Arizona Life Update
As of now, I am wrapping up my fifth month of living in Arizona. In about two months, it will be the one-year anniversary of when I found out that my life would be drastically changing. Now, if you know me personally, you know that my life is constantly drastically changing. However, packing up my entire life and moving to a different state was not on the bingo card.
While we found out that we would be moving from Vegas, where I was born and raised and raising my kiddos, to Arizona in December of 2023 only my husband moved in December. The kiddos and I stayed in Vegas to finish out the school year. We drove off in the car, uhaul all packed up behind me two days after the last day of school (which is also known as a teacher’s last contracted day).
We had made plans and had many discussions about what life was going to look like in Arizona. No matter how much I prepared, packed, planned, and pondered I still wasn’t prepared for the move and everything that was going to come next.
I mean that in the best way. The truth is, I deeply miss my friends in Vegas. I miss the family I had in my community. I miss the school I taught at and my students. I don’t miss Vegas but I miss my people so much. No matter how much time I had to spend with everybody, I wasn’t prepared for how much I would miss them. That has probably been the hardest part.
What does life look like in Arizona? Let’s talk about it.
I’m not teaching in Arizona. This is the biggest change from my day to day life. I knew the move would put me in a position to focus on my writing and to step out of a full-time job. It was a decision my husband and I made knowning that it was what was best for our kiddos. Especially with our youngest, it is better for him to not be in daycare. My oldest was thrilled with the possibility to attend school and not have to be there before and after school hours, which was something he had never experienced before. I launched Love, Scribe Curriculum and have been focused on my writing.
In a plot twist I didn’t see coming (thanks God!), I did get a job as an editor for a local magazine. It’s truly a blessing and I get to fulfill teenage Ashleigh’s dreams of working on a magazine. It is the perfect job and I have loved every second of it. The magazine launches in December!
We changed up our entire education plan and decided to homeschool the oldest. He has been loving homeschooling, much more than the school he was at. While my oldest is very adaptable and can handle changes, it was becoming obvious really quickly that the school wasn’t a good fit for my son. Thankfully, Arizona has options when it comes to education and we were able to make the switch. My oldest has stuck with playing basketball, falling more and more in love with the sport. He made a local club team and has been thriving as he pursues increasing his skills.
My hubby has been loving and thriving in his job. It’s been nice to watch him thrive at work and do a job that allows him to put our family first. The littest one is loving all the play time he gets at home with his brother. He also loves his preschool. We love his teacher and his team. We have seen a huge improvement in his speech since starting at the school here too. It’s been good.
Obviously we had to find the best ice cream spot.
We are attending a church that was a prayer of mine to attend back in 2020, which is crazy because this church didn’t even exist in 2020. However, the teacher pastor is a pastor I’ve been following since 2020 and seeing how God has just used all these little details to answer prayers (regardless of how old they are) has been amazing.
We know we’re supposed to be in Arizona and God has made that abundently clear. We’re looking forward to what is coming next.
If you’re reading this or read my other blog posts with writing lessons, thank you for joining me and for being here. I appreciate your support more than you know.
Oh, and I am really excited to not have to experience turning back my clocks this weekend. I can adjust to it getting dark earlier, but the time change always messed me up for at least a week. Arizona doesn’t do the daylight savings time deal so now I don’t either :)