Beneath the Wraps

         Aside from being overly quiet, my dad seemed very unobservant.   A running joke was that my mom could shave her head bald and spraypaint her scalp gold and he wouldn’t notice.   He said he would.   And perhaps he did notice things but never let on that he noticed – therefore we assumed he just wasn’t observant.          But now it is I who misses out.   I wish I was more observant than I am.   I think one of the greatest things about spending time with small children is that they observe everything.   They notice so many things that I have taken for granted.   I love it when I have the opportunity to explore the world through their eyes.          Roland is very observant.   Hopefully Jenna will continue to take after him and both of them will point out the things that I continue to miss.   Jenna...

        Recently I posted to facebook that I really LOVE Oregon - but did not give details. One friend who lives in Oregon asked for details.  I answered her in a private message. I have many friends and family in Utah who may not share my feelings about the hoop-jumping that so many have to deal with in the state of Utah that I did not want to post my number one reason why I like living in Oregon.  I love being in Oregon because it isn't Utah - or more specifically Salt Lake City. I guess it's wrong of me to judge the entire state by just one county.         Thus far I have not had to jump any hoops - not even to get a driver's license or state plates.  Nor did I have to wait.  I have been treated like a person and not just a number.  I count!  I may have counted in Utah, but I didn't feel like I did.  Especially when it came to voting.  Seriously.  Utah's a Rep...

          I don’t know what exactly freaks me out about driving in Roseburg.  The population is less than half of what I’m used to – but I’m also used to driving on a grid – and having streets that are numbered rather than all names.           Oregon drivers (as a whole) seem a lot more courteous than Utah drivers – not that Salt Lake accounts for all Utah drivers.  But Salt Lake County makes up for over 1/3 of Utah’s population at  1,029,655 . The entire Douglas County has a population of 107,667 with Roseburg population at only 21,181 but still the largest city in the county with the next largest city coming in at 7,810   and then Myrtle Creek at less than half of that – and the numbers go down from there.           Overall, the state of Oregon has a higher population than does the state of Utah; Oregon residence ar...

Jenna does NOT deal with change well.   She is horrible at it.   Horrible.   I don’t even remember what it was she was complaining about last night.   I told her that whatever we do, wherever we live, no matter what, there are going to be some things that we like about our current situation and some things that we don’t.   I told her to write a list of pros and cons with living in West Valley and with living in Myrtle Creek.   I didn’t suggest for her to include Kearns – after all she was only five when we had moved. There was probably more drama about that move than there was with this last one. After reviewing her lists, I decided to make some lists of my own.   Thus for this post, I have decided to share each list that was created (or started at least) Jenna’s pro list for living in West Valley 1)            school friends 2)     ...