Well it's been a while since I've blogged. We have had a lot going on around here. Right after spring break I had to go in for surgery to remove two lipomas by my lowest left rib. Before surgery I showed the doctor a lump I was concerned about and it turns out it was a hernia. So he ended up giving me the twofer deal and I got hernia repair surgery that same day. The next two days were a blur. I couldn't get up without help and I was tired and dizzy but couldn't sleep. Then less than a week later Natalie had to take the kids to Florida for ten days.

Natalie's Aunt Fior had been battle with cancer for a couple years. It went away then came back, she didn't get treatment fast enough and things went from her having a couple years, to a couple months, to a couple weeks all within a week. So Natalie had to get a last minute flight to spend some time with her aunt.

Fior was about the nicest person you can imagine. Even though there was a language barrier she always tried so hard to reach out to me. She was a lady with a lot of excitement. Natalie didn't show a whole lot of interest in my yard work; but when Fior came over she always had me take her for a tour of the yard. She would see my newest additions and get all excited with OMGs pointing at everything. We traded more plants than I can even remember.

Fior was always there for Natalie. She watched Adri for about two years before we left Florida. Every morning when we dropped Adri off Fior had a smile on her face. When Adri was born she was there. When Wyatt died she came out here for an entire month to spend time with Natalie. When Zach was born she came out as well. This happened to be about the time that things started going south with her health.

I'm glad she at least got to spend time with two of my kids. It's more than my own mom will ever get. Lately there's been a lot of changes in life and there's nothing we can do about it. The family is getting smaller and with some of the losses the family is breaking up and going their own ways.

Recently we decided to sell our house in Florida and add to all the craziness in our lives.  I've taken two trips out to Florida in the last couple months to get the house ready to sell. My first trip out there I was enjoying the nice mild weather, smell of all the flowers, all the green trees, etc. Then a day into my trip I remembered how much people suck out there. I forgot what road rage is all about. Every five minutes I would see someone thrown out of their lane into the emergency lane by some moron who made a lane change without looking. Then there's people's crappy attitudes. I'm so over Florida. There's a lot I'll miss there but I can see the invaders taking over and dragging down the neighborhoods and I'm beyond over that. It might not be green and tropical here but I like the culture a lot more.

In the two weeks out there I spent about 7 days working on the house. Then I called the city for the last time on my idiot white trash neighbor the chiropractor and the city tried to pick a fight with me. I wrote the new Vice Mayor and the code enforcement officer got smacked up a bit. She obviously didn't know who's she's messing with. Another thing I'm over with Florida. Selective code enforcement. Then they wonder why the neighborhoods are all going down.

Anyways it looks like now we are set to close on our house July 23rd. We were going to buy here but I really don't like the way the houses are built and I think they are way over priced. We were looking at a house by Daisy Mountain for 400K (it will probably only sell for 355K) that is only 2300 sq feet and less than a 10K lot. I could buy a four acre lot here and put a 3500 sq foot home on it for the same price. A house that is built good, has a floor plan that makes sense, has room for a travel trailer and veggie garden,  and doesn't look like every other house tightly packed on the block. So once we are done closing on our house it's time to decide what our next move is here.

Here's a few pictures from my last two trips to Florida.

I don't know if I ruined a first date or saved this anole from rape.

 I brought one of these praying hands bananas back with me to try and grow in AZ. So far it's doing pretty good.

 Fior gave me a plumeria stick 5 years ago that has now grown into a 20 foot high plumeria tree. I brought a couple cuttings home with me and will be growing them out here.