Almost done with the "Suite Life"

Thursday, September 24, 2008

I am in Duluth again with Chris and the kids, staying at the Country Inn and Suites. Our kids have been in seventh heaven here because the pool has a big waterslide and a splash pool for the little ones, it is like a miniature water park. Ella loves going down the big slide with mom, and Taron has gotten brave enough to go by himself. The kids are becoming regulars at the front desk too, which always has a fresh supply of chocolate chip cookies and candy. :) I think if they could have their way, the kids would just move into the hotel!

We brought Kina this time because we had to take off her shock collar (see previous post if you are wondering why) and she gets really sad when we leave. For some reason she wouldn't eat a bite of her food until yesterday when we finally tried feeding her outside... she has been trained too well!

We finally nailed down a house! It has been a long process, and with not much selection we had to sort of just take what we could find… I'm not saying that it is a bad house, quite the contrary really, it is probably too nice. It is just more money than we wanted to spend on a house. We were hoping to find something somewhat cheap, but everything we saw either had problems or didn’t fit our needs well. Some were as small as our first home in Payson and were selling for 300,000! The housing market here is definitely not a buyers market, but it is not really a sellers market either, it is weird.

So anyways, the house we found is in a good neighborhood, lots of kids supposedly, and another family in the ward lives just around the corner. It is a brand new home, which is very rare for Duluth; there are probably only a handful of new houses here, and most of them are extremely expensive. Duluth doesn’t really have new developments like you see in other cities, so the new homes are just thrown in with the old, which makes them all seem unique.


Even though this house costs more than our present one, it is smaller, but that is how it goes here. It is 3,000 square feet but has 5 bedrooms, except the one by the entry we will just use as a piano/living room. There is no basement, which is it’s biggest down side, but it has an upstairs so we figure our “basement” will just be above us…

The house has no driveway and we need one before winter, which is a good $5,000, and there are a bunch of other things like closet rods, gutters and blinds, etc. we will need to install also. That is the problem with new houses...you might not have to pay to fix it up, but you still have a lot of expenses.

On the inside the builders went all out, more than they probably should have; beautiful 8" wood trim and solid wood doors throughout, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, built-in speakers in all the main rooms that are connected to a central stereo system, and large rooms too. On the Main level you walk in and there is a slate tile entry and door to the “piano room”, next is a formal dining room, and then it opens up into a large great room and a kitchen with another dining area. The kitchen is laid out somewhat like a mix between our last two homes, with a long island to seat all the kids.
Chris and I are sure to be spoiled in the large master suite, and the kids’ rooms are large also. The boys’ room is on the main level next to ours and has two big closets, right now they share one tiny closet so this will be a welcome change. There is a full bath on the main level that the boys will share and the girls will have their own on the upper level too, so hopefully I won’t have to hear so much complaining about the boys peeing on the seat! :) The girls will all be upstairs, Sierra and Ella will share a room. There is also another large family room upstairs so there are plenty of spaces to hang out. The only thing is that there is not much space for all our food storage so we will have to get creative (bottled pears under the kids’ beds…remember that mom?)



The house is actually on two lots combined, so it is 2/3 acre of land, not bad for in the city. The lot is wooded, but backs up to other houses too.


On the next street over there is access to tons of forest trails and a couple of ponds. Kina will be in heaven because I plan to take her on a lot of walks through the woods, and I’m sure we will be ice skating on those ponds this winter.



I found out today that the elementary school turns their soccer field into an ice skating rink in the winter - Sierra will love that. Solei's school has an indoor pool and a playground, which you don't see much in middle schools anymore.

I took the kids to Hartley Nature Center which is just a few minutes from our house, they have a little free museum with classrooms you can just go in and play with the puppets and toys, and there are miles of hiking/cross country ski trails all around. We went for a hike up to a rock knob that overlooks the hills...very pretty, with the fall colors just starting to set in. Unfortunately I forgot my camera.

Well, tomorrow we go home to pack and then hopefully we will be moved in the next weekend. I am so grateful to have movers, it makes moving so much easier! Maybe the next blog I write will be from our new home.

All Creatures Great and Small

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The last few weeks have been busy. I told the kid’s school here that we were moving and they wouldn’t be attending. When we discovered our move would be delayed, I called the school to see if they could still come. They told me their classes were all full and they would have to go to a different school… hmmmm… so we are doing home school for a few weeks. Most of my time this week has been spent trying to find materials at the library we can use. Even though I have gotten some good lessons in, sometimes it feels like trying to eat Jell-o with chopsticks.

