Minnesota Conversation

I forgot to tell you about my conversation with Vernon on our last night in Minnesota.

He started asking me a bunch of questions about if I was really sure that I didn't want to move back to Minnesota. Why didn't I? What were my reasons? Etc.

And then he said, "I read that notebook from your Going Away Party." (Each of my friends had written something lovely in a journal for me and gave it to me at my Going Away Party... things like how awesome I am, how nice it was to get to know me, how REALLY awesome I am, how they like my awesomeness, etc.). "Are you sure you want to move away from all of that?" (Answer: I guess so.)

Oh, and there was another thing on a similar note. A couple of days after we got here, I put in a CD that my friend had given me with pictures from Ocean's first sleepover. There was Ocean with her two best friends, looking all happy and bonded and stuff. Vern was looking at the pictures and says, rather sentimentally (but not entirely serious), "Let's move back to Minnesota so those girls can grow up together."

Ahh... moving away. So rough.

Some days are good (like this one), but then some days, like today, are a bit harder on me. Days when the Emmys are on, which means that we HAVE to eat Papa Murphy's pizza, but when I do a search for locations, one that it finds for me is NOT there, and the other one it finds is closed for remodeling. And then the Emmys apparently start at 6:00 pm here (mountain time) and NOT 7:00 pm, so we missed the first part of it anyway.

Bah!

My Guest Post

I wrote a guest post on Darcel's blog. You can go here to read it. (Plus, check out the other posts on her blog too, because she's pretty cool.)

Oh, and here are some posts from our road trip that I never got around to posting before. Most of these are from Fort Cody:

 

And this one's from the Golden Corral:

Day in Boulder - Video

So, here is a video of our aforementioned day in Boulder.


If you don't feel like watching the vid, here is a picture of my rooster feathers (which are actually not rooster feathers inasmuch as they are the feathers of a pheasant... my bad):

I got these because pheasant feathers make people think, "Look! She's cool. She has pheasant feathers in her hair!" Which is almost entirely the pretense I am trying to convey (...that of being cool).

Positive Things

My posts have kind of been negative lately, so let me tell you all about some good things:

1) It takes Vernon, literally, 3 minutes to WALK to his office everyday.
2) The mountains are beautiful. They're always to the west of me, so I always know what direction I am going.
3) The mattress that we got out of the garbage is actually pretty comfortable.
4) I found a Mom's Night In to go to with the Colorado Attachment Parenting group on Friday. 
5) The unschooling group that I've been going to in Boulder is amazing. Boulder itself is amazing.

We went to the unschooling group today and this is where we met:

Isn't it beautiful? I love seeing my kids playing in nature like this. It makes my heart content:

Here is another picture of Peace (don't worry, my other kids were there too, they were just off exploring and were too far away to take pictures of):

We're going to go back to Boulder tomorrow or Friday where we are going to hike up a mountain, stroll down Pearl Street, go to that creek again, and get rooster feathers put into my hair. It should be a good day.

Here's a final picture that I will leave you with. See how I'm starting to decorate our apartment?

Target and Swimming and Being Lost

I don't know what to do here. I am feeling a little bit lost, just being here. Vernon has a purpose here. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

This is what we have done for the past ten days: gone to either Target or Whole Foods nearly every day, gone to the library just as much, gone into the mountains once (but that was a long drive), gone to an unschooling group in Boulder (which was the highlight of our week).

We have an outdoor pool in our apartment complex, which is all well and good except for that fact that Ezra wants to swim in it three times a day. Which is all well and good except for the fact that I have to supervise him when he's there. Which is all well and good except for the fact that I have to take Peace with while I supervise him. Which is all well and good except for the fact that Peace wants to get into the pool too. Which is all well and good except for the fact that I would have to go in with her. Which is NOT well and good because sometimes I just don't feel like going in the pool (and especially not three times a day).

There is also the fact that Ezra talks about his birthday (which is over a month away), literally, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Originally, he had talked about inviting these two strange neighbor kids (that he hardly even knows) to his birthday party. But now there seems to have been a bit of a falling out between them and when Ezra walked by one of them today, she said, "I hate that boy." Good stuff.

Our Apartment

Hey, remember when I was all, like, "Getting rid of all of our stuff has been a very freeing, liberating experience. I highly recommend it."

Well, cut to a couple of days ago when I am sitting in our empty Colorado apartment, hardly any worldly possessions in sight... sitting on a couch that we dug out of the garbage.

That's right. I said it: We dug a couch out of the garbage.

