My life after the 15 minutes…

 Good evening from gorgeous Arizona! So I can't deny that I had my trepidations about what we would find when we moved here. Well it's the last day of December, it was about 75 degrees today and we found that there is a beautiful National Park about 10 minutes away from our house. We had an amazing day driving the loop around the park and making stops to let the kids climb on the rocks. We got our stuff delivered  yesterday with literally zero issue so we all have a place to sleep now and we are slowly figuring out how to organize our new home. It's been an absolute godsend to have my niece here as she's been able to watch the kids as Bubs and I have made about 20 trips per day to the local Ace Hardware store (yay projects!). We have yet to meet our neighbors, which is a little strange to me as we've been in and out of the house since Friday. Back home, every newcomer is swarmed by every well wisher and busy body--multiple times. But we can give that time--right now...

 Today is Sunday and we've been in Arizona since about 8pm on Friday. Notice,  I haven't said in our new house since Friday. What do they say about the best laid plans? Moving day was emotional. One of those days where I go to bed with the best of intentions to get up, get my stuff done, get in the car and head out. Well with me and my sisters there was absolutely no way that was going to happen. Our plan going to bed on Friday was that Bubs would take one kid in his Tacoma and I would take one kid and the three dogs in my SUV. He has a camper shell so most of our stuff would ride along with him. We figured the kids could swap back and forth as the day went on. Our plan for goodbyes was to go to everyone's house, make it as fast as we could and then come back to our house and load everything up and get out. My amazing family had other plans and met us at the door to help us pack up the cars.  My sisters had a last minute gift for me and insisted I open it. It may be one o...

 Today is the 26th, day after Christmas. It is officially our last full day in Texas, thankfully we are pretty much prepared to go tomorrow. All we really need to do is pack up, get the dogs ready and head west.  We wanted today to be as relaxed as possible and we want to be rested up because our plan is to drive strait through to Tucson on Friday--about 13 hours. We do have a bail out plan to stop in El Paso if need be but I think with the dogs, we both prefer to just get there.  I had to keep telling myself that yesterday is not the last Christmas we will celebrate with our families here in Texas. They will still live here, we still own the house, flights in and out are fairly easy and we will we always have a place to stay. I think with the positive thinking it was nearly as sad as I was expecting it to be. Not sad, but chaotic none the less.  It started off when we all met up at my older sister's house to walk over to our church's Christmas Eve service. I was try...

 It's Christmas Eve and I'm having to take a break today. I'll get into the reasons in just a minute. One thing I've never wanted to do on this blog is talk about dramatic events like those that happened Saturday and just casually move past it.  I was able to nap most of the day Sunday which made me feel so much better on its own. I was also able to find the therapist's website that Peyton recommended and fill out her new patient form. Peyton had recommended to be as specific as possible about my goals, past therapy and therapists, why I was reaching out, etc.  The therapist emailed me back about an hour later with a very positive note saying that she would be happy to try to set up remote sessions with after the new year. She also said that she attended a PD conference   with the marriage counselor Bubs and I have been going to and heard her speak and said that she has very similar philosophies about therapy, game plans and feedback.  Even though I haven't...

 I'm going to start this one off by saying thank you...again. Being able to sit down and write and know that there are people out there who actually read has probably been the one single thing that has helped me the most since everything happened this summer. I think its 2am, I can't sleep and there is no where but here that I have to unload everything that is racing through my brain.  Yesterday, I was exhausted. Probably a combination of being pregnant, the holidays, I'm sleeping on a borrowed bed in my own bedroom and I'm living out of suitcase. Bubs and I had a literal magical evening on Friday. We got to have our candlelit dinner, we walked around the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights and take note of how so much has changed, who still lives in what house, who has moved, etc.. And when we got home it was even warm enough of for us to grab a blanket and lay on double chaise lounge by the pool and drift off to sleep before getting up and going to bed inside...