We had a scare with Kina a few weeks ago. In the middle of the night she was barking ferociously like someone was in our yard, but I was too tired to wake up and go check. The next morning she was nowhere to be found. We called and called and searched the neighborhood but found nothing. I was sure someone had come into our yard and taken her in the middle of the night, and my imagination started to get the best of me (like it tends to do). We had an open house the day before and I realized how anyone could have come through our house. What if they decided to get rid of the dog so they could return later with no obstacles… Chris was gone and now I had no protection… Anyways, I was about to pack everyone up and head to a hotel when Sierra came running in and said they found her. She was hiding under our deck the whole time and refused to come out. I had a flash of inspiration and took off her shock collar and then she finally came out. I checked the collar and sure enough it was shocking me where the deck ended but not under the deck… poor dog!

We never did know for sure what she was barking at that night, but a few nights ago we discovered one possible answer… It was bedtime and she was barking again like someone was in our yard so I turned on the light and opened the door… we did have a visitor, but not of the human kind… There was a HUGE raccoon standing on the railing, it was as tall as Ella but fatter. I didn’t know they could get so big!

Then a few days ago there was a thud on the back door and Sierra cried, “A bird just ran into our window!” I ran out because I knew Kina would eat it if I didn’t save it, and I could tell it was injured. When I tried to pick it up it flew onto the lawn and I decided to let it go. Poor thing was probably scared to death though.

We had an unusual spider make it’s home in front of the garage door where Chris used to park (he finally sold his car and now just drives the company car). It was big and ferocious looking with bright yellow spots. A quick surf of the web revealed that it was an Argiope aurantia, more commonly known as the Black and Yellow Garden Spider or Writing Spider. I didn’t get a personal photo of it but this is what it looked like before Chris did it in…




Well, enough discussion of all creatures great and small…

Our house hunting hasn’t been too productive lately, we are hoping to have something nailed down this week though. It is not a good buyers market in Duluth right now.

I finally went to some garage sales this week, the season is almost over so I thought I better go while I can. I found some really cute clothes for the kids and even a few things for me. I splurged a little when I came across a new serger for $10, it is just a small one but perfect for what I need. I also found the game “Compatability” which we played years ago with Brendan and Leslie and I have wanted to get ever since. You can’t buy it anywhere in the stores because they don’t make it anymore but I got it for 50 cents!

Chris offered Solei $50 to potty train Ella, and Solei is thrilled for the opportunity (so far). Chris is notorious in this home for being generous when there is a job he despises doing himself. J I am so busy with school and moving issues that potty training has been on my back burner for a while now. Ella hasn’t had an accident yet, although it has only been 4 hours… we will see how enthusiastic Solei is by the end of the night…

Done with vacation, still waiting to vacate

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Get ready for a long one...

Well, I haven’t updated our blog for a while because we’ve been so busy these last few months. Moving is proving to be quite the ordeal.

We couldn't get sitters to watch the kids for our house hunting trip, so we decided to let the kids stay with family back in Utah and Idaho.

It took a few days to pack, we had an open house scheduled for that weekend so I not only had to pack up, but I also had to leave the house spotless… not an easy task for our family!


Chris wasn't able to come with us (he was already working in Minnesota) but the kids and I left on Friday, July 11th, and stayed the night in North Platte, Nebraska. Taron must have thought we were moving right then because he asked me if we were going to “delete” our old house in Iowa.

We got to Chris’s parent’s house in Provo on Saturday night and after a short visit we enjoyed a much needed good nights sleep.

The next day we attended church in Payson and saw a lot of old friends who were still there in the ward. Afterwards we visited Lauren (an ex-piano student of mine who is now going off to college!), the Rawls (Andrew was Solei's best friend), and my good friend Susan. Solei got stung by a bee at Susan’s house and was screaming so loud that poor Taron was traumatized for the rest of the week, screaming at anything that flew.

We had a nice stay at Grandma Howard’s house that week, it seems like there is always someone there to visit with. It was so fun to see how all the cousins had grown in the last year.


Ella fell in love with Shiloh, Jessica’s little dog that she had brought up from Arizona. She still talks about him.


We finally got to meet Pam’s new husband, Dan. He seems like a great guy and we are so happy for their family. Joe, Brian and Debbie all came by with their families too so we got a lot of visiting in that week.

Jessica took Solei to get a haircut while we were there, it turned out really cute and is a lot easier to comb out now.

I stopped by my aunt Barbara’s to drop off some things that week, they seem to be doing well, keeping busy with family and Reliv.

