Farewell Flagstaff!!

You know what's fun about camping somewhere cold?  The adorable pictures you can get of your cold kiddos trying to stay warm by snuggling with each other!

Toby and Olive have always been close and shown affection for each other but the freezing cold temps here have brought out their love for each other.  So cute.

I mean, seriously...

Yes, that is Toby's leg draped over Olive.

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When we aren't busy staying warm and snuggling the nights away we are just your average campers.  We spend a lot of time staring out the window watching for squirrels. 

 Having lived in the desert for about 19.5 years I came into this whole camping thing not too familiar with squirrel behavior.  I can tell you a lot about desert-y type things like spiders, lizards, coyotes...but man-o-man.  Squirrels are CRAZY!!!  They do these like kamikaze type maneuvers off the trees.  They stand two feet in front of my dogs and just dare the dogs to chase them up an 300ft tall pine tree.  These little jerks have tormented us the entire time we've been here!!  Adios you brazen little fuckers!!!

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This is how Olive spends her time most days.  Perched in her favorite teal bin staring at the all of the black birds that hang around all day and are the size of small ponies...  Probably grateful to have a window between herself and the bitch-ass squirrels.  ;)

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So I have this silly (aka thoughtful and kind) friend down in Phoenix, Sarah.  Sarah rides horses daily.  Yes, daily (she's really good at it).  Anyway, she had a nasty fall off of one of the her horses around the same time as my car accident.  She went in for Surgery on Veterans day to repair her broken shoulder and by Wednesday morning was sending me bunches of cupcakes.  (I know cupcakes don't actually come in bunches - but just flow with it here..) Sara should have been spending her time recuperating instead of sending me goodies!

 

  I did share the cupcakes with some camping friends here in Flagstaff as well as with my family.  But I also made quick work of a couple all on my own (because I'm a champion). The one in the pics was a "drumstick" cupcake.  Vanilla cake with butter cream icing that had been dipped in fudge and topped with nuts.  I mean - get out of here with that stuff!! 

 I sent Sarah a get well card.  Sarah sent me cupcakes.  She's clearly a better person than I am.

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 The snow arrived this past Thursday.  I learned pretty quickly that when you have snow you need to give up your dignity and cool factor and go everywhere with your pants rolled up like a dork.  Otherwise your pants will continually wick water in a northerly direction until you have a denim water line up to your knees.  At that point you're just cold as it gets.  In addition, the weight of your wet pant legs pulls your pants down until you look like Justin Beiber - all saggy butt(ed).  That's when you have to give up and change into a fresh pair of jeans.

I made a snow-doggy.  :)

Despite the look on Murphy's face here he was really enjoying his day in the snow.  At the moment that I snapped this photo he was busy eating snow and I was interrupting him by shoving a camera in his face.  Shortly after this pic the poor guy had his fun come to a screeching halt.  He had a rather large snowball develop under his paw and it was hooked onto the fur between his toes.  He started limping around and holding his paw in the air for help from his mom.  Murphy was retired to the warm car where his snowball could melt.

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I'm moving to Phoenix in the morning and starting my new job on December 2nd.  I've finally enjoyed my unemployment for the first time thanks to my time in this campground and being close to my family. 

I had the pleasure of helping to babysit Finn when he had Croup and couldn't attend his daycare.  I was not his first choice of sitter because I don't have the right title (Mom) but we made the best of it.  This pic is Finn in his preferred mode of transport these days.  He's too cool for a stroller so he rides around in a push car instead.

I'll miss the pawprints in the snow after my kiddos have run amok around the pup-park.

 I'll miss hanging with the boys when I'm back behind a desk for 50 hours a week.

And I'm going to miss watching the utter and complete joy on Toby's face as he rolls around in the snow.

Life is fleeting for these sweet little fur-kids.  I'm grateful to have been blessed enough to be able to give them this time with me and these experiences.  Going back to the desert will be much less exciting for sure.  But we will be together as a family.  At the end of the day that's all these guys really want in life.  To be with me and with each other.  So, I'm sure we will be happy in Phoenix.  Just a different type of happy!

On the move!

Hello again!  Much to catch up on.  I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to bring you up to speed on my life.  I'm sorry about that and the major delay!   

