Road trip day 1 - Arizona to New Mexico

Well, it is 3:02pm and we have finally left Flagstaff, AZ are en route. We had a major delay in departing today thanks to our property manager. We were all set for an 11am inspection appointment and we woke up all early to finish the last minute tasks. We got all our cleaning done in time and were waiting around the rental house for the property manager to do the inspection and give us written conformation stating the amount we would be refunded.

After about 30 minutes of waiting we began calling to find out what the deal was. We did have a schedule we had to keep and waiting around all afternoon wasn’t really an option for us. I was aiming to make my appointment in Gallup, NM before 5pm to do my first mystery shop.

The people who bought our rental also pulled up and were also waiting for our property manager to show up. After awhile N went over to their car and introduced himself. The new owners were also quite upset about the property manager not showing up. N and the new home owners decided they would do the walk through together despite the absence of said property manager. This was well after 12:30 pm but we were glad to get the inspection over with and get on the road.

The property manager conveniently called N while we were doing the walk though. Apparently he was having a family emergency that kept him from making our appointment and from picking up the phone to inform us of his situation. We turned the keys over to the new owners after getting approval from the property manager and also got a signed paper from them stating they took possession of the home and inspected it.

All I am worried about is getting our full $1,100 security deposit back. We cleaned the house from top to bottom and even paid to have the carpets cleaned…

Right now it is 5:13 and we are still in Arizona as a result of the afternoon delays. It doesn’t look like I’ll be making my mystery shop and I am kind of ticked, what can you do though? These sorts of delays are bound to happen during our trip and while they are irritating they aren’t going to ruin the day.

Our winnebago is driving great, we have all the animals loaded up. All my special plants are in the Amigo we are towing behind the Winnebago. N calls it the rolling greenshouse, hopefully we aren’t breaking any agricultural rules bringing all the plants across 6 states! We strapped some stuff to the top of the Winnebago also… All in all the trip is going well and we are excited to be on the way!

Our destination for the evening is the Albuquerque Central KOA where we’ll hook up the RV and enjoy free Wifi (that is how I’ll add photos to this post). It is about another 2 1/2 hours away.

We have passed through Winslow, AZ, Holbrook, AZ, Gallup, NM, Threau, NM and Grants, NM on our way to Albuquerque. That adds up to about 330 miles for the day. Fun, fun!

Here are the photos I was able to upload, enjoy!

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Count down, 12 days to go!

N is back home from Peach Springs, he was sent out there to cover some breaking news yesterday. I guess there was lots of flooding out that way that really caused some issues for tourists and residents. Today he will be covering a John McCain appearance in Flagstaff.

Dispite the station being shut down he will still be working until August 26th so he has a few days of work left before we head out. I’ll be teaching until Saturday so we both have some more days of work left.

I wanted to share this little treasure with you… She has not been named yet but she sure needed a loving home. When we saw her she was super dehydrated and was skin and bones. She was living outside in the arizona desert with her 2 other litter mates. As a result she hid all day and very rarely come out of hiding, even to eat or drink. She is unique with her tortoiseshell markings. She is doing much better now, here is a photo of her:

I am off to a NAU rehersal tonight and boy am I sore from the previous 2 days of rehersals. The dance moves are kind of making me feel old but it is also nice to stay active even if it does cause some major soreness. I have found that when your muscles are sore it is best to keep moving as opposed to babying the sore muscle. Muscles that stay active are less painful than muscles that sit idle and stiffen up after a workout. I guess I’ll go do some leaps and stretching now to loosen up my muscles. Here is what I’ll be working on:

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Freecycle pets… Got one?

We are suckers for freecycle, who doesn’t LOVE free stuff? You can get or give just about anything through your local freecycle group but how many of you have received pets this way? We have, a few times actually!

Giving your pet away online may seem kind of strange to some. Trust me it is not really that odd, I mean giving a pet up on freecycle is better than dumping it somewhere and abandoning it right? I definitely think so!

