End of February

We've been here three weeks. One day I feel I'm getting comfortable in our new home and another day I think: What am I doing here? I've always lived in Dallas. How will I be able to adjust after half a century somewhere else?

We had our trees trimmed for fire mitigation. It made our acre lot look much bigger and the trees look nice with the dead cut off. I learned a lot from the guys cutting the trees. Now I know pines don't like to have their feet wet. That is why over the leach field of our septic system the pines are yellow. We have one spruce on the north side of the house where a drain empties. Spruces like the moisture and the tree is a beautiful dark green that is a wonderful contrast to the pines. The man we bought the house from planted trees on the north side of the house in 1979 when the pine beetles last hit the area. One is a small pinyon pine that hopefully will produce pine nuts someday. The man cleaning up the lot told me this was a tree with history from the local Indians--- somthing else to research.

In another couple of months I want to plant a tree to mark the year we moved into our house. Tad would love a flowering tree so I asked what we could plant that the deer and elk wouldn't eat. We can try New Mexican Locust, or Common Purple Robe, or Russian Hawthorne.

We had 1 to 2" of snow on the 20th. The snow is soft, dry, and melt before the morning ends. I took the boys to see a movie on Saturday. We had fun getting out of the house and becoming familiar with a part of town we can visit again. There is a bookstore, a mall, a huge Target--- places we can go when we want to come down from our mountain and go shop. The boys also told me about the animals across from their school. On Sunday we went and fed elk, deer and goats. The animals are in a wildlife preserve with giant food dispensers that give out pellets for quarters. There was a goat that bullied the deer. The pupils to his eyes were horizontal lines that gave him an unfriendly appearance; and his attitude to any animal that wanted to share the pellets we were handing out confirmed he was indeed unfriendly.

The boys both have Valentines Day parties at school that I get to go. The classes here go all out with games and foods for the kids. Grant's class makes crowns and has a table where the kids get to make their own sundaes. Justin's class plays bingo and has outdoor games. Watching the kids outside feels strange because in the background are mountains around the school.

By the end of February we are able to find our way around easier, but we are also missing the friends we left in Texas.

First week

Unpacking boxes is slow work. Thank goodness in the morning I get a lot done before my eyes cross and it gets hard to figure out where to put the contents of the next box.

We met our other neighbors, Kim and Greg. Like Jim they make us feel at home with their smiles and offers advice and help.

Tuesday the boys start school. After being out for a week while we moved I think they will be much happier back in a routine. When Tad and I leave them in their new classes for the first time their eyes are big and they look unsure. I don't want to walk away, I feel like I did when they were little and I left them at preschool. Even though I know they will be fine I wish I could stay, be invisible, and be sure everything went fine.

How cold will it be this winter? So far it is around 20 degrees in the mornings, but with the sun so bright it really feels much warmer. Getting out of bed I'm cold until I turn up the heat. We have our chimneys cleaned and order new doors; since the fireplaces are small they won't put out a lot of heat but they will really nice to sit in front of and Grant is big time ready to build a fire.

We've seen a lot of animals this week: mule deer, elk, a fox, and several kinds of birds. I'm keeping a list so I can find out more about them at the library or from our neighbors.

We eat at Beaujos in downtown 2 times. This is a pizza restaurant we ate at a couple of times looking for houses. The pizza is very different from anything we've tried and there are several kinds, so we can all have something we like. Behind the restaurant is a creek where the boys fed ducks last time, but now it is really cold, with some ice and no ducks in sight. It's hard to convince the guys not to go look for them, but I'm sure the other customers sitting by those back doors are glad we did.

Hello Colorado

Today the movers deliver all our stuff to our new homer in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. I spend most of the day pointing to places to put the furniture. The job gets increasingly hard as I try to figure how to position wood furniture around all the electric wall heaters. Tad and I haven't had much time to talk about where we'd put things before we moved; and we never thought about the heaters.

Our neighbor, Jim the Great, comes over and gives me the extra house key he has. I'm happy we have neighbors that say they are glad we are moving in.

Whenever I have time I look outside or go out on the deck. For years I've visited Colorado and enjoyed the views. Now I'm looking at a view, and it's ours! The deer come near the house as if checking out what is going on and who is here. I wonder if they miss Jim & Sue that lived here before us.

By the end of the day I'm tired and ready for bed but there’s a problem--- the wall heaters again. They make a lot of noise turning off and on all night. Each time I hear them I wake up, remember what the sound is, and then burrow back into the covers.

Moving

Leaving Texas in February we wore tee shirts, but were still hot. The movers just nine hours to pack all of our belonging--- things we'd taken years to collect and an archive of things left to us by relatives who collected years ago.

For months we have been giving things away and preparing for a move to a new life style but looking in the back of the moving van it still looked like too much stuff for four people. I wondered how much more we’d let go of when we got to our new house.

When our old house was packed we walked through the empty rooms as we said goodbye to memories that played in our minds. I remembered the tooth fairy’s visits in the boys’ room. I smiled at the bold walls colors we'd added to chase away the original bland of white walls. I remembered our Christmas tree from a few weeks ago, and trees from other years--- in each case the multi-colored lights flickered on a tree that was heavy with ornaments made over the years and received as gifts. In my mind I saw family and friends we'd welcomed to this house. In the back yard we'd planted gardens, placed a fountain and wind chimes.

This house held all sorts of memories, but today I enjoyed remembering just the happy ones and letting any struggles go.

Leaving town I drive through a flat landscape wondering what kind of adventure I’m undertaking. After living in one area all of my 50+ years I was ready to try something different and follow a dream.