Tag Archives: Minnesota

The Truth About Sacrifice

13 May

I’ve been thinking about these 2 verses lately:

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29)

“And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:19-20)

Something I’ve learned over the past 5 or so years is that following Jesus often looks very mundane. Yes, some people are called to sell their house, car and possessions, and become missionaries in Africa. Travis and I haven’t been called to that (yet). Instead, we were called to… move in with Travis’ parents?

I have been tempted to question whether or not moving to Minnesota was God’s leading. I read a book about the Holy Spirit called Better Off Without Jesus by Chuck Bomar around the time we were moving, and he cautioned against the idea that if all circumstances fall into place, it must be God’s will. He pointed out that in the Bible, circumstances worked out for Jonah to disobey God but it was obviously not God’s will (desire) that he disobey.

But after prayer and consideration, I feel confident that our move to Minnesota was God’s leading, for a number of factors:

  1. In the back of our minds, we had always planned on moving back, unless God led us differently. For the full 6 ½ years we were in Denver, He didn’t lead us differently, and our desire to move back didn’t go away. We prayed for several years that if it wasn’t God’s will for us to move to Minnesota someday, He would make it clear.
  2. With his current job, Travis works from home – meaning he can work from anywhere – presenting the possibility to live in northern Minnesota instead of a Cities suburb.
  3. Travis’ boss told us that he’d be okay with us moving to Minnesota before we ever brought it up.
  4. Travis got a bonus at the end of the year, which paid for the expenses of moving and getting our house ready to sell.
  5. For various reasons, we were ready to transition out of our church in Denver, and things were changing at my job to the point where I might’ve still wanted to quit, so things would’ve changed even if we had stayed.

Even though God has been obviously leading us this direction, it has not been easy to continue trusting Him! The house hunt is going very differently from what we had expected or wanted, and I have had a hard time dealing with a life that is ‘on hold’ in every sense except motherhood. (Emma is definitely not on hold! She’s growing up fast.) My new rural existence is also a challenge, though it should get slightly better after Memorial Day, when more tourist-y things are open for the summer.

Sometimes I think that the sacrifice of leaving behind house and friends would be easier if it were for something radical, like living abroad. Then it would be expected to be hard, and it would be for something that’s obviously kingdom-focused. But since the sacrifice is “just to move back to Minnesota” and we’re currently living with Travis’ parents, it seems mundane. Annoying. It doesn’t seem spiritual. It’s not kingdom building. It’s just me, living in the middle of nowhere, with nothing in particular going on.

At least, that’s what Satan wants me to think.

He’s always getting me to focus solely on what I think things should look like. For many years, I felt guilty about “not doing more”, but I just couldn’t fit any formal volunteering into my schedule. Finally, I realized that serving others doesn’t have to be a formal thing. It doesn’t have to happen every Monday from 6-8 pm. It could be random thoughtful gestures, things done whenever a need is noticed. Some weeks, there would be more things to do, and some weeks less. Once I got off the idea of a formal volunteer time, I felt freed to serve as I felt moved by the Spirit.

So Satan wants me to think that moving back to Minnesota is less spiritual and sacrificial than being a missionary. Because the Christians who do radical things, they’re raising support to go live in a hut, learn Lingala and teach hygiene to sick orphans. They’re the ones really living out their faith. Me? I’m just being a coward and moving closer to my family, instead of farther away, and being a typical materialistic American looking for a house that has a master bath and gas fireplace.

Of course that’s not true! (Though I did think that way several years ago.) God has different plans for different people, and for some reason, His plan for us right now is in Minnesota. Our destination may not be Brainerd/Baxter in particular, but until He leads us differently or truly shuts all doors enough times that we get the hint, we will keep patiently looking for a house in that area. We hold our future with open hands, wanting whatever God has for us, and act with the faith that God will reveal His plans in His perfect timing.

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.” (Psalm 138:8)

“This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:23-24)

“Life change comes when we receive life with thanks and ask for nothing to change.” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts)

…………………

I’ll be back soon with Emma’s 13-month update!

Tags: , , , ,

7-Year Anniversary Celebration, Part 1

7 May

Last weekend, Travis and I spent a night away from Emma for the first time since she was born. As we drove away from Travis’ parents’ house, I almost cried but after that, I was fine. We did call to check in that night and the next morning, and Emma did great! That was a relief.

Travis and I enjoyed ourselves as well. We drove down to the Brainerd area on Friday to look at houses. After that, we were starving so instead of cooking dinner in the kitchen of our hotel room like planned, we ate at Grizzly’s. Sufficiently stuffed, we checked into our hotel at Cragun’s Resort, then walked along the lakeshore for a bit before enjoying a free drink and live music at the resort bar.

