Another blog post from Haley? I know, I know, I'll try to space them out farther next time: ) Haha, I really do think about blogging, but then life happens and I just don't get to it. I have been wanting to write about the new house and to get before and after pictures up here for about a month since we finished the renovations. We have unfortunately had some computer issues which have been tying up the pictures.
For now I will write about Boise. The good and the weird things about Boise, and moving to a different place. It's not that Boise is that weird but that every time you leave a place you've been for a while, where you have gotten used to the culture in that place, it is strange trying to get used to a change no matter where you go.
I guess I will list Pros and Cons, alternating so that I won't seem biased...
Pro: Having Family near. Need I say more? Cory's parents and brother are less than 2 miles away and my Sister Angie and her family are about 20minutes away. We are also a short 5 hour drive from a lot of other family, my parent's, both brothers and their families, and a lot of extended family on both sides. We have had so much fun with them so far and we are really looking forward to the holidays with family around. We have never lived near family in our entire marriage so this is a really big PRO!
Con: We miss our Texas family. We had so many great friends and neighbors in Texas and we were so sad to leave them.
Pro: We moved into a very welcoming neighborhood. The houses in our neighborhood were built in 1990 and a lot of the people on our street are original owners. Having a new family move in doesn't happen everyday and was especially exciting to the younger families that aren't original owners who have young kids. We had several neighbors at our door bringing goodies and welcoming us the first couple of days that we were here. After we had been here just a few days they sent around a flier inviting everyone to a block party (just our street) to welcome the new neighbors, which was referring to our family. They barbequed and everyone hung out and chatted the next Saturday afternoon. We felt so welcomed!
Con: Idaho is big on Dairy. As I walked through the schools for the first time I noticed Dairy advertisements everywhere. I have since found that they push Milk on kids and even serve it in the kindergarten classroom at snack time. The schools are obviously receiving money from the Idaho Dairymens association or another association affiliated with dairy. My reason for concern is my allergy child, Audelia. I'm not looking forward to explaining that my child cannot sit in a classroom where a bunch of kindergarteners are or have been drinking Milk, knowing how easily she could come in contact with it. I have 2 more years until she goes to school to decide how to address this.
Pro: The weather! The summer was such a relief. We went outside without having to be submerged in water. It made for some fun days of playing outside while our house was being torn apart. The fall has been nice so far. It's chilly in the morning when I walk Darion to school but it's been warming up during the day. Boise is a lot warmer that the rest of Idaho, so we are told we will get snow but that it doesn't stick around long.
Con: The speed limits. A question on the DL exam was "what is the speed limit on main roads if not otherwise stated?" The devastating answer is 35MPH. My best guess is that it's because Boise is so bike friendly which should probably be on the Pro side of this list, but I can't get past the 35MPH enough to consider it a true Pro. It's painful people, just painful! The worst part is that people actually drive going that slow. P.A.I.N.F.U.L.L.
Pro: Our new ward is pretty great. The Ladies have regular girls nights which helps me get to know them much faster than I would have. I'm in primary teaching adorable 6 year olds, and Cory teaches the 17 year old Sunday school class.
Con: New place=new schools, doctors, dentists, optometrists, etc. This is just part of moving and is one of the things I dreaded. I'm still working on finding all of our necessary professionals that we will have to see at some point.
Pro: Wyatt is working with some great Special Education staff. Moving a special needs child and getting them placed in a new school let alone a new district is quite the task. We have been so blessed with his education so far but Idaho is not disappointing like we thought it might. Wyatt was placed in a school that could best facilitate his needs as opposed to just placing him in the nearest school like a lot of districts do. It means having 3 kids at 3 different schools but it is worth it.
Con: Moving in general is dumb! We had movers come pack and move us and it was still a difficult, taxing, horrible experience. I know that is in part because everything that could go wrong did, but I'm grateful that moving is no where in our future as far as we can tell.
Pro: I love my house! I didn't see it until we had already closed, crazy I know! But, I was so thrilled with it. It needed updating but I knew all of that ahead of time. I knew it had potential and we are so happy with how things have turned out. We really could stay here forever and never outgrow it. It's unique, fun, and has a ton of character.
We are settling in nicely and we feel like we are at home. I still dream sometimes about our Texas house, in fact I did last night. When all is said and done we are glad we made the move and are really loving it here.
We got engaged here in Boise. In fact we got engaged on the bridge in this picture. Technically, the bridge has been replaced but this bridge stands in place of the old bridge where Cory asked me to be his wife. We recently took family pictures there. This was just after Cory had dipped me back as if to drop me in the water. I thought it was a fun pic.
