A Year Later...

Okay, so it has been a while. Okay, a REALLY, REALLY long time! What can I say, facebook has taken over. Well a lot has changed in the year it has been since I blogged. Number 1: we moved! Most of you already know this by now, but there's a few of you that may not. So, here goes the story.
We now live up in the White Mountains of AZ in Springerville. Why Springerville? I don't know, I must have been temporarily insane when I agreed to move here. For those of you who have never been to Springerville, it is a REALLY small town. Not even a Wal-Mart in town. (Which I never thought I would miss Wal-Mart, but I guess you don't know what you got til it's gone.)
Back to Safford: Gary was still working for the Freeport Copper Mine in Morenci & had a really good job, but it was a copper mine & you never know when the market is gonna take a dip & you're gonna be without a job. I was still working as a server/fill-in manager at Denny's & although it was a lot of drama, I enjoyed my job for the most part.
Back in March, Gary had the oppurtunity to apply for a job with Tucson Electric Power at their Springerville plant. The benefits of the job were just too good to pass up: way better pay, better schedule, better job security, better retirement plan, etc,etc. And well to make it short, he got the job & delayed them long enough that we could finish out the school year in Safford. So in June, admidst evacuations for the area due to the huge Wallow Fire, Gary moved up to Eagar/Springerville & rented a little mobile home for a couple months until we could find more permanent housing. I stayed in Safford with the kids & continued to work & Gary came home for the weekends, luckily he has 3 days off instead of just 2. When I was able, I would travel up to Springerville & stay & we looked for a house to buy. Finally in late July, with the deadline of school starting fast approaching, we put a contract on a house, and started the fun process of moving. Okay, it really wasn't fun, it was kind of a nightmare. When you have been in the same house for 6 years and the same town for, well forever, you don't really pay attention to how much stuff you have acquired until it comes time that you have to pack it all up & in a hurry. The first week of August, I quit my job after 2 1/2 years & the second week, the kids & I packed up our things & moved in with Gary just in time for Alyssa to start school. We weren't in our house yet, but we had a roof over our heads & someone to look after our dogs that were still in Safford. We were finally able to get in to our house the last week of August & bring our dogs up with us.
The last couple of months since have been utter chaos. Gary has been traveling a lot for work & actually the kids & I spent the first full week being in our house by ourselves while Gary was in Chicago. That was a LONG week! Up until a couple of weeks ago, we were still going to Safford every free weekend to pack & bring up more stuff from our House down there. Luckily, now we have moved everything & are gonna be able to enjoy time with family/friends on our next trip down. We are not even close to being settled in our house here, but we'll get there at some point, in which we will be having a big yard sale to get rid of all our junk that we have acquired & had to move. Here is a picture of our new house.

We are all still trying to adjust to being in a different place. The town is a lot smaller & so I get frustrated a lot not being able to just drive 5 minutes to get the things I need. I told Gary he moved me here so I would be a better housewife because I pretty much don't do anything except stay home cooking & cleaning all day. I was supposed to have a job, but when they only scheduled me a total of 24 hours in an 8 week period, I pretty much gave up on that. With nowhere to go, I don't spend as much money, so Gary says that's the real reason he moved us here. Alyssa has done great & has adjusted much better than we thought. She is doing great in school & is still taking dance lessons. Yes, they actually have a dance studio here. Bryant, unfortunately, has not done as well & has had a rough time. Everywhere we go, he is afraid that we are going to leave him & not come back, but we just keep working with him & hoping that eventually he'll feel more comfortable. We are trying to get him involved in as many activities as we can so that he'll become more acquainted with people & maybe make some friends. Gary likes his job & is hoping that he can bring his dj business to the area. We haven't done much advertising with the business since we haven't really settled in yet, but are hoping to make some progress on that after the holidays. He loves the weather up here, at least until the hard winter hits, then we'll see how much he likes it.
So, that's my major update for the year. I'm not gonna say that I will keep this blog updated better because I know I probably won't. But, for anyone that isn't already added as one of my friends, I facebook constantly, so you can find me on there!