KIDS PLAYING IN THE BACKYARD

When a young family goes shopping for a house many times you hear that they are looking for a large, safe backyard for their family to grow and play in.  I was the same way. That was a definite requirement, a decent sized back yard for the kids to play in.  When I was first starting out, we didn't have a yard in the condo we lived in but we always dreamed of one. Everyone else always sent their kids to the back yard to play. When we would take the kids to the grandparents house, if they wanted to play, they went to the back yard.

Fast forward to April 2004. We moved to Wyoming and had  an okay sized, fenced in back yard where our then 2 kids could play. We soon discovered that no one in our new neighborhood or town for that matter played in their backyards.  Every child in the neighborhood was in the front yard. We actually noticed that when we were there on vacation the year before and stopped in the town we would eventually move to.  But we didn't pay it much mind, thinking it was probably a fluke.

Fast forward to August 2008 when we moved to a new town, same state. I thought 'ah ha maybe it was just the town we lived in'  Nope everyone plays in the front yards here too. Trying to get my children to go into the fenced in back yard is like pulling teeth as they say.  I just don't understand the difference.  

And kids in the front yards aren't the only things we've witnessed here in the cowboy state.  Everyone does everything in the front yard - BBQ's, Family gatherings, Those nice evenings when you just want to sit outside and enjoy the weather. It is all done in the front yard, within the view of at least 8 neighbors.  A good thing about it is that it helps you get to know your neighbors and that is awesome, knowing that there are people so close if your family ever needs something.  But I am just so used to the whole backyard/privacy thing that it was/is very hard for me to adjust.

If my insane son (Mr. Insane) is running around screaming the new expletive the neighbor boys taught him, well then I don't want the whole neighborhood to see it. If my two year old decides she wants to follow her older siblings outside and she is wearing nothing (as she usually is these days :/) I don't want the whole neighborhood to have to deal with it.  (People here are also very weird about naked babies but that is a whole other story). If I decide to give the Hubs a quick kiss over the porch railing while he is grilling, well I don't need three neighbors saying awww.  (And it seems you can be a lot louder and more obnoxious in the privacy of the backyard.)

I remember some great times in the backyard when I was younger. It was so much fun. Eating great food and enjoying refreshing drink while hanging out with friends and family.  I even remember a few backyard birthday parties that were great fun. My big question is, why the difference.  In the winter I could see it sometimes if the snow drifts are too high in the back yard, but in the summer it still makes me wonder what is wrong with the back yard.  

Maybe because it is a smaller population here and it is generally safer so people don't insist on their kids being corralled in the back yard?  I mean this is the wild west and if anyone were to dare hurt a neighborhood kid there would be half the street with their guns drawn catching the person before they even got halfway out of the neighborhood, so I guess that could be it.  I just don't know though.  My neighborhood growing up in Nevada was the same way and yet if we played outside it was at a park or in the backyard.  

I'm thinking this is just one of those things I may never know the answer to and that's okay.  I will still be trying to get my kids to play in the backyard with the dog and they will still probably refuse but hey, at least I have a yard for the kids like I always wanted!!! :)

Until Next Time...Embrace cultural differences whether they are from state to state or country to country.  Everyone is different for a reason, life would be boring if everyone was the same.

MOVING ON? MAYBE, SOME DAY!

First a quick update. It did snow here...a lot.  (The pictures are about eight hours before the storm ended so we had more than what is pictured) Over a foot I'm sure. And visibility was awful off and on throughout the storm.  And the local school district did...NOT call off school.  Every other district in the area did. I think I've just about had it.  I think I'm done.  Not only does the district not care about people's safety, the city of Casper doesn't either. Ya'll should come see how wonderfully and safely the roads are plowed.  Oh my! I am one seething mama right now. I kept my kids home (although the Senior decided to go ahead and get a ride with her boyfriend). I was not risking my life or that of my two youngest to get the older ones to and from school on a day where everyone else  in this part of the state didn't have to go. Today they had to go back though and The Shooter was back to work so I had to take them out and about. I thought for sure it would be easy because there had been plenty of time to plow the roads. Yeah right!  I forgot this is Casper we're talking about. :/ Make sure to read the blog before this one if you want to find out all about our wonderful school district.  Spring should be back soon right?  We are expecting snow over the next couple of days.  Sigh....Spring wherefore art thou.

So on with today's show.

