I was driving down the road the other morning with Elise and Gus, and I was feeling bad. It was rainy and I was lonesome for "the good ol' days." As I listened to the UW Marching Band tape that I gave my mom years ago, I was thinking about the fun fall days watching Badger football. Then I thought, "What are we doing living in this nerdy town of scientists? I'm not a nerdy scientist. We have been in Los Alamos for 10 years and we love our life, especially all the people in our lives, but is this THE place for us?"
After ~1 minute of driving and thinking like this, we were at our destination (there is no commuting in our town) -- the local hardware store. I needed to get a lightbulb. The same friendly faces who have helped us over the years with home improvement, paint, birdseed, toilet parts, etc. showed us the aisle with the lightbulbs. As we checked out, the man who helped us said, "I just made a big box into a playhouse. You can have it. I'll help you get it in your car so your kids can play in it this afternoon." :)
Enough complaining, Lynn! I love living here. A grumpy, rainy day's errand turned into a magical imagination-filled afternoon. Elise and Gus ate their lunch in the playhouse. Maddie spent her after-school time in the playhouse. And I spent the rest of my day smiling at my kids, their new home, and what a great small town I live in. Los Alamos is full of wonderful people who know each other and care. I just needed a little perspective.
Thanks to the generous hardware store worker and his box who changed my day!
September 10th. Wow! Our baby is not a baby anymore!
How old are you Gus?
Poor child #3! We really love him and he had a great birthday on September 10th, but I'm slow to blog --I'm back at school! We sure celebrated him though.
On his real birthday, he spent the morning with Sandy walking and puzzling. After lunch with Elise, I joined them for ice cream and cookies (with a candle for everyone to blow out). After dinner, Sandy and Paul came over for cake and opening gifts from family. THANKS!
It was a treat to watch Gus open his presents -- such pure excitement and curiosity.
The next night we had friends over for pizza and cake. It was sweet to hear all the little people playing in the backyard and everyone got Gus some good boy toys! THANK YOU!
We ran into another Los Alamos family who has a condo there and the kids and adults all enjoyed being together.
We even stopped at the Durango Community Center on the way back to Los Alamos.
And we saw our old friend, Larry Bruckner, who was our first Los Alamos contact. He is the dad of Eric's friend from high school, Jim Bruckner. We haven't seen Larry in ~5 years, since he retired from the lab. Our family has grown seen then and so he got a full dose of us as we had lunch together. :)
Some nights...
Some nights...
Some nights...
