Living in a Gated Community

Yes, it is true- we live in a Gated Community. And all of the snobbery and exclusiveness that goes with it? Well, we don't have any of that. See, our gated community is inside our house. Baby gates are a wonderful invention, keeping kids safe from things like open stairs, hot stoves, and Mom's books. We have several gates in our house and rely on them to help keep our little G safe.

When we first moved into this house, we were excited by the prospect of having a Great Room with the whole family in it. We placed a gate between this large room and the hallway that leads to the stairs, delineating this area as G-friendly. We put cabinet latches on all of the kitchen cabinets, an oven lock, knob guards, and heat shield on our stove, and a child-proof handle on our pantry door, all in the effort to make the Great Room as family-friendly as possible. G had his own ideas, though.

First he started by climbing the stools to the island and getting on there. So the stools moved into the front room. Then he started climbing the chairs around the table and getting up on the table. Any time we caught him up there he got busted for 'table dancing'. And then he figured out how to move chairs around the kitchen in order to climb onto the counters. I lost a very nice bowl during one of his escapades, another time he climbed into a sink full of dirty dishes and soapy water in order to have a bath (fully clothed, of course), and yet another time he emptied the fruit bowl of all it's contents, taking bites out of things as he went.

A few days ago I was working on dinner and had my food processor out. G came over to get involved in the action and pulled the base of the processor off the counter before I could stop him. That thing is HEAVY, and could do some serious damage if it fell on someone. Luckily, it hit the floor and tipped onto his leg, leaving a bruise but nothing worse. The stem of the food processor, however, broke upon hitting the tile and I have yet to get brave enough to test it and find out if it will still work.

Following this calamity, I ordered a new baby gate for the Great Room, one that will effectively cut it in half and keep G out of the kitchen entirely. He is not pleased to lose half of his play area, but it is just too dangerous to have him in the kitchen. I have to admit it is wonderful to open the dishwasher and not have him come running immediately to get into the knives or jump on the door or slam it shut when I turn my back to put a dish away. It's kind of nice to have the sacred kitchen space back.

I don't think I will be in a hurry to let him back into the kitchen any time soon.

Our Super-Safe Neighborhood

Sadly, ABQ is known for it's high crime rate. And of course it's DWI/DUI rate too. When one thinks of a safe place to raise kids, one does not usually think of ABQ. However, generalizing an entire city by the terrible statistics of a few parts of it is unfair and in this case, not appropriate. We live in the Westside of town (yes, they call it the Westside, no, it isn't like the Westside in LA, thank goodness!), on the very edge of ABQ proper. Behind us is the Petroglyph National Monument, and the heart of ABQ is a wee bit of a drive away on I40.

Our neighborhood has a low crime rate, which is to be expected in a new neighborhood full of houses with alarm systems and lots of construction still going on. But the safety of our neighborhood has little to do with that- it has a lot more to do with it's residents. So far we know of 3 Albuquerque Police Officers that live here (oh, and they get to keep their squad car all of the time, so they are parked on the street or in their driveways when they are at home), one Bernallilo Country Sheriff (also in possession of his squad car all the time), a state police trooper (again with the car), and an FBI agent. And they all have kids, which they all let ride around the neighborhood on their bikes and spend their time out of doors. What cop would let their kids do that if they knew the area was bad, I ask you?

A Pattern Emerges

It is Sunday morning, and I have fallen into a routine. Get up early (today it was 5:30am), get ready for the day and head out to Starbucks. Count the hot air balloons as I drive down the empty streets (11 balloons this morning), and cruise into Starbucks for a chai and a Sunday ABQ Journal. Back home I leisurely flip through the paper and sip my chai, readying myself for the day.

