Sunday, June 23, 2013

14 hours of...

________ . Let me fill in the blank with the highs and lows, as we make our way {nearly} across the country .

Saturday morning, we woke up at 5am to make the final preparations to leave our Minnesota home. Our home went on the market at 5pm Friday evening with all showings starting on Saturday; so we are feeling pretty good leaving and knowing that our home is in the best possible shape - glowing granite and fresh vacuum marks on the carpet throughout. :) We leave at 6am feeling anxious for our first showing scheduled for 10:30am.

6:00am | Put the princess in her carseat, praying she stays asleep. {not a fat chance}

6:22am | "I wanna get out" {of her car seat}- Miss L says, as Mr. Cole begins to meow. This is this equivalent of "Are we there yet?" Jer and I give each other a nervous look and wonder how the next 13.5 hours are going to pan out.


Mmmm...hot cakes!
7am | Stop at McDonald's for breakfast. We are delighted as Miss L devoured all three of her hot cakes. Finally, a meal that didn't include peanut butter!



 



7:30am | It seems that maybe she is going to experience a "food coma" and looks sleepy; meanwhile, Mr. Cole is still meowing. We decide to let Mr. Cole out of his cage...wrong decision. Miss L has a new found excitement for her furry brother. Uh oh!

See Mr. Cole as "high" as he can go!

9am | 3 hours into the trip, time to change drivers - we stop at a Kum & Go Gas Station - interesting "Iowa gas station" - Daddy and Miss L pick a "flower" for mommy, while I go search for coffee as it is my turn. I am overjoyed as this coffee station has tons of coffee varieties AND a massive coffee creamer station with all of my faves - I had a hard time selecting. I decide to go "house blend + caramel macchiato creamer"

10am | Naptime through Iowa - peace and quiet for mommy to reflect. As I drive across the prairie lands, I experience a feeling of anticipation that might parallel our early American settlers as they "headed west" in search of gold and prosperity.

I drive as the rest of the car naps


Iowa's many windmills
An Iowa Casino...LOL!











11:30am | Enter Nebraska...or rather enter Omaha, as this is nearly the only thing is this VERY long state. We decide I-80 in Nebraska is to Colorado, as I-75 in Georgia is to Florida. It is long and never-ending leading into your final destination.

1pm | Stopped at Lincoln, NE Airport for gas {thank you, Hertz!} and went downtown for some Chipotle. We ate outside for fresh air and found downtown Lincoln to be a really cute, nice and clean college town. Hard to believe we are still in "Big 10 Country" though...this is far from home!

1:45pm | Back on the road - time for mommy and baby to nap.

2:10pm | I awake as I receive a call from Tom, our realtor. We have one offer on showing #1 {which happened to arrive at 9:30am, instead of 10:30am}, but we have at least one other offer coming in...and we will have a total of 12 showings today. Great news, we are thrilled!

{Too excited to sleep}

2:45pm | 3 offers are now on the table, all showings have been through and all realtors have been offered a chance to make an offer on the home.

{Insert about 4 phone calls with our realtor}

5:15pm | Home is sold - we are feeling victorious!

5:30pm | We enter Colorado!

There is nothing around...so we finally stop at a little gas station. The ladies Rest Room makes me thankful Miss L is not potty trained yet, as I think we would have been slapping a diaper on her instead of using this Rest Room. There was a fun dinosaur statue out front to play on, and we said hello to a few doggies that were also making a pit stop. Back on the road...Mommy's turn to drive.

5:40pm | Tons of lightening and dark skies ahead as we are in the dessert plains of Colorado.

I pull over to let Jer drive when the tumbleweed are blowing across the road and it looks as if we are driving into the eye of the storm. We unknowingly stopped next to an extremely large cattle farm. as I opened the door, I thought to myself "what dirty diaper did we leave in the car!???" but the smell was that of 1,000 diapers made me quickly realize...it was manure...and it lingered in the car for a bit, but we become distracted by the storms ahead. I turn on a local FM station and learn that we are driving through a Tornado Warning. The muted green sky is quite scary and we decided to power through as fast as can {after all, the speed limit is 75...which translates to 85 in our car!}

6:20pm | Back to blue skies and sunshine, we both are relieved as we continue to listen to the radio meteorologist tell everyone in the areas south of us to take shelter. We both view the storm in our rear, via the mirrors.
Look how dark it is behind us from the mirror. We were already in blue skies and sunshine.
 

8:00pm (7:00pm MT) | We have arrived, Yay!!! Thanks to our Lord for watching over and guiding us..

Summary:
Just over 900 miles and 14 hours from Lakeville to Denver, including 2 hours {lunch + 2 stops}
Miss L napped for just 3.5 hours of the 14 {a lot less than expected}
Her favorite toys included: baby doll + bottle, her baby laptop, books, cell phones, and of course the ipad..oh and Mr. Cole! She did manage to eat 2 of her 3 meals while traveling in her car seat, her "food bag" was packed solid prior to leaving!

It wasn't nearly as bad as we anticipated and leaving/arriving in the daylight was really helpful.

Now, we begin making our {very small} furnished one-bedroom apartment a little more like home; while we search for our next permanent home. I have already found library storytime for toddlers, the nearest Starbucks {someone was up at 5:45am this morning}, a park and a community waterpark/splash pad. Now...I just need my car to arrive either Monday or Tuesday!

