Happy New Year

December 9th came and went. We left Fort Morgan and said good bye to Northern Colorado. The semester ended and my final grades were three A's and two B's. I'm pretty disappointed with the B's, but I am so thrilled that hellish semester is over. Michael passed the rest of his classes and we moved home to Sanford. HELLO Southern Colorado! The weekend we got home, the wind chill was -38 degrees. It was a nice welcome home surprise... I was second guessing our decision to move home a few weeks before we moved. Anyone who has lived here knows that the Valley is a unique place. It's wonderful but it's hard to live here. The cold weather has just been ridiculous. During the day, we're lucky if we get into 20 degrees and by 5:00pm it seems like we're below zero again. Then there's the wind chill. It's just ridiculous. BUT, besides the cold weather and the pitiful job outlook, I have loved being home! It's oh so wonderful to run into old friends at Wal-Mart, have family close, and just have the safe and secure feeling of being home. James got to have a sleep over with his cousins at Grammy's house on new year's eve and that was really fun for him. It's SO nice to raise kids with their cousins. It's nice to be able to go to my sister's house whenever I need a break from my own home. It's nice to go to church here. Last Sunday, one of the speakers brought up hunting dogs during her talk in Sacrament meeting. It was awesome. In RS, I sat next to an old friend I hadn't seen or talked to in years and had a great conversation like we had seen each other every day since graduation. Each meeting isn't about how wonderful we are, or about competing with each other about who is holier. It's about how we can make ourselves better. We share our weaknesses and problems we have in common. We laugh and joke about some of the fun mistakes we've made. It's nice to be around people who are down to earth and understand what it's like to be us. It's nice to be around people who are Valley natives. They just seem to better understand us. I feel like I'm rambling. The point is, as much as I miss NoCo, there is no place like home!