Daddy Daughters Weekend

While I was in Utah with the boys, Joseph and the girls had fun playing here at home. They went out to eat a few times, spend some time reading at the bookstore and of course, they enjoyed playing at the beach. At one point, while playing on the beach, Abby said to Joe, "Dad, I love growing up at the beach!" This little affirmation means alot to me because this move has been really hard for me. There are lots of reasons why it's been good for our family, but often, I think of the simplicity of our former life (for me), even though it wasn't perfect, I learned to really like it. I'm sounding really selfish here. I also think it's been hard because I've realized that moving here means that many more years of living away from our extended families.

Enough of the complaining. Joseph loves work and is so happy with the new change. Don't get me wrong, he has to work very hard and be very smart about things, but already it has proved to be more family friendly. To name a just a few pros, his hours are better and more flexible, he is compensated more equitably , he doesn't have to do his own payroll anymore, nor does he have to hand out paychecks in the middle of the night to his p.m. nurses, he has less demanding long-term patients (less psychiatric ones), which means less calls in the middle of the night (none so far) to tell us that someone has scratched someone else, or that someone has stolen someone else's teeth, or that a male patient has propositioned a female nurse, etc. Which in turn means alot less reports to the state and less stress and paperwork for him. Anyway, here I just set out to post some pictures and it's turned into a full-on vent session. All the emotion comes in waves (no pun intended). Next week I might confess that I love it here and never want to leave, but even then I think I'll always wish that we could share more of our lives with extended family.

I need to enjoy the moment more. I know that someday when I am living in the high desert trudging through 6 feet of snow in mid-April, I am going to miss the days when I was living less than 10 miles from the beach and enjoying a year-round temperate climate. There are so many lessons to learn in life. I am so thankful for a patient and loving Father in Heaven who allows me to learn and grow and gives me opportunities to learn patience. I can be a very slow and resistant learner. I know I can be happy anywhere because I really believe that happiness is a choice. I need to make that decision to be happy here as long as we are here.