getting settled

I have so much to write about, not sure where to begin. So we are slowly getting more acclimated to our desert life. I think we've pushed the AC up to 78-79 now. I read in the town magazine your AC shouldn't be set any lower than 82 to be considered energy efficient! That seems a little warm to me, but we're working on it and once we get all the ceiling fans installed that should help tremendously. Another downside to a brand new home is that most of the rooms are only wired for ceiling lights/fans, so we just have a bunch of lamps right now.
Anyhow, onto something more exciting. Mike started work today. He's a mere 4.5 miles from home. It actually takes less time for him to get to work here than even in Ithaca. He said all went well and he's excited to get going. It's exciting for him to be putting all that learning to good use. Other than that we've mostly just been swimming and getting the house further along. I am in dire need of some decorating ideas. If you have any fun blogs, websites for funky decorating ideas please pass them along. I really need to figure out my decorating style which would help the process a lot!
We actually hung out with some friends from Ithaca on the 4th. They happen to have extended family that live here in Maricopa, so we caught up with them for a bit. We had a lot of fun. Then later that evening we were able to see a great fireworks display right from our house since we are super close to the city park. Ramona told us we bought the perfect house, awww.
So, Maricopa is quite small, think Ithaca minus the 2 major schools. It's an interesting place though. I'm trying to take it all in and I'll have to ponder on an accurate description before I tell you more. I do have to tell that we are upwind of an enormous cattle yard though. We thought it was much further out of town, but drove past it the other day and it's probably only 5 miles from our house and it's huge. Needless to say sometimes it's not just the heat that drives you inside!
Oh I almost forgot, we got a new kitchen table and chairs and a washer and dryer. Mike said he thinks the happiest he may have ever seen me is when the w/d was delivered. Very sad, but maybe true. I'm sure you've all heard my woes about 5 years of laundromats and my rough estimate of $3000 spent at them. So yes, it is AWESOME to have one in the house, on the same floor as the bedrooms no less, and one of those with all the bells and whistles, enery-efficient, water-efficient, etc.
I must say we all love having a house.
more tales soon

ps- come visit, we're only a half hour from the phoenix airport and it's sunny all the time and we have a guest room, have I mentioned that?