It's not a race, it's a journey: the move

Our last night in the house on Earll Place. 

Reese and I slept on my mattress on the floor in my room.  My dad and uncle Bob slept on Reese's mattress and the air mattress in the living room.  I loved my years in that home.

All of my worldly possessions getting ready to leave.

yowza!

Reese and I hung out in an empty house on the day before we left Phoenix.

Our last dinner was at Sweet Tomatoes, as requested by Reese.  We happened to see our neighbors from down the street eating there too.

Then we drove around Phoenix in Matt's Jeep (those are not my dirty car windows!) to see some of the places we will miss. Here is the Winnie Ruth Judd house.

My favorite house in Phoenix.

Reese had a bath at Amy's.  Po had to check her out.

Then the next morning the girls played together.  These are the cutest mermaids that I have ever seen.

Then Amy took us to the airport and I cried a lot.  Good-bye Arizona.

My mom brought Sophia to the airport to welcome us.  Reese turned to me and said "Look, Mom, Sophia has teeth."  Apparently she had forgotten that she had teeth a year ago when we saw her last.  They were so happy to see each other.

We picked up some White Castle on the way home and Soapie was being shy and didn't want a burger from me but she was happy to share with Reese.  They just passed it back and forth.

We slept at my mom's house for one night then got up and headed down to Noblesville.

Where we checked out Reese's preschool, had some Subway and got into our apartment (which was a comedy of errors, thank god Maria took the day off to be there with me)

Then we went to scope out my new Library.

And my dad showed up with the truck late that night so Reese and I slept on cots in the living room that first night.

We live in a tree house :)

My Mom and Marc came down to help unload the truck and get settled.  This is what the place looked like when we had everything inside but that is it.

Reese came running up to me and said "Mom, there is a tv in my room!"  Little did she know that it was not going to stay there.  I'm such a mean mom...

my room

my tiny little kitchen

We went out to Steak and Shake for lunch.

Thankfully we are settled, though it took about a month.  I still have two boxes in my room that I need to go through someday....

Good-Bye Phoenix Art Museum

I spent five days a week for six and a half years at Phoenix Art Museum.  I grew-up there in many ways.  I had four titles: membership assistant, education coordinator, assistant librarian and librarian.  I received a lot of support through some really tough years of my life.  I had coworkers who became my family.  I am very proud of the years that I spent there and the work that I did there.  I am so happy that Reese was able to share a year and a half of the Museum with me.

Reese with Black Cloud

with Guillotine of Sunshine

Guillotine of Shade

I was able to have drinks out with my friends one night before I left.  We had flights of beer then headed to a Diamondbacks game.

OL: me, John, Lani and Keith

Cornish Pasty Co. with Christian, Lani, Noelle, Allison and Jake

The Chuck Close tapestry that Mr. Ballinger came to tell me about when I was temporary staff because he remembered that I had an image of a Chuck Close painting up at my desk.  Then during the staff holiday party, he took me up to the galleries to see it because it just had been hung.  This work had meant a lot to me over the years.

Mass: Colder, Darker, Matter

my favorite painting

My last day in the Lemon Art Research Library

Things I will miss about Phoenix Art Museum:

The smell of the Katz wing
The dark quiet of the library after we close
Cool mornings in the garden always feels like cowboys
The candy in the docent room
The creepy lower basement
But most of all the people

Last days in Phoenix

Leaving Phoenix was a really hard thing for me to do and blogging about it seemed to make it real in a very concrete way.  I now feel ready to play catch up from the past couple of months of my life.  I do want to remember that last month that I spent in Arizona.

Reese and I had one day when we could go to the Children's Museum for a last time.

I actually let her paint the rocket ship...

... and go in the "big climby thing" all by herself.  She got to a place where she could see me and shouted down "hey, remember me!"

We also hit up Sweet Tomatoes with the Wazny's for one last time.

too cute

We played outside in our yard a lot.

And we finally ate at Lo Lo's Chicken and Waffles.

And it was completely amazing!

Reese wanted to visit Arizona's Museum of Natural History one last time and Grandpa was able to join us.

We panned for gold.

Reese had her end-of-the-year performance at school where they sang songs and saw a slide show of pictures from the year.  I cried...

Reese and Elizabeth 

(these two were a bit of oil and water - they both bit each other at least once during this school year)

Eli and Reese (two cute former foster kids)

We also celebrated Charlotte's birthday with a pinata that I had received at Christmas.