Well, it's that time again...

There comes a time in every blog, when the writer resurrects herself from the dead and writes again. In my case, it just happens to occur frequently. Meow. Since it has been a year since my last posting, I figured a resurrection was in order. So hello again! Because I live in isolation from the rest of the world (or so I feel, being a stay at home mom living in the middle of a desert), I thought it would be a good idea to reach out every once in awhile and tell the world (namely you three loyal readers) what we find to do in said isolation. If I'm completely honest, some days' excitement might be as adventurous as Oliver trying prunes for the first time. But when your child looks so pretty in his deep violet lips against his soft, white delicate skin, I guess things get a little more interesting.

And don't worry. Because I know you were hanging onto every word of our Nepal trip last year and then I left you hanging in blog world, just know that I will finish documenting our crazy antics. For posterity.

I guess upon mentioning Oliver's name, I should note that yes. Since the last time I wrote, I got pregnant, grew a human being, and birthed him at the end of the last year. So that was a little highlight. Three months later we found out Tyler matched into internal medicine at the University of New Mexico. Just a tiny life change. And in June he graduated from medical school. No big deal. See? That's why I don't blog anymore...because nothing notable happens in our lives...

But I vow, not unlike the hundreds of times I've written it in the past, to be better at keeping my blog up to date. Like I said, when I'm not making sand angels in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert and hunting scorpions with my cactus spear, it's nice to connect to the world every once in awhile. Hi, Mom!

I'll start with a general description of life, beyond sand and scorpions. Tyler has been a practicing doctor for about three weeks now. And so far all of his patients have lived to see another New Mexican sunset. With Tyler working, this means I am now a full-time stay at home mom. And if I ever had any thoughts about being able to sit around, eat bon bons and watch the Ellen Show on You Tube all day, I was exceedingly disillusion. Staying home all day with a seven month old, while I love him to pieces, is HARD. I have a new found respect for every mother out there. And if you have more than one child, heaven help you. Oliver is, from what I've been told, a very easy baby -- a GOOD baby. And I agree (if only for the reason that my point of reference is a 17 pound miniature schnauzer). He smiles a lot. He sleeps all night. He's cute as all get out (no, I'm not biased). But here's the hiccup -- he doesn't talk. And so sometimes this makes for a very long day. I used to think I was an introvert because I enjoyed being by myself. Now I find myself at the grocery store joking with the lady who has to fix my self-checkout scanner a million times in one transaction -- because I'm that desperate. But would I have it any other way? No. Because when he smiles his wide, cheesy grin, it makes it all worth it. For now...

We live in a house, so that's a first! And you would have thought we won the lottery, but no. The smiles you see plastered on our faces as we walk through the streets of our neighborhood stem not from being instant millionaires, but from feeling the cool and gentle breeze that emanates from our central air conditioning system. Yes. We have A/C. And it's the best thing to happen to us. Well, besides the fact that we made it home from Nepal alive. That was good, too. Archie is slowly adapting to the heat. It's been over 100 degrees almost every day. I look at the 10 day forecast and shudder in anticipatory heat stroke sweats. Because our backyard is XERISCAPED (that's a new word we learned here -- meaning it's landscaped to basically need no watering, which essentially means it's rocks), Archie refuses to "do his business" out our backdoor. This means that each morning and each night we have to drag him around our neighborhood in the heat (sometimes we literally do have to drag him out of the shade of our driveway) to get his bowels and bladder moving, And then when he finds a tumbleweed or a large stone that suits his needs, he relieves himself. Sometimes these two walks are the highlights of our day. That's how exciting our life can be. Don't be jealous.

When we're not out dragging Archibald around the XERISCAPED streets of our neighborhood, Oliver and I go to storytime at our local library. He's by far the youngest one there, but he lives for the part where they sing a song to greet everyone there by name. When they sing, "Hello, Oliver, how are you?" while clapping, his grin could not get any wider. That makes it worth it. The story? Well, he cares more about sucking his toe, or watching the two year old next to him try to steal the librarian's keys. Whatever it takes.

Speaking of Oliver, he is getting to be quite busy. Trying to change his diaper or his clothes is like rangling a steer at a national rodeo competition. And church? Yeah, it's become a congregation of two in the lobby. But depending on the speakers, that's not always such a bad thing... (; Oliver is also obsessed with Archibald, who, much to our amazement, has tolerated his love quite well! We are constantly and vigilantly having to watch the two of them together so that we can intervene when Oliver has Archie's beard in the deathgrip, but for the most part, the two coexist quite nicely! Often times they can both be found on the baby quilt chewing on their toys. And then each other's toys. One afternoon they even went as far as to play tug-of-war with Archie's rope, one end in Archie's mouth, the other end in Oliver's. It was too cute to stop, despite the fact that that rope is the most disgusting piece of fiber in our house. We also have to be watchful of where we set Oliver's diapers. Archie has taken a liking to them, and when he gets a hold of one, it makes for a very interesting poop session the next day. Oh the joys.

This is just a glimpse into our current New Mexican lives. We eat green chiles. We blast our A/C. We speak Spanish to old dillustional men who simply start speaking it to us at the grocery store. And we have rocks in our backyard. Life is good. It's just not green.