Tis the Season

So we went to the Christmas party at church and I had told Melia that Santa would be there. At first she said she wanted to dance with him, but I told her that probably wouldn't happen. She decided sitting in his lap would be good enough. She was so excited and kept talking about it all the way there. At the end of the program, Santa comes out and before they have even announced that the kids can come up on stage to see him, Melia has taken off running and makes it up there into his lap before the announcement is done! She was so cute. She talked about seeing Santa and the little bag of goodies he gave her for days afterward.
It snowed for the first time here this winter. It started while we were at church and Bo was so excited that he ran and got Melia out of the nursery to go see it. When we got home, he gave her a big snow ball to suck on.
She loved it so much that she decided to have it for dinner...and that's all she ate. About an hour later, she was at the refrigerator asking for food to eat. First lesson with snow--fun to eat, but not as satisfying as one would hope.

Tag, I'm it!

Ok, so I've been tagged and I'm supposed to reveal 6 random facts about myself. Here it goes--

6 Random Facts:

1. I am a dancing fool. I have always loved dancing and will do it any chance I get--although now a days it seems like most of my dancing is done at home with Melia. Bo and I did get to dance at his work Christmas party this weekend though (side note: Dancing while pregnant makes you realize your muscles really are in different places now than they usually are). Anyway, not only do I love dancing myself, I will watch anything that has dancing in it--and I mean anything. I don't care how stupid the story line may be or how poor the acting is, if it has good dancing, I'm watching it. One of my favorite shows on TV: So You Think You Can Dance.

2. I am an animal lover. Ever since I was little, I've always felt a special connection with animals and had a real desire and passion for their well being. I belong to several animal welfare groups and have always been known as the girl who rescues strays off the street. Right now, my part time job is doing dog training and helping people have better relationships with their dogs. I love it and get a real high after each session--helping dogs and people have better more peaceful lives--what could be better?

3. No matter where I live or how long I'm there, I will always have a little ghetto soul in me. All my peeps from Pico know what I'm talking about. ;)

4. Over the past couple of years, I've really gotten into holistic health and I feel like it opened up a whole new world for me. I feel better than I've ever felt in my life. I am not, however, extreme. I can still finish off a half gallon of ice cream every once in a while.

5. I love 24! Bo and I own all 6 seasons and have watched each one 2 or 3 times. We loved lending them out to our friends and family and getting people hooked!

6. Being a mom has changed me in so many ways for the better. I am definitely a better person because of Melia. Man, I'm gonna be awesome by the time we're done having kids! :)

And there it is. Now I'm supposed to tag 6 people--ummm....Vicky, Noelle, Amy, Olivia, Heidi and Palmyra.

The Rules:

1. Link this post to the person who tagged you: Piper

2. Post The Rules on your blog. (see!)

3. List 6 random things about yourself.

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post.

5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

35 years ago today, I was born into this world and started my journey on earth. When I was a teenager, I always thought that once I was in my 30's, I'd feel middle aged. That's really funny to me now that I'm here because I don't feel any different than when I was in my twenties as far as the aging part goes. But there are some definite differences...
I feel more comfortable and at ease with myself than I ever have. I feel more joy and peace in my life than ever before--which is interesting because, financially speaking, we have less than we've ever had before. We are really down to the bare minimum, but I feel richer than ever. I appreciate things more. I see God's hand in our lives each day carefully taking care of our every need and blessing us in very personal and specific ways. You can't tell me that God doesn't know each one of us and know exactly what we need. And as far as family goes...
I can't even express how much joy Melia brings to my life. She is the most amazing gift I have ever been given. She makes me laugh every day. I am truly, truly enjoying being her mommy. And now we have another one on the way!! :) Double the joy!! Not to mention that I have a truly wonderful husband who knows the inside, the outside, the upside down of me and loves me because of, in spite of, and through it all. What more could I ask for?
I could go on and on about how grateful I'm feeling right now...Let's just say, life is good. Really good. :) Happy Birthday to me!

