Tell them to stop showing their mullets!

There is an unfortunate phenomenon here that Nate has to deal with on a regular basis known as the mullet. He sees them all over the place, but mostly in his classes. Yes, multitudes of teenage boys in Magna and West Valley City have decided that it is a good idea to have a mullet..... and they don't even play hockey. Madelynn overheard him telling me about this the other day and said "You forgot to tell them to stop showing their mullets!" I would suggest that he institute a hats required for all policy, but then he would probably have to deal with confederate flags and playboy insignias. My experience with mullets has mostly been seeing women with them. Is there a genetic pre-disposition with mullets?


While I am on the subject of hair, I noticed something else while taking Madelynn to dance class yesterday- lots of "blondes" with dark roots. I think I was one of the few mom's that hadn't dyed or at least highlighted their hair. I was expecting this, but didn't really encounter it much until yesterday with the dance moms. (Apparently most of the people I work with are either satisfied with their natural hair color or are too poor to do anything about it. We are, after all, working in public education. In Utah.) The size of hair, however, continues to be large. And always has been and probably always will be, though it has improved significantly since the 90s. It is entertaining to look at the photos on the walls of past teacher award recipients from the past few decades at the district office and see the evolution of big hair. There is probably a giant hole in the ozone directly above us from all of the CFCs released from "keeping up with appearances."
I have been hoping that after a month of being here, I would feel more content and welcome. Well, that hasn't really happened. I do frequently give myself reminders of "at least we don't live in_____" After all, there are much worse places that we could be.  I still consider Oregon home and have a hard time picturing myself feeling at home and belonging here. I WANT to like it here, because I am stuck here. I have hopes of eventually finding a niche to fit in. I don't see that happening where we currently live, and sometimes want to kick myself for signing a lease until the end of May at a mega-complex unfortunately close to the copper toilet bowl mines. I miss being able to drink water from the faucet without wanting to vomit. And I miss being able to open our windows to let in fresh air, since every person in our building smokes on their patio. Or just stands in front of our patio (one of the pleasures of living on the ground floor.) I miss having friends, I miss being surrounded by family, I miss having local places to eat close by, I miss being able to go on walks in my neighborhood (you can go on walks in a field of rattlesnakes here, though.) I miss being part of a ward that cares that we exist, I miss being able to turn right and only having to check for bicyclists, not cars speeding through the bike lane trying to cut everyone off. If you have a death wish, commute everywhere on a bike. Come December, I will miss  people pumping your gas for you. I miss not having sales tax, I miss feeling like my vote actually meant something (though many lost that feeling back in 2000...) I miss having a yard, I miss being able to get to the beach in an hour, I miss green everywhere, I miss my dad, I miss Nate being home (he's working 10-12 hour days now with teaching an extra class and coaching), I miss having a dishwasher that doesn't suck, I miss having a garden, I miss my kids having other kids to play with outside of school/church, but I never miss the toilet. That's more of a male problem. Ka-chow! Hopefully some of things things can be remedied next Spring if we can move to a not sucky area. So now that I have depressed/annoyed those who are still reading this, here is a list of happy things in my life:
-spicy vegetable sushi from Harmon's. I have decided to get a sushi mat and start making my own.
-I got to find out early that baby #3 is a boy! And I am completely terrified of having a baby here and being so isolated.
-the east side of the valley. My goal for next spring is to be there and not here.
-hiking. We have taken the kids on 2 hikes since being here, and they were awesome.
-I am loving only working half-time. I don't know if I'll continue to even do that much after baby boy arrives due to daycare being a complete headache here, but it works for now.
-Costco is selling pumpkin pie now.
-I got 5 boxes of Captain Crunch for $1.49 each at Smith's last night. I love Captain Crunch!
And with that, I am going to go make a dinner salad.

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