Hi Everyone!
I'm Valerie! I have lived in Massachusetts since May 2021. Before that, I spent my whole life in New Mexico.
Yes, it is very different! Albuquerque, the city where I was most recently, is a high desert, which means that it is a high elevation, 6800', and very dry, around 8" of rain per year. I think what most stands out to me, beyond the climate differences, is the amount of trees. There are so many more trees here! And they grow without needing to be watered regularly!
Yes, I have seen snow! Actually, it snowed every winter. Getting 2" or more of snow was exceptional, but it did happen occasionally. It just never lasted very long, only a few days to a week at most. I really enjoy getting more snow here. Sledding is always so much fun!
Yes, I do love living in Massachusetts! We quickly felt at home here. We've met so many amazing people. We have wonderful friends who feel like family!
A little bit more about me: I am married and have three sons, ages 13, 11, and 9. I felt pretty out-numbered, so when we got a dog, I knew we had to get a girl. Ginger is our poodle who we've had since she was a puppy. She's 5 now and we all absolutely adore her!
I love learning about myself and other people. Personality profiling is a fun way to do that! Meyers-Briggs is probably the most popular personality profiling system and the one I first started with. In that one, I'm an ENFP. Enneagram is the system I'm least familiar with, but still find quite interesting. I'm a 7w8. My favorite system, and the one I'm most familiar with, is Carol Tuttle's Energy Profiling system. I'm a type 1 secondary 3. It has been very helpful and useful to me over the years. I could talk about this topic for hours!
As a family, we love to do lots of things together, including Ginger whenever we can. We hike, ride bikes, roller blade, go swimming, play board games, watch sci-fi movies, listen to fantasy audiobooks (Brandon Sanderson is my favorite author, so I've forced him on my family and it worked!!), and play Dungeons and Dragons (yep, we're pretty nerdy).
My personal hobbies include sewing clothes, knitting, spinning yarn, baking, cooking, listening to lots of podcasts and audiobooks, and just about anything outdoorsy. Mostly though, I love being around people! If I have a friend who asks me to do something with them, chances are high I will say yes!
Now that you know a little bit about me, I can't wait to get to know you all better too!