We went back to the room to get our jacuzzi on. So fun! We drank wine and talked about houses. Then we watched part of the Wild vs. Blackhawks game and hit the sack. We were dialed!

Saturday morning, I read blogs in bed while Travis slept in and then we drove to Caribou Coffee for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We took our coffee with us and went down to the lake again.

image

It was kinda chilly though so we I didn’t last long. Back up in the room, I sat by the fireplace until it was time to checkout.

We had lunch with a girl I knew in college. She lives near Baxter with her husband and daughter who’s just a few months older than Emma. It was fun reconnecting and they gave us the lowdown on the area.

After lunch, we stopped at Fleet Farm, then drove up to the house we were interested in to talk to a neighbor about the neighborhood. It seemed like a great place and we went back on Monday to see it again but someone put an offer on it yesterday, so back to square one. There aren’t many other houses on the market in our price range that we haven’t looked at so it might be a while before we find a house. I’m definitely ready for life to resume a more normal feel, but trying to be patient and trust God’s provision.

We got back up to Nevis about 4:30 on Saturday. It was good to be away for a night but I enjoyed seeing Emma again.

Emma and I are hanging out down in the Cities this week visiting friends while Travis is out of town on a work trip. It’s a little overwhelming because of all the running around but it’s better than staying in Nevis by ourselves!

Emma’s 13 months today but I don’t have a post ready. Guess that one will be a titch late. Later!

Tags: , , ,

Here Goes Nothing

17 Apr

I’m running my first postpartum long-distance race on Saturday – the Hot Chocolate 15K in Minneapolis. I haven’t talked about my training on the blog much, because well, there hasn’t been a ton to talk about. Pre-baby, I did 95% of the workouts on my training plan. Post-baby, I’ve done maybe 60%.

Which may or may not turn out to be a really bad idea. My weekly long run was the one I did consistently – I only missed one, and that was the weekend we were moving. I ended up adjusting the remaining long runs slightly, to account for that (so that my distance didn’t jump up too much in one week). The training plan I’m following (Hal Higdon’s Novice 15K) had my longest run before the race being 8 miles, and I felt comfortable doing only 7.5.

Since I haven’t talked about my training, and my training has been interesting since moving to rural Minnesota, here are what my 3 longest long runs looked like:

3 Weeks Pre-Race

6 Miles, 1:09:22, 11:34 per mile

Nevis, MN

I know my way around Nevis enough to be confident that I wouldn’t get lost (and the town isn’t that big) so I parked at the Catholic church and took off running. I decided to not look at my Garmin until my playlist ended (around 30 minutes). At that point, I had covered 2.7 miles. So I did a few more loops, aiming to hit at least 5.5 miles – and well, 5 miles would be fine too. Well, I underestimated how long the loop would be so I ended up doing a full 6 miles.

nevisrunThat elevation map looks crazy but if you look at the elevation, it’s only varying 50 ft. Ha.

2 Weeks Pre-Race

6.5 Miles, 1:15:28, 11:37 per mile

Park Rapids, MN

I pretty much saw all there was to see (some of it twice!) in Nevis, so for this long run, I headed to the neighboring town of Park Rapids and ran while my mother-in-law got her hair done. This was the first time I had mapped out a route on MapMyRun ahead of time, and then looked it up on my phone to follow it. It actually worked really well, and I would do it again, though I do recommend not making your route such a crazy loop! I didn’t get to enjoy my surroundings as much with this run, since I was constantly looking at my phone trying to figure out where I needed to turn. I also ended up getting a stomachache toward the end, so I cut my run short by 1/2 mile.

parkrapidsrun1 Week Pre-Race

7.5 miles, 1:20:21, 10:48 per mile

Bemidji, MN

It was nasty outside this day – 30 degrees, cloudy and windy with gusts up to 25 mph. I was not in a mood to go running, especially in the wind, but it was my LAST long run before the race so I couldn’t wimp out! I drove up to Bemidji where my sister-in-law lives, so she could watch Emma while I ran – a win-win! (Travis is still studying for the California PE test, which is this coming Monday! Soooo ready for that to be done with.) I had Carolyn drive me 7.5 miles from her house, so that I could run with the wind, instead of against it. I’ve done this before and it’s a great way to get your run in even when the weather is crappy. And hey, the wind helped my pace – I ran the second mile in 10:12!!

bemidjirun20140413_17025420140413_165312This last run really boosted my confidence level. Up until then, my runs had felt lethargic and slow. Like my legs just wouldn’t wake up. But this run, I felt light, fast and excited about running. The last 2 miles were tough because they were around the south side of the lake where the wind was strong, there was snow on the trail and my legs were getting tired, but I finished the whole thing!

