Greetings from snowy Minnesota

Happy New Year from a mostly frozen Minnesota! It's been almost a month since I've posted but I wanted to jump on real quick to update and maybe get back on track with posting more. (laugh with me now)

We are mostly unpacked here, and only because I am really really neurotic when it comes to having the house in shambles. Boxes scattered throughout an already small house make me feel INSANE so I do whatever I have to do to get the stuff put away and the boxes broken down (and stored in the basement because I feel like another move is likely at this point). The kitchen is coming along faster than I thought it would, although it is always the most work. Not having a dishwasher hasn't really been an issue, despite the mass amounts of things waiting to be washed. We haven't had a dishwasher in most of the places we've lived, and while they're nice to have, I don't think they're necessary. One thing we have here that we've never had elsewhere (and that I suddenly feel is VERY NECESSARY) is a heated fan in the bathroom. Before the thought of hot stink grosses you out too much, let the record show that we have a regular fan as well for *other purposes* but when you are fixin to take a shower, you turn on the heated fan (which is in the ceiling and combined with the light and the regular fan) and when you step out of the shower in a blanket of steam, you have hot air blowing on you instead of freezing to death while you race to put on your clothes! It is wonderful. The only thing that could be better are the heated floors from Korea. I'll never stop missing those. Especially with a crawling baby around.

The other super exciting news since getting the boxes unpacked and put away is that I got a steam mop! ("You know you're a mom when...") I had one way back in our Ft Campbell house and took it to Korea. It was so lovely having a steam mop to clean those big white tiled floors with there, but the transformer killed it after a while. (cue tears) I never got another one in Korea because I knew it would have the same fate, and then we had wood floors in PA and I just kinda boycotted mopping altogether in NY, but after seeing what melted snow and salt looks like on the floors here, it instantly popped into my brain as being a need again. And man oh man it is just as great as I remember it being. Despite my mopping boycott in NY, I am really crazy about having clean floors. I hate having stuff stuck to my feet and knowing that Will is always swiffering everything with his belly makes me want to have it clean clean clean all the time. (I vacuum probably 2-3 times a day, just to quantify the crazy a bit for ya.) Now that a steam mop is back in the picture- watch out. We are not only vacuumed but sanitized as well. And no chemicals. Booyah.

But onto something more exciting than floor care. Minnesota has been great so far! Granted we've only been here for three solid days at this point, but we really love it! Sam stares at the snow out the window and exclaims, "What a beautiful blanket of fresh snow!" My friend Monica laughs and says, "Spoken like a true not-Minnesotan!" The kids have had fun reuniting with their old Korea friends and having free range to run out on their farm.

Monica and fam are in the midst of fixing up a big old farmhouse they just bought (hence the freshly peeled wallpaper walls and "vintage" couch and carpeted floors seen above) and the upstairs can be closed off with a pocket door. So after they are done playing in the snow, we just kinda shuffle them upstairs and let them go crazy playing and Monica and I talk while she does some sort of home repair downstairs. It took us about ten minutes to see our new town. Ha! Seriously looks like something out of the movie "New In Town." Very small. Very cute. We went to the post office to see about collecting mail (we currently don't have a physical mailbox in front of our house and can't really install one until the ground thaws) and the lady behind the counter said, "Oh yeah I heard you were all moved in! Bob said he saw the big yellow moving truck the other day so I figured you'd be in soon. Everybody knows you're here!" We met our neighbor next door and I can't remember his name - Len? Glenn? Neil? No one can remember. Probably because when we met him we were more focused on his striking resemblance to a 75yo Fonzie/Elvis. Sweet as pie though and even helped us get the moving truck unstuck one evening! As I sat in Steve's car and watched the Fonz tie a rope around his back fender and the front fender of our 26 foot moving truck, I knew this was going to end in disaster. Either the Fonz would rip his fender off from the sheer weight of the truck being stuck in the snow, or the moving truck would get unstuck and not be able to stop and plow right into the back of his truck. I'm not sure why I didn't film it because either way it was bound to be an entertaining video. But miraculously, after skidding and sliding and smoking, the Fonz's truck pulled our huge moving truck loose from the snow! And Steve was able to hit the brakes in time to avoid hitting him! A true Christmas miracle indeed.

There is a small grocery store in town, but it is not the type of place where you do your weekly shopping. It's more like a place where you can pick up odds and ends and things you forgot while you were "in town." So the day after we got back to Minnesota, we did what all the locals do and drove to Fargo to load up on groceries at Costco. It's about an hour's drive there and an hour's drive back, so we definitely loaded up. We've never really needed to buy in bulk before, but out here it is essential so as not to burn up a ton of gas driving to and from town for a few random things. It really makes me think about what we need and what we don't!

The kids are settling in nicely. They start school on Tuesday and while I think they have some hesitation, knowing that they have friends there seems to help ease their minds. All three are sharing a room now. Sam and Molly have shared a room since early Korea days, but now Willie has been tossed into the mix as well. The first few nights were rough since everyone's sleep schedule was off from traveling (and poor Will's digestive system was off from all of the holiday eating and traveling) and there is no door on their bedroom (it's a loft, but with walls luckily), but we are fixing the door situation this week and Steve and I just try and stay really quiet at night. No ripping boxes apart or washing dishes or drilling holes in the wall, darn.

It's been an interesting ride so far, and I really hope I can get back on here sooner rather than later to recap Christmas. I'm not recapping the entire year because that is what this entire blog is for. Feel free to go back and peruse previous posts! Or if you'd like something less wordy, check out my instagram. I tend to document there better than anywhere else.

Molly's favorite "moose" at the outdoors store