Day One of the Move

My mom and dad are coming in to town this afternoon. Jason will be in from Adrian about 6:00 p.m. I'm defrosting freezers and packing boxes. AAAAGGGG I HATE MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so stressful and more so because I've been doing it pretty much myself. Bless their hearts, but Elise and Anja are not much help in this process. In fact, could packing be any HARDER when I have a 3-year old asking every 5 seconds "why are you doing that?" "What are you doing with that?" AND a 10-month old pulling things OUT of boxes as quickly as I put them in?

We will continue packing today and we pick up the moving truck tomorrow. I sent out an all-call for help, so hopefully people will come to help us box and load tomorrow. The plan is to have the truck loaded by Sunday and drive it down to Adrian Sunday. Because we don't have a house yet we are putting our stuff into storage down there. A small town story: There is a storage place just around the corner from Jason's apartment, so Jason called to see if there was any space available. The owner said there was, but he is going to be out of town for several days. So, he said to just put our stuff in there and lock it up and he'll get a hold of us when he gets back. The guy knew who Jason was, had seen him going to work when he was out for his morning walks. When Jason said he was looking for storage the guy said "are you the one living above the photography studio?" Yep, that would be us.

Looking For a House

We've been looking for a house to rent in the area around where Jason is working, but haven't found anything yet. The are in demand, I guess, and hard to come by. There are several small towns around here, and we are looking in all of them. The locals tell us that people don't really advertise their rentals so they can have more control over who they rent to. So, word of mouth is the best way to find something. It may take a while, but at least we can stay in Jason's apartment until we find something more suitable.

We've been exploring the little towns around here and yesterday went to Luverne. The have a drive in theater! The also have a pizza place, a McDonalds, and a bigger grocery store. And it's only 10 minutes away. For BIG shopping we'll be driving to Sioux Falls (30 minutes from Adrian). They have everything I need, including a scrapbook store!

Small Town Life

The girls and I are visiting Jason at his apartment in Adrian for a few days. Adrian has a population of 1,234. He has a two bedroom apartment right down town. The hardware store is on the next corner and the post office, grocery store and library are on the next block. We have been walking everywhere, which is kind of fun. Today after dinner I was going to pick up a couple things at the grocery store and asked Elise if she wanted to come. She said "can I bring my blanket in the car?" And I said "no honey, we are going to walk". And then she said "I'm tired, I'm going to sleep a little bit in the car when we go to the store." And again I said "honey, we're not taking the car, we are walking." And she just couldn't really grasp how we were going to get to the store without the car.

We also stopped in at Adrian's library today. It is great to have a library here, and I was really excited to see it is open every day. I had to chuckle at the sign listing the library hours though, when it said the library is closed for "holidays, Sundays and blizzards." Some really good titles on the shelves in there!

Jason's apartment will work temporarily for our family, but it is pretty small. It will be an adventure!

A Busy Week

In the past week, I've been to Duluth twice! Last weekend my mom and I did our second annual mother/daughter weekend, which turned into a mother/daughter/granddaughters weekend. Different from what we had originally planned, but lots of fun. We stayed down in Canal Park and just walked everywhere (except for one trip out to the beach on Minnesota Point). Elise had a BLAST. She played in the water, played in the fountains, climbed on rocks. We went on a carriage ride and that was a huge hit.

The girls and I got back home last Sunday and then on Thursday went back up north with friends for an overnight at a cabin on Lake Nebagamon. It was five moms and nine kids under eight years old. Though not relaxing, it was a ton of fun!

And now we are all back home with the next big event coming upon the 23rd...our moving weekend! The truck has been reserved and people are being notified (we are asking for help to lad the truck!). Jason is looking for a rental house near where he works. Nothing yet that fits the bill, but hopefully something will come along by the 24th when we will be bringing our stuff down. If not, we'll put the bulk of our belongings into storage and live in the two bedroom apartment he has until we can find something more suitable.