Ahh, the potty

Well, after much time spent sitting on the potty--and I'm talking MUCH time, we finally have success!
A couple of months ago, we tried to potty train her and just ended up with a lot of time sitting on the potty without a lot of pee or poop happening.
Here's daddy resting on the fan during one of the "potty sessions". We kind of gave it up for a while and then a few weeks ago we got her "big girl panties". She had 9 accidents the first day, 5 on the second, and it just got better from there. She's now going pee pee in the potty every day and accidents are rare!
A few days ago, she finally went poopie in the potty. We were so excited! We wiped and flushed and then she said she had more. So she sat down and went some more--every few minutes for the next half hour!! She is truly daddy's girl in this area. Anyway, she loves trying to poop in the potty now and our current problem is getting her to get off the potty when she is determined to poop, but nothing has happened for 20 minutes! Ahh, the joys of parenthood. :)

Happy Halloween!

This is how I found Melia in our room right before I was about to start getting her ready to go Trunk or Treating for Halloween. She had already taken matters into her own hands. She found what she calls her "Mermaid hair" and "daddy's makeup" and went to town. This Halloween is the first one where she started to understand what was going on, so it was a lot of fun to get her dressed up and take her out. She dressed up like Sleeping Beauty and Bo and I used our fallback costumes that we use just about every year. Except we actually only had parts of them to use this year. I don't know what happened to my funky 70's outfit. Lost in the move?
Overall, fun Halloween. We did have a "bad parent" moment though. After she went to bed, (and had already eaten some of her candy) Bo and I pretty much ate the rest of her candy. I know, I know it's terrible--but, hey, we saved her from eating a bunch of junk. Better us than her, right? :) She never missed it anyway!

Freedom!

Ok, so I finally got a weekend away ALL BY MYSELF! It only took me--well, how old is Melia now? 2 1/2? My mom and I have kind of a tradition where we go to this fundraiser event for the Ettie Lee Boys home every 6 months. It's at the Disneyland Hotel and they have this huge boutique so we shop for a couple of hours and then have lunch at the banquet hall in the hotel. Then they have entertainment after lunch. It's a fun girls day. So anyway, I thought I wouldn't be able to go this time because we're in Northern California now, but my mom flew me down for the weekend so I could go. Thanks mom! :) Let me tell you, it was soooo nice to be able to go through the whole trip without any responsibility and without anyone to take care of except for me. :) I actually got to read, get up when I wanted, do what I wanted whenever I wanted. I forgot what that was like! I did miss Melia and Bo and I was happy to see them when I got home, but it was a really, really nice break. Plus, I got to see my family and friends which made it even better. :)

I'm Grateful!!

I just want to say a little bit about gratitude. Since we moved up here to Paradise, it's been a huge struggle for us financially. Bo was out of work for 3 months and we weren't in a good situation financially to begin with--thus, the living with his grandma thing. Anyway, even though it's been a struggle, it's also been a huge learning experience for us. We've learned even more how much God just takes care of us and blesses us with what we need when we need it--even when we have no idea how it will possibly come, it comes. We have been blessed in so many ways, big and small and I'm just feeling really grateful right now. Life is good. :)

Our First Official Visitors

Ok, I've decided to try to blog more often. Last weekend, we had our first official visitors come stay with us here in Paradise--Jeff, Amy and Porter Jensen. Yes, although we've had a plethora of visitors here at Bo's grandma's house, these were the first visitors that actually came to see us. :) Even though we hadn't seen each other in person for a long time, there's something about seeing old friends that is so comfortable and feels like you were never apart. We spent the day riding Bo's uncle's quads around our property, picnicing at the park, taking a walk to see a not so breath taking view, and going out to eat way too much at a Mexican restaurant that spells it's name wrong, and finally to Foster's Freeze. By the time they left and we got back home, I pretty much went into a food coma for the rest of the night. I was in and out of consciousness until about 11pm when I finally gave it up and went to bed.

I am prego!

