Small Town Girl

I grew up in a small town, and now I live in a super-small town. Small towns have certain disadvantages. For example, if you need to buy, say, a bra while in my town, you go to one store, choose from two colors and three sizes. Good luck. Need shoes? Outta luck. Small towns also often suffer from small-town-mentality, but I've found this stereotype becomes of little consequence when citizens choose to defeat it. With these, and a few other exceptions, my small town rocks.

Yesterday I dropped Levi off at his 'sports' class (his dad prefers that we don't call it 'dance'.) Then I dropped my car off at the local tire shop where the owner calls me by name. He knows me. I trust him. I strapped Isaac in the stroller and walked through our small town streets. It was a perfect fall day. No wind. No heat. No chill. No clouds. Blue sky. Orange leaves. Ripe pumpkins.

As I was walking, I was thinking that there is really no place in my town that I don't feel safe. That is worth something to me. We rounded a corner and saw an old man walking out to his garden. I didn't know him, but since there are really no strangers in my town, I waved to him. He hollered over, "Do you want some tomatoes?" Does that happen in the city? Well it happened in my town. I told him that I had been bottling tomatoes all weekend, but thanked him for the offer. We picked up Levi from his class and started walking back to the tire shop. Just as I was savoring the beauty of the pristine autumn day with my two amazing boys, we happened upon a huge oak tree which had dropped hundreds of acorns on the sidewalk just for us to enjoy. Acorns in the fall? That's like snow on Christmas! Levi, of course, was determined to gather as many as possible to take with us to the mountain to feed the squirrels and chipmunks. We eventually struck a deal to take just one.

In my small town, I feel completely safe sending my daughter off to school. I know she is watched over there. The faculty members call both Daisy and I by name. They know our family. In our small town, we love the library, the park, the one-stoplight-in-the-whole-county, the local drama productions, the recreation leagues, the mix of new and old, the four-way-go's (most of our intersections are not marked with any road signs,) the Christmas Festival, the rodeo, the 10-minutes-to-a-campfire-in-the-mountains, the front porches, the back yards, and the people. I love that there is no dreaded Wal Mart in my small town.

When I was younger I always thought I wanted to live in a big city. For now, I love having cows, chickens, a new puppy, lambs, cats, horses, and raising my family in a small, small town.

Star!

We got a new puppy! Our family dog, a boxer named Chloe, was hit and killed while she was on my early morning run with me. Since we live in the fields, I don't run with her on a leash. The sun was just coming up and it blinded the driver. He was very apologetic and drove her back to my house for me. I couldn't even finish my run. I walked the rest of the way home, half blinded by my tears. For the next several mornings I would tear up as I ran past the blood stained spot on the road.

Jeff found these border collie labrador crosses on ksl.com and was determined this was the new family dog for us. I voted that we wait until Christmas, but was clearly overridden. Jeff took all three kids with him to pick out our puppy, hauled them all into WalMart to pick out a collar, puppy food, and treats, and then braved McDonald's all by himself. Needless to say, I was proud of his efforts! Daisy named her Star.

We spent conference weekend on the mountain. The pristine fall beauty provided the perfect backdrop to the messages of hope that we heard at conference.

Even though it was slightly on the cool side, we decided ice cream was the way to go while the men were away at the Priesthood session.

Grandpa and Grandma have been working so hard on their little piece of heaven. It was such an amazingly beautiful drive to go over and see all that they have accomplished.

All the adventures outdoors provided more than enough entertainment for the kids so that the adults could listen to conference uninterrupted for the most part.

The extra handsome guy in this picture is my nephew.

The leaves were stunning. Every time we turned around there was another breathtaking view.

The kids loved Grandpa and Grandma's new four wheeler trailer. We hope to make it to the mountain just one more time before winter sets in. There's just too much fun to be had.