Albuquerque, New Mexico

Lately life has been a little hectic. The kids and I drove home from WA last Wednesday and spent the next day deciding what we had room to take with us to Albuquerque...not much considering our mode of transportation is a Honda Accord. I'm fine with that right now...it gets better gas mileage than an SUV. On Friday morning we picked Cody up from the airport after being in Paraguay for almost a month. We were more than thrilled to see him. Carter could barely contain his excitement when Cody was coming down the escalator to greet us. It was very cute. We drove back to Cody to rearrange our packing and headed off for Albuquerque. We drove to Farmington, NM that night and stayed in a Deluxe King Suite at the Hampton Inn...we got it for a really good price since it was the only hotel room left. The beds at the Hampton are the BEST ever! We got to bed late which did not go over so well with the kids the next day. We left the hotel and headed to some of our friends house about 15 minutes away. They use to live in AZ with us. It was very fun to see them. Then we headed the 2.5 hour drive to Albuquerque. Let's just say I was not at all excited about going to Albuquerque...it sounds very boring to me. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. We have lived in two of the biggest desert cities in the USA...Las Vegas and Phoenix. The differences that we have found so far from Albuquerque and the other two cities is that there aren't really any palm trees here and it is not as hot. Oh and the houses range from adobe to typical AZ Las Vegas style to brick. Quite the range. There are lots of little rolling hills covered in houses. I'm satisfied for now...we'll see about later. I do love Phoenix, though...just not the horrible heat this time of year. So, we checked into our apartment...they just finished laying new carpet....an added plus for me. It's a two bedroom apartment with two large walk-in closets. Our walk-in is where Blake resides for bed. We came here with what we could carry in our car...so not a ton. We had some major shopping to do. We are going very cheap for the summer. We bought everything we used 5 years ago when we lived in N. Carolina selling pest control...plus things we need with two kids. Cody and I are sleeping on those tri-fold mats that you can buy from Costco. We bought a 2" foam pad to help...it's not the best but we'll get use to it. We bought a fold up table and chairs from Costco for eating on. We bought two camping chairs and a little character couch (for the boys) for the living room. A tv and toddler bed off of craigslist. Last night I went to Savers and purchased a bunch of toys for $15...the boys are loving it. So, that concludes our furniture. We are selling it all on craigslist before we move in 2 1/2 months.

Cody started work yesterday at Intel. He only has to drive 5 minutes to work, so that is very nice. Intel is HUGE...it seems like it's a mile long. We will go for a tour of it sometime this summer.

As far as things to do here...we really don't know. We have a pool at our apartment complex that will be nice to use all summer long. I need to search for a park to take the kids too. There isn't one within walking distance, so I'll probably have to take Cody to and from work on those days...nothing new for me. I'll post pictures on my next post since this is already so big. I'll try to keep things updated on a more regular basis from now on.