Two Months in the Land of Enchantment

We have been living in the “Land of Enchantment” for two months now, and I’m ready to venture out into the wilderness. Living in Rio Rancho has allowed me to acclimate to the landscape and it has also afforded me the opportunity to get lost in the wilderness last Saturday.

I have always stayed on major roads, but for some reason I was a little adventurous, and throwing caution to the wind, I thought I would be able to make it back home fairly quickly. I dropped Shoshie off at the library to finish up a project that she had to do for school, and because it was just a ten minute drive, I didn’t bother to pack a diaper bag or supplies. What was supposed to be just a twenty minute drive all together, turned into an hour and ten minute odyssey adventure into the one place I feared to tread. I traveled down a major road and instead of making a left as usual to get home, I reasoned to myself that since the road ran parallel to the one I usually take, I could just drive a bit further and make a left, finding a quicker way to reach my house and bypassing all the traffic of town. Simmi is in her seat, happy as a clam with her pink sunglasses on, jabbering away to music playing on the radio and I am wondering why as I drive, all the sudden the paved road turns to DIRT! We are now traveling on a bumpy dirt road and Simmi’s squeals and laughter from the back seat are making me crack up laughing. The dirt road is graded roughly so every bump can be felt and Simmi thinks she is on some sort of magic ride. She just continues to laugh and laugh, and I join in until I realize that there is no homes, no street signs and no one around for miles! My laughter turns to the sober reality that this isn’t a magic ride and it has the potential to be the ride from hell! Remember I had no diaper bag, no supplies, formula or bottle with me. At that moment I check my cell phone…SHIT! No signal either. Part of me was in a little bit of a panic hoping that the rough terrain I was now on wouldn’t cause a flat tire and strand me out in the middle of the desert. The directional I have in my truck said I was going west and at some point I would need to make a left and travel south for a while. But what road do I take? There were lots of other dirt roads out there but those roads looked so small and treacherous. I decided to just stay on the major dirt road I was on and it felt like I was traveling forever. Then the novelty of the bumpies wore off and that precious little thing in the back seat started to whine. Now I’m even more freaked out, hoping she isn’t going to have a full blown scream fest since it was her nap time and no bottle was available for her. Finally I see a large dirt road and I decide to make a left and travel down that one for what seemed like an eternity. Looking around at the landscape and the location of the Sandia Mountains, I knew that I couldn’t be too far from my intended destination. Sure enough I make another left and now I am sure that I will be ok. Simmi takes a whack at singing and notices that her voice reverberates as she sings. Amused by her new found ability to manipulate the tones of her shaking voice, she giggles and with eyes rolling, she is lulling herself to sleep. Then all the sudden I see the road and realize that we are gonna make it! Five minutes after hitting the paved road we came upon our street…AH! I was so relieved that we made it out of there without breaking down or having a melt down.

The adventure really forced me out of my comfort zone and into a place that is truly Enchanted. Although I was worried about breaking down and also about Simmi having a melt down, I was able to glimpse the beauty of soft hills, evergreens and the wide open sky. It was eerie being out in the middle of nowhere knowing that there was a possibility that we could get stranded. It made my adrenaline rush and my heart race. I kind of liked it! I saw some wildlife out there as well; a road runner and a coyote…GO FIGURE!

Over all, things are going well. The children are adjusting to school and have made friends and Simmi is just her cute adorable self. I am healthy but somewhat depressed without Dom here. We had hoped to have a nice little chunk of money from our tax returns to finish up what needs to be repaired in the house, but we will just break even. My plans for finishing the painting, the floors and other things that need to be redone will now have to wait. That is depressing too! I want to finish the kids rooms and restore to them the things I promised, and now it is going to take that much longer. They are truly fantastic children and even though they don’t like that they have very little in their rooms (not even curtains yet!) they are being very patient. I am such a visual person, and I find that I get depressed having to live in a place that can not even be finished the way that will make this house a home. I know that in time we will accomplish our tasks and fill this home with art, furniture and the things that the kids have lost, but reality sucks sometimes. Other than that, I really can’t complain. We have a roof over our heads, a semi-hypoallergenic home, beds to sleep in, some clothes on our backs and my husband still has his job. I would say with the state of the economy and the hard times that this country is facing, we are doing better than most…and for that I am very grateful!

Bald Beauty of the day:

At Home in the High Desert

We have been in New Mexico for a little more than a month now, and our family is adjusting very well. We found a permanent home in a town called Rio Rancho, and well…I must say that I am pleasantly surprised that I am enjoying the flat desert. I guess when viewing the landscape from far away, everything looks flat until you begin to drive through the terrain. There are many hills and lots of vegetation here. There is beauty here just as there is beauty in seeing the mountains.

I have not had access to the internet for a while now, and I was starting to go nuts! This past Friday the cable guy came and hooked us up. We are now in a small four bedroom house that is in need of a lot of tender loving care. We made the decision to rent this house because the landlord was willing to allow us to do the work necessary to make it safe for Simmi. She is highly sensitive to latex rubber and is allergic to dust mites, so carpet poses a big problem for her skin. The first order of business was to rip all the carpet up, then to clean up the place and paint. It has been a slow process but we are getting a lot done. My kids have been a such a big help and I don’t know if I could have done as much as I have done to this point with out them. They have watched over Simmi as I ran around like a chicken without a head trying to get things done.

It hasn’t been easy for them. They have lost everything they held dear and moved very far away from their dad and friends. When we first got to NM they had a week left of school before the holiday break, but because their school didn’t send their transcripts, we couldn’t register them. It worked out well though, because if we would have been able register them in the school near the temporary house, we would have had to pull them out of there and transfer them to the Rio Rancho school district. We found our new home the end of December but with the landlord going to see relatives in another state, we couldn’t sign the lease for another week. THEN when we signed the lease we had electricity but no water or gas. It’s very hard to work in a house that has no heat or water. We moved in on January 14th with no furniture. I was partially holding my breath half the time wondering if we were going to have to sleep on the concrete. But, as it turns out, I found another very endearing quality about NM…the people here are very generous. People donated beds, a living room set and a table and chairs! All of it in very good condition. Our first night in the house we slept on beds and NOT on concrete. Noah started school this past Thursday and Shoshie started school on Friday. It was an easy adjustment for Noah, but Shoshie found the size of her school a little overwhelming. Simmi is doing wonderful and I am happy to say that she is now eczema free. The lack of carpets cleared up the last of her rashy skin. Unfortunately, because the house is still not finished, the only room that is safe for her to be in right now is the kitchen. I call it “the safe zone.” She definitely doesn’t like being confined to the small kitchen, but it is the only way to keep her clean until the rest of the house is done. Tomorrow I will be finishing the painting and then she will be free to roam our little abode freely.

I am getting stronger every day, and it is so wonderful to feel normal again. In one months time all the pain that had been constant for the last year has left me. I wouldn’t be able to do all that I am doing right now if I was still racked with pain. I am bursting with energy and greet each new day like a child on Christmas morn. In the next few weeks I’ll post pictures of our new home with before and after photos.

Thanks for reading!