trapped in paradise

and now we live in Long Beach.

we're getting to know this place and finding we like it just as much as we expected to. Bim started work this week, Ally has been in school for a month, and i am making some lady friends at church and in the neighborhood.

Ally charges on with characteristic enthusiasm, great feeling, and an unflagging drive to impart information. this week she was very anxious to tell everyone in the drop-off line at school that, "Gesis luvs us efrywun forebr," providing a carefully lettered illustration. church/state lines are a little blurry at this age; one of my own early "embarrassing moments" was when i requested during singing time in Kindergarten that we sing, "I Love To See the Temple." Mrs. Cassidy gently suggested that i might be thinking of a song from sunday school, and that, in any case, she didn't know the words to that one.

Ally's teacher and i just exchanged bemused looks, mine saying, "I swear I didn't put her up to it," and hers saying, "Nothing about this is weird."

and i guess that's the take-away from this whole experience of moving our lives far out of our known experience, if not so very far geographically. everything about this is new, but it's all in keeping with the normal forward motion of life. if that sounds like a healthy outlook, it was a long time coming. i had something like a nervous breakdown when we first moved in--knowing that we'd chosen this willingly, but not remembering why. but i'm back now.

i think i'm gonna like it here. my favorite thing: the giant kitchen table in the middle of our home. it may be a little oversized for its space, but, my friends, it's love. and it's a good thing because we are here to stay.