Fall Events

Well fall got here fast this year. It seems like the time we have during summer break just flies by swiftly. My end of summer ritual includes my guilty pleasure of watching the MTV video awards. I love every bit of the show. I love to watch what people wear; because the music industry really lets their own styles come out and shine. So this year the stand out for me was Pink’s performance, and then the show closer Taylor Swift. After I heard her new single on the show, I could not get that song out of my head. It stayed in there for a few weeks. I was glad though because it broke the “Call me maybe” cycle that had been there most of the summer. I went on YouTube and watch the official video for the new single “We are never ever getting back together”. It was so funny with the grown men dressed in woodland creature costumes. My favorite was the raccoon, just for his hair and facial expressions. When the video was over, the suggested videos come up with Adele’s songs reminding me that last year she was the big winner at the Grammys with her heartbreaking angst filled songs.

Both my boys are growing up too fast for me too. I miss the half days of kindergarten with a bittersweet feeling. I always thought in the back of my mind that I would keep teaching Spanish to the kindergarten class even after my kids were in other classes. So even though right now I am teaching Science in Nik’s class, have taken on PTA president duties, volunteered to do Art projects in Joe’s class, and signed up to help out with the parties in both boys classes, I am going to teach Spanish to the kindergarteners in the spring.

In the meantime, my mother’s birthday is coming up this weekend. My brother the Foreman, will be out of state working, but my other brother the Hunter, will be in town this weekend so we are throwing her a Birthday dinner. So, she will have all her grandchildren, family, and friends around her to help celebrate. It will be nice to see Hunter and his family since he has been working out of state for what seems like forever. I don’t think I have seen them (besides Facebook posts) since Christmas.

What made me think of them recently was that my roommate from when I lived in California messaged me on Facebook and asked if a house that was listed for sale was my old childhood home. It was. I looked at the listing and the pictures of the inside of the house, and I could not recognize it. Everything was different. The only things that stayed the same from when I grew up there were the brick fireplaces and front planters. My dad had built custom cabinets in the kitchen and the current owners had gutted the kitchen and put in some generic cabinets that were not real wood. I had spent 18 years in that house and could not even recognize my own room. They replaced the familiar textured white walls with new smooth drywall and flat beige paint. They even took out the custom cabinets that were in the bathrooms. They also replaced all the windows in the house except the ones on each side of the back fireplace. They even took out the sliding glass door off the master bedroom that led to the back yard. There were no pictures of the back yard, it used to have orange, lemon, and avocado trees, but I wonder if the fruit trees are still growing.

Arizona Living

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Misting system/ Sunset

So we moved in the week before Christmas. December was so hot. Not a scrap of snow any where. I lived on the Hallmark network just to try to feel cold, but it didnt work. I drank hot cocoa anyway. The high 70s and 80s were so great. I miss that kind of heat. Then in January things started to bloom because it was 80 creeping into the 90s already. I started to sneeze and our pool got that yellow/green pollen sticky stuff on the surface. Lucky for me I have a pool guy a.k.a. the Hubby. He skimmed it with the pool net and got out a bunch of flower petals. Then put the vacuum on it and the water was magically clean the next day. Now that its summer the pool is in full use. The temps in the pool get up to 90 degrees so its like bath water. My favorite time to swim is after dinner when the sun goes down and high heat of the day is done. Sometimes the desert wind picks up and cools things down, but mostly its like having the hair dryer turned on you in all directions so your dry by the time you get in the house. No towels needed. Desert Air Dry.

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Desert flowers

Now in July, they call this Monsoon season. Its humid, there are thunder and lightening storms and we get a little bit of rain, but the most spectacular lightening show. I don’t think it qualifies as an actual season if there are only 5 days of storms scattered over 2 weeks. Arizona will take every drop of water that fills the canals and treat it and charge people to drink it. I don’t. Liken most people who don’t have a whole house filter, we filter the kitchen sink because it feed the dishwasher and don’t want to have to clean orange gunk out of the water hook ups. We buy water bottles for drinking and water by the gallon for tea and cooking. The plants are thriving as they are desert flowers that can get full sun and still thrive. Plus Hubby does not rely on me to water them and I am happy to let him and his green thumb tend to them.

Hibiscus

Joe has a job as a cashier at a big box store about two miles from here that he drives the Buick to and fro as the family car is insured until he can buy his own. He has had trouble finding a car that can fit his long legs and give him head space. The boy is a tall drink of water. basketball coaches drool, but he doesn’t know how to play the game. He can kill you in Battle field 5 or Assassins creed, but I can beat him at Horse and he is a good 7 inches taller than me. Our summer is cut short this year because they go back to school the beginning of August. So for the first time in his life, Nik gets to have his birthday during school.

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My employed son🥳

We have gone to a few car shows as a family, but Nik and I aren’t that fond of walking around in the sun, so we stick by the pool. We haven’t gone to any water parks because of covid and we have a pool. I really do like the Arrowhead Mall because they have everything from a Cold Stone Creamery to JoAnns fabric store and a PattyOFurniture and an AppleBees and everything in between.

