Kirksville, Missouri

We lived in Kirksville for 4 years. While not my favorite part of my life, I have many good memories. Kirksville is in the middle of nowhere, 4 hours to St. Louis, 4 to Kansas City, 4 to Des Moines. Lots of small towns nearby with weird names. Cold, cold, cold in winter and hot and very humid in the summer. I went shopping at Hy-Vee Foods and my first Wal-Mart and we walked down the street for fast food at Hardee's. I worked nights at the hospital, my first med tech job and I didn't really know what I was doing but I had to do it all and mostly by myself. When it was slow, I would nap. Jeff was busy studying but we explored the area some. I remember Thousand Hills State Park, particularly beautiful in the fall. I visited nearby Unionville, where my great-grandfather had lived. We went to Hannibal to visit Mark Twain country, and to Quincy, IL when we really wanted to go shopping at a Mall! Jeff went to school at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, which is now A. T. Still University and the local college used to Northeast Missouri State University and is now called Truman State U. Aaron and Elizabeth were both born there. I remember pushing baby Aaron around in the stroller, all bundled up for the cold- all you could see were his big eyes and people always commented. We lived in the student apartments,(on Osteopathy Drive!) across the street from the school and my job, which was very convenient. There was a small playground behind the apartments and I spent hours there swinging in the swings holding Aaron. The janitor of the apartments was named Kermit and he was very kind and would push Aaron around on his dustmop. I went to the Christian Church there and played in the bell choir. My memories of all our time there are a bit goofy due to working nights and having babies and not sleeping much at all. I remember it mostly with pride as we were both working so hard and struggling and learning and making the best of things.