The Day Before the Day Before School

(The St. Croix river valley, viewed from the windows of the car on the way to church this morning.)

So tonight is the second to last night we'll spend in our little apartment before the chaos of school and extracurriculars (whatever they may be) and Scouts/YM/YW and, probably eventually, church callings descends.  We spent our second Sunday in our new ward and found everyone to be exceptionally nice and welcoming.  One family in the ward even had us over for dinner earlier in the week--see? exceptionally nice.  They live just one street over in our neighborhood and have kids our kids' age & that's such a blessing.  Their daughter even told Elise she could find her at lunch and come and sit.  So kind!

I've felt very calm and settled since we've come here, which I'm chalking up as one of them multitude of God's blessings we've enjoyed in the midst of all this.  I know myself well enough--and I know life well enough--to realize that this relative calm will pass, and that there will probably be some bumpy spots, especially as the kids get established in school and the rest of what makes up their lives.  And as the house gets finished, too, and we make that final move.  But I've really been enjoying the opportunity to just be with my kids and my family without anything else tugging at me: no classes to teach, no Webelos to plan, no homework to oversee, no soccer practices to run to.  We've just been, well, hanging out.  And although we've occasionally impinged on one another's space, everybody's been getting along remarkably well.

And speaking of space!  I'll stop rambling and post a few pictures.  Here's the fabled apartment, in all its glory:

This would be the kitchen/dining area.  Obviously.  Now, if you're interested in picturing us in the kitchen/dining area, you'll be better prepared to do so.  And here are the kids in the family room, which is, of course, just off of the kitchen/dining area:

You'll notice all three boys huddled around a cardboard box on the floor.  Forrest ran a cable from our bedroom to that little corner so the kids could set up their all-important computer.  We stuck it on top of an end table and used the boxes for the keyboard.  The mouse sits atop one of Wyatt's dinosaur books.  It seems to be working.  And Elise is watching (what else?) some Comcast On Demand sitcom of the iCarly, Suite Life, etc. etc. ilk.  Cue laugh track!  (Oh, the laugh tracks.  They are boring themselves into my skull.)

But we don't just sit around and stare at screens all day, oh no sirree.  We do fun stuff like take the boat out on Lake Elmo.  ("Elmo?" Wyatt said, and giggled.)  And, I know, I forgot the camera, which was too bad because it was a gorgeous day.  Blue sky, calm water, nobody on the lake.  Minnesota: the land of driving 5 minutes and putting your boat in the water.  Nothing like it!

We also went to the Minnesota State Fair on Friday, an activity which non-Minnesotans can't really comprehend unless you've attended (like Grandma and Grandpa Sweat).  We went on a blustery, downright COLD Friday (earlier in the week it was low 90s and humid, then blamo, it's 57 degrees!).  Anyway, we thought it wouldn't be so crowded, given the weather, but we were wrong.  Masses of humanity, all waiting in line for fried food and/or rickety carnival rides and/or to gawk at the fair's biggest pig.  We joined right in:

Wyatt, reaching out and petting a most impressive hog, wearing his pink pig's ears with pride.

"Gather round, kids!  Of course you want your picture taken with Smokey the Bear!"

While at the fair we, as a family, shared: corn dogs (kinda mushy); a giant cup of french fries; a Famous Dave's pulled pork sandwich; Alligator sausage on a stick (Ethan's selection, which he's holding above--it tasted overly spicy and kinda dry, since I can't imagine alligators are all that fatty, but Ethan's nothing if not adventurous); roasted corn on the cob; mini donuts (I'd forgotten how much I love mini donuts); a giant tub of Sweet Martha's chocolate chips cookies; a caramel apple; three glasses of milk (chocolate and plain) and three cups of Coke.

I kinda had a stomach ache when I got home.  Go figure.

I also had a stomach ache watching my beloved children ride this:

Yes, that's three of my four children, suspended upside down, high in the air, on a suspicious-looking carnival ride.  Jonas barely made the height requirement, and he's so skinny I kept having visions of him somehow slipping through his harness.  Luckily they made it out alive and begging to go again.  Here are some more action shots:

I like how Wyatt's got his tongue out.  Ready to go.  And I felt for the poor carnival workers in their hip waders and gloves, pushing preschoolers around in a chilly pool of murky water all day.  Talk about challenging work conditions.

Nothing like getting to ride up front!  And with your big sister, too.

I'm just barely getting old enough that this ride (which those of you who are familiar w/ Lagoon would call the "Music Express") makes me a little bit sick to my stomach.  But only when we're going backwards.

