11 years in

as of November 2011, jeff and i have owned our home 11 years. as of January 29, 2012, jeff has been employed by LANL for 11 years.

it is the longest i have ever spent in one place in my entire life, and it doesn't even seem like 11 years is that long. i am happy here. this is the house my babies came home to (the house i would happily have given birth to them in). this is the house my children are growing up in. we hope, one of these days, to put on an addition to give us all a little more space. i'd rather go through the pain and torture of an addition than moving. though sometimes i wish we could move to another house just to have a reason to **purge** the contents of this one.

i spent part of today at a birthday party for a wonderful 8 yo boy who is a friend of nate's. while i was there the mother of the birthday boy, asked if i had met that mom over there. i said, yes, we work in proximity to each other, and her child goes to the same school as nate. later another mom came in that i knew, and i went to talk with her. the birthday boy's mother was surprised that i knew her, too. i also knew the one dad who came to drop off/pick up his son.

the birthday boy's mother was surprise that i knew so many of the other parents, esp in light of an earlier conversation we had about the people i know who had all recently moved to the same street she lives on.

i said, this is what happens when you have lived in a town for 11 years.

i'm not sure when it happened exactly. the number of people i know has obviously grown over time; it was by no means overnight. and it even stalled a bit in the time around jesper's death. but yes, i can attest to the fact that if you live somewhere long enough, you will eventually know a whole lot of people who live in the same town. and they will know you, by name if nothing else. 

i guess time flies when you are building a life and a home and a family. 11 years flies right by without a thought.