Christmas at Flaco's 2014

A year ago, we drove out to MI and IN so me and K could meet P’s family and friends. And yeah, I WAS CRAZY NERVOUS! Like seriously, I think I went through, like, three or four sticks of deodorant. I should have bought stock in Degree. But, it was AWESOME. P’s family was so welcoming and kind. Even though I let slip a cuss word in the first five minutes of being there. Which, by the way, I totally don’t remember!!! But P swears that I did. What can I say? I have a terrible potty mouth. My Daddy says I talk like a longshoreman. AAAAAANYWAY, they still liked me! And I kept a lid on my yap after that too. It was beautiful up in MI with several feet of snow and lots of playing outside. K had a blast with the kids, but boy was she het up and angry when the snow got in her mittens. “IT’S BURNING ME!!!!! MOMMMY!!!!!! IT HURTS SO BAD!!!” LOLOLOL!!! I had to curb my laughter because she is a sensitive and sweet girl. When you laugh, she often gets upset because she thinks you are making fun of her. I actually have video of her catching air on her first sled ride. See below 

      So funny, she was thrilled and terrified at the same time, then really ticked when she fell off the sled. I’ll have to find that video. Found it, watched it, will post it. She’s such a sassafras. I couldn’t be more proud. After Christmas with the family we headed back down to IN to meet P’s friends. Had an absolute blast with everyone before heading to see my Aunt S in Indy and then heading home. 

So naturally, since we weren’t at home on Christmas morning, I had to ask Santa to deliver her presents to MI. Which he did, obligingly, and I really hoped we would be home for Christmas this year, but we don’t, as yet, have a home, and have instead taken over R’s(aka Flaco) house and set up a tiny fiberoptic tree for Santa, who has graciously agreed to deposit K’s gifts here this year. I’m telling you what, he’s probably getting fed up with us not being where we should be at Christmas, and you know what? So am I. I’m done bouncing around and so are these two. So this time next year, we will hopefully be warm and cozy in our MI home for Christmas. Enjoying Christmas Eve services at the local church(which P’s family has gone to for forever), having a Christmas morning at home, and Christmas with the family who will live less than 30 min away. Yeah, I know, I said home in MI, you caught that didn’t you? Well you’re pretty clever, but you’ll have to wait on that story, I’m still editing out the cuss words that are running amok in that post and I can’t put it up until I do. Don’t worry though, I’ll tell you ALLLLLL about it. In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas, may you travel safely and feel the Maker’s hand in your lives during this most precious time of year. I'll put up additional photos from two more Christmas parties soon, they just haven't happened yet!

Here are some pics from our Christmas this year at Flaco’s house

Family Dinner on Christmas Eve 

Our Christmas tree, trimmed and fully stocked with presents underneath. 

K coming down the stairs and seeing the presents

K and her cousins and Aunt P making Christmas cookies 

Santa and his reindeer loved their treats and Santa left K a little note!

West Virginia or Bust!

This is the start of something and so this post is longer than I would like. Read it, or not, it is really just cathartic for me to emote this way and I thought that maybe somebody might want to read about our crazy, fun life! However, I will try to keep posts shorter in the future. 

December 14, 2014

  And so we set off for our new life. Leaving behind family and friends that we cherish and a landscape that is both breathtaking and horrible depending on the season. I never thought I would want to live near my parents, as I have ever been the independent being. But leaving them was perhaps the hardest thing I have done in my adult life. And yet, this leaving brings about the turning of a page and the beginning of a new chapter for my new family. As I sit watching the eastern edge of New Mexico roll by the window of an overloaded U-haul, I take comfort in the fresh start we find ourselves embarking on. This comfort serves two purposes as it also allows me to forget that the car behind us is carrying my most precious cargo; my daughter, who I would trade ANYTHING for in order to keep her safe and my husband, for whom I would do the same. I find myself in good company, though, as our dear friend R is driving this 26’ U-haul that tows an equally loaded 6x12 U-haul trailer. I thank God that we have him here as I feel that neither myself or P have sufficient experience to keep such a lumbering vehicle on the road in these conditions. Wind, hills, mountain grades both up and down, and two and half inches of wiggle room in the steering wheel. The U-haul is a top heavy vehicle when empty..... Our movers unknowingly over loaded the right side so it lists a little to the right making the drive all the more harrowing.

Here’s a good shot of the lean in the truck. 

