Autumn

I’m still here, but I don’t think a daily writing prompt will work for me.  I’m too bossy to be told what to write about ever day.

You aren’t shocked, are you?

I think I’ll try to go alphabetically instead.  A is for Autumn. This is the view off of my back patio yesterday morning:

I have been delighted by fall here.  Delighted by the apple trees in my yard and the colors of the trees.  Delighted by warm days and cold nights.  Super delighted by a normal sunrise/sunset schedule - the days of summer were LONG and it was very bright in my bedroom very early.  I prefer to greet the sun well after 6:30 a.m. when I can.

Mostly I’m just delighted that we have fall here.  It was always my favorite season in Lincoln, and I was afraid winter would come so early to Northern Minnesota that I’d miss it.  But nope.  It’s here and it’s glorious.

The only thing I don’t like is the wasps.  From mid-August to mid-September wasps are EVERYWHERE.  Seriously - it’s like an Armageddon Plague.  Makes mowing under the apple trees a dicey situation.  But they are mostly gone now which probably means winter is right around the corner. 

(sob) Hold me.

Things we did to celebrate fall:

Kayaking.After Hayden left, we went a few more times.  Luna even went along for one.  Honestly, though, Hayden is my best kayaking partner so I lost some steam after he was gone.  They’re in the garage now for the winter.

Homecoming:

Homecoming was the second week of school here and Faith felt like she didn’t know enough people to go to the dance so we did NOT dress shop.  That day though, she walked in the parade.

Oh the parade.

You guys - it was the BEST.  The whole town comes out for it.  They bus over the middle and elementary school kids to watch it.  There are “floats” for every sports team, club and organization.  There are floats for the royalty of course and several area businesses also participated.  They even loaded up the entire orchestra onto the bed of a semi and had them play “The Final Countdown” through the whole route. Faith walked with the sophomore class.  They were supposed to dress like what they want to be when they grow up.

Someone watches too much Criminal Minds.

So yes - autumn has been wonderful up here.  I’d like to get in one more bonfire in our fire pit before it’s too cold.  Maybe if I put that off, I can put off winter too!

Updating

When we last visited my brain, it was a sad place.  Sad and homesick.  That was a bad day but not everyday has been like that.  Most are pretty good.  The process is slow, but we are adjusting.  Things that have happened since then:

Reagan was here!

And, spectacular mother that I am, I did not take any pictures of any of us the whole week.  So you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that she’s beautiful and lovely and wonderful and it was great to have her here.  I’m sure it was terribly strange for her that her family lives in a strange house in a strange town but she rolled with it.  We showed her around the town, and made s’mores in the fire pit and borrowed a boat to show here the river.  I did get a picture of that!  Sort of.

That’s Luna who thoroughly enjoys being in any moving vehicle.  We have to body block her if she’s outside when we get in the car or she jumps in.  Reagan liked her very much though Reagan likes all animals and all animals like her, so that’s not shocking.

We finished Faith’s room

Mostly.  It’s painted and the floor is in and her bed is set up.  We still need to find the perfect desk and a rug and a few more decorative touches, but it’s seriously so great.  Here are some pics she took.

Rich installed that gray floor in the bedroom section and it looks fabulous.  It’s very fortunate that we have spent years honing DIY skills because finding people to do this kind of thing in a small town is difficult.  We did track down a plumber to do the pipes in the bathroom, but Rich is doing the electrical, drywall and tiling himself.

Given that he has a full time job and occasionally like to actually enjoy life rather than renovate, the bathroom will be a few more weeks.

I’m getting a job

I’ve looked around a bit and considered the options.  I need something with flexibility and I need to be off work by 4:00 because I have to drive Faith to dance class an hour away several times a week.  I also want something not tedious or boring. With all of that, I have decided that my best option is to become …

a substitute teacher.

I’ll wait while you finish laughing.

No but seriously, I think it will work.  I’ve worked seven years in public schools.  All those years of recess duty and dealing with parents and students and teachers should be good preparation.  I checked about finding an office job in a school but there aren’t any.  In Minnesota, if you have a bachelor’s degree you can sub as many days as you’d like to, as long as it isn’t a long term position.