  Edit: I totally meant to sit down and write out a blog requested by one of my readers on the show Young Sheldon. Sorry! It was a bit of an emotional day today so I kind of got carried away. If you want to skip this one, I don’t blame you! I’ll have some time tomorrow so I will definitely talk about the show (which I loved, btw).     Today was my last day at work—quite literally turned in my keys, signed a document acknowledging that I no longer have access to student and personal records and that my email address and folders would be deleted within the year after which all my data will be unrecoverable. My coworkers surprised me with an early baby shower and I ugly cried because of how much that little school and the people who work there mean to me. My workday ends at 12, school got out early at 12:30 today and I think after all was said and done...I ended up driving out of our little dirt staff parking lot at 2:45, I just couldn't drag myself away.  Everyone ...

Bubs and I are just getting back from a local title company where we signed our lives away for the next 15 years on a house that we are both so-so on but that we both agree is the best fit for our lives for the next few years. We just closed on the second house we've owned. The amazing thing about this is that when we drive away from Texas on the 27th (next week--are you f-ing kidding me!!!!) we will be able to essentially drive door to door. This is so nice because we don't have to come up with any weird plans to kennel the dogs while we stay in a hotel or Airbnb. The kids can move right into their rooms and we can start to make the place our own and work out any kinks before our stuff gets there in the first week of January.  Bubs and I had a little argument last week because I had put in my last blog that we had bought the little house we where lived in Austin. I was mistaken, we rented it. Mr "must be accurate no matter what" got mad at me because he thought all o...

 It's Wednesday the 11th and today and tomorrow we have a moving company coming over to pack up our lives and hold everything in storage until they can drop it off at our new house in Arizona in January (pray our closing goes well next week). I am trying to keep it together but watching a bunch of strangers pack up your kids' rooms is a tough thing to see. Especially since it's the only room my son has ever really known. They are about half way done and already the place doesn't feel like home anymore. It's so strange.  I'm trying to take my mind off of it but this house has played such a central role in my life. This house is where I had my first pool party with my future husband when I was 13 years old. I can look out Bubs office window and see my old bedroom across the wall--he used to sit at the window when this was his grandmas "get away room" and I'd flash my boobs to him and I could see his smile from hundred feet away. We've hosted holi...

 So I have several blogs kind of in the works but some are very emotional (i.e our house is being packed up this week and Bubs and I had a pretty emotional last marriage counseling session) so I've been distracting myself by watching the Paramount show Landman. For those who are unaware, it's apparently written by the same guy who did the Yellowstone series. Although, I have only seen clips of Yellowstone apparently Landman has a very similar feel and tone.  I am very protective of my home state so I always go into shows like that with some trepidation because there are so few that actually get Texas correct. Most of the time, we are presented as this overly racist, backwoods group of hillbillies that can't get along with anyone else. I actually have no problem with depictions like that, I just chose to turn them off because all I can do is pick them apart with how wrong they are. I think the best way to look at Texas is more like a microcosm of the US. We have huge cities ...

 So I wrote on Monday about the fight that started with my sister on Sunday afternoon. We've had hundreds of these fights over these years. We had about 20 of them where we needled and picked on each other on Thanksgiving alone. My older sister Jennifer is very high strung and so am I so that makes it fairly easy to set each other off. But from the fact that Jenn was swearing at me in front of the family made realize that she was really upset about me taking the jeans (if you need a primer, that post can be found  here ) and this was bigger than any fight we've had in recent memory.  Jenn's oldest daughter is 13 and ever since she started middle school, I've driven her to school on most mornings. Jenn's other daughter and son are 9 and 7 and their school is in the opposite direction while the middle school is on my way. Those drives have been so fun because we sing our hearts out to Sabrina, Taylor, Chapel, etc... Usually I drive by their house give a quick beep and...

 I've talked about my sisters a lot lately. Mostly because with every passing day it becomes more real that we are actually moving away. We are as close as sisters can possibly be and it doesn't seem real that I won't be able to just walk down the street any time I need to talk with them. I also have to think that the Sauvignon Blanc sellers in our area will notice a dramatic drop in sales since when we get into one of our long yap sessions, we drink enough white wine to affect the global supply. Not only are we close, our kids are more or less siblings and it's pretty much every day that I'm praising, hugging, dancing, singing or even disciplining or breaking up a fight between kids I didn't give birth to.  So yeah the nostalgia is hitting me hard as I spent the afternoon packing up family pictures and putting them in boxes since I want to carry them with us instead of letting the movers take them. It's also hitting me because my older sister Jennifer is cu...