Fresno Factoids

It's no secret that I come from Fresno. I was one of the minority who actually LOVED it--to a degree. It's the ONLY place I'd ever lived. ALL of my family, except one sister, live there. Some of the reasons I love Fresno are:

• Affordable housing--our home (10 years ago) was less than $150,000--and we had a NICE, almost-2000 square foot home. We had some "sticker shock" when we moved here--and we'll happily rent while home prices continue to fall.
• Decent schools. Depending on what part of the city you live in, there are some really good schools. We intentionally bought where we did because it was in a good school area. We LOVED Toph's first school!
• Good location. From Fresno, you could be in the mountains in an hour, at the beach in 3 hours, in San Francisco in 3 hours, and in LA in 3-4 hours.
  
• Strong Church. The Church is strong in Fresno. There are 4 Stakes--probably enough people now for 5, and 8 years ago we got a Temple. It was nice to have so many others with similar values living nearby.

But, alas, Robert SWORE he'd move me out of the valley. Three weeks after we were married, I suffered the WORST asthma attack of my life. I really thought I was going to die, it was SO severe. I've had asthma for my entire life, but this attack was so much worse than usual. My pulmonary specialist told Robert that asthma would kill me (GREAT doctor, HORRIBLE bedside manner). It was then that Robert promised me that we'd move out of the valley. You see, for all of the things I LOVE about Fresno, there are some definite drawbacks too:

• Air Quality SUCKS! It gets worse every year too. For us, Red Flag Warnings were days when the air quality is unhealthy. As an asthmatic, I started feeling the effects of bad air quality sooner, and roughly a third (or more) of the year we had bad air quality. When air quality diminishes, your physical activity and ability to be outside do too. Not fun.
• Weather--not the best. I'd lived there my whole life, so I was used to it, but the older I got, the harder it was. Fresno has basically 2 seasons: cold and foggy and HOTTER than Hell. For 3 months (or more) it's foggy and cold. There's often just a 5-10 degree difference between high and low temperatures. If your median temp is 70, that's fine, but when the HIGH is in the low 40's, that's COLD. It doesn't snow there often, but it's a bone chilling cold. And when it's foggy season, you don't see the sun often enough. It gets depressing. Then there's summer. That starts usually in late May and will last until October. It's the hottest in July and August. The year we moved, we spent more than a week with a high temp of 112! Yeah, that was a fun electric bill! There are like 3 weeks of spring and 3 weeks of fall, if you're lucky. As a kid, the weather really didn't bother me, but as an adult, I REALLY don't like the hot.
• Asthmatic kid. This is what finally got me to consent to moving. I was fine with suffering myself, but I watched my sweet boy suffer more and more each year, and it finally got to me. I couldn't do anything about genetically cursing him with the asthma, but I didn't have to let him suffer if moving could alleviate some of it. SO many kids who live in the central valley get asthma. Toph's was getting worse every year.
  

So, to sum things up, Fresno is where most of our family lives. I'd lived there for 36 years. It's all I'd known. I loved the location. I loved that it wasn't TOO big, but it wasn't a hick town either. We had most of the best of both worlds. Moving TERRIFIED me. I don't like to do it anyway, but to move away from ALL of my family and friends and places I knew was really HARD. But I love my family, and moving was the best thing for us. Robert had reached a place where he dreaded going to work. He worked so hard and was so stressed out--and if I was going to be a stay-at-home Mom, my husband needed to go to a job he enjoyed. After all, he spends a lot of time there every day! We needed to get to a place that allowed Toph (and myself) to breathe. I couldn't watch him suffer any more.

So with much trepidation, I FINALLY told Robert that I could live with him looking for a job out of Fresno.....and that's a story to be continued later!