Saturday, December 7, 2013

First Snow of the Season

I wonder if I'll ever get tired of the snow - it is so beautiful and peaceful. I guess it muffles everything, so it really is so quiet. Well, until my daughters go out sledding in it, screaming bloody murder across our back yard/down the hill.

As of November 23rd, we've been in NH for 1 year. It's been a good year, overall. Lots of adjustments, as one would expect.

There were several days during the summer that it got up into the 90's and I thought I was going to die - our house has no central air - just window units (which is fairly common up here). I told hubs that if the weather keeps getting warmer and warmer, we're moving to the Arctic Circle - I just can't take it. In the end, I think it was only miserably hot/sticky for less than a dozen days total, so we're still here.

Once school started and the warm weather ended, the days got short and dark and we're not even to the Winter Equinox yet - that was new. Last year when we moved here, I guess I had my rose-colored glasses on and I didn't notice. I DO remember in the thick of winter it gets pitch dark around 4:15 - really weird. Time to start taking up my knitting again, to make use of all the indoor time!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Hasta La Vista, Texas!

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted - did you think I'd died in the triple-digit heat? Well, almost.

Around the time of my last post (Aug 2012), my husband and I were toying around with the idea of trying to move to Colorado. Why not? We spend 2 weeks there every summer to escape the heat, we ski (well, I actually snowboard - don't hate me) every spring break there (or somewhere in the mountains), so why not?

All I needed was the "go ahead" like a dog with a bone - I found several houses online, checked out school districts, checked out job possibilities for me, etc. etc. I actually found the house that I thought we would buy and move into - I really, truly believed it.

Then, on September 6th (I'll never forget the day, you'll understand why in a minute), I got the phone call (dum, dum, dum - music please). Hubs can transfer within his company up to New Hampshire (yes, New Hampshire). My first reaction was, "Bummer - I want to go to Colorado! I have our house picked out and everything!" My second reaction was, "I know it's up in the northeast somewhere - let's look it up on a map, to be sure exactly where it is." My geography is around a B- at best. After looking it up on the map, my third reaction was, "Oh my god! New Hampshire is way up there NEXT TO MAINE!!!!! And CANADA!"

Over the next few months, I warmed to the idea - hubs got the transfer, the company paid for us to fly up so he could "interview" with the team and so we could check things out to make sure we liked it. After our first visit, I was sold. New Hampshire is just as pretty and quaint as you think it is - the generalizations are true!

And the people are really friendly. I know, shoot me. I'm a southern/Texas girl and everyone is friendly in the south - whether you want them to be or not (good news/bad news thing). I was worried we were going to end up in some snooty/rude/I'm better than you place - which would not have been good. We have not encountered anyone like that up here. Sure, people are a little more reserved, but if you're friendly, they are generally friendly back at you!

We came back at the beginning of November - to buy a house. Not look at houses, not to think about houses, not to just put in an offer on a house. We came, we sought, we bought - all in 2 days. The house we bought was not even on the market yet - our realtor knew the owners were eventually going to sell it in the spring and took us over to show us. Zip, boom, bonjour - sold! We closed and moved in on December 10, 2012.

Now we practice our pronunciation of the capital, Concord (say "CONquered" like the army conquered the enemy; not conCORD, like concord grapes) and enjoy the cooler weather.