Well, here I go....

Here I am, trying to join the rest of the human race, all of whom appear to have a blog of some sort. I wanted to name mine "The Farmer's Wife" since my husband, Gill, is one...a farmer, not a wife! but naturally, that name was taken! DARN! So I picked a phrase that I saw on a bumper sticker back in the 70's - "Oboe is a four-letter word". Boy, is it ever! Try playing one sometime! They don't call it the "agony tube" for nothing!

A little background...I grew up in this farmhouse and on this farm on which we are now living, but left in 1975 to get married and move to Richmond. My sons, Jason and Justin, were born, I got divorced, and lived in Richmond until 2000, when my second husband, Gill, daughter, Carrie, and I moved back to the farmhouse. And they say you can never go home again! The boys declined to move back with us as they were in their late teens and fond of Richmond. I miss them a lot! but they are good about visiting us on a regular basis. Carrie was only 2 when we moved here, so she doesn't remember Richmond, although she's pretty familiar with it since we take her there as often as possible.

It has been an interesting experience living here after so many (25) years away...some good, some bad. It has been great living near my mother and aunt these past 10 years. It's been a surreal experience living in a house I never thought I'd live in again! We have tried to do some work - updating, redecorating, etc. - but it has been slow. We are in the process of raising chickens and we have a horse as well as the usual dog and cats. Gill has at least 32 projects he wants to do so that keeps him busy outside of the house. My current project is that I'm repainting the "old" kitchen (we have two) so we can eventually use that as the main kitchen...more room in there.

The bad part is that I still miss Richmond and my sons and friends who live there. Carrie misses her brothers as well! Twenty-five years is a long time to live somewhere and it's where I "grew up" as an adult. I also miss the shopping, my old church (the way it used to be) and just...Richmond...I know it better than Roanoke even now! I've talked to others who live here who feel the same way, which helps. I love it here, but....remember the Neil Diamond song "I Am, I Said" and the line that talks about being torn between two shores? That would be me!

Well, enough of the maudlin. I think this post is long enough for a first time - everyone is probably asleep by now. Will write more later.