Lessons Learned in the Desert

1. It's not a myth... cactus quills really do hurt.

And what's more is that they're kind of sneaky, too.  Show us a cactus with giant menacing quills and we're sure to stay away.  But show us a cactus with almost-invisible-fuzzy hair and it's not so simple.  Turns out the fuzzy hairs are more like poisonous shards that stab you and stick into your skin for the long haul.  We've all learned this the hard way because we have a pet cactus in our backyard.  It keeps eating our balls - soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, kickballs, you name it - and we're getting dangerously close to Ball Extinction over here.  Anyway, those tiny quills are small enough to be rather invisible and seem rather harmless, so you don't see that they have dislodged from the cactus and have found a new home in the skin of the ball. But as you retrieve your ball from the cactus, being careful not to touch the giant menacing quills, you grab right on top of a patch of the nasty poison shards and suddenly they don't seem so harmless anymore.  It takes days to remove them all and is quite frustrating.  My neighbor finally suggested wrapping the thing in bubble wrap.  I'm pretty sure that would kill the plant (no air for it to breathe, you see), but every time I quickly Google it, I just end up with lots of hits on how to make a cactus with bubble wrap, pipe cleaners and paint.  Not so helpful.  I guess we'll just keep the tweezers handy and curse the thing under our breaths.

2.  Drivers drive safely here... it might be because they know if they got in an accident they'd have to step out of their air conditioned car into the deathly heat of Hades.

I know, I know.  This is a terrible picture.  But it feels a bit awkward to be pointing your camera directly at the car parked right next to you (the driver doesn't know whether to act candid or to smile, you know), so this is all we get.  Anyway.  The important thing about this picture is All That Space between the two cars right next to me!  They are both completely stopped and you could fit a small car between them.  This happens always.  Definitely much different than the bumper riders in Miami.

3.  My kids get happy when they're twirling.

Do you know what you need for twirling?  Space.  A lot of it, preferably, if more than one child is twirling around at the same time.  The first night in our new home McKenzie spent about 30 minutes up in this giant play room twirling around and singing an original song all about how much she loved it.  It sure feels good to stretch out our muscles from our cramped Miami quarters. Also, carpet.  That's nice, too.  Because twirling makes you dizzy.

4. Nothing shines a light on how much junk you own like pulling it out of 3,578 boxes.

5.  My kids get happy when they're wrestling.

Do you know what you need for wrestling?  Space.
Also, carpet is nice, too. Because, wrestling. 

6.  Moving to a new place alongside old friends is kiiiiiiiiiind of cheating.

Out of 50 states and thousands of cities, what were the chances that one of our best family friends from North Carolina would end up living less than two miles away from us on the other side of the country?  No matter how many  new faces and new names and new stories I have to learn, I know I can always end a hard day sipping hot cocoa across from one familiar face I love.  It feels kind of like a moving shortcut - and I'm happy to take it.

And unpacking boxes alongside old friends is definitely the way to go... especially if you can wear formals while you're at it.   These girls spent days creating BoxVille.  An entire village made from the discarded boxes.  They even had inspirational quotes up on the walls (one of my favorites was "a house is not a home without a family") and laws to govern themselves.  At one point I said, "You know what this is girls?  Old friends in a new house."  This sparked 45 minutes of creative song writing and singing by those three.  The lyrics went something like this:

We are old friends

Old friends.

We are old friends in a new house.

7.  Homeschooling has a million perks, but so does public school.



Thankfully all the schools around here are great - and we've been super happy with ours.  And, as I took the two minutes to hack away all the personal information on these kids' brand new school shirts before posting the picture I felt sad because... well... I guess just because I felt I had to.  And because the whole point of this picture was to show off their new school pride.  But I suppose, if I ever get around to it, it'll go in the scrapbook in all it's informative glory. 

8.  The grocery stores have giant variety of candy.  Really.

We had plenty to pick and choose from to make this candy poster for Daddy.  The kids and I thought of one nice thing to do for Daddy every day during the first week of his brand new job.  Monday we filled the house with handmade posters and signs.  Tuesday I ironed all of his shirts (big deal, people), Wednesday we made this candy poster, Thursday we made a raspberry cheesecake, and Friday we made a delicious salmon dinner (okay, I know.  Our lives kind of revolve around food... but it makes us happy).  I really am so proud of him.  The past 10 years he has worked so hard to build a successful career and has also worked hard to help me create a successful family.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - he is a master in the art of balance.  So I was happy to do a week of good for him.  I was also happy when that week ended.  It's hard to be nice.

9.  For being free, public schools sure cost a lot of money.

$200 stares you in the face here, people.  $200. 

10.  Turns out the doctors in Vegas agree with the doctors elsewhere.  Immunizations are important.

Timothy would like to disagree.  But I think he was more traumatized by the giant mass of blood-soaking-gear they stuck to his legs.  Seriously! In the office, TK pulled the gobs of cotton and bandaids off of his left leg twice before I finally said, 'enough'.  Has anyone ever had a kid that bled enough to warrant all of that cotton?  It seems to me that we might have bigger problems if he did need all of that - but... I could be wrong.