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Sunday dinner gang

Moving in

Eggs Benedict @ Shari’s

So we listed the house on a Friday and by Monday we were in escrow.  We have gone over the first hurdle of the inspection. The house passed with no additional issues. So now all we need is n appraisal then we can  close. As for another house….we found the perfect one for us. It checks all our boxes in what we want in our new home, including being 15 minutes away from the grandparents. It also has the bonus of a guest room so our family and friends can come visit us anytime. This is a  weird time to move being in the middle of a pandemic. Especially when we are moving to a heavily populated city from a rural country house on five acres of land. So after we close escrow, some time before Christmas, we will pack up the U haul and start the journey south. I’m looking forward to the trip down because we aren’t going to be rushed by time constraints. We can take our time and see some sights. One I’m looking forward to is Kennewick. I know,  the Tri cities don’t seem like an exotic destination, but we stopped there on the way home from our last trip to see my in laws. It was a little slice of heaven. We stayed at the Best Western and there was a hot tub that could hold eight people, and the pool had  one of those chair lifts that can pluck you out of the pool. They also had soft beds, a huge handicap shower, and a breakfast buffet where you could make your own waffles. They had biscuits and country gravy, cereal, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and they had papas fritas- my favorite way to eat a potato. They even had fresh squeezed orange juice.

The next place I’m looking forward to visiting is Twin Falls, Idaho. I have come close a few times, but there was always a time crunch so it got skipped. Well that “next time” is this time.

My new backyard

We arrived after 5 days of careful driving so no accidents happened and no children went hungry during the journey down to the desert. I know I took pictures of the falls so I will locate those and add them later. Updates on the house soon

Packing up

Closet full of boxes

So we are packing up things and getting ready to move. The bathroom is almost finished. It just needs hang the mirror and the towel rack. It looks so much better than what I imagined. Its masculine and has the clean lines of grey on white. My dad made us the vanity out of real wood and gave it a honey stain that is just stunning. It makes it look so fancy. I am hoping when we find a house that has a bathroom like that. I’m sorry that we wont be ready to go by the time school starts. But the boys are looking forward to seeing their friends one last time before school. They both have sleepovers this weekend so we should be able to get our closet sorted out. I’m not taking some of the clothes I have held on to since the 1990’s. I am keeping my favorite witch Halloween costume, but everything else goes to the dumps since goodwill isn’t accepting clothing because of the covid 19 virus. I have also saved and packed up a bunch of my moms old scrub tops she would wear to work and I’ve decided Im going to make a quilt for each of my boys and one for me. First I have to learn how to make a quilt, I’m hoping that’s where my mother in law can help. I’ve seen the beautiful things she makes for craft fairs, so I’m hopeful she can quilt. I did make a big afghan quilt out of crocheted granny squares but that’s different than a quilt. It’s probably more like a comforter.
Packing up things and deciding what goes with us and what gets left behind is hard emotionally draining work. It leaves me exhausted to pack my china hutch because almost every piece of good crystal, fine China, and gravy boat I got from my mom. She would bring me things she thought I would love when her and my Aunt Meme would go shopping in Coeur d’Alene. She was usually right too. I love all the snowmen hot chocolate pitcher and candy cane handled mugs. The cut crystal pineapple bowls and platters. And the teacup collection is off to a good start. I do have a healthy collection of wine glass that have to go as I don’t drink wine anymore on account of the diabetes. I’m hoping to re-home them by either donating somewhere or giving to someone who is in need of some wine glasses. Hit me up on the messenger if you are interested and I can either mail to you or you can pick up. I have boxes for a safe transport home. I know I could just drink other things out of the glasses but I also have 2 teens that are all “bull in china shop” around my fragile items. I’d rather have someone enjoy them than sweep up shards of glass in my new kitchen.
I think I’m at the midpoint of packing. Joes room is done. Niks room still has laundry issues. And hubby and I have to tackle our closet this weekend. I just hope I can keep it together when we come across the “Santa wrapping paper” that I would buy every other year so they could see that mom and dads paper was different than the one Santa gave them. Oh how elaborate the lies got as they got older. Then the youtubes had to tell on me. They showed me a video called lies your parents tell you. They ratted out Santa, Tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny. Stinkin youtube! But now we get to sleep in and have brunch after we open presents on Christmas afternoon. I haven’t had a green Christmas since 1995. I’m looking forward to new traditions this holiday season and I’m so excited to get some trick or treaters, besides their cousins, for the first time since we moved here. Everyone wears a mask on Halloween anyway, right? Trick or Treat!