Are you happy with where you live? I was happy in Nevada, except I wasn't healthy. I was happy in Evanston, but the money and providing for our larger family called us elsewhere, and unfortunately that turned out to be a bust. So now we are stuck here. I want out, off and on, depending on what is happening in my life and the world. Right now I am in one of those major I want the hell out of here stages. This time though I'm afraid it might not go away.  Now, let me make a note that when it does go away it doesn't mean I enjoy living here, it just means that I have accepted how things are and am somewhat content.

What happens if this feeling doesn't go away? I will either have to do something about it or be unhappy.  Well, ever since I started writing and publishing I have been extremely happy and I'm not giving that up! So I guess I will have to do something about it right?  It wouldn't be easy leaving here because I would be leaving the Senior behind with her friends and her college, but she's growing up and would be fine on her own if it came down to that.  Now, the question would be, where to move to and how long would it take to save the money to move.  I guess a lot depends on the amounts of our yearly tax refunds, the amount of money my books make (after repaying initial investment) and what is going on with the hubby's job. Ideally the thing to do would be for him to stay with the same company he's with (even though in my opinion they leave a lot to be desired) and transfer within the company.

As for finding a place to live, I have a few ideas but don't know if we could afford to live in any of those places.  We have it good here in Wyoming as far as cost of living goes. We are some of the luckiest in the country when it comes to that.

There is a lot to think about when it comes to moving.  Do you hire movers or move yourself (I can't drive distances so it is really hard for us to rent a truck and move ourselves without the help of another driver.) You need to find a house to either rent or buy (when our credit was messed up because our business caught fire it has taken us a long time to come out of it.  It still isn't great but it is getting better every day!) There are a lot of initial start up fees to think about too; hooking up  utilities, deposits, school fees, etc. So how much money would be needed to move? I have no flippin clue and it is hard to estimate, but i'm guessing somewhere between 7 and 10,000 for our family.

So okay, it might be a long ass time before we can move, but believe me dreaming about it helps! If it takes us 2 years or 5 years to get the hell out of here, I can always plan and dream and plan some more...and then dream even more. I've been doing it for the last 4.5 years so why not so it some more right? FYI choices of places to move right at this moment - Seattle area, Ketchikan, AK, Sequim, WA. I guess we will see what the future will bring. Someday you may be getting blogs from Alaska, Washington, or somewhere totally surprising! They say the grass isn't always greener in a new place, but it sure might be happier. I might never get to move away from here, but until I know for sure I will make the best of living here and I will try my hardest to make it a happy life for me and my family. If I do get to move, that is just icing on the cake :D

Until Next Time...IF you aren't happy then you have to be willing to at least TRY to do something about it. You might not always be able to afford or to manage making a change in your life, but as long as you acknowledge it and make the best of what you
already have, you will be happy.

APRIL (SNOW) SHOWERS

You know, sometimes I wonder why in the heck we moved to Wyoming  9 years ago.  (See my blog We Be Hicks) On April 6th is was exactly 9 years since we pulled up in front of our new home 505 miles from our old one. When it is summer and the temps are in the high seventies and low eighties I am loving my life here (i.e. I'm not getting physically sick because of the heat). When I walk outside in October and I don't sweat and I actually breathe in cool, clean, fresh air, yeah those are the times I love it.  But when I woke up this morning and checked the weather I was like "why the f#$% did I move to this godforsaken place? Why? Why? Why? :'(  You see, the weather forecast says snow today and tomorrow - winter storm warning. This in and of itself is not unusual. It happens, usually this time of year it melts quickly and the roads stay clear because we've had a few days in a row of sixty degree temps.  So what did it say today that made me react so differently?  13-16 inches of flippin' snow!!!  What the heck, we rarely get that much snow in one time during the middle of winter!!!! Why in April are we getting a foot of flippin snow when my kids have finally started to get outside and leave me the hell alone to get to go outside and play a bit?

And when I read that we were getting strong winds with it, I almost cried some more.  I hate the wind. I've always hated the wind. I will never like the wind. I was almost crushed by a shed when I was a kid because the wind picked it up and brought it towards me (then thankfully changed direction and blew it back). And what happens when you mix wind and snow - blizzard like conditions. And then I remembered that the hubs has these two days off so at least I wouldn't have to drive in that shiz alone. But still people, come on, it is April and I want spring.

The only good thing I can see coming out of this is that maybe it will tramp the allergens back down for a few days and my poor family can get a break. Maybe. Little Butt and The Senior have both been sick from all of the blasted weather changes and allergens and wind. We need a break here right?!?!

