Going Green. . .

So we are trying to save the planet - one light bulb at a time. We went through our house and changed out every light bulb to an energy efficient one, they last up to 9 years! WOW! Actually, we are doing it for our own savings but we are happy to help the Earth as well. I will also be walking Sammi to and from school each day and Charles is going to take the bus to work. We are also planning on selling Charles truck and going back to a one car family. We "needed" two cars in Spokane but we are set up here so that we don't need two cars. I think when people think of a lawyer they think of wealth and no money worries - not so! Lawyers along with Doctors usually have an enormously silly amount of Student Loan debt that keeps you humble for many, many, many years!! Yeah for humility! Oh well, we are used to the humble life - a life we plan to live even if life offers more. We are happy this way. There is something fun about trying to save a dollar and being frugal, it is a challenge - we love a challenge!

I am grateful it was so hot in Spokane before we left and that our apartment was so hot. It does not seem so bad here. We never turn on the AC even when it is 100. We just roast - AC is too expensive! We have made a deal though, if we get to 105 or more we can turn it on for that day. : ) Really, it is not too bad.

Also, church was interesting on Sunday. The ward was SO different from where we came from. In Spokane our ward was made up of mostly students, Law and Medical interns. It was a huge ward with tons of kids and primary was huge. Here, the ward seems so small. The people seem older with a larger youth program and a small primary. So small they combined Sammi's class so the ages are from 4-6. I think there were about 20 children in primary. Weird. Anyway, it is very different. We live in a modest area surrounded by huge homes so the the ward seems to be mostly well established folks who have or will be here for a long time. It should be interesting. There is a kind of not-quite-Utah thing that goes on here. They talk about living next to Zion and stuff like that. It always makes me grin. I am so glad we grew up in a place where the gospel was unique and you had to stand your ground. It was character building. However, here it does not seem like there is as much LDS influence as I thought there would be. It is fun to learn about this new place. : )

That is all for now. I am very slowly unpacking. It is actually taking much longer than I thought it would. We have lots of little weird stuff. One good thing I found was baby clothes. William is growing so fast and he is wearing 6 months clothes at 3 months! So I found a ton of clothes from when Daniel was a baby. William will be set for life since he is following Daniel. Dan does not seem to ruin his clothes as much as Sammi did for some reason. Anyhow, it is great!

Lots of love from me!

Mari