Well, technically, it wasn't IN the garbage... it was right next to the dumpster. And it was there right when we pulled up to the apartment, so we figured it must have been meant to be. It was this HUGE sectional, three pieces, and one of the sections had a hideaway bed. I don't know if you've ever tried to carry a section of a couch with a bed inside of it before, but, let me tell you, it is NOT easy (especially when there are stairs involved). Let's just say that it was a good thing I was doing all of this beforehand, otherwise, I don't know if I could have done it.

But then, once we get it up to the apartment, we decide to just take the mattress out of it for our bedroom, and just use two of the three sections in the living room. So we had to take that section all the way back down to the dumpster again.

Then, we went to the Salvation Army to buy something to cover the couch up with, and, badda-bing, badda-boom, here it is:

Oh, and do you see that black cabinet holding our computer? We dug that out of the garbage too!

So, I don't really recommend that stuff about getting rid of all of your worldly possessions anymore (unless you're moving into a furnished apartment or something), because this has all been kind of tough on me.

Our apartment smells.

I stole toilet paper from the library (just a handful, enough to get us through a day) because we didn't know where any stores were yet.

And I don't really want to judge the other people who live here, but here are some things that have caught my attention:

1) The parents yell at their children and tell them to shut up (openly and in public, like there isn't anything wrong with it).
2) I don't think I have seen a neighbor yet who DOES NOT smoke.
3) Everybody is insanely messy. Cigarette butts and trash everywhere. And you know how when you'll get a flyer from a local pizza store or something and they leave it in your door... and you know how you take that flyer into your house and then throw it in your garbage like a normal person? Well, our neighbors take that flyer and throw it onto the ground in the common area. Along with their cigarette butts.

So, we don't exactly fit in here... except DID I MENTION THE FACT THAT WE JUST DUG A COUCH AND A COMPUTER CABINET OUT OF THE GARBAGE?

Maybe we fit in better than I think.

(Oh, and I also taped black garbage bags up to our bedroom windows. How's that for classy?)

This is my life, people. I am not making this stuff up.

The Lost Post

Well, it looks like the post that Vernon attempted to find is really lost.

Oh, well.

It was basically one of those self-pity posts where I was writing about things like 1) feeling strange walking around my new kitchen, 2) finding comfort in going to Target because it breeds the familiarity that I crave, and 3) how my apartment smells.

More on all of this later. I have internet at home now (praise the Lord), so I will be able to update on a regular basis now.

Time's Up

Allison wrote a blog post this morning, but the time on the computer at the library ran out before she had a chance to publish it. (We will have internet access at our apartment starting Monday. As Allison would write... Bah!)

So, while she is out exploring with the kids and I had some time to fill before working this afternoon, she had me go to the library to publish her blog which she said should have autosaved itself. However, either it doesn't do that, or I am a blog moron. (Bet safely people, and put your money on the latter.)

Anywho, stay tuned tomorrow for something that will surely be awesome... or awkward... but most likely a mix of of the two in a way that only Allison can pull off.

The Road Trip

It's me! I'm back! No more auto-blog.

I'm in Colorado. I'm living here now (but more on that later). But now I need to tell you about our road trip out here.

We packed our cars full. Ezra rode with Vernon, and the girls rode with me. We were planning on stopping at a Pizza Ranch in Iowa on the way, right? I had checked online beforehand and saw that there were a gazillion Pizza Ranches in Iowa, so I didn't write down the locations of any of them because I figured that we would just run into one when we needed it SINCE THERE WERE SO MANY.

But, by the time we reached the last city in Iowa on I-80, Council Bluffs, we still hadn't run into one.

So we ate at the Golden Corral instead (because the kids were expecting an all-you-can-eat-buffet). It tasted like barf, but the kids were happy.

We drove some more, and then stopped in North Platte, Nebraska, for the night. We stayed at a place called The Hospitality Inn because it looked the cheapest (and I later saw a sign for it that said: "The Best Price Around")... paint peeling, kind of run-down... this is what the Kuznia's look for on a road trip, people.

Ironically enough, once we got in there we realized that we had stayed there before (on a previous road trip), so, I guess our taste hasn't changed much.

But here's the thing... this crappy hotel... paint peeling, kind of run-down... it cost $77 ($53 for a single person, $15 for additional adult, kids were free, plus the tax). What the heck? Since when do really crappy hotels start costing us $77? I don't remember ever paying $77 for a crappy hotel room. If I'm paying $77, I should be staying at the Ritz Carlton, if you ask me.

So, anyway, the (what do you call the person who checks you in at a hotel?) lady told us that there were crickets in the swimming pool (it was outdoors) because it was mating season for the crickets or something. We checked it out, and there were a bunch of dead crickets in the pool, but Ocean said she wanted to swim in there anyway. So we went to the room, the kids changed into their swimsuits, but when we arrived at the pool again, the gates were locked and we couldn't get in.

