still a barber

it is important to me that people remember this simple fact: i am still, and will forever be, a Barber. i was trying to think of a name for my blog (ndfarmer was taken, which irks me) and i looked at angela's (barberland) and jeremy's (jeremyjbarber) for reference. see the similarity? they're barbers. way back in the day, i was the first one of us to have the barber___ email address, "barbergirl," soon to be followed by barberboy (ben) and barberbro (jeremy). but now i'm married and my last name isn't barber anymore. i'm happy to be married to a tanner, but it makes me sad to think that maybe people will slowly stop associating me with "the barbers." we've sort of made a name for ourselves among those who know us, and i love that. being a barber means something. it means, first of all, that you have red hair (or at least have a hint of strawberry). it means you're from north dakota and you grew up on a farm. it means you're part of a musical family. it means you are friendly and have a big smile (some show it more than others, but i still have it) and people in general think you're pretty nice. it means you like to play games. it means that close friends are family. i love my family.

and i miss my family. tim and i moved to iowa two weeks ago to a place in the country. it's a farmhouse three miles from the nearest post office, seven miles from the nearest gas station, fifteen miles from our church, and thirty miles from the nearest super store and movie theatre. i've been sick and we've been too busy moving in and getting the house in shape to think about being lonely, but in the quiet times, like weekends, we kind of wish we could go to someone's house or someone would come to ours. last weekend i had the best surprise ever when my mom and grandma came to visit. i knew they were coming, but when they pulled into our driveway, another car pulled in behind them and out poured kayla, ben and ashley, ben, and john. all week tim and i would talk about getting the house looking nice for when people come, but then we'd say, "but it's not like anyone's going to visit us anyway" just to get ourselves used to the thought that we're 80 miles from our nearest friends. when i saw my brother and my best friend and the rest, i cried. it was completely unexpected and i was moved to tears. their effort showed me that we weren't forgotten, that they loved us and went the extra mile to show it. it meant the world.

so thank you, my family, for the best surprise i have ever gotten. thank you for remembering me. and i hope i will post every now and then and you will check my blog and we can keep in touch, because we're family.