Saturday, August 18th:
Hosted an Open House for all my Arizona friends and family.
Had a GREAT time celebrating my liberation from classes and my transition from "Student" to "Graduate." I'm looking forward to this new chapter of my life. 20 years of formal study is quite enough! 
After most of the guests left, Heather, Wendy, Nathan and I went to the Surprise Recreational Campus and played a few games of tennis. 
I'm slowly but surely converting all my friends into tennis partners! :DSunday, August 19th:
Signed up with Heather to co-teach K-1st grade Sunday School for September-November. I love spending time with kids and being able to serve in this venue. Went to lunch at Chino Bandido (a Chinese/Mexican restaurant) with folks from church then came home for a nap before catching a matinee of Becoming Jane with Kerry and Heather and then had dinner at Cheesecake Factory.
Monday, August 20th:
Arrived at work to find a scorpion on my desk!!! It was hiding in the leaves of my plant.
It's pretty cool what artists can do with a little bit of copper wire! :DI also received a promotion at work and started some intense training on my new responsibilities. My brain was pretty fried by the end of the day. We are projecting complete training and transition of responsibilities by the end of September so work is going to be rather demanding for a while. I know it will be hard work, but I'm SUPER-excited about this opportunity! Monday evening I spent quality time with the Goldensun bookkeeping records and read a short novel just for fun!
Tuesday, August 21st:
Purchased Diamondback tickets from the Goldensun Thrift Store fundraiser and enjoyed the game even though we lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 7-2. Our seats were in the bleachers directly behind right field.
It was a lot of fun watching the fans interact and cheer their respective teams. 
I believe all 18 Brewer fans in attendance were sitting in our section so the evening was very spirited! :)Wednesday, August 22nd:
This was supposed to be my night off to relax at home but instead I attended another Diamondbacks game. Henry, the owner of Southwest Metals, has 4 season tickets and couldn't use them so he gave them to me and Natalie. I invited Nathan to attend and we had fun cheering the D-backs to a 3-2 victory! The seats are directly behind home plate, Row H. We were closer to home plate than the pitcher! It was a much different experience from the night before. No Brewers fans in our section... instead we had all the diehard, intense D-backs fans who owned season tickets! It was also fun to see the players' faces and watch them interact with the other team, the crowd, and the umpire.
Thursday, August 23rd:
Went to ASU Gammage Theater with several Trinity young adults to see the MAMMA MIA! musical. It was fantastic! Excellent choreography, vocals, and acting. You really can't go wrong with ABBA songs. We had dinner at Pita Jungle before the show. They have excellent food!
Friday, August 24th:
Wrapped up my first week of training at work and felt mentally DRAINED! My brain is spinning! I headed straight to Ben & Claire's after work to babysit while they went out to celebrate their anniversary. Six years and still going strong! I was sound asleep 2.5 minutes after putting the kids to bed and spent the night in the guest room.
Saturday, August 25th:
Accomplished absolutely NOTHING essential. I had a few giftcards to spend, so I went shopping at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and then to Target. I bought a Quesadilla maker at Target and made chicken & cheese quesadillas for supper. YUM!! I took a 2-hour nap and am now wide awake! I have learned that while the absence of classes has opened up hours and hours of free time, I don't actually HAVE to fill those hours up with other activities. I need to take an occasional break and enjoy a little "me" time. I have no regrets for all the events I participated in, but I think I'm ready to slow down and pace myself a little better. :p Hopefully I won't be too busy to blog! This one is quite the epic! I also finally loaded all the pictures from graduation into my photo album. Check it out!
They're a bit blurry, but better than nothing! 
It was so great to get on the ice. It's been quite a while since I've skated and it was a fun way to stay cool on a hot summer afternoon. 
It was a lot of fun spending time with friends. 