Overall, I’ve enjoyed training for this race, but it’ll be my last for a while. I honestly only have the motivation/energy for working out about 3 times a week right now, and when I’m training for a race, I feel like the only thing I should spend my workouts doing is running – which leads to burnout and injury.

I also did not dedicate enough time to the things that are necessary training components outside of running, like stretching, getting enough sleep, fueling correctly, drinking enough water, etc. Part of that, though, is being in the middle of moving. For a while, I wasn’t sure where my foam roller was – once I found that, I started using it fairly regularly. All of my running fuel is packed up, so I haven’t been fueling during my runs at all (and really, I don’t feel like 7.5 miles really requires that – but I will fuel during the race because I could’ve used a little pick-me-up during my last run!).

I also think that I should’ve done more strength training and cross training in building up to this race – if not during the training plan, at least before beginning training. I think my muscles atrophied a lot during pregnancy and as all runners know, it’s possible to develop the muscles you need for running by running – but you usually end up being out of balance and more easily injured. My knee joints have been the thing bothering me the most, and I’m sure tight IT bands are somewhat to blame (it has gotten better since I got my foam roller out). But I also think that if my legs were stronger from non-running activities, and limber from more yoga, my knees would be happier.

So after this race, I’m looking forward to doing more yoga, walking and maybe a few exercise videos. I’ll probably still run once a week just to keep my fitness up, but I need some variety back!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Tags: , , , ,

From Urban to Rural

15 Apr

20140413_170254Being in northern Minnesota is like being in a different world. You wouldn’t think that things were so different in the same state that I grew up in, but they are.

It feels weird to say but I think I’m struggling with culture shock. I grew up in a town of 80,000 people, but after living in major metropolitan areas for the past 12 years, even that feels small to me. Now I’m out in the middle of nowhere: 10 minutes from a town of 350 people. I’m used to there being 3 Targets within 10 miles of my house. Now the closest one is 65 miles away. I expect businesses to be open 24 x 7 x 365. Here, they close at 5 pm on Fridays and aren’t even open on Sundays. And because this is a tourist area, a lot of the ‘area attractions’ are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Travis’ parents have deer carcasses hanging in a tree – a tree you can see from their kitchen window. They shoot porcupines and beavers for being nuisances to trees. They hunt and fish year round. They have more guns than I have fingers. They lease land from a logging company specifically for hunting.

Don’t get me wrong – I love my in-laws (hence my willingness to live with them for several months while we look for a house). And it is true that they’re farther out in the boonies than many people. But a lot of these things are just realities of living in a rural area. To visit specialized doctors or go to a real shopping mall, they drive all the way to Fargo – 3 hours away, one way. Just Walmart is 25 minutes away.

It’s one thing to visit during holidays; it’s another to actually plan on living here. To be honest, it has made me start questioning my desire to live in Brainerd (with neighboring Baxter, the population is 20,000). They have a Target, Kohl’s, Menards, Home Depot, JCPenney, Walmart and Fleet Farm. They have a Starbucks and a library. There’s no shopping mall, but I hardly ever shop at full-price stores anymore anyway.

I have a friend Emily who lives in Park Rapids (the nearest town to here, population 3,500). She grew up in Ramsey, a northern suburb of the Cities, and she said it was a big adjustment moving to Park Rapids. It took a couple of years, but now she feels like Brainerd and Bemidji (13,000) are the big cities. So it is possible to adjust.

I think a common question for city folks like me when they come up here, especially in the winter, is “What do you people DO here?” I grew up in Minnesota and have been around Travis’ family enough to know that there are lots of winter activities: snowmobiling, ice fishing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, sledding, ice hockey, broomball, ice skating. Only problem is, it’s often too cold outside to do that stuff!

I think a lot of my apprehension comes from having Emma, at the age she is. There’s a very limited amount of things she’s willing to do, and those things have a time limit – either because she gets bored, or I get tired from pushing/holding/lifting her. And for pretty much all of those winter activities I listed above, Emma is too young (though she will be old enough next winter for some of them). In the city, it was nice to have lots of parks, museums, shopping malls and playgrounds (open year round) to choose from. There were walking trails near our house. So part of my trouble now should get better once we move from tiny Nevis to bigger Brainerd.

The other part of my apprehension comes from just not being plugged in to our new life here. We’re in this limbo stage, where we’re too far from Brainerd (1 ½ hours) to start getting plugged in, and the people we meet here will be too far away to stay in touch with once we move . So I don’t have many friends or activities to occupy my time other than hanging out at home and venturing into town a couple times a week. The relaxation has been nice, but after another couple months of this…?

But when I think about why I question moving to Brainerd, my main reason is fear. Fear that I’ll be bored to death. Fear that there will be nothing to do. Fear that my city-girl self won’t be able to adapt – or won’t want to adapt – to small-town ways.

