Thanks A Lot, Rick and Dave

We have officially lived in the desert for 16 months now, and in 7 weeks we are going to pack it in and head back home. So I have been thinking about all the new things Shad, the kids and I have been able to experience since moving here...

-I have had 2 conversations with complete strangers about how to manage irrigation on the farm and the challenges that come with it. Both were within the first 2 weeks of living here!

-Shad has had the privilege of learning, first-hand, how to take care of an underground sprinkler system.

-In the desert underground sprinkler systems are really called irrigation systems, even though the system is under the ground and it is hooked up to…sprinklers.

-We are considering getting an irrigation system installed in our yard back home.

-When you live in a dry climate you will get shocked each time you exit your car, the kids’ hair will stand on end even when they just walk close to a plastic slide and my hair will wrap around and cling to my neck whenever I try to brush it.

-It is fun and enjoyable to take your kids out into an open area filled with nothing but sage brush and shoot your .22 rifle at small, furry animals that the locals call whistle pigs. Shad has even attended a couple of whistle pig derbies with guys from work.

-Shad also discovered that it is fun to walk as many miles as possible up and down huge hills in the freezing cold to hunt chukars. Our dog lost weight during chukar season, so did Shad.

-I actually know someone that owns a milk cow, just for the milk.

-I got to see my very first “white gang” graffiti painted underneath a bridge while drifting down the river in a small boat. All the people that passed us were on tubes that were tied together. One group was towing a giant red and white bobber with the word "Beer Bobber" written on the side.

-To combat erosion on the river banks they simply take old, broken down cars, and lay them along the river banks. Genius! If only the environmentalists back home knew of this!

-One day we packed up our gear, drove to a frozen lake, drilled a hole in the ice and fished! I thought they only did that in the movies that were set up north in Minnesota or something.

-I officially shop at Wal-Mart.

-I have driven over tumble weeds on the freeway. Not some back road, the freeway!

-Once I drove through a small twister filled with tumble weeds…on the freeway!

-Shad got to assist in putting out a rather large brush fire along with the fire department and his work crew. They were just being helpful and had nothing to do with the starting of said fire…

-We got evacuated from our favorite camping spot this spring because there was a forest fire less than a mile away.

-When we went camping in Idaho we sat in our camp and watched a helicopter fly back and forth scooping up water and dropping it on a forest fire that was started by lightening the night we arrived. Thankfully we didn’t get evacuated that trip.

-This summer alone, between Shad and his crew, they have killed approximately 30 rattle snakes on the job!

-Shad and I have driven across the entire state, one way, 17 times. And we have driven at least halfway across the state, one way, 12 times in the last 16 months. That is not including all the weekends Shad commuted the first 2 months that he lived here without me and the kids.

-One of our treks across the state included a blizzard in the Gorge. We made it through the Gorge about an hour and a half before the freeway was closed down for about 2 days due to blizzard-like conditions! We drove on snow and ice almost the entire drive over that trip, without chains. Something about a man and his pride…?

-We go to a wonderful church that if you didn’t know what it was, you would think it was a Mexican restaurant.

-Our family doctor here in the desert has his office in an old house. There are three employees in his office and one includes him!

-I joined Facebook. Swore I never would, now my kids say, “Hey mom, when you’re done on the computer could you…”

-I started a blog. I didn’t even know what a blog was until about 6 month ago. Whenever I saw or heard the word I would be like, “Blog, what the heck is a blog and why did they pick such a stupid word for whatever it is?” And now my kids say…well, you get the point.

-Shad has had the joy of a 30 minute commute with no traffic for the last 16 months! He sees wildlife while driving to and from work, as opposed to annoying political bumper stickers and Subaru Outbacks with bike racks on them.

-I have been a full time stay-at-home mom for 16 straight months and have lived to tell about it!

-I have stopped worrying about coming home to find Shad sitting in the corner rocking back and forth mumbling incoherently due to job stress.

-Shad now worries about coming home and finding me sitting in the corner rocking back and forth mumbling incoherently due to job stress.

-Shad hired one of my girlfriends to work for him! And she likes being a laborer, a lot!

-Shad and the crew get home made goodies every Monday morning from the above mentioned laborer.

-I don’t tend to wear shorts until it is going to be at least 90 degrees, otherwise I might not be warm enough.

-I don’t complain that it is too hot until it’s 95 to 100 degrees out. I know what you’re thinking, “But it’s such a dry heat in the desert…” Hot is hot, so get over it!

-I never used to get bit by mosquitoes back home. My all time record for number of bites on my body at any given time here is 17.

-Josh has had 8 mosquito bites on his face alone at one time!

-I kid you not, I met a kid at the park one day named Chevrolet! Chev-Ro-Let! Chevy for short.

-Josh and Hannah both have farmer’s tans.

-I have gained 10 pounds.

-I joined a gym and go 3 nights a week, all by myself, with no kids!

-I have been to the water slide park 5 times!

-We have learned that while it is so nice to have large trees in the front yard, cottonwoods are so messy.

-The last thing that Shad and I have learned while living in the desert is that we like it…A LOT! We are going to miss all the cool things there are to do here. But mostly we are going to miss all the new friends we have made here.

So I would like to thank Shad’s bosses, Rick and Dave, for sending us out here to the desert. A place where Shad’s job is really in the middle of nowhere and the area looks like it is straight out of the movie “The Hills Have Eyes.” I have explored the abandoned Lyme plant next to the job. I know, without a doubt, that I saw one of the doors open and close and there was no one there! Anyway, I am thankful for this experience and am thankful that Shad has had a job for the last year and a half when so many others were losing their jobs. We have been places and seen things we never imagined, most of them good, all of them memorable. I’m going to miss this place and all the excitement that comes with living here. But it is time to move on to other things, not necessarily bigger and not necessarily better. Let's see where the next job takes us or doesn't take us.