Arizona: Land of Sunshine and Mountains

I've never moved before. Well, ok, I did move twenty minutes away from where I grew up, and that's where John and I lived for eight years. Good lord, eight years. We had only planned on two in that dumpy condo, but when the market crashed in 08, we were officially stuck.

And now here we are on the other side of the country, all the way from New England to Arizona. To say it's different is a gross understatement. When told where we were moving, most folks back east would ask if we were moving here on purpose. No, this was not an accidental move. Yes, we know it's hot in the summer. And yes, we know about the scorpions. We're more familiar with the scorpions than we'd like to be.

We live near this now!

Everybody asks the same questions. Do you have family out here? Friends? Was it your husband's job that brought you here? Nope to all three. Just wanted to be closer to that desert.

My new morning routine involves ducks and mountains. Julia and I go walk to the duck pond, because apparently our patch of desert is duck-pond adjacent. Julia smiles at the ducks and geese, and then I do once we get near the mountains. This morning routine also involves a bit of what some might call stalking. Every morning we get up and out and I hope that we're going to meet some friends. It gets lonely when the only familiar voices around are those of your spouse and your GPS. It turns out that meeting women is not easy. Whenever I see someone walking or also pushing around a stroller, I try and head over to that location, but so far I've only had success in meeting the landscapers and house painters. They're a friendly bunch.

Yesterday I finally found the moms though. They congregate at a basketball court in the afternoons while their kids run around. I tried, really tried, but I kept getting nervous and quiet, and, well, Julia and I gave up and left after forty-five minutes of strained conversation interrupted by "Don't push your sister!! Get out of that mud puddle! You, time-out, now!!" Hey, that's our life now. It's just  frustrating on occasion when you try to have a real conversation when everybody's attention has to be so divided. I did meet one very cool mom, so I'll force myself to go back again; but for today I'm happy to unpack.

In other news, Julia's dietary restrictions have lessened tremendously over the last month too. I fed her a little yogurt every day, and eventually she stopped getting dairy rashes, and now she puts it away like a champ. In fact it's all she wants to eat. I've created a monster! But, she's no longer allergic to all dairy, so I call it a win. Jury's still out on gluten. No new recipes until the kitchen's unpacked. Which I should go work on...