Showing posts with label I live in this town. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I live in this town. Show all posts

Monday, July 29, 2013

Thirteen, and counting.


It was nearly 13 years ago, August 2000, when I moved to this town between the mountains. I’d been an official high school graduate for all of three months and this place was my next chapter, my college town. It was viewed as a quick pit stop, my stepping stone to bigger and better things. I would come, get educated, and then move on. I’m not sure where my “move on” destination was, but this place wasn’t on my short list {or long list, quite honestly}. I liked it here well enough though. I moved in with nine {!!!} great roommates, became bff’s with some girls from my program, and got a job at Jamba Juice on Yellowstone.

It was late December of that same year when I meet Spencer. And by July we had both fallen truly, madly, deeply in to dating each other. Things moved quickly for a couple of Mormon kids {ha} and by the early part of 2003 we started talking marriage. Over time ‘my life’, and ‘your life’, was given a fancy little title of ‘our life’ and we spent a good portion of our time sharing future dreams and plans. We’d marry. Finish what was left of our education. And then move far, far away from our college town {naturally} and live happily ever after.

We bought our first little house on 8th Avenue a couple months prior to our wedding. And then on July 12, 2003 we married.

Life was so dreamy as newlyweds in our cozy yellow house on 8th Avenue. And those years of just me + him are some of my most prized memories. Around our second year of marriage we decided it was a good time to move a baby crib into the guest room. And honestly, the schedule was bedazzled with perfection: we’d get pregnant in July, I’d graduate in December, the baby would come in April, and we’d celebrate the babies first Christmas in the same house that we celebrated our first Christmas together three years earlier. In the spring Spence would get his diploma and then we’d move far, far away from our college town {naturally} and live happily ever after.

In July we found out we were pregnant. I graduated in December. And baby Brynlee arrived March 22, 2006 three weeks earlier than we’d expected.

Spence was offered an engineering internship for a local semiconductor company in the fall of 2006, and although we knew we wouldn’t be in this town for much longer the work {and pay} was so much better than his previous janitorial job that he took the internship position without hesitation. It was good to get his feet wet, we reasoned, and it would make him more saleable to future engineering companies that existed outside of this college town.

That year we wrapped enormous empty boxes in pretty Christmas paper and barricaded the Christmas tree from our curious 9 month old.  And then with the New Year we started talking graduation and future career plans. Every plan had one thing in common: it existed outside of this town. The time had come, and we couldn't wait to move on.

Honestly, Spencer never even typed up a resume or filled out an application to try to market himself as an engineer. A month or so before graduation he was offered a full-time engineering position with the company he was interning for. The company that was in this town, the town that we’d been so fixed on leaving. And something about it felt right. In fact, everything about it felt right. We knew it was what we were supposed to do.

I can still, very clearly, remember our often repeated conversation when trying to decide if we should take the offered position. You know, I would say between gritted teeth, mainly trying to convince myself, we can be happy wherever we are.

And here we are. Thirteen years later. And, can I just say: I LOVE THIS TOWN!! Like, all caps and exclamation points kind of love. This is home. This is where our story is being written. This is where we belong – right here in this town between the mountains. 

I'm so glad it's home.


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hi.

Listen. I had high hopes of spending this evening writing a blog post {or four} to get my wee little bloggy all up to date. But by the time 12 o’clock {in the am} rolled around I was just as frazzled as I could be – but I had not accomplished a single thing other than figuring out how to add an attachment to an email. A task that I have mind numbingly done for years!

Oh, and I also ate about 27 Almond Rocas. But that’s beside the point.

Remember how Spencer got me a new computer for my birthday. Hip hooray! But here’s the kicker, that new computer runs with Windows 8.

And, I’m not gonna lie: Windows 8 … I have no kind words for you.
 
None.
 
But I do have very serious question: "Why did you guys feel a need to hide practically everything?" Apparently we can't have a Start button and a Start screen. And for some reason it takes 18 clicks and reciting an ancient chant to close a webpage.
 
Drive me absolutely batty!
 
So anyway, I am tucking myself in and calling it a night before my whole entire brain explodes into a million itty bitty fried pieces.
 
But first, this.
 
It’s a handful a pictures from when we hit up the Museum of Clean here in my town. It’s a museum. That focuses on clean. The name even says so.
 
