My times that is.
A year ago this weekend we moved to Texas. The time has been filled with finding "Mexican" food dishes that I can order when eating out, finding new doctors and services for Joshua, exploring a new state (or at least a small corner of it), and other such fun things.
At first I wanted to write a list of things I love about my new state and miss about my old one, but I think for now I'll compare the moves from Utah to California and from California to Texas. Some things really do get better with age.
I graduated BYU in December 1995. After trying to move to Colorado, I ended up moving to Blythe, California--a town of 12,000 (22,000 if you count the prison inmates). It's located on the Colorado River, so I think the Lord thought that was close enough. My friends Katie and Ken Craig drove a minivan I rented down with me, the back of which was filled with 95% of my belongings (a few I left in Utah to come pick up later).
We pulled into the hotel my dad had made reservations for us at. We pulled up just as it was getting dark. There was no way in hades any of us were going to sleep there. We just kept on driving down Hobson (the main road) to find a more suitable place. We spent that night with me crying, wondering what in the world I had done (we were in the middle of nowhere AND in a desert). Katie spent her time looking through the phone book and telling me things that I would recognize, "Oh, they have a K-mart and a Pizza Hut."
After a morning of looking for apartments--and melting in the humid 115+ monsoon season weather--we ended up outside the Albertsons with me on the pay phone crying to my friend Beth who lived in Mesa, Arizona--3 hours away. She came that day and rescued me since Katie and Ken had to leave the next morning.
I spent 5 years in Blythe and 6 years in Upland. All wonderful years that I'll treasure forever.
Then a year ago we moved to Texas. We flew first class from California to Texas. I now had three kids, a husband, and a cat. And all our belongings had been packed and moved by the moving company--filling up 1/2 a large semi.
I still cry to Beth--she just doesn't have to come rescue me. I'm married to her nephew.
And I have to say if the rest of my time is filled with the wonderful people and friends I've made, the gently rolling landscape, and wide open spaces I've experienced this last year, I know I'll love it here every bit as much as I loved my time in California.
