Things I love & Things I Don't Love About This Place

Things I love:

Living near rivers and lakes.

Having a sweet backyard and all the fun (and even work) that comes with it.

Beautiful weather.

Facinating, diverse wildlife.

Easy access to lots of local, organic farms and random individuals who sell delightful things like goat's milk and fresh eggs.

Being close to Colorado, which might be the best state ever.

Most of the people here are so sweet and friendly.  I love the small town mentality.

Living close to everything.

Things I don't love:

Ants.  Ants on my kitchen floor, looking for crumbs.  Ants trying to carry off the cat food.  Leaf cutter ants attacking my garden.  Ugly, freaky, giant (up to 1/2 inch long!), carpenter ants living in/killing portions of the apple tree in our backyard.

Smelling skunks that the cat food - which the ants drove me to move outside - may be attracting to our yard.

Having to buy things online that I haven't been able to find locally.

No babysitters for hot date nights. :-)

No children's consignment stores.

Missing our family and friends.

When my car won't start and it's Sunday and I happen to know that lots of places that I might wish to visit to remedy said problem are closed on Sundays.


THERE.  I feel better now.

Stream of Consciousness

The water here makes my hair super shiny!  Actually, I can't remember my hair ever looking this healthy in my whole life.  In fact, Princess's hair is rather shiny too.  I wonder if it's minerals or what?  Which reminds me, my cloth diapers come cleaner faster in this water than in Arizona.  I love that! 

I'm thinking about giving up chocolate for awhile because it is my one sugar downfall.  I normally don't struggle with sugar addiction in the same way most of this country seems to, but I do occassionally go through a chocolate phase where I can hardly resisit chocolate, consuming larger amounts of sugar than is healthy. My latest chocolate phase is lasting so much longer than usual that I think fasting it for month or so may be my only cure!

Since when does Princess put on her own socks, and when did she learn to button buttons!?  I think these are both new this last week, but now that I am a mother or two, things have a way of escaping my attention a little longer than in my previous life.  So I can't say for sure.  Princess's growing independence is both exciting and sad to me.  The first few months of a child's life is spent totally dependent on Mom, and nearly everything after that is a step toward independence.  Steps away from the parents. 

I've been thinking lately about how I want to teach our children to say "no."  Does that sound backwards or what? :-)  In all sincerity, it's important for a child to realize he/she is able to say no to things.  For instance, I will never try to force my daughters to hug and kiss people (aka family) if they don't want to.  It's important for them to understand that they don't owe anyone their affection.  Likewise, they should not let people (playmates, etc.) treat them anyway they like.   I think it is so sad that so many parents (including myself at times!) try to raise respectful, obedient, compliant children who then later turn out to be passive adults who discover they can't make a decision for themselves and are so afraid of doing the wrong thing that they can't do anything.  Then they let people walk all over them, all in the name of being polite and agreeable, but are really agreeable for the wrong reasons and are often bitter with the people for whom they bend over backwards to please.  Not to mention, they lack the resolve to say no to evil.  Oh my!  Not my children. 

All of that to say that I am sad to see how quickly our children grow because I always love exactly where we are today; however, I do not fear their growing independence and eventual separation from us, the parents.   It's just all the more reason to cherish the moment, right?  And to parent on purpose with specific goals in mind like I rambled about here.

Okay, obviously, I'm reading a good book.  I usually don't pull these ideas out of thin air as much as I am inspired. 

Which reminds me, I am crazy about etsy.com.  Oh I've perused the site here and there over the past few years, but lately I have been stopping by find inspiration.  I want to make a Quiet Book, for example, like this one.  Or maybe one that has buttons and zippers and shoelaces to tie.  Maybe both. 

Oh note to self, don't forget to start a journal for each of the girls. I need a place to record some things for them, that's not on the computer.You know, hysterical toddler quotes and the like.