I have to admit that it’s easy for me to fall into the trap of feeling superior in a small town. “These small-town folks – how in touch with the real world are they? Look where they live. Look what they wear. Look how they decorate their houses. Look what they drive. Look what they do for fun. I’ll never be like that.”

That judgment, though, is just me trying to rid myself of some of the awkwardness I feel from being out of my element. It’s also very arrogant – saying that I know everything there is to know about the world from living in a big city, and small town people are small-minded and have nothing to teach me.

God’s love frees me from having to judge others. Being grounded in His love for me enables me to be confident in who I am in Christ, so I don’t need to prove myself to anyone. When I am confident in who I am, I don’t feel pressure to completely conform to the culture and lose my identity, but I also don’t need to dig my heels in against everything that is different from what I’m used to.

For example, I’ve been thinking about running in the winter up here. Often it’s so cold that I will have to run inside. Brainerd does not have an indoor track (that I know of) so it will be either a treadmill or nothing. I could get frustrated and grumble about not being able to run in the winter, saying “This sucks” and “Stupid small town” or I could embrace the opportunity to expand my horizons, and snowshoe and cross-country ski more. That is a big benefit of the small town! The trails for that sort of thing are MUCH closer than they were in Denver.

The anxiety and uncertainty I feel about moving to Brainerd reminds me that this move requires faith. Just like moving out to Colorado required faith. Faith that God is leading us. That we’re leaving behind everything and everyone we know to forge a new life, in faith that God is everything He says He is, and will do everything He has promised.

The Jesus Calling devotion today was EXACTLY what I needed to hear:

“Trust Me, and don’t be afraid. Many things feel out of control. Your routines are not running smoothly. You tend to feel more secure when your life is predictable. Let Me lead you to the rock that is higher than you and your circumstances. Take refuge in the shelter of My wings, where you are absolutely secure.

“When you are shaken out of your comfortable routines, grip My hand tightly and look for growth opportunities. Instead of bemoaning the loss of your comfort, accept the challenge of something new. I lead you on from glory to glory, making you fit for My kingdom. Say yes to the ways I work in your life. Trust Me, and don’t be afraid.”

Are you a city-goer or small-town folk? 

Have you ever made the switch from urban to rural, or vice versa? I can see that going either way would be challenging!

Tags: , , , , , , ,

We Made It!

27 Mar

Last Thursday and Friday, we loaded all of our possessions into a 26-foot U-Haul moving truck. Our awesome friends and family helped us. Nothing had to be left behind! Travis and I slept on cots for Thursday and Friday night, my dad on an air mattress, and Travis’ parents got a hotel room. Oh, and Emma slept in her pack & play.

MovingtoMN 002 (Large) MovingtoMN 004 (Large) MovingtoMN 005 (Large) MovingtoMN 018 (Large)

MovingtoMN 022 (Large) MovingtoMN 025 (Large) MovingtoMN 026 (Large) MovingtoMN 027 (Large) Early Saturday morning, Emma, Grandma Beth and I flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Emma did really well on the flight. She played with toys and the in-flight magazines until she crashed.

1966916_721446454552346_1619279792_nAfter we landed, Emma and I drove my dad’s car (that he had left at the airport) to Rochester while Beth headed up to Nevis in her car.

Meanwhile, Travis, Grandpa Al and Grandpa David drove the moving van, pickup truck and SUV (with our 2 dogs) to Minnesota. My dad split off in Omaha – he kept going NE to Rochester while Travis and his dad headed north to Sioux Falls. My dad arrived in Rochester just a little before 11 pm. The dogs were very ready to get out!

Emma and I stayed in Rochester until Tuesday morning. We had a great time hanging out with Grandma Sheri, playing with fun toys (books and magazines count, right?)…

998461_723575161006142_640768047_n…and shopping for Emma’s Easter dress. We looked at every dress in every store in the Apache Mall before deciding on this one. (Apparently, I’m very picky?) Emma will look so cute in it! I also had to buy this one and this one because I’m obsessed with neon coral and stripes.

On Tuesday, Emma and I headed up to Nevis (a 5-hour drive). Emma slept the first 2 hours, then we stopped for lunch. I took the dogs and Emma on a very short walk and then got back on the road, but Emma was not having it. So we went shopping at the Shopko in St. Cloud and I bought Emma’s birthday present and a cute swimsuit top for me, among other things. She still wasn’t the happiest about being in her carseat after our shopping trip, but she fell asleep after 10-15 minutes, and woke up when we were only about 10 minutes from the house. Whew!

The minute I walked in the door, I was organizing and unpacking. There’s something in me that can. not. stand. things being out of place and messy. By the end of Wednesday, everything was pretty much in its place. So today we went to the library in Park Rapids!

