No Longer Homeless

We are in our house and have DirecTV, electricity, gas (natural--I guess it's all natural:)), water and internet. Our new phone get's hooked up Tuesday and I will forward that number and our new address by email. The kids got so creative during our no tv days that it makes me sad to have it now. They had races to see how many shirts/pants they could put on the fastest. Reagan won with 11 shirts and 6 pants/skirts. They put on a couple of plays, went snake hunting in the back yard --yep we have them, made a mailbox for me and wrote me some hysterical mail and coupons, played in the rain during a tornado watch--oops, organized their rooms, played hide and seek in our tornado shelter, Dane pulled down some curtains, Reagan painted Kale's finger and toe nails and they taught Dane to respond to someone who asks do you love me, "No, but you are hot." Maybe TV is not such a bad idea.

But Erron could not exist without Diet Coke, TV, Bed and Pizza. If all those things were in one room he would never leave. I have told him that before so if he reads this he can only nod his head.

I don't consider myself hyper, maybe slightly intense, but not hyper. Here, I look like the energizer bunny on drugs. If this next scene had happened in our old stomping grounds no one would have even looked twice at us. So Wednesday night on the news, one thing TV is good for, the nice weatherman informed us that today would be almost 70* and sunny. The Oregonian in me says hurray summer is here and we need shorts. Thursday the kids and I head to Old Navy. We blow through the door and I am trying to tame Dane, throw clothes at kids and my cell phone rings 4 times (the ring tone is Time to Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli). Now, they do have cell phones in TN but I have not seen one person on one in public or heard a music ring tone since I was here a month ago with a realtor. Moms were looking and me and just as we walk past a group of about 5 moms Dane (3) asks, "If we are good at the shoe store can we get a Frappacino at Starbucks?" Mouths drop and it becomes 100% apparent that we are not from here. I almost felt like a Californian must feel when they first move to Idaho.

I can just see Reagan's first day at school. You must remember that our kids were born and raised in the Northwest. Recycling is a way of life and is preached from billboards, commercials, church and schools. When Reagan was in kindergarten her class did a month long segment on the Rain Forest. Rain forest math, spelling words, art, geography, speeches etc.. She was hooked. The kindergarten even had parents donate organic ingredients to make trail mix to sell at the school art walk so they could buy a piece of the rain forest so it wouldn't be cut down. So when Reagan hears that TN does not recycle my little hippie girl is appalled! She went off....."Don't they know that if they use too much paper they have to cut down more trees and animals die because their habitat is destroyed? If they cut down more trees and the animals have to move into other areas the feeding grounds can't support them all. We are going to keep recycling right mom!" With that she marched out to the garage and set-up her paper, plastic and glass sections. Erron took one look at me and said, "This is not going to be your new project is it? To make Tennessee recycle?" After my foray into PTA that last couple of years I think he is a little nervous.

The south is almost like a different country. Everyone speaks English and even the fast food, convenience store and dry cleaner owners/workers are American. I mean absolutely no disrespect by that comment. Just that it is very different. Reagan did ask me if a southern learned Spanish would they speak it with an accent. The kids are making this even funner that it should be.

And the people here are so nice. The Dominoes Pizza guy stood on the porch for 10 minutes chatting and welcoming us to TN. I had to call one the utilities with a question and the gentleman was so helpful and told me that with three new utilities to deal with off course I would have questions and to call back anytime I need anything. My neighbor, Miss Jayne, came over the first day and has been so great to the kids. She told them all about the school and the ways of the south. "Southerns are happy people and we just want to have fun and make friends. You will have so much fun and school and the kids will all love you. If one them is a little snot nose, well just know that not everyone is like that and they probably aren't from here anyway. Just don't call anybody a hillbilly. It's like using the 'n' word."

Miss Jayne's husband is and oil guy and has drilled all over including for King Hussein in Jordan. She has a 15 yr old daughter Cheyenne. Our other neighbor Connie is a VP at U of Tennessee and she will retire in June. Her husband, Wes, was a CFO and just retired. They have started a new business. Silicone bake ware in the shape and color of the different college initials. You know that this means our USC tradition will expand to cakes, cupcakes and ice trays. They told us about the owners of this house. The wife left to go to culinary school in Portland and is now the pastry chef at Disneyland. The husband is a nuclear engineer building a plant in Iceland. My kind of togetherness.

You now how well all thought that Happy Valley Elementary was so overcrowded? Kale's school (K-2) has 17 kindergarten classes. His school makes Spring Mountain look like an ant farm. Reagan's school (3-5) shares a campus with the middle school (6-8) on the other side of the hill from the high school. It looks like a small college campus all together.

Writing this has become my therapy. I do miss you all. Not seeing you at school, church, Nordstrom, Safeway. Dane asked me if he could call his buddy Stratton and see how he is doing. We all feel it. The changes. A good adventure it may be, but going on somewhere else gives me a little pain in my heart. My wise friend Madison wrote to me, "Don't be sad because it's over. Smile because it happened."