On Thursday I said goodbye to my boys (who went to Aunt Pam's) and the girls came with me to Brent’s. Friday morning I flew out to meet Chris in Duluth. The girls went with Brent’s family up to Idaho that night to see Grandma Twede and all the cousins up there. Coordinating all our schedules was a major feat for me, and I hardly slept all that week because of the stress.

I really enjoyed our week in Duluth together, even though Chris had to work most of the time, it gave me time to explore the town and I fell in love with it. We found a beautiful new home and put in an offer, but we got outbid by someone… really too bad, but maybe Heavenly Father has something else in store…

That Sunday we went to both wards, one of them asked me to play piano for relief society. After church we drove up the coast and found an awesome waterfall that went under the road. The Sawtooth Mountains are just north of Duluth and where they meet Lake Superior, there are tons of waterfalls everywhere. We saw maps of trails that went on for miles and miles. The ambience there reminds me a lot of the Northern California and Oregon coasts, I felt very much at home.

I was really sad about missing Sierra’s birthday while we were in Duluth. My family had a party for her back in Idaho and they took a trip to Yellowstone that day so I think she still had fun. Michelle showed me photos from their trip but I wish I could have been there too.

Chris and I were enjoying the meals and the room at the Holiday Inn that Sarah Lee provided for us. We tried some new restaurants; the last night we went to Blackwoods and I swear they had the best chicken I have ever tasted in my life.

It was depressing to leave Chris on Thursday, but my anticipation to see the kids again helped alleviate the goodbye pains. I felt so bad for Chris though because he didn't have anyone to come home to like I did.

When I got to the Salt Lake airport the heat hit me like a brick wall, and when I got in my car I discovered my air conditioning wasn’t working for the second time. After getting it fixed the next morning, I drove the boys with me up to Idaho to join everyone else.

My mom had just bought a house in Idaho Falls which we received a grand tour of. It is very comfortable and just perfect for her and her dad and brother Wally. All my brothers (except Brent) and their families were at Brian’s house so we spent most of our time there.

I wish we could have had more time to visit with everyone, it seemed to go so fast. I would have loved more time just me and my mom too, I miss that. Before leaving, we took the kids to Arctic Circle for lunch and stopped at the DI to look for books (it is hard to find church literature back east).

We came back to Utah on Monday night and stayed at Brent and Michelle’s house the rest of the week until Thursday morning.

We took it pretty easy the next few days while we were at Brent's, we did make a few outings though. We went to Grandpa's grave on the day he died, and I took the kids to the school park one afternoon. Shawn has one of those new skateboards that wiggle, I tried it a little and it is pretty tricky but he makes it look easy. Bryce has gotten really good at computer animation, I was really impressed. Maybe we will be seeing his work in a future Pixar film someday. Our last morning there we got to meet Rachel’s new husband who likes to crack toes, the kids just adored him and Taron keeps naming all our stuffed animals after him now...

We left Thursday morning to Brendan and Leslie’s. Allison was at girls camp but the kids got to play with Jake for a bit. Jordan was usually busy with work and football but we did get to see him a few times too.

That afternoon we stopped by Brian and Lauren's and then went to Pam’s to watch their kids while they went to the temple. I walked the kids to a school park and we played there until it got dark.

Chris finally flew in Friday night, he hadn’t seen the kids for about a month, fortunately they still all remembered him… we are sooo looking forward to having him back for good someday!

Saturday morning Chris went golfing with his brothers and I visited with Leslie while the kids played with their cousins. Allison had been at camp and she got back that day too.

On Sunday I stayed home sick with Sierra and everyone else went to Brendan’s ward. I missed the family meeting that night too but Chris still went and saw almost everyone.

On Monday Chris flew out again. The kids and I went back to Payson since we missed my other good friend, Audra, the first time. We met at the Carl’s Jr. in Spanish Fork and enjoyed chatting while the kids played. Susan had a doctor appointment so she had to leave early but Audra and I decided to take the kids for a walk to the park, just like the good old days. On the way we saw the girl who had bought our old house on Saddlebrook Drive so we talked with her too, she has two kids now. We went to a new park on the trail first but it wasn't really finished so we went to the one at the school. Apparently a fire fighting operation had taken over the premises because of a recent fire on the mountain there. One of the men came over and explained what was going on and gave the kids various “Smokey the Bear” memorabilia.

I had originally planned to leave for home that Tuesday but the air conditioner in the car was not working again. I headed back to Firestone and Grandma Howard came to pick us up. By the time she got there, the car was done, so I told her I wanted to at least buy her lunch for driving out to get us. We had a great little one-on-one visit and caught up on a lot of things.

