Getting Away

I couldn't take it anymore and took the girls for a get away weekend. We visited friends and have been lifted out of our winter induced funk, at least for the time being.

Just Life

Jason is in NY this week for training. To keep my sanity, we are keeping busy. Monday we went to Sioux Falls. Oh, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! At first I just drove around and took in the urbanity of it all. Stores! Restaurants! Multi-lane traffic! I felt so at home! We shopped at Target...Oh, I just strolled and strolled and did not want to leave! We also went to the mall. Quite nice, with a play area for the kids and lots of stores. I think I could live in Sioux Falls, I really like it. A few months ago there was talk of Jason being transferred to Sioux Falls, so who knows.

Tuesday we went swimming at the pool in Luverne (about 20 miles away). Really nice, with a kiddie pool set at 90 degrees. Tuesdays and Thursdays are dollar days, so we all swam for $3! Quite a bargain.

Wednesday we have our regular date at the Worthington Library for story time. That is also about 20 miles away. We've been going there regularly so are friendly with the others who go. There are about 5 families who are "regulars".

Today we've been playing at home, then this afternoon we have ECFE.

Tomorrow I don't have any grand plans yet, but it is supposed to be beautiful (in the 40s), so hopefully we will get out for a nice walk at least.

Saturday we are going to see my friend Lori in Owatonna for an overnight visit. She has a daughter Elise's age and they get along very well. By the time we get back home on Sunday Jason should also be home! He has no idea how he is going to be smothered because I'm in need of adult companionship!

January

It's been a while since I updated this blog. We don't yet have internet service at the house, so it is a little more difficult to update.

So far this month, things have been pretty steady. We have dealt with car issues, but that's been the only hiccup. On the way home after Christmas our Explorer broke down and that was a costly repair (and it took the garage two weeks to fix it!). Now the windshield washer pump on our Honda doesn't work. The closest Honda dealer is Sioux Falls, about an hour away. So, we need to find a mechanic in this area. Fun, fun.

One of the wind turbines Jason's crew is responsible had a major blade malfunction. In the words of a co-worker, it "peeled like a banana". So Jason's crew has had to replace a blade, a major project. They had to bring in cranes, huge lights (so they could work when it is dark), and some extra people. If you haven't ever seen one of these blades up close, they are each 125 feet long. Each one is hauled on a special semi trailer because the normal trailers aren't long enough. They had all the equipment in last week and were supposed to start replacement, but the weather did not cooperate. It was too windy to do the job. But the past two days there has been a window of opportunity and they have been working 12 hour shifts to get the blade replaced.

Update on the girls...mostly we've been dealing with colds this week. First Elise, now Anja. Just stuffy noses, but Anja has been having a really hard time because she can't breathe.

My mom and dad came for a visit last weekend and brought Dutch with. We really miss him so it is nice to have him around for a few days.

Sledding

During the month of December we have had lots of snow and some pretty bad weather. We are at my mom and dad's right now, and they have about two feet of snow on the ground. The temps have also been pretty cold. But yesterday, it was in the +20s so we took advantage of it and went sledding!! Here in Thief River there is one hill where everyone goes sledding. We met our friends Lori, Chris and Ashley (and Lori's family) and had a great time!

Elise had SO much fun, she wanted to go again and again and again. It is a pretty long trek back up the hill, but she trudged back up every time and did not complain. And as soon as she got back to the top she wanted to go down again. She would have kept at it all day, but the rest of us petered out long before she did.

This was Anja's first time sledding. She was pretty laid back about it all, but seemed to enjoy it.