Lately,  I've been "feminizing" the otherwise gender-neutral (nursery) decor of what is now the girls' room.   I can't paint walls since we're in a rental house, but I can make fabric flowers!  I'm sure I'll share pictures later.  :-)

Well I feel better after dumping my random thoughts out onto this "page."  Sometimes I just need to empty my brain out a little bit so the thoughts stop swirling around in such an out-of-control fashion. ;-)

P.S. Where is the spell check button!?

In Which I Tell You How We Like It

"How do you like it there?"  seems to be the most common question thrown our way from friends and family since our move from warm, sunny Arizona to (an exceptionally cold winter in) New Mexico.   I will tell you!

For starters, let me just say that in many ways life in New Mexico will never measure up to life in Arizona for the simple fact that our family and friends are not here with us.  We went from the majority of my husband's family living a few miles down the road, to not knowing a soul.  We miss our family and we miss our friends!

Other than the "small" matter of starting from scratch in a new community, I have to tell you that I almost shock myself with how much I like it here.  Even starting from scratch has it's own excitement.  More importantly, the people, though all strangers thus far, are so friendly that it seems impossible to truly feel lonely.  

For example, on Monday I went to the grocery store with the girls.  Instead of pushing the double stroller while pulling the shopping cart behind me like I did last week, I decided to take advantage of the shopping carts with a toddler-sized car attached to the front of it.  Naturally, Princess "drove" us around the store with great delight, but after checking out I noticed a sign that instructed shoppers not to take the carts with the cars outdoors.  No problem.  I simply emptied all of my groceries and children into a less exciting cart, and off we went...except the alarm went off and the cart's front wheels locked up before I could exit.  (Apparently this is part of a new security system to prevent pharmacy cutomers from leaving without paying for their prescriptions.  The device is deactivated by going through the checkout line.) 

The person who had this cart before me should have been in trouble, but instead I looked like the criminal.  As soon as this happened, a sweet middle aged woman and her elderly mother stopped and the younger woman exclaimed, "The same thing happened to my mom just last week!"  Then her mother came up to me and proceeded to explain her story with great empathy until the security officer arrived and set me free.  

If this had happened at the grocery store in a big city, I can almost guarantee you I would have been lucky if a stranger cast a sympathetic glance in my direction.  Certainly no one would have gone out of their way to keep me company and make me feel comfortable in that awkward situation.  And that is just how friendly people are here, and is only one of the many examples I could site.  Folks just chat with you like they know you (or want to know you).  It just jives with me.  So when we wonder where we should buy a piece of furniture around here (the internet is not the best resource), we simply ask the random couple at the store as we're chatting.

As trite as this may be, we also enjoy the weather.  It has been almost 9 years (!!!) since I moved from Portand, Oregon to attend college in the desert.  And just as Portland leaves a person aching for reprieve from the incessant rain, so Phoenix had worn me out on it's sunshine...particularlly the variety of sunshine that chases most of us indoors for roughly half the year.  Where we're at in NM, we anticipate the variety of four distinct seasons, and have already enjoyed lovely snowfall.  For the first time in years, I wear socks daily.  My feet didn't realize how much they missed the comfort of socks until reunited with them.  Oh the bliss!   At the warmest point in the summer, temperatures may reguarly hit the 90s, but won't evenings in the 60s be lovely?

Next, we love My Stud's work commute.  In Arizona, his commute took 45 minutes one way without traffic.  Now, he is home in 10 minutes!  This means he no longer has to wake up at 4:30 a.m. which means that he can stay up later after getting home from work earlier.  I haven't caculated it minute for minute, but I would venture to guess that our family time each day has nearly doubled each evening! 

This town is small, but it's not too small.  Roughly 40,000 people live here and the population doubles on weekends because it is the hub of the region so a lot of folks from smaller towns come here to shop on weekends.  So even though it is a small town by our standards, it still feels lively at times.  And the rest of the time?  This town has a slower pace.  The speed limits are lower, people pull out of parking spaces more slowly, and generally aren't in a hurry.  The city girl in me may feel impatient at certain moments but the calm demeanor of those around me seems to quickly rub off in those situations.  It feels good to slow down a little bit, and realize that life is not a rat race after all.

