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I'm in love. The things I love, I love so so dearly. But today I'm going to talk about a new love and an old love combined. It always takes me a while to fall in love with a new place. I don't know why. It just does. I'm not a mover. For the first 19 years of my life I lived in the exact same town (population 8, 500 people), in the exact same house, with the exact same people. The only change I experienced was when someone would leave. Anyways, I learned I hated change about the time I found myself bawling in my dorm room (in Hawaii of all places) dreaming to return to Price UT. It took me awhile. But by the time I returned to BYU-H for my second year, I was in love. 

No matter how determined I have been to not repeat that same mistake, I find myself always unhappy with my new location (thankfully this time around, there were no tears shed). I've been living in Colorado Springs for almost one year now. Wow. One year. And the summer storms have hit. Every afternoon the big dark clouds roll over our constant sunshine, and the lightning begins striking, the thunder begins rolling (Canberra begins shaking), and the rain begins to pour. I love the memories this brings back from last summer's storms (and even back to the beloved summer storms of Ohio). And yesterday as we rushed through Red Rock Canyon, praying we wouldn't be hit, I realized I'm  officially in love with my beautiful city of Colorado Springs. It's become home.  

As the thunder lit up the mid-night sky, last night, I found myself sitting on the back porch with my best friend. Watching as the lightning silhouetted the rocky mountain range surrounding the West side of our beautiful world. Bolts would strike down. And I would cuddle with my love as I told him, this is better then the fireworks! In the midst of our show, the rain began to pour and as we scurried inside to take shelter, I thought back to last summer. After our sweet baby boy had gone to sleep, Ben and I went outside and he pushed me on our tire swing. Sounds cheesy (okay, it is cheesy :) , but the swinging was actually more wild than sweet, as I would scream in fear of hitting the old tree. I love my best friend. I love my home. And I love our world.