Comfortable

I've been getting asked a lot if I feel comfortable here yet, or if I feel like we're settled. 

It's a hard question to answer. 

I guess so??

I think feeling comfortable in a place can be judged on many different levels.

I've gotten used to our house. It kind of feels like {home}.

(At least Collin has stopped wandering around looking for a certain room. We'd see him searching for something and ask what he's doing and he'd look at us beseechingly and exclaim, "I'm looking for the bathroom!")

I'm starting to know my way around town.

I am getting more familiar with our ward and am starting to remember names of people I've met.

I have met some really nice girls and have felt welcomed by them.

I feel like my attitude toward Farmington has gotten better since we first moved here. Slowly... but better.

I have NOT gotten used to the bugs out here! I feel like I'm camping, but in a house. I seriously kill a couple of bugs a day in our house. And I sprayed! I think I might actually pay for a professional to come spray, but then I'm told it doesn't even make a difference. 

And they are creepy bugs. Like this little guy here.

And apparently he's small compared to what we COULD find. 

We were watching a show, when a spider looking thing raced by. We thought it was a scorpion at first. Nope, just a funky/evil looking spider with really long, front legs. 

There are crickets galore! I find pieces of dead crickets every day and whisk live ones out the door daily also.

One morning, I woke up and felt a presence on my arm. I looked down and saw a black blob (can't see much more without my contacts in) and and quickly brushed it off then lunged for glasses to find it. It must have run quick, 'cuz it was no where to be found... whatever it was.

Trav has knocked down two wasp nest from our garage overhang and there are always bees/wasps hanging around our backyard. Then there are the flies. Since we keep our back door cracked for the swamp cooler, they are always flying in and scaring the begeezers out of Collin. No matter how many times I tell him they won't hurt him, he runs and demands I kill them whenever they get close to him. 

It's getting old.

A few things I forgot to add in my post about our house that I DO like, are my kitchen countertops. They are a marbly, camoflauged type of color, so they hide things really well. Almost too well. When I'm wiping off the countertops, I feel like I'm doing it blindly... like by feel only. I can't even tell when there is a spot to scrub off until I feel it. But it sure beats the white ones in our old house that stained so easily and showed every crumb. No more cloroxing off a drop of Kool-aid or colored frosting!

I like that we have REAL garbage cans. The big kinds that roll and have an attached lid on a hinge. No more bucket style recycling bin or smaller sized, store bought garbage cans.

I noticed that our air vents come out of the ceiling again!! It really bugged me that they were on floor level in New York, but then I think I kind of ended up liking it. It makes more sense to me to have them near the ceiling, but it was always nice to come home from a run and lay on the floor in front of a vent and have ice cold a/c blow over you. 

I miss my mop sink! :( This house doesn't have one and I don't like pouring my mop water into the toilet. I always time it wrong and will have just cleaned the toilets a day or two before when I find myself needing to pour a bucket of dirty mop water out. 

As far as Farmington goes... at first it felt very, {small town}. But in reality it's not so bad. There are quite a few stores. There is a Dillards and JCPenny at the mall. There is a TJ Maxx near Trav's office. It has a Costa Vida and Sonic, which Buffalo didn't have.

Most importantly, there is a Target and Hobby Lobby.

OK, time to admit something embarrassing. 

You know that comforting feeling you get when you walk into an LDS church building and it looks the same, feels the same and smells the same, no matter where you are?

I got that same feeling when I walked into Target and Hobby Lobby.

There is just something SO comforting about walking into those stores. They smell the same. They look the same. They are the same, no matter where you go! It was like someone was giving me a big hug and saying, "See, you don't live in an awful, po- dunk place, I'm here!" 

It seriously made me feel so much better. It's the truth.

Another adjustment, that is completely not politically correct to say, but is also true, was it was a little weird getting used to seeing so many Indians! Or Native Americans... sorry. I mean, I grew up in Mesa, where there were a lot Hispanics. Then in Buffalo it was a little weird to go from tons of Hispanics, to tons of black people. (I remember being in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Buffalo and thinking, "How can I take a picture to show how many black people are here!!" I know, that's weird of me, but I don't think I had seen so many black people in my entire life.) So I guess I was expecting to move here and see a lot of Hispanics again, but there really aren't. It's all Indians. The first time I went to Wal-Mart I was there at least an hour and a half, and I'm not exaggerating, I saw maybe 5 other white people. It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just kind of interesting to go from being around one type of culture to another.

So what did I start this post about? Oh ya, being comfortable. I think in all honesty... I'm still getting there.

