Home is where the heart is...

I've been a bad blogger. This summer has been so crazy and so many unexpected things have come to pass that I cannot keep up...

On Sunday we returned from a week long vacation in California. It started with a cousin's wedding in Beverly Hills, two nights at my-best-friend-since-the-third-grade's house in Alta Loma followed by a six hour drive north on Highway 5 to my twin brother's house in Tracy. While we were all at the wedding his plumbing backed up and flooded his house! What a nightmare. His babysitter (who was watching four kids at the time) managed to clean up the worst of it, but he and my sister-in-law returned home on Monday and did the rest of the dirty work. When we arrived on Tuesday evening, there was a wrecking crew there taking out floors and drywall and installing huge, industrial fans and dehumidifiers. We stayed one night and decided to move on to our BFFs place in Modesto. They just welcomed their second son in July and have a two year old. We stayed in their cozy guest room for three nights and then returned to my brother's for one last night before heading to the airport at 4 a.m. We landed in Tulsa at 6 p.m. and by then had sore throats. Not good.

Monday I went into work for 5 hours and then came home early so J could go to class (since my mom is still on vacation, visiting her sisters in Oregon). I got home and spiked a fever and had chills as well as achy joints. Libby had a runny nose and was feverish too. We climbed into bed and napped and nursed off and on from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. J has a scratchy throat too and was feeling run down as well. We turned in at 9 p.m. but were up all night with Libby. I finally conceded to sleeping with her in the rocker/recliner in her nursery. At 8 a.m. I fell into bed while J got her ready to see the pedi. Turns out she has a virus that needs to run its course. I assume J and I have the same. I stayed home from work today to rest and hopefully kick this bug! It sucks that the price for a week away from home is coming back sick. Libby is 7 months and 6 days old and this is the first time she's every been ill. So sad. Hopefully it'll pass quickly.

Our week in California was a whirlwind. We crammed in as many visits as possible and Libby met a ton of people...she loved every moment! She's SO social. She slept like a rock each night from all of the activity which impressed upon us that we need to do more with her, here at home.  Speaking of home, Sunday, when we arrived in Tulsa and made our drive into midtown to our neighborhood I actually felt like we were on our way home.  Weird.  It's taken two years for me to feel that way.  Before, I felt like going to California was going home and although being there feels SO familiar and comfortable, it didn't exactly feel like home anymore.  I do not miss the crazy traffic and hectic pace there at all.  And the smoggy air either.  I do miss the people though.  My brothers and best friends.  I will I could get them all to move here!  Thankfully, my mom is here...if she weren't I know I'd be more homesick.  So...for now, Tulsa is home. It's our daughter's birthplace.  And where we'll be for some time.  That said, I cannot wait until our next trip to California.  Maybe for Libby's first birthday?  We shall see.

He works hard for the money

My honey has been working like a dog! Five double shifts this week after four last week. Yay for our savings account but nay for his poor body and mind. The second, "part-time" gig is evolving into something more substantial. So it's a drain right now, but hopefully, it will give us some more options in the near future.

When J has a double he works 5:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. and then 4:45 p.m. until about 10:00 p.m., unless it's a Friday or Saturday and then it's more like 11:00 p.m. That leaves time for little else than sleep! And while it's fairy easy to get by on 4-5 hours of sleep in your 20's it certainly is not something that is sustainable long term once you hit your 30's. So he's powering though, but eventually, it will catch up!

Thankfully, we have some R&R planned for next weekend. I have a conference in OK City all week and he'll drive down on Thursday evening and stay with me. There's an alumni event that evening for our university and I want him to accompany me to it. From there, he's free of any obligations! I told him that if all he does is lay around in the hotel room, sleep, order room service and pay-per-view it will be worth it! Hopefully he can get a massage too. And I am done on Saturday, so we'll get to play a little in town before heading back home. It's only and hour-a-half south of here, but we've never been, so we're looking forward to exploring the area. Supposedly Bricktown is really fun.

We made to Tulsa!

Whew! The last 3 days have been jam packed!

Saturday, May 31st we arrived in Tulsa around 2:30 pm after 6 hours on the road from Amarillo. We were happy to pull into the driveway of our new home. Here is the photo of it from our property manager's website:

It has 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, so we will have a guest room (with a queen sized bed!) as well as our bedroom and an office/studio in addition to the main living areas. The house has been recently updated, including new appliances as well as refinished wood floors, new paint and the all important central air/heat.

We are very close to the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa which is 100% medical school. This is where J plans to transfer to complete his Bachelor of Science Degree. And just down the way we have a mall, called The Promenade as well as another one call Southroads Mall. So, L is a happy clam with all of the prospects of shopping! Saturday was hot and we were tired, but we managed to unload the trailer in record time, set-up the bed and unpack some boxes. J returned the trailer to U-Haul and L got the puppies settled into their new digs. They LOVE the big back yard! We fell into bed exhausted and relieved that we had made to Tulsa, all 1500 miles, with no complications or issues. Halleluja!

Sunday, we slept in, somewhat and Joseph ran off to Starbuck's to get us our "morning fix". The Sear's delivery man came and installed our new washer and dryer. Who knew we could be so excited about new appliances? I guess that means we're really adults now. No more quarters saved up to do 10 mega loads at the laundromat!

No sooner did the delivery man depart did the skies turn very dark and ominous. Within the hour we had thunder and then lightening. We had the radio on and all of the sudden that erie emergency warning sounded over the classical music station to which we had it tuned. As if cued by the radio warning a large thunder cloud clapped directly over our house and it released such a gush of rain and rush of wind it startled us. Through our big, picture window that looks out on the back yard it was like a scene from a movie.

