Clovis, CA to Goodyear, AZ

Day number 1!

This first day was the longest and probably most boring portion of the trip. It is the only part we have done before, and the whole thing was pretty familiar. It felt good to get it over with and know that the drives will get more exciting as we go.

Highlights:

- Arriving at my sissies and seeing the whole fam, including The One I Love (Jay). I woke him up from a nap, and he looked at me with a confused face for a few seconds. Then he burst into a smile.

- Before we got there they captured a scorpion in our bathroom. They also caught a wolf spider that night. We had the true Arizona experience, desert creatures and all.

- Passing through Blythe, my dad's old stomping grounds. He spent a summer there picking cantelope. We had cantelope with dinner.

- The temperature was in the low hundreds, and everyone was talking about how cool it was. This may seem silly, but I was really thankful.

I am starting to appreciate the desert. I like to look out across the nothingness, the dry dirt and weeds and bushes, and think about all that is going on that I can't see. The desert is active and alive, even if it looks asleep from the car.

And...we're off!

We are all packed up and ready for adventure! David did an amazing job stuffing our cube to the very tippy top, and now we are on our way across the country. It is strange to leave somewhere and have no idea when you will return.

We have a new home waiting for us that we have never even seen. I'm so thankful I have a husband who will make any place special!

Golf carts and me

It's official. I have bad luck with golf carts.

I was about 9 years old. My grandparents were visiting from Phoenix, and we all went golfing to enjoy the pleasant weather and the beautiful course. My brother and I alternated driving the cart between holes. Carts have simple pedals and only go about 12 mph- what could go wrong? My grandma was in the cart with me, and I was instructed to park it on a slight hill by the creek. As I neared the hill, I hit what I thought was the brake but turned out to be the gas pedal. We flew up and over the hill, and the cart plumetted down into the creek with a splash. The water was up to our waists, and as it rushed over our bodies my grandma and I began to cry. "We need an alibi," I thought. "The cops can't know I was driving! I'll go to jail!"

News travelled quickly and a few days after the incident my dad received an envelope in mail. It contained photos of two friends sitting in the cart, weeds draped over their shoulders, with beers in one hand and ball finders in the other.

Until last night, I was the golf cart idiot of the family. Thankfully, David has stolen that title.

Last night our dear friends Meg and Kyle came over for dinner. Once it was dark we decided to take the golf cart out for a ride around the course. I drove for a while, and then asked if anyone else would like to drive. Bad mistake. David climbed into the driver seat, and Meg and I got up to stand on the back. Kyle, deciding that Meg was too accident prone to stand on the back, encouraged Meg to sit in the cart while he took the back next to me. We cruised around the course, spotting deer and jack rabbits in the brush.

We hit a straightaway and were driving at a good speed when David had a rare intelligence lapse. He spotted sprinklers not too far away, and pressed the brakes in an effort to go through the sprinkles slowly enough to drench us all. As he braked the cart hit slick pavement and began to lose traction. We might have recovered had the tires not caught the grass on one side. Instead, the cart spun violently to the left. I felt myself flying into the air and I could see the cart tipping to its side.

Kyle and I landed in the grass, but Meg and David were inside the cart that was now sideways on the ground. They crawled out and David lifted the cart back onto its tires. In those 5 seconds the cart slid and tipped, the seat came off, the cart's batteries rested on the ground, Meg's fingers were pinched between the roof and the pavement, David braced himself to keep from crushing Meg, Kyle and I flew to safety in the fairway and landed with only one flip flop each, and we laid on the ground with the sprinklers soaking our aching bodies. Like the 9 year old I once was, tears welled up in my eyes. Once we realized everyone was relatively okay, the boys put the cart back together. Meg and I stood shaking under a blanket while the sprinklers continued to come back around and drench us.

The injuries to both the cart and its passengers were minimal, though Meg did require frozen corn, spinach, and mixed veggies for her wounds. The most significant injury was to David's spirit. However, in a way his trick worked. We were soaked as we rode the cart slowly back to the house.

Leenie!!!

(Photo taken by her awesome photographer husband while in Greece.)

Happy belated birthday to the queen of my heart. Her name is Kathleen, but we prefer to call her Kitty, Kitty Cat, Princess, Queen Sassleen, or Leenie.

Here is my birthday message to you:

Meow meow meow

Meeeowww meow

Meow meow meoooow

Meow meow

Much love to you, my beautiful princess. I miss you!

Jerks

A few months ago I drove to Borders to pick up a book. On the way, I passed a homeless man standing on the side of the road. I don't remember what his sign said, but I remember he looked old and his hair was white and his face looked soft. The driver in front of me rolled down his window and tossed something at the man. Trash. Not money, not food, but his own old fast food wrappers. I became angry, and decided that if the driver was going to Borders too then I would say something to him. Turn after turn, his truck remained in front of me.

I grew increasingly nervous as we got closer to Borders, and when he parked right in front of the building I panicked. He stepped out of his truck, and he was huge. I didn't say anything. I looked at him, and I couldn't speak. I let him get away with it. For weeks later I thought about that incident, about how he couldn't have done anything to a girl in a public parking lot in the middle of the day, about how I didn't want to be someone who let people get away with treating others like crap.

Today I was sitting in a coffee shop reading a book. This particular coffee shop employs young adults with disabilities, and it seemed that the young man at the front counter had just begun working there. A man sitting across the way kept glancing at me over his computer screen, and I tried to ignore him as I read. He answered a phone call, talked for a few minutes inside, then went outside for the majority of the conversation. When he came back in he sat in his seat and asked the young man, "Did you turn the music up because I was on the phone?" His voice grew louder as he spoke, and soon he was yelling. "I saw you turn the music up because I was on the phone. Why did you turn it up??? I saw you!!!" There were only 3 others of us in the cafe, and we all turned to see what was happening. The young man kept washing dishes and shaking his head back and forth. "But I saw you do it! Why? That was rude!!!"

A few minutes passed, then the man walked over to the counter. With renewed anger, he said, "Why did you turn the music up while I was on the phone? Did you not want me talking?? You shouldn't have turned it up!" As he sat back down, I turned to him and said across the room, "Why are you yelling at him?" He looked up, flustered, and sighed, "It was upsetting."

More time passed, and the man walked over near my table. He said, "I am sorry to bother you, it's just that he turned up the music while I was on the phone and it was very rude." I said, "Uh huh. I didn't hear the music get louder at all." "It went up at least three times. I don't know why, some people are just crazy." "Well, still, I don't think you should have yelled at him." "Yeah, probably not. Maybe I'm upset about other things too and it just came out here." "Okay," I said, and turned back to my book.

David walked in during this conversation, and after the man left David asked, "Um...did I miss something?" When I told him the story, he said, "You're a fireball. I'm proud of you."

I've made a decision. I'm going to stand up against the jerks. I will not be silent! Who's with me?

Jay-Mo

I miss this little guy! While my sis and her family visited last week, Jay kept forgetting my name. Instead of asking over and over, he chose to call me "the one I love." When he woke up in the morning, he'd asked his mom, "Where's the one I love?" A part of me hopes he never remembers and I keep this name forever.

Oh, and Jay said something not so sweet to David: "You're a girl because your tummy's fat." Huh?

Sura the water dog

A few days ago we went to the creek with my sis, twin, nephews, and Sura. It was Sura's first time in a body of water, and after a few minutes of shyness she was swimming around like a real water dog! We were so proud. My favorite part was that the water made her look even more like Ed, the crazy hyena from the Lion King.