I haven't made any really good friends, Shaheens aside.  (And it's not that I expected to.... I know that takes time.) I clearly didn't know where to take my child in an emergency. (Still need to figure that one out.) We don't have a pediatrician or family doctor. (Well, we don't even have insurance, so let's put the horse before the cart.) We don't have church callings. (Not complaining.) I don't hate where we live. (I just don't love it yet either.) 

 So, yeah, I guess we're still in the {getting settled} stage. And that's OK. Each day is better than the last. And that is what a journey is all about, right? 
There has to be a beginning. 

Camping and 4th of July

I kind of liked having the 4th of July on a Wednesday this year, since it broke up the week. And it turned out to be even more fun since the Shaheens invited us to go camping with them the night before. We just drove up after Trav got off work Tues. night and since it was only about an hour away, we still had daylight hours to enjoy! We camped at a place called Hesperus, in Colorado. It was gorgeous. We were just tucked into what felt like an enclave between two mountains, surrounded by pine trees and bordering a little creek. 

The kids played and threw rocks into that stream for hours. And it was great, because it was really shallow. Megan was going nuts because the lighting was perfect, so we tried doing a few impromptu family photos... looking oh so good in our camping attire. :) I'll have to post those later when I get them.

The biggest bummer was all the fire restrictions, so we couldn't do a camp fire, but the Shaheens had a sweet camping stove that we cooked everything on. 

Hot dogs for din din!

Weston lookin' good in his jammies tucked into shoes.

 Collin and Lily played so well together. It was so funny to hear them talking to each other.

Collin: "Hey, Lily, wanna go see the spookiest, spooky, spookier ....." (he probably wasn't even sure what he was trying to say)

Lily: "Uh, YA I do!!" ... (with so much enthusiasm)

Then, that night, they cozied up to Bron and started telling {stories}. It was hysterical. Lily's best was about the girl that was "ugly. She was so ugly. UGLY. Kinda ugly." haha. And Collin's always involved a vehement, "and then I CUT off his hands!!" (Bad guys hands, of course. Cuz that makes it OK.) Lily would also sing her stories and they were adorable! I wished I had my video camera like Megan! This age is to die for.

After the kids were in bed, we just talked and talked and talked. Kind of my favorite thing to do. (Like you couldn't tell.) We love the Shaheens! Such good friends.

The next morning, Megan brought up all the fixings for French toast. She is the best person to have around if you want good food!

And Collin spent some time sporting Weston's jacket. We are classy campers.

 I absolutely LOVE this picture!!! So cute!! 

 This one got dir-tee!! He loved playing in the dirt by the fire pit and therefore was rather sooty.

I cleaned his hands multiple times and they always ended up like this in no time. 

This was also the day that Trav cleaned his Swiss army knife with a pump of hand sanitizer and cut out Weston's stitches. The holes were fairly prominent at first, but it looks really good now.

We spent most of the day in the mountains, then drove home in time to shower and get ready for a BBQ that night at the Snedaker's house.
I don't know if we were the most patriotically dressed, but my toes were!! (Gotta do something while watching Bachelorette. :) And don't worry, those dark areas are a shadow, not dirt... or funky tan line. :)

 They had a slip and slide and kiddie pool in the backyard that the kids played in most of the time, then at the end we went out front on their driveway while they set off a bunch of fireworks.

Both boys loved the fireworks. Weston was so funny and would automatically clap after each display, without any prompting to do so. He'd look at me while clapping, with raised eyebrows, like, "Well, wasn't that somethin'!"

 At one point, I tried to count how many kids were there and I got to 17... not even sure if that was all of them. All under the age of 6! 

 Their little boy, Jett, is just 3 days older than Weston, and climbed into Trav's lap at one point and gave Weston a huge hug. It was so cute! 

We had such a good time. Happy birthday, America!

Duck Lips

Remember that Full House episode when Stephanie dates {Duck Lips} from school? 

I think I have that guy in the making.

Just about every night we peak in on Collin , he looks like he's fixin' for a kiss. 

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but those lips are always pursed real high like he's getting ready for a smooch. I'm an open mouth sleeper, so this befuddles me. How can he breathe?

 Or better yet, just what is he dreaming about?? :)

Put 'em on ice

Did you spot the yummy surprise??!!

I've always thought chilled diapers were better than luke warm ones.

I'm wondering how many other fun things I'm going to find in my fridge before the boys are grown. 

The first time it was dirty shoes, and now diapers.

At least Collin had the decency to gather them up and put them in a ziplock before trying to preserve them. 

He's a thinker, that one.

