you + me = US: October 2013

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A Letter To Saskia

The other day a friend of mine asked if she could have my email address. She wanted to send it to a friend named Saskia who was wanting more information about Heber Valley. Saskia and her husband are thinking about moving to the Park City area from California. But wanted more information about the surrounding area. This is my "hot off the email-press", "unedited for this blog" response. I'm sure Saskia won't mind. I just thought I'd share with you just why exactly I LOVE Heber so darn much.

Hi Saskia,

Thanks for your email! I apologize for not responding sooner, this weekend has been so busy that I haven't had a chance to sit down and properly respond.

I am so excited for you and your family! I have a friend that lived in Park City and loved it. She loved the trails, the people, everything. My story is a little different but I need to tell it to you in order to explain how we ended up here in Heber Valley.

When my husband and I met, he lived and worked about 5 minutes from Park City, and I lived in Bountiful and decided to quit my job and be a stay-at-home-mom. When we decided to get married, we also had another huge decision to make. . . where to set up our soon to be family of 5.

We thought about Park City. But from our experience decided against it. These are our reasons. Please don't let them discourage you, it's just how we feel/felt. Park city is absolutely beautiful and tries to be quaint. The only problem is that it is a big city crammed into a little one. Parking in general is always a hassle. Restaurants in general have a tendancy to be overpriced. Small businesses struggle immensely, so if you get a favorite store to buy this or that or a favorite restaurant, by the next season, they could be out of business. I can't tell you how many times my husband has tried to take me to dinner to a place that just isn't "there" anymore. Does that make sense? Anyway, we found the people there to be more contemporary (which is fine), liberal(also fine), but also (in our opinion) somewhat snobby(not so fine). Like I said, this is just from our experience and (I hate to make generalizations) I truly hope I'm wrong about the snobbishness. But I want to be 100% honest with you.

Okay, Why Heber City? Heber is 30 minutes from Provo, 45 minutes from SLC, 20 minutes from Park City. It's close to the bigger cities, but far enough away for some peace and quiet. Heber is still a relatively small town. It has maybe 6 traffic lights? It's growing, but it's still very rural. Low crime-rate. The people we have met here are extremely down to earth, generous, and real. The community is strong. I've traveled to some gorgeous destinations in this world but I'd have to say that Heber Valley is the most beautiful place I've ever been, I say this because every season of the four is breathtaking. The landscape at any angle, 360 degrees, still stops me in my tracks and it's all nestled in one valley. We have lived in two different houses on different sides of town & in both areas, found that the schools were excellent and the neighborhoods are peaceful. Our intermediate school and middle school provides laptops for all of the students (which our kids love!) Our high school is huge, brand new and is state of the art in everything. We love our Library. They have great programs year round for all ages. Outdoors in Heber Valley, year round has something to do. There's the Heber Creeper (our train) we have two reservoirs, Deer Creek and Jordanelle, which provide great places for fishing, boating, jet skiing, parasailing, sailing. swimming, paddleboarding, etc. You are surrounded by mountains, trails for hiking, jogging, mountain biking. During the summer nearly every morning, you can see hot air balloons in the sky. In the wintertime, there's cross country skiing at Soldier Hollow, ice fishing, some serious snow tubing also at Soldier Hollow. I'm trying to think of things that you could do with your kids. There really are SO MANY! I've included some links of places and things about Heber that may paint a picture of why I love it so much.

As you can clearly see, I'm a little bit biased. We love this valley dearly and have chosen it for some very specific reasons. However, I'm sure that whatever area you choose to settle down in will be the right place, as long as you're together. At least that's how I feel.

Please let me know if there's any questions I can answer or anything else I can do.

Best Wishes!

-Rochelle R. Flores

rochelleflores2@gmail.com

Local Attractions: http://www.gohebervalley.com/Recreation

Images and Info: http://www.gohebervalley.com/Photo-Gallery

A new program the community implemented this last summer to keep kids "unplugged" from video games and out enjoying adventures in our own backyard. This was a huge success! Heber Valley Unplugged, read some of the activities: http://heberunplugged.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/hvup_mtnvalleymag_2013.pdf

Our High School's Webpage: http://www.wasatch.edu/Page/2930

Our Library (be sure to check out programs and events, kids and teens, and especially the photo gallery (My daughter and I LOVE storytime with Miss Sally): http://www.wasatch.lib.ut.us/

p.s. A great part of Heber Valley to live in is Midway, Utah. It's just beautiful and has zero traffic lights. Very "small town" feel. It is definitely worth looking into. If we move again, it would be to Midway :)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013!!!

