Sunday morning Stuart set his alarm to have ‘tea’ with his team and teaching assistance. His meeting was from 5 am until about 6:30 am. So he came back to sleep and didn’t wake up until well after 10 am. I got up around 9:30 am and went to get coffee and sit on the porch for a bit before church started at 10 am.
We decided on BLTs for lunch and the chilled for most of the afternoon. We played two games of dominoes around 4 o’clock as two games is usually our limit when Jack and Millie are involved. It was around 5:30 pm when we finished and then Stuart and I sat on the porch. We determined it was time for another change of scenery as we were getting a bit bored now. With school nearly finished and 9 boxes waiting for us in Queen Creek, it’s time to return to the QC for a while and get some things sorted there.
We had dinner on our own schedule, although Millie didn’t really eat anything. We then played with the dogs on the porch. My children are more convinced than ever that they need puppies. Nope! No puppies for us.
They are cute, but a lot of work.
I will just keep my human children and possibly get rescue dogs at some stage.
We did make a huge decision over the weekend. We decided we would sell our Gilbert house and then take the profit to put back into our Queen Creek house as well as to remodel. After thinking about buying a third house, we decided we didn’t want to stretch ourselves that thin. We could do it, but it wouldn’t be terribly comfortable. As much as I think rentals are a good investment, it’s not a good time for us to try to be mega slum lords. So this is our new plan and we are so excited about it, which is a sign that it’s the right thing for us to do.
We sat on the porch most of the evening. We all turned in early, well except for Stuart. He had a couple of meetings, but I went to bed. I’m not sure we will know what to do with our evenings after Thursday. I’m sure we will figure it out.
We set our alarms for 6:30 am but weren’t terribly thrilled to get up. Once we were up and around, I got our last laundry out of the dryer, cleaned the bathroom, stripped the beds and got a cup of coffee to sit on the porch one last time. We rolled out of Branson right around 8 am and were on our way. The trip back always seems a bit longer, in my opinion.
We made a couple of toilet stops before having lunch around 1:30 pm at Cane’s. They truly only sell chicken strips, fries and Texas toast. That is all! But boy is that some good chicken. After lunch the kids went back to the iPads and peace settled in again.
We stopped for a comfort break just before 5 pm somewhere in Texas. We decided to go to the VW Slug Bug Ranch. Who knew that existed? I knew about the Cadillac Ranch, and this was similar but on a smaller scale, pun intended.
There were not made Bugs, but they were spray painted and cute.
Millie was having an utter tantrum (strange for a nearly 9 year old, I realize) so that’s why she looks so ‘happy’ in this photo.
I think Jack May have tickled her here. Everyone can suck it up for a photo.
We opted to skip the Cadillac Ranch, as the kids had seen it on their road trip two years ago with Grammie and Pop on their road trip to Branson, and Millie was not in the best of moods. So we rolled on toward Albuquerque, our destination for the day.
The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful. Millie calmed down and the ride was pleasant. We arrived at the Best Western around 7 pm. We checked in and then I decided to go get us some food at the Burger King across the street. The kids didn’t eat much so I bagged it up and put it in the mini fridge, hoping they would eat it the following day. We uploaded our videos and then I stayed up to watch television. I probably stayed up too late.
The alarm went off at 6 am and we were on the road by 7 am. We stopped for breakfast and kept rolling. The second day of a road trip is nearly awful, but it was a necessity. We stopped a couple of time throughout the 7 hour drive. When we hit the road from Holbrook down to the valley we saw the destruction the fires had done the previous week. It was so sad to see the large saguaros all brown from burning. I suppose it is nature’s way of rejuvenating the flora.
Once we were home, the massive unpacking project commenced. There were 8 of our 9 boxes in the living room and then the stuff from the car that had to come in. It was quite the undertaking. Thank goodness we got home just before 1 pm. It gave us time to sort out all the boxes, dividing the things between storage, Goodwill, and ‘shove into the cupboard’ piles. We did discover that we probably could have saved a bit of money in shipping as we loaded up two boxes to take to Goodwill.
After all was said and done, the kids showered, ate dinner and then were off to bed. Stuart and I embarked on our last evening of stupid o’clock meetings. I cried when I told my class goodbye. It was such a non-closure way of ending the school year. However, on almost every level I am so glad this part of my life is coming to an end.