Our cats are riding in giant dog crates in the back of the U-haul trailer as the carbon monoxide poisoning in the back of the 26’ truck would surely have killed them, and this setup makes it easier for us to get at them for food and water. They are not happy cats right now, but I dosed them with Benedryl this morning and I bet they are sleeping or at least calmer than yesterday. K is asleep in the car with P which I’m sure is allowing him to listen to sports radio in peace, which is really all he wants in life. Peace. How he ever expected to get it with us two girls, two dogs, and three cats(and I haven’t even started to buy all the livestock I want) is beyond me. He is a saint for tolerating us and I love him more than words could describe for loving us despite our failings. 

This is what it looked like from in the rearview mirror while Paul and I took turns driving. The dogs were BORED….. and a little out of sorts. So they would lay there with the seat holding their drool in. K was AMAZING the whole trip. She played with her Leapster, Mobigo, and Innotab and watched movies. It will take a month to wake her brain up I’m sure. 

I will tell you the full story behind our move from AZ later as it will take it’s own post due to the complexity behind the entire story. I can say that part of our motivation behind leaving is to get away from the city life. Also, I want to raise my own food and know what I’m putting into my family’s bodies. I want my child to grow up in a small town with small town values. We couldn’t do any of that in Phoenix. Phoenix doesn't even have a good city life to make up for the urban sprawl that slowly desiccates the desert that I love. It started to be more than I could handle to see it be destroyed and being surrounded by that much bustle and noise was grating. And yet I still bawled as much in the leaving of Arizona as I did when I left my mom. Leaving my family was horrible; it felt like I was ripping my heart out. My parents and grandparents live in the Valley and I don’t know how much time I have left with any of them. I’ll tell you more about them later. When I said goodbye to my sister, L, the day before, I nearly threw her into the U-haul. I waited for years to have sisters(another story for another post) and now I was leaving the one I am closest to? A few years ago I would have said that leaving my brother would be no big deal, but this past year he has lived with us and I have grown to love the man he is turning out to be. It is emotionally devastating to me to leave them ALL.

Here is the view from the front of the U-haul as we drive through Indiana, I think. That was a rough day between the wind, TERRIBLE roads, and some really bad news. I’ll tell you about that in a later post. When the wind sheer coming off the semis would buffet the Uhaul, I held my breath and slammed my eyes shut. Dang dude. And also, drafting is, for real, a good way to save gas money. 

           But this is our opportunity, and this opportunity is a great chance for us to grow together as a family. No one to count on but one another. We survive together or we crash and burn together. I think maybe every new marriage would benefit from this trial by fire and I am truly looking forward to us having to depend on each other and forming an everlasting unbreakable bond that only those who band together in a fight to survive can truly understand. I think, aside from ridiculous technological differences, this same bond is what got the pioneers through. Without that support system, the west may never have been truly settled. So we are pioneers. Maybe not by previous historical standards, but we literally just packed up everything we own and are caravanning across the country to our land of opportunity. The horses that pull us are slightly different and our covered wagon is a giant U-haul, our teamster is a landlord/plowman and sometimes contractor. Our livestock consists of one American Bulldog(Petey), one Australian Cattle Dog(Rooster), and three nondescript house cats(soon to be mousers: Inigo, Milo, and Janey). But we are pioneers, braving wind and weather, all worldly possessions in tow, as we strike out for opportunity. We strike east instead of west, because maybe sometimes, in order to go forward, you have to go back. (Queue Matthew McConauhottie in a Lincoln.)

K and R are the best of friends. He truly is family to us and we could never have made it without him. Here he is helping K win a toy from The Claw!

So, what will we do when we get there? Once we can feel our backsides again, P will work and for the time being, I will settle our house. And then there will be two choices, go back to work part time and take care of K and the house, or find a way to work from home. I would want to work from home by creating things that I would in turn sell on Etsy and eventually to raise some egg laying beasties, some wool bearing creatures and possibly even a cow or yak for milk, meat and yarn. But that last part is more long term. So for now, I either find a way to be profitable at home or go back to work. I could start a pet sitting/dog walking business, and I may. I might be able to get work on the farm across from our new house(would be awesome) or something part time in town, but I need to be in charge of my schedule as it is very important to me that I only work while K is at school so I can be home with her. Maybe this time next year I will be homeschooling her, but until then, public school is where she will head this week. So, still some decisions left yet to make, but for now all I have to do is make Tulsa before having to beg for a pit stop again. :)