Making a place

***I will send a dollar to anyone who can explain to me why my post was perfectly black and underline-free and then I closed my eyes for a moment and now look at it. Thank you.***

I am planning on filling in the months of June, July, and August, but for tonight, I'm going to answer the two burning questions you've all been dying to ask: 1. Do you like Arizona? and 2. Is it hot?

1. Yes. (see below)
2. Yes. I know everyone feels obligated to ask this question because Hades-quality heat is Arizona's most defining feature, but perhaps when we ask this, what we're really trying to do is open an opportunity for the Arizonian to vent about just how horrifically and suffocatingly hot it is here. So, under that assumption, I'd say the hot here feels like you're in a moderately hot climate and your car was in the sun all day with the windows closed and then you open the door and the furnace-like wave of trapped heat hits you. That's what it feels like to open my front door. (So you don't want to know what opening a car door in Arizona feels like.) Or maybe like an enormous semi truck has the engine running and you are crouched behind the exhaust pipe permanently. Or maybe like Hansel and Gretel pushed you in the oven. But most importantly, I spend my days and nights in a breezy air-conditioned home, so don't feel bad for me, at least until I get my first electric bill.

So yes, we like Arizona. Actually, I would even say we love it. True, Phoenix is the kidnap capital of the country (my mom frequently warns) and the steep sales tax has forced me to restrict shopping sprees to garage sales and craigslist, but lots of perks make up for these shortcomings.

-For instance, our beeeeee-eautiful new home. I'll try to do a virtual tour soon because you will not believe how much storage space we have. As if a double car garage weren't enough, there are cupboards and closets and more cupboards and more closets and it is absoludicrously wonderful. It makes me want to buy things to fill up all the storage space.

It's also one-level-- perfect! So much easier to run around and reassemble the contents of a one-story house.

We also love our back yard and all our carpeted floors. Carpet will make potty training tricky, but it's still my favorite flooring in all the land.

As you can see, we are making the most of our back yard with a slip and slide. It would probably be more fun if the hose were long enough to get the whole slide off the rocks and onto the grass, so we could do more than sit in a puddle, but the kids don't know that.

-Outside of home, I am loving the library culture pass program, in which you can snag free passes to museums and such. You may have to wait in the heat for a while before the library opens in order to secure a pass, but I will always choose inconvenience over cost so there you go. We've already enjoyed the Youth Art Museum, Science Center, and Phoenix Zoo, and the Children's Museum is up next this week.

(Can you even count the ways a Japanese catbus is cool? We couldn't.)

-Fry's (grocery store chain) is nearby and not only do they accept other grocery stores' coupons, but also all manufacturer's coupons worth less than a dollar are equal to a dollar there (for a limited time but it's been going on since I moved here)! This has meant lots of free and uber cheap groceries for me, which is just about as good as life gets. But then it gets better because Fry's also has FREE childcare for kids two and up while you shop. Erik has been unwilling to participate thus far, but Cheri the sugary sweet childcare lady and I will break him down eventually.

-I have never loved swimming, nor taking my kids swimming, but there are lots of pools here, and they are growing on me and I think I'm going to end up liking them alright after all.

-Lots of other things are cool, like our new friends, Kyle's student experience, his sweet new/old scooter, well-planned roads and abundant freeways, and the hope of a most pleasant fall and winter season.

Yes, we are liking it here, which is good, because we'll live here quite a bit longer than we've lived anywhere together. And then we'll go where the wind blows us once again. But for now, Arizona is home.