I used to have a cold Chai Latte every morning...

I used to have a cold Chai Latte every morning (made from milk and Tazo concentrate). Lately I'm into hot tea. This is Earl Gray with honey, Mexican vanilla, and steamed milk. It's really good.

I'm not the only tea person here. Shadow likes tea, as does Boyfriend. Boyfriend used to finish my last few drops of Chai. Just now I messed up and let him try some foamy milk from this drink and now he won't leave me alone. I've created a monster! 😂 At least I have ⅔ of my guys to have tea with. 😊 Shaun and Kira aren't about that life.

We got a lot done yesterday, but...

We got a lot done yesterday, but not everything we had planned.  That's ok.  We got a little sidetracked with making room in the garage for Shadow's car since we've been able to move more stuff out of there into the kids' bedrooms.  I got a lot of stuff put away and the whole downstairs vacuumed.  We also took a whole carload of flattened cardboard recycling to the bins.  We have a recycle bin at our house that picks up every other week but there has been far too much cardboard for it with the unpacking.  I think all of the tidying up helped me more than I thought it would; the clutter is wayyy reduced and it looks very nice in the lower part of the house now.  Due to that I got a happy little let-down migraine about it late last night and for most of today. 😂

I had to take two migraine pills today and slept until around 2 pm.  Shaun made me food and I woke up a little and we cuddled and watched TV.  Then I decided to make a warm cup of tea.  I'm over here feeling like Captain Picard with my "Earl Gray - hot."  Of course - I add stuff to it unlike Picard.  I'm trying my best to re-create an Albuquerque Fog which is the New Mexican spin on a London Fog.  I'm getting close.  Shadow tried my tea and liked it today.  He tried a London Fog from my favorite coffee shop not long ago and said it was ok but that he preferred the Albuquerque so that was confirmation that I'm heading in the right direction.  In any case, I sat outside in the cool weather enjoying the sunset and my tea.  I feel almost ok now, thank goodness.

Last week I applied for the New Mexico Medicaid program for all of us because we need health insurance.  Shaun and I received our acceptance letters in the mail last week because we already had our NM state identification.  The kids got their identification updated at the end of last week so I had to send in proof of identification for the insurance application yesterday.  We haven't received their acceptance letters yet but I checked the website where I submitted everything and they have been accepted, as well.  Their letters will be here this week, I'm sure.  It's for full Medicaid for all of us including dental and prescriptions and all that.  And it was so easy.  I could honestly cry.  I haven't had health insurance since I reduced hours at my job in 2017 to attend JSU full time, and didn't have insurance before the ACA was put into place before that.  It's hard to live that way - especially with autoimmune conditions like I have and with Kira having conditions but not being legally related to us so therefore unable to be put on Shaun's insurance (when he had it) in Alabama.

We don't plan to stay on Medicaid past the time when I get a job with insurance that covers us all, but this safety net is a huge relief for us.  Kira's ongoing struggle with IBS-C has been tough financially.  She just got her braces off and now has a wisdom tooth coming in that looks like it has no room to do so, so that needs to be taken care of.  I've been lucky that my psoriasis / arthritis hasn't been terrible, but my current migraine struggle is no joke and the medication I've been taking isn't the most effective - it's just what I've been able to afford.  Shadow's been saying that his bones hurt for a while now and with how super flexible he is he might have some kind of connective tissue disorder, but he and Kira both aged off of Alabama's Medicaid program a few years ago and couldn't get affordable treatment without going through Quality of Life, which is (to be honest) kind of a shitshow.  Shaun needs his lungs checked.  He might have asthma or something worse (and has since before COVID).

What I'm trying to say is that I'm GRATEFUL.  I'm so sorry but the state of Alabama doesn't give a single shit about you or your family or me and mine and it has proven that to me in so many ways over the almost 39 years I spent there.  We chose NM on purpose because we wanted better for our family but holy damn am I still surprised at the ease of things here.  At the efficient way the DMV works.  At the signs on the roads telling the taxpayers how much the road work costs and the estimated time frame of when it will be completed.  At the COVID response.  At the kindness of the people.  At the beauty.  Like, I am honestly gobsmacked and in love.  I can't wait to start working and giving my tax money to a place that makes me feel like I'm a valued human being who's health and well-being matters.  I want to contribute here and show my appreciation.  I don't know what else to say except that I am happy and us moving here was the best decision of our lives.  ❤️

It's a sunny 49°F out.

It's a sunny 49°F out. My sweet Shaun got us a little fire pit that we're excited to use. I'm sipping a not-half-bad-for-a-first-try London Fog tea that I made while watching balloons pass. It's a nice, relaxed morning.

Then there's a bunch of rustling in the bushes and out pops this thing. 😂😂😂 Of course. It's her "duty" to fertilize them, I guess. I don't know where she's gonna poop if we re-do our landscape to a less water-intense desert-scape without bushes.

Things have been going well. I finished painting the kids' bedrooms over the weekend. Shadow chose a dark purple and Kira chose a medium blue. Both rooms look pretty good if I do say so myself. I wish I could say I'm as happy with mine and Shaun's room. We chose a gray hue that somehow looks kind of purple in our bedroom. 😕 I could be totally fine with that except that it took 3 gallons of paint and one of them doesn't match and I didn't catch it right away. Pretty sure that the guy writing in black pen on my color swatch before he scanned it messed us up. I have to figure out how to fix that with the least amount of work. I'm ridiculously tired of painting.

Today we're going to have the kids weed the yard (I had someone show us what the weeds are). It's super easy - these plants are barely stuck in. We're going to try to get some Halloween decorations up outside after that, too. While they're doing that me and Shaun are going to work on steaming the carpets. The animals aren't having accidents inside like when we first moved and brought the dogs in. Thank goodness for that.

Yesterday made a month of us being here. We are slowly but surely getting settled in. We're also trusting the dogs to be alone in the house a little bit now. We were able to leave them unattended for a couple of hours yesterday and no one died and nothing was chewed and there were no accidents. I'm grateful for the progress. I love my new home and I'm so happy to be here but it's hard for me mentally when things are so out of order and I don't have a routine and my self-care stops existing. But, it's getting there and that's great. 😊

I hope you all have a wonderful week. ❤️❤️❤️

Thank goodness for doorbell cameras...

Thank goodness for doorbell cameras; otherwise, we never would have seen this sneaky character prowling around our front door!

https://www.facebook.com/blu.xenethos/posts/pfbid02SM1V7pSBcHxC3gSudL1huaFjty6Zp9xLfi8XNwj58Mh1HhKeuzrqKHTp1TorJeml

For the last week or so it's been in the 80s and breezy...

Massive, massive trigger warnings here.

TRIGGER WARNING:  Sexual Assault
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Massive, massive trigger warnings here. But holy damn, this speaks for itself. Amanda Palmer never fails to make her point.

We just walked out of Lowe's...

We just walked out of Lowe's (we're painting the kids' rooms) and Shaun and I both stopped and said "Wow." The beauty here is unparalleled.

Also while at the checkout I watched a mask-less anti-vaxxer get kicked out of the store. What a badass employee. They really ain't playing out here.

I cannot express how much I love my new home. I feel like this is where I belong.