Random Update on Life

-

I figured it was time to hop on and just do a random update on things.  I'm starting to settle into life here in southern Arizona.  When I arrived on August 1st I had a week and a half off before starting work, so, fortunately, I was able to arrange for our household goods (HHG) that had been in long-term storage to be delivered while I was on leave.  That gave Tom and I some time to sort through the stuff we'd forgotten we owned before the stuff from Germany arrived.  My father-in-law Jack and I have made three trips to Goodwill so far and we might just have enough stuff for one more trip.

It wasn't until October 5th that the stuff from Germany got delivered.  So far there has only been one casualty and thank goodness it wasn't the wine! 
Six crates arrived safe and sound
Jack has been great about hosting us and helping us get settled into our new house, which we are affectionately calling the 'Temp House' because we hope to start building the new house, or 'Cat House', in the next year or so.  
A mountain of paper and boxes!
On September 28 I flew out to San Diego and picked up my car.  I did the trip solo so I just picked up the car and drove straight home.  It took about seven hours if I remember right.
Good-bye Cali. Hello Arizona.
I celebrated my birthday on September 5th.  
Flowers from my parents
Just two weekends ago I got to do one of the funnest things I've ever done for one of my parents.  My Dad's birthday was October 16 and he was turning 60.  My brother and I flew in and surprised him.  My stepmom told him she was going shopping and then she came back with us in the car.  So much fun!  Needless to say he was VERY surprised.  We had a great four-day visit. 
Dad's actual birthday and just a couple hours before flying back to AZ.
Bear and Smokey, the fuzzy kids, are doing well.  We typically get Bear shaved once a year.  We call it his Spring Haircut.  Tom had expressed interest in getting Bear a haircut this Fall so I found a great groomer based in Tucson and took him in last week.  Here he is sporting his new do.  A fitting name, this cut is known as the bear cut.  She didn't shave him as close as we normally do in the spring.  We wanted him to have a bit of a coat for the cooler weather. 
My first food request upon getting home - sushi.  Check out those beautiful rows of sushi.  Tom made himself absolutely sick with that huge bowl of ramen.
One of the things I'm most looking forward to about living here is being close to family.  Tom's dad is just down the road and three of Tom's brothers are in Phoenix.  A couple weekends ago Jack and I drove up to Phoenix because of one of the nephews was visiting from Colorado.  We had a great weekend trip.  My sister-in-law Nancy and I went out to a local restaurant that served martinis.  Mine was delicious!  It had Baileys and Kahlua in it.  That'll bring a smile to your face.    
YUM!
I'm sure I'll be sharing my fair share of sunset pictures.  Here is one I took a couple days ago.
Tom and I are getting really close to choosing the contractor we want to go with to build the new house.  I've been calling references and we're checking out some of their previous work this week.  That's going to be one huge project.  I'm sure you'll read many blog posts about the stress and fun of building the new home. 

Tom and I will be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary tomorrow.  We have been very blessed!  
October 25, 2003

Our first trip to Arizona Summer 2002
On our property in December 2010

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Letter I Never Wrote

-
Image
A draft of this blog post has been sitting in my unpublished queue for many years now. You'll see that the book I start the post with is one I read in 2020. This post is about the death of my mother's oldest sister, my Aunt Almeda.   I noticed that death, grief, and illness were themes in some of my reading in 2023. I read John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud, Laurel Braitman's What Looks Like Bravery , Elizabeth Alexander's The Light of the World , Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge , Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , and Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms .   Recently I've found a lot of creative inspiration from Suleika Jaouad. There is a documentary on Netflix right now called American Symphony and she recently did a nearly 2-hour-long interview with Rich Roll for his podcast . I would strongly recommend both, as well as her book.  I got the feeling that now might be the time to complete this post. So, here it is.   *** The last book I r
Read more

Walking in History...Visiting Normandy during the D-Day Anniversary

-
Image
This is probably a blog I should do in two posts but I'm going to try and do it in one.  I'll try to minimize my words and let the photos tell the story. Over World War II's D-Day anniversary, Tom and I traveled to Normandy on a 3-day USO tour.  It was a whirlwind, jam-packed trip that maximized every moment of what were 13 to 14 hour-long days.  I had been looking forward to the trip for months and believe that visiting that historic site during the anniversary is a trip of a lifetime.   In two-and-a-half days we visited three of the D-Day invasion beaches (Gold, Omaha and Utah); visited the American and the German cemeteries; visited Point du Hoc and Saint-Mere-Eglise; went to the Airborne Museum (although we didn't stay long because of the crowds) and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is a VERY good museum); we saw the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery and concluded the visit at Pegasus Bridge.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Longest Day" it
Read more

The Joys of Nature Journaling

-
Image
Last month I went to a daylong Introduction to Nature Journaling workshop led by Roseann Beggy Hanson of Exploring Overland and hosted at the Amerind Museum . I knew nothing about nature journaling ahead of the class. It just sounded like something that might complement my own personal journaling and the House Journal I've been keeping since we moved into the new house in February 2023.  In my House Journal I record seasonal observations from Dalrymple Ranch, as my girlfriend Sydney calls our place. Since I walk the pups 2-3 times a day, I notice when a type of wildlfower first appears or when a particular cactus blooms. I also try to note when we have snow or a big rain storm. And while I don't do it as regularly, I do record some wildlife observations too. Thanks to keeping my journal last year I learned that there is an order in which our cacti tend to bloom. Hedgehogs bloom before the prickly pear. Cholla bloom after the prickly pear have started and then barrel cactus
Read more