The More Things Change. . .

Before we moved, a sister from the Green Springs ward told me something very wise. She said that after you move, once you get settled in, you'll find that your life is just the same as it was before, just with different people. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, and feeling that it is really, really true.

OK, St George and Midland are definitely different. I feel like in St George you have a fair number of people who were born and raised there, who have their mom and sister and cousin down the street, and then a bunch of retired people. In Midland, there are very few "lifers," at least in our ward, which is the only way I meet people, so that is what I am basing all this off of. A lot of people move here to work for Dow, and then after a few years they move on. And our first week at church Clark looked at me and said, "Where are all the old people?" So it's a different demographic.

Obviously, there is the weather. Need I say more?

We are in a completely different part of the country. We're in the "Midwest" I suppose, that's what people keep saying, but I'd call it the Great Lakes region. But most definitely not the West. And being further from the Mexican border means? NO MEXICAN RESTAURANTS! Ok, that's a lie. There are 2. Taco Bell, and Qdoba. So maybe that wasn't a lie. No. Mexican. Restaurants. And, in fact, not many Hispanic people in general. One of the movers mentioned that there are Mexican restaurants around. If you go down to Utica. To which I had to say, Uh, remember how we just moved here? I have no idea where Utica is. Turns out it's in the Detroit area. I have to go to Detroit for a burrito. Not good, my friends, not good.

You get the point. Things are different.

And yet, things are the same. We still go to church every week. Clark still goes to work, and does vaguely the same things, and I still stay home with the girls. We still go to storytimes whenever we can, and in the summer I'm sure we'll hit up the parks, of which there are MANY. We still go through the same motions, there are just different people surrounding us. It's really quite amazing, actually, how quickly this place has felt like home. So go ahead, call us Michiganders. I think we'll be here a while.