I am Not a Tree

I came across this saying a little while ago, and it really resonated with me.  I am NOT a tree.

For the past year we have been living in this beautiful, rather large home at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas.  There is only a couple of problems. The closest grocery store is 20 minutes away and there are absolutely, positively no kids here.

It is like we live on an island.  Oh, don't get me wrong, there are a couple of kids, but they are older and go to school and are too busy to ever emerge from their individual castles.  It is just too much work to jump the moat, you know?

On a weekly basis, I would try to find play dates for my kids.  But this proved to be rather challenging. There was not a lot of spontaneity with the people that I called, or they didn't answer the phone.  Hence, a failed attempt would equal copious buckets of tears from Raef or Zach or both of them.  I would expect this the first few months of our transition to Reno, but when it is month 8 or 9 and they are still crying and stressed about loneliness, something had to change.

I am not one to make a rash decision and Rinar was not overly-enthused (at first) to make a change. But I knew I had to do something for my kids.

One day I was walking through our very beautiful, but ghost-town like neighborhood and it suddenly struck me.  Just move.  Period. Find a smaller house, close to town and move.  Don't worry about finding one in the ward boundary or anything like that.  Just move.

"If you don't like where you are, then change it. You are NOT a tree."

I finally realized this. I am not a tree.  And we were going to move.

It is not that easy to find a rental house here that is big enough for the right price.  Luckily, after some serious searching, I came across this house here.



It is just across the street from the high school, same ward, and we can walk to church.

We move in on Saturday.