To Keep Up

For Phoebe's second birthday we moved to the desert, and because that sucks as a birthday present, we bought her a bike.

But her bike has no pedals you may notice. What gives?

Paige and Josh have fancy bikes called Hotrocks by the bike brand Specialized. They are the only aluminum frame bikes for kids and they are light, bright, and tough. And expensive. But these fancy bikes are well worth the money and maintain their value very well.

Josh has the smallest one they make with 16" wheels. Phoebe would need a 12" bike and the only Hotrock that is 12" is called a Hotwalk. No pedals.

What the kids do is push the bike around with their feet on the ground and as they learn the bike balance they can go super fast and tuck up their feet. (I've seen it in person. It really does work.)

When they are big enough for a 16" bike, around 3 in our family, they have already mastered the balance issue and all they have to learn is to put pedaling and the balance together. It makes for fast and easy two-wheel learning.

(Although Josh was riding without training wheels at 3 and a half, having learned the "hard", old-fashioned way.)

There goes my baby, riding her pedal-less bike from Wal-Mart.

Did I mention we found a cheap, not just inexpensive but cheap version of the Hotwalk at Wal-mart? Yup. $30, baby. Even if it breaks five times we're still coming out cheaper than having bought a Hotwalk. And if there's one thing I am is cheap. I mean frugal.

(Note: Hotwalks and Hotrocks really do hold their value so if we had bought the $150 Hotwalk we could have sold it for $100 after a few months or years. They don't break so why by new? We bought the kids Hotrocks new because we were planning on handing them down to their sibs.)


There goes my baby riding off into the sunset. What a beautiful night. Doves cooing, planes zooming overhead, and Phoebe crying, "Whoa!!" every six seconds.


Yes. I am following you. You are two years old and I will be following you for years. Get over it.


Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are, especially in this light? I'll tell you again. Phoebe, you look FAB-u-lous!

Say Hello

Hello. My name is Sunshine. I have a lot of friends here in the desert. We are tall, beautiful, sticky, and full of bugs. But we are bright and yellow and make people smile.

Who needs water to thrive?

Home at Last

Welcome to the desert!

A few days ago, we made the move to the Texas desert. Included on the adventure is Jerry, my husband, Paige the six year old, Josh who is four, and Phoebe, the baby, who just turned two. Oh, and a nine year old Great Dane named Belly and a beta fish in a milk jug named Puffy.

And me? I am a stay-at-home mother and wife, woman, friend, daughter, Aunt, lover, neighbor, writer, artist, and many, many other things. I started blogging exactly one year ago as an avenue to release some of my frustrations on unsuspecting readers, and as I suspect many other bloggers do, to connect to a community not easily found in today's society.

That's one of the reasons we decided to move back to the desert. Ten years ago, Jerry my Pilot, was stationed here in Del Rio for Air Force pilot training. We were fresh newlyweds with no children or obligations other than required by the Air Force. During the almost two years we lived on base here in Del Rio, we fell in love with the climate, the community, the local people, and the life.

For the following eight years we have lived in Shreveport, LA, home in Raleigh, NC, and up until last week, in Houston, TX. During that time we had our three kids and a very happy life. But we never felt at any of those other places that we were truly "home".

So, six months ago, when Jerry was contacted by one of the squadrons here at Laughlin AFB, in Del Rio, TX, offering him a four year full time Air Force training job, we, or at least I, literally jumped at the chance. Like up and down jumping.

"Hey, babe. They just offered me a T-38 instructor pilot slot at Laughlin. It's a four year active duty tour. Want to go?"

"YES!!!!!" I screamed instantly. No hesitation. No doubt.

And so, long story short, here we are in the desert again.

This blog is still an outlet for me to connect to others both near and far, and I plan on expanding my focus to include photography of a landscape that gets a bad rap, homeschooling for parents in the middle of nowhere, and art featuring the beauty here in the desert.

Thanks for reading and going on this adventure with me.

These are The Desert Chronicles.