When we got ready to leave Loveland, Co. for Ogallala, Ne. a friend approached me and told me that her husband had taken a job in a little town in New Mexico. They lived there for one year before making the decision to move back to "civilization". But, she said, it was good for them. It was a break they needed from everything they got wrapped up in living in a city. Living in the country taught them a few things. She didn't share what those things were but I think I have my own ideas.
We moved at the beginning of the month to Provo, UT. We had lived here 10 years ago, almost to the month. Amazing how history repeats itself. Amazingly, for two wanderlusty types like Curtis and me, we made Ogallala, NE our home for four years and one week. We moved out there for work, the cost of living was lower than that in Colorado, and I think I had romanticized living in Nebraska, having lived there for half of my childhood.
What took some getting used to was that Walmart was 50 miles away, one way. The stores in town closed at 9:00 p.m., and sometimes earlier on weekends. Food was more expensive because there wasn't a population demand to bring it down. Entertainment consisted of these choices: hunting, fishing, boating on the lake, bar activities, watching movies at the two screen movie theater, church activities, or driving at least one hour for other things like a small children's museum, history museums, or bigger movie theaters. There were lots of small parks for the kids, which saved my sanity on more than one occasion. Shopping was limited to Alco and Pamida, two discount stores, and Safeway and Sunmart, the two grocery stores. Aimlessly driving around town took about 20 minutes and you had seen it all by that point. Having limited funds and weather, our family activities consisted of swimming in the summer, driving around the lake (having neither boats or fishing poles), playing at the park, watching movies from Netflix, going to the library, reading and homeschooling.
I got all excited at the prospect of moving out to Provo. My eyes glazed over thinking about all the things we would be able to do. Driving into the Utah valley was overwhelming. The traffic! The people! The stores! It's hard not to get in a wreck trying to see it all! Because it's so big, and my memory is not what it used to be, I don't leave the house without a GPS. Of course, it doesn't help that there are 13 different ways to get home from any one direction and the GPS thinks its great fun to direct me home a different way each and every time I leave. We went to the library the first week we were here. It was huge and automated. On Friday night there was hardly any parking spaces left. Were people on dates there? We went to a dinosaur museum, which was great fun, and big, when Isaac and Jesse were little guys, but to take 6 children in now? Well, let's just say Curtis and I were ready for a nap, but the kids were still too hopped up on adrenalin to rest. Walmart was bigger than I ever remember their stores being. I kept calling Curtis to report my findings. Milk: $1.66! Potatoes: 10lbs for $1.00! The houses are huge, almost double what my little house in Ogallala was.
So, I found it odd the other morning when I stepped out and it smelled like cow manure, and another night when it smelled like skunk. Familiar Nebraska smells. We have a mouse living in the stove. It reminded me of a couple of houses in Nebraska which taught me a little mouse was nothing to scream at. (I've actually not seen it, but everyone else has and comments on how cute it is. I WILL scream if the cats chase it across my bed.) Having only one car, Curtis takes it to work during the day, so I am forced to make do or go without till he comes home, kinda like making do or going without by waiting for that once a month trip to Walmart in Nebraska. Our house has 2300 square feet now. Its enormous to me, but there are still huge amounts of space not used. Makes me wonder just where and how I had my stuff stashed in the smaller houses in Nebraska. I feel a little disorganized. Partly due to just moving, but also, this house has cathedral ceilings and wood floors, so every little sound echoes and triples in volume. With 6 kids screaming, crying, fighting, playing, or just simply breathing, and a dog yipping at a cat as if to alarm you that instead of a lazy, slowly moving cat was walking by, its a dangerous cobra ready to strike you in the neck, you can't think, or talk, or remember what you were doing.
As much as I thought it wouldn't happen, I do find myself a little homesick for Nebraska and things that made it home for four years. My little house that I knew where everything was. My husband working 1 mile away from home. The 5 car traffic jams. The lunches in the park with church friends. The ability to run to the store and back home in 15 minutes...now it takes 15 minutes to just get to the store. Something that has really surprised me that I thought would be a problem, but isn't, is that when I do go into a store, I don't have this compulsive urge to buy things that I haven't seen in over four years, or ever. Living in a small town has definitely made me less of a consumer. I wonder when it might not be like this, but still, and maybe I have always been like this, I marvel at the little things around me. The size of the snowflakes. The buds on the trees (this is not even a thought for the tress in Ogallala, I'm sure). The view of the mountains that really seem so close you could touch them. That I can go to church, and it is and always will be, the same feeling I have had in every church we've attended in other cities, even our small branch in Sutherland, Nebraska.
While life will always have its ups and downs and lessons to be learned, forgotten and reminded of, I know that I will look back on my time in Nebraska as a time of learning. I learned A LOT! In fact, I really can't remember a time in my life that I learned so much in a four year period. Maybe because there were not the distractions of a big city, or an echo-y house, or so many things to choose from (I went to buy Swiffer mop pads last night and found an off brand. You mean, I didn't have to buy the Swiffer brand only?!) that it was an environment that allowed for all that learning. It was a struggle, but it was good. I learned patience. I learned thriftiness. I learned sacrifice. I learned acceptance.
I guess I should close this now. I've been writing for entirely too long, draining my brain of all these thoughts now that the house is quiet and all I hear is the hum of my computer. I still have one more thought to share with you, but that will have to be another night, so look forward to it soon. Hailing to you from Utah now, with love!
Lessons Taught to Me 4 Years Ago That I'm Now Learning
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