We had a lot of fun, even if it was chilly.  We've also done a few other fun things this last week: the Minnesota Zoo, the Mall of America (don't know if I'd exactly call that one FUN, necessarily--man, that place is big and loud and crowded--but it was good to go back and see it again.  Elise said it had a "familiar smell.")  Elise and I had our yearly "mom and daughter day" yesterday and went school shopping and out to lunch at Applebees, and that was a lot more fun than the Mall of America.  Ethan and Forrest went and bought Ethan a bow, since the legal bow hunting age here is 12 and Forrest thought it would be fun to teach him a little archery.

We also have some pictures of the inside of the house (almost forgot--and I realize these pics are probably a little boring, since there's not much but walls and cabinetry):

Kitchen/dining

More kitchen

Family room

Entryway (living room to the left, office--can't see it--to the right)

Upstairs loft, which will save my sanity as all Disney channel sit coms must be watched UPSTAIRS.

Master bedroom

Back yard.  In Minnesota, people don't have fences (usually) and in our neighborhood, fences are expressly forbidden in the association's covenants.  I've gotten to where I like the look of unbroken green, but I am glad that we have this nice stand of trees that lines the backyards, so we have at least a little privacy.

And last but not least!  A few pictures I'd forgotten to upload from my phone, back from the lifetime ago when we were living in Utah.  (Yes, I've felt peaceful over the last week and a half, but it's been an incredibly looooooong week and a half.)

Ethan and Elise jumping off the platforms at Ethan's birthday party at the Kearns rec center.

Ethan and his friends at the aforementioned birthday party.

Elise and her Beehive class at her goodbye pizza party.

A beautiful Utah sunset, made all the more wistful by the "under contract" sign in our lawn.  Apparently the sale went through on August 31 and people who are NOT US will soon be occupying our house!  They're moving from North Carolina, so I'm not sure if they're actually there yet.  It's always so strange to sell a house . . .

The kids up at Ledgemere, having one last picnic up the canyon with Grandma and Grandpa Sweat before heading em up and moving em out.

And now I think I have all the important stuff covered.  Or at least most of it. Tomorrow we're getting together with the family of one of our former bishops in the White Bear Lake ward for lunch, then spending the rest of the day gearing up for school to start.  And then--blamo!  Real life.  Hopefully we're ready.

Photo Updates, In Reverse Chronological Order

So I figured out how to upload photos on my computer even though I don't have the cord.  Turns out Wyatt's Leapster has the same type of cord as my Nikon.  Hooray!  Voila!  Now I have pictures to share.

Since I have a bunch of pics from before the move that hadn't been uploaded, I'm going to start w/ the most recent pic and then go back in time, hopefully with a minimum of commentary on my part.  Or else this is going to take me forever to write (and, by extension, forever for you to read.)

The first picture.  The new house!

I really like the color of the cement board (it isn't vinyl siding--our first house with cement board).  I also like the white accent.  We didn't get to choose our color palette since the house was a spec and the colors were already chosen by the builder, but I did get to choose if I wanted red or a lighter beige in the roof peaks.  I thought red would be fun--a number of the houses have colorful accents--and I didn't know if I wanted a brown-and-beige house.  But now I'm a little unsure about the "red" since it has a decidedly purplish cast.  I thought it would be a more brownish-red.  It's so hard to tell from paint chips!  But apparently this is the red that is used on other houses in the neighborhood. So.  I either have to decide that I like it or see about having the roof peaks repainted in the lighter beige color.  What do you think?  Forrest says we should let it grow on us and that it will all look nice once the landscaping's in and the front door is on.  I suppose time will tell, as it always does.

This is also the first time I've had a house with the garage on the left hand side, and that's throwing me off a little too.  Perhaps because we read left to right, I generally "read" a house left to right, and I don't like starting with the garage.  But I'll get used to this too, I'm sure.  But now I sound like a big whiner, and I don't want to, because I really really love the inside of the house.  It's going to be a great space and fit our family really well.  I wanted to take pics of the inside, but when we went over with the camera they'd taped off everything in order to paint.  So those pictures are forthcoming.

A few other quick moving updates: 1. We went to church today and it was really good.  It seems like a very nice ward--big!--and the kids were very friendly to Ethan, Elise and Jonas when they went to class. (I'm sure the nursery kids were friendly to Wyatt, too, but it's harder to get reliable intel from a 3 year old.)  2. My hair likes Minnesota, I think.  It's shinier and easier to tame.  The humidity maybe?  3. After two days of listening to Phineas and Ferb blasting on the Disney channel in the main kitchen/family room area, we broke down and bought a smallish TV from Sam's Club so the kids can have a TV in their room.  It's for my sanity, people.  And the kids' sanity, too.  It's hard to come up with stuff to do all day when you're in a 3 bedroom apartment and have no friends.  Hence, Phineas and Ferb.  This too shall pass, yes?