Man, I've been a slacker lately as far as blogging goes. Maybe it's because we're finally starting to get a life up here and have things to do. :) Anyway, on our way back from our trip to So. Cal. for Shane and Ericka's wedding, we found out that we're pregnant! We're excited!! I'm about 2 months in and so far so good. I've only had one day where I really felt sick. I thought I was going to throw up in the middle of church. But other than that, I've just been slightly nauseous off and on. Nothing major. Strangest craving? Monster Tacos from Jack in the Box. I haven't had them in years. Gave in and had them last week. Lets just say now I remember why I don't eat there anymore. When we told Melia about the baby, the conversation went something like this: Mommy: "Guess what! Mommy has a baby inside her tummy!" Melia: "Hold it?" (with arms outstretched) Mommy: "It has to grow for 9 months and get bigger and then it will come out and you'll have a baby brother or sister." (Melia goes and plays for a little while.) Melia: (pointing to her belly button) "I got baby brother in my belly button." Mommy: "No, mommy has baby brother or sister in her belly." Melia: "Baby brother loves me." (Later lifts up mommy's shirt looking for baby brother.) Side note: There's a squirrel on our porch about 3 feet from me with a gigantic nut in his mouth! That's one cool thing about living up here. :) Anyway, we need to start looking for a doctor up here. Bo's health care through work won't kick in until 3 months from now, so we'll have to figure something out. God has been really taking care of us in every little way. I know we'll be ok. :)

It's Been a Whole Month Already?!

Where does the time go? That is the question. We just got back from a week and a half vacation to So. Cal. for Bo's brother Shane's wedding. It was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of family and friends, but not nearly enough. There were many people we wish we could have seen, but time just ran out. On our drive down, we stopped and saw our good friends Chris, Vicky & Lenore who just recently moved to Napa. Melia and Lenore were so cute together.
Once we got to Bo's parents' house, the first thing we wanted to do was go to the beach. We miss it so much!
Shane and Ericka's wedding turned out great and we had fun at the reception. Melia was a little dancing machine! We couldn't get her off the dance floor. I think it's genetic.
On Sunday, we visited our old ward for church. It felt just like coming home. It was so good to see everybody. After church, we hung out at Matt and Piper's and had some friends over for dinner. Lots of fun! This is Maia teaching Melia how to dance like a ballerina.
We did lots of other things too, but I don't feel like writing a lot today--you can see more pictures on our website. :)

This week we had the chance to go to a farm sanctuary where they rescue farm animals from awful situations and let them live out their lives in peaceful surroundings. As we walked through, our tour guide told us the individual story of each animal--the terrible circumstances it had come from and how it had overcome and recovered there at the farm. She even told us about the little personality quirks each of them had, their gentle nature, and how they were now serving to help educate people. Animals have incredible resilience and, when given the right kind of care, just blossom.
Even the turkeys and the chickens, who you wouldn't traditionally think of as friendly, just walked right up to us and let us pet them and just hung out with us.
The pigs loved having their bellies rubbed and even kicked their back legs like a dog does during a belly rub!

This cow was so gentle and sweet--I thought her coloring was just beautiful too.
This is a dog they are fostering until they can find a home. He was rescued from Mexico and only has three legs, but he is the sweetest little dog. He played with Melia for about a half hour while we were waiting for the tour. He was very playful and got around just fine.

I have recently looked into the subject of farm animals and the conditions in most of our country's large scale farming facilities and I've found it really just deplorable. I think it would sicken most people. But most of us just go to the grocery store, buy our meat and don't take thought for where it comes from. There are no laws protecting farm animals because they are thought of only as commodities instead of actual living beings who deserve respect and proper care. I'm not a vegan or vegetarian. I'm not saying that we should be. I'm saying that things need to change. Some simple things that we do are buy organic, free range meat where the conditions the animals live in are better. We are also cutting back on the amount of meat and animal products we eat. One thing I'm definitely saying is that laws need to be changed to make conditions better for the animals that are spending their lives suffering through terrible conditions and ultimately giving their lives for our use. Farm Sanctuary and many volunteers have worked tirelessly and have gotten Proposition 2 on the ballot. It's an effort to ban some of the most cruel confinement systems used by the large-scale farming facilities. Here's basically what it will do:

If voters vote yes on November 4th 2008 California will no longer enable the use of:

• Veal crates - narrow wooden enclosures, just 2 feet wide, which prevent calves from turning around, lying down easily and even walking for the extent of their short lives.
• Gestation crates - 2-by-7 feet metal enclosures that confine 400-pound breeding sows (pigs used to supply the pork industry with piglets) for most of their four to five year lives. Prevented from taking more than a step forward or backward, and unable to turn around, sows will live their lives in these crates and are freed only briefly to be moved to similarly restrictive farrowing crates to give birth.
• Battery cages - small wire cages in which several hens are packed together so tightly that they are unable to even stretch their wings. Never touching the ground, the lifetime living space allotted to each hen is less a sheet of copy paper. Battery cages are used to confine 95 percent of all laying hens in the U.S. and allow giant egg farms to pack hundreds of thousands of hens into a single shed.

