Keeping up with the Jones-ville

We live in a small town. The population of my town is only slightly higher than the population of my high school. In fact, our town is so small that in legal terms by the state of Michigan it's not even a town, it's a "village". When we first moved here I noticed the city website was hosting a photography contest to get some good photos of the town... *ahem* village. I thought, hey, I can take pictures, so I threw the kids in the stroller, walked around town and took some photos.

Well, guess what? I won! I won first place with a prize of $500! Pretty sweet. You can still see the winners praised on the website here, but if you want to see the winning photo, here it is:

Even if I haven't met everyone in town, I feel like everyone knows that I'm "new" and not local. A few weeks ago I met a neighbor who lives a couple houses down. I asked if my kids could pet her dog. She said, "You say you're from Utah?" Which I didn't say, by the way. I said yes and asked how she knew. She said, "Oh, I saw you in the paper." I made front page news in September for shopping a rummage sale.

When I met the hardware store owner, she asked me which house I moved into because she was familiar with all the houses in town. She hasn't been the only one. When others find out where I live they've said things like, "Oh, I've always loved that stone porch" or "You mean the house across the street from the Middle School?" They all know all the houses, and it doesn't seem strange to them to ask a stranger which house they live in. Here are some more photos I took of the town.

I'm still getting used to calling my congregation at church a "Branch" because it's too small to be called a Ward, like the normal congregations.

All the librarians at the local library know me and my kids and have been calling us by name since the first day we went there. I'm not even exaggerating. The third time I checked out books, I was fumbling in my bag to find my library card and the librarian just typed in my name and said, "I don't need your card, I know who you are."

By the way, the library is an old house converted to a library. I wish I had a photo. It's pretty tiny.

Even though it's small, it's a cute town, and the locals obviously care deeply about their town and values. I'm still getting used to it. There are some things I desperately miss about living in a larger community.

I'm hoping I'll find a groove soon that makes the most of this small town charm. They say everything moves slower in a small town and I can attest to that, including the time it takes to find my groove. There's a lot to love here and I'm still learning how to fit myself into it.