Learning our new Neighborhood

Sadie and I took our first walk today through our new neighborhood. Actually, it was our first walk with the new wheelchair! It was a beautiful December day in Phoenix, and we had a good time listening to the birds and greeting people we saw.

Before we even got to the end of our street, we were greeted by a woman walking her dogs who exclaimed that it was such beautiful day, wasn't it? I agreed, happy that she even said hi, let alone had a mini-conversation!! People weren't like that in our old neighborhood. As we walked, we saw another lady with her dogs, an older man jogging, and a family taking a bike ride. Everyone said hello.

Sadie enjoying the sunshine with the mountain in the background

I had no idea where we were going, and realized too late that I should have at least LOOKED at a map and made a plan. Instead, I trusted my instincts, and relied on what little I know about the area. At one point we were walking down a somewhat busy street (by busy I mean the speed limit was fast, not that there were a lot of cars) where there was no sidewalk. Luckily there was a bike lane and space between the bike lane and the curb (for parking?) where we safely walked. Then the sidewalk turned into gravel before it was paved, we really took that new wheelchair for a spin!!

Another thing I learned on our walk was that it's garbage day!! We did a lot of dodging trash cans that had been set out on the curb. Some were easy to dodge, some we had to go into the street to avoid. At one point, there was a man leaving his driveway, but apparently had forgotten to set out the garbage, so he stopped his car right on the sidewalk and hopped out. I was like, "seriously???" But then, to my surprise, he looked at us and realized we were coming, got back in his car, pulled it forward off of the sidewalk, then got back out to get his trash. I was so impressed!! Who does that? That was so nice!!

We finally found our way home and walked around our own block before coming upon our house (which I almost didn't recognize coming from the other direction! ha!). It is a nice neighborhood where we live. I think I'm really going to like it here.

PS. This evening I plan on doing some visiting. I made enough cookies to knock on 3 doors!!

Moving Day

We did it! We moved. I would have posted this sooner, but...

The day before we moved Brian was gone most of the day, and then the evening too. His mom has enlightened me that this may be a hereditary trait. Luckily, we don't plan on moving ever again. We were up way too late trying to finish last minute stuff, then we laid in bed and remembered our time in that house (when we should have been sleeping). We laughed about a lot of memories, and we came up with some more that probably should have made the top 10 list! (ie. the smoke alarm that had a short and would randomly go off in the middle of the night and scare us half to death!! And when we thought we lost Wilson, our kitty, who was gone for almost a week before he showed up at 4:00 one Sunday morning)

We got up really early Thursday morning in order to throw away put stuff in last minute boxes. By we, I mean I got up early and started building boxes in the master bathroom (in an effort not to wake up Sadie), so Brian had no choice but to get up. The movers arrived promptly at 8:20 and didn't waste any time. They had a ramp for our porch, a red carpet down on the tile, and our chairs and dinner table wrapped in plastic wrap and in the truck by 8:30. They were amazingly fast... and strong. And they took everything. EVERYTHING. 3 hours later their truck was full, our house (and back yard) was empty, and I was starving.

I was a little sad packing stuff up and thinking about no longer living in our house. Then I almost started crying waiting for the movers to arrive. But then as we got to our new home, and things started being unloaded from the truck and brought in. As we started seeing things like our bed and our couches in this new house, then I forgot about being sad, and I started getting excited. It's still a little surreal that we actually live in this house, it was such a far fetched dream, and now it's real.

My job was to start unpacking the kitchen while everybody worked on unloading the truck. It was sort of an intimidating job, especially when they kept bringing me box after box after box marked "kitchen." But I got food into the fridge, and I found enough stuff to make dinner later. And then they were done and I crashed. My feet hurt, my back hurt, I hadn't gotten enough sleep for like the last 2 weeks... I needed a nap.

So now we're here. We've spent one night in our new house. Sadie did well and slept in her bed pretty well. The cats did NOT do well and kept us up for a lot of the night. They are worried and stressed out and scared, but they'll get used to things and it'll be alright again. Luckily Barney is so trained that he won't go potty anywhere but the litter box, and Wilson is so nervous he probably won't go for a couple of days! We laid in bed last night and just listened. No cars screeching around the corner, or driving without a muffler at 2:00 in the morning. No gunshots. No tractor plowing the field behind our house at 11:00 at night. No sirens or dogs howling at the sirens. No helicopters. No traffic. Nothing. It was quiet, and peaceful, and so nice.