Tea Party for 4

  The afternoons can get kinda long and boring around these parts, so one day last week I decided it would be fun to do something a little out of the ordinary with Collin. 

Namely, a tea party.

(For the life of me, I can't remember where I got this little tea set, but I wasn't going to let it collect dust any longer! Who cares if I have boys?? Tea parties are non-discriminatory in my book.) 

Weston was napping, so it was just the two of us... and our lively guests.

First, we needed the {invitations}.

 Then we needed the {attire}.

Back to that whole {boy} thing... the dress up selection was limited. So sombreros and a pick from my shoe collection made the outfit.

(I pulled the pink shoes out for myself, then Collin saw them and decided they were for him. Once in the backyard, I heard the girly-ish scream possible and ran to find Collin flipping out that there was a {spider} in his shoe. I found said spider cowering under a nearby toy. It was, in fact, a big, black cockroach. Be still my heart. I haven't seen a cockroach in YEARS! He said very forcefully that it was in his shoe (and pointed to where the heel would be) and not just outside on the porch. I didn't see it when I pulled the shoes out, so I'm guessing it was in the toe, then scurried up to the back before he slipped his feet in. 

My hero. If he hadn't insisted on wearing them, that would have been MY foot squishing a cockroach instead of him. Turns out, kids can be good for somethings. :)

Chocolate milk, cookies and crackers were on the menu.

 Teddy and monkey were most entertaining.

 Collin liked scooping the sugar the most... can't blame him.

Yup, I was there too... blurry and all. 

(Can I say for the umpteenth time, I can't WAIT to get a nice camera!)

Minus the cockroach, we had a fantastic time.

I even taught him how to raise his pinkie, call things {delightful}, and throw in a {daaaarling} every now and again.

And as was expected, he has asked for a tea party every day since. Delightful.

STitChEs

Last Tuesday, I had my morning all planned. Collin was going to {preschool in the park} for 2 hours and I was taking Weston with me to a girl's house in our ward that was teaching a class on how to can meat. Instead, Collin threw a huge tantrum and wouldn't go to preschool. No idea why, he's loved it every other time. There was no persuading, bribing, or threatening the kid. He was not going. I was pretty dang annoyed to say the least. I didn't want to have to take both yahoos to the class. So I drove home, put Collin in time out and was in Collin's bedroom when I heard the crash and cry. 

It was a different kind of cry. I came running and all I saw was blood. I picked up Weston and his mouth was filled with red. My first thought was that he had busted his teeth out. I ran to the kitchen to grab a towel and dab at his face. Then I saw the gash. I knew it needed stitches, but I didn't know where the hospital or an urgent care was. He was hysterical and I am not good in emergencies!!! I was completely panicked. I grabbed my purse and yelled for Collin to follow me to the car. I half buckled Collin in with one hand, then tried to put Weston in his car seat, but he was not having it. I didn't know what else to do, but just drive with him in my lap and pray we didn't get in an accident. I tried calling Trav several times, but he never answered. I started driving down 30th street where I remembered seeing a medical center. I didn't know if it was just private offices or maybe had an urgent care, but it was really close so I figured it was my best bet. When we were almost there, Weston calmed down and was doing the little {hiccuping sighs} against my chest. So then I thought, OK, Trav always said if our kids needed stitches, he'd do them... maybe I'll just go to his office and see what he thinks first. We were right at the turn off to go to his office anyway. A few minutes later, I walk into the waiting room, with blood all over me, a wounded child and a 2 year old, who can only be described as incredibly perky to be out of time out. Luckily, no patients were in the waiting room. I walked to the back rooms where I saw Trav, gloved and in the middle of a procedure on a patient. I turned Weston around so he could see why I was there, then kept walking to the back where his office was. He shares the office with the other dentist, Martin (pronounced "Mar-teen"), who happened to be in there when I walked in. He is a really nice guy, just a couple years older than us. I was so relieved to see him. It was like my burden was being shared now. He immediately put his arm around me, took a look at Weston and told me everything would be fine and left to grab some gauze. Their office manager came in with treats for the boys and wet paper towels to clean up with. Travis came in a few minutes later, but he was really busy that morning and had a bunch of patients lined up to work on. Martin was almost done though, so he said he would be happy to do the stitches. 