Faith has asked me to not sub at the high school, which is find.  I like middle schoolers.  They’re funny.

If nothing else, subbing will give me good stories, and you all know how I love a good story.

That’s all the major happenings right now.  In the upcoming weeks, we are taking Hayden to college and my parents are coming to visit,  Let’s hope I’m a bit better about taking pictures!

Moving In

Whenever I’ve heard about living in Minnesota, I’ve been completely confused as to why anyone would choose to live in a place with such miserable winters.

I’m beginning to get it.

Turns out that miserable winters are the price to pay for summertime perfection.  This is the picture I took 5 minutes ago from the back patio where I’m sitting right now.

It is never hot here.  Never.  Well, at least not hot to my standards.  I think it hit the high 80s one day, but generally it’s between 75 and 85.  The humidity is lower than what we are used to and anyone who complains about Minnesota mosquitoes has never lived in Nebraska.  I leave the windows open all day long and only run the AC at night to give my allergy prone kid a break.

Now for the move in story:

Living in a hotel was nice for about 10 days and then it got really, really old.  So I pretty much panicked last Thursday when, the night before we were supposed to close on our house, there was a paperwork glitch and we were told that we couldn’t close until Monday.  Thankfully, the seller said we could go ahead and move in so Friday morning I met a cleaning crew at the house and they cleaned and sanitized all of the carpets and flooring and scrubbed the bathrooms and kitchen.  While they worked, Faith mopped the walls and I washed windows.  Rich and Hayden were on the road making the two hour trek to the closest Home Depot to buy new toilets because I’m a freak and I have raised my children with my freakish ways and none of us were willing to use someone else’s toilets.

Also?

This house was built by and for short people and so the squatty potty with the squishy seat was unacceptable.

Rich and Hayden were back by 6:00 and we started moving our possessions from the garage where the movers had left them a couple of weeks ago, to the correct rooms.  That first night we got the beds set up and a toilet working by 10:30 and then crashed.

Saturday was full on hustle day.  Rich and the kids got the rest of the boxes in and I lined all the kitchen and bathroom shelves and drawers and began unpacking.  By Sunday night, the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas were done.  We still have boxes to unpack in the storage area and Rich will be assembling his office space for at least another week (being a technical perfectionist is rough).

The house is not my favorite thing.  Honestly, the first day I cried because it smells weird and everywhere I look is another project and I just really wanted my Lincoln house.  Getting our stuff unpacked helped.  I will never again downplay the value of “stuff”.  I’ve always tried to say that it’s the people that are important, not the possessions, but there is so much comfort to be gained by being in one’s own bed surrounded by familiar objects. 

Slowly the place is growing on me though.  The view helps immensely.  Every morning I sit out back with the dog to eat my cereal and drink my coffee and just drink in scenery.  We have chipmunks and geese and snails and eagles.  The first day, the kids found a turtle that Faith named Gary.  The second morning they found Gary’s freshly hatched eggs.

I also got a picture of a pelican floating by.  I had no idea pelicans lived this far north.  Pretty cool.

We finally did close on the house on Monday morning and celebrated by making s’mores in our fire pit.  It’s like we have all the great things about camping here and then we can go inside and take a shower and sleep in our own beds.

I guess I can deal with the house.  There’s plenty of room and lots of potential.  It won’t smell like other people forever and the projects will get done.  

Someday.

For now, we are just going to get settled in and figure out small town life and actually meet people.  Apparently bringing baked goods to the new neighbors is not a thing here.  I’ve waited for cookies and brownies for days in vain.  Looks like I’ll have to get out and make an effort.

Maybe tomorrow.

Not Whining

At least I’m trying really hard not to, but I gotta tell you: it’s a struggle.  But everyone knows that moving is hard.  I know that moving is hard.  Whining won’t help and it just annoys the people who have to listen to it.

And things will get better.

Probably.

Can I just vent this one itty bitty thing though? 

I have been to Walmart more times in the last two weeks than in the previous six months because IT’S MY ONLY CHOICE and that’s really not acceptable.

