Ode to Texas

Our time in Texas is nearly over-only 5 days left. Things have been a little crazy to say the least and I needed to find a place of zen tonight. So I thought I would write up my official closing chapter of Lubbock.

Things we are going to miss:

• Our daily walk to the mailbox, and the kids running laps back and forth between our house and the mailbox
• The Ranching Heritage Center, aka the Train Place. It was one of our favorite spots: playing in the barn, climbing all over the train, and running around the paths while being grateful for the many things we have in our life that we take for granted.
• The Science Spectrum with the Children's Museum-our friend the snapping turtle, Koyle being afraid of the giant dinosaur, watching the ball machine...
• The Train Park, and really all the many playgroups at the park
• The Pie Bar, Sheridans, my favorite little used book store, Torchy's Tacos
• Our alley way garden
• Riding scooters and bikes in the driveway/alley
• The AMAZING road system here. Never any traffic and you can get almost anywhere in 15 minutes.
• All of our great friends and our Shadow Hills Ward family. The people are really what makes Lubbock a special place and there are too many to list here.
• Dr. Brown (Pediatrician) and Dr. Yoemans (OB/GYN)
• Having the temple in the church parking lot, walking on the grounds after church on Sunday, and always knowing at least half the people at the temple when you go
• The dirt hill at the back of Lynnwood
• The neighborhood swimming pool and spending summer afternoons at the pool with friends
• The great library system, story time, and community center classes.
• Playing with Noah in the cul-de-sac after school
• Blue Bell Ice Cream-tears!
• I LOVE the big blue Texas sky with all the white fluffy clouds.
• Palo Duro and the cute little stream behind our favorite camping spot
• The LONG springs and falls with beautiful weather which lends itself to so much outside time. We are going to really feel cooped up this winter in Idaho after four years of Texas.
• Justin would say cheap golf with his buddies...so I'll put that on here for him
• He would also probably say Tuesday night basketball and intramural basketball, Nothin but Netters, and football
• Fishing at Maxey Park
• Walk in closets in every bedroom, and a bathroom in the boys' room that can get as nasty as it wants cause no one else has to use itg
• Genuine goodness of people in the Church (and out) and really learning to focus on what is truly important in church programs and what things are just fluff that can be done without

Things we are NOT going to miss:

• The wind-oh the Lubbock wind and the constant dust you bring
• Crazy weather-Remember the year Lubbock got voted as most extreme weather in the US? Hot one day, freezing the next.
• Our tiny backyard
• Dealing with the Medical Pavilion clinic and their crazy scheduling policies, etc.
• Being 21 hours from home, and the long car rides. Definitely not going to miss those.
• Their definition of "cold" here. The other day we went to Joyland and they closed the park early due to cold weather...it was 60 degrees outside. I'm not joking.
• The schools and their long days with no recess.
• The flat, brown, dead, landscape all around for miles and miles and miles
• The nasty grass that is really more like a weed they let grow...and that nobody waters the grass or takes care of their lawn which adds to the dead brown feeling of Lubbock.
• Fall, what's that? No colors, no leaves.
• Having our life dictated by test schedules...hooray for no more school! (I'm not sure Residency is a great trade off to school, but I'm hopeful)
• The drawers in our kitchen that are impossibly hard to open
• Sharing walls with other people
• Funny ways of doing things in the Church-Nazi building scheduler, Vision of the Vine, less is more taken to the extreme, the Nativity is everything...but maybe we will miss those things. 

This has been an amazing four years for our family in so many ways. Lots of difficult phases to walk through but we feel so blessed to have been here in Lubbock attending Texas Tech's Med School. Another post on that specifically later, but it has been our own little family adventure here and heaven knows we love family adventures! This will always be a treasured time for us and a piece of our hearts will definitely be left behind. We joke about how lame Lubbock is, but if we are being honest we couldn't have spent the last four years in a more perfect place for our family.