10155088_723504804346511_2129091930_nNow I’m on to planning Emma’s birthday party. We’re just doing a small brunch up here in Nevis, with some cute, simple decorations. Well, that’s all for now!

 

Tags: , , ,

A Bittersweet Farewell

11 Mar

We got word a few days ago from our Realtor that our house appraised! So now we are in the final stage of closing.

Which means we’ve started packing. The easiest thing to pack right now are all of the house decorations so yesterday, I took everything off the walls and boxed them up.

Looking around Emma’s nursery at blank walls and bare shelves, I felt sad. I love her nursery. And even though we’re taking all of the decorations with us, and can paint her new room the same yellow if we want, it won’t be the same.

Last night, as I lay awake for a bit in bed after getting Emma down… again, the full weight of reality hit me: We’re leaving. We’re going to drive away from this house and never come back. It will never be our home again. We will never belong to our church again. We won’t shop at this Target. We won’t check out books from this library. We won’t see mountains on the horizon.

Sure, we’ll come back to visit. But it will never be like this again.

We knew that leaving our life out here would be hard. But I think I underestimated it. We’ve been having dinner with the families in our care group one by one. It has been so good to connect with them and I’m sure we’re all wondering why we didn’t do this more often before we were leaving the state. Our going away party is this coming Saturday and even though part of me thinks it’s weird to entertain when your house is bare bones and near-empty, it also feels very fitting.

I am grateful for the sadness though. It means we’ve connected and let our hearts be engaged here. We didn’t stay on the sidelines or watch from afar. We take with us memories that will last for a lifetime, some of which I plan to share on the blog in the next week or so.

Though this transition is laden with sadness, we are also very excited for the next chapter. I know that for things to change, they can’t stay the same. Even if we were staying, things would change. So we have to press on in faith. That’s the great thing about having an omnipresent Savior. Wherever we go, He goes with us. He’s been faithful to us in Colorado. He’ll be faithful in Minnesota.
014d8b3c386df8b0a401b376dbdde3bc

71dea5b44f335fc9c5ca4323eacc0f2c“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!” (Psalm 126:5)

Tags: , , ,

Our house is under contract!

25 Feb

Our house is under contract! It was only on the market for a day before we received a full-price offer. We accepted the offer with a 30-day closing and right now, are in the midst of inspection items and a looming appraisal. If all goes well, our closing date is March 20, and we give possession on March 22.

I can’t believe it’s actually happening!

I finally told my boss and co-workers that I’m moving to Minnesota. Most of them were not surprised. Hmmm… guess I’m not that good at keeping secrets. But they were all happy for me, and sad to see me go. Our departure is definitely bittersweet.

Since my mommy brain is mush, and I won’t remember this stuff next month, let alone a year or more from now (I’ve probably already forgotten stuff!), here’s what we did to our house to get it ready to sell:

  • Packed up and filled a storage unit with about 75% of our stuff
  • Repainted our kitchen cabinet doors
  • Removed all closet doors and treated with Liquid Gold
  • Replaced all family pictures with landscape scenes
  • Puttyed, sanded, spackled and painted the office ceiling, and spots in the hallway, kitchen, master bedroom and laundry room
  • Scraped, washed and painted the exterior soffit and fascia
  • Hung small piece of wood between roof and fascia for new gutters to be installed
  • Had new gutters installed
  • Painted:
    • The hallway and one wall in the living room
    • Both bathrooms. Twice. (FYI, pastels are not in.)
    • Two walls of the master bedroom (We used a color that we had a full gallon of, but no idea why or who bought it)
    • Half of the laundry room (Half was semi-gloss, half was flat – we have no idea how that happened)
    • The laundry room doors and trim
    • The bench in front of our house
    • The china cabinet in our kitchen
    • The master bathroom vanity
  • Finished the windowsill in the master bathroom and added a piece of white trim above the tile
  • Replaced the front exterior light fixture and house numbers to be more modern
  • Had the carpet replaced (which involved removing everything not attached or contained within a piece of furniture – including our closet organizers, pictures on the walls, bed headboard, file drawers, and low closet shelves – and then putting it all back; we hired them to move the furniture itself)
  • Replaced the toilet seat in the main bathroom
  • Spent 3 whole days deep-cleaning our house with a toothbrush and bleach (I actually took work off to clean our house.)
  • Bought new throw pillows for bed and rug for kitchen
  • Bought new nightstands to replace our crappy makeshift ones: a nightstand we rescued from the curb, and a garden table

This is what happens when you leave many house projects only half finished. And totally slack on cleaning.

