. : About me : .
Name::April_Mommy
From::Small Town, Arizona, United States
What information would be important here without being too personal? Hmmmmmm... I am a stay at home mommy who loves her kids. I started this blog as an attempt to have fun while keeping track of important things in my life. Alright, not everything in here is important, but it is all from me.
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. : About Sultry Husband : .
The ever Sultry man in my life has chosen to go by the name of Sultry Husband within the walls of my blog. Occasionally he will post his thoughts and experiences here as well.
A writer by trade as well as passion, he keeps our home a happy and inviting place.
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Friday, March 31, 2006
Coming HomeA lady in the area stopped by to talk to me yesterday. She was not pleasant to talk to and made me want to run back to Idaho. The conversation was about her daughter in law (who lives next door to her), giving or not giving me a ride to the area Symphony practice. As soon as anyone hears that I play the viola, they practically jump on me to join this little group that does not have one. Long story, sort of, but I will attempt to keep it short.
"So when are you going to show up to practice?" she asks in a tone that suggests that I am a misbehaving child. Never mind that I didn't want to start anything too soon because my children have been having a difficult time adjusting. I think they are ready and have been planning to start the group that night.
"I was planning to go tonight. Oh and could you give me Shelly's number? I was hoping to ask her for a ride."
"Will she have to come all the way out here to pick you up?" she asks in yet another disapproving tone to her voice. It would only be about a three mile trip to pick me up, but I suppose that she felt that was too far to make Shelly travel. I would have liked to ask Shelly herself, but decided to just drive myself after all because I didn't want to deal with it.
I must interject here that my emotional state after this visit from the woman was extremely low. I had no desire to go to practice, I was so angry that I wanted to lash out at her. I held my tongue and decided not to hold this woman's actions against the group. In fact, she has nothing to do with them! Her daughter in law is involved, and I suppose that it gives her the right to scare off potential players right?
As I walked into practice, the director said "And here is April, our new VIOLA!" and there were actually cheers! These people needed a viola so terribly that they were clapping and whooping because I was even there. I felt like Norm on the Television show "Cheers". You know how it went, he walked into the bar and everyone shouted "Norm!"
The music they are playing for this upcoming concert, is a bit below my playing level. Some of my favorites that have memories from my past assiciated with them. I sight read and played at a higher level than many of the regular players. Really, I didn't care about that... I was home. My emotions were instantly sky high. The director made no less than ten or twelve comments through the night of how it was "mana from heaven to have a violist who can play". I think my ego was stroked a little bit there...
After the rehearsal, he cornered me and asked point blank if I was willing to join the group full time. I told him that I was and he exclaimed "Bless you girl!" I may not enjoy all of the people in my area, but I can enjoy one outing a week. I plan to take full advantage. The music has brought me home again.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Showers anyone?We stayed true to our new "happy to be here" plan this weekend. We explored the Animal Sanctuary again, choosing a different area. By far, my favorite place to hang out is called Feathered Friends. This building is home to all of the Birds.
They are always looking for volunteers to help clean up after the animals, but there are fun jobs too. We took the kids to help out and we were given the task of providing showers for some of the parrots! Basically, we use large misters to shoot a fine spray onto the birds as they preen, fluff up their feathers, and of course show off!
M and L absolutely had a wonderful time and so did we! Sultry Husband has decided that he will spend his lunch break handling a beautiful Blue Banded Macaw named Tarzan. He gave the girls each a feather of the most brilliant colors.
One of the most popular birds is the favorite of my girls as well. His name is Seppi, a beautiful white cockatoo. Seppi likes to say typical words like "Pretty Bird", and "Gimmie a cracker", but the most entertaining phrase he utters is "Help! Let me out!"
All in all, it was a wonderful day!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Life is GoodI have decided that I have been all too down lately, so I am determined to turn things around. I will start by talking about many of the good things that have happened to us lately.
1. Sultry Husband's employer loves him.
In fact, he got a promotion of sorts yesterday. He won't be making more money yet, but he will be the only person writing a particular column. Which means more exposure for him and more opportunities to shine for the big bosses. YAY!
2. Sultry Husband loves his job.
This may not mean a whole lot to many of you out there, but it is a huge deal for us. You see, his father hated his profession all of his adult life (therefore Sultry Husband refused to go into a field just because he could make a lot of money). Anyway, we have tried for many years and finally we have found a profession and a job that he loves.
3. The snow is gone.
I find it odd that when we left Idaho, it was snowing. More like a blizzard. The entire drive to Salt Lake that night was in white out conditions, and we discussed more than once just getting a hotel for the night and waiting the storm out. Then when we get here, it is snowing. We have had two weeks of pure cold weather, but it is gone now! The sun is shinig, there is not a cloud in the sky. The snow is gone for good.
