It's Pronounced "Sir-See"

 

Our New Place

Depending on how long you've been in Arkansas, the town we have moved to could either be pronounced "Sir-See" or "Sar-See".  When we saw it spelled S-e-a-r-c-y, we automaticly assumed "Seer-See" but quickly learned that there was no easier way to identify yourself as an outsider. Really, it's an unimportant point, but it might encapsulate everything here that is new and different.

I am making good on my promise to my family and myself that I would resurrect this old blog and attempt to chronicle our new life so many hours from our old home. I'm so awful at journaling, maybe if I can keep up with this there will be some record of the hows and whys.

Once we got here and finished unpacking, it took a few weeks to fully digest what we had just done.  I still have a nightmare about once a week, where we have two weeks to pack up our house full of stuff into that tiny moving truck. I'm always the one who is in charge of finding a place to rent, and there are no places to rent.  Then we have to coordinate getting there with John's start date, which is much earlier than the house that we finally found was available. And then I wake up and realize I lived that.  Surprisingly, once the hardest things were done it all went very smoothly.  I mean the real move, not the nightmare.  The memory of moving is kind of fading in much the same way the memory of childbirth does.  I'm sure the Prozac hasn't hurt.  What I'm having a harder time forgetting, is leaving behind our family and friends, though I'm sure we'll just have to learn to deal with that.

John likes the new job.  It's keeping him really busy which is comforting.  He is LOVING the hunting opportunities.  There's no shortage of ducks and geese out here and is hinting at the new bow he wants.  The kids like their new school.  Kids adapt so easily.  The oldest three are enrolled in the city soccer league, and are loving that as well. 

I miss Target.  And Costco.  Well, I miss a lot of stores, but am realizing that I can save a lot here because when you need something Wal-mart doesn't have (this is Wal-mart country folks.) you just do without.  I've been cooking a lot more which has to be healthier, right?

We love the members in our new ward, and have been warmly welcomed by them.  It was such a comfort to walk into a church building that, remarkably smells like every other church building I've ever been in.  Hearing and seeing familiar sights sounds and (minus the accent) words that always bring peace and calm to my heart were a testament to the continuity of our faith.

I have to say that I honestly didn't know what to expect here.  I knew so little about everything, the climate, geography, the people.  Regardless of what I had heard about Arkansas, I have been so impressed by it's beauty in all these areas.  The big beautiful forrests, of which are practically in our back yard, the lakes and ponds that are seemingly everywhere... and while all this green seems to attract bugs and mosquitoes the size of the squirrels in our backyard trees, we don't mind because maybe they like the freshness of the air here too.  And the rain.  I'm pretty sure I could never have predicted how cleansing so much rain could be.

And then there are the people.  You'll all have to forgive me, because here I might get a little long winded.

Actually, I think I can sum it all up in one quick story that happened last week.

Emerson (you've missed him, haven't you?) was in John's car with Porter waiting for Daddy to come take them to Soccer practice.  John had run inside to get something, and Emerson decided that some of the controls looked tempting.  He somehow got the car in neutral, and it rolled, fast enough that John couldn't catch it, down the carport, across the street and right into our neighbors' really nice mailbox.  I think he could tell he was in deep trouble and immediately vacated the car.  John and I ran out to inspect the mailbox and newly dented car. (It's one of those mailboxes that sits in a really nice planter, so it was hardy enough to hold it's own on the bottom.  The top didn't do so well, the little door to the box was broken.) I went to let the neighbor know what had happened and introduce myself (note to self, try hard to get to know the neighbors before your kid does property damage).  She is about our parents' age, and has kids and grandchildren in about the same stages of their lives.  She listened to my story and then went out to inspect, not the mailbox, but our car.  She insisted we not worry about the mailbox, despite my repeated offerings to replace it.  And then Emerson came out.  I still don't know what John had said to him while I was talking to the neighbor, but I could tell he already knew he was in for it.  I called him over (he started to cry even harder) and asked him if he would apologize to the neighbor.  And this is the part that I think of now when I think of Searcy.  She took my son and gave him a huge Grandma hug, tears and all, and then proceeded to tell us that they were glad to have us as neighbors.  I sent John over the next night with some Orange Rolls, hoping he could convince them to let us replace it, but they wouldn't hear of it.  They told him they didn't want to discuss it again.

Since we've been here we have met so many people just like our sweet neighbors.  Genuine, caring, and just plain nice. I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities to talk more on this topic, but I've gone on long enough.   Whatever my expectations were, I certainly didn't plan on liking Arkansas so much.