And that list doesn’t include all of the ‘re-dos’ we had. Our house project mantra was, “Two steps forward, One step back.” For example, when staining the windowsill in the master bathroom, Travis taped off the vanity. When he removed said tape, part of the fake wood veneer came with it. So we had to remove the vanity and paint it. After painting said vanity, we tried to hang it back up. Somehow, we didn’t get one of screws in the right place and it literally busted out a 3-inch chunk of sheet rock. The vanity is now held up with 3 screws instead of 4. In the midst of that debacle, we scraped some of the new paint off the vanity. OMG!!!!

Another instance: Travis and his dad redid our main bathroom last February. In the course of that project, Travis repainted the door trim. We didn’t even know it was possible but that extra coat of paint made the bathroom door no longer shut. So Travis pounded on the trim, busting it loose from the wall. After a few finish nails, the trim was anchored and the door shut, but now the trim and surrounding wall needed to be painted. Again.

Those were the worst things, but there were other little ones like having to repaint a piece of baseboard that was now uncovered by shorter carpet. Or touch up trim in the hallway that had had paint seep on it from underneath the painter’s tape when we painted the walls. Or another one of my favorites, having to repaint the kitchen drawers because someone dripped red wine all down them, and it wouldn’t come off without removing the paint along with it.

But it was all worth it to have our house sell so fast. It was really helpful to have a Realtor with an eye for decorating and staging.

The buyers are a young couple buying their first home. I like to imagine that they’re newlyweds and just starting out like Travis and I were when we bought this house, our first home. I hope they build lots of memories in it – that they host barbecues on the deck in back; play horseshoes and narrowly miss hitting the neighbor’s shed; climb up on the roof to watch the Carnation Festival fireworks; get their hands dirty doing landscaping and gardening; have fun decorating the inside; rock out in the garage while working on their cars; spend cozy winter days on the couch watching the snow come down thick; run hundreds of miles on the neighborhood greenway; walk to Dairy Queen on summer evenings; and so much more. I love this house. And even though it has been a bugger at times (ripping windows out with sawzalls and having the heavens open while half the house is sans shingles), I will always remember it. Actually, those bugger things are some of the best memories.

Now that I’m crying, here are the pictures posted with our listing. (If you’re interested in what the house looked like before, click here.)

l779e9044-w0x l779e9044-w1x l779e9044-w2x l779e9044-w3x l779e9044-w4x l779e9044-w5x l779e9044-w6x l779e9044-w8x l779e9044-w10x l779e9044-w12x l779e9044-w13x l779e9044-w14x l779e9044-w15x l779e9044-w16x l779e9044-w17x l779e9044-w18x l779e9044-w19x l779e9044-w20x l779e9044-w21x l779e9044-w22x

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

– Arnold Bennett

Tags: , , , , , ,

Christmas & New Years 2013

5 Jan

This year for Christmas, we road-tripped to Minnesota. It is 13 hours to my parents’ house and 16 to Travis’, but we ended up encountering snowy roads on both the way there and back, so it took us about 15.5 to get to my parents’ and 17 to get back from Travis’ parents. Brutal!

1511162_676430672387258_369919521_nSomewhere in Iowa, 5 am

20131222_075017Emma did pretty well though. We drove overnight, leaving around 6 pm on our way out and 1:30 pm on the way back. The way there, Emma fell asleep right away and slept the whole time, only waking up when we stopped for gas. I nursed her a couple of times but she was really easy until the morning. We were supposed to get to Rochester by 8 am CT, but we didn’t end up arriving until 9:30. Once Emma woke up around 7 am, she wanted out of her carseat. I did a few smiles out of her though…

20131222_093044The same thing happened on the way back, except her fussy period was on the front end. We left at her nap time, she slept for 1.5 hours, then was awake for about 3 hours, and fell back asleep around 8 pm. During her awake time, she was somewhat fussy. We stopped to eat dinner and took her out of her carseat, partly to feed her dinner and partly to give the distinction between her nap and bedtime. After she fell asleep for the night, she slept almost straight through until 5 am. She was a little fussy then too until we got home around 7 am. But I was fussy after being in the car that long, so I can’t blame her! We were very relieved to get home. I said what I always say after that trip: “I never want to do that again.”

Other than the drive, our trip to Minnesota was very enjoyable. We spent the week of Christmas with my family, since that’s when my siblings would be in town. Because of my mom’s health, our time in Rochester was very lowkey – we mostly just hung out at home, eating, playing games (Yahtzee and Rummikub), playing with Emma and my nephew Jensen, watching movies and talking.

1531680_10101193921359232_124572735_nJensen saw us putting stuff on Emma’s head as a game, and he decided it looked like fun!

