The Cacti That We See On Our Walk To School Everyday

If you need more of an explanation than the title, please email me.

First Day of School

We sent our firstborn out into the BIG, REAL world almost two weeks ago. Calvin is in kindergarten now.

His first day was sad, and he cried as I dropped him off. It felt pretty sucky to walk away. I cried off and on throughout the whole day.

He continued with the sadness minus the tears throughout the first week.

Now this past week he hasn't even batted an eye when I leave him. In fact, on Friday I didn't even get a lingering wave as he walked through the door. PLUS he has been telling us how fun kindergarten is and how nice his teacher is.

Come on!!! Can't I get at least one more week of tears? I mean I put in some serious time nurturing him at home.

New Worst Picture

I misunderstood the directions for this picture. I thought that I heard, "Now let's see some double chins!" Really what was said was, "Smile!"

Oh, well. See ya later old worst picture (click the link for another good laugh). There's a new kid in town.

New Place

So, here is the new place. It is a lovely, one floor home in a pre-planned, cookie cutter neighborhood. We see some variation of our place about every fourth house.

Just the other day Wyatt and Cyrus and I were walking home from taking Calvin to school. We decided to take the long way, which kind of confused Wyatt. He was expecting to see our house quickly, and he kept saying, "Is this our house? What about that one? It looks just like ours."

I really like it here so far. It is actually quite beautiful. I missed out on some hot air balloons a few weeks ago. Noah and the boys walked to the park across the street to see them. I, on the other hand, was lazily dreaming away in my bed.

Plus, here are the boys. Still adorable, wouldn't you say?

I hope to have some visitors here someday. I know it's not quite as glamorous as New York. But we have desert! And cacti! Don't forget the occasional Black Widow or scorpion.

So, call in advance to book a vacation with us. We fill up quickly.

The Last Days

Contrary to what the title might suggest, I am not going to give you a dissertation on the final days before Armageddon. Rather, I am going to do something that I have been dreading for sometime (approximately two months). I am going to blog about our departure from New York.

I guess that I have been putting this off because I feel like when I do blog about it then that is the last thing left before I have to start moving on. And I want to keep all of my friends in the exact same way that we were.

But alas, life keeps moving. And we have moved to Albuquerque. Everything is new, and we are doing well adjusting to life in a new place. The additional square footage and incoming paychecks have sweetened da deal, but they can't compensate for the lingering wish that we could have just one more play date or hang out.

We ended up leaving a week earlier than we expected, but we were able to have one last play date with our friends at Jennifer park.

Calvin and Ian - - Besties (and yes, they are the same age)

The Ladies. It's too bad that I had to leave in such a rush with my hand over my mouth to keep my sobs from getting embarrassingly loud because it would have been way better to leave with a joke. That's more my style. But I couldn't help it. They were my go-to's, and I love 'em. GNO's, last minute babysitting, Sunday evening dinners, Labor Day's in the park with sandwiches and cookie cake - - -life was so good. I look forward to many more hours stalking their blogs and bugging them with phone calls.

On one of our last nights we were lucky enough to take one more trek into the city with our peeps - - - Seares and Griffeths. It was so fun, and the best way to cap off our time there. We splurged and fulfilled a long-standing dream to dine at Bobby Flay's Bar Americain.

It. Was. Divine.

Good friends and good food is pretty much heaven.

I got steak, so I can verify that Bobby Flay does, in fact, make a great steak. Although he didn't cook it, I'm sure he was throughly involved in the plate presentation. . . . if he had been there.

And no, Officer, there were not four grown adults in the back of a Toyota Camry not wearing their seat belts that evening.

We had one last stroll through Times Square. So awesome. I think the guys were rapping about it.

I have not been able to get my pictures to upload from a fancy pantsy GNO that we did the first week of June. We had a Dessert Tour DE Force in the city planned by Christine. It was awesome. We had so many cupcakes, gelatos, rice pudding, etc., etc. that it would make you crazy. I think I gained 5 pounds per stop.

I highly recommend a 4 year vacation in NYC. You should stay on Staten Island. It is a lovely beach side resort with wonderful transplants and lively locals. We will never forget it.

Yes. We Are Alive.

One quick update before our junky laptop crashes and my weak wi-fi signal fades:

1 month in Tennessee visiting and freeloading off of family (it wasn't long enough)

1 hide-a-bed for 5 Shafers in Tennessee

1 broken down mini-van sold for scrap metal in Tennessee

1,400 miles and 22 hours to Albuquerque

At least 10 stops on the way to Albuquerque

1 new refrigerator

1 little Shafer boy registered for kindergarten

At least 4 more days until the movers bring our stuff

1 almost 10 month old little baby boy that is walking around like crazy

1 Mom and 1 Dad that are reading lots of library books to kids

1 family without tv or internet

2 runs so far in our new neighborhood

1 trip to the neighborhood pool

1 lady that misses her friends in New York bbbbbaaaaaadddddd

1 camera that has pictures that need to be uploaded, but a cable that is on the moving truck

Yep, we're here. We're happy and healthy.

Don't give up on me. I promise to post pics and such from our final days in NYC and our visit in TN.

Until then - Ciao!