The Spring Garden

I'm debating whether this is a typo or if the Hugh family is well known for their yard sales....what do you think?

We finally had a weekend in town without any plans so we invited a family from church over for dinner so we could start getting to know people in the area.  They have darling teenage girls and the parents are very funny.  We were having a good time when Yo-Yo came to the door to join the party.

Apparently, Yo-Yo's real name is Pelirrojo, which means redhead in Spanish.   That's what his true owner's, our dinner guests, had named him.  We swiped their cat.  Great way to start a relationship.

We talked about his personality and he is definitely their cat.  He desperately wants to be an indoor cat, check.  He's extremely patient with children, check.  He loves to be with people, check.  He's mellow for a kitten, check.  He's about 6 months old, check.  Yo-Yo looks exactly like Pelirrojo, check.

We told them we were sorry for swiping their cat and to please take him home, sniffle, sniffle.  They told us they had plenty of cats and to keep him.  Another reason I love Idaho!

If whitening toothpaste works why are we not all running around with blindingly white teeth?

Meet Yo-Yo.  He adopted us the beginning of July.  He is the sweetest thing.  So good with the children, even when they (Peter) pick him up by his tail.  We've had several lessons, and lectures, about the proper treatment of animals and I think Yo-Yo is very happy here.  I was afraid for a time that he was a pregnant she, but the vet confirmed Roland's diagnosis of male-ness.

I asked around to make sure we hadn't swiped someone's beloved pet but couldn't find anyone to claim him.  So we did.  And, we did rather happily...even though he makes me sneeze.  Oh, well.  What's extra laundry when you get a daily fur fix and unconditional love?  Plus he never complains about what I feed him.  He also bathes himself.  And, when I call him he comes.  Apparently, cat's don't suffer from selective hearing like children do.

I've finally started relaxing and not looking out the window every few minutes like I would back East.  Perhaps, that's a habit I shouldn't break. 

I had to hose him off, plop him in the tub, clean the tub, clean the deck, clean up the path from the back door to the tub, and do a load of laundry.  His brother started the fun but he'd already hosed himself off by the time I looked out the window. Although, he didn't do a good enough job to escape a bath.

10 - Parking Spaces.  Trucks, trucks, trucks.  Everyone owns a truck.  I'm sure the Mayor does, and most of the city council, because they make sure every parking lot has really big parking stripes.  Nice and wide.  No door dings here.  Which is a good thing considering everyone is toting a gun.

9 - People Are People.  I was out and about and a lady about 60 years old crossed my line of sight.  She was rocking bleached blonde hair with a side pony in a hot pink scrunchy.  Loved it!  I need to be her friend.

8 - Hair Cuts.  I paid $23.00 for a haircut.  Twenty three dollars!  When the stylist told me the price I think my jaw dropped.  She asked me if it was too much!!?  Heaven!!  AND, it was a great cut!  People out here are not afraid to cut in layers.

7 - Darkness.  Wow, is it dark at night!  No street lights shining in my window.  I can't see Roland next to me let alone see across the room.

6 - Stars.  See above.  Makes for wonderful night sky viewing.

5 - Mutton Bustin'.  Have you ever seen mutton bustin?  Hill-Air-REE-US!  Everywhere else I've seen it there are 3 kids.  If I'm lucky.  Here there were about 40.

4 - Fireworks.  We sat on the train tracks and watched them.  Once someone told me if a train was coming I would feel it long before I saw it, I calmed down and enjoyed the view.  But, in the interest of full disclosure when we started up the hill to the tracks the man we were initially sitting by warned me to "watch out for the snakes".  What?
  
3 - House Prices.  This is not the D.C. Metro area.  Need I say more?

2 - Crop Dusters.  I love having the house buzzed by a crop duster.  TOTALLY COOL!  It's a little yellow plane and s/he comes around several times a week.  So far I've been unsuccessful in getting a good photo.  Planes are fast.  Another friend I need to make.

1 - My Hair! I used to feel like a big haired woman back East.  I could not get the curl under control especially in the humidity.  Here I can let my hair be my hair and I'm not even CLOSE to having the biggest hair in 1 out of 2 people.  OK, maybe 1 out of 3.  I'm very impressed with how big some women can get their hair.  There is real talent here.  I might ask for lessons....

And now for the bottom few:

3 - Trucks.  See # 10 above.  I don't mind trucks in general, but please Detroit, can't you figure out how to make diesel trucks quieter?

