Iowa

Here is a list of things we have learned in the three months that we have lived in Iowa:

• There are corn fields and soybean fields everywhere. We live on the north side of Ames, which is the newer area of town. So surrounding us there are cornfields. But the interesting thing about this corn is that they don't actually eat it. They let it grow tall and mature, and then let it dry out and die. THEN they harvest it for ethanol (for cars) and animal feed. The corn we actually purchase around here is brought in from other counties, and costs $4.00 a dozen. Ripoff! But it really is the best corn you have ever eaten.
• There are also churches everywhere. The street where our church is on, Hoover Avenue, is about 1/2 mile long altogether. It has a Catholic church, a few houses, then the LDS church, then a Lutheran Church, and then around the corner is an Episcopalian church. People are pretty religious here in general. In fact, the community has specifically set aside Wednesday nights for churches to hold evening activities, so no school events or anything else of importance is scheduled for Wednesday nights. I was just put into the Young Women's, so now I am going to Wednesday night activities!
• People are very political here. Ames' claim to fame in the election process is the Straw Poll, which I had never heard of before I moved here, but it is a huge deal, and they held it last month. Mitt Romney won the Straw Poll by a landslide. Also, everywhere you go you see signs in people's yards: "Vote for so-and-so", "Support our troops, end the war".
• People are friendly here, even at the doctor's office or in the checkout line at the grocery store. Every time I have gone to Sam's Club, the checker starts a conversation with me. It's much kinder in general than in Orem. I actually leave stores smiling rather than grumbling!
• The roads are HORRIBLE. The winters here are atrocious, and apparently they don't care that the cracks in the road are 6 inches wide. If you come to Ames, you'd better have good suspension.
• There are two sets of train tracks: the ones on the south side of Ames and the ones on the north side (practically in our back yard). We have trains driving through town at least twice a day on each track, and maybe more. The kids LOVE seeing trains. If we are driving around town and we hear them whistle, they beg me to drive over to a railroad crossing to watch the trains drive by. I swear, we're the only ones excited to see a train closing a road. I guess it's fitting, since Aidan's first full sentence was, "I like choo-choo trains." However, when they blow their whistles 20 times at 5:00 in the morning and wake me and/or the children up, I get really cranky.
• The lightning storms are amazing. During the month of August and the first half of September, we had at least 3 per week. And the sky is almost always bright, lit up with lightning. And the thunder echoes around and around for 10 or 15 seconds after the lightning hits. I guess that is because there aren't mountains to muffle the sound? I don't know. But as a consequence for the lightning, and therefore rain, it is so humid here. I am not friendly to humidity. In fact, it is my enemy!
• The school spirit waxes strong. If you wanted to go to the ISU/Iowa game, which was two weekends ago and which we won by the way (we are the ISU Cyclones, they are the Iowa Hawkeyes), you had to purchase a season pass, which costs $260.00. And they were completely sold out. People were selling just that ticket, just to that game, for $90.00. Go Cyclones!
• Nobody knows what fly fishing is. Christian has gone to a couple of lakes with his fly rod, his waders and float tube, and he has literally had people stop in their tracks, look at him incredulously, and ask, "What in the heck are you doing?" This has happened a few times.
• There are lots of: bike paths, dogs (tons of people have them, and they absolutely treat them like they are their children), parks and playgrounds (but ironically, you almost never see anyone on the playgrounds; my children are usually alone when we go play), bushy tailed squirrels and fireflies (my first experience ever seeing fireflies was the first night we moved here).
• We are central to tons of cool places: 40 mins to Des Moines, 2 hrs 15 mins to Minneapolis, 5 1/2 hours to Chicago, 4 hours to Nauvoo & Carthage Jail, 3 1/2 hours to Independence, Adam-Ondi-Ahman and Liberty Jail, and 2 hrs 15 mins to Council Bluffs and Omaha, Nebraska. Come and visit us anytime!!!
• By the way, two P.S.'s. I tried to get a cool picture of Iowa to add to this blog, but I am partially computer illiterate and I couldn't figure out how to add an image from the web. Any smarty pants out there willing to help me? And also, I took Aidan back to the doctor AGAIN today (for the 3rd time this week), and they think he has a secondary bronchial bacterial infection. We have had 4 nearly sleepless nights this week, 3 doctor visits, and lots of runny noses and crying going on (and not all of it just the kids). Stressful times! But he got a prescription and seemed to be doing a little bit better right before bed, so let's hope for the best!