Still alive, just unpacking moving boxes...

We are still alive, I promise. We just moved back to Salt Lake City. I have been unpacking boxes and painting and cleaning non-stop since we moved in. Every night when I put the kids to bed, I start cleaning, painting, or unpacking and I find myself at 2:00 a.m. still at it. I am a little overwhelmed at the amount of work this move has been. Part of it is because I am painting every, and I do mean EVERY surface (inside of closets, cabinets, ceilings) of this place. If you want to know my OCD reasons for this just send me an email and I will be glad to explain it.

We moved from the quiet suburbs of Spanish Fork back to the busy city in Salt Lake. I was trying to analyze this week if I am a city girl or a country girl and I haven't come to any definite conclusions although my friend Cynthia will tell you that I am a city girl. I do however see wonderful things about both places.

The suburbs are great here in Utah because of the wide open spaces, the big backyards and the kids playing in the culdesacs and riding bikes with the neighbor kids. And the kids actually go trick-or-treating door to door in those neighborhoods because it is so safe. All of that is nice. My complaint about S.F. is that if you ever want to grab a burger, or anything for that matter, after 10:00 p.m., good luck finding one... and enjoy your 15 minute drive on I-15 to the Provo exit. Also, of course if you are looking for your favorite, national chain stores (Old Navy, Barnes & Noble, Target, Toys R Us, Best Buy) your trip will take you all the way to Orem (20-25 min. in traffic). Here everyone has to commute to work. And here's a petty one for you... all of the houses look exactly the same! There's no telling your friends to take a left at the stop sign and yours is the blue house on the left. Blue, red, green, etc. houses are hard to come by. Every house has some shade of brown or gray with stonework or bricks and/or stucco. You'd have to say, take a left at the stop sign and mine is the 12th tan house with stonework and stucco on the left. Don't get me wrong, the houses are very nice and new there, just a little too cookie cutter with the colors and styles. And yes, I know this one is a personal preference.

Then there's the city. Not as safe, obviously. Tons of cars and creepy people. Very small yards if any. Air pollution. No neighborhood trick-or-treating. But here are the things that I missed out in the suburbs: Big city parks. One of the most walkable cities in America. Nice clean UTA buses on almost every street and TRAX trains (you really don't need a car at all). Any product or service you could imagine at a stone's throw. Big box stores. Shopping malls. Private schools. I have taken the kids out in the stroller almost every day this week. The sidewalks are clean and the crosswalks at intersections have electronic pedestrian walk signs. Even if we limit our walks to a 6 block radius, we can walk to 2 grocery stores, 3 playgrounds, 1 elementary school 2 preschools, the post office, two 7-11 stores, 3 restaurants,2 children's clothing stores, 2 fabric stores, 3 hair salons and 2 spas. If we extended that radius to 10 blocks (which we have walked plenty of times) we would include an 8 screen movie theatre, Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Panda Express, Noodles and Company, 3 more grocery stores, a third 7-11 store, 3 more elementary schools, 1 public library, 3 historical landmarks, 4 more playgrounds, 5 Auto repair shops,15 more restaurants, etc. I guess I love the freedom to walk where ever we need to go and not having to pack everyone in the car and drive 5 exits down the interstate to get somewhere. This way we get more exercise and sunshine. And both of those things make me happy.

So I guess my question is this: if money were no option, would you choose to live in a small town suburban area or would you live in a big city?