Goodbye Alpine, Hello Ephraim

Well....Ephraim here we are! We moved in on Halloween and watched the election unfold in a new home--a memory that will stick forever. It's new beginnings all the way around. Today, we are on Day 2 of a complete water outage here. Someone hit the main water line and they have been trying to fix it since yesterday afternoon.

Here is what I've learned in 4 days at the new home:

1. It's pretty cool when you can stand in the master bedroom and see every room in the house.
2. Don't under-estimate the frustration that comes from living next door to horses when your dog has a "thing" for rolling in warm horse poop.
3. A smaller house can get stinky when you can't flush toilets, wash dishes, or shower for 2 days.
4. How is it possible that we are in a smaller town but the girls are twice as busy as they were in Alpine? Hurray for cheer, musical theater and violin.
5. Intelligent, fun people live in small towns too. I've met the nicest people!
6. When I design my own home, remind me to put the light switches for the kitchen IN the kitchen (instead of one in the living room, one in the dining room).
7. This move reminded me that when you having nothing to do, it's the time to do all the things you said you would always do when you "had some free time" (banjo, write a book, start an online flyfishing store)
8. Fancy televisions require fancy technicians to set them up. And sometimes they still don't work right so you have to use the 10 inch TV from the dorm rooms anyway.
9. Be grateful for working washer and dryers!
10. Take what you own and cut it in half, then cut it in half again and you still own too much stuff.

THE ANNIVERSARY DINNER

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We celebrated our anniverary last night. Pretty interesting when you have no restaurants in town and the water isn't working. We melted ice cubes to cook with and made dinner anyway. A down-home anniversary with Gentry as our waitress. Take a look at the funny menu the kids made (click on the picture to enlarge).