Thanks for listening.

On the list of positives for the week:

1) I think we’ve found a church.  At least we’ve found a place with some promise.  The congregation is small (by our standards - I think they said around 250) and meets in a converted gas station which gets instant points for fun.  Other highlights:

-2 dogs
-a granny in leather pants
-a children’s pastor with an excellent sense of humor and full sleeve tattoos 
-a child who let loose an epic belch in the middle of the sermon
-a young pastor with a British accent whose message was well delivered and full of grace and Scripture
-a worship set with a lot of promise and musicians who would probably benefit with guidance from a seasoned guitar player

We even went to an ice cream social in the park that they held and I talked to actual people and didn’t die from it, so that’s a good sign I think.

2) I found a drunken troll.

I don’t know why that counts as a “positive” but I really feel like it does.

3) We got a dog.

Which was totally not something I planned to do, but Faith is struggling a bit with this adjustment and it was strongly suggested us that a dog was an excellent antidote.  I’m a big fan of puppies - for about 2 hours.  Then I want someone to take them and train them and let them chew up someone else’s house for the next year.  So instead of going that route, we went to the local no-kill shelter and found this charming little lady.  She’s about 18 months old and comes with no guarantees, but we’ve spent an hour or more with her each day this week and she seems smart, trainable and friendly.  She’s been at the shelter for three months and has had no behavior issues in that time.  In fact, she’s the staff favorite.  The director got teary when I filled out the adoption application.  She keeps her kennel clean, but they have no idea if she’s actually housebroken so that could be interesting.  Good thing I’m planning to tear out the carpet in the new place soon anyway.

If you’re thinking it looks like she has some Pitt Bull in her, I would agree with you.  But it also looks like maybe some collie and lab is mixed in there so I’m hoping that all together, it works out.  She really has taken to Faith.  They lie in the sun together and the dog rolls over for belly scratches.

Let’s just hope she gets along with the cats.  Right now we’re going with the name “Luna”, but that’s not set in stone.

She will remain at the shelter until we close on our house next week, but we go over every day to see her and play with her.  While we’re there, we get other dogs out to help socialize them and work on basic commands.  It’s actually pretty fun and the weather here is always gorgeous so it’s a good way to get out and feel useful.

Just don’t get me started on the fact that at this point I know the names of more dogs than humans.

Bought and Sold

Although it’s been a long while since I’ve dabbled in real estate, I do know this:  No deal is complete until closing.  Between the bid and the closing date, any number of things can go awry.  Finances can fall through, appraisals can be low, people can change their minds … there are quite a few possible scenarios to keep you up at night.

So I am saying the following with fingers crossed while knocking on wood:

Yesterday we bought a house.

And then a few hours later?

We sold a house.

It was crazy.  For the past three weeks, every waking hour I haven’t been at work, I have been consumed with getting our house ready to sell.  Making repairs, packing things to take to storage, painting, cleaning … it’s been exhausting.  Even with the help of paid professionals and my expert cleaner friend Christine, I feel like I’ve been going non-stop.  So I was super excited when, at 3:30 yesterday, the realtor showed up to take pictures because I was finally DONE.  And I was all set to share those pictures with you today, but then at 4:30 she showed the house to a couple who insisted on seeing it before it went on the market.

I guess they liked it, because they made a great offer which we accepted.

Isn’t that the craziest thing?  The market around here is an optimal sellers’ market, but still!  We didn’t even put a sign in the yard.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Rich finally came to terms with the seller of the property we wanted.  It is also a sellers’ market there so that was a tricky but both sides gave a little and we have the ball rolling.

If you’re thinking that this is all going just a little bit too smoothly, I am in agreement with you.  It’s making me nervous.  But for today I’m just going to revel in having nothing to do. 

Because tomorrow I get to help Reagan move into a new apartment.

Sigh.

It was nice while it lasted.

I’ll leave you with some shots of the property in Minnesota.  The inside of the house will need some revising to suit us (I’m sure the people who are buying our house are saying the same thing) but the outside of this place? It’s just about perfect.