Kids Say The Darndest Things

9/8/14 After a massive pillow fight with Spence and Will, Mia fell to the floor and exclaimed, "I'm soaking tired!"

5/15/14 We were watching a Baby Einstein movie featuring a rhino puppet. Mia said, "Mom, that rhinoceros is a genius."

5/13/14 Mia just told me some disturbing news about her imaginary friend. "Squella, not like you, so her is hiding." I even offered Squella a popsicle to bribe her into liking me and she wouldn't budge.
5 minutes later:
No wait, Mia just informed me, "Her likes you now. Her gets a pop-is-cle."

5/02/14 Mia has been coming up with some unique names for her imaginary friends, Squilla, Quinley, Tortilla are just a few. Well today she was talking to her friend Celia and said,
"What's your Cat's name, Celia?
"Tiddley-Dee"
"Oh!!! GREAT name!!!"
Later, I asked her later about the cat and found out that there are TWO! One cat's name is "Tilly-Tina" and the other's name is "Tiddley-Dee."

4/21/14 Mia was shouting at me from the bathroom in a bossy way. I said, "Mia, don't talk to me like that." She said. "I YELLING at you." I needed to leave the room and she shouted again and said, "Mommy come here, right now. I gon count and you gon go in time-out!!!" Sweet swirling onion rings, I'm in for it.

4/4/14 While enjoying a chocolate chip cookie together, I asked, "Mia, why is chocolate soooooo good?" To which she naturally replied, "Cuz we gon' eat it."
Best reason ever.

1/07/14 At the store, at the top of her lungs, in attempt to tell me that she's going to "crack me up" Mia shouted, "Mom, I go a crap you up!"

12/11/13 Today at story time Miss Sally was teaching the kids about the color red. She was pointing out those with red hair. She said, "This little boy has red hair, and look, this mommy has red hair. And this mommy has red hair!" There was a pause and Mia shouted out, "I HAVE TWO MOMMIES!" All the parents looked around, Miss Sally bewildered, looked at me. Appalled I laughed and said loudly, "I have NO IDEA what she's talking about." Everyone started laughing. . . hard! For the life of me I couldn't figure out why she'd say that. So afterwards I asked Mia, and she pointed to the two mommies with red hair and said, "See? Two mommies!" Ohhhhhh, now I get it. Two mommies with red hair.

12/14/13 The dinner table was busy with multiple conversations occurring at once when Mia said, "Hey Will, this song my favorite: (in sing-song)
Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty,
I like Hello Kitty"

12/03/13 Ben was teasing Mia on the couch. When she angrily yelled, "Ben, DON'T BLOW ME! I NOT a bubble!!!"

11/13/13 Today I was crying and couldn't stop. Mia dropped what she was doing and ran up and said, "Hold me, you feel better!" I hugged her tight and put her down. A few seconds later she came up and said, "Here Mom, a have a Kleenex."

Lately, Whenever we are having a nice snuggle moment as a family, Mia will come up and say, "All To-ah-gedder."

10/13/13 I need to preface this by saying, Mia's word for "girl" is "grill." After church Mia got very upset and ran to her room. Alfonso went up to try to comfort her and said, "Don't cry, Mia." To which she responded, "But grills like to cry."

09/25/13 Mia and I were playing with pretend snakes. In their "conversation", they made a deal and so I told her, "Let's shake on it." she immediately began to violently shake the snake.

08/24/13 Once again, Pandora displayed the album cover (One World's Acoustic) of Justin Bieber on the screen. Mia looked at it again and said, "Mom, look! A doggie. Doggie wif guitar."

08/21/13 Pandora displayed an album cover of Justin Bieber on the t.v. Mia, startled a little by the music, looked up at the screen, studied for a minute and said, "Cute doggie!"

08/19/13 As we were all getting ready to go swimming, Mia was excitedly showing everyone her "swimming soup."

08/17/12 A day after I taught Will about the Star of David, Will was playing with a couple of triangle magnets. When he had overlapped them just right he held them up and said, "Look, it's Jared's star!"

08/16/12 After taking off Ben's newly acquired football gear, Will sat next to me, sighed, and said, "It's nice to have a football player in the house."

07/24/12 I was looking at my wedding ring while tucking Will in to bed. Will noticed and said, "That's a pretty fancy ring." I said, "It is. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. But I love it mostly for what it stands for." Will surprised me when he responded, "You love it because it reminds you of the day you got married. Even if it was made of wood, it would be a still be a great treasure."

