There isn't much I'm going to miss about this place. The people are not very nice, the drivers suck, and we didn't exactly make a ton of friends. But what we do, was live a pretty simple life. And I have grown to love the life we have.
Back home we are always working on something, and we have quite a few projects in the works for when we get back. Like get rid of all the tan on my walls. I need some color, even if its just gray. I've had enough tan.
Back home we had something to do almost every weekend. And even though we missed getting together with family, I'm realizing I also loved not having anything to do.
Our weekends were simple. We did things we could all do together. Some weekends we didn't leave the house, others we did something everyday. But we never had a time table. There was never anywhere we had to be, just places we wanted to be.
10 months of this. I'm sure most people can't imagine.
We got to watch our son grow from a chunky little baby, to a full blown toddler. And we did it together. Not one of us watching him while the other was off doing something. Unless I needed to get out of the house alone!
I think of this time as vacation mode. And living in AZ is a perfect place to have vacation. My house feels like a vacation house. I didn't care if it didn't get scrubbed every week. The grass was ok going another week without being cut. We have a pool, palm trees and sun almost every day. And I was home. With my little man. Having lunch dates and going to Gymboree.
It wasn't all perfect. I've been lonely. Not a lot of adult conversations. Not a lot of friends. Not a lot of me time.
Kevin has been busy, stressed, working more and harder than he ever has before. But looking back over the past 10 months, I realize our time here was everything we needed it to be and more.
It has taught us to value and appreciate our families. I miss both of families. I miss going to family events, miss hanging out, and miss having them see Cal.
My family hasn't seen Cal since November. Kevin's got to see him a few more times because of trips back to KC. But he has changed so much.
When we got out here Calvin was 6 months old. He just learned to sit on his own. He didn't nap, didn't sleep through the night. I had just introduced fruits to him. He was a baby. We still swaddled him.
Now he walks, talks, plays, imagines. Eats whole cheeseburgers. He is a little man. A toddler. So grown up.
So much has changed.
I am now a happy stay at home mom, instead of a bitter tired working mom.
I have a happy husband when he comes home, because he sees a happy kid.
We have learned to live a more simple life. Just enjoy being together.
And now we get to go home and continue on. I get to continue staying home and being happy, because I have the most hard working husband who allows me that luxury.
We get to see family, share Calvin, and finally have some "me" and "us" time.
We will still relax on the weekends, after we make a few changes to our house.
We get to continue being the family we are, just at our home. Which is even better.
We will always have the memories of the last 10 months, the good, the bad and everything in between.
Goodbye Arizona, it's been fun. But this Midwest family needs some BBQ and some Midwest charm.
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