Day trip to Albuquerque

view from tram
it was so far down
going up up up!
the ladybug bush
we are on top of the world!
view from other side of mnt. looking into santa fe
gorgeous view
city down below

these little guys were running everywhere
I like this perspective shot

the little mole

really pretty terrain up here

rainstorm up ahead. It almost looked like a tornado at first because it was only raining in a funnel shape
random church we found in the middle of nowhere
gorgeous red rock on way back from alb.
ha ha. my pictures are out of order. coming back down from tram ride
this ride was so fun.

So my leg is still bothering me. I kept thinking it was the vein since it was getting so dark by the day, and spreading. I made an appointment at the vein center in Albuqueque to get it all checked out. Turns out, it is a pinched sciatic nerve. Well, anyways, since it takes 2.5 hours to get there, we decided to make a day out of it. The drive from Farmington to Albuquerque is really quite pretty and interesting. The rocks change so quickly from browns and greys, to vivid purples and reds back and forth the whole way. There are different formations. I quite like it, except my leg doesn't so much. We decided we were going to ride the tram, since Shawn has wanted to ever since we went to Alb. the first time. It is amazing. The tram is the longest one I have ever ridden and it is so high up. You cross big tall rock, and sheer cliffs on the way up. Pretty mountainsides, and if you look hard enough, you could see deer. It gets to these towers every now and then that swing you forward, and I am going to admit, that was really scary. About 15 minutes later, you are up to the top. You look out over a ridge at the top of the mountain. We walked around awhile. We missed 2 rides down and had to wait forever until the next time the tram came and picked us up. We saw a lot of chipmunks, and a cute little mole that was just digging out his hole some more. We also saw a whole bush of ladybugs. The bush was absolutely covered in them. They were swarming. I normally like ladybugs, but it was kind of gross how many there were. It was really fun until a storm hit at the top. Lightning started going and it was scary, since we were the highest thing, and it could easily strike. We always run into storms on the way home every time from alb. The rain was pouring hard, but not nearly as hard as the last time we came back from Alb. It was pouring quite a bit. Enough to cause the highway to flood and become a large lake. We also saw a dirt road off the side of the highway, and decided to investigate, since an LDS sign was at the entrance. We drove about a mile, on a very remote dirt road, to discover an LDS church in the middle of nowhere. It was for a small branch in the area. Another cool story coming home, is when we were driving, we decided to go a different way through Aztec, and I was just staring out of the window. Lightning was everywhere in the sky (typical here) and I was just noticing some small barns off the side of the highway. Then all of a sudden, I saw a lightning bolt strike the ground right next to one of the barns. It was only about 25 yards away! As soon as it struck, you could feel the sheer power of it go through your body, and the heat from it. It cracked as soon as it hit too. It scared Shawn and I to death. I have never been that close to lightning. It was so cool!

The first video is some of our tram ride, and the second is the crazy rain we get here.

The Tornow's house. Our second home

Just chilling at "home"
he decided he was going to open his eyes

front yard. They all have to be fenced in because of coyotes and other animals up here
The skies look like this every night. Very stormy
gorgeous cumulonimbis out in the distance. sunsets make the clouds gorgeous here

Their bathroom with our swimming stuff strewn about
stairway
this is the view from the front door
back porch
pool and hot tub

living room
dining room
tv area
Shawn in the kitchen cooking up something yummy
bedroom

We have been staying at the Tornow's home, since we still do not have our things from the moving company, and we have nothing. My pictures of their house are totally random. They wanted us to water the plants and stay there and housesit while they went on vacation. We will be staying there again all week next week while they go to Disneyland. It has been really nice. We actually have places to sit, and a tv to watch. They have a really nice home up in the foothills of Farmington. They have water features in the yard, and they sit on 2 acres. They have a pool, and a really nice jacuzzi hot tub (where we watch lightning in the distance every night) They have four-wheelers, and all sorts of outdoor toys, that they let us utilize. There was a coyote just yards away from us in the backyard, and I almost run over bunnies every night when I come back. The lightning here is incredible, and July and August are considered the monsoon months down here. During the monsoon season, there are thunderstorms that roll in every day, and completely surround us. The lightning here is unlike any other lightning I have ever seen. It is crazy, and flashes right above and around us every 5 seconds all night. The loud clapping thunder scares me sometimes though. The rain down here pours down so hard, that you think your windows are going to shatter. We found the black widow in the house though, and I don't like that. There is so much sky up in the foothills, because there are no tall mountains covering the sky, and I have never been in a place with so much sky.

Creeping things down here

the belly of the beast. Shawn caught a lizard
he is hoping that if he kiss it, it will turn into a beautiful woman heehee
a close-up of the critter

I saw a beetle just like this one right outside of work
we have tons of these suckers running around in our backyard
The gumby spider is what I call it. It looks like it has arms, legs and antennae. Weird spider
We scooped a bunch of these little guys out of the pool
here is the black widow we caught. Not a great focus because he kept moving





OkAY, i HAve so many things to write about since I have been a total slacker on here. I got a job. I interviewed for the front desk at Country Club Dental, and they called me back, and asked if I would be a dental assistant. Well, I got in there, and they informed me, I would be the Oral Surgeon's assistant. It's crazy. I have learned so much in a week so far, and I assisted on my first surgery yesterday. I had been assisting on fillings, root canals, and extractions all week, but surgery is crazy! Meth is a big problem in this area, so we get a lot of patients in here that are in their early 20's or 30's and already need to be fitted for dentures. It's sad. Well, back to my subject of bugs. It is really weird, we do not get a lot of spiders around here. Mainly huge crawling things, or annoying flying things. I saw a beetle the size of the palm of my hand crawling on the ground the other day. We were staying at the Tornow's house all last week, and noticed a really large male black widow in the corner. We didn't get him in time before he ran away, and that scared me. We finally got him the next day. I got a picture, but he kept moving, so it was not very good. You can see a little smidge of the red hourglass on his back. Yucky. We also went swimming in the pool, and I almost stepped on a scorpion. I have not gone swimming since.....

Party time last night

pool party. We didn't get in though
backyard looking out
a storm was rolling in so quickly last night
the sunsets here are gorgeous
Shawn and I just hanging out with everyone. You can tell I don't like to take pictures of people much

So a quick update. We used movers to get our stuff here, and almost had them take my car, and tow it here also. Good thing we didn't. We had it taken away on the 1st, and we still have not seen or heard anything about it. we are still living in an empty townhome, a few camp chairs, a blow up mattress bed, and a few things here and there. That is it. Shawn's back is really starting to bother him from sleeping on the ground (he doesn't like his mattress blown up very much, so he practically sleeps right on the floor) and I have something weird going on with a vein in the back of my knee that is crippling my left leg and knee. the pain spreads up through my thigh and down to my mid-calf, and causes my foot to be numb quite a bit. The vein is dark blue and purple. I have been laying around all day every day because of it. Not fun. I may have a job. I interviewed yesterday with Country Club Dental as a receptionist. They make pretty good money, and would be awesome. Only 4 days a week! 7-3:30 which is fantastic. Wish me luck on that one. Shawn is doing really well, and the restaurant is really starting to turn around. Slowly, but surely. Next week, the rodeo starts, so it will be incredibly busy, and I probably won't see Shawn all that much, but there is always the Hobby Lobby :)