The front office staff watched Collin while he stitched him up. I laid in the dental chair with Weston on my stomach, so I could hold his arms down. His assistant, held his head. He cleaned it first, then gave him a local anesthetic shot above and below the cut. Weston fussed the most for that, but it was over quick. They said he was going cross eyed, trying to watch the whole thing. He was a champ for the stitches, but then two came out, so he had to redo them and that's when Weston squirmed the most. I just kept talking to him and he totally listened to me and would grunt replies. I'd say, "Weston should we get an ice cream after this? *Grunt yes* "OK, would you like vanilla or chocolate? Should we call Grandma and tell her what happened? Do you think Uncle Craig will be there too? Guess what, you're going to be on Facebook. Yes you are!" And on and on. Martin and his assistant both commented how amazed they were that he was totally distracted, listening to me and trying to reply, like he understood what I was saying. Well, he DID understand me! That was the beauty of it. He did so good. I was so grateful for Martin! He has been such a help and friend since we moved here. 

This was more to show a bit of how I was covered in blood! I guess the staff even told Travis they noticed blood on my feet. It was seriously everywhere. 

 I can't believe how resilient kids are. When we were waiting in the office, Martin had some music playing and after a while, Weston wiggled off my lap was literally dancing and {gettin' down} in the middle of the floor! With a big gash bleeding down his face. Unbelievable.

I remember telling my mom on the phone that there were huge pools of blood on one of the books where I initially found him. Haha, guess not quite the scene of carnage I described, but it really looked worse in person. Luckily, only spatters of blood got on the carpet and the rest was on the tile.

 This was about an hour after the stitches. He saw me with the camera and was giving me big, goofy grins!

 This was a couple days later. 

We took them out 8 days after he got them. (With the little scissors on Trav's Swiss army knife, while camping... super sanitary. :)

 Hopefully, it won't scar too bad, but in Trav's words, "Men have scars!" 

Oh yes, give the boy an ax and a beer... he is all ready for manhood. :)

Lil' Buddies

These two have recently become little buddies. Once Weston started walking, it seemed Collin took more of an interest in him. Or maybe it was that Weston can now just follow him around. Either way, they can be found much of the day playing together. And/or getting into trouble. We will often hear Collin whispering in Weston's ear some directions to do something naughty. When one of them has a toy, the other one wants it. When one is getting attention from Trav or I, the other is suddenly jealous. If they are playing together, it's not usually very long before I hear crying. And 95% of the time it's Weston that has been mistreated.

They spend a lot of time in the backyard and I in turn spend WAY too much time spraying this pool out and filling it with clean water. By the end of the day, they've both gone through 2-3 outfits and can be found stark naked, running around the backyard. Weston spends so much time in the nude, he was actually throwing a fit at church, because I wouldn't take his clothes off. Collin loves playing in the pool because it means he gets to "water" the bushes when he needs to go potty. He will even go dip his feet in the pool then come to the back door to announce he is wet and will be peeing on the bush now.

There aren't that many pools out here (strange, right?), but there is a splash pad at a park not too far away that they like. Collin also likes to put on my flip flops and glasses, strike a pose, and say he is now a "{Rock Star} like mommy." Flattery will get you no where, son. :)

There have been a few times when Collin actually asks for a photo shoot. He just wants to make a goof face then see it on my screen. But I was glad, because they were being so darn cute! 

They've even started wrestling. It's cute, until someone cries. And someone always cries.

I was snapping pics when Weston noticed and came to check out the camera. I thought it was so funny how he stood there, mesmerized, belly protruding. And now I include it, because this was 2 days before the "incident" where he messed up his face. But here is a {before} to compare. :(

Da house

OK, I think I share too much. 

But in my defense, this is all I wanted to see when my friends moved away last year. I wanted to see their new houses and be able to picture where they were living. And not one of them posted even just a pic of the front of their house! I felt detached. 

So Rach and I promised each other we would do posts of our homes so we know exactly where the other is living!

{Hopefully this will help all burglars know exactly where they are going when they break into my house now! :)}

(One thing I've found missing from our house that is on the front of most everyone else's.... decorative lizards. Bronze ones, silver ones, brightly shining green ones. It's a shame we are without. I told Trav I won't be happy 'til we get one... or three.)

It's a fairly simple floor plan, but one thing that bugs me when I see pics of homes, is I don't understand the layout. I just see pics of individual rooms and don't get how they connect. Soooo, once again I took way too many in hopes of that not happening.

Here is the view of the front door and entry way.

I love the big coat closet on the left.

 Turning toward the left side of the house.....

.... entry way to the boys' rooms and bathroom.

 View standing at the front door. You can see into Collin's room on the left.

 Collin's room...

 The bathroom between the boys' rooms.

 Love the big closet in both bathrooms.

 Weston's room at the front of the house....

 Back to the living room...