1468708_10101193921194562_1566288813_nEmma did a lot better with sleep than I was expecting, considering she was teething and congested. We did have to bounce her to sleep for the majority of her naps and bedtime, but at least she wasn’t screaming like she did the last time we were in Rochester. She also slept pretty well at night, waking up only a few times and going right back to sleep after I nursed her. Even so, I’m sure that God gave me LOTS of patience. Travis and I also switched off getting up early with Emma, so that one of us could get a little more sleep.

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve morning, since that was the only time we’d all be together. We opened gifts first – Emma didn’t quite get the whole unwrapping thing but she liked all the toys she received! She got a cute outfit from her aunt and uncle and this alligator push toy from grandma and grandpa. I got a couple of new scarves and nail polish.

IMG_5173 (Large) 996674_10101193933839222_392390835_n

IMG_5190 (Large)

1508542_10101193934632632_10367976_n

1525556_10101193933230442_450127836_n

IMG_5182 (Large)After opening gifts, we ate brunch. Then my brother, his fiancee and my sister-in-law left and the rest of us hung out until it was time to go to the Christmas Eve service at 4:30. After church, we ate chili for dinner and played some Yahtzee.

IMG_5210 (Large)

On Thursday, it warmed up enough that we braved the outdoors. It was Emma’s first experience in the snow. She seemed to enjoy it overall, but was not a fan of her hand in the snow!

IMG_5214 (Large)

IMG_5222 (Large)IMG_5227 (Large)Travis also went sledding down the steps of the deck.

IMG_5216 (Large)

IMG_5218 (Large)On Friday morning, Travis and I packed up our stuff and hit the road. We had planned to leave for Emma’s first nap, but she hadn’t slept well the night before, I wanted to shower and we had a crapton of stuff to pack up. So we ended up leaving for her second nap of the day instead. It worked out well. She slept most of the 4.5 hour drive to Nevis. 

Our time there was a lot more lowkey than it normally is, because it was so cold outside. It was hardly above zero the whole time we were there. The day after we arrived, though, it was 30 degrees so we took advantage of the ‘warm’ weather and took Emma sledding down the driveway.

IMG_5252 (Large) IMG_5250 (Large)Another night, Travis, Emma and I ‘went to town’ to have dinner with some friends. But other than that, Emma and I didn’t go outside at all. (Well, I did walk from one side of the house to the other when it was 20 below just to remember what it was like.)  

We opened Christmas presents on Saturday night, so that Emma could play with all of her fun new toys. I’m pretty sure her toy collection doubled on this trip. She got Stack n Roll cups, a xylophone, Rock a Stack rings, a musical book, and several cute new outfits, among other small things.

IMG_5267 (Large) IMG_5266 (Large)The rest of our time we spent eating (of course), playing games (Pictionary and MarioKart on the Wii, Pub Trivia, Catch Phrase and Bananagrams), playing with all of Emma’s new toys, and doing a lot of crossword puzzles and Sudoku. We also watched some movies, though I didn’t stay up for most of the them because Emma was sleeping pretty poorly. I think she went through a growth spurt in addition to teething and the congestion. It was a doozy! Fortunately, grandma was willing to watch Emma in the mornings so that both Travis and I could sleep in until 8 or 9. 

1508513_10201283314429703_1340272208_nOn Wednesday, Travis’ aunt and uncle, aunt, cousin and his girlfriend came up for New Years Day. We ate a late lunch, played some Pub Trivia, opened gifts and then they drove the 3 hours back to the Cities. We got more cute outfits and books for Emma, a calendar, office supplies and I got nice running gloves. 

Emma learned how to use a walker on this trip at both houses. Can I just ask, why can’t they make a walker the right size for a 9 month old? Both walkers had to be adjusted down so that Emma could touch the ground. But we made it work and she really enjoyed standing up and moving around. She could mostly only go backward, but toward the end of our trip, she could go forward slightly too.

IMG_5296 (Large) IMG_5298 (Large)Emma also got to use a Johnny Jumpup for the first time in Nevis. She really enjoyed that too – I think, as much as a normal jumperoo. Definitely a good thing to have on vacation (or at grandma’s house). 

IMG_5260 (Large)She’s also starting talking a lot more, and rolling over a ton, but I will talk more about those things in her 9-month update on Tuesday!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Monday Randomness

25 Nov

1. I finally finished watching all the seasons of How I Met Your Mother on Netflix. Now it’s on to CBS.com to watch Season 9!

2. We are making progress on our house renovations. Two weekends ago, we repainted our kitchen cabinets (the same color, just to make them look better). This past weekend, we repainted our main bathroom. Our realtor didn’t like the color we chose when we redid it back in February. So the bathroom is finally finished and decorated! Only took us 9 months.

before_after

20131125_18130320131125_1813173. I’ve been doing my prenatal Pilates video for strength training – because I’m so out of shape, it’s about all I can handle without getting ridiculously sore the next day (as it is, I can still feel it the next day), or without my knees hurting. I feel a little ridiculous still doing a pregnancy workout, but it’s better than nothing, and I gotta start somewhere.

