The To-Do List

One week from today Jason starts his new job. The number of things on our to-do list is overwhelming. We are trying to take one thing at a time, but as July 7th looms I'm starting to feel a lot of anxiety because I don't know what to do first, there are so many things to do. Yesterday Jason took a load to the storage unit. Today we took the truck in to the shop because it is making noise in the front end, and I doubt we will get a load over today. So, we will continue to pack boxes and when the truck is back we will be ready to fill it up.

Jason is working on cleaning out the garage. Lots of stuff in there!

Long Days

We are keeping a hectic pace at our house. We get up at 7:00 or earlier, and often don't go to bed until after midnight. We have to do this in order to get done everything that needs to get done. Jason leaves in 10 days! Today he replaced a kitchen light (a while back he had been playing with Elise in the kitchen, lifting her up and down and on one trip she raised her hands at the wrong moment, breaking the light). We also lined up a storage space so we can get some of these boxes out of our house. I called a realtor we are considering, but haven't heard back yet. Wow, we are juggling lots of balls right now!

Elise and Anja will have their last day of daycare tomorrow. They've been going 2 days a week, Thursday and Friday. Elise will miss the preschool curriculum, but hopefully we will be settled somewhere by fall and we can enroll her in another program. Tonight at dinner she was singing a song about the days of the week. To the tune of "Baa Baa Black Sheep", imagine "Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday...." and from there she just repeated. Last night she was singing the "ABC" song. Her version goes "a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j won't you sing with me". Not bad for a three year old, we think.

Now that we are over the initial excitement of Jason's new job, the reality sets in. We have a lot of work ahead of us. To get done in a very short period of time. Jason will be gone in less than two weeks! He has quite a to-do list. We are trying to figure out our storage options right now. Our house is in chaos as we decide what to store, what to keep in the house, what to send with Jason. We have boxes and storage totes all over the place. Elise, thankfully, is taking it all in stride. We haven't told her yet that we are moving, just that we are cleaning.

In our micro world, Anja is becoming more independent. She can put cheerios in her mouth, will at times hold her own bottle and we are pretty sure we saw her make one crawling move today!

Back Home

Jason and the girls got home yesterday, after a week in Wisconsin Dells with some of the Roden clan. Jason's mom and dad, sister Trisha and her boys will be here for a couple of days. Everyone else flew home yesterday. Adventures in the Dells included a Duck boat ride (Rodens took up the whole boat) and fishing (the kids scooped up tadpoles).

Is it possible for kids to grow this much in 4 days? Elise seems more articulate, Anja is on the verge of crawling!

A New Road

I've been wanting to do a blog for a while (to feel like I'm part of the 21st century and not THAT old). However, with two little girls at home, I felt like I didn't have the time. But...Jason, Elise, Anja and I (and Dutch) are about to head down a new road in life and I thought a blog would be the best way to keep everyone updated.

In April, Jason lost his job. He had been in printing for over 13 years. It was a tough time, but we also saw it as an opportunity to try something new. Well, Jason has found that opportunity. On July 7th, he will be starting a job as a Wind Turbine Technician on a wind farm in Chandler, Minnesota (it's not on most maps, it is east of Pipestone). He is very excited about the job and the future of this industry and we both believe this was a chance that could not be passed up. Here is a link that will take you to an article with information on the Chandler site adn some pictures. http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/07/05_steilm_windpower/

As we are not interested in a commuter family life, we will be selling our house as soon as possible so we can all be together near Jason's new job. Elise, Anja, Dutch and I will stay here to sell the house while Jason starts his new job. I do not look forward to selling a house in this market, and if you know of anyone who is looking to buy, let us know!

After Anja was born in October, I took a leave of absence from teaching. In January I had started working part-time at Life Time Fitness in downtown St. Paul a couple days a week on Jason's days off. When Jason lost his job I began working full-time. For the time being, I will continue working at Life Time. I can do that only because Jason's mom, Imajean, is going to come and stay with me and the girls for a while to help out. We are deeply grateful to Imajean. If it wasn't for her, I would have to quit working because I would pay more in daycare than I would make working.

I anticipate that our lives will be changing a lot in the next few months. I hope this blog will allow our friends and family to keep tabs on us!

As a smaller update, we recently joined Jason's family in Wisconsin Dells for a wonderful vacation! Some Rodens drove out, some flew, and all had a GREAT time in the Dells! We stayed at Glacier Canyon Lodge, it was beautiful... http://www.glaciercanyonlodge.com/ Anja decided she LOVES the SLINKY. Elise had a great time swimming, tackling pool "toys" I thought were too difficult for her. Boy, did she prove me wrong!