a world of difference!

Ok so I THOUGHT I could post everyday, but here I am over a year later posting my next entry. NICE! Well here I sit in my "new" home, and guess what, no matter how far i move, my mess seems to follow. Seriously, this house is just as messy as my last one and it seems no matter how much I clean it does not stay that way. :/ Oh well, I guess it's true what they say "cleaning a home while the children are growing is like shoveling the walks while it's still snowing" or something like that anyway.

So just over a year ago, we left our home in the West to roam in the South. And one thing I can say is things sure are different here! Except for the church, it is the same, and for that I am so glad! We left an amazing ward, thinking that we could never get another one as good. But, we were wrong, this ward is AWESOME! For the most part, we love it here. Right now, in the middle of January I am looking out my huge window and warmth and sunshine and clean air. I don't miss the "bubble" of inversion that happens in the Salt lake valley during this time of year, that's for sure.

Here are a few differences...

-Where we live, it takes us 20 minutes to get to anywhere, which costs us tons of $$ in gas money. Back home I could make a trip to Smith's, get what I needed and get back home in 8 minutes FLAT.

-some things are called different names than what we know them as. For instance, a shopping cart is referred to a "a buggy" and instead of "calling in" sick at work they say "call out" those are just the two I can think of at the moment, but there are more. I will add them as I think of them.

Here, if my GPS says that my destination in 5 miles away, it will also say that it is 15 minutes away. The crazy part about that is that all the roads are 45-60 mph, so why does it take so long to go such a short distance? well that is because there are NO straight roads here, the meander, they have LOTs of hills and curves, oh and NO shoulder! So, what we have is a bunch of cars going pretty fast (50ish mph) on very narrow, 2 lane, very winding and hilly roads, it's nearly suicidal. I hate when I'm driving a familiar route and I see new crosses on the side of the road. The crosses mark the spot where someone has died. That is another thing we would NEVER see in Utah. It's kind of creepy and a little disturbing I say. There is one spot on the side of the freeway, that the "marker" of such a place is a bicycle, painted all silver, chained to the tree and with a wreath of flowers around the handle bars. it makes me sad to see these things, but then I have to wonder "what the crap were they thinking riding a bike down a freeway?" Oh YEAH! that's another thing, I see jaywalkers all over around here! I mean I GET crossing the street not at a light, but in the middle of a busy highway?? pleeeaaase people, think! these roads don't have shoulders, nor are there sidewalks on a lot of these roads, it's suicide to walk along them or cross them and yet they do it all the time!

Trees are everywhere! It is very beautiful but a little hard to get used to. The rare times when we are on a hill and we can see 1/2 mile over the treetops we all get a little excited. Also, if I get to see a little pasture land, it makes me homesick for the "openess" of Utah.

Also, it seems to me that the South really focuses on race, still, long after civil rights, I still see much separation by attitude. It's hard to describe or explain, but coming from a place where there were only 3 black people in my high school to a place that puts each school's demographics online, is so strange to me. But, thankfully, my children don't know racism, and thus have made friends with several black kids at school. this makes me happy, maybe it will take kids to finally drive out racism.

Thrift stores and antique stores ROCK!! I hated going to D.I. in Utah, but here, it is so fun to go to thrift stores, in fact everyone I have met goes to thrift stores. It seems to me that, in Utah, you only go to D.I. for halloween costume items. But here, people shop for clothes and anything else you can think of. I personally know people who live in million dollar homes that shop at Goodwill and other thrift stores. It seems everyone has their "favorite" one.

Mexican food here is NOT good, if fact the best "mexican" food you can get is a taco bell. (At least that we have found so far) This is VERY sad for me because it is my favorite type of food. Looks like I will be doing the cooking when it comes to mexican food. In fact, we have yet to find a restaurant that we are just "dying" to get back to. So, I cook a whole LOT more now.

Okay, those are the differences I can come up with for now, though I know there are a lot more but this post is long enough already. Maybe later!