everyone use it on a more regular basis. Wishing everyone a great summer!

Springtime in Arizona

Things in Arizona are moving along as expected. The weather is turning warm, mid 80's which is perfect down here. We had a couple of mid 90's days last weekend, but hopefully no more for a while. The Parents and Carin and Dan were down for close to a week and played some golf, attended a conference and ate out for several great meals. The jobs are the same, Todd and I have been trying to get rid of some crud (bronchitis) for the past week or two, but nothing serious. I was just checking the blog and not seeing much activity, figured I would try to get it going.
Smitty

PS, Any news on Uncle Eldie yet?

March in Arizona

Well, I see that no one is using this website (blog) and so far it is a total failure. Hopefully time will help. The weather is perfect in Arizona, mid 70's to low 80's and spring training is in full swing. Kerri went to a game with some coworkers last week. We took the RV to out to Lake Pleasant for the weekend for relaxation and some fishing. I will let Todd post some pictures of our camping weekend soon. I am heading to Las Vegas to meet 10 friends from high school and college for our 10th annual March Madness weekend. The Parents and Carin and Dan are coming to visit at the end of the month, I am sure they are here to visit Todd and I, and not to play golf :) Hope all is well and I wish to see more post.

Smitty

75 degrees and Sunny in Phoenix

For the first time in history the temperature in Phoenix never got above 72 degrees in December or January. Despite our brutal winter conditions in the upper 50's and low 60's, we managed to survive. But now the weather has turned much better and has been in the mid 70's for the past several days and just wanted to let every know we survived the winter and are now enjoying our normal temperatures.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during our terrible natural disaster.

Chris

So far very little response....

Well it has been two weeks and only Aunt Jo and Aunt Sue have signed up for the Grush Family Round Robin. What is the reason? It only takes several minutes and will be much easier to update everyone's lives instead of receiving the round robin once a year. Please get signed up by following the directions in your email or call Todd or I and we will walk you through it.

Chris 480-235-0712
Todd 623-433-6422