Okay, now another picture.  I'm not doing so hot on the short commentary thing, I realize.

This is Ethan, smiling in front of his birthday cake on Friday.  Doesn't he look old all of a sudden?  It's because he's 14 and heading to HIGH SCHOOL!  And yes, that's the apartment kitchen in the background.  Haven't taken any other pics yet because I want to get the joint put together first.  Almost there.

Ethan spent his birthday at the "Raptor Roundup"--a daylong event for incoming freshman at his high school.  He strode in there surrounded by a bunch of other 9th graders without knowing a soul and did just fine.  He said lunch was a little long--they gave them a whole hour, which is a long time if you don't know anybody--but overall he had a good day.  He's a self-possessed kid and I know he'll be able to take all of this in stride, even if there are a few bumps in the road along the way.  We spent that evening eating at Buffalo Wild Wings, since Ethan loves a good chicken wing, and had a fun meal together.  Happy Birthday Ethan!  We love you.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids last Sunday night, spending one last evening with their cousins at Grandma's house.  Even the big girls dressed up (beautifully).

Wyatt now thinks he wants to be a police man when he grows up.  Mainly so he'll have increased access to guns.  Perhaps this is why he's decided against the ninja route; ninja weaponry is so old-fashioned.

Last Saturday, Forrest and Tony and Peter participated in the Jordanelle Triathlon.  Isn't this a hunky picture of three good lookin' guys?

They even looked good after they finished, which is an even more impressive feat:

All three of them did an excellent job and it was fun to go and cheer them on.  Here's Forrest looking downright pleasant after emerging from the swim, making it look easier than it actually is:

Those people behind him are all the people he beat. :-)

And here's Jonas and Reagan, hiding in the tippy top of a tree while they wait for their dads at the finish line:

Speaking of trees, the weekend before the Jordanelle Tri, we took the kids on one last trip up into the mountains.  We found a nice spot just off of Strawberry Reservoir and pitched our tent.

Grandma and Grandpa came up and joined us for s'more cooking.

And here's some s'more dancing:

Some adolescent tree sitting (right back atcha!):

And some pre-K fantasy gunplay.  Because wherever you find Wyatt, you'll find fantasy gunplay.  Even in the woods, he's able to find a left over tent spike and turn it into a firearm.  (At least I've gotten him to pretend to be killing "robots" instead of "bad guys.")

And finally, a few pictures Elise took of her time at girls' camp.  I can't believe she's already doing the whole girls' camp thing!  And doing it much better than I did.  I wasn't much of a girls' camp fan.  Preferred Youth Conference, where both boys and electricity were available in abundance.  But Elise had a great time, even though it rained buckets and buckets.  Here's all the cute girls in the ward:

And here's cute Elise:

And now (whew!) we are finally caught up.  I'll take more pictures of the beautiful greenishness of Minnesota, the apartment, and the inside of the house here soon.  Love you all!  Miss you!

We're Heeee-eeere

I'm sitting at Forrest's computer.  It's right under a vent in the ceiling and cold air is shooting down onto my head most unpleasantly, but I'm not sure if I want to close the vent (make the room stuffy?) or leave it open and suffer a bit whilst on the computer.

And yes--we're in our apartment!  In Minnesota!  We made it.  The plan ride was pretty smooth--smoother, I'm sure, than Forrest and Darrin's jaunt across the country pulling a boat filled with toiletries and medication and flammable cleaning liquids and plastic tubs full of clothes and a road bike and one ridiculously yowly cat whom, I'm told, yowled pretty much constantly from Monday to Wednesday. 

Do you say "whom" when referring to a cat?

Anyway, good plane ride.  Had a connection in Denver that made me a little nervous because time was tight, but (amazingly!) the gate we had to get to was directly adjacent to the gate where we arrived.  (From which we arrived?  Where we arrived from?  Whom?)  Wyatt even decided to take a little nap from Denver to Minneapolis and I got to read my book.  Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos, given to me by she of impeccable literary taste, Ms. Darlene Young.  (Loving it Darlene.  Thank you.)

Then Forrest picked us up from the airport and whisked us off to drive past the kids' schools and past our new house.  It's going to be a great house, and it was really fun to see how much progress has been made: exterior all done (colors a little different from what I was expecting, but I think I'll like it); cabinets in (love them!); primer on the walls (a little darker than I was expecting--just like the exterior of the house--but it's primer, not paint).  As soon as I figure out where I stashed my camera I'll take some pictures.  Then I'll have to figure out how to upload them because I think the movers took the box I'd painstakingly packed full of all the cords that connect things to the computer. Sigh.  Things I also don't have on hand: hangers, extra towels (they said there would be towels here, but there are, like, four), Wyatt's box of Trio blocks (where ARE they?), and a laundry hamper for the kids' bathroom.

