Once More Please, This Time With Feeling

Here is how it started: Tacoma, Washington

Here is how it progressed: DeSoto, MO; Pacific, MO; Scott AFB, IL; St. Louis, MO; San Antonio, TX; Bellingham, WA

Here is how it continued: Montgomery, AL; St. Paul, MN; Osan AFB, Korea; Alcala de Henares, Spain; Munich, Germany; St. Louis, MO; Seattle, WA; St. Louis, MO; Shakopee, MN

Here is how it ends: Driggs, Idaho

The above reflects – more or less – all of the places that I have lived. There are time spans that matter (my living in Korea lasted a full summer) – and stretches of time that don’t (I also lived in Alabama for a full summer, but don’t remember it as fondly…). There are moves that aren’t reflected – like the number of places I actually lived in during my stint in the Seattle area – and there are places I don’t remember so well.

There are schools in my past – many schools. And jobs. Lots of jobs. Even my full time jobs were ordinarily coupled with some part time gig, like when I moved back to St. Louis after eight years in the Seattle area. I worked full time at an engineering firm and showed people to their seats at the Savvis Center in the evenings (got to watch NHL hockey for free all season, but also suffered through a Backstreet Boys concert in addition to witnessing several matinees of Sesame Street Live).

There are people back in my wake as well, some just shadows in my memory, others playing roles that varied in consequence. I remember my best friend from the fifth and sixth grade in San Antonio - Linda Takamini - but I fail to recall the name of the girl in Bellingham, WA that I first skipped school with in the ninth grade. As an adult, trying to remember where it was that I was working when I knew "so and so" is not an easy task.

And so now, as my life has wont to progress, I am moving yet again.

This time it is not my father’s military career that moves me, nor is it my own restless feet. It is Tim this time, and it is a place. Our vacation to the West provided Tim with an opportunity that he couldn’t possibly refuse. The future family home of The Reins will be located in the Teton Valley, on the Idaho side of the Grand Teton Mountains.

This is one hour south of the west entrance to Yellowstone. The grandeur we will witness on a daily basis in this mountain paradise is something that we have both had in our lives before, but separately and in different places. Tim got his fix before we met while working in Logan, Utah.

Of course, I was addicted to the views that the Seattle area provided and spent a lot of my time either mountain biking or white water rafting. And now, as we approach our final destination, I see that this move will provide us a chance to dig our roots in together as a family.

On the road I go again, with Hobbes and Lucy in tow. Tim leads the way with his guarantee of employment, but it is the Teton Valley that pulls us with its magnificent views and laid back lifestyle.

Saying goodbye to this Minnesota sky will not be easy. All of the people that I have met here will be sorely missed once I beat feet. But this is not your ordinary move. This is a chance to start our family in a place that is new to both of us, and this place makes me feel at home already.

ONWARD!