Monday, December 12, 2011

Marchin On

Today's Monday Listicles comes from Amanda at Lilahbility. She asked us to talk about our hometowns. Since I don't really have any ONE specific hometown, I thought I'd make a list of ten places I've lived throughout my life. Feel free to chime in if any of these places are familiar to you.

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1. City of Orange, California - Yep that's right, I was born in the heart of the O.C. I don't remember anything about this place though since I was only born there, but it's totally my claim to fame so that's where I'm starting my list.

2. Covina/San Dimas, California - While my parents were still married, at least until I was six or so, I lived in the town made famous by Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure!

This is pretty much how I remember Hesperia
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3. Hesperia, California - After my parent's divorce, my four brothers and I lived with our father in a three bedroom home. This is the first home I really remember. I was a latch-key kid so had quite a bit of freedom to get acquainted with the neighborhood. These were some pretty wild times.

4. Hemet, California - At the age of 13, my father's third marriage brought us to Hemet. I spent almost five years there, moving after my junior year in high school. I went to Hemet High School which counts James Lafferty of One Tree Hill and Coralie Simmons of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team as some of their graduates.

5. Orem/Provo, Utah - The summer before my senior year of high school my family moved to Utah. I graduated from Orem High School and went on to BYU. That's right, I was raised Mormon, go ahead and pick your chin up off the floor. Interesting note: I was at BYU at the same time as Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce, I'm sure she remembers me.

I used to run through this park along the water.
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6. Larchmont, New York - After my short stint as a Mormon college student, I spent a year as a live-in nanny with a lovely family just outside of New York City. It was one of the most amazing years of my life. NYC is everything people say it is...only better.

7. Monterey, California - At 22, I joined the USAF, and started language training at the Defense Language Institute. There I met my gorgeous husband and convinced him to marry me.

8. San Angelo, Texas - I spent six months finishing up my language training here. I didn't have a car and only took one trip to Dallas, but I was introduced to one of the best restaurants ever and The Peasant Village is still going strong today!

9. Pasadena, Maryland - After living in an apartment for a year or so, we bought our first home, a three story townhouse. My father grew up in Pasadena, California so it was neat to be living in another Pasadena back East. We brought our son, Asher, home from the hospital to this house and lived here until April of 2005.

10. Moore, Oklahoma - Once Elijah and I were discharged from the service we moved to Oklahoma. Elijah had been raised there and I really wanted to have Asher grow up with lots of family nearby. Amelia came home to this house, but we moved shortly after her birth to Texas, where we are now and will NEVER move again!

Looking back over this list, and there were some moves that I left out, I'm realizing why I hate to move. I like to be in one place, get comfortable, make friends, grow old, and then die. I'm not interested in bouncing around from place to place. We can travel if we need to see more of the world!