Oh, and a celebratory dinner tonight! :)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Mission: Turks & Caicos

A little "bold" for me...but I couldn't resist the name of the nail polish: "Turquoise & Caicos."
I have been dying to schedule a vacation to beautiful islands of Turks & Caicos for a while now...and this nail polish just seemed very motivational! 
 
 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Summer has arrived...Finally!

With J away from home the past 5 weeks, us ladies have been making the best of our days without him. Unfortunately, the first 4 weeks felt more like March or April and less like summer. Every day was rainy, gray, cloudy and rather chilly. At one point recently, the weatherman said 27 of the last 36 days had some form of precipitation - rain or the white stuff!!! The depressing weather extends to my line of work as I have crafted a dozen or so emails to members about "pool closures" or cancelled events due to rain and chilly temperatures.

The past week or "so" has been feeling more like summer - which makes a daddy-less home much more tolerable. The sun shines perfectly in my room to jolt me out of bed like a cup of Archer Farms Cinnamon Vanilla Nut Coffee! We have officially stowed away the fleece and most importantly, us ladies have been able to get back to being the lil' happy, social butterflies that we are!

Below is snapshot of our week last week!
Monday -
Dinner on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants - Valley Tap House
We met up with the "C" family, including one of our besties, Miss Cece for dinner {kids eat free, wahoo!} and a Summer Shandy for mommy!
Miss L and Miss Cece playing in the fountain while we wait for a table on the patio!


Tuesday -
Enjoyed a nice stroll to the nearby park with neighbors Stephanie and her babes. I must admit lil' Brooks is one of the most adorable little boys and I was really hoping to set-up an arranged marriage for 22 years from now! These little blondies are sooo cute together!
 


Two lil' monkeys!

Wednesday -
Miss L played at a neighbor's home {thank you Amy & Co.}, while mommy "worked on the house" to prepare it for sale. Essentially, storing toys away to make my formal dining room... a formal dining room again! We are extremely blessed with amazing friends called neighbors that have come to the rescue time and time again; and shower us with generous amounts of love & support.

Thursday -
Just us two girls grabbed some Thai food from a local place and hopped in the car to have a picnic in the park. Miss L doesn't really "dig" Thai food yet-  but she does eat mass amounts of Jasmine Rice! It was a beautiful evening and made for a fun memory!


Friday -
Daddy arrived home for a weekend of fun and Father's Day celebration. Yay! More to come in a different post...

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Long time...no post!

1whirl·wind

noun \-ˌwind\
1: a small rotating windstorm of limited extent
2a : a confused rush : whirl <a whirlwind of meetings>
 b : a violent or destructive force or agency
 
When people say their day {er, weekend, month, life} was a "whirlwind," what do they mean exactly?
 
Allow me to enlighten you...
 
May 8 - Daddy arrives home with balloons for Miss L and a bottle of bubbly for mommy! Jeremy accepts a promotion to manage Hertz, Dollar & Thrifty Car Rental in Denver, Colorado {insert: tears of joy, laughter, excitement, nervousness and celebrations}

 
 


May 15- Daddy leaves for his new gig in DEN, not returning home until May 24th.
Mommy & Miss L sadly spend nearly every.single.day evening sulking, indoors, as Mother Nature "blesses" us Minnesotans with either rain, cold or BOTH, every single day. As if we didn't suffer enough with snow on the ground May 2nd??!
 
Insert Typical Day:
Mommy experiences the life of a single-working-mom...perhaps the only job more difficult than a stay at home mom {which I have tons of respect for}. I am thankful this is temporary and have a new found appreciation for those single parents that do not have a choice. Drop-off around 8am, countless meetings/phone calls/emails that must promptly end by 5:15pm to arrive at Daycare in the nick of time {6pm}. Dinner + playtime + Caillou on TV + bath {some days} round out the long day at 8:30pm...and off to bed, usually with a glass of wine or cocktail to relax myself to sleep.
 
May 24 - Memorial Day weekend - spent with Daddy and Grandma came to down {pre-planned prior to the "move}
 
We enjoyed visiting a local winery where mommy was able to taste ALL of their wines - as in, 14+, it was ridiculous - even for this wino!
 
We experienced mass at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis. Last time Grandma came to town, we attended mass at the Saint Paul Cathedral, so it was neat to see the Minneapolis "monument." It really is special having such amazing places to worship within 30 minutes of our home. On a different note: J felt "sick" again and turned white as a ghost..and felt like he was going to faint again...just 3 weeks after his ambulance ride to the ER. :( I'm growing anxious and worried - particularly as he is flying solo in a different state.
 
The other "big" excitement on Sunday was Miss L's first haircut. Her "homeless style hair style" was looking rather shaggy and in a desperate plea to encourage her hair to grow...we paid a visit to the Kids Cutters! They were great with her - bubbles, TV, sucker...soon her tears disappeared. Now, she has a cute lil' bob and it is all one length!
 
 
The long weekend finished with a visit to downtown Minneapolis to show Grandma the Stone Arch Bridges, the Mississippi River and the need to get out of the house, after all, it was cold and rainy all.weekend {which makes mommy very excited to move to a place with 300+ days of sunshine each year!!!}

This momma needs to hit the hay...that is, after a little Jimmy Fallon!