Comfortable

I've been getting asked a lot if I feel comfortable here yet, or if I feel like we're settled. 

It's a hard question to answer. 

I guess so??

I think feeling comfortable in a place can be judged on many different levels.

I've gotten used to our house. It kind of feels like {home}.

(At least Collin has stopped wandering around looking for a certain room. We'd see him searching for something and ask what he's doing and he'd look at us beseechingly and exclaim, "I'm looking for the bathroom!")

I'm starting to know my way around town.

I am getting more familiar with our ward and am starting to remember names of people I've met.

I have met some really nice girls and have felt welcomed by them.

I feel like my attitude toward Farmington has gotten better since we first moved here. Slowly... but better.

I have NOT gotten used to the bugs out here! I feel like I'm camping, but in a house. I seriously kill a couple of bugs a day in our house. And I sprayed! I think I might actually pay for a professional to come spray, but then I'm told it doesn't even make a difference. 

And they are creepy bugs. Like this little guy here.

And apparently he's small compared to what we COULD find. 

We were watching a show, when a spider looking thing raced by. We thought it was a scorpion at first. Nope, just a funky/evil looking spider with really long, front legs. 

There are crickets galore! I find pieces of dead crickets every day and whisk live ones out the door daily also.

One morning, I woke up and felt a presence on my arm. I looked down and saw a black blob (can't see much more without my contacts in) and and quickly brushed it off then lunged for glasses to find it. It must have run quick, 'cuz it was no where to be found... whatever it was.

Trav has knocked down two wasp nest from our garage overhang and there are always bees/wasps hanging around our backyard. Then there are the flies. Since we keep our back door cracked for the swamp cooler, they are always flying in and scaring the begeezers out of Collin. No matter how many times I tell him they won't hurt him, he runs and demands I kill them whenever they get close to him. 

It's getting old.

A few things I forgot to add in my post about our house that I DO like, are my kitchen countertops. They are a marbly, camoflauged type of color, so they hide things really well. Almost too well. When I'm wiping off the countertops, I feel like I'm doing it blindly... like by feel only. I can't even tell when there is a spot to scrub off until I feel it. But it sure beats the white ones in our old house that stained so easily and showed every crumb. No more cloroxing off a drop of Kool-aid or colored frosting!

I like that we have REAL garbage cans. The big kinds that roll and have an attached lid on a hinge. No more bucket style recycling bin or smaller sized, store bought garbage cans.

I noticed that our air vents come out of the ceiling again!! It really bugged me that they were on floor level in New York, but then I think I kind of ended up liking it. It makes more sense to me to have them near the ceiling, but it was always nice to come home from a run and lay on the floor in front of a vent and have ice cold a/c blow over you. 

I miss my mop sink! :( This house doesn't have one and I don't like pouring my mop water into the toilet. I always time it wrong and will have just cleaned the toilets a day or two before when I find myself needing to pour a bucket of dirty mop water out. 

As far as Farmington goes... at first it felt very, {small town}. But in reality it's not so bad. There are quite a few stores. There is a Dillards and JCPenny at the mall. There is a TJ Maxx near Trav's office. It has a Costa Vida and Sonic, which Buffalo didn't have.

Most importantly, there is a Target and Hobby Lobby.

OK, time to admit something embarrassing. 

You know that comforting feeling you get when you walk into an LDS church building and it looks the same, feels the same and smells the same, no matter where you are?

I got that same feeling when I walked into Target and Hobby Lobby.

There is just something SO comforting about walking into those stores. They smell the same. They look the same. They are the same, no matter where you go! It was like someone was giving me a big hug and saying, "See, you don't live in an awful, po- dunk place, I'm here!" 

It seriously made me feel so much better. It's the truth.

Another adjustment, that is completely not politically correct to say, but is also true, was it was a little weird getting used to seeing so many Indians! Or Native Americans... sorry. I mean, I grew up in Mesa, where there were a lot Hispanics. Then in Buffalo it was a little weird to go from tons of Hispanics, to tons of black people. (I remember being in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Buffalo and thinking, "How can I take a picture to show how many black people are here!!" I know, that's weird of me, but I don't think I had seen so many black people in my entire life.) So I guess I was expecting to move here and see a lot of Hispanics again, but there really aren't. It's all Indians. The first time I went to Wal-Mart I was there at least an hour and a half, and I'm not exaggerating, I saw maybe 5 other white people. It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just kind of interesting to go from being around one type of culture to another.

So what did I start this post about? Oh ya, being comfortable. I think in all honesty... I'm still getting there.

I haven't made any really good friends, Shaheens aside.  (And it's not that I expected to.... I know that takes time.) I clearly didn't know where to take my child in an emergency. (Still need to figure that one out.) We don't have a pediatrician or family doctor. (Well, we don't even have insurance, so let's put the horse before the cart.) We don't have church callings. (Not complaining.) I don't hate where we live. (I just don't love it yet either.) 

 So, yeah, I guess we're still in the {getting settled} stage. And that's OK. Each day is better than the last. And that is what a journey is all about, right? 
There has to be a beginning.