A Change of Scenery

wow, there's nothing like a change of scenery to bring life in to perspective.

as many of you know, 3 weeks ago we packed up our life and moved to the Texas Hill Country. just 'cause we wanted to.

moving is hard work. even with a great support network of a top-notch moving company, efficient service people and family it's still a lot of work to settle in to a new "normal" 1,000 miles from where "normal" was a month ago.

there's so much to be grateful for ... but the most profound experience i've had, to date, in the Texas Hill Country - other than way more armadillo encounters in my backyard than i choose to recount - is the fresh perspective life i've chosen to embrace.

i believe it's because, in many ways, me and my family are WAY outside our comfort zone.

everything is new.

like the cicadas (i.e. locusts) nearly deafening whir at night. i grew up with a locusts so, to me, it's a familiar, almost welcome sound. my kids, however, have experienced nothing more than a bug-less Colorado upbringing.

WHAT'S THAT NOISE? CUZ I DON'T LIKE IT,

and late last evening we were standing in the far-reaches of our backyard, which abutts a working ranch. riley was asking me what lives back there and i was telling her i hoped it was coyotes, which are an armadilloes only natural predator, when a deer went racing past with two coyotes in hot pursuit.

cool.

we were rooting for the deer, by the way, as a hungry coyote is, hopefully, an armadillo-eating coyote.

to put it in john's words, "armadilloes creep me out".

aunt bea says "hey" and, in case you're wondering, armadilloes taste yucky.