It is offical--we are going to be moving to Utah. We are excited to go, but sad to leave. Can you have 2 opposite emotions at the same time? Since Christina told us what she will miss about Lovell, I decided to make my own list, the PROS AND CONS about moving.
THE PROS AND CONS ABOUT MOVING:#1 FAMILYOur #1 reason for wanting to move is to be closer to family. It is really hard to be so far away. We feel we are missing out on so much with our kids and grandkids. They are growing up so fast. It will so nice to be able to get together for holidays and special occasions and the big family gatherings. The one drawback on this that I won't be close to Carol anymore. That is really hard. We have always been right down the road from each other. She has always been the shoulder I cried on and the first one I shared my successes with. I know there is the telephone and e-mail, but just like the kids now; it is not the same. I warned you about the double emotions!
#2 A Brand New House.jpg)
I LOVE my new house. It has everything I would have asked for if we had someone custom build for us. It is all on one floor which is great for Bruce, but there is also bedrooms downstairs for company (which we better have, by the way!) There is a fireplace to cozy up to in the winter, hardwood floors and granite coutertops and a large sewing room which I will love. There is no yard work which does have it's +'s and -'s. I enjoy working in the yard, but looking at my garden right now....I think I can live with it. Let's see-what else on the negative side. I have to think harder on this. I have enjoyed fixing up our house, it has my own personal touch in every room. That has been fun, but to have a completly finished house with no repairs needed...that trumps it. I do have to leave my pear tree. It is about 3 years old and has 5 pears on it this year. That may not be a big deal anywhere else, but here a home grown pear is unique. Sorry kids, I will have to leave the cherry tree too. Do they have pie cherry trees in Utah? Bruce has to leave his peony bushes. He has been trying for years to get one to grow-got his first bloom the spring. There is one last thing that we will be leaving that trumps all the rest. I don't know if you want to see, but you might as well see what I am leaving behind. Are you ready?
Bruce loves to put out sticky mouse traps to see how many bugs and spiders he can catch. He really needs a hobby and a good exterminator. But the bugs I can do without! Utah here I come!
#3 A New Business
No picture of this one yet, but it is in the works. Alice and I are starting the Just Sew Quilt Shop in Highland. I can't imagine a funner job then buying and selling fabric and making quilts all day. Casey is busy helping us with the logo and unfortunatly I think Alice is getting the brunt of the legal work that has to be done to get started. I should be able to help more when I get down there. Hope she survives until then. The negative side of this one is that I will have to leave the gals at the greenhouse. We really have a lot of fun and it is fun working there. I have learned so much about plants that I never thought I would know. The Sugar Factory is a different story. Not too much I will miss there. Though the pay was good, the smell was not and there were bats in the rafters! I never had close contact with them but just knowing they were there was enough! Don't worry they weren't near the finished sugar, they were up above the lab! I made some good friends there and I will miss them. I will miss all the fun critters I got to see going out to get my water samples. I have lots of fun stories about them, but they will have to wait until another time. The pluses outweigh the minuses on this one.
#4 Small Town verses Large City
We have loved living in a small town, so this one I am not sure which way the final vote will go. Let's see. Pluses--You know everyone and everyone knows you. This was definately a plus when we were raising our kids. Not much they could do without it getting back to us. Loved the 'it's takes a whole village to raise a child' attitude where everyone really cares about all the kids. I'm not sure that was a plus in the kid's mind when they were teenagers, but look how well they all turned out! Lovell has been a great place to raise our family. It has also been really nice for Bruce to work longer then he might have some where else. People were so good to help him fix their problems, They would move things out and help him with the screws and small stuff that is hard for him to do. Anything that would make it easier for him. Just like family would do.
Another plus is that you can get recognition here for things you probably wouldn't get in a larger place. This last weekend was a good example. It was Mustang Days, our town celebration. Saturday morning they held a Fun Run which consisted of a 1-mile walk or run, a 5-K and a 10-K run. Lorrain was in it last year and took first place in the 1-Mile. So we all decided to go this year, Lorrain, Christina, me, and the girls. Brad and Luke were our cheering session and Bruce slept in. Christina decided to bring her two because they would probably wake up before we were done.
Not a very intensive race when you are pushing 2 kids in a stroller, but hey, this is Lovell! And she wasn't the only one, there were two others with strollers! Christina won the stroller race, by the way even if they didn't give a metal for it. 
And I won first place which sounds impressive until you learn that it was only in the 1-Mile and the 50-and-over catagory! And the only reason I won was that I had to keep up with the stroller champ, she can go pretty good with that thing! Now you have to agree I could never have gotten a metal in "the big city", so one for the small town. 
