My life is to make everything around me beautiful.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

A Story About A Moose

Moving to Idaho from the San Francisco area was certainly culture shock. Don't get me wrong; I love Idaho. Love it here. It was still a culture shock and we had a friend, who worked for a huge bakery, send us "Care Packages" of french and sourdough bread for awhile. Then we started seeing the brands we were familiar with inside the stores. But there were cultural differences we had to overcome.

Idaho is an agriculture state. It's also known for hunters. Now, we're never hunted and have no problem with people who do. We're all in the "food chain" somewhere and some of our friends hunted to feed their families. Personally, I do not like deer, elk or moose meat. It just isn't my thing. I'm not crazy about meat but I do like it and a good steak is my idea of a good meal, especially Applebee's asiago peppercorn steak.

But one day we had to go visit a family we knew from church and I had never been in their house before. It was a manufactured home on some very small acreage. Mom was a nurse and Dad was a middle school counselor and coach and they had 5 boys if I can recall. I felt sorry for the mom with 5 kids and all boys. But she handled it quite well. She got daughters-in-law and granddaughters after the boys married.

But our first foray into their home was a huge culture shock. We entered through the family room door, which was set up very masculine with a huge TV and all chairs and overstuffed sofa arranged in front of it—typical of a sports-loving family. We aren't into sports in any way, shape or form. I do, however, know the difference between a football and a baseball—one is round and the other is oblong.

As we proceeded through the dining area and into the living room—which actually was the hubby's office—I came face-to-face/nose-to-nose with a moose head that stuck at least five feet out into the room. I started quite visibly when I almost ran into it. Upon looking around I saw all the walls were covered with dead animal heads. As I said, hunting doesn't bother me. But coming face to face with so many animals was stifling in that small area. It was definitely a man's house! I think the mom was used to it and didn't care about the decorating too much. There was absolutely nothing feminine about that house at all. Boggled my mind. I think I was traumatized for a couple of hours but I got over it and declared I'd never hunt if the occasion every arose. It didn't! Thank heaven.

As I've said, we moved from that small town of 5,000 people to a medium-sized town of about 90,000 people. Let me hear it for big towns!! We never looked back. ;-)
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Another cute cottage in Carmel.


A beautiful entrance somewhere in Greece or the Mediterranean.


An attractive but unusual bedroom.


Oooooh my stars!!! I loved this color combination when I first saw it. Gorgeous.


A tub of beautiful posies.


You'd never have to worry about cleaning the shower walls, just sand blast them. :-) Big enough for two and no shower door is my perfect shower.


A cute little step stool.


And cute curtains also.


Pretty door. I have decals on all my doors also. Love this style.


Lovely table setting using blue and pink together.


This little craft room is sort of incongruous with the deer head in it, but cute nevertheless.


A beautiful southern-style home I thought you'd appreciate seeing.


Cute picnic area on someone's porch.


A magnificent kitchen with white shabby chic cabinets!


Pretty roses pillows and chenille on an old wicker chair.
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