surREAL WORLD Minnesota

Now that I've been here a few weeks, I thought I'd write another one of my Journal-ish type entries about my new life.  Calling it a 'new life' sounds a bit dramatic- even coming from me, but it really is a whole new life for me minus a few major staples (namely Dave, Tol & Addi).

First of all, the neighborhood we live in is great.  I really went out on a limb by putting the home shopping completely in Dave's hands- which is SO NOT like me.  But since we decided not to buy and rent instead, I didn't care so much.  Plus, Dave is a FREAK about weird mysterious odors and stains so I knew he wouldn't move us into some nasty cat lady or smoker house.  I gave him my short list (really) of criteria and it was all his.  Blah blah blah.  So yeah, neighborhood is great.  There are lots of kids and the streets aren't busy and stay pretty empty so I don't have to worry about Tol riding his bike or walking to a friends house.  It actually reminds me a little bit of my neighborhood growing up.  

Except for one crazy neighbor family (I'm sure I'll touch more on that at a later date- but let's just say:  a "Debbie Downer" single mom with 5 kids from 4 dads mixed with LOTS of DRAMA), the neighbors seem great!  We have an adorable lesbian couple that live next door.  They are 50ish and are both nurses.  The first week we were here they brought us a tomato from their garden.  A single tomato- I thought that was funny.  Then the next week they brought us the YUMMIEST double chocolate zucchini brownies.  SCORE!  Our neighbors on the other side is a darling couple from up state New York.  He is finishing up his residency @ Mayo.  He is an ass man.  His wife is adorable and they have 3 darling little girls.  I think we'll become good friends.  We were actually going to go apple picking with them today but, of course, Dave's schedule got hectic and plans changed.  Bummer!  The kids and I went to a neighborhood pot luck a couple weeks ago- and yeah, first five minutes we were there a plate of mushy green bean goo with bacon blew right into my lap. Awesome.-  The neighborhood is quite the mixture of people.  I think I'm gonna like that.

The house is perfect for us.  It needed a inner face-lift and I'm finally almost done with that.  Everything felt too white so I added lots of color.  And paint.  My favorite is the yellow wall, which everyone respectively refers to as "Mom's yellow wall" or "Jame's yellow wall," as they should.  I don't want it to get confused for anyone else's wall.  My second favorite is Tol's room.  But maybe not because it still smells like dog pee (the previous renters had a dog).  Everyone thinks it's just in my head, but I KNOW that disgusting smell because Max (one of the many family dogs) used to pee in my room.  I cleaned Tol's carpet with Dave's professional carpet cleaner machine and I think I still smell it.   So my second favorite might be the deck. But the deck is empty except for Dave's grilling gadgets- nothing to sit on.  It does, however, have the greatest view of nothingness and serenity.  We have a huge backyard that backs up to a field which backs up to a forest.  I feel like I live in the wilderness sometimes and I really like that.  I never worry about shutting the curtains or blinds because no one is out there to see me.  Except the wild turkeys.  Yes- there have been wild turkey sightings in our back yard.  We also have a finished basement that has been turned into the kid domain.  Both Tol and Addi's rooms are down there and so is ALL their crap.  I am LOVING that and I think Dave loves it even more.

Oh - and there are frogs that chill on our porch at night.  We have big toad-looking ones and tiny little bright green ones.  Tol is afraid of them while Addi gets down on her belly and in the frog's face saying, "hi froggy froggy!"  

When it rains, little skinny ugly worms come out.  I like the big fat Utah ones better, not that I really like any of them.  The first few days here were miserably hot and humid.  YUCK!!!  Then it was cool for a few days.  Then it got yucky hot again.  Now it's cooler and I think it's here to stay, for a while anyway until it gets cold.  Like SUPER DUPER cold.  We have a DE-humidifier in our house that is constantly running.  It actually sucks water out of the air and fills up a 70 pint (you do the math) bucket that we empty at least once a day.  There is that much water in the air.  In our house!  

And I can't forget the BUGS.  Wish I could forget them but they have a BIG way of letting themselves known.  Especially flies and mosquitoes.  I have killed 4 flies today.  My neighbor said she killed 6.  Tol killed one with his bare hands the other day.  WOW- we are transforming into real-life red necks!  You wait- those wild turkeys are going to end up on our dinner table.  Maybe the frogs will, too.  Annoying bugs aside- we also have lots of fireflies that are HUGE.  They glow when it gets dark, which happens earlier here, and we can't get enough of that- the fireflies, that is.  The crickets here are loud, soothing and lovely.  

Our ward is awesome!  Everyone has been super friendly and welcoming.  I think it'll be the perfect fit for our family.  There are LOTS of kids both Tol and Addi's ages.  Tol and Ad look forward to church, which is something I'm not used to, and are both happy to be there.  I would say our ward is an equal combination of a student ward and a Daybreak ward.  Student ward because I feel like all of us are in the same boat.  I'd say AT LEAST 80% of the ward are medical residents and their families.  It's unusual for 5 minutes to pass without someones pager going off.  Nerds.  And then DAYBREAK because it is kid infested.  Sacrament meeting is noisy, just like my parents ward.  I don't mind a loud sacrament meeting, probably because we are loud too.  I do have to drive about 15 minutes on the Highway to get to church and I actually like that.  It provides a nice break between the HECTIC- getting- ready- for- church morning and actual church.  It's like the 'count to 10' rule.  Ya know- to calm down.  I still don't have a church calling and am curious to see where I'll get called.  If I could choose I would want to be a R.S. teacher again, preferably the 4th Sunday.  But I dunno- I was in Primary for a bit today and listening to the kids sing brought that spirit that you can only get in Primary.  But let's be honest, I'm completely fine without a calling, too.

Tol and Addi have both started school.  Tol is in Kindergarten and Addi started preschool.  Tol rides the bus and has a locker.  Addi has a cubby that she calls a locker and has a Tinkerbell backpack that is bigger than she is.  Tol naturally picked a CAPRI SUN backpack.  Addi LOVES preschool unlike Tol did when he was her age.  The preschool directors wear business suits and the whole establishment is much more professional.  Tolman LOVES kindergarten and is so happy to finally be going.  He really likes his teacher and other than that, the only thing I've gotten out of him about school is that he drank milk.  He's not into details, nor is he into milk.  I wonder how his teacher got him to do it...

I bought a hydrolic chair so I can do hair in my house but haven't used it once and haven't missed work, surprisingly.  I do, however miss my clients and coworkers.  Maybe when things calm down a little and I have more downtime I'll miss working.  Maybe then I'll be motivated to get the word out that I do hair.  I think I've only told 3 or 4 people, if that.  Oh- and I miss the money.  I miss never having cash in my wallet.  It makes me feel poor.  Well- poorer than I am.

I also miss my family.  Luckily I haven't been too homesick and I'm dreading the day it hits.  I talk to my mom quite a bit and my dad, too.  That's about it.  I talk to the sibs as often as I did in Utah.  Except Curt.  He's too busy learning about soil and shearing sheep in FFA to talk :).  Understandable.  We really miss Curt and can't wait for him to come visit.  We are lucky to have shared a house (but not a bathroom or my Purology) with him! 

I'm super into Facebook now.   Suddenly I'm totally interested in what everyone is up to and what not, where I wasn't too interested before.  No offense.  It's like my lifeline to my real world.  This is just my surreal world.  

After 3 weeks I'm ankle deep in my new life.  Right now, it is still surreal but all too soon it will be real.  I hope it is a good REAL.  But right now, it is a really good SURREAL.