I didn’t grow up in Utah but live here now. I liked where I grew up- Minnesota is beautiful and friendly and a great place to raise a family (we spent 10 years after college too)

I LOVE living in Utah! I love the weather (to us, winter feels like spring after Minnesota!) I love the mountains, I love the NO MOSQUITOS (in comparaision) I love the friendly people, the no humidity and the fact that my kids can find lots of great friends with similar values AND similar interests.

I miss the closeness of our wards in Minnesota but love the love the fact that I am living the gospel here with my family. Not that I’m trying to avoid work but sometimes I used to feel that my whole life revolved around what was going on in the ward or if I was doing enough. I have found it easier here to find the joy in the gospel- not just the frenetic life of a busy LDS family.

This is provincial but I love the fact that my 3rd grade daughter’s wonderful teacher met a great man, shared her engagement and plans for a temple marriage with her class and we could go to the reception and watch her and her friends run around admiring their teacher and wanting to BE JUST LIKE HER!

(Is there a blogging rule about commenting on a month-old post? Just wondering ’cause I have no life so I’ve been looking through older posts and came across this one )

So. I live in CA. Northern, to be exact. What I don’t like about it is how crowded it is getting. All of my sisters and I live in the same town and NEVER run into each other, never. Just this last week our local fair started and on the very first day there was a stabbing, complements of local gangs, of course. Also, because I am not in a high socioeconomic status, I feel like this area is specifically for them, not those like me who live paycheck to paycheck. It’s also known as “Wine Country” which, yes is very beautiful, etc., but as an LDS woman, I don’t find the moniker charming. I guess any LDS families living in Las Vegas or Reno have it worse. Anyway, more than all of those things, I don’t like not having any privacy. Because I have to live in appts., that’s sort of a foregone conclusion that privacy is a non-option. However, I just really want to sit on my porch some mornings in my robe without people looking over to my porch. *sigh* Oh, and how could I forget?!?! THE COST!!! It is so darned expensive to live here! We rent a small two-bedroom on the outskirts of town and pay well over $1,000 per month! I was looking at Utah rentals online and wow, for what we’re paying we could live in a house with a yard! Unheard of here with my income bracket.

So, something I love. Well, as I mentioned, it is very beautiful. It is basically the exact terrain as Italy, except a little more tepid in temperature. It is/was a very mild mannered town, as I was saying though, there is a large influx of gangs and their goings on. But, it’s fairly crime-free.

But, alas I do want to live in Utah. I feel like it’s my own personal Zion and truly hope to one day go home. One can dream, can’t they? I was considering going to BYU, so that may be more of a possibility someday!

There have been all kinds of socially narrow-minded kinds of things I’ve hated over the years, but I can’t seem to think of many these days. I have a good life here. I do wish for great variety in politics and I get really irritated at dishonest Mormon business men and women (I’m thinking the percentage of dishonest business people in general is likely the same all over the place, but I . . . oh don’t get me started . . . enough said on that . . . I think my blood pressure was starting to rise).

I do really miss the wide open sky in California, and there is a more free and open feeling there that I also miss.

I love that I’m not too far from beautiful mountains and desert and farmlands. I miss living three hours from the beach.

Things I hate about NC: Ministers who preach about Mormons, Christians who are sure that we are evil. Days that are so hot that the air-conditioning can’t cool down the car. Driving 22 minutes to early morning seminary every morning. Droughts.

Things I love about NC: It is SO BEAUTIFUL here. Every season makes my heart rejoice. My back yard looks like the Garden of Eden. Wards who are not so close geographically that everyone is in everyone else’s business. Friends who become as dear as family when family is all so far away. And the very best part–we live 3 hours away from beautiful beaches and the very warm ocean.

I hate that our state taxes are higher, that all the cost of living is higher, and I hate porn shops that are right out in the open with big huge signs letting you know what’s there.

I may be a transplant in Oregon, but my heart is still in Utah.

Therefore, I will choose to focus on my absolute love of Provo! Everyday I look out from my deck, take a look at those mountains..and all is right in the world.