Moving update

After today, we will officially be moved out of our apartment in Gilbert- this afternoon, Tom is heading there to clean, take apart some shelves, and take down our two ceiling fans. I’ll meet him there after work to load the stuff in my car, then we can turn in our keys. It was a nice apartment, but I won’t be sorry to have it over with- the whole mood of the place changed after the condo conversion announcement was made; plus we always knew living there was temporary, so we couldn’t ever feel too “comfortable” there, if you know what I mean.

Our house is a bit of a shambles right now- the garage is full of boxes, garbage bags, and various pieces of furniture. It felt sort of like Christmas, emptying out the storage unit and seeing things again that we had packed away… the mirror that hung in Gram’s bedroom, my Pyrex mixing bowls, Tom’s drum set and the big amplifier- it’s nice to finally have a place large enough to display all of our possessions, and be able to use them again!

Even though the house isn’t all put together yet, it’s already feeling like “home” to both of us… we keep saying things like “I really like that paint color” or “I like the layout of this room” when we’re both home in the evening, and we already have a good idea of what we’re going to do in the backyard. It’s amazing how that worked- we walked into the model, looked at the layout, and knew we would like living in it, and that our stuff would “fit” in it… and, with the paint, we chose the colors, seriously, in under three minutes. I guess we finally just knew what we wanted in order to make a comfortable home!

We haven’t really had much of a chance to explore “in-town” yet… there’s an “old” section (very small) with a feed store, an authentic-looking Mexican restaurant, a landscaper/gravel yard, and a couple “mall-type” buildings containing several stores (one of the buildings used to be a barn, I think), and a lot of new development farther up the road- strip malls full of chain stores and fast-food restaurants, 2 large grocery stores, a CVS Pharmacy and a Walgreens, etc. There’s always talk of what’s to come- a Walmart or Target, an upscale shopping mall across the highway from the Indian casino south of town, an upscale shopping mall closer to our house, etc. It’s interesting to see it grow, but it’s almost happening TOO fast… hopefully the older part of town will manage to modernize somewhat without getting torn down to make room for a McDonald’s or something. The “small-town” feel is a plus, but “progress” doesn’t usually leave room for that.

Although there is still an additional 7.5 mile detour due to road damage from the recent flooding, I really like my new drive to and from work…there’s just something awesome and uplifting about seeing the mountains, and watching the sky change from dusty lavenders and blues to pinks, corals, and orange as the sun rises behind the Superstition Mountains in the morning. (I wish I could do that view justice with my description, but I’ll never be that good of a writer.) That part of the drive makes up for the 4 lanes of 70mph traffic on the interstate, and for having to be up early enough to leave the house by 5 am. I’d love to take pictures of it, but I’m only up that early to drive to work, and probalby won’t ever have time to stop!

Our house is (for the moment, anyway) “out of town” which I also love… it’s taking a little getting used to, though, not being able to drive a block to the grocery store, or two blocks to the Super WalMart, if we need something- now, the nearest WalMart is probably 20 minutes away, and the grocery store is 10 minutes away. There’s not much development around our subdivision yet, so it’s still pretty agricultural, which makes me feel much more “at home” than living in Gilbert did- there’s cotton fields, a pecan grove, some empty farmland, an egg farm, a feed lot with THOUSANDS of cows, and a HUGE grain elevator right next to railroad tracks… last week, I saw a couple quail along the road, and yesterday, a lizard darted across the road in front of my car! I will hate to see it all go, when it eventually gets built up- hopefully it will take a few years. I should drive around some afternoon and take some pictures of the area, since it probably won’t stay like that forever…

This weekend we’re going to do a Home Depot trip (our first of many, probably) for things like towel bars, a new vacuum, etc, and to look at larger ceiling fans for the bedroom and family room. Tom has the computer up and running, we now have internet access and cable TV, and my guess is the next thing he will work on is his music room… I definitely want to organize my crafting space, too- I have lots of ideas rolling around in my head, and want to get them onto paper! Plus, I need to make thank-you cards for the people who helped us move, as well as the “we’ve moved” cards to send out, so people have our new address and phone number. Then, maybe I could even scrap a page or two!

I will definitely take in-progress pictures of the house as we get things put together, and some pictures of the outside, too- there’s nothing there yet, but they started working on the front landscaping yesterday, and we’re having gravel installed in the backyard next week.

I hope you all are enjoying your August... that Jackie and Bonny Rose are keeping cool in Missouri, that Jeff and Marguerite are taking advantage of the parks and lakes in the Twin Cities, that Judy is relaxing before the school year starts, and that Mom and Dad are keeping up with the gophers in the garden!