So, we went to this place instead (because it was right next door and it was free).

I tried to get on the internet at the hotel (because I had this insatiable urge to update my facebook status to read: "Allison is in North Platte, Nebraska!"), but it wasn't working.

I go to complain to the (what do you call the guy who is now working behind the desk at the hotel?) hotel person about all of this. I say, "We kind of picked this place to stay because it said it had a swimming pool and free internet, and none of those were working. Do you think you could give us some sort of discount on our room?"

He says, "The swimming pool is open. I was just in there."

I say, "But it wasn't open when we went there to swim at 6:30 pm."

He says, "But it's open now."

It is 9:00 pm.

I say, "But my kids are in bed now."

He says, "But it's open now."

I say, "So... I can get a discount on our room, because this wasn't what we expected?"

He says, "No, once it has gone through, it's gone through. There's nothing I can do."

I notice some business cards sitting on the counter with the manager's name on it.

I say, "Well, can we contact the manager so I can talk to him about this."

He says, "That's me."

I say, "Oh."

So, the next day, I say to Vernon, "Just watch, five years from now, we will check into this place again and not realize that we have been here before."

And Vernon says, "Five years from now, we won't have to stay in places like this."

END ROAD TRIP STORY

So, I have more to stay, but my time is running out on this library computer (we don't have internet hooked up at home yet). I still need to get to the part about the library toilet paper, the free couch, and a bunch of other stuff. Oh, and there are pictures too!

But, for now, I will just leave this with a...

- TO BE CONTINUED -

Sunday

One last vid before the real me comes back to update, hopefully tomorrow:

Saturday

Here's another semi-old video to keep you all entertained while I'm AWOL:


Oh, and this one too just because I like it and it's really short:

Friday

Okay. So by now we are on our way to Denver, stopping in Iowa to eat at a Pizza Ranch (because Pizza Ranch is AWESOME!) and then finding a hotel somewhere in Nebraska to stay for the night.
To keep you entertained for today, here is one of my earlier videos. Enjoy:

Things I Will Miss About Minneapolis

* Dyeing Easter eggs at Kelly's

* The Halloween Party in Bloomington

* The Traditional Foods community

* The Mall of America

* The Boo Bash on Grand Avenue

* Mom's Night Out (especially at Barbara's)

* The woods outside of Cliff Fen Park in Burnsville

* Watching that Unicycle Club in all the local parades (I really want to ride a unicycle someday)

* The Birth community

* Little Learners

* Our library, and Miss Linda, our librarian

* Blessingways

* Birth Video Nights

* The Brunch Bunch (aka The Breakfast Club)

* Game Nights with friends

* The best babysitters in the universe... Janine and Lisa!

* The Children's Museum

* Playgroups - Monday Outings, Fuller Park, Powderhorn, Wabun, Nokomis

* Night Before New Year's at Nokomis

* The Christmas House in Burnsville

* The Childbirth Collective Annual Holiday Party

* Food Tidings and the fact that I had over 30 meals brought to me after Peace was born

* The Easter Egg Hunt in Bloomington

* Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville (I LOVE this co-op!)

* Sever's Corn Maze  

* My friends

The Going Away Party

I just got back from my going away party. It was amazing.

Driving up to my going away party was kind of surreal. It's kind of like driving to one's funeral or something (except not really). And I get kind of shy sometimes when I am the center of attention (except for when I don't), but it was good.

I spent a lot of the party just looking around at all of my friends, in awe of how awesome they are. There were about 30 people there, and each and every one of them holds a dear place in my heart. Seeing them all around me was a great feeling.

And there were about 20 other people who I would have loved to have been there, but had some sort of excuse... oh, I'm on vacation, I have to put my son to bed, my cousin is in town, I'm sick, I have to take care of my kids, I have strep throat... blah, blah, blah. Like they can't arrange their vacations and getting sick around MY SCHEDULE? The nerve of some people! (Note: I'm kidding, except not really.)

So, anyway, yeah... the Going Away Party was really nice. I even hugged people and ENJOYED it. But most of the time I tried to forget about the fact that I was moving. Like, if I started to think about the fact that I might never see this person or that person again (or at least for a very long time), that didn't feel very lovely, so I tried to push away those thoughts and pretend that it was just another night. Which worked, for the post part, except not really.

We are going to pack up the computer tomorrow (which I guess is technically today since it is 1:32 am right now) so this will be my last live entry until we get settled in Colorado. But I am going to set up this blog to run on autopilot for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so you can check back each of those days for an amusing pre-written post. I'll set it to update at 6:30 pm on each of those days, and then on Monday I should be back with my first live entry from Colorado!

Wish us luck.