4. M is going to be featured on a Magazine cover.
Sultry Husband wrote an article and sent it to a magazine. It was all about a rodeo that was held at a super huge family reunion. The only thing was that there were no animals involved in the rodeo. Each kid had a stick horse to ride, and they went through all of the rodeo events, without any animals. Anyway, Sultry Husband's article was picked up by the magazine, and they asked us if we had any pictures from the event. By chance, I had taken quite a few with my digital camera, and I sent out a cry to all of my extended family looking for more pictures. The magazine decided to put a picture I took of M on the cover of the magazine!
5. I planted flowers on my Grandmother's grave.
We live over an hour and a half from the closest Walmart. It just so happens that the store is in a bordering town to my Grandmother's grave site. I really wanted to stop and see her while we were in town last night, and I bought some tulips in full bloom to plant. Since Grandpa died, no one really goes to see her anymore, therefore it is my turn to take care of her site. If planting a few flowers will make it more beautiful, I will do so. The grave was in disrepair... It was obviously not taken care of since Grandpa died, so I am now taking it upon myself. It will bloom again. My girls didn't understand why I cried after we planted the flowers, and I couldn't really explain it beyond saying that I loved my Grandmother very much, and this is my way of telling her that I miss her.
Life is indeed good. I just need to remind myself of it once in a while. If I start concentrating on all the things that are good about being in this place, perhaps I will stop focusing on how miserable the area is... At any rate, it is worth a shot.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
The ViewWe have a somewhat nice view from the front window. It overlooks fields as far as the eye can see. There are several large and interesting trees, which give the promise of shade when summer comes and they are full of leaves once again. Cows and Horses can be seen in the fields, and of course you can see the Cotton Tail and Jack Rabbits. Hawks and sparrows fill the sky down here, mostly because there are plenty of field mice to feast on.
The view from the back windows are very different. There is something on our neighbor's property that does not make me happy in the slightest. I am including a picture for illustration.
Just in case you don't know what these are, I will explain it to you. These are hives of bees that our neighbor is choosing to keep. I didn't think much of them when we moved in at first, but now that I am dive bombed by bees every time I set foot outside my back door, I am frustrated. I have a call in with our city government to find out if there is an ordinance against bees in a neighborhood like that. I sure hope so, because I doubt very much that they would be willing to move them just because I asked them to.
I am not really afraid of bees normally. What I am afraid of, is if one of my children or dogs got too close to one of those hives and were stung. The main problem is that M is extremely allergic to any kind of wasp or bee sting. She had a sting when she was a baby and it made her entire arm swell up and turn a bright red. We had to rush her to the Emergency Room for a shot. The closest hospital to us is now about 10 miles away. That makes me nervous all right. I have refused to set up the trampoline outside or even let the girls go out and play. I have to figure this out first. If the town has no laws against bees like this, I may just have to go over and have a chat with them. From my experience with people in this town so far, I think we would be more likely to move into a different house than to have people do something just to be nice.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Bad mommy or new makeup?This morning, I set out to put together our new dresser, seeing as our old one was a casualty to our move. The only real loss, but then it was a cheap and old dresser, so I am not complaining that we lost it. The new one however has way more parts than I expected, so it is taking quite some time to put it together right.
In the mean time L found a marker. It was a washable marker that I had put on top of the entertainment center to keep it out of the way of little fingers… obviously didn’t work. While I was engrossed in the many pages of directions that came with my new dresser, she was decorating her face.
The marker was a dark blue one, and it was everywhere. Especially her eyes and mouth. I almost laughed when I saw it, grabbed my camera, then put her in the bath tub. Where I have been scrubbing her for over half an hour. Most of the marker came right off because it was a washable one, but the stuff on and around her eyes only faded to a deep purple. I am in trouble. It looks like she has two black eyes. I used several different techniques to get it off of her arms and face, but everything I tried could not be used anywhere close to her eyes. Any ideas?
It is quite amusing however that she now has two black eyes. Ahh yes I can just see it now, my new neighbors will all be talking about this one! In Idaho, I would never have worried about it, because everyone knew me, and my friends would have laughed a good one as well. Here though, I am afraid of the appearance of evil I suppose. I am afraid of what these people who don’t know me will think when they see my almost three year old daughter with purple eyes? I wonder if anyone out in the middle of nowhere like we are would even bother to call child protective services on me… or would they just shoot me with a shotgun that they keep loaded on a rack over their fireplace?
