Napoleon Dynamite in Camoflauge

I find myself living in Sidney, Nebraska.

I am currently in a temporary two bedroom house. Me, my Ian, and my four children. Our little house is without a basement. Growing up in New Mexico, and Arizona I've never lived in a house with a basement. Wait a minute...NOT true. My first rental in Provo was a basement bedroom for a semester. (It was dark). Back to basements. Most of the houses here have basements. I am really excited to have a basement for three reasons. 1) Basements are beneath the surface of the earth where lava flows. It is the prefect place to sew. 2) I would feel more like a Hobbit and less like a human. And, 3) even though Sidney has never had a tornado, I look out across the flatness and would feel better if there was a basement. A basement stocked with Oreos. Much better.

I like Sidney. Every single person I've met is super nice. Like, almost too nice. All of them. The elementary school secretaries that helped me register my girls for school were crazy nice. I met both principals. They were really nice. The checkout people at Wal-mart have all been very nice. People at church, way nice. Even the old man I inadvertently cut off at the 4-way stop sign on 10th Avenue, really nice. The only not perfectly nice person in the whole town might be me. Time will tell.

There is a lot of camouflage here. Have I mentioned that this is where Cabela's corporate headquarters is? Cabela's is a retail store that sells outdoor stuff, like clothing, and binoculars, and all kinds of guns, and cross-bows. Basically it is the cornucopia of Hunger Games. So, I've seen lots of camouflage on the streets, in the stores. It is its own color, and even comes in pink. I wouldn't be surprised if I met a little girl who's favorite color is pink camo.

My girls have little lockers in the halls of their schools. Just like Preston, Idaho. I have not seen tetherball, but this would be the kind of place it would be. I have one girl in kindergarten, and one girl in second grade. They go to different schools. The elementary schools are divided by kindergarten and 1st in one school, 2nd and 3rd in another, and so on and so forth. (I am not sure how the grades are divided after this because my experience is limited). There is a fun school bus that runs kids from one school to another so parents can pick all their kids up at one spot.

Our first Saturday here, our friends of a few days pulled up on our street with some pheasants they had harvested in their trunk. (That's fancy words for dead birds, guys). They were going to do whatever one does to birds in order to eat them later. I was both horrified and totally impressed. Then we played our first round of frisbee golf. I learned I am really bad at frolfing, which isn't a huge surprise considering my weak t-rex arms. Later,  I supplemented my wardrobe with the local Cabela's retail store and bought some proper cold weather gear which included a cute vest with pockets and some awesome wool-lined gloves. The cool thing is all the winter stuff is on clearance now, so, awesome. It was a good day.

I fancy Napoleon Dynamite would have a smashing time here in Sidney. He would be wearing his cowboy boots, and dangling his superhero from the window of the bus. He would have on some convertible fingerless gloves, a hat that covered his ears, his curls extending beyond the furr, and camouflage pants.