The Party

The birthday farewell party
Everyone who wants to come is welcome to stop by our house. We are all healthy and no one has had anything more than a splitting headache (me) from the cottonwood pollen. And it could have been agitated by arguing with a 13 about to be 14 year old who should seriously consider a career in law. The boy has intelligent rational arguments and can expose a loophole in any agreement. His one big flaw though is when arguing with me , he has facial tells that let me know I have left a loophole for him to wiggle through. So I have to end our agreements in writing with loopholes are unacceptable and will null and void this agreement. Ya. Hence the headache.
At the end of 7th grade one of his teachers retired. He gave the new teacher a heads up about how my son used loopholes in the rules to get around things like hard due dates, and team projects. The new teacher added a no loophole rule to her class specifically because of my son- who really should be a lawyer, to save herself from any arguments from any students trying to take advantage of her inexperience with wiley teens.
Now we are trying to move before school starts, but in order to register for school you have to have an address. So finishing the bathroom and then taking pictures of the house to sell it is the main focus. Then after we sell this house we can buy one in Arizona and then pack up the uhaul and off we go. I have heard of two other families that have already moved down there from here. Arizona just has a bigger job market and an abundance of housing. For me, I will be back in a big city, and I will be able to show my boys all the fun things there are to do. I see it as an exciting adventure. We will also have family close by so the boys will have grandparents to learn all kinds of things from and go do things together. Im looking forward to spend time crafting with my mother in law, and shooting with my father in law. If school starts off by being online then the boys can go to school just by logging online from anywhere with a wifi connection.
As far as the party, I hope the whole neighborhood comes and gets to know the guy who bought the snowplow because you will want to know him when the snow flies. We will have hot dogs , hamburgers, birthday cake, iced tea, and some soda pop If you would like to bring a side dish you are more than welcome.

Married twenty-one years

Panhandler Pies
May 1999

Married Twenty one years
To start at the beginning….once upon a time long ago in 1998 the personal computer was finally affordable for regular people. My parents bought one so my mom could search her genealogy back to the 1100’s. She searched her Paternal and maternal side and found out where they lived in Scotland before they were forced from their beloved highlands and shipped to America. Anyway, I had a girlfriend we will call Gigi, who was also a co-worker staying with us for a few weeks. One day I come home from work and my mom and Gigi are on the computer and look guilty af when I come into the room. I ask what they are up to and both try too hard to look innocent.
M- How was work?
S- Really busy. You would think it would be quiet with a cable outage, but everyone and their brother called it in.
G- So are you tired or do you have a minute to look at something?
S- Yeah. Let me go up to change and I will look at it then.
So I go upstairs to my room to change out of my work clothes and come back down to see Gigi with a big grin and my mom hopping up out of the computer chair to kiss me goodnight and say don’t be mad we were only trying to help.
So I sit down and look at the screen and see its on match.com. Im shocked.

S-WHAT DID YOU DO?
G- We made you a profile. Look its already filled out. You just have to look through the guys it picked for you.
S- How do you even know my type?
G-Well you might have to tweak that a bit. Your mom guessed based on past boyfriends.
S-Ok then. I will start over in that part of it because these 56 matches have nothing Im looking for in a potential match.

So I punched in my real preferences and got narrowed down to nine matches. Then narrowed it further by geographic distance and got two matches. They also signed me up for a two week free trial so there was a time limit and I had to act fast.
I contacted the guy who didn’t have a picture posted but you could tell he put effort into his bio so there were no games just here I am email me if you are interested in talking further and getting to know each other. So it began. We both had long checklists of what we wanted in a spouse and were pretty honest and up front that we were looking to get married. At the time he lived in Alaska and I lived in Idaho kinda long distance and only one hour time difference. After a few months of chatting on line, we got a little more serious and started calling once a week where we could talk privately for about an hour while no one was home at either of our places. Then we made the decision to finally meet in person. He still had only sent me a picture of himself at work where his face was smeared with motor oil and he was in need of a haircut. I could tell he was working on a car and wore glasses. So to be fair, I sent him a picture of me so far away he could barely make out my high ponytail. Fair is fair. I might have been watching some Legend of Billie Jean before I sent it.

When we finally met in person after six months of talking online almost every night and weekly phone calls it was like we had been dating the whole time. He was here for one whole week and then he would fly back to Alaska. I didn’t want him to go and knew he already he was willing to relocate down to the lower 48. So I had a little war inside my head about shouting out that I wanted to marry him and the other one that sounded like my mothers saying be a lady. Wait for him to ask. But after three days I couldn’t wait any longer. I whispered in his ear,
S- Do you want to get married?
H- what?
S- (chickening out) oh nevermind.
H- NO. Say that again in my good ear. I didn’t hear you.
S-(taking a big leap of faith) Will you marry me?
H-Yes! When? Tomorrow?!
S-Well I was thinking this summer, but I’m free to check out some jewelry stores tomorrow.
And now 21 years later we have two happy teenage boys, and he still gives me the goosebumps when he flashes me those dimples. So thanks Mama and Gigi for setting me up with my future husband. You guys did a good job nudging me to get out there.