And that museum … it’s a wonder, you guys. And very strange. Yet, clean.
 
You should come check it out. And when you come you should come over to my house for dinner. I will send you an email with all the details attached. Because I know how to add an attachment now. Thankyouverymuch.
 
Oh and one more thing before the Museum of Clean photo dump. This article was framed and hung on the wall at the Museum of Clean. I’ve thought of it many o’ times lately, you know, while I warm up corndogs last minute for dinner without a trace of makeup {and no ribbon in my hair!}, having yet to offer my hard working husband a drink. As the kids, and the dishwasher, dryer, washer and vacuum, scream in the background. And while my poor husband, with shoes still on feet, helps me carry the laundry baskets upstairs and listens to everything I have to say about what we did that day.

He's so lucky to have me.
 

 





Sunday, March 10, 2013

Edson Fitcher on a Sunday afternoon

Today’s Sunday. The second one in March, and daylight savings day too. We remembered to change our clocks last night, did you? And then today we spent the extra hour of daylight at Edson Fitcher throwing huge rocks into the iced over pond. It was liberating…err something. We came home cold, muddy and anxious for spring. It was so fun. Spence says it is supposed to be 59 on Wednesday and the kids and I spied tulip heads in the backyard flower bed. So hip horray it's on it's way.
 
Anyway, Spence and I started watching Parenthood on a whim {about time, right Jami?} and I’m having a hard time writing and watching. So until tomorrow.
 



 

Monday, September 17, 2012

To Summers End

Jace had his second soccer game on Saturday and then afterwards we went for an afternoon family drive. We ended up at Tilden’s Bridge – a perfect accidental destination spot. We soaked our feet in the Snake River, skipped rocks and enjoyed the peaceful scenery. I love where I live.

Summer is nearing its official end. And as a 2012 summer wrap-up here’s snapshots of a ton of summer-ish crap I meant to blog about, but never did:


Sisters || I look back at these pictures and my heart hurts. Even though it was only a month or two ago, my baby girl has grown. Her little cheeks are chubbier and her hair more blonde. I’ve pulled 0-3 month clothes out of her closet – they are too small now. But, although she is no longer my itty bitty newborn, there is so much to love. Her smile tops the list.


Monkey Do || In the middle of July my sister-in-law, Anna, and her family came to visit. Fingers crossed that we make it their way to visit next go around {they just moved from Virginia and are now Disneyland’s next door neighbor}.
 
 
Hired Help || This is my kid’s way of helping Uncle Jake do yard work.
 

 
Parade || On site at my towns 24th of July festivities.
 
 
Summer Sleepover || On the trampoline. Marlee and I opted for a bed indoors, but we still stuck around for the glow sticks and other late night trampoline fun.
 
 
These two || No other words needed.
 

 
A Farwell Party || In August Oregon took away the Walkers. Oregon is so dang lucky. And Idaho is going to miss them terribly.
 
 
My town || Edson Fitcher, an afternoon well spent.
 
 
Green on Green || A treasure in the grass.
 
 
Freezer Corn || Did you know freezing corn is a science? Well, it is. And there is no better place to learn the tricks of the trade than at Zeb’s Grandpa Bingham’s house. The Bingham gang have it mastered, and they didn’t even complain when my kids and I crashed their party. Also noteworthy, Grandpa Bingham’s garden is nothing short of a masterpiece.
 

 
With Cousins || We didn’t get to do our annual sledding trip last winter due to a lack of snow. And somehow summer got away from us without our annual Lava Hot Springs trip {I’m blaming it on the whole having a baby thing} but we still got together a number of times over the summer. Most recently was the end of August. I love this family – and so do my kids.
 
The end.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

june.twenty.seventh.twenty.twelve

And then, at the end of June, with our new baby sister in stroller we made our way to the golf course to feed the ducks – with plenty of stale hamburger buns.

The kids ate more bread than the ducks, Marlee slept the entire time, and I took these photos:





Thursday, July 5, 2012

Photos of the fire + Renewing my blogging vows

Internet access that was lost with the fire has finally been restored. I’ve spent an hour or so today checking email and reading your kind comments on my blog. Thank you for all your sweet congratulatory emails, phone calls, blog comments and texts when Marlee was born. I am sorry I haven’t gotten back with most of you yet. I will get there – hopefully soon. And thank you again for your comments and emails on my post about the fire. I’m friends {and family} with some of the sweetest people around.  Truly, I am.

