{Hometown Parade}

I grew up in California City, population 10,000 with one street light and no McDonalds. The closest movie theatre was 45 minutes away and the closest shopping mall was nearly an hour away.

So what did I do with all my free time as a child you ask? Well, I played sports, danced and attended many-a-bonfires. Just to occupy our time, my best friend and I suited up in all our snow gear and jumped into a pile of tumbleweeds, then there was the one time that someone set fire to a tumbleweed (what hooligan would do that? Certainly not me and my best friend.) AND if I were to ever ditch school my principal would make a house-call just to make sure I didn't sleep in.

I made lifelong friendships and I was very sheltered (in a good way) to all the dangers of the "real world." Needless to say, there wasn't much room to find "trouble," which I think put my parents at ease. I didn't have all the cool things to do that most of my friends that grew up in the big metropolis had but I was certainly creative.

With all that said, I feel very fortunate and I will be eternally grateful to my parents for raising me in such a small, caring and, at times, very odd community. I never thought I could ever find that again.......

THEN last night Sean and I attended our little town's Birthday Parade.

It instantly reminded me of all my small town parades. From the mayor riding in the back of the rented BMW from the local dealership to the owner of the restaurant being the town celebrity to the local businesses riding their bikes promoting the neighborhood flower shop and organic fruit farmers market.

It was every bit of perfect. Last night, our new town gave us a big "Welcome Home" hug.

We're closing escrow in the next two weeks and by Memorial Day we should be official!

I'm going to leave out the tumbleweed burning story when I introduce myself to the new neighbors :)