That afternoon Leslie and I took the kids to the dinosaur museum because they were running a $2 special. Poor Sierra was not feeling well but she made it through and we all had fun. By the end of the day, I decided it was a good thing that the air conditioner had failed again, we would have missed out on a good lunch visit with grandma and a fun afternoon with Leslie and her kids.

So Wednesday was our departure date. We got on the road late and stayed the night in Cheyenne. On Thursday we stopped at a "sprayground" in Omaha to break up the 12 hour drive. We didn’t have swim suits readily available so the kids just got soaked in their clothes.

Well, that was our big trip, and I know I have probably left out a lot of details since it has been a while, but that is what I can recall offhand.

We were in Duluth again for another week looking at houses and there is another one we are putting an offer on. There is really not a good buyers market there, the homes are pretty old and what few newer homes that are available are pretty expensive. It is somewhat of a tourist/vacation town and I wonder if that is what drives the prices up.

We had some fun times up there, although the kids don’t like to admit it. For instance, one day I took them to Gooseberry Falls just north of Duluth. Solei and Sierra both refused to get out of the car when we got to the parking lot, saying they didn’t want to go sit and watch water move, but I finally managed to get them to come. There was a gift shop at the beginning of the trail (Solei is a big fan of gift shops right now) and then there are three sets of falls but we just hiked down to the bottom two. It was like a big natural waterpark, you can climb all around and in the falls, swim in the pools below, or follow the water down to Lake Superior. The girls learned how to skip rocks with a bit of instruction from their dear old mom and we got pretty dang good at climbing and hopping over the rocks in the falls. At the end of the day I asked the girls if they thought Gooseberry Falls would be a better place to spend the day with cousins than Yellowstone and they begrudgingly admitted that they would choose the falls because you could actually interact with everything instead of watch from a distance. So they were starting to think Minnesota wasn’t so bad after all... until that night when Caden discovered a leech on his ankle! Solei said, “I just knew Minnesota had to be too good to be true!” Sierra swears she never wants to go back to the falls because of the leech, but I have been doing some research and I think there may be some sort of leech repellant out there….

There is a ski hill in the middle of town with a playground so we spent a few hours there. I hear it only costs $5 a day to ski there and has good kid's programs.

We took the kids to see the new Disney animation, Wall-E. Taron was really amused by it, he still talks about how funny it was. Our kids rarely get to go to the movies since it costs an arm and a leg in Iowa (no dollar movies), but Chris said we should make it a family tradition on vacations and I thought that sounded good.

After the movie we drove across the canal bridge to the pier. There is a long beach running the length of the whole pier and there were people swimming and basking in the sun. It reminded me a little of the beaches in Virginia, but with colder water and smaller waves (some days they are big though). We didn’t have swim suits with us so we just played in the sand and got our feet wet, some more than others…

On Sunday we went to the North Shore Ward, we have already met some really friendly people at church. There's a nice girl Solei’s age, and a bunch of girls Sierra’s age... Plenty of kids. There are some pretty intriguing people too, one family runs an alternative-style band that travels the world, another guy designs airplanes -- he told me that someone is developing a flying car using “ducted fans”, which made me excited because I had pondered that same idea in my own mind a while ago but I didn’t know if it had ever been tried... I was so excited to hear that it actually works….ahh, but I digress -- Another couple there just adopted 8 kids all from the same family back in Utah, so I’m sure that will be an adjustment! There are lots of great people to get to know.

The kids and I spent a day sightseeing in Canal Park where the lift bridge is. There is a free museum that has a bunch of exhibits about ships and you can look out through the telescope at them. There weren’t any big ships while we were there that time but we watched a few smaller boats go through. The kids ran under the bridge when it came down and reached up to touch it. We walked down the lake walk to a lighthouse and checked out the prices on quad-bike rides and carriage rides -- pretty pricey -- so we just got ice cream instead.

We were going to stop at the Mall of America in Minneapolis on the way home but ran out of time. One of these trips I’m sure we will make it. There is a roller coaster and rides inside, and it is the biggest mall in America or the world or something like that.

It is good to be home again for a little while, it gets old living in a hotel room with 5 kids, even though Chris had the “executive suite” which is a little better, it was still crowded. The kids did enjoy swimming in the pool every evening, and the continental breakfasts were easy for mom… but it is so nice to be home. We haven’t been able to relax much though because we’ve had lots of showings, an open house and realtor luncheon since we've been home, maybe we’ll get a bite soon…