Right now it is pretty cold - low 40s during the day, and temperatures often dip into the teens at night.  It just so happens that holing up for the Winter is pretty compatible with having a newborn baby, so I'm happy to do it!  For now, we're enjoying lots of family time indoors, on the hunt for a church to join, and slowly becoming acquainted with this new home of ours.  A trip to the children's museum will be in order soon as well.  (See?  There are lots of great "city" amenities still.)  In the Spring, we will start venturing outdoors, likely taking up hiking and fishing.  I hear both are excellent in these parts. 

News Flash: Thompsons Embark on Grand Adventure

Well folks, I finally got so sick of the heat that we're packing our bags and moving North. We're temporarily relocating for my husband's work. As in, to a different state. In 2010 that is. As most probably realize by now, the construction industry is not exactly booming around our neck of the woods. So, My Stud's company has been bidding on jobs all over the West, with the intention of sending some of their AZ guys wherever the work is. We knew a couple months ago that My Stud's name was attached to a job up for bid in small town, New Mexico, and the results of the bid were supposed to have been revealed to us two or three weeks later. They weren't. My Stud explained to me, thus goes the construction industry. But try explaining that to an anxious wife. (I probably asked the poor guy everyday if he had heard anything yet.) Well anxiety turned into prayer which turned into peace which turned into a strong desire to get this job. I don't even like New Mexico (sorry). But...I think that I will. It seems God is into the business of changing hearts to line up with His plan.



The Positives

*My husband will have stable work through the end of 2010, which should help us get over the current drag in the industry.
*They have a Target!
*It will be an adventure that will knit us more tightly together as a family unit.
*It's one state closer to our Colorado family.
*They have more than one Starbucks. Priorities people!
*Average summer high temperatures linger around 85 degrees, AND they cool off at night into the 60s. That is so far from what I'm used to these days, I might need a sweater!
*Our baby will already be a couple months old by the time we needed to move.
*It will only be for 8 or 9 months (My Stud can do work on the front end and back end from AZ, so we would only live there for the actual building portion of the project.)
*Their Target has a Starbuck's inside of it!
*My husband will have lots of work.
*Did I mention I love a good adventure?

Okay, I'll stop being redundant. I'm just excited. :-)

The Negatives

*We will miss our family and friends, no matter how short the time frame.
*I will seriously miss my best girl friend.
*I will not have work (thus our debt pay-off plan will dramatically slow down), which was actually the post-baby#2 plan anyway so I'm not so sure that it technically counts as a "negative" for my purpose here.
*They do not have a Sprout's (my favorite grocery store) :-(
*Moving, no matter how temporary, is a lot of work.
*We will miss our church while we're away.
*We will be further away from Disneyland. (I don't think this one counts either since our annual passes will expire in February anyway.)
*We'll have to find a new pediatrician, family doctor, and chiropractor (fine, maybe dentist too) during our stay. Pain in my booty.
*We will miss having such a great support system nearby, especially with a new baby in tow.
*We won't be near any major airports which will make traveling a little more interesting.
*Google Earth makes it appear as though the area is seriously lacking in trees. The above picture gives me a little hope.
*We won't entirely have the same conveniences of big city life that we may be used to.

Okay, all that said, I think it's safe to say that the positives outweigh the negatives, and that I'm practically making up negatives because I can't think of very many other than "missing people." I'm sure reality will hit a little harder somewhere down the line. Then again, I think I already went down the negative path when the job went to bid and we were like, "WHAT!? Where???" Oh as in all things, it will have it's challenges and I'm not naive to that. I am also a believer that a person's attitude regarding a situation determines the outcome more than almost anything else. So we should all note here that in some ways I'm still the same adventurous girl that dared to move to AZ eight years ago without knowing a soul, without having visited, who found beauty in things that, to me, were not beautiful at the first second third glance. Yup. It's going to be fantastic...because if it's not, I will make it be. For my whole family. And that will be my new job.


*the NM image was found here.