This sounds so relaxing and wonderful, doesn't it? It is, as long as I engage my selective hearing. With 4 kids, two of which are very early risers, there isn't much quiet even in the early morning hours. M and G both want food and attention, the tv is blaring and not getting any attention, and the older ones are bossing around the younger ones. I sit at the kitchen table, an island of calm (I wish) in the center of a raging sea of childhood antics. Sip, turn the page, sip, read. Repeat. After about 30 minutes, my selective hearing quits and I fold up the paper, put down my empty cup, and go back to the craziness of life as a mother of four.

After a month of disordered living, it is nice to see some regularity come into my schedule, even if it is only Sunday morning. That's a start, right? Each day gets closer to a level of normality and repetition for our lives here, and with it comes an increased sense of being at home. Our new lives are taking shape inside our new house, and it is good.

Busy-ness

E is famous! E's Girl Scout Troop in CA participated in San Diego Zoo's Cans for Critters earlier this year, and now there is a picture of their troop up on the website.

This reminds me that I need to look into Girl Scouts out here for her, as well as LLL for me, and also get our vehicles registered, get new driver's licenses, find Dr's for all of us, transfer all of our prescriptions... And a thousand other little things that I have not done yet for all of the fun I have been having decorating our house. I guess the fun is over and now it is time to get to work!

Speaking of work, Nate goes back on Monday, the first day on the job here and his first day of work in 4 weeks. It has been very nice having him home, and I will miss all of his help with the kids. At the same time, though, I am looking forward to taking the next step in our lives here by settling into a routine during the days. Lately it has been rather haphazard, and that equals stress. I am in desperate need of a vacation!

Since a vacation is not in the cards, instead Nate and I will be going on a date on Saturday. Our Sales Rep has two daughters that both babysit, and we are having one of them over while we catch a movie. This is a new experience for us, having never had to use a babysitter for our children before since we lived so close to family. If we want to have a date in Duke City, then this is the way it is going to be!

First Days of School

Yesterday was M's first day of school at her new preschool. She was so excited to go and could not wait to get back into a classroom. When I dropped her off, she said goodbye and ran right in the door, no nervousness or trepidation at all. Upon picking her up, the teacher said she did just fine and also commented that M really, really likes to talk. Really likes it. No surprise there!

Today is E's first day of school. She, being 8, is much more nervous about it than the 3yo was. You've got to love little kids- they can feel at home anywhere. E, on the other hand, is nervous to the point of almost being scared. I feel so bad for her, and also understand perfectly. I vividly remember starting 8th grade in CA after moving from Ohio, and I was petrified. It all worked out, but it was rough going for a few weeks. I hope E can make the adjustment faster than I did.

In other news, things are going swimmingly here. I am painting (still) and working on getting the house livable. We finally got Direct TV last night, and can finally watch something other than Barbie movies. The dogs got loose while the installer was here, and the people that caught them were able to track us down on the Internet using only one of the dogs' first name and our old phone number. Kinda freaky how easy people can find you, even if they have no idea who you are. They were incredibly nice people, and fell in love with my goofball dogs.

Over the weekend I bought a new bike so I can join in bike rides with the kids around the neighborhood. I have not been on a bike with any regularity since I was a young teenager, and it felt rather strange to climb on one now. E and I went out for a ride last evening, and after ten minutes I was DONE. We live at the top of a hill of sorts, so riding away from the house is easy. Riding back is where the hard work comes in, and when you add in the fact that I am not only out of shape but also overweight AND riding at high altitude (we are around 5500ft high here), and it was sort of pathetic, in a funny way. Needless to say, I will be going on more rides and trying to get back in shape so I can enjoy the area more.

Family Dinner

One of the huge perks of our new living accommodations is that we can finally all sit down at the table together and eat dinner. A simple thing, really, the gathering of the family at the table to enjoy a meal and each other's company at the end of the day. In our old house, this was not possible due to the small size of our kitchen. Here we have nothing but space and can easily fit at our table, which has been enjoyable and often humorous.

Take, for example, tonight's entertainment- upon setting the food out on the table, we all sit down and say Grace. It varies from day to day who says it, and what is said, but it always starts with "Dear Heavenly Father." At least it always USED to start with that, until tonight when M said she wanted to say Grace. We all held hands, bowed our heads, and then she began.

