Doin' the Desert with the Debs

Mom and I went to the Desert Botanical Gardens today. It was gorgeous. Here's a few pictures.

It's off to Arizona!

It's finally my spring break and I'm thrilled to say that I am sitting here on my momma's new couch in Phoenix! I had quite a morning en route. On my flight from Birmingham I sat in the back of the plane surrounded by about 15 guys on a Russian tennis team... none of them spoke a lick of English, and of course I couldn't understand one word they said. It's incredible how self conscious you get when you can't understand anything that's said by the people around you.

Anyway, I had a hour+ stop in Dallas and nearly didn't make my second flight. Those silly airport people changed the gate for my flight at some point during that hour and didn't bother to announce it over the speaker... I thought it was getting rather suspicious when it was 15 minute to my takeoff and the plane wasn't even at the gate yet. Sigh. So I get to the correct gate after booking it halfway down the terminal, and the guy at the desk asks if I can sit in an emergency row instead of my assigned seat. I take the new seat and board the plane, approach my new seat, and find a man sitting there. He says to me, "You're 21B? Wouldn't you rather take 1st class?" Uh, heck yeah. He and his wife had been given seats apart from eachother and there had been a big musical chairs game so that they could sit together.... and lucky me wound up with his wife's original seat, in first class, at the window. It was awesome. I slept most of the way, so I didn't get the pleasure of food or complimentary booze, but I did get an incredibly comfy seat and a great view. I saw my first mountains from my first class window...

It's amazing how flat the land is out here. It's like the whole place has been steamrolled. And then there's these mountains unlike anything at home. There'll be miles and miles of flat plains with a random giant mountain in the middle. Phoenix has several mountains surrounding, and I'm excited to go exploring with mom tomorrow. Maybe we'll get the chance to see the botanical gardens.

It's storming here in Birmingham, and it should get worse before the morning. When it storms at night like this, Elaine gets nervous being in her loft bed. Maybe she's scared the roof will rip off and she'll get swept away... I sure hope that doesn't actually happen...

I don't think the whole moving ordeal will fully hit me until I return to Marietta and find my family isn't there. I'm so excited for mom, dad, Katie, and Tom and the adventures that they're about to experience in Phoenix and Dallas. I can't wait to see what God has in store for my family, and I trust that He will do amazing things in their lives. Still, it is difficult letting go of the familiar.

I went through the pictures on one of dad's computers a couple weeks before we started the packing process, making sure there weren't any pictures I wanted to get copies of before the computer got hauled off. I love this picture. I think maybe dad used it for Katie and Tom's wedding slideshow. Katie looks absolutely adorable, and I love how Jessye is hugging me tight and holding my hands. I, on the other hand, look rather like a potato.