different and the same.

Living in the Southwest has certainly brought its share of new experiences for the Gough family. Off the top of my head:

- Summertime brought with it LOW temperatures in the 80s. That took some getting used to. It was just never cool. At all. 

- The water from the tap felt lukewarm for most of the summer. There wasn't much cold water because the pipes aren’t buried as deep in the ground here thus making the water that runs through them warm due to the consistent heat. 

- Nearly all subdivisions have cinder block walls vs. backyard fences. I talked to the woman who lives behind us once and it reminded me of Tim Allen on Home Improvement talking to the guy next door -- you know, you could only see his eyes and hat. That's how it is here. We mainly talk to the neighbors out front instead.  

- Speaking of neighbors, we barely saw them all summer long. We met them all in the spring when we moved in and the weather was nice, didn't see them all summer because the only time you're outside is when you're in the pool (and no one can see you then because of the aforementioned cinder block walls). We are now starting to see them outside again now that fall has arrived. Winter must be the social season around here. Just the opposite of what we're used to. 

- Monsoon season. Here in Arizona, monsoon is defined as a season, not a type of storm. It runs from June - Sept. We didn't really know what to expect of the monsoon storms that everyone spoke of. They talked about increased humidity, wind storms, dust storms, lightning storms, and heavy rains. During our first summer here, we experienced a few dust storms (they remind us of white-out blizzard conditions but with flying dirt/dust instead of snow), some high winds and lightning (not unlike anything we haven't seen before), some humidity after storms (we've experienced far worse in the Midwest), and a handful of rain storms. The worst was a storm that hit in September and dropped 5+ inches of rain in a 2-hour time frame. This is unheard of in the desert and our house didn't handle it well. Roofs here, I'm told, are mainly for decoration, not to protect your home from damage, and we have no gutters to help keep the rain away from the house. As a result... 

This is what our garage ceiling looked like.
There are a few other areas in the house that have water damage as well.
It could've been worse...and it was for plenty of other homeowners.
I just think the kicker is that we live in the DESERT and now is the first time in our lives that our home has had water damage. 

This is one picture of the water pooling on the side of our house. I didn't get many good pictures of the rain because Matt & I were busy raking rocks up against the house to keep water from coming in! 

- Dust. Did I mention that it's always very dusty here? There is pretty much always a layer of dust on everything. Inside and out. I am learning to live with it. 

- The ground is as hard as a rock. To do any gardening, I've discovered that you have to drench it with water in order to do any digging. 

- Arizona is one of the only states that does not observe Daylight Savings Time. 

-- We see geckos on the outside of our family room window screens daily as evening settles in. At first, it was somewhat unnerving to see these little creatures crawling on the screens, but now we've come to enjoy watching the little guys catch bugs as they cling to the light that is in our house.

- We saw this enormous caterpillar crawling in our garage in October. My dad actually spotted it when he was doing some work in the garage. I wish I had put an object next to it to provide perspective because it was probably 5x the size of any caterpillar I've seen in the Midwest. While we do have lots of butterflies here, I haven't noticed any that are the size of a bird, which is what I'd expect to see form from this caterpillar! 

 - One thing that is just like being "home" in Michigan -- shopping at our grocery store, Fry’s, which is a division of Kroger. My cupboards are filled with Kroger brand everything. Feels like home.

There are tons of other differences that we've noticed, and I'll continue to post them as they enter my head. It's been an interesting experience thus far.

happy fall!

As we navigate our first year here in Arizona, we find that there are a number of "firsts" that we pay closer attention to than we might have if we were still living in the Midwest. Yesterday was a case in point -- the first day of fall. Typically, I've always looked forward to fall. What's not to love about the cool, crisp air, the changing leaves, apples, and pumpkins? Here "in the valley", the first day of fall is quite a bit different. We still see apples and pumpkins...at the grocery store. Are there cider mills, apple orchards, and pumpkin patches around here? I have no idea! We also see triple-digit temperatures. Whew! 

This is what the first day of fall looks like in the desert: 

I can't complain about the gorgeous blue skies that we see here on a regular basis.

As we got ready to head to Lincoln's baseball game yesterday, I snapped a picture of the clock that is on our patio. I'm not sure if you can see the temperature in the lower right corner, but it indicates a temp of 102 degrees. Thank goodness for shady spots at the baseball complex!

You know it's football season when...

you enter the family room and see the helmets lined up in front of the tv.

Each week, Lincoln places the team matchups on the entertainment center. The losing teams get tossed aside and then it starts all over again the next Sunday. It's become a cute tradition. I think I'm the only one in the house who still doesn't know which teams are which helmets! I need to get with the program.

Seems like football season is going to require a bit of a mental adjustment this year as game times are gonna feel wonky here in the desert. In Illinois, it wasn't difficult to get used to watching a typical 1:00 EST Sunday game at noon CST. Here in AZ, however, the 1:00 game will start at 10 a.m.  Perhaps the games will start with Bloody Mary's instead of beer?

hoops 2014.

Lincoln just finished another fun season of basketball. He's really shown great progress this season. He's always ready for the rebound, looking for the open teammate who can make a shot, staying on his man as he plays defense, and making a great number of shots himself. Perhaps he has his coach to thank for his increased skill set...

