Here it goes...

        Last Friday, I left my hometown of Bloomington to start over again in Arizona. We started at 6am, stopped at my Starbucks for some coffee and for me to say my last goodbyes to everybody, then we were really on our way. The night before, I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes at midnight, so I was running on about two hours of sleep, BUT I could NOT fall asleep, as much as I tried. So that was rough. My mom and I had a good time on the drive though. Carl did pretty well, too. It took him about an hour to finally settle down for real, and he seemed pretty comfortable.....  Thennn we were in the car for 16 hours. In the first day we went all the way to Amarillo, Texas. I felt so bad for Carl. He basically looked like those dogs that are on the Sarah McLachlan commercials; like we have been neglecting him his whole life. I can't blame him though, it was blisteringly hot, he probably was bored out of his mind, and he just had no idea what was going on. Before this, he had only been in the car for a half hour at a time. I was definitely worried about him.

          I drove for 5 hours (which I know is not fair, but it was so hard driving that long!), and I think I had the worst part of the drive. I had to drive from somewhere between Ft. Leonardwood and Joplin, MO to Oklahoma City. OK City was so stressful. The signs for the highways were so misleading, plus it was rush hour. No fun. Anyways, we finally made it to Amarillo that night, and at the hotel Carl was finally starting to act normal (a huge relief, by the way). The next day, we started early again, and FINALLY made it to Arizona around 5pm, after about 12 hours of driving. The drive was looong, and frankly, not very interesting landscape-wise. I had pictures, but unfortunately deleted the majority of them on accident.

          Anyways, so I'm here in Arizona. Saturday, naturally, we were exhausted from the drive, and we just spent the night in. Carl got here and felt right at home; he was so happy, which made me happy. Sunday, we did a bunch of shopping. I got my new TV and some stuff from Target. I have to admit, shopping that day was a little overwhelming and quite rushed. So, I'm glad that on Monday, after taking Barbara to the airport (she'll be in Michigan/New York until Labor Day), we did even MORE shopping. Ikea was first, where we got these super cool bookcases and fantastic lamps. I love those lamps. Then to Target, again, and later we went to Office Max for school supplies, and PetSmart for a few things for Carl. Tuesday was building day. We took Carl to the house with us, and spent the entire day building and putting things together. My uncle and I worked on the entertainment center for FOUR hours! Ridiculous. Here's some pictures of things put together and in there (almost) rightful place. 

 <--This is my dining room area; the lamps on the sides are my awesome IKEA Rutbo lamps.
--> And these are my bookcases from IKEA also.

<-- My kitchen with some of my stuff in it.

 --> My living room (thats the entertainment center I slaved away over for 4 hours) Below is a closer look so you can really appreciate it. haha

That's basically what's been done so far! Sent my mom home yesterday, went to a movie, and then today I've just been hanging out all day. There is a LOT more to tell, but I'll save that for other posts!

Lauren