three years and 26 days...

...is how long we kept our beautiful house in new mexico without being able to live in it. 1,122 days total; too many heartbroken hours to count. i still miss my friends and new mexico desperately--in some ways i think we all do--and i have to say this has been one of the most protracted, difficult times i have ever experienced. i am glad it is over. we closed our deal today, selling our home to a lady from new york who is undertaking a wonderful new adventure in the land of enchantment. i truly wish her all the best.

i chose not to live in the place that i loved but rather to live with the person i loved (rich) and to have my children properly educated, hence we live in iowa, and it has definitely knocked me down a few pegs. i'm not as free here, but i don't expect it to last forever...our new mexico adventures, however, have come to a definite end. we ultimately closed the deal underwater in our mortgages and it will take us many months to recover financially. i do wish to punch albuquerque's housing market in its metaphorical nuts. but we have to look forward and be thankful that it wasn't worse--we could have gone bankrupt, abandoned the mortgage, lost a lot more than we did. i'm thankful we did not.

so, starting today, i am an iowan--time to change my driver's license and also finally time to start healing and try to get back to who i think i used to be. there must be something good to be found at the end of this story other than financial solvency.

me and gus at los poblano's lavender festival, july 2009

it's fair time in iowa!

a 6-year old's wordless covetousness.

gus, sophie and i spent our last day of summer vacation at the iowa state fair...and it was goooood. we always love the fair: food on a stick, large mammals, obscenely expensive yet surprisingly fun carnival games--all the things that make iowa in the summer great. this year our culinary endeavors only strayed to a pork chop on a stick and a couple of corn dogs, but they were super tasty. next year i'm trying the fried oreos.

spin art!

sophie with the third largest pumpkin at the iowa state fair

flying high above some serious farm equipment and a shit-ton of ag science

miniature flurries/sundaes

miniature skylift chairs

miniature motorcycle, literally

bouncy cords--the amazing thing about this picture is that gus is actually doing it, too


it didn't take sophie long to figure out how to properly use these

games! gus won sophie a stuffed clownfish on this froggie-in-the-lilypad game

yes, yes, we all love boobies

given the opportunity, gus would stay here all. day. long.

shooting star

bumper cars!

sophie had a blast--i think she liked the freedom of finally driving her own car...

...whereas gus took the challenge of bumper car a bit too seriously...but loved it in his own way