2 - Darkness.  See # 7 above.  Peter has knocked years off my life by wondering into our room late at night.  No light, no distinguishing friend or foe.  It will take time to adjust to living here and getting out of the foe mode.  Remember, everyone owns a gun.  Not a lot of crime.  Especially the kind that could get you killed trying to swipe a T.V.   Not worth it.  At least the TV we own.

1 - ALLERGIES!! Where there are crops, there is dust.  Wow, was it bad before they got the crops in.  Dust everywhere. I thought Peter's hair was getting lighter.  Nope.  He just needed a good dusting.  Now that the crops are in, the hay cutting is making me weep.  For days.  And, my nose is raw.  I'm a hot mess.  But, on the bright side, my hair looks good! 

Our apartment is on the top left of the house.  Basically, the space where you can see the roof shingles straight on.

In one shot you can see the kitchen, dining, living and bathroom.  2 bedrooms are on the other side of the wall from the dining/living room.  The front door jam is just visible next to the bathroom door.

After the drive through town, and regaining control of my breathing, we found what was to be our temporary apartment for several months.  Even though I had seen photos of the place I wasn't quite prepared.  I've always known that I have terrible spatial awareness but this reminded me how off I can be.  We stepped into this small space (that is darling) and I went over the edge.  4 people (3 of which are boys whom should not share a bathroom with me) living in tight quarters.  This combined with leaving friends and a place I loved living, I think it's rather understandable why I went SILENT.  It was either that or unstoppable crying.  I think I chose the best option for the children.  They didn't notice.  Roland did.  He decided to back off.  Very wise of him since at that moment everything wrong in the world was his fault.

When I have a reaction that intense I tend to go through all the phases quickly.  I was silent for 24 hours but by day 3 I was doing pretty well and by the end of the week I was LOVING my new life.

Do you know how great it is to live in such a small space?  Do you know how easy it is to keep clean?   Especially, when all of your possessions are in storage miles away?  You realize that you don't need much.  We got to the point where we thought we should tell the moving company to sell off our storage pod.  Add to all this the fact that we can drive to family in less than a day and you've got a winner!

So, life in Idaho has ended up being pretty sweet.  I think you should all move here.  At the very least you should come visit.

My next post: Top Ten Things I Love About Idaho and a Few Things I Don't

 

After years of living in our Nation's Capital we decided that the time was right for a change.  It helped that Roland was offered a great job that was too good to pass up.  Even his previous employers agreed that it was a no brainer move.  So, this beauty of a moving truck showed up and the moving men started packing us up.  The man that came out and estimated the move was sooooo far off it would have been comical if it hadn't messed up everyone's schedule.  What was supposed to be a half day move was actually a 3 day move with the moving guys working late into the night.  We wanted to be on the road by Saturday morning but ended up leaving at 7:00 in the evening.  We made it all of about 70 miles from D.C.

Roland and I both had to drive as transporting cars wasn't part of the package.  I thought I'd pull out all my hair by the time we hit the Mississippi with how slow Roland was driving.  I finally called him on his cell and told him I couldn't stand following him anymore and I was taking the lead.  We eventually figured out that his speedometer was off.  I was able to talk him into the fact that it was his car, not mine, by pointing out the people passing him, including little old women in Pintos.  The drive went much faster after this discovery.

Our plan was to go through middle America then up to see Mount Rushmore.  When the unexpected spring snow storm hit, that closed all the roads, we ended up changing our plans and spending two days in what I'll call CornHuskerVille.  Since Roland had the map the whole time I've no idea what state we were in but remember chuckling when seeing a sign for Cornhusker Bank.  I honestly thought it was a joke until I spotted another branch.

In this lovely "Corn" place my mood was greatly improved when a waitress whacked Roland in the head with a serving tray.  She didn't hit him hard but the look on her face and Roland's feigning a concussion to get a free dessert was the comic relief I needed after having my hands glued to a steering wheel for 8 hours.  The kids kept scolding me for laughing "at their Dad" but I just couldn't stop.  Kind of like right now.

We made several stops along the way, but again, I wasn't in possession of the map so I'm rather unclear on our route.  I swear I saw the "Welcome to Illinois" sign twice.  I think this was Roland's way of making sure I didn't blaze past him and meet him in Utah.  I must admit the thought crossed my mind.  Especially, when both kids were in his car. Smart Man.

We saw some great country, stopped at fun places and made it safely to our destination.  When we drove into our "town" the culture shock hit me.  The Smithsonian had been replaced by a Tractor Museum, a cow had an antenna strapped to it's back (that may have been a hallucination brought on by hyperventilation) and our Minivan was the smallest vehicle on the road.  When we got to our temporary housing I was in total shock and was completely silent for a full 24 hours.

More on that in my next post.....