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
I am lostWe had a visitor on Sunday. They were a young couple in the area who wanted to "welcome" us to the neighborhood. I found myself just counting down the minutes till they would leave. I found them offensive, rude, and just plain ignorant. They were blunt in their observations and very quick to compare us to family members who obviously move better than we did. After all, we have been here a whole week now and I have not finished unpacking all of my boxes yet!
Ugh. I really wanted to become friends with these people. I am a people person, I need people, I need friends. This was one of my only hopes because they are one of the few young people around here. Here is an example of how the conversation went.
Me: "Sorry about the mess, I have been working on unpacking" (they surprised us with the visit, the living room was in chaos
Other couple: "My sister packed up an entire house in a day. Six hours after the move, she was completely unpacked and had dinner on the stove."
Me: "She must be very organized"
Other couple: "She is. She would have been done unpacking your house days ago."
Me: steaming inside because I choose to play with my children and help them adjust to a new place instead of working 12 hours a day unpacking.
Other couple: "So, how old are you?"
My Husband: "29", he said with a smile.
Other couple: "man, you're old. "
My Husband: attempting to laugh off the rude remark, changes the subject.
Other couple: "Where is the land you are buying?"
My Husband: "Just down the road a bit, on such and such road."
Other couple: "How much did you pay for it?"
My Husband: "A fair price"
Other couple: "How much is that?"
My Husband: "We are getting a good deal." (Obviously we don't want to tell them how much)
Other couple: "I have a very successful business"
Me: "Oh? What do you do?"
Other couple: "I have a shop that I have expanded three times, I am doing so well that I can't wait to expand again."
Me: "That sounds great, I am glad things are going well for you"
Other couple: "Oh they are" (didn't they just say that?)
Other couple: "So you went to school?"
My Husband: "Yes, my degree is in such and such"
Other couple: "Oh, well I didn't go to college but I am very successful in my business"
While I know that they were trying to be nice in coming over, I hope that I can somehow make it through the small town mentality and create friends. I choose to not be offended by anything they said, or the way they said things, but it was hard. I also know that if we become friends with these people, I can never ever tell them about my blog, and especially I can't let them read this post because it would probably offend them. Right now I really don't care much about that.
I want to go home.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Snow?This morning, we woke up to a couple of very disturbing things. First of all, we now live in Arizona, which is supposed to be a desert, yet we woke up to an inch of snow! We talked to our realtor up in Idaho and he says the the weather is gorgeous and sunny. Now that is just wrong! The snow followed us! It will be gone by tomorrow, but hey what the heck?!
The second issue comes from the previous renters of this little house we have here. I have never lived in a house that runs from Propane heat before, apparently you have to watch the tank... the renters obviously did not do that and we woke up to an ice box. Here it is, Saturday, and we have a propane emergency! The house was so cold, so we begged the company to come out and fill up the tank this morning. $500 buckos! We then ammended the request to mean that the tank would only be filled half way. Not quite so terrible, but still a lot of money!
This place is not only in the middle of nowhere, it is a money drain as well! At least, our phone is now hooked up and working... if I could only find my phone, it is in a box somewhere in the fray...
Things will work out, things will work out, things will work out, things will work out! (If I say it enough, it will right?)
Friday, March 10, 2006
We are here- but where is that?We have arived in our new home, all of our many boxes are in, and we have begun the process of unpacking. I have to admit that I have been feeling the culture shock. Of course, I miss my friends like crazy… I am alone here, literally. We have a few neighbors, but I have only met two people so far. I hope that changes soon. There are several things however that have completely freaked me out. Yesterday, I attempted to change the utilities into our name, turn on the phone, etc. I had to leave a freaking $100 deposit with the phone company to get them to turn on the phone here! That was the first insult. Followed closely by the new knowledge that the mail is not even delivered here to our home. No, I had to go to this dark, dingy, tiny little post office to get a PO Box! I didn’t know that there were places in this country that did not get mail delivered! Where am I?!
I am just frustrated right now… I am sure that we will grow to love it here, at least I hope we will. We live in a tiny little town, that is for sure, but who is to say that we won’t absolutely love it? I mean, it may be a small town, but we do have the internet, the phone will be turned on in a few more days, and we have the television. I was about to start bawling in front of my kids (who would have cried right along with me), if I hadn’t just logged onto the internet and remembered that this wide world is shrinking in terms of connections. I can continue to stay in touch with people over the internet, I can order things like toilet paper, paper towels, and diapers over the internet, and most of all I can drive an hour and a half if I really feel the need to drive in traffic again. Things will be fine for us. I just know it.
