Count Your Blessings

The other day I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone.  She lives in Idaho and is job hunting.  She saw a job a opening that she is qualified for right here in my town, here in the desert.  She's never been to visit us here, so I was describing what it's like.  (Probably not the best idea if I'm ever going to talk family into moving closer to me!)  The conversation jumped back and forth between the pros and cons of here and there and where our dream locations to live would be.  Anyway, after I got off the phone, Megan asked, "Are we moving?" I assured her that although I fantasize about moving to the Pacific Northwest (Portland or Seattle), it's not going to happen anytime soon.  She visibly relaxed, grateful that I wouldn't uproot her during High School and make her  leave all her friends behind.

This really made me think. I've done a lot of pining of late for places that are more north and more green than my current locale.  I've never been a fan of the heat, and after seven years, I still don't find the desert beautiful.  And the minute I find a scorpion or snake on our property, I'm going to lose it for sure.  Megan told me that she doesn't think the desert is pretty either.  But she loves it here because of the friends she has.  It's the people that make her love our little patch of dirt here, not the cactus.  (She has adapted to the heat very well, though, and hates being cold.)

Every time I test the waters with Eric and suggest that he apply for a transfer to Portland, he bristles.  If I mention moving in front of everyone, the kids all panic and are sure to have a night of bad dreams as a result.   We'd all love to go back to California, especially to our favorite town, Dublin, but by leaving the Bay Area, we've pretty much locked ourselves out of ever being able to return... at least until we can downsize our household and Eric no longer needs to commute to Santa Clara.

The bottom line is that I'm probably going to be living here in the Phoenix area for quite a while longer.  I need to quit complaining about the things that bug me, like the never ending summer about to begin, and just be happy with the blessings we have here.  We have a large, beautiful house.  (I do LOVE my house... and it would be so hard to leave it behind if we ever moved again.)  We have amazing friends.  I have awesome callings in the church right now.  (My favorite one is being the leader for the 4th  year hike at Girls Camp.  It took me a while work my way through the social chain to get considered for that assignment!)  The kids go to wonderful schools.  They have good friends.  We have access to everything we could possibly need... good shopping, great medical care, two airports within 20 minutes, soon we'll have 2 temples within 20 minutes... the lake is 45 minutes away and the mountains are only 90 minutes away.

Eric has talked about buying property up in the mountains and building a cabin.  I love that idea, except that it means we are 100% committed to staying in Arizona for life.  I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment.  I do love the mountains, though.  I could retire in the mountains, I think.  I just need to be patient and wait and see what the Lord has in store for us.  And maybe by the time I can move away, I won't want to anymore.  You never know... stranger things have happened!