"Dear Harry Potter," said M.

Nate and I had the hardest time not laughing hysterically at this. She is but three, and tries very hard to speak like an adult. As you can see, things that are plainly understandable to us can often get parsed out incorrectly in her mind.

In other news, the common areas of the house are all painted and beautiful! Unfortunately, though, my custom ordered blinds arrived and are the wrong shade for our paint. And since they are custom ordered, I can not return them. And they were oh so stinking expensive. Looks like we'll be using Lowe's cut-to-fit blinds next, hah!

Sherwin-Williams Loves Me

My new favorite store is Sherwin-Williams. It is so much my favorite store that the people there call me by my first name and I by theirs. It's sort of like Cheers- I walk in the door and everyone hollers "Nicole!" It's nice to have them be so happy to see me and so helpful. Of course, considering that I dropped a grand there today alone, and have been in there almost every single day since last weekend buying supplies, they have good reason to treat me well. And yes, I even have a cash account with them that gets me a discount on each purchase.

As for what I am painting, so far the only finished room is the boys' bathroom. I painted it a light steel gray, and they have red and pewter towels, red rugs, and stainless steel accessories in there. Now I need to find a couple pieces of art for the wall and it will be finished. The girls' bathroom is posing a bigger challenge for me- it is a jack-and-jill bath, with three separate rooms. The color is a soft lavender, and their rugs and towels are celery green and storm blue. The shower curtain has soft stripes of blue, green, and purple on it, hence the colors for everything else. Their accessories are cool multi-colored affairs in blue-green-purple. I have painted only one part of the three rooms so far, sadly.

We decided to hire a painter to do our ground floor living area and also the upstairs common areas as well. At the rate I get a room painted, it would take me a couple of months to get these areas done! With cellular shades coming in two weeks, we need to have these areas painted now. Carlos starts tomorrow, and in a week we should have chocolate gray walls downstairs and sage green walls upstairs. During the time he is painting, I plan on painting as well, finishing the girls' bath, then doing G's room, and then M's. I am exhausted just thinking about it.

Home At Last

I am happy to say that we are in our new house! It's HUGE, and gorgeous, and empty. Going from such a small house to such a large one means that we have very little to put in it! We ordered an enormous sofa and ottoman for our great room, and are looking at tables, chairs, media cabinets, and other pieces for our main living space.

On to my impressions of ABQ- it is beautiful here, in a rugged way. It is definitely the desert, with all of the land surrounding the city covered by sagebrush and wild grasses. The city itself is sprawling (which is what happens when you have so much land to spread out on!) and full of interesting variation, from craftsman style neighborhoods to a back-east feeling downtown to Spanish hacienda areas. Spread amongst all of those is the usual assortment of generic American architecture.

The sky here is huge, and goes on for ever it seems. In the morning it is cloudless and bright blue, and often dotted with a dozen or so hot air balloons to the north. By afternoon, the clouds have started to sail in like giant puffy ships in a sea of deep blue sky. A few afternoons we have had storms (like the day we arrived, which was a storm to write home about!), but mostly it is just clouds, clearing up by nightfall. There are mountains across the valley and glyphs behind us, and not much else.

The kids are settling in well, enjoying their rooms and the space in the house. Much as I suspected, we still spend most of our time lumped together. G has come down with a bug of some sort and has not been sleeping well. Add in the fact that I am working hard all day and I am a bit worn out! But I am loving painting and organizing and using my kitchen with all of the new appliances. However, the dishwasher is not as exciting as I suspected it would be. I am glad that I am no longer washing four batches of dishes each day, but I am less than pleased with the broken glass, bent forks, and not quite perfect job that it does. Hubby says that we'll figure it out, so for now I have washed my hands of dish duty and let the kids and Nate load the dishwasher. If I have to do it, I will end up washing the dishes by hand. Who would have thought!