So, we went to the store and stocked up on everything we might need to last us through a possibly big storm and now we are just waiting for it to start. I'm sure the kids will have to go to school tomorrow even if there is a foot of snow on the ground and blizzard like conditions (my kids don't need visibility to cross a somewhat major street to get to the bus stop!) You see, if our district has too many inclement weather days the football players would have to miss the private football camp they are sent to every year and God forbid that would happen. Who cares if parents and students aren't safe certainly not the Natrona County School District #1!!! Sports always must come before safety and academics right?  Wow, I've been kinda sitting on that piece of info for years and it feels

good to shout it out from the roof tops!!! (or the blog tops).

So, what is my point in today's babble?  I really don't have one.  I just wanted to write about things that have bugged me recently so I thought since it was all related to the weather, I would give it a go. :)

Until Next Time...????? Enjoy the good weather when you've got it?  Yeah, that's it.  I'll have something more thought provoking next time.  <3 and love to you all!

HOME MEANS NEVADA

I know many people who move to a new place and it becomes home - there is no other place they would rather be. My mother and my in-laws are prime examples of this. My in-laws moved from the DC/Maryland area to Southern Nevada and we moved there from Florida/Oregon (although my parents had lived there before). I'm not entirely sure about the in-laws, but I am pretty sure you couldn't give my mom 10 million dollars to move away.

Southern Nevada

I have lived in Wyoming for almost 9 years now and I still get heart-achingly homesick for the beautiful, fresh Southern Nevada desert. I should be happy with where my family is and the place we will probably end up staying for a long long time (if not the rest of our lives) and on the surface I am. Deep down inside I would give almost anything to move back to the Las Vegas area. It isn't just because a huge part of my family is there and it isn't because as many people have told me 'the desert gets in your soul and you never want to leave it'. I really don't know what it is, but no matter where I go and no matter how much I love the places I go, Nevada is my HOME and always will be.

When someone asks me where home is I always have to stop myself from saying 'Nevada'. After all, home is now technically Casper, Wyoming. Doesn't the saying go "Home is where the heart is"? Well, my heart is split.  Part of it is in Southern Nevada and the other part is with my family in Wyoming. A lot of people tell me I should move back.  Oh my how I would love to, but I just can't.  The reason we left was because the heat and allergies bothered me to the point of sickness. I just can't do that to my family or myself.  They might not have me in many physical ways, but they do have me in many other ways that count heavily. If I were to add more sickness to everything they wouldn't have me at all and I wouldn't have myself either. I would be nothing.

Now this is not to say that I am unhappy, because I really am not.  I have a decent home  great husband,aand kids that I adore. I can't really ask for more.  There will just be a part of me that feels like I am not living at home. But if all else is good, I think I can live with that.

My hometown, Overton, NV

Is there any other place on earth that could make me that happy?  Maybe, you never know what could happen.  If any place could do it, I think Alaska could (it is my happy place after all), but if I never live there I will be just fine because I once knew a place that I called home. A place that I will always love with all my heart. My Home is Nevada, the place I live happily with my family is Wyoming (for the moment, you never know what the future brings.)

Until next time...love deeply and keep that love in your heart. If you do that, no matter what circumstances you face, you can always be happy with who YOU are. And of course, that is what counts the most.

PICTURE POST - ALASKA AND WYOMING 2002/2003

Well, I am fresh out of pictures from my most recent trip to Alaska but I do have a few old ones from our first trip in 2003 and from our 'pick a place to live' trip to Wyoming in 2002. The picture quality is pretty bad because I used mostly disposable cameras and then they had to be scanned into the computer.  Yeah I was super tech savvy back then ;p  They are still beautiful so enjoy!!!

In Sitka at the Raptor Center - Awesome place!

Inside passage cruise day 1

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Big guy at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

Ketchikan, AK Awesome place :)

Ketchikan, AK We kinda want to live here 

View from Mt. Roberts

Same tree carving we saw in 2012

Mt Roberts Scenery

Scenery from the White Pass and Yukon railway tour

Squirrel - click to make pic larger and  look closely at the tree trunk

View from White Pass and Yukon Railway tour

Fort Bridger State Historical Site, WY

Buffalo Bill Dam, Cody, WY

Ft. Bridger SHS, So very historic and wonderful to see.

Ft. Bridger SHS

Mor Ft. Bridger - Authentic old buildings

A lake in Grand Teton NP

Ft. Bridger sometimes had guides in period costumes

The Senior and The Freshman in Grand Teton

Somewhere in Cody, WY.  That is a lot of antlers!!!