From the Midwest to the Southwest

I have spent the majority of my life in the Midwest until recently. My family and I moved to Arizona from Nebraska and it is quite a culture shock. I feel like I'm living in a totally different country. The air, plants, land forms, bugs, animals, restaurants, activities, weather, natural disasters, homes, pricing, and people are all very different. I've driven eleven hours to Indiana and it didn't seem much different. Who knew adding another nine hours would be so different?

On our way to Arizona

Here are some details regarding the differences between Arizona and the Midwest:

Air: The air here is definitely drier. My baby and I have had a few small nose bleeds and I some how developed an allergy to something in the air. I always thought moving to Arizona would be better for allergies. I visited the doctor thinking I had strep throat. Nope. Just allergies. We also have been getting weather alerts stating that the air quality is poor here. It apparently is so much of a concern that they have created a special lane for multiple travelers in one vehicle to encourage carpooling. If caught driving in this lane with just one person in the vehicle, there is a hefty fine!

Plants and Land Forms: It is beautiful here. I get to drive on a road every day with mountains in the horizon. There are palm trees, cacti, and lots of other plants I don't know the name of, but they are fun to see! Our yard is full of rocks so I don't have to mow the lawn anymore **WINNING**. I also don't have to scoop snow **DOUBLE WIN**. It is also very clean looking here. I hardly ever see liter outside and the homeowners association is pretty picky here. There is a lot to do outside and a lot of exploring to be had. We have yet to venture out and explore. I am excited for the days when it is a little cooler here and we can explore more.

Creepy Crawlies: This is something I am not excited about. Scorpions...Tarantulas...and Black Widows oh my! Yes, all of those can be found in Arizona. So far we have only seen one of the three. When we first moved here we were very excited to have found a beautiful home. Unfortunately, some not so fun creepy crawlies also loved the home. We found a total of 12 scorpions within the home our first month of living there. It was terrifying! I did some research and found out that they can live in water for up to two days, can carry babies on their backs, have a really tough exterior, they can flatten their bodies to the thickness of a credit card, and the babies can't control their venom so they just keep stinging over and over again.

Here's a baby scorpion in our shower. My neighbor said her husband got stung while taking a shower because scorpions were coming out of the drains!

Having a 4 month old with me, I was scared that she would get stung. Scorpions can be deadly to babies. My husband got stung TWICE in the middle of the night and 10 of the 12 scorpions we found were babies. I hear it isn't very common to get stung though. It must just be my husband's luck!

This is the scorpion that stung by husband TWICE. It was about 2.5 inches long. This is what they look like under black lights.

After getting the home sprayed monthly by the Bug Guardian and getting our home sealed by them, our scorpion problem has finally diminished. At first, I wondered how people could live like this? I was so concerned that I zip locked my shoes and underwear! I'm not as worried now but there's no harm in being safe :)

Weather/Natural Disasters: We moved to Arizona during the warmest time of the year. Everyday so far it has been 99 degrees Fahrenheit or greater.

Current weather forecast for the week

I hear the rest of the year is really great. I also keep hearing about "snowbirds". Apparently a lot of people from the Midwest like to visit here during the winter months. It can get pretty busy here. Our first electric bill was $500! We were used to keeping our home at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. We learned very quickly that we needed to get used to warmer weather. We now keep it at 76 degrees Fahrenheit and honestly, I can't tell the difference. As far as natural disasters go...there are monsoons and haboobs. So rain and dust storms. They don't last very long but can be very dangerous if you try to drive through one.

Those are some of the differences I have noticed so far. If you want me to elaborate more on anything regarding the culture or moving to Arizona, feel free to comment below. Overall, we love it here. The scorpion problem was the only challenge for us to deal with, but it is no longer a problem. I would highly recommend living here if you're thinking about moving here.

Thanks for reading!

#Arizona #MovingtoArizona #Scorpions #Southwest