Three More Days

This will probably come as no surprise to anybody in the universe other than myself... but it is really, really, really uncomfortable sleeping on an air mattress.

That being said, I have come up with a different plan for when we move to Colorado... obtain a used futon mattress from Craig's List and use that, then donate it when we're done.

We are moving in three days.

Tomorrow will be my last day updating this blog until we get to Colorado, but I will set it up on auto-pilot to add some posts while I'm out. 

Mission: Mom

I've been on a mission to convince my mother to move with us to Vermont.

She's not having it.

"But, Mom, why wouldn't you want to move to a place where people go to vacation?" I said. "Nobody vacations in Fargo."

And then, I was saying to Vernon later: "See, if my mom was living close to us she could help me out with the kids some more and I wouldn't be such a crazy person."

And Vernon says: "But that didn't help yesterday and she was here all day."

Bah.

So, anyway, this is what we've been up to:

The donation truck DID NOT pick up the recliner, the computer desk, the car seat, my 2-1/2 pound weights, the propane camp stove, or the Christmas tree stand. So we set them out on the curb with a sign marked FREE and got rid of the recliner, weights, and camp stove that way. We'll try again with the rest of the stuff tomorrow.

We have gotten rid of most of our worldly possessions, but, look... we're still happy:

And actually, getting rid of all of our stuff has been a very freeing, liberating experience. I highly recommend it.

Now, one last picture of Peace. She is ready to go:

Once Upon a Child

I went to Once Upon a Child yesterday (a store that buys and sells gently used kids items... I got $12! Woohoo!).

Anyway, while I was there, I saw this:

They're called Walking Wings, and they look like this when you use them:

Seriously, mainstreamers, I know you like to have all the latest baby gadgets and everything under the sun... but, REALLY? Walking wings? Because your baby needs help... learning how to walk? Really?

Once Upon a Child also had about 20 Baby Bjorn baby carriers and Snugli's for sale, and zero of the REAL baby slings for sale (like the Moby, Ergo, Mei Tei, and the like). I mean, sure, I have to give people props for wearing their babies in the first place... but I just feel bad because people don't realize that the Baby Bjorn IS INSANELY BAD FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUR BABY'S SPINE!

Also in Once Upon a Child, there was an entire back wall that Fischer Price threw up on. It was amazing.

Sleeping on the Floor

So, this is where we used to sleep:

And this is where we slept last night:

Where the kids used to sleep:

Last night:

Let's just say that it's a good thing I have a chiropractor for a husband.

One Week

We are moving one week from today.

Here is a picture of me from 2004:

Which brings about the question: Should I do something new with my hair?

And here's another picture from seven years ago:

Working Out with a Baby!

Don't ask me why I do things like this.

Employee of the Month

I was once named the May 2002 Employee of the Month for Outback Steakhouse. I'm mentioning this here because I never thought I got enough recognition for that accomplishment.

P.S. I am moving in 10 days.

More On Drinking

I am reading this book called Courtship After Marriage by Zig Ziglar because, 1) I am a nerd who reads books like this, and, 2) I think Zig Ziglar is kind of awesome.

Anyway, in one part of the book, Zig talks about how his wife (The Redhead) learned how to play golf because it was an interest that he enjoyed and she wanted to be a part of it (and now she loves it too). It was like how Vernon started watching Gilmore Girls with me because he knew how much I loved it.

So... you all know where this is going... I have still been wrestling with this idea of Vernon drinking, processing it, and, finally, coming to terms with it (sort of... in my very own sort of way).

I'm not entirely sure if I want to do this, but it came to my mind that I *might* like to try wine-tasting ( wine reminds me of church and kombucha) with Vernon. I imagine the two of us together in wine country, sipping wine with our pinkies held high in the air, eating foie gras, and using words such as "marvelous" and "darling"... (In reality it would be more likely to consist of fart jokes and awkward conversations with the staff).

But I would to be like Zig Ziglar's Redhead learning how to play golf.

So, I mentioned this to Vernon and he says, "I don't really like the taste of wine."

Nice.

A Couple More Things

6) My husband is better at getting Peace to sleep at night than I am.

7) Lately, I think that I have been overusing the phrase, "in the entire history of the universe." That is really the type of phrase that should have limited use, so as to maintain its effectiveness.

8) I'd like to take some hot-throb pictures of my husband (you know, like the kind that Zac Efron does). That way, if I ever wonder about my life, I can always say, "Well, at least I have a hot husband." I would do the same for him, but I think that if I tried to look sexy, the pictures would just end up looking sarcastic.

9) Sometimes I use the handicap accessible restroom just because I like to have more space.

10) One of my boobs is noticeably larger than the other.

11) We are moving in 12 days.