We're moved. It's incredible. And it's all ours!

Here's a video of the movers loading the piano. This was the climax. We knew once the piano was in, that was it... we were just about done!!

Top 10 memories of Tolleson (aka. the ghetto)

Today was the last full day spent in our house. Tomorrow morning the movers will come bright and early and help us take everything to our new house. I'm really excited about the new house, REALLY, but it's a little sad to leave this one. I really like this house. I've been in love with it since the first moment I ever walked in. It's too bad our neighborhood has turned into the ghetto. Just last night I woke up to gun shots! So sad.

So, in an effort NOT to be sad, I've been thinking about memories of living here for the last 4.5 years. I've come up with a top ten list. I will always smile when I think of these things, even though some of them are more annoyances than happy memories.

10. Emptying the pool every spring. In Phoenix the water is so hard, this is something you have to do yearly if you own a pool...there is no way to get rid of hard water, except to replace it.

9. Wasps. We've had a serious wasp/hornet/yellow jacket problem the last couple of years. At first they were just in the big bush outside. Then there were nests on the front porch, all around under the eaves, and in the barbeque. We think they liked being close to the water source...they were always in the pool. Won't miss them!

8. The dead bird birthday present. A few years ago, the day before my birthday, we had the back door open a little so the cats could come and go as they pleased. It was the evening and as we were eating dinner, we heard some kids screaming/playing. We just assumed that they were at the park across the street behind our house. Later, when I went to the bathroom, I found a BIG.DEAD.CROW!!! Later, we realized that the kids we heard screaming was probably that bird dying. And that my cats must really love me to want to get me something so special for my birthday.

7. Planting the garden. Our garden has sort of evolved into something with a life of its own. It's crazy and out of control (ie. haphazard). I'm excited to start a new one and do a little more "planning" this time! But this one has given us lots of good stuff to eat, and I'm glad we had the chance to "practice."

6. Patio Furniture. We spent a long time choosing the perfect patio furniture. We looked at a lot of different sets and when we finally decided on some, I was so excited when they were delivered. I still love them.

5. Skinny dipping. Anyone who has a pool and no kids does this. Don't be shocked. It's especially fun on those hot summer nights.

4. The Nelson Family. The Nelsons live across the street and we rely on them for emergency babysitting, forgotten ingredients, and friendly visits (or a place to escape a screaming child). We're going to really miss them.

3. Painting. Brian hates painting. So, when I want to paint the walls, I have to do it all myself, which is okay because I generally enjoy doing it (plus he just spends the whole time complaining and he's really bad at it). But we have REALLY high ceilings, and at the highest point they're probably 15 feet high. Really scary.

2. The car crash. We live against a street. We're 3 or 4 houses down from the corner of another street. This other street dead ends to the right, and to the left it is straight for almost a mile, and there are no houses on this street. The speed limit is 25, but mostly people rev it up and skid around our corner in order to gun it and go as fast as they can down this other street. It's annoying and it's dangerous. I'm always afraid someone is going to come skidding around the corner from the other street, lose control, crash through our fence and their car is going to end up in our pool. Well, it didn't exactly happen like that...

We are only 1 house away from the other corner, the corner you take to enter our street. One night there was apparently a car chase (did I mention we live in the ghetto?), the car being chased tried to take the corner onto our street, but was going to fast and instead crashed right through our neighbor's back yard. We stood on chairs in the middle of the night and watched the tow truck pull the car back over the steel bars and out of their yard. It was crazy. But I'm really glad it didn't happen in our yard!

I should also mention that when we first woke up to this "accident" that first we heard a crash, then gun shots. Apparently the guy who crashed through the fence, upon realizing that his car was stuck, got out and ran. That's when the car that was doing the chasing fired the gun. Super scary.

1. Our Homebirth. Sadie was born in this house. She was born back in our bedroom. I labored in our tub and in our bed. And that's where the paramedics came when Sadie wasn't breathing upon delivery. That's going to be a hard memory to leave. We may never have another homebirth because of the risk factors that I have acquired since Sadie's birth. You'd think it's a bad memory because of what happened, but I had a wonderful birth with all my best friends around me. I hope that this is a memory we can recreate in our new home.

I know we will make new memories in our new house. I don't know how people manage to move so often. I get emotionally attached to where I live, and it's hard to let go of all the things that have happened there. I hope we never have to move again.