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7.4.13

little pockets

Our time is almost up in Rexburg, 6 days to be exact, and I know I'm being awfully dramatic about leaving and I've only mentioned it on social media like, 100 times- but I feel such uncompromising emotions about leaving this little town. I'm ecstatic for the next phase of our lives. Careers! A baby(ies)! Our own home! The 30's! (I've always thought age 30 sounded like the perfect age, closely followed by age 70, I'm a young-old soul, okay?) But part of my heart hurts thinking about this place, and leaving it...

Friends: We have made some of the dearest friends here. Growing up, we had two families who we did vacations with regularly, the Halls and the Harkers. They were my parents friends from college and I remember thinking how fun it would be to have life-long friends that you met in college when you were poorer than poor and newlyweds. Well, we met those kinds of friends. Some already left us last semester (the Warnicks to North Carolina) some are joining us in Arizona next semester (The Jarmans, hooray!) some are staying put in Idaho and we are trying to talk them into moving to AZ with us (The Haynes, did we convince you yet?) and some are leaving this semester too, just to places that aren't Arizona (The Wrights, but California is close-ish). We've found the perfect balance with these couple friends, and not being 2 blocks away from most of them makes me sad and teary. I hope we always stay close. And that they all come live in Arizona. Or visit, at the very least.

Our neighborhood: We manage girls apartments, but we're nestled smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We opted out of a married-student ward and go to a family ward. We teach the 6 turning 7 year old's in primary and have been there long enough to get siblings when classes switch. We love our ward and neighborhood. We walk Burry everyday and see our kids and their parents. We have a little guy now who always says "Brother Lines, you're a teaser-teaser-mac-and-cheeser!" But it sounds more like "Bwotha Lines, yoa teaso-teaso-mac-an-cheeso!" and he says yells it loudly every time we see him on the street. In the summer, we get daily knocks on our door of our kids requesting to play with Burry. We hear them out our window riding their bikes up and down the hill (again and again and again.) We see our professors in our ward, and whoa, is it funny to see them in the Dad or Mom element rather than the teacher element. We love the little pocket we're in, we told our kids on Sunday that next Sunday is our last one with them and one said "...cause' you're dying?" Ha!

Idaho in general: if you've seen any of the photos here you know how beautiful Idaho is. I'm sad to leave endless farm fields and big blue rivers, hikes every direction minutes away and moose in our backyard. I was hesitant about Idaho but I can say I've fallen in love with it. Granted, we're not staying around and didn't even really look at the option of staying, but for a 3 year home, Idaho was pretty great. I guess our hearts just belong in the desert. But part of it will always be here.

These are the things that I've been thinking about these past few nights during bouts of insomnia (ensued by the anxiety of being surrounded by moving boxes).