07/23/12 After a run to Dairy Keen, Will shared the following insight: "The most humblest flavor of ice cream in the whole entire world is vanilla." When I asked why, he said, "Because it's simple, it's plain, and it's always there. "

07/05/12 Fearing that Mia might ruin his pillow fort, Will asked, "Mom, can we put her to sleep?"

06/28/12 As we were setting the table for breakfast, Will (7)said, "I'm a simple man." I couldn't help but smile. "I'm a simple man with complex thoughts." Did I mention, he's 7???

06/25/12 While I was looking for a rubber band, Spencer handed a large one to me and proudly said, "I wear 5 rubber bands on my wrist at all times."

06/22/12 For the second time, Spencer said, "I don't believe in sarcasm." I argued that sarcasm does exsist and gave him an example. His response, "I call that oppositism."

06/03/12 While we were driving, Spencer spotted a slowly oncoming tractor and car and said, " 'Wow, tractors drive slow!' thought the lady in the green car."

06/03/12 We had watched a bunch of old footage of Beatles performing some of their hits, when Will yelled out, "Can we PLEASE stop listening to classical music?"

05/12/12 Trying to explain to our sick kids why we couldn't have friends come play, I said, "We need to get this virus out of our house." Will said, "Lets give it to someone else!"

03/03/12 Will just said, "I have a faculty butt."

03/01/12 Will told Ben that from now on he wants to be called Bethica, queen of the sea.

03/01/12 Will came inside from shoveling snow with cold hands. After explaining to me that the problem was his gloves, he asked,"Can I have an upgrade?"

11/29/11 Me: "Will, what do you want the person you marry to be like?" Will: "Hot and sexy." Room fills with shock & stifled laughter. Me: "Will. . . what does it mean to be hot?" Will: "That you just came out of the desert."

11/28/11 When it's time for oracion/prayer, Mia oftentimes will fold her arms and talk quietly while the prayer is said. At the end we say "amen." She loudly says, "BOB!"

11/26/11 Alfonso swatted at the pesky fly once again. "It's taunting me." He said. Will exclaims, "It's taunting you??" Mutters to self, "I hate taunting flies."

11/10/11 Will walked in the door and when he saw his friend Annie sitting on the couch said, "I knew this day had something special in it." "What?" Annie asked. "You! I knew you were coming over. You make today special."

11/10/11 In the car, Annie (a girl I'm tending) said, "Jesus is so lucky! He gets to be born on Christmas, huh!"

09-09-11 Alfonso and I went on a date for our anniversary and left the kids with family. After we picked up the kids, Will politely asked, "Were there a lot of people at the anniversary?"

09-08-11 At the breakfast table, I was telling the kids that tomorrow would be Alfonso and my anniversary. Will lowered his head and said, "I'm glad I don't have to see that."

09-07-11 At a restaurant, we were all joking back and forth and Will said, "You gotta be pushing my leg!"

08-20-11 At our moving sale, my 3-year-old neice, Nicole held up a shiny quarter and said, "Look, I have a quenny."

08-20-11 5 minutes later, Nicole was whining. Her Mom, D.D. said, "I'm not going to talk to you until you use a big girl voice." Nicole gave her a mean look and said, "But you just talked to me."

08-19-11 Will, sitting at the table kept singing, "Can't you see, I love my pancreas, look at me, I love my pancreas." Over and over. Thank you, Wierd Al.

08-19-11 Quite proud of himself and giggling a little, Spencer announced, "Faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap a towering pile of laundry, it's SUPERMOM!!!"

04-29-11 We had just finished a large meal at Chick's Cafe when Spencer leaned back in his chair and energetcally patted his stomach saying, "Now I know what Santa feels like."

04-28-11 Will was helping me pull our huge new stroller out of its box. His job was to pull the box down as I held the stroller up off the ground. It wouldn't budge. He paused and said, "Wait, should I go drink some milk, to make my muscles stronger?"

About Us

Our blended family is many years and obstacles in the making. We two were raised in separate countries, different cultures and upbringings. For each of us, God's blessed broken road weaved through marraige, the birth of a child (or two) and a painful divorce, in the end, leaving a himless her and a herless him. We met on a blind date in 2008 and haven't been able to stay away from each other since. Married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, we and our four children are determined to BE a forever family. This blog is an account of our daily lives, our ups and downs, and our journey to become "one."