The beat goes on

A lot's happened since I wrote last.

We moved to Provo, and for the most part, it was pretty good.  But for whatever reason, we just never felt fully settled.  It was actually a little stressful.  Now we know why--it wasn't meant to be.  His job didn't work out, and we found ourselves looking at moving all over the U.S.  He had an interview with some lovely people in Niagara Falls, for example.  My goodness!

When all was said and done, we moved to Albuquerque.  It's nice here; it's been really rainy, which I actually like a lot.  But apparently they haven't had this much rain since the 70s and they've been in a bad drought, so it's sort of wreaked havoc on everything.

Regardless, we didn't have to pack up or move anything--the company did it all for us, and unpacked us most of the way, too.

I've done well at organizing and getting rid of things.  I don't know if it's because I'm growing up or something, but I've recently began to realize that my possessions don't have feelings, and unless something is useful or beautiful (or really, really memorable), I probably don't need it.  Between moving twice and wanting more order in my life, I've gotten rid of a LOT of things.  It's nice.  Also, I've felt a lot less compelled to buy a ton of things I don't need.  Part of it is having no budget as of late (ha), and part of it is realizing it's just more STUFF. 

Albuquerque is cool.  Kind of different.  There are some really cool things, like a mineral and stone shop which is really my jam.  I bet I never told you I sort of collect rocks, and really love pretty ones and agate.  I always have since I was a wee child.  So one of the first days we were here, we went to this store and I almost died--it's that awesome.

I have an Anthropologie about 7 minutes from my house.  That's huge!  I know everybody loves Anthropologie, but I don't think you understand.  Anthropologie is like the dream I've always had for my home; I've loved it since I was a sophomore in high school, and it means more to me than trendy, over-priced stuff.  My hubby doesn't get it, which is ok.  But I was feeling a little homesick that first week we were here, and when we walked in, I just felt happy.  Silly, I know.  But still, it's something.

I've missed my family a lot and it's weird to just move to a place where I've never been before in my life (I never got a chance to come down before we moved--it just didn't work out with the girls), but so far, it's pretty good and the people here are SO nice.

Before I totally brush over living in Provo, I will say this:  it was nice there.  Provo is beautiful.  The thing about it, though, was that the people weren't friendly.  I so badly wanted to make friends and be one of the cool people I hear about in Provo (lame, I know), but it just didn't happen.  It's probably a combination of having little kids and not living there long, but the people in Provo were just not all that great.  It's funny because I sort of wanted to prove that stereotype wrong, the whole "people in Utah County are self-righteous and unfriendly," but Provo kinda played right into that one for us.  So that was a bummer.  BUT it was really nice to live by my dad, my sister, and my brother... and where we lived was beautiful.  I think I'll always miss Provo in a way.

That said, our house in Albuquerque is awesome.  So much space, a big backyard (no grass, though--here in ABQ they realize they're in a desert, unlike Utah, so there's not a ton of grass--shoot!), and we have a big, empty bedroom, waiting for visitors.  Seriously, our third bedroom has nothing in it but a couple boxes that will very shortly be going into the garage.

So, what I'm trying to say is this:  come visit?

These girls will be waiting.