The rain was gushing down as if it were being poured from dump truck sized buckets and the wind was whipping the trees so ferociously that they seemed to nearly double over and touch the ground with their upper limbs. According to the news, it was 70-80 mile an hour winds pummeling the city. The emergency sounds from the radio intensified and L panicked a bit and started crying. In Tulsa less than 24 hours, she thought her worst fear was coming true: a tornado that "never hits the city" was upon us.

After assembling clothing and dog supplies, extra water and preparing to bunker down in the interior most closet (supposedly the safest place in a home that doesn't have a storm cellar), the fury of the storm had passed. It lasted about 20 minutes total. Within hours, the skies had cleared and given way to bright blue with small, white puffy clouds. Apparently a similar episode had occured the day before, but since we didn't arrive in town until after 2 pm, all we saw were bright, clear skies. What weird weather!

After the storm, the streets in our neighborhood were littered with torn down tree limbs. One house had a tree fall directly on to the driveway, smashing the car that was parked there. Across the street, the tents that UO had erected for some sort of celebration were in a heap, piled up against a huge tree's trunk. Another tree had been completed ripped from the ground, roots and all! Many of our neighbors lost power (some were running generators), although we didn't at all (the lights flickered just briefly). The power was also out at the mall and on several major street intersections. We made our way to Target to stock up on batteries, flashlights, a hand-held radio and other emergency supplies. Joseph phoned a friend that he met while singing here last Spring and asked him if that was "normal". He assured us it was not and that this year, in general, the weather has been more severe than "normal". Welcome to Oklahoma!?!?

Later, in the evening, we ran some errands and drove around the neighborhood. Other than some big tree limbs piled on the curbs for pick-up, it was almost as if nothing had happened. Like there was some concious thought by each and every citizen of midtown Tulsa that they needed to trim their trees on Sunday. That was it. We even saw fireflies flitting about, which thrilled L. The dogs barked at them and then they were gone.

Amarillo, TX...FINALLY!

Another long day on the road....we left Flagstaff, AZ at 10:30 am after stopping at Petsmart to pick up a new ex-pen since we forgot ours in San Jose. We hit the road and were blessed with another mild day, weather-wise, at least for the high desert. We were on I-40 East (which runs parallel to Route 66) for the whole ride. We crossed into New Mexico by 1:30 pm which became 2:30 pm with the time change into Mountain Time.

We stopped at the Continental Divide to fuel up (after yesterday, we agreed that we'd refuel at a half-tank) and stretch our legs. Then we headed towards Albuquerque where it was now 90+ degrees. We sat in the shade outside of Whole Foods and ate chicken salad while the puppies had some kibble and water. We met lots of nice folks, the pugs tend to attract a lot of attention, while we dined al fresco.

Back into the car and on towards Texas. For a long stretch we were down to just one lane for road work. UGH! Finally, it opened back up to two lanes and after a few more hours on the road we stopped at Dairy Queen for some soft serve and a potty break for the pups. Thankfully, they sleep most of the time in the car, although each one got restless at some point today and spent some time on L's lap in the front seat for a while. Another hour on the clock lost due to the time change as we crossed into Texas and even though we were on the road for 12 hours we didn't pull into La Quinta Inn and Suites until 12:30 am Central Time. After a long, hot day on the road (J did all of the driving today...again! Logging 607 miles at 60-70 miles/hour...) we unloaded, let the puggies run around and play for a bit (and unfortunately, pick up some fleas from the grass outside...YUCK! Hopefully we picked them all off!), we're getting ready for bed so that we can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow. Thank goodness tomorrow we land in Tulsa. Only 365 miles to go...hopefully we'll get into town around 3 pm....let's hope there's no more one lane travels tomorrow.

One third of the way there!

After 14 hours on the road, we have made it to Flagstaff, AZ. We departed San Jose at 6:30 am this morning with the CRV loaded up with the doggies and pulling the U-Haul and headed south. By 1:30 pm we were in Barstow and started to head east towards Arizona. Here are some highlights of our day:

• Regina and Luigi rode the whole way with no mishaps. Good little puppies! They mostly slept and so did L.



• J drove all 750 miles with a little help from the Garmin.



• The weather was suprisingly cool...thank goodness. It only hit 92 once we were in the high desert and that only lasted about 90 minutes or so.



• We got turned around in one place an we weren't sure which way to go. The Garmin was "Recalculating for a Better Route". All of the sudden, this white pick-up truck with a light on top pulls up besides us. We were like, "Uh-oh. Police..." but then, it was just this nice man who saw us stopped and wanted to know how we liked our CRV because his wife wants to buy one! Then he gaves us directions to get us going on our way.... It was SO weird! Definitely one of God's little angels looking out for us.



• A few hours later, we were travelling on I-40 (which runs parallel to the historic Route 66) and the gas light came on. And there was NO gas for about 20 miles! Finally, on the horizon, we see Crazy Freddy's Truck Stop. J turned about 10 shades of white before we pulled off the highway....he was so afraid we'd be walking to get gas! Once we did fill-up we had less than 1 gallon of gas left! Needlesstosay, we will be keeping old Goldie at half-full from now on! You just never know when you'll find the next gas station out on this highway!

So now, we're resting up and will head out to Amarillo, TX in the morning. It is about 350 miles from here to there, so hopefully tomorrow will be less taxing on all of us! We'll upload some pics once we transfer them to the computer!

Hugs and kisses,
The Wrights