 I love the big windows that show the whole backyard. Great for keeping an eye on the boys.

Don't be jealous!!

 Straight across from where I would be standing is the door to the master bedroom, bath and closet.

 View into the laundry room with garage door...

 View looking out from closet...

Door on left takes you into the kitchen, door on right goes to bathroom.

 The master bath is kind of ridiculous. 

There is so much room, it starts to feel like wasted space. I do love the closet. I wish there was a door on the toilet that is behind the shower. The shower has two shower heads which, lets be honest, is kind of cool, but it means the shower itself could stand to be a smidge bigger.

 Now for the mish mash room. Again, it's so big that it's kind of annoying. I'd much rather have had a four bedroom house instead of such a large master bed and bath. Therefore, our room wears many hats... the sewing room, exercise space, office and master bedroom. 

We have such awesome bedroom furniture. I was using a cardboard box as a night stand, until I remembered the plastic drawers. Pretty sure it's what I used as a night stand in the dorms too. Classy.

 The backyard. 

Love.

 The back wall is a little shorter than the side walls. For the view???

 This is the view from over the right wall. 

Both pictures show pretty well what Farmington looks like. Lots of desert, shrubs... oh yeah, and oil rigs. There is one pumping 5 houses away from us. BIG oil and mining town.

All in all, I really like our house. 

The kitchen has tons of cupboard space and drawers. There is a big pantry and then extra pantry space in a closet in the laundry room. All the rooms have big closets. We live on a really quiet, nice street. We are two streets away from the church building and the Montessori preschool that Collin will go to in the fall. There is a park within walking distance. Taking the backroads, you can get to Sam's club in about 4 min. And from there you have all of Main St. with Wal-Mart, Target, the mall, bank, etc. really close. Trav's office takes less than 10 min. to get to.  

The things I was REALLY excited about...

* A washer and dryer on the main floor!!! No more 4 flights of stairs carrying loads of laundry back and forth. (We'll see if my luscious behind pays the price.)

*A flat topped stove!!! Just a wipe on ONE surface and it's clean. No more 4 wire burners, burner covers and then the whole surface underneath that has to be cleaned every time you cook. I could about die from the beauty of it.

*A fenced in backyard. Have a mentioned this before? :) Changed my life.

* An ATTACHED garage. What were those east coasters thinking putting them behind the house?

*No more squeaky floors!!! I know this sounds weird, but you have no idea how annoying it is to squeak every time you take a step in your house. Plus the doors squeaked. I was always spraying WD40. And forget about quietly sneaking away from a sleeping baby. 

*A disposal! I was so excited about this, but since we lived 4 years without one, I have to remind myself to use it. More often than not, I still throw food in the garbage.

Things that were weird to get used to...

*Only one floor. I like it, but even though it's almost comparable in size to our last house at 2,440 sq. ft., it feels smaller.

*High ceilings! I didn't realize how enclosed our last house felt compared to this one. It kind of made our old one feel like a doll house.

*No more screen doors. Love this. It was so annoying having to open two doors every time you went in or out of your house. It's still a weird feeling to open the door and realize you're done... no screen to push, but sooo nice when your arms are full of groceries.

*Sleeping on the opposite side of the house from my kids. I don't really like this, but since we learned we can still hear them if they cry out, it's not too big a deal. 


*Going from owning a home to renting one. I found myself hesitant to even hang a picture and put a hole in the wall? Were we allotted only a certain number of holes? :) 
It is nice that if something breaks, you just call the management company. 
However I feel myself not wanting to put a lot of effort towards decorating... like buying curtains or drapes. I think the living room and bedrooms would look waaaay nicer with curtains, but I don't want to spend money on nice curtains that might not work in our next house.

Things I don't like...

*Swamp coolers!! What the bad words! We are in NEW MEXICO people! How does this place not have central air? Even our house in NY did. And with a swamp cooler, you have to leave a window or door cracked open. Since most of our windows don't have screens, we always have our back sliding door cracked open. Hello crickets and bugs. 

BIG step back. 

*Community mailboxes. Allllll the way down the street. In the opposite direction we usually drive. So weird. I understand them for apartments or condos, but this is a normal neighborhood! When did mailmen get so lazy?

*The rent! I won't say how much, but it is RIDICULOUS. And apparently that's just how it goes in Farmington. The price to rent out here is weirdly high. I know, you're going, "In Farmington? Who wants to live there?" 

Exactly. 

It must have something to do with the oil and mining. All I know is, its stinks.

I could probably think of more for each category, but that covers the big stuff. 

OK, Rach... your turn! :)