Christmas

What a great Christmas! We are at my mom and dad's this week, and were at their house for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve we had some special people for dinner, some friends of mom and dad's, and a cherished family member, my dad's cousin Irene. What a fun time talking, laughing and thoroughly enjoying each other's company. Elise was a great host, engaged everyone in conversation and was very entertaining. Anja got tired fast and went to bed halfway through dinner. After dinner Elise opened two gifts, a barn set from my mom and dad (she loved it!) and a game which some friends had given her (she really wanted to play but I still had not figured out the directions by her bed time...it could have been I was having too much fun visiting with everyone to really focus on reading the directions :). We set out cookies for Santa (the first year Elise has wanted to do that), then she was off to bed. I have to say, it is nice to be able to threaten that "you have to stay in bed tonight or Santa won't come!" After that it was more visiting and laughing, then wrapping presents. We got to bed after midnight. Around 4:00 am I sneaked upstairs to set out some Santa presents for Jason, my mom and dad, then went back to bed until about 6:00, when Anja decided she wanted to get up bright and early on Christmas morning.

Christmas was a great day! This was the first Christmas Elise understood the full meaning of Santa leaving gifts, and looked genuinely surprised when she saw that the previously empty stockings were now stuffed with things, and there were presents that hadn't been there before!

We opened presents, and loved watching Elise and Anja. Anja really caught on to the opening gift process. Before long she parked herself under the tree and started opening every package she could get her hands on. There were a couple where we had to track down the paper she ripped off to read the tag and see who it belonged to. She got furious when we took her away and would not let her rip something open.

Around noon my aunt, uncle and cousins came, and that was a new round of fun. With four little kids around, the gift opening got a little wild, but they had a great time and that is what it is all about!

My mom and dad gave Elise a mini trampoline, and it has provided endless fun. She has now started jumping from a stool onto the tramp, sometimes she lands on her feet and sometimes she chooses to land on her butt. She is burning off the energy! Elise had a great time showing her cousin Gavin how to jump.

We so enjoyed both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and are forever thankful that we have families to love and who love us and who we have great times with.

December

Playing a little catch-up with what we've been doing this month...
We continue to get settled into the house, and the girls enjoy playing in all the snow we've had this month (well, Elise likes playing in it. Anja can't move too much in her snow suit, so she just sits...not too much fun for her.)

Anja started walking!We walked through a blizzard to go see santa (that is our house in the background) Anja did not like Santa

Elise said she did not want to sit on his lap, but she would stand next to him and talk to him.

The weather this month has been wild, like I remember it being when I was a kid. We've already had two official blizzards, and have several inches of snow on the ground. Right now we are at my mom and dad's for the holidays, and they have even more snow on the ground. Poor Dutch, when he walks through the yard he bellies out in the snow. Our landlord doesn't allow dogs, so Dutch will be staying at my mom and dad's when we head back south.

Lismore

A little about Lismore, the town where we are living...
Population 297. There is a meat market (they also carry some "staples" like some basic soups and cereals, but nothing perishable. Except meat, of course :), a gas station (just gas, not a convenience store), the city building, the gas company, what looks like a lumber yard but I haven't seen any kind of signage, a post office, bar/grill, and a couple other business like construction company offices or something. We live two doors down from the Catholic church (it was built in 1906 and is really beautiful). The house we are renting used to be the priest's house. It is really well built (as the land lord said, "they weren't spending their own money so they didn't care how much they spent"), has gorgeous wood work. The main floor has been somewhat updated (the kitchen is particularly nice), but the upstairs looks like it hasn't been touched since 1970. I don't think it's been cleaned since 1970 either. We took up the carpet in Elise's room and THOROUGHLY cleaned. She is now moved in and sleeping in there. Jason and I are still sleeping on a futon in the living room, and Anja is sleeping in what will be our room. Next we are going to tackle Anja's room, hopefully pulling up the carpet in there and again thoroughly cleaning.

The people here are really nice. Adrian is the closest town of any size. It is 7 miles away, has a small grocery store, a hardware store, and school (that is the school district we are in). We are doing ECFE in Adrian and have met some nice people there. Worthington is about 20 miles, and we go to storytime there. We are still exploring other opportunities for fun activities for the kids. In general we are really happy and having a good time.