Wednesday morning we were up and doing our last bits to close out the school year. Stuart loaded my dad’s truck to take things to our storage unit. Once we got to the storage we realized we have a lot of crap. It took a bit for my Tetris master to sort it out, but in the end he got all the new boxes in and we decided to take two pieces of furniture out. When we got home, I napped. I will miss my Nana naps when I have to go back to work full time.
Around 6 pm, went to pick up our last bag from Ken’s and Yolanda, his mother in law, had food for us. It was yummy. We ate and ran. We got home and the kids showered and soon after went to bed. I uploaded my videos, for the last time for Brighton College Al Ain, and watched Netflix for a bit. Then I was off to bed.
I woke up just before 6 am and headed out for my exercise. I had decided the 1sr of July would be D Day for getting my Covid 19 weight off. I had to get things back under control. I have spent too much money on many things to have this extra weight hanging on. So off to the streets I went. When I got home, I showered and got ready for the day. Stuart met one last time with his team for their Happy Hour, evening for them but morning for us. I got to speak to them as well. It was sadness for sure. We had also watched a video where the head teacher said some really nice things about us. I will miss the people we worked with, but I will not miss the crooked company we worked for.
After Stuart’s meeting, we sat down and watched the Brighton College Sporting Awards. We were so surprised, proud and happy because Millie received a sporting award for her year group and for the second year in a row Jack received the Sports Person of the Year award. Both kids were so excited.
We headed to the doctor Around 9 am. We were called beforehand to be informed that we would have to pay for the office visit, a total of $290, and then the insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of the MMR injection. Health care in this country is SO SCREWED UP! Not only was it a costly visit, I had already received the MMR injection in 2011, but only found that out when they printed the vaccination paper and handed it to me. The conversation we had with the doctor beforehand should have warranted her the thought to check my records more thoroughly. I was really angry, as I have no idea how much the insurance will charge us for this injection I didn’t even need. It was totally inexcusable. I mentioned it to the office manager before I left and wrote a formal complaint on their website. If I get a bill from the insurance company I will immediately march it into the office and refuse to pay it.
We got home and I was still fuming. After chilling for a bit, I decided to take things to Goodwill. I popped in and looked around. In the end I bought some children’s books. Neither Stuart, nor myself, have a class library. I got 69 books for $93. As my friend Sue said, ‘You wouldn’t get that at Barnes and Noble.’ I also bought a dresser to refinish for Millie’s room once we move back into our house.
She’s excited because she gets to pick the colors we paint it.
I came home and Stuart and Millie went with me to we get the dresser. We dipped into Target for a bit of a shop as well. The dest of the day was pretty relaxing, as days are now. In the evening we Zoomed with Brian, Roy and Joy, and Brian. It was a good release. We seemed to talk about what everyone is talking about; racism, Covid 19, our new normal, politics, blah, blah, blah. And there is never a resolve in anything we discuss. So strange!
Friday morning I was up before 7 am and out the door for my walk. The kids decided to come with me. Jack wimped out after the first mile, but Millie made it the entire 3 miles.
We then went to Wal Mart after my shower to get food for the 4th of July cookout we were going to on Saturday. Maytee’s family member was going to be out of town, so we decided we would take the kids up for a swim and cookout. When we got home I watched some television and then we called the Richardsons.
The rest of the day was spent glued to Netflix. That evening we decided to go to have dinner on the patio of Barrio Queen. The mariachi band wasn’t playing as normal and there were not many people out. Since the mandatory mask rule has come into play, things do seem a bit more quiet.
Saturday morning we cleaned the house in preparation for Grammie and Pop’s return on Sunday morning. We then prepared our fruit salad, patties for the bbq, and the fixings. We headed to the 4th of July party around 2:30 pm. This would be Jack and Millie’s first celebration of Independence Day in the states that they would be able to remember. We sat and chatted for the afternoon. We social distance for sure and had a great day.
Seems the girls had a dance off of sorts.
Jack had a proper attitude for part of the day, but then snapped out of it and enjoyed himself.
The kids swam and we did as well once the sun went down a bit. We then took the fireworks back to Ken and Maytee’s house. The house with the pool was in the desert and we didn’t want to burn the place down.
The sparklers were a hit for sure.
We ended the evening with root beer floats, as all good celebration should.
