Moving on to the Next Sign Post

I have been thinking again about the sign posts. In the spring of 1971 we moved to Boise, Idaho so that Chris could finish her degree and be certified to be a Lab Technician.She had to do a year of working/schooling at a hospital that was affiliated with the University of Idaho and the only one in the state was in Boise. For those who are not familiar with the state of Idaho, it is basically divided into the north and south. There is no line like we have in North Carolina or South Carolina. The people who live in Idaho just seem to know that you are either from northern Idaho or southern Idaho but it is all the same state. The northern part of the state is mostly dry land farmers, very rural and Democratic. We both grew up in this part of the state.  The southern part of the state is where the potatoes are grown in huge fields that have to be irrigated. The terrain is very flat for the most part. It is also politically  Republican. The north is mostly rolling hills as far as the farm land goes and hence it is impossible to irrigate unless you can figure out how to make water run uphill!!!  Anyway, for a northern Idahoan to move to the southern Idaho was considered heresy, at least in 1971.  Well, we were already sort of the black sheep in the family so we moved and wound up in a small apartment on 8th street in Boise.  Chris could walk to the hospital although it was probably at least a mile away.  But she began her year there and I was attending Boise State University. It was a great year for us. We joined a very small Southern Baptist Church and began to make new friends. After a few months there, Chris was pregnant with our first child.  All was well.  I will share a little something I learned in that apartment and in that year about communication. I'm sure most of you never had any trouble with letting your spouse know exactly what you were doing but I was not so good. In fact, neither of us had really been taught much on the subject. We basically got along fine, but I found out the hard way that my way of doing things often said something to my sweet young wife that I did not intend. Example: I was home more during the day than Chris was as she worked/schooled from 7 to 4 ech day. I had classes each day but was always home before her. So, being the thoughtful husband that I was, I nearly always cleaned up the apartment. I would make sure the kitchen was particularly clean. It was never really very dirty but hey, I had time and enjoyed doing it really!  Well, after a few weeks of this Chris came home one day and I had polished the kitchen so that it would shine. She walked in and burst into tears. At first I thought it was tears of gratitude but I soon began to detect that it wasn't so. She was upset!  I thought she would be pleased. But upon my asking what was wrong she blurted out, you don't think I clean good enough for you so you are redoing all of my work.... Well, I was taken aback by this. But I quickly corrected her interpretation of what I was doing. She is a great housekeeper in every regard.  Strangely enough, this little episode in communication is a tool I often use when we are doing pre-marriage and or marriage counseling. We always have to teach on communication and so this little story is often a useful tool and our couples always get the idea.  Our actions often speak louder than our words, so we need to learn how to speak so that those words can be heard clearly.  Chris and I laugh now about these adventures we had early in our married life but they were not easy lessons to learn sometimes. God is faithful and He has always helped figure out what was or is wrong. There were many other great times to be had in our little apartment on 8th street. We have very fond memories of it. Chris graduated from the U of I while we lived there.  About 3 months before Amy was born, we moved to a little house on Resegue street just a few blocks away. I still can't spell it right and no one really new how to pronounce it!  Maybe next time I will be able to share some great memories we made while living there.  Blessings to all who read this.