 On October 25th I had two 20' x 8' steel storage containers delivered to my home so I could have somewhere secure to store all of my junk.  Because I will be between houses for a bit and Sedona is very trim when it comes to storage units - this was the next best thing.

Moving day for me and the fur-kids came on October 28th.  The movers came by in the morning and packed everything neatly into the containers.  These guys were awesome.  I think their business cards should say Movers/Magicians.  When all was said and done it was one hell of a jigsaw puzzle of household crap!

The plan was for my mom to drive her R.V. out that afternoon and we'd move in that same night.  Unfortunately her work kept her in Las Vegas until 7:30pm and I was left to camp out in the empty house until around midnight when it was finally time for us to  get on our way to our rondezvous spot up in Flagstaff (a.k.a. the Flagstaff KOA).  As you can see here, Toby had no objections to camping in our old home just a bit longer..

 

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 Our new home sweet home!

That first night, Monday night, it was raining and windy and cold as hell.  The second night we got wonderful sleep - the wind had died down and it was quiet.  Wednesday morning we woke up to a tiny dusting of snow.  We may be camping, but this type of camping is the only way to go...."glamping"...haha!

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And here's where my tale takes a bit of a dark and sinister turn.

On my way to Sedona on Wednesday to put some finishing touches on my old house I got into a pretty bad accident on the I-17.  I was traveling at 75mph on cruise control and made it as far as one lousy mile away from my exit to Sedona when a crazy woman stopped in the middle of the interstate right in front of me.  I slammed into her (which is obvious from the picture above).

 

 Right behind me was a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon (a HUGE off-road vehicle).  The driver was following me a little closely and wasn't able to avoid hitting me.  So she swerved as best she could and side swiped me from stern to tip.  It was such a weird and surreal thing.  The moment I hit the car in front of me I felt the impact at the rear of the car.  THANK GOD it wasn't a full rear-end hit because I would have been pancaked between the two cars and my sweet boys were asleep in the back of my car.  I don't like to even think about what could have happened to them if I had been rear-ended.  I'm so grateful that they are okay.  I, on the other hand earned myself a trip to the E.R.   Thankfully no broken bones.  Whiplash of course.  A whole bunch of bruises.  Sore all over.  And an painful right foot from slamming on the breaks that has not yet seen much healing happen.  In the mean time I get to wear a super fancy shoe which is awesome and helps me to be even more fashion-forward than usual.

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Thursday afternoon I returned to Sedona for the last time.  I did my walk through on the house and bid the ol' hood a fond farewell.  I'll miss a few things but mostly I'm happy to be outta there!  I feel like my car accident was the universe's way of stopping me from returning to Sedona.  I plan to heed her warnings from here on out...

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Since then I've been trying to enjoy myself and ignore the pain caused by the wreck.  Danielle brought Finn over to the campground to play in the playground.  He got a big kick out of the whirly-go-round.  It not only spun round but it also popped up and down as it turned.  He was quite pleased with it - and I suspect he was quite pleased with his ability to maintain an upright position with all of the crazy bouncing around!

 On Halloween I went to Tommy & Danielle's house to bestow my cosmetology skills upon them and their costumes.  They had a Wizard of Oz theme.  Danielle went dressed as Dorothy, Finn as the Scarecrow and Tommy went dressed as the Wicked Witch of the East.  I was in charge of face paint for the Witch and Scarecrow, wig management for the Witch and braids for Dorothy.  It was fun watching them get ready and to be a part of it.  This may be our last Halloween together for years so I tried to soak it all in.  :)

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So, for now I sit and enjoy the view of the forest out of the windows of the RV.  I'm backed up to the national forest which is awesome - except at night when the dogs go out to pee and all three of them just 'freeze' and stare into the darkness fixated on something none of us can actually see.  I'm left wondering just how many mountain lions are staring back at us contemplating "what's for dinner".  

I did my laundry in the camp laundromat today.  That was exciting and new.  How cool to have like 12 washing machines and dryers all for my use.  I got three loads of laundry done in a little over an hour!  

I am otherwise finally relaxing now that the packing is done and the first half of the move is over.  I plan to just enjoy myself and this beautiful setting until it's time to move again!