Taking You Home..

Home is where our story begins. It's a quote I have hanging in the kitchen. Home is where so many milestones occur, laughter is heard, and where kids discover their first best friends in siblings. That is until they venture out into the world and discover there are way cooler people to hang out with. In our home in Murrieta, I can remember so many milestones that occurred, like Logan starting kindergarten, learning to ride a bike, and discovering good friends. Caitlyn was born there, and had a best friend in Libby from the start. They were born three weeks apart, and Caitlyn always found comfort in knowing that whatever new thing she had to start, Libby would be there too. It was that way for sunbeams, a ward split, and pre-school. They did them all together. So I basically became the one eyed, one horned, giant purple people eater when I told her we were moving to a different state. Especially to one that is a raging inferno of heat.

We have been thinking about a move since Nathan began his new job last April which requires a significant amount of travel. As much as the man has the potential to make me crazy, we still want his around more than half the year. And because he works from home when he is not traveling, we could pretty much chose which part of his area we wanted to live in. The options were Oklahoma (fun song, not a fun place), Texas (ah, yeah no), New Mexico (does anyone really live there), Northern California (not yet a millionaire), Utah, and Arizona. So it all came down to either too hot, or too cold. Since the idea of shoveling snow to take the kids to school when Nathan traveled did not appeal to my saner self, we went with Arizona, because I just have to push the thermostat button a few times to cool off. I can do that even when he is traveling.


Anthem, Arizona to be exact. It is a little town in the mountains north of Phoenix on the way to Sedona, Prescott, and Flagstaff. The weather is a little cooler than Phoenix (so when it is 115 there, it is only 107 here) and much greener, with more...oh we will call it "wildlife." Yes the desert mountains are apparently full of scorpions, spiders, bats, little gross black bugs, rabbits, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and much to Nathan's delight, freakishly mean little boars that eat cactus and can be legally hunted.




The house is surrounded by these gross little black bugs, and we often see rabbits and squirrels running across the street, and bats flying at night. But the community center for the neighborhood is fantastic. If they put in the "lazy river" it would be it's very own Raging Waters, or Soak City. There are two giant water slides, and then two little water slides and a play area complete with the giant dumping bucket. There is also a lap pool and a diving area with a three meter board. The kids are in heaven. They don't even care that they have no friends yet. And yes, on the mother's guilt meter, that ranks very high. Almost as high as swiping a piece of ear off of your son while giving him a haircut for the first day of school (more on that later).


They seem to be adjusting ok. Logan made the soccer club team here; he is also in boy scouts, and has several boys in his class at church. Caitlyn has made friends with a few of the girls in church, although she came home this week and said that she got in trouble because she was too "lousy" (her word for loud) in class. She has also been over to a little girl's house for a play date and went to the chocolate factory with a bunch of other kids. Reagan, well she doesn't much care as long as she has things to destroy. It makes no difference to her where that occurs. So it will be a new home for us. One where Caitlyn will start school, learn how to ride a bike, and discover new friends. And Logan will discover the wonders of Santa Claus, the birds and the bees, and high school. Good times. As for Reagan, we just hope she will peel herself away from my leg long enough to discover that there are a lot of really cool things out there.



And because I am a twisted soul who can't resist, I guess there is just one thing left to say..."Welcome home Kroeger family, welcome home."