Moving Pains

I know i have talked a lot about how moving two states away and getting used to a new place has been challenging.

It has also been interesting and i am continually suprised at how many little things are different here, and how much i notice them!

For instance, barrow pits.  In Idaho, you probably never even notice them.  Most of the freeways have nice big ones (in Idaho we call them "shoulders" more often) but they are mostly covered in weeds and are only green for about two weeks in early spring.  I remember when they put in a few new overpasses and planted it all up in beautiful green grass and shrubs and flowers.  Now they are all dead and brown because (i am assuming) they didn't water them.  I always wondered why they went to all that work just to have it look as bad as the weedy patches.

Not in North Dakota.  Not just on the freeways, but nearly every road, driveway and such has big green grassy barrow pits.  And since we get more moisture here, they are almost always green!  Lots of homeowners actually MOW theirs, and often it seems the county or city mows the main ones on the main roads (kinda weird huh?).  This girl who comes from the desert thought it looked awful pretty, but was kinda silly.  So i tried to figure out why they would do this ( i just didn't think that it could be just for looks).  Maybe it is because of all the snow they usually get?  And all the rain?  Having tall, unruly grass in your barrow pit that is supposed to hold all the scraped off snow could present a problem.

But now i think i have figured it out.  Or at least found another reason.  In the last couple of weeks, guess what i have seen in these barrow pits?  Big, round bales.  Thats right!  They cut and bale all the grass in their barrow pits!  At first i though, what a lot of work!  But i guess if you need to mow your barrow pits so that there is room for snow and water, then you might as well get some hay out of it!

Another thing i have talked and though about a lot is how dry it is here!  Though we get a lot more moisture then my desert like Idaho, somehow my body gets more dry here!  I think it is the extreme cold and the tons of wind we experience.  So about three weeks after moving here, i started to experience excruciating headaches that felt sinus in nature and didn't seem to improve with pain relievers.  I soon discovered it was because my nasal passages had gotten so dry that they were causing me pain!  I started putting vaseline in my nose, and that helped a bit.  I tried to drink more water, but found that the interruption of my sleep from drinking so much water, was not worth the minor improvement i got.  I began to despair and wish there was a switch to tell my body to make more snot!  (never thought i would wish for more boogers!)  Finally i learned that saline is actually moisturizing.  I began to carry around a bottle and would spray my nose frequently!  Now i think my body has adapted, because i am forever having to deal with TOO many boogers!  (hard to please, right?!?)  What a crazy thing to deal with just because we moved!

PINTEREST!!

Lately i have been on a Pinterest/crafting spree!

I know that sometimes Pinterest can be a bit of an obsessions and sometimes i probably spend more time then i should on that sight.

But


But i have also found so many AMAZING things that have changed and improved our life in so many ways, i also think if you can use it as a tool that it can be an amazing tool!

I can not even count the amount of recipes i have tried and added to our repertoire.  Quite a few fun crafts and projects for Gwen have come from Pinterest as well as some amazing money saving decor ideas for her room and our future house, halloween costumes, plus i have planned an entire amazing birthday party for Gwen, with tons of help from Pinterest, that i know would not be so great if not for this amazing site! Cool stuff like freezing chopped green onions in an empty water bottle, starting an avocado tree and growing plants from kitchen scraps, homemade from scratch recipes, making our own laundry soap and cleaners, plus i have learned an amazing amount towards eating whole foods and cooking healthy and using more natural products.  Plus so much more!  It has touched my life in more positive ways then i can even remember!  I LOVE PINTEREST! p

Reflections

Most of the time, i just don't know where all that time gets to.  I know each day i start out with the same amount, but it seems to slip away so quickly.  If i could figure out where it flew, i might fly there too!

Already, we are coming up on our first year anniversary of living in North Dakota. I still can't believe it has been that long.  It has been full of new experiences, some good and some bad, lots of struggles and heart ache and trials, but just as many good things as well.

We love the ice fishing and regular fishing, the enormous and beautiful lake that is so conveniently close to us for recreation.  We loved sledding and snowmobiling (what little we got to do, with almost no snow), and we love the people here.  Everyone is so friendly and accepting, so open and.... conservative.  It is nice to fill like you aren't some weird overly religious, ultra-conservative wacko.  Most people here still go to church and seem to believe in God.  It is refreshing!  We love all the time we get together as a family, and the thought of maybe getting to ice skate or have a child in hockey.  We love all the families we are getting close to and friends we are making and most of all our church.  We love our church! It was a hard bill to fill, coming from a very dear and loving church that we had practically grown up in with a Pastor as much as a dad and uncle to us as any.  But God is so good, and He gave us a wonderful church where we have met many good friends for ourselves and Gwen, and where we are continually challenged to live each day filled with the Holy Spirit and surrendered to His Will so our actions and reactions can give glory to God and point people to the cross.

And now we are embarking on a new adventure, as we are beginning to look for a house here, so we can have our own home.  Though our Idaho house is far from selling and looks to be a long and messy process, we have decided it is time to really put down roots.  We need our own space.  Gwen needs an actual ROOM, and Daddy needs to have a shorter commute.  So please, pray for us as we look at taking on a SECOND mortgage and buying another small, needs work house and how scary that all is.

On the up side, Me and Gwen are so excited to be traveling to Idaho soon, in hopes of being there for my little nephew's birth.  I am excited to hold this new precious little bundle from God when he arrives, and to fellowship with family and friends.  And lets be honest, to show off how much Gwen has grown and changed and how cute she (usually) is.  It is still so hard to believe that she will be turning three in just a few short months and starting "preschool" as i will be doing a preschool curriculum with her here at home (yikes!)  She has grown up so much in the last year, she is now potty trained, brave and climbing at the park, not afraid of making friends and meeting new kids, talking up a storm, no more highchair or sippy cup, and just in general being "grown up".  Turning on the lights herself and going potty herself and getting dressed herself and doing everything HERSELF!  (We hear that a lot around here :)

I am hoping now that things are settling into a nice fall routine, and we once again have a computer, that i will manage to blog.  At all.  I have missed it a lot, and am hoping to touch base more often.  It seems though that my thoughts and feeling are often so scrambled it is hard to put them down in a coherent form!  Must be mommy brain :)