All these confinement systems are so cruel that they are already banned throughout much of Europe. In the U.S., a growing number of restaurants, supermarkets and even producers have pledged to stop using them, based on their inherent cruelty.

I think Ghandi said it best: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Embarrassing Moment

So last Monday, Bo went to play softball with all of the missionaries on their day off. I took Melia down there to watch Daddy play. After the game was over, all of the missionaries got together for a group picture and Bo and I were taking the pictures for them--about 15 different cameras for about 25 guys. Then comes the moment--Melia falls and starts crying, I bend down to pick her up and I hear my pants rip. Where you see my hand is the back of my pants where there is a rip about a foot long. So I play it off, continue to take pictures in front of these 25 guys and carefully try to keep my back facing everybody, which was kind of hard once we were done taking pictures and everyone was walking around and Melia was running off to the playground. Luckily, I was able to get Melia and get back to the car with only the dad on the playground seeing the back of me. They weren't even tight pants. Go figure.

The Battle Wages On...

Bo's second attempt at ridding the backyard of his nemesis consisted of pouring a bucket of soapy water down the hole where they have their nest. Unfortunately, after he started pouring the water, he got freaked out and just threw the bucket and ran back inside the house. Luckily, he didn't bring any of them inside with him this time. But the next morning they did not seem to be affected.
His third attempt delivered somewhat better results. He took 2 cans of bug killer and shot them down the hole and at the same time flooded it with water for like 4 minutes. The next day the nest was still there and functioning but there were actually some dead yellow jackets as well. I think his confidence is growing. Yellow Jackets: 4, Bo: 1/2

Battle with the Yellow Jackets

Ok, so a few days ago I was sitting here at the computer while Bo was outside working in the yard. All of a sudden, I see Bo running past the window without his shirt on, flailing about. I wondered what the heck was going on. Then he runs in the house bringing with him a swarm of Yellow Jackets (a kind of wasp that is known for it's aggressiveness, as we found out that night). Why did he think it was a good idea to bring them all IN the house? I don't know. Anyway, he runs back out of the house, leaving 3 of them inside to attack me. I got stung on the top of the head (they have the ability to sting over and over and bite at the same time) before they flew back outside. Finally, Bo had gotten them off of him and came back inside in time to kill one that was still inside. I asked him what happened and he said he was just raking leaves and accidentally raked over their hive in the ground. They all attacked him and he had them all over his shirt, which was why he was now shirtless. He ran away at full speed and they stayed right with him. He said he thought about jumping in our neighbor's pond for a second--I asked him why he didn't just jump in our pond in the back yard and he said it was too nasty. Go figure. So instead, he just panicked and ran inside the house. Later, he decided to go back out to get his shirt. Turns out it still had 3 yellow jackets on it. So again, he ran back inside the house bringing with him 1 yellow jacket. As I ran in the bedroom to get away, I saw Bo grab Melia's bib as his weapon of choice to fight off the yellow jacket. When it was all clear, we looked up how to treat the stings and ended up sitting on the couch in pain for hours with a paste of baking soda and water smeared all over our heads. We looked pretty pathetic. This is what we get for moving up here to the wild! Yesterday, Bo bought some stuff at home depot to kill them and went out last night to do it--thus the outfit in the picture. Well, today he checked the hive and he said they were all still alive and well as if nothing had happened. At that point, I told him we'd better call in someone to take care of it, but of course, he doesn't want to do that. Why? He said it's a pride thing--he wants to be the one to finish his battle with the yellow jackets. He was already concocting in his head what hoses, tubes, pulley systems, etc. he'll need for Plan B, so this may be an on going project for a while. So far it's Yellow Jackets: 2, Bo: 0.

Paradise: Things that Make You Go Hmmm

*Yes, this is actually the name of a place of business. I don't think it means the same thing in Northern CA as it does in So Cal.
*The local video store does not alphabetize their movies.
*We saw a couch in the back of a pick up truck that actually had seat belts and kids riding in it.
*The radio station Jack FM is called Bob FM up here.
*Our neighbors were out in their backyard the other day (which we can see from our place). One guy was in a gorilla suit dancing around while the other video taped him.
*There is a Mexican restaurant named "Meehos". Yes, it's spelled phonetically.

