What I LOVE about Vegas

So, here it is ~ my list of everything I love here and am going to miss. Or the beginning of it anyway, I'm sure I'll think of more things that I'll have to come back and add....this is gonna be long!

#1. First and foremost is McDoniel Elementary. I LOVE Jarek and Emme's school. We happened to unknowingly rent an apartment in McDoniel's zone when we first came out to Vegas. I had been so afraid to send Tristen to school here, but I was very happy with it. When we moved into our house I transferred Tristen to the school we're zoned for here and HATED it. So the next year I applied for zone variances for both him and Jarek (who was starting kindergarten) and it's really just been "home" for us. The principal at the time encouraged LOTS of involvement from zone variance parents and since I knew we were going to want to get back in the next year I got as involved as I could, which is what landed me as PTA Secretary and Jarek's Room Mother last year (and I was supposed to be Emme's Room Mother this year, I had to find somebody to take my place). Anyway, the more I got involved, the more I felt like we belonged there. I love walking in and knowing all of the staff and the other "regular" parents and so many of the kids. Generally UT schools are supposed to be quite a bit better than NV schools, but I think McDoniel is the exception. They really cater to the higher achieving students and their Spanish Immersion program has been wonderful for my kids. Emme's already reading fluently, so the Spanish half of the day is the only time she's learning anything new right now. She's going to be so bored in regular 1/2 day kindergarten (really, I think she just goes to school for the social aspect though so she'll probably be okay).

#2. The second thing goes along with the first. Sorry, I know it was already long but I can't leave it out. I'm going to miss Jarek and Emme's teachers. They both got the teachers I was hoping for and even though I haven't had a chance to get really involved so far this year, I was really liking them. I'm also VERY sad that Emme won't ever get to have the amazing teachers Jarek had in kindergarten and for 2nd grade last year. I had it all planned out that Emme would have them in 2nd grade.

Great, I'm already crying....

#3. My friends. I'm not an extremely friendly person and I don't have a lot of really close friends, but I'm realizing that I do have a LOT of friends here. Mostly from church, the other women I worked with in the Young Women's program and the other playgroup mommies. And the other involved parents at McDoniel (and shoot, I just thought of one who I haven't told we're moving yet). And the friends I've made through Tim's work. I'm going to lunch with one of them tomorrow.

#4. My kids' friends. I know this sounds silly because I'm not a "kid person" and it drives me crazy to have other people's kids at our house (and sometimes just to have my kids at our house), but Tristen and Jarek have selected some great kids to be their friends. I think it's actually harder to take them away from their friends than it is to leave mine. Tristen got separated from his friends when they went to jr. high, but they've still managed to stay close and I know that's going to change with him moving out of state. And we'll miss Emme's cute little friends from church.

#5. The weather. It gets HOT in the summer, the first year we were here we were miserable but we've gotten used to the heat. I LOVE the mild winters and early springs. I LOVE that my kids can play outside all winter long in no more than a light jacket. I LOVE never having to shovel snow, or drive in it.

#6. Green Valley. Green Valley is the area of town our elementary is in and where we first lived here in Vegas. My "plan" was to move back over there eventually. It's just a nice area with a lot more trees and "green" than most of this valley. I do most of my shopping in Green Valley.

#7. The convenience. Las Vegas does not sleep! Everything is open 24 hours here and I can get whatever I want, whenever I want. Tim and I got such a thrill over being able to make midnight Taco Bell runs when we moved out here. Our waist lines weren't so thrilled so we haven't done that for quite a while ~ but it's nice knowing we can. We're going to be 40 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart when we move, and 2 hours from the nearest mall!

#8. The architecture. I don't know what it is but there's something nice about all of the new buildings here. You don't see stuff like that where we're going.

#9. Our house. This isn't my dream home or anything and hopefully I'll get over it when we get into our own place, but I will definitely miss our house while we're staying at my parents.

#10. All the yummy restaurants here. The nice steak houses, the Cheesecake Factory, In-N-Out, Ross J's Hawaiian Grill, the Pub, El Pollo Loco, Strings (our favorite Italian restaurant)....

Okay, that's enough for now.

Tim starts at his new job on Monday. I have that photo shoot for my aunt's friend on Saturday, so we're planning on heading out Sunday. There's a small chance that the kids and I will stay another week or two to look into refinancing our house, but I told Tim that if I didn't go with him I might just decide to not go at all, so he thinks I better go with him.