my town

it's been a few days since i've written anything on here, mostly because i have spent a large amount of the last few days attempting to get a picture of blue sky onto my profile. it hasn't worked. however, i did manage to get a picture of blue sky onto my blog, thanks to my sister in law, cara, who i now view as a genius. even though it's not where i want it to be, i think it's pretty, so it can stay. i also wanted to say thanks to all of you who have let me know that you're enjoying my blog. it makes me feel warm inside...and a little nervous, because now i realize that people are actually reading my ramblings (yikes!) but as long as my ramblings are entertaining you, i will continue to ramble. because i like to.

today is the first day of my new job as a library substitute. i am still working as a loan processor, but work is slow right now (more like non-existent), and so i am very grateful for the opportunity to work at the library once in awhile. it's funny, i'm not at all nervous. probably because i'm just so desperate to get out of the house and help contribute to the financial situation of our little family. (can family refer to just 2 people? because it sounds kind of funny) in celebration of my new job, tomorrow evening, josh and i get to go to costco and buy things like peanut butter and contact solution! (hooray!) okay, it's not really in celebration, we actually need to go, but lately i've been thrilled by simple things.

i used to think of abbotsford as a small town. to all of you who still think so, NO, IT IS NOT!! ramona is. ramona is the name of the town that is now my home. when josh first told me that he lived in a town called ramona, i said, "cool, like ramona quimby?" he just looked at me funny. ramona quimby was the name of a girl in books that i loved to read as a kid. even though i've lived here for awhile, every time i hear the name ramona, i always mentally add quimby after it. it irritates me, but my brain cannot seem to help it.

ramona sits on top of a hill in san diego county. therefore, any time we need to go anywhere, be it san diego, escondido, or even mexico, we say that we are "going down the hill." unless, of course, we are needing to go "up the hill" to julian, where you can find delicious apple pies and, occasionally, snow. there are 2 roads that go down the hill. one leads to a town called poway which has a costco, a movie theatre and a wal mart. the other road leads to escondido, which boasts a target, and even a mall. going down the hill for most ramonians seems to be a necessary, frequent occurrence. i used to think so too, but with gas prices as high as they are, we try to limit our trips as much as possible. i have found that ramona, though small, really has pretty much everything anyone could need. let's see, we have a kmart, 2 grocery stores, a library and post office, denny's, blockbuster, salvation army thrift store, about a dozen antique shops, a pot belly stove shop (i scratched my head over that one, too), mcdonalds, a miniature christian bookstore, and about a million hole-in-the-wall mexican food restaurants. and if you can't find what you're looking for at any of those places, there's always cheap cheap cheap--our very cluttered, but very inexpensive dollar store.

ramona is, overall, a nice town to live in (once you get over the side roads that are unpaved and the thick layers of dust that build up in your house all summer). i was just emailing cara earlier and i told her that one of my goals is to begin to think of ramona as my home. i am sometimes surprised at how hard the transition has been, moving from a town where i spent my entire life, to a place completely different. josh has been an amazing help in this area. he has been extremely patient and understanding with my sometimes irrational outbursts of homesickness. i don't think that my goal will be too hard to accomplish because josh lives in ramona. and wherever josh is, that is where my home is.