Disclaimer: None of these things are bad, just different. :)

The Fires are Back!

I woke up this morning at 8am and had to double check what time it was because it looked dark outside. Turns out there's a new fire on the other side of Paradise and the smoke and ash were so thick that everything looked dark. Bo's aunt and uncle and their 5 kids, two dogs, 2 birds, 1 fish and a plethora of plants have been evacuated and are staying with us tonight. The more the merrier, huh? Anyway, all of them, plus Bo's mom, grandma and aunt are leaving on a vacation tomorrow, so we'll stay here and hold down the fort with all of the animals, his uncle's boat, motor home, quad, etc. We're just hoping we don't have to evacuate too while they're gone! Life is just full of interesting experiences.

7 Years! We made it!

Yesterday was Bo and I's 7 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long! Bo's mom has been up here visiting for the past two weeks, so she watched Melia for us and Bo and I got to spend the day together. We went to downtown Chico and shopped around at the cool little shops there and had lunch at a place called Plutos. Good food, but mucho garlic. Later in the day, we went to the lake here in Paradise. It's pretty, but you're not allowed to swim in it or anything. Wierd. We ended our day by eating Bo's favorite food, Round Table Pizza, and relaxing at home. Oh yeah! We also rode around on his uncle's quad for a little while. Overall, a good day. :)

It's Different Up Here

Well, as of yesterday I heard that there are between 800 to 1000 fires burning up here in Northern California. The fires that were threatening our immediate area have been contained, but the air quality is really bad. It's so smokey!! We've pretty much been confined to the indoors since we've been here. Needless to say, we're all getting a little stir crazy. We went to church today and everyone is nice in our new ward, but it's very different. Most of the people are older--just a few young couples--and almost everyone is white! Not that that's bad--just very different. Bo and I have never lived in an area where 99% of the people are white. We do have one token hispanic guy named Julio in our ward, but that's about it. We went out to eat at a little Mexican restaurant here in town on Friday, but guess what--no Mexicans working there--just white people and oldies playing on the radio. When we were walking out, we passed the kitchen where there were two Mexican guys cooking and listening to salsa music. That's where the real party was. :) I do have to say that it's nice to be sitting here looking out our window and see a squirrel sitting in one of our trees as opposed to looking out the window and seeing the parking lot. Anyway, enough of my ramblings. A big shout out to everyone at South Coast Ward back in Santa Ana. We miss you and love you all!

Light at the end of the Tunnel

Wow, moving into a new place is a lot of work. Moving into a new place that already has somebody else's stuff in it is crazy! We've spent the last week living in what looks like those hoarder people's houses you see on TV. It has been completely overwhelming, but after working practically nonstop all week, it's finally starting to feel like a home for us. Thanks to Grandma for giving us the ok to make her downstairs our own!

Culture Shock

Ok, so I now realize I got totally spoiled living in Santa Ana where every store imaginable was practically across the street. Here, the closest city is Chico which is about a 15 to 20 minute drive. Alright, so that doesn't sound like a lot, but driving for that long through nothing but trees and land in order to get to anything is definitely going to be an adjustment for this city girl. On a funny side note, in our first trip to "the city" we stopped to get gas. As I was walking in to pay, I heard really loud rap music coming from a car that had just pulled up. I turned around expecting to see maybe a low rider or a nice truck with rims, etc. Well, what I saw was this little old beat up farm truck with a white guy with his hair braided in cornrows and beads. Yup, things are a little different up here.

