What I Love About My Town

This sounds like a dorky thing to write. It almost sounds like the title of a children's book. But I was thinking today about the great area I live in. I think we lucked out when we decided to move to St. Peters.

We live in a great school district. I don't actually have lots of experience with the actual schools yet, but I have been very involved in our district's Parents As Teachers program. I know our school district also has some excellent preschools.

I love that my town has a great trash service. Yes, seriously - that's something I appreciate! We have a recycling program where they give us the free blue bags for sorting trash. And we can even go tour Recycle City, to see what happens to our trash. That may not sound too enthralling, but I love learning about stuff like that.

I love that St. Peters in specific - and St. Louis in general - has so much free stuff for us to enjoy. You've already heard me rave about the zoo, but we also have a free Science Center and lots of other free stuff. Heck, even the Anheuser-Busch brewery has a free tour with free beer! (Which I already wrote about, right?)

We have a GREAT park system, and some cool pools in our area with lots of the aquatic-center-type stuff that has slides and kiddie areas.

We also have a great library system in St. Charles County. There are so many free programs to encourage kids to read, plus events like concerts and crafts and kid movies.

We moved here from Kansas City. It was a pretty traumatic move for me, since I always planned to go back home to Georgia. I had to adjust to a new reality, and the end of a specific dream. We made the decision to move to St. Louis instead of Atlanta because this would be the best place to raise our kids - not geographically, but because Dan's family is in St. Louis and everyone is still alive and married and talking to each other. My family was a bit more broken apart by then. So it was St. Louis. And when it came time to look for a house, we chose St. Peters mainly because it was what we could afford. Like I said, it was a hard transition and took me a few years to feel comfortable here. Now, I am 99% ready to call it home. (I think Marietta, GA will always be my true home, though.) I think having so many amenities, great friends, and a great town to live in have made it much easier for me to settle in. And that's why I think we lucked out - we have a great place to raise our kids, and all of these things have made it easier for me to be a stay-at-home mom.

So, yes, I am a dork... and I admit I love my town. {Can you see my cheesy grin?!}