4. Emma takes 2 naps of approx. 2.5 hours each at daycare, but at home, her naps hardly ever last longer than an hour. So she usually needs 3 a day. But on Friday, Emma woke up from her second nap around 2, and we decided to see what would happen if we just kept her up until an earlier bedtime at 6. It worked! She went down really easily, woke up once to nurse around 1:30, went right back to sleep, and woke up for the day around 5:30. A little earlier than normal, but I call it a success! Anyone else’s baby sleep better at daycare than home?

5. We watched our friends’ little girl on Saturday night so that they could go on a date night. It went really well! Their daughter is just 3 weeks younger than Emma and it was fun seeing the ways they were similar, and yet so different. I think Emma is going to be a very outgoing, social little girl! She loved having Rebecca there – she’d smile and giggle at her, and reach out and try to touch her. It was very cute. Rebecca is already crawling, so she had an advantage on Emma. If she wanted a toy that Emma had, she  just crawled over and grabbed it. I didn’t stop her because Emma should learn how to share, but I told Emma, “You got to learn how to crawl, girl!”

20131123_1843326. Travis and I get to go on a date night this coming Saturday and I am so excited. It’s his birthday on Dec 2, so I have the whole night planned out. But it’s a surprise, so I’ll have to write about it next week! 

7. I got a Pumpkin Spice latte from Starbucks Thursday night after my run and realized that I prefer the Pumpkin Spice Coffeemate creamer. It’s just so good! I am totally addicted.

8. I took Emma to the library for the first time the other day. It was pretty anti-climatic since Emma doesn’t really like reading books (she prefers to eat them) but I did check out King’s Cross by Tim Keller for me to read. If you haven’t noticed, I’m a big Tim Keller fan. I hope to visit his church in NYC someday.

9. I’m working from home this week. Nobody from my team is going to be working in the office and since things are pretty slow, I thought it might be nice to be at home (getting stuff done…) than at work poking my eyes out with boredom. The holidays always slow things down at my job. I’m still taking Emma to daycare though, since if she’s home, I really won’t get any work done!

10. I bought these reindeer from Target as Travis’ Christmas gift (sort of). We had seen them while shopping one night and he mentioned that he really liked them. I figured it was one of the very few deer-related decorations that we could ever agree on, so I went back a few days later and bought them. I think they’re neutral enough that I could leave them out year-round, especially in Minnesota! Seriously, I think just about every house in northern Minnesota is decorated in pine trees/cones, deer, loons, or bears somewhere. So we’ll fit right in.

20131124_07232711. I took Emma on a walk on Saturday and she fell asleep, so I just pushed her stroller into her room and let her sleep. It worked!

20131123_160945

Tags: , , , , ,

The Move is On.

8 Oct

So, we are moving to Minnesota.

We’ve been planning to move back pretty much ever since we moved to Colorado. Don’t get me wrong – Colorado is an awesome state and we have loved living here. We have a great church, great friends, good jobs, nice house, and have done a lot of fun things here.

But… our family isn’t here.

And… there’s just something about Minnesota that makes us love it.

Sure, the summers are humid and full of bugs. The winters get down to temperatures I won’t even mention and snow sticks around until April. Many Most days are cloudy. But the truth is, as much as I like to complain about those features of Minnesota, they also endear me to the state. Minnesota is not for the faint of heart.

So why now? Well first, we were waiting to have kids. Check.

Then, we were waiting to talk to Travis’ boss about moving, since we were hoping that Travis would be able to keep his same job and just work from home in Minnesota. We got the green light a couple of weeks ago! 

I’ll have to quit my job but I’ll probably try to find something – whether a part-time ‘for fun’ job or volunteering opportunity – to get me out of the house and keep me sane. Since we’re really close to being debt-free (we’ll only have about $2K left in student loans by November), we don’t really *need* my paycheck. And finding a part-time job that pays me like my current job would be tough.

Anyway, so moving is no longer an IF but a WHEN. All that’s left is to sell our house. We met with a realtor last Friday and are planning to put our house on the market in January. We have some a lot of work to do to get our house ready to sell, but October is the Month of Hunting so nothing will get done then. We could probably finish everything by the end of November but not many people are looking at houses in December, so January it is.

To avoid having to coordinate selling and buying a house across 1,000 miles, we’re going to move into my parent’s lake cabin about an hour north of the Cities for a few months while we find a house. We’re looking at houses in the Brainerd area.

We’re definitely excited to move back, and get a new, bigger house where we plan to live for the next 20ish years, but it’s definitely bittersweet leaving Colorado. We’ll miss it!

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →