More...Sounds a Little Fishy to ME

A few still photos from Gerrit's performance:

Sounds a Little Fishy to Me

Last week Gerrit had his spring kindergarten program. I was flying solo and did the best I could do getting still pictures as well as Video. I ruined my tripod in the process but was able to capture the program for Adam (and you). So enjoy!  

It made me sad, not to think that my little boy is growing up (that always makes me sad), but to think he won't be graduating with that group. Luckily Gerrit didn't want to stick around for refreshments and we left. I couldn't face too many more parents saying how sad they were to see us move - it made me teary eyed. The nice thing is we won't be that far away and will come back to many of the sporting events where Gerrit would hang out with his friends. I know he'll make new friends but we've really enjoyed the community of friends he has made.

PS - I apologize for the people walking in front of the camera. I had it on the tripod and couldn't move it to avoid the disruption - and of course, its right during Gerrit's speaking part!

Makin' it Real

Last week we came home to this:

Yes, snow in April, but what I am referring to is the sign.

It is odd to see the sign in the yard, every day I do a double take when I see it because it is hard to believe we will be moving. 

No bites on the house yet, but with the snow and icky weather, no one is looking at houses. So, we continue to adjust to very few family dinners during the week and not seeing dad as much as we'd like due to his long commute.  

On the bright side, the house is usually always picked up - nothin like coming home to a clean house every day! 

We continue to keep the faith that the right person/family will want our cute little house that we poured so many loving hours into to make it ours. 

Big Changes Ahead

New developments have recently come up which has taken whatever little time I had away - hence the even fewer posts on the blog. Not only am I finishing up my additional licensure (1/2 a class left, i.e. 2 nasty projects due by May) we are busy selling the house so we can move. Needless to say, my plate has been overflowing for some time now. 

Adam was approached to take a job with the MN Corn Growers and it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. The only problem - it is in Shokapee, making his commute 1.5 hours from Z-town. With him excited to take the job, we were both very sad (and still are) to be moving but know it is best for our family. The house has been on the market for 2 weeks now and we've had 3 showings so things look promising. Looking online at houses has not been exciting for me - living in suburbia in a 'newer' house has never really excited me. But, I'm trying to stay positive and am excited to have level floors, more closets, and a kitchen for entertaining, plus  Oma and Opa have requested their own bedroom. Still hard to get over the lack of charm newer houses bring and lack of hardwood floors (Adam tells me he'll work on putting in hard wood floors in the future in necessary). So....Friday we head to the cities for our first official look at houses in person. 

While it will not be easy to be away from our Zumbrota 'family' we will just be in the 'northern suburbs' of Zumbrota (as a friend once put it). So that is how we are looking at it - we make the drive to the cities every day, why not make the drive to Z-town on a regular basis? 

Our plan is to sell our house before we buy and hope to have everything done this summer. We cannot move 'officially' before I am done with school because we don't have childcare, nor do we want to pull Gerrit out of school at this point. We shall see how the timing works! It is out of our hands now and we wait. 

A storage unit has saved us a lot! With finishing random projects on the house that we've been meaning to do and never did, we can concentrate on packing. A good portion of the house is in boxes and out of site which makes maintaining a 'showable' house easier. I will be thankful when showings are done but at the same time, coming home to a house that is always picked up has been nice. 

The move has not hit the boys in a positive or negative way. Emmit won't quite understand and Gerrit will realize what's happening on the first day of school, or when he asks to go to Dahlen's house after dinner. It has hit me harder than I thought. This big city girl who didn't want to move to a small town took some serious convincing to move back to the city! Holy cow, what happened??? Anyways, with each day comes a bit more ease and understanding - especially when Adam has not been home before 6:30 yet due to the commute. 

Stay tuned. Until the move, we will live it up in Z-town by celebrating Easter with friends and enjoy the warmer days of spring!

Ice Castles

When Oma and Opa came for a winter visit, we had some fun on President's day visiting the ice castles at the MOA (and going to the Lego store).

Gerrit and I - self portrait with my phone:

Opa and Gerrit at the beginning...

A view from the parking lot:

Not my best face but the only other picture of Gerrit and I that I got!

A view looking up:

Gerrit with very cold Oma and Opa:

Hearts:

Another group shot:

Gerrit loved the little areas he could explore:

and sit and take a break:

Cheese:

A tunnel!

Peek

A different view up:

It was a cold day (for Oma and Opa - they didn't like the wind so much) but well worth the trip 'north'. It was a pleasant change from the paint touch ups and packing I had them doing the rest of the time - oh, and babysitting!

Inside this Winter

When the boys are not outside, this is what they spent a lot of their time doing:

Emmit practicing his dunks:

 Gerrit taught Emmit how to 'stand' during a free throw. (Yes, that is an old school Jordan jersey that was Logan's -- who is now a senior in college!).

Gerrit begged me to bring home my white board and play book. Gerrit and Emmit are planning their next move....

Usually one is dressed as a gopher:

The other a Spartan:

It is fun watching them 'play' their own game. We have to announce them as they run out of the locker room (aka bathroom), throw the jump ball up at the beginning of the game and sometimes keep score and always play the ref. Its great calling 'fouls' as they work just like timeouts! 

I think the boys will be bummed when the basketball season comes to an end in a few weeks. Luckily the weather usually turns nice so they can be outside even more!

A Glimpse at our Winter

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted! Wowza!

Here are a few pictures of what our winter has been like so far:

A football player:

Cyclists - Adam snow blowed a path through the yard so they could ride their bikes:

Sledding (Emmit claimed I pushed too fast so he opted to pushing Gerrit down instead of sledding himself):

A golfer (yes, he did keep track of the WHITE ball):

And sniper (trying out the marshmallow shooters Emmit got for his birthday):