Tales from the Homeland

I started driving to Arizona with my girls on Tuesday. We stopped in Albuquerque on the first day and stayed the night with my cousin, Janie. We stayed up talking until 2 AM, 3 Oklahoma time. It was perfect. 

On Wednesday, we continued our journey off the beaten path in New Mexico and into Arizona. As soon as we crossed the state line, the speed limit dropped down to 30 because we were on some super curvy mountain roads. And it started raining. At one point, the tightly wound curves open up for a minute and expose a large valley. It was complexly grey with rain coming down. I love driving through mountains on roads where you really must be going 15 MPH to make a turn. As soon as I got into the Gila Valley where my parents hometown is, the rain stopped, and the wind rushing off the mountain out of the storm was picking up dirt from the cotton fields. There was even a tumbleweed almost as big as the Prius rolling down the road. Minus the cars dodging the tumbleweed, the whole scene was incredible. 

My parents just built a house, and as of 1:18 yesterday afternoon, they were officially out of their old house. It's been fun moving furniture around and finding places for everything. My brother's family arrived this evening, and tomorrow is looking to be a cousin palooza 3 five-year-olds, a three-year-old, and little one-year-old Gavyn who I met for the first time tonight.

I love my parents new home. It's spacious and lovely, and I'm so very jealous of the kitchen. I've been putting my Grammy's room together, and today I came across a little scrapbook she keeps. It's fully of old stories and letters from family and poems, and wonderful things she's found valuable. There's a  card that her mother sent to her mother (my g.grandma to my g.g.grandma) for Mother's Day in 1925. She has newspaper clippings from my cross-county meets. I ran the qualifying course for state my junior year in 20:44. Good to know. She has several "best mother/grandmother" awards signed by various children and grandchildren through the years. I'm going to look through her three boxes of photos tomorrow. 

Right now, I'm lying in her bed looking out the window that during the daytime perfectly frames Mt. Graham. At night, it is hidden in the cloak of darkness. On my first night here, I was up getting Magnolia a drink at 12:42 AM, and the moon was so bright and beautiful completely backlighting the mountain and illuminating the wispy clouds. Lightning is putting on a show tonight. Oh how I miss mountains. They make me feel exactly the right size. 

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