And speaking of the kids' bathroom, the temp housing is quite nice.  Pretty spacious, for an apartment.  But the hot water doesn't get very hot and the phone just rang and the person on the other end asked for "Tuwahn" (I'm spelling this phonetically) and the bed is small.  So it's not exactly home.  But it's definitely doable for six weeks; in fact, it's kinda like an adventure.  Right?  An adventure!

Today we're heading out for Elise's middle school open house.  As soon as I have pictures, I'll upload them.  And thank you to all of you for all your help and love as we got ready to move.  Mom and Dad, especially--thanks so much for letting us hang out at your place!  There's nothing like Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We love you all.  Miss you already.

Crazy Town

So we're moving.  Have you heard?  The movers are coming tomorrow.  Eek!  I'm trying to separate the stuff we'll need for the next week while we stay at Mom and Dad's from the stuff we'll need for the next six weeks while we're in temp furnished housing before the house is built from the stuff that the movers are going to pack away and lock up in storage until it's time to move into the house.  My brain hurts.  And we have so many clothes.  So, so many clothes.

I keep wanting to blog about:

-How we went camping up at Strawberry last weekend

and

-The Irreantum fiction / creative nonfiction contest committee meeting/party (cause it really is too much fun to be called a "meeting") that we had at my house last night and how much it made me miss the loss of my Utah-based literary community

and

-Elise going to girls' camp and braving thunderstorms aplenty

and

-How we're selling/donating/junking so much stuff and how good it makes me feel to declutter and downsize

but

I don't have time.

I might once the movers are all done on Friday and we're safely ensconced at my Mom and Dad's house, but I don't know yet.

So until then . . .

More Summer Fun

Here are some more shots of last week with the fam.  First, big thanks to Andrea for emailing me some of her great shots!

The almost-fourth graders, digging their way to China.  They're so cute together.  Might they be mad that I say they're cute together?  But they are.

A sunset ride on the boat.  The water was gorgeous.  I love riding on the boat just before nightfall.

So I took this one (and some of the others) but hadn't uploaded yet because it was on my phone.  I'm sure you can tell it was a phone picture--dang graininess--but this shot of the boys asleep a few minutes after they'd settled in to watch cartoons was too cute to miss.

The cousins also had fun at Grandma's house while the guys went golfing.  Andi had always wanted to take a pyramid shot.  And now she got one!

On Saturday, Grandma treated all the girls to tea-time at the Grand America hotel.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  Finger sandwiches, gorgeous desserts, little teapots full of hot chocolate and plum tea (I was the only one who ordered tea--herbal!--as the waitress noted no less than three times.  And I kinda regretted not getting the hot chocolate.  Mormons!)  There was a harpist in her functional black dress, and the bathrooms were so beautiful we had to take a trip to go check them out.  I'm sure the girls won't forget this any time soon.

We also hoofed it over to temple square to see the new miniature temple cutout, which was really cool.  The weather, however, was NOT cool, and we were all pretty sweaty when we got to the car.  Elise grew out of her shoes along the way, too.  I tell the truth!  She could no longer put her shoes on after she took them off in the car.  We drove to Target on the way home to get her friend a birthday present, and Elise walked in barefooted, headed straight for the shoe aisle, and picked a pair of flip flops.  Women's, size 8 1/2.  Yes, it's true: we now wear the same shoe size.  How tall is this girl going to be???

Then on Saturday night we headed over to Karla's to celebrate Grandma Ranquist's birthday.  It was so much fun to see everybody, especially before we go, and check out Karla's gorgeous new kitchen.  (Seriously, those blue built-ins?  To die for!)  The back yard at Aunt Karla and Uncle Richard's is a grandkids' paradise, and they all had a great time scampering around till late into the night.

(Thanks to Andi again for the picture.  And for the next one.)

Grandma Ranquist with all the (present) grandkids.  Just missing: Amy, Abby, Adam, Jessica, Drake and Jonathan. And geez, Andrew, you really are freakishly tall.  Just in case you forgot.

It was such a great week.  It melted away a lot of my stress and it was so nice just to hang with family and have FUN.  It made me sad, though, too--to be leaving all these people I love.  (We also went up to Darrin and Katie's for a Wilkey FHE on Sunday night--no pictures, though--and got to hug and talk to dozens of Wilkeys, which was also fun and sad.)

My only consolation is that I know when you're gone, then the times that you do spend together are even more intensely fun, e.g., we wouldn't have done a lot of this stuff if Andrew and Andi hadn't come to town. Now we just have to figure out how to coordinate all our family vacations so all the Sweat kids are in town at the same time.  And leg wrestle over who gets to stay in Grandma and Grandpa's basement.