Our Journey to Paradise

We had to get in one last trip to the beach since who knows how long it's going to be until we can go again. :( Anyway, we packed up with the help of a small army of missionaries from our church (6 of them, plus some of our friends) and hit the road on Thursday with Bo driving the moving truck and me driving our car with Melia in the back seat surrounded by more of our stuff. Our plan was to drive for about 5 hours to get to Stockton to spend the night there and then drive the rest of the way to Paradise the next day. Well, things don't always turn out the way you plan. Our 5 hour drive turned into 7 and let me just say that road trips with two year olds are not for the faint of heart or the low on patience. Melia did pretty good overall, but those moments of breakdowns with gut wrenching screaming were not so fun and by the time we finally got to Stockton, we were all more than ready to relax in a nice hotel room. Well, Bo had gotten a deal on the room through our rental truck company at the Econo Lodge and let me just say it was one of the most ghetto places I have ever been in. (and if you know me, that's saying a lot) Highlights of our room: the most disgustingly dirty floor--I didn't want Melia touching anything!, lingering smoke smell left from the last people, bathroom door that didn't close, peep hole in the door stuffed with toilet paper, TV that had no remote and when we asked for one, we got one that only worked sometimes, channels on the TV weren't what the titles showed (ex. TV says it's animal planet and there's a baseball game on), some channels had no sound, loud people in the hallways, etc. To top off our stay, we got a call from Bo's grandma, whose house we were supposed to be moving into, saying that there were really bad fires in Paradise and she had been evacuated from her house. So there we were, in the ghetto with our whole lives packed up in a truck outside, now wondering if we would even have a place to live. Despite all this, we were actually just really grateful to have a bed to sleep in and a place to stay for the night. The next day, the evacuation order was still in effect, so we drove up another hour or so to Sacramento and God led us to a hotel that was like heaven and it was for a price that you could never find in So. Cal. They even gave us a one bedroom suite for the studio price after we told them our situation. What a blessing! So the next day, they lifted the mandatory evacuation order and we drove the last two hours and finally arrived in Paradise. It was crazy to see all of the burned areas just black all over. Bo's grandma's house was fine though (another huge blessing) and we were able to get all of our stuff moved unloaded in just a couple of hours (again with the help of 4 missionaries from the area). So that's it. There's our moving story. :)

Partay!

So we had a little shin-dig at the Ferreira’s house on Friday night because we wanted to get together with all of our old friends one more time before we move to Northern California. It was so much fun to catch up with everybody and hear about what’s been going on in their lives. It was crazy to see all of the little bodies running around the house and to think that our friends were the ones that produced them! :) We just wanted to let you all know that we love you and we’re grateful to have you in our lives--and we’ll continue to update you through this nifty little blog thing. A big thanks to Emily and her family for being so generous and giving of their time and opening their home for us! If you want to see more pictures from that night, go to our favorite web places page on our website and visit our on line photo gallery.

Mother's Day

I just wanted to say that I’m grateful to have such a caring mom who has done a great job of raising me. I appreciate her even more now that I have a little one. And speaking of my little one...I can’t believe how much I love her and how much I want to do things right for her. I love being with her every day and watching her experience life. I can’t say enough about her and I know all you moms out there know how I feel. I’m going to keep this short & sweet today.

We're Finally Up and Running

Ok, so let’s figure out how long it’s been since our last blog entry--December of 2006 to May of 2008--the answer is a ridiculously large amount of time. Bo set this whole website up when we first got our Mac computer and we were all excited about it and then, like so many things we do, it got pushed aside while we were caught up with everyday life. But then I (Laura) started looking at so many of our friends’ blogs and websites and it reminded me of what a great way it is to keep updated on what’s going on in the lives of the people we care about. So I made a goal for 2008 to update our website/blog at least once a month. So here’s our first update--only 5 months into 2008. Not bad. I think this is going to be really good for me to keep some form of journal. I used to be so good at writing in my journal daily, but then something happened. Let’s see, what was it again? Oh yeah, I had a baby and my life got turned upside down and all of a sudden I don’t find myself having time to do some of the things I used to do. Go figure.
So anyway, here’s an update on our status right now. We are currently in the middle of a life upheaval. Our condo in Santa Ana is up for sale, we are moving to Paradise, CA (a couple of hours above Sacramento) in the second week of June, and Bo is going back to school for his business degree and is leaving the world of investment sales to pursue something that he doesn’t loathe (although we haven’t quite narrowed it down yet as to what that might be). We’re going to be living in Bo’s grandma’s basement, which will be a huge relief to us financially. The basement has a bedroom, kitchen, living room and it’s own entrance, plus Melia will finally have her own room upstairs! That’s the part I’m looking forward to the most after having spent the first two years of her life in a one bedroom condo. Paradise is beautiful and we’re really looking forward to being out in nature more and the slower paced life. The thing we’re not looking forward to is missing all of our wonderful family and friends we’re leaving behind. :(
Anyway, more thoughts to come later on this, that and the other.