We have received 3 different pets via the freecycle network. First we received a female zebra finch, then we we gave some away once they mated. We got our dog, Dixie from Maiden53 and most recently N got some hamsters and cages from freecycle that we will be housing for a few months then giving to a friend.

If you are looking for a pet or if you can no longer care for the one you have consider freecycling it! Just be sure to screen for a good home. You’ll be keeping unwanted animals out of the shelters and off the streets, that is always a good thing!

So, now I want to hear your freecycle stories. What have you received or given to others through the network?

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Baby chicks, a video!

For mothers day weekend I visited my mom and got to enjoy all the baby chickens she had hatched. I also got to see one hatching! My mom got a nifty little video camera for her birthday/ mothers day and since then I have been twisting her arm about starting a blog.

Today she finally did it and we even got a video of hers uploaded and ready for sharing! Here is the video:

I also made a little demonstration video on how to add a video to your wordpress blog. If you are looking for info on adding a link to a video or embedding a video to your wordpress blog here is the link to my instructional video I made to help my mom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX2_Vt6ZU1o

And I found this funny but random movie you should see:

If you want to stop by my mom’s blog a little later here is the blog address.

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Crazy weather makes my animals crazy!

Just so you know, it is currently snowing, hailing and raining in spurts here and is supposed to continue through the weekend. If you are heading to Northern Arizona for some memorial day camping or outdoor fun be advised- It is damn cold!

We are not planning any outdoor fun this weekend but the weather surely impacts our lives regardless of our indoor plans… It make the animals crawl the dang walls! I swear it is like we have toddlers gnomes roaming the house at night…

N woke up this morning to Mr. Guy jumping on his face, yep it drew blood and made him rather grumpy since it occurred at 5am. Then N ventured out to the kitchen to get coffee started and the freezer door was open! Our other cat, Jack, has an obsession with walking on the top to the fridge/ freezer and he somehow opens the freezer door leaving the food to melt and spoil.

After N solved the bloody face and freezer door issues he sees that cat sh!t has been strewn all over the hallway. Our dog, Dixie, has to be gated off from the guest bath where the litter box is. She feels cat poo is the most scrumptious treat and she will leave little poo crumbs at and all around the scene of the crime.

After N cleaned up the poo crumbs in the hall he put Dixie outside, she likes to jump around and bark in the mornings to instigate “play time” while I am still sleeping. N puts her outside to keep the house quiet till I wake. Unfortunately it is blistering cold today so leaving the dog out to get frostbite wasn’t a good plan. He brought her inside, she noisily tried to get him to play with her. He turned his back on her and she went off barking. This angered him of course.

N had a rough morning, to say the least. Our animals are grooming us well for parenthood, they give me gray hairs! Jack is a fan of scratching the door jams so we cover them all with clear tape so he can’t grip them. He also can shred a cardboard box in a matter of days so this makes packing, moving or living out of boxes a problem.

Andrew can open doors and switch the lights off and on which makes shower time a blast, he is also great at escaping the house through window screens, doggie doors and more! Oh and he can jump on top of doors, yes on the very top of them while staying balanced in order to get to something he really want (aka the birds).

Hailey makes all the other animals angry at her and they often gang up on her throwing tufts of hair everywhere while over exaggerating loud cat fight screaming and yowling (you would think something was being killed!)

Mr. Guy is our schedule keeper and will loose his mind if we don’t keep the routine going each and every day! He wakes us up and will pace the room crying, getting in your face and triping you till you do what he thinks you are supposed to. This includes shower time for N and feeding time but is known to extend to other tasks from time to time. Oh and he pees in the tub/ sink when he feels the box is to much of a hassle.

Oh and the birds (Zebra Finches) have 19 eggs in their nest today! I know they didn’t lay all 19 recently. Only about 10 are recent but they just keep laying eggs, burying them in the nest and laying more. Guess they are having fertility issues too!

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Ugh, it is enough to make you crazy! We are so ready for a human child… I think. ;-P

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