There was also a quilt show this week and I entered two. One I made for our bed which was a square in a square on point which I love and am really happy how it turned out. The other one is a minature with bear paws in the middle and applique around the border. It was challenging and fun. I took first place in the minature catagory. We'll have to see whether that was the small town advantage or if I can do that in a larger show. All in all it was a good day!
One other advantage of a small town is the quiet, some people may not like that, but we do. We love nature and just being able to take it all in whether on the beautiful Big Horns or right in town. Alpine seems to have more of the small town feel so I think we will feel right at home there.
An advantage of city living is being closer to everything. If you need something at Wal-Mart you can go to Wal-Mart and get it--right now. You don't have to plan a day to go to Billings or Cody. If you run out of something for a project or want to start a project, you don't have to wait. That will be nice. And stores don't close down before it gets dark. This is really true here. In the summer it doesn't get dark until almost 10:00, yet the only grocery store closes down at 9:00 and that is their summer hours! Also being close to an airport that actually has decent prices is a real plus. And it is closer to get to. Another plus! A big plus is being closer to Bruce's doctors, a big, big plus especially as he gets closer to wanting the surgery.
So the jury is still out on this one! We'll let you know how well we handle city living!
#5 Max
As most of you know we have a beagle named Max. We are not going to bring him with us which has it's own set of pluses and minuses. For Bruce it is all pluses, but it is mixed for me. Having a dog is like having another kid and after so many years of kids around, I think I was enjoying having one again. He was a lot of company, he was also a lot of work! He loved stuffed animals and thought he was a mighty hunter catching his prey which in his case consisted of tearing it open and pulling the stuffing out. So I was always picking up his prey pieces--definately a minus. He also liked to check out the neighborhood as often as he could which was every time anyone opened the door and didn't close it fast enough. The minus of this was I was always having to run after him, the plus was I was getting a lot of exercise and I was getting around visiting my neighbors more often (sometimes to even say more then 'have you seen Max'!) Life will be easier, quieter, neater without a dog, but but I will miss him sitting on my feet and keeping them warm or putting his head on my lap hoping for a snack when I was eating or laying on the floor next to me at 11:00 PM and looking up at me with big eyes that say aren't you ever going to bed! So I'm not sure, but I think the pluses will outweigh the minuses.
#6 The Biggest Disadvantage to MovingThis is what I will miss the most and there is no advantage to out weigh it!
LINE DRYED SHEETS!! There is just nothing else like it and you can't get that smell any other way.
Some things you just have to give up to move on. All in all it will be a great move.
Opening day jitters went away very quickly when ladies started filling up the store .
This is our modern section. I learned quickly that I am part of the OLDER generation when we were stocking this section and I kept wanting to put the fabric in the reproduction section! What the younger gals think is modern is straight out of my mother's kitchen. I'm sure that one of the pieces is my mother's tablecloth! Just goes to show you how there are really no new styles, just older ones brought back to a generation that hasn't seen it before. Even a lot of the clothes styles are like what we wore in the 60's!
This next section is my favorite - the reproduction fabric - civil war, revolutionary war, the 30's and a fairly new one, the 40's. I love it all. I made this display quilt this summer in my spare time of course! It is with the Creation for a Cause line from Moda. They reproduced these fabrics from an old quilt and the profit from it will go to help cancer victims. That is so neat.
Lynette's sister-in-law, Linda, went antique shoppping in Denver for us and found all these wonderful trunks to display our fabric in. I love them. I have my Underground Railroad on display here and we have had really good response to it. No one seems to have seen it in the small size and they want to try it. Alice made the disappearing nine-patch for her niece. Isn't it cute.
This is our kid's section, so many cute fabrics. The one that has been the most popular (we sold out in a couple of days) is the paper doll fabric.
Another really popular kit is the catepillar quilt that Natilie made. We have had to order more of this fabric too. Most of the next bolts of both of these are all ready on reserve. It is amazing to see what are the popular kits.
This is our Halloween section and Alice made the cute quilt which we have kits for. She even sold one on line when she showed it on her blog. Way to go Alice! We don't even have our online store set up yet, but watch for it because we will. The Halloween pillow case kits have been really popular too. Aren't they cute!
And our Christmas section. I know it isn't even Halloween yet, but I'm told we are about 3 months late already. You have to start so early. My sister, Lorna, made the quilt. It is so beautiful and I know, I don't have the binding on it, but I had to put it out as soon as it was quilted. I am working on the binding this weekend. Love the applique! Christina, do you recognize the dresser you made in high school. It makes a great dispaly case. Thanks for letting us use it.
And last but not least is the cash register, the main reason we are doing this. We had the table custom made and I think it turned out real well. And as we say to our customer -Thanks for visiting our store and come back soon!
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