I'm trying to recommit myself to writing more regularly on my blog again, hoping to get back to where I was before I got pregnant. I enjoy blogging. It's therapeutic, it’s my escape, it forces me to take more pictures, challenges me to write something interesting even if nothing interesting is happening, and I absolutely love looking back at what we were up to in days gone by.  When the fire blazed around our neighborhood I found so much comfort in the fact that I had written so many of our happenings down. And that it was all stored in a place that could not be touched by the flames of the fire. Pictures, stories, memories – all safe, no matter the state of our house.

One of the sweet 90+ year-old widows that goes to church with our family lost everything in the fire. Along with losing the place she called home since 1953 she also lost her clothes, her furniture, her food. But most heartbreaking of all is the memories and family memorabilia that the fire took away from her and her family. She lived in a time before the world was digital so none of her photos were backed up on external hard drives {are yours?} and she only had a single hand written copy of years of journals.
Everything burned.
She is not alone. I’ve noticed it to be an unvarying theme among the fire victims: They got out with the most important thing, family. Most the rest of the stuff is just that, stuff! But no matter the size of the insurance policy all the years and years of photos and journals and memorabilia cannot be replaced. Not ever.
Earlier this year Spencer backed up all our photos on Carbonite. And a few Christmas’ ago I scanned in all my parents photo albums so me and my siblings all have digital copies of our childhood photos. My goal for this year is to scan in all the rest of Spence and my photos: Spencer’s mission, our high school photos, wedding photos, our dating and newlywed years and the photo albums of miscellaneous photos that we took prior to getting digital cameras. I will also be making digital photo copies of any hand written journals/notes and turning my blog into a book {I haven’t done that yet}!
A few of the other things I will be doing: creating emergency preparedness bags, upping our food and water storage, making copies of all important documents and creating a list of things to grab in case of evacuation. Believe me, I don’t think straight when it really happens. I’m not going to remember to grab everything {or anything, in my case}. And quite honestly, time usually doesn’t allow for you to grab much.
Anyway, some photos of the fire.
Oh, but before I stop rambling I want to thank ya'll for supporting my writing habit. Really, thank you. This little blog and I have gone through a lot together. There have been times when I have gotten my feelings hurt and wonder why I journal in such a public forum, times when I've wished I had taken the time to write more, times when I have felt like stopping all together and times when I’ve leaned toward the other extreme and have debated increasing readership, possibly blogging “for real” {and I discovered that was so not for me, by the way}.  I finally came to a conclusion that I wanted my blog to stay consistent with what I intended it to be when I started, a family journal of sorts. A place where I can jot down my thoughts, store photos, and write about the things that we do.  So that is what this blog is.
Aside from my sisters and parents I’m not entirely certain who reads my blog. But if you read I want to thank you. Because honestly, it wouldn’t be near as fun without you.  And although I write for journaling purposes I wouldn’t have the drive and commitment to continue writing if it weren’t for my handful of readers that comment and keep me motivated.
Okay, I’m done rambling. Cheers to blogging. And double cheers for the firefighters that fought the fire. And one more cheer for NO MORE NAUSEA!! Oh happy day.
Most of the following photos come from our local newspaper:


This house is right before our neighborhood. Somehow it survived the flames!


I took this picture after we were evacuated as we sat and watched the smoke on my sisters front steps:

And these are photos that I took shortly after they lifted the evacuations and we were allowed to return home. They are taken of the area damaged right across the street from my neighborhood.





Friday, June 29, 2012

When There's Smoke

“I feel like we’re camping,” I told Spence this morning as I woke up in the hotel and put back on yesterdays clothes trying to ignore the fact that I didn’t have an overnight bag with deodorant, toothbrush or fresh underwear. The air outside only intensifies the camping atmosphere. It’s thick, and dry, and smells just like campfire.

We were evacuated from our house around 3:30 yesterday afternoon.

