Happy Times in 2012

Happy Times in 2012
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the brothers

the brothers
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About Us

We aren't blog stars. We only publicly shame ourselves this way to keep in touch with all the people we love. We recently moved to Eagle, Idaho (near Boise) where Kimball took his first "real" job. Our kids, Leif (8 yrs) and Magnus (6 yrs) and Paia (4 yrs), are keeping us busy.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Our Happy Halloween



















We did the usual traditional stuff this year -- cutting up the Jack-o-lantern (no idea where Gus left his shirt during this event), going to our church trunk or treat, trick or treating, and trying to make ourselves sick on pumpkin-flavored treats before we've even hit November. Our neighborhood elected to have our Halloween festivities on Saturday, and it was perfect weather. Ia and Gus decided to wear different costumes than they had the night before at the church trunk or treat. They have before and after pictures. At the trunk or treat, I even got a couple of shots of my husband and his twin brother in the same place at the same time! That's not so uncommon nowadays, but it used to be that since they both do radiology for Duke, if one was off, the other was on. Sorry the pictures are all out of order. Clearly I don't understand this first in, last posted concept.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

We're headed to Boise!







After 10 years of medical training, Kim is finally accepting his first job (and hopefully his last) in Boise, Idaho. He'll be working for a group called Gem State Radiology. Although we've felt led there and really good about it, it was a very hard decision because the other places where we had offers were either gorgeous, in our home state, or had really nice and wonderful people in the radiology group. We also have very close friends in two of the cities. All said and done, we felt supremely grateful that Kim has a job in this hard market, and that we feel very excited about our final decision. It's going to break my heart to leave the Triangle area of North Carolina, but I'll deal with that when I have to.

So I just wanted to say that if you're not familiar, Boise isn't what you're thinking. It's not a desolate place in the middle of Idaho where everyone is a cowboy. Not to knock cowboys because my grandpa falls into that category, and I loved me a cowboy or two as a young 'un. We'll be living in Eagle, ID, which is basically a suburb of Boise (sorry Eagle peeps!) of around 11,000 people. Kimball covers the western part of Idaho so that will lessen his commute each way a good 20 minutes. But back to Boise. It's really clean, even right in the downtown and it's also very safe. We compared crime rates of all the cities we were considering and Boise was the lowest, even lower than Salt Lake City, which wasn't that low. hee. We stayed in a hotel downtown for the interviewing process, and I have to say it felt Twilight Zonish to go outside in the middle of a downtown where everyone was friendly and we could walk around at 9:00 p.m. and things were still beautifully tidy and safe.

I know you're going to need proof, hence the pictures. Some of the other great things about the Boise area -- it's super affordable. The homes are not expensive, and the taxes aren't bad. Milk is not $5 a gallon, which is what it was when we were living in Denver. The schools are great. The high schools in almost every area are rated really well, which can't be said for all cities. In fact, one gorgeous and charming city we considered, had a 50% drop out rate for its high school. Other areas, you had to be careful where you lived to get into the good high school, which is pretty much par for the course in every city. The city is progressive and has wonderful farmer's markets, a big local eating movement, and other green developments that I really appreciated. Although the big mountains aren't in view, from the city, they have some really striking foothills in Boise. At certain times of the year, they are covered with yellowish-bronze grasses that make them look a shimmery gold color. The sunrises and sunsets bounce off of the foothill angles more dramatically than they do mountains with large slopes. Do I wish I had larger mountains? Yeah, that would be the one thing that I'd change. But, there are beautiful rivers, trees, and grass doesn't struggle to grow. Did I mention there are lots of mountains in ID within driving distance?

They have a nice zoo that we visited, and lots of family activities. We went to an "Art in the Park" in the downtown and it was amazing how easy it was to navigate around the people. The population isn't huge so we felt like the airport was our personal jetpad, and parking wasn't an issue anywhere. I know the Boiseans complain about their traffic, but after living in Denver and in the East for most of my married life, it just wasn't "traffic" to me. To top things off, we're only five or so hours from where are parents live, and we loved that we have a good-sized community of our religious faith, without being the majority. So, everyone move to Boise! Or at least come visit us -- we're close to Sun Valley and the Tetons, not to mention countless other little resort areas. :)

Cut the hair



I cut my hair shorter for the first time in 15 years. Man, it's so nice how easy it is to fix. For some strange reason, I really love long hair though. Do I love the versatility of being able to pull it back into a really greasy looking ponytail? I don't know, but that's what I was doing every day. I like a change every decade and a half or so, and this qualifies. It will be long again in half a year. In the end, it's like my mom told me when I was 11, "Olivia, it's vain to act like everyone else in the world cares about your hair." ha, ha.

we dress ourselves

we dress ourselves