I will have to come back and read this post again if I feel overwhelmed… things will be fine. I know it.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Water WorksToday was the last day in our church ward. They have really become a second family because our brothers and sisters are scattered by the four winds. I stood up in front of everyone today and instantly realized that it would be the very last time that I would see many of them. I couldn't stand it, I started to cry. Which made all of the other ladies cry, which made me cry harder. Now I have no problem with general crying once in a while, but now I just can't turn off the water works!
When I was a kid, I often had a hard time making close friends. I had many acquaintances, but few friends that I could truly count on. When we were married, we moved into a student ward where everyone was pretty preoccupied with going to college so I really didn't make many friends there... Then there was Scottsdale, a beautiful area, but the people there were really a lot older than we were, so it was hard to find common ground to base a friendship off of. I thought that I would be destined to live in obscurity forever. That is when I moved to the town I am in now. As we pulled the moving truck up to the house, we had several people come and greet us, asking if we needed help moving in... They made a few phone calls, and instantly we had a moving crew there to help us.
This area has been so good to our family. I have made friends here for the first time in so long that I find myself feeling emotions that I didn't have for any other place that we have lived. Never have I been so sad to leave a home, a place. Always before I have been more excited about the new adventure in our lives. I lived for change and I dealt with it quite well. Today however, with the big move looming over our heads, I find that I am brought to tears just by hearing songs on the radio.
Don't get me wrong, I am excited for the move... I know that we will thrive wherever we go, bloom where we are planted... I just find that for the first time, this move feels like we are leaving home instead of just leaving an area. Perhaps it is because we are leaving the first home that we have ever owned, but I think that it felt like home because I fell in love with the people. I will miss my friends.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
It is almost overWe have set a date for the big move... *drum roll please* we will be moving to our new home on MONDAY! Hurray! The time has come, let us roll out of this place... Things are extremely hectic and crazy around here this weekend, but I wanted to give an update as to our lives.
Sultry Husband has taken yet another run to the local dump to get rid of stuff. This time it was our oh so falling apart swing set. He snuck it into the van while I occupied the kids attention. That would have caused some real trauma... Packing up a few stuffed animals has proved eventful around here, so we could only imagine what throwing away their swing set would do to their delicate minds.
One addition we did to our yard during our tenure here, was to add a fire pit in the back yard. We have had many a smores roast back there during the summers. Last night, we decided to burn up a little of our wood pile. We bundled everyone up in coats, sweaters, hats, and boots... Then we headed outdoors for one last cookout. I almost cried! Just thinking about leaving the mountains around us for the desert was almost more than we could bare. This morning we were given a little gift however, snow. The wind is howling, there is an inch of snow on the ground where there was none yesterday, and it truly feels like the middle of winter all over again. What a wonderful sendoff Idaho is providing for us. I will happily turn my back on the cold harsh winters of Idaho for the hot dry desert of Utah/Arizona when it is this cold outside. There are no sentimental tears today...
On a happy note however, we called Sultry Husband's new work to explain that we will be arriving ahead of the actual schedule that they gave us, only to be told how excited that they are to have us. His boss even wrote him an e-mail today telling him what a great job he has been doing for them. Ahh it is nice to feel needed, and it is even better to be able to provide for our family while enjoying our job. It has been such a long time since we could say that!
Thursday, March 02, 2006
It's all WAY too much!The past week has been nothing but hectic! Sultry Husband is working from home, so he actually has to work... I am packing everything in site. I am cleaning everything not in site. Most of all, I am loosing my mind.
The one time that I have a lot going on, I get a call from a local Symphony director asking me to play in a concert last minute as a substitute. His viola section ran into some problems and they were desperate. Now, this is not just some tiny little back woods orchestra... Oh no, this is a big time gig... A paid opportunity with a semi-professional level symphony. I had two rehearsals to learn the entire Tchaikovsky symphony number 5... Can you say OUCH?! Yet, I was so excited that they even asked me to fill in I jumped at the chance. So, here I was last weekend, painting by day, playing a symphony at night. We had one more performance last night that went quite well if I do say so myself.
This morning I took M to the doctors office for a check up, only to realize once I got there that I had the wrong week. Yup, you guessed it I showed up exactly a week early for the appointment. All wasn't lost though, I rushed home to help Sultry Husband prepare because we had a group of realtors coming by the house to walk through so they could show it to the public. Yup, about 20 people walking through my house that was SO not clean enough! I was attempting to stage the place and make it pretty but found myself frantically cleaning when they called an half hour early to say that they were on the way.
M has the flu, I have a bad cold...
So, the number one stress in life is supposed to be starting a new job, followed closely by a move... Why is it that we always seem to do both at the same time? At least for this move I am not pregnant, wish I were, but I have to be positive right? Here is the positive note to all of this, the house went on the market this afternoon!