I was inside nursing Marlee while Brynlee and Jace were outside playing in the sprinklers. I noticed the sky turn orange as I watched the kids out the window. And then I smelt the smoke. It was a faint aroma at first. So I checked on the kids, saw no sign of fire, and went back to nursing Marlee.

The phone rang. I ignored it. Then it rang again, and again. I assumed it was my mom since she does that sort of thing - calls time and time again when you don’t answer. {hi mom! love ya.} By the forth missed call I stopped nursing and answered my phone.

It was Spencer telling us he had just got a phone call from the police department and we needed to evacuate our home. The same recorded message was on my voicemail: The sheriff’s office is requesting that all residents evacuate their homes immediately due to a fast moving fire.

Funny thing, earlier that day I had heard of other evacuations in Colorado and Utah and had questioned myself - what things would I take with me in such a situation. 

In such a situation, I bring nothing. Apparently.                 

No valuables. No change of clothes. Or clean underwear. No toothbrushes. No wipes and diapers for my newborn baby. Or nursing pads for her nursing mama.

Truth be told, I panicked. The kids were in the backyard in their swimming suits and Marlee was laying on the couch – crying, since I had ended her feeding before she was ready. I told the kids to run upstairs and get their clothes on. I grabbed shoes for the gang, my purse, cell phone and computer and we loaded in the van and left the house.

As I left the house I could see the fire rolling down the hills toward the golf course. It was like something you see on the evening news, not something you expect to see in your backyard.

The rest of the day was spent watching the local news, texting friends and neighbors for detail and updating family. The rumors spread faster than the fire itself. Every story exploding into something different. Everybody speculating on whose house had been consumed by the flames. People assuming and then spreading. And so it goes, I guess.

So far the official count is at 66 houses and 29 outbuildings and 1,038 acres burned.

****

Last night we stayed in a hotel wondering of what was to happen.

Tonight we are among the lucky. We are home. And although our house smells of potent campfire smoke and our deck, lawn and flowers are dusted in ash, our house and neighborhood was unharmed. Everything in our house is just as we left it {including the dough I had rising on the kitchen counter for last night’s dinner. yikes}. However, if you stand at the corner of our neighborhood and look out you see nothing but black ruins – skeletons of trees and houses that used to be. Power companies trying to restore power lines, fire crews still fighting, media sources trying to get the inside scoop.

We are so grateful. So thankful. So appreciative. We are also aware, concerned and prayerful for those who weren’t as lucky as us. For the friends, neighbors and ward and stake members that may have lost everything. Our thoughts are with them.

****

Although we are home and power has now been restored in our neighborhood we are still without gas, hot water, internet access etc. Right now we are at my little sisters house showering and quickly updating the blog. Fire pictures will be posted when I am able. As well as updated pictures of my sweet baby Marlee. Oh how we love her.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Photo Album: To the pumpkin patch

There’s a party at my house this weekend!  Plus a baby shower for my dang cool sister in law the next weekend.  So my regular after the kids are in bed blogging time has been taken over with glitter, paper crafts and organizing partay details.  And so it goes, I guess.  But, in between the party planning and all the holy crap life is so dang busy business we have been properly celebrating October.  Two trips to the pumpkin patch, a visit to a pumpkin pro’s garden to see a 600 pound pumpkin, family night out for hamburgers and milkshakes, Halloween decorating, bundling up for walks and bike rides, and even a date night.  Harry Potter in the cheap theater.  I’m not a Harry Potter fan, but there was popcorn and Apple Beer.  Plus, that means next movie is my choice so it’s worth it.  Operation Halloween costume is also in full swing.  As is hot chocolate, warm coats and the heater.  It’s been rainy and cold in our world - and I love it.  Though my fingers are crossed that the weekend brings warmer weather.  In fact, all the cold weather caused me to send a frantic email to Miranda.  Something like:  It’s freakin’ freezin’!  An outdoor party, in October, in Idaho . . . ummmm. . . probably not the brightest idea to date!  But I continue planning still the same with hopes that the sun decides to come out on Saturday.  And if not, well . . . our first trip to the pumpkin patch was in the pouring rain and we deemed it successful still the same.  So an outdoor party in the rain may be a total blast.  Or maybe not. 
:: a 600 pound pumpkin ::
:: seriously, what would you do with a 600 pound pumpkin? ::
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