Coach Matt (dad) and Lincoln

Lincoln truly loved having his dad coach this season. 

The team at the end of the season.

Lincoln earned 3 medals this season:

            1. Good sportsmanship

                 2. Leading scorer on team

3. Participation

The team finished in the middle of the pack and only the top 3 teams earned trophies.
Lincoln had a great time playing and was happy enough with where his team finished. After all, it's all about having fun and learning a little something with each season, right?

Below is a quick video of Lincoln playing.

Gosh, now that I'm writing this post, I'm realizing that this is Lincoln's second go at basketball this year. He played in Grayslake in Feb/March, just before we moved. Here are a couple of pics from that season.

Little Hoopsters Winter 2014

Lincoln and his buddies, Nick and Brendan. He sure misses these guys.

Up next: Fall baseball.

Detroit Tigers in Phoenix!

I don't really know all that much about baseball, but life in a house with Matt & Lincoln makes it difficult to avoid absorbing some sports information. As I understand it, there are only a few times per season when an American League team, such as our Detroit Tigers, plays a National League team, such as the local Arizona Diamondbacks. This year, we lucked out with just such a series.

The four of us went to the game on July 22 at Chase Field.

Game time temperature: 108 degrees. Inside temp at game time: 80 degrees (thank goodness for the retractable roof that was closed when we there). 

Before the game, we ate down the street from Chase Field at Alice Cooper's restaurant, Cooperstown. I was sure to put Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits on in the car on the way there. Thanks to my older brothers, I can't not be a fan after listening to him as a teenager (or probably younger). How is it possible that his Greatest Hits album was released in 1974...before I was born? Great music. I digress...

The restaurant is like a sports bar, full of music and sports memorabilia.
I had hoped to see Alice there. He must've been busy that night. Heck, he was probably at the game!
He's from the D, so he should've been there rooting for the Tigers. 

The kids outside at Alice's restaurant.
It was 108 degrees -- too hot to eat outside, but we did stop for a picture.
Notice the fans. They have misters to help cool the area. You see misting systems at a lot of outdoor restaurants around here. 

Matt and the kids outside the ball park. 

Little sis and big bro near our seats inside the park.
We were on the first base side. 

A unique feature of Chase Field is the pool in the outfield. 

The Gough's in the outfield. 

Unfortunately, the Tigers lost the game that we went to, but they won the series 2-1.

It was uncanny to see the number of Tigers fans that were at the game. I fully expected that we'd feel like outsiders with our Tigers gear on, but we sure didn't. There were people with Tigers, Michigan/Michigan State, Red Wings, and Lions gear everywhere we looked. There were even several "Let's go, Tigers" cheers going on. Love it!

first day of school - 2014.

Here in Chandler, AZ, we are on a year-round school schedule where the kids have a shorter, 7-week summer and a few 2-week breaks throughout the school year. I think we'll like this type of schedule since the kids didn't really have enough time to settle into summer boredom and they supposedly retain more (or lose less) of the knowledge that they had learned in school the previous year.

With this schedule, the new school year starts in July. Today (7/21/14) was their first day of school. Lincoln is starting 3rd grade, where they indicate that the school work will be increasingly difficult, and their will be an increased level of personal responsibility for the students. I am excited to watch as Lincoln really comes into his own as a student this year. I can see that he's really a big kid now.

Today marks a major milestone for Cassidy. She starts full-day kindergarten and gets to take the bus to and from school. She surprised Matt & I by shedding no tears this morning. She seemed fairly excited and just a little bit nervous. I think it helps that we got to "Meet the Teacher" last week. She got to see her classroom, meet her teacher, etc.  Having some familiarity with how things will look and where things are certainly helps so we are grateful that they do the Meet the Teacher thing before school starts.

I am anxious for the bus to arrive this afternoon to see how the kids fared during their first day.

Requisite first day picture of Lincoln.

Big Kindergartner!

Big bro and little sis on the first day of school.

The kindergartners wear school shirts on the first day so that they can be easily identified. 

Lincoln chose a Super Mario shirt for his first day.
He's looking so grown up. 

As all of you know, I am an emotional person. I surprised myself when I didn't cry when Lincoln went off to Kindergarten for the first time. Maybe I felt confident that he'd find his way due to his outgoing nature. Plus, I knew that I still had Cassidy home with me to take care of and to keep me company. Today, Matt & I watched the kids get on the bus and I was excited and nervous for them, but by the time we walked back into the house I had tears streaming down my cheeks as I realized that this is a milestone day in the Gough house. I am proud of my kids and I am excited for them to become their own people. I am also looking forward to having quiet time in the house during the day so that I can work and take care of household things, but I am also feeling reflective as I now see that I officially have two school-aged kids. That's a big thing. We are moving forward!

summer dance.

To help keep the kids busy during the hot summer months in Arizona, I signed each of them up for an activity. Cassidy did a ballet class, while Lincoln played basketball (good indoor sport!). Below, you can see Cassidy enjoying her dance class. I'll have pictures soon of Lincoln playing basketball; his season ends next week. 

Cassidy in "second position".

Last day of class.

Here, Cassidy is practicing on her tippy toes.