We put the new license plates on the vehicles today and I applied for our homestead tax. It should have been done a bit ago, but I needed to wait until we became residents. Two less things hanging over my head to complete.

Willie still has some post nasal drip going on, but it didn’t seem to get any worse.

The sky was blue and the weather lovely. I had hoped to get out for a walk, but the day got away from me.

We went to church on Sunday, had football on, and putzed around the house. C went to one of her youth groups.

Monday we worked and had school. My sister came to visit on her way home from a work meeting and stayed the night. It was nice to have her over. It was also our 19th wedding anniversary, but we didn’t do anything particular for it. C is a romantic and does not understand why we are so not-romantic.

Today M, C, and I all worked in the office/classroom together. She took off after lunch. While C was at cross country practice Willie and I went and got our Minnesota licenses and registered the vehicles. $1,800 later and we are official. I’m not thrilled about it. I don’t mind living here, but I really don’t like giving up my Alaska residency and I most definitely don’t like the taxes here. I reckon’ I will get over it, but I would have preferred staying an Alaskan living in Minnesota.

No major events on the calendar for tomorrow. Willie does feel like he is coming down with a cold, though who knows where he would have gotten it from – church perhaps, but we didn’t stay after. Praying it doesn’t last long.

Yesterday’s storm lasted well into the night. We briefly lamented not having the view our apartment did because it had an amazing view of the sky. Our home now is nestled in the neighborhood amongst trees and is not quite facing the right direction for prime storm viewing. Of course that didn’t keep us from hearing the thunder or having flashes of light come in through the curtains.

We did all get to bed quite late and as a result did not get out of bed until way later than I expected. Thankfully today was a Saturday and we had nothing solid scheduled on the calendar except for a youth dance.

Our day consisted of chores – including delivering a very trashy used couch to the trash site, returning the insulation we didn’t end up using for the attic, and having house keys made, finally. C went to town with her friend for a Latin event to get extra credit for Spanish class. The girls hung out into the evening as their planned dance was cancelled due to the weather.

I finished a book – The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry. It was a cute little mystery that C had picked as one of her potential books to read this school year.

I’m glad tomorrow is Sunday and we have one more day to do our own things.

It is late on this Friday night, but we are still up. A storm is coming through and we can hear the rain and thunder through the open windows.

It was a fairly normal Friday, with our usual activities. C was also able to go watch a homeschool volleyball match with some of her friends.

Yesterday C had a cross country meet in town at a local hilly golf course. The weather was overcast with a little humidity but not too hot. Willie and I had to arrive at the same time as the team because we are the haulers of the team tent. Once the tent was up we wandered around to find where we wanted to put our chairs. Most people didn’t bring chairs because at cross country meets people usually run from spot to spot on the course to cheer on their runners. We had two hours until the first race though, so we sat and people watched and I read some of my book.

The spot we chose had a good view of several sections of the race. For all but Cs race we stayed in or near our chairs. During the Varsity girls race we met up with two other parents and ran to different sections of the course. C had a good run – her experience helped her, not to mention she is partial to the longer distances (as long as they are not on a track). Her team placed third amongst 27 – team 1 and 2 were both in bigger divisions – and they were quite pleased with their effort. The coach seemed excited with their performance.

Wednesday was a typical Wednesday with work, school, practice, and youth group. C had a massage, but she said it was not relaxing (she has a lot of knots I think). We worked on her Spanish homework. The goal was to have it completed today and not be doing it right up until having to leave for class on Thursday. She completed most of it, which definitely helped with the stress level leading up to lunch on Thursday.

I’m popping back and forth between days. My friend/neighbor came over this evening asking if I had any soy sauce. It is fun to have neighbor’s like that. I also got to talk on the phone with a friend from AK this evening. That was really nice.

Ready for the weekend and getting more done on the house and unpacking.

On days when I skip a day and then come back to write I have to sit and really think about what was significant from the day before. Sometimes it worries me a little at how much it seems I forget and how quickly it happens. I mean, I just need to write about yesterday and yet it seems so long ago. I wonder if it is a coping mechanism of some sort. Dunno.

Yesterday it felt like Fall was here. The temps were cool and we tested out our heating system. It worked well and got the house a little too toasty. We had major rain in the afternoon into the night. I got news that the kittens have an intestinal bug, though they aren’t acting sick at all, so I had to go pick up their medicine in the afternoon. I should have watched a video on how to administer it because I think more made it on Mango’s face than it did his mouth. I was much more successful with Blueberry and today it went smoothly.

C was starting her dance classes and I went along with her to check out the studios and the parking situation. Unfortunately her first two classes were a major disappointment. She will not be continuing. We knew her studio and teacher back home were special, but we didn’t realize how great she was until C experienced something here. Quite “sad”, but C seems okay to have one less thing on her schedule. Her third class was at a different studio and it was a much better experience – still not Ms. Jamie, but it looked and sounded like it would be a good time.

Today Willie had physical therapy for his shoulders. The therapist is pretty convinced that some of his complaints are due to his medication. It will be nice when he finally gets off all his meds and his body is able to clean itself of all the extra chemicals. He doesn’t have a blood draw until next month so we won’t know if his immune system numbers are in the right place until then.

How is it the middle of September already?

Today we worked on laying flooring in the garage attic. We almost stopped because when Willie was up walking along the 2x4s (which is not very sturdy) the ceiling was flexing. It concerned us that we were doing something silly, but we called his brother who knows all about construction, and video-chatted with him to make sure it was okay. He assured us that all was fine and so we continued.

Originally we were going to insulate under the floorboards, but the store didn’t have the right width, so in spite of buying the insulation, it turned out to not be the right size. We will instead use it for insulating the garage walls and reconsider how to handle insulating the ceiling. In Alaska our garage was fully insulated and comfortable even in the extreme winter temperatures. People here do not commonly insulate their entire garage, which is odd to me.

The main floor is ready to store light items and all we have is a section off the side that needs to be completed. The rest of the area does not have enough head space for us to easily store items.

C helped me pass floor boards up to Willie and then she separated some iris rhizomes I got for free from someone in town. Now we just have to figure out exactly where to plant them.

After dinner we went over our friend’s house for a bonfire. It was just our two families this time around. It was a chillier evening than we have had thus far, but the fire was nice. We stayed until 9:30 and were able to be in bed just a little after 10.

Today we had church and football. I was also able to get some cleaning done. All in all, a very nice weekend.

We are enjoying the kittens. They do take up space in the house, but the extra life is fun.

Cs cross country team had a fun team day at the coach’s house. There was a warmup run around the trails on his property, then they had relays – comprised of two runners each. They had to run a total of 6 laps, switching between each lap. They then had a tug-of-war by grade. The photo above is during the tug-of-war with the smoke hovering in the air from the barbecue down below. I was one of a handful of mom’s helping the coach’s wife prepare food for the team.

The company was enjoyable and the weather lovely. The event was originally going to be on Tuesday, but it was way too wet and cloudy, so it was postponed until yesterday.

The children ate in order of grade, girls 12th grade going first. As the coach called out the group they would go up and grab the ribbon with their name on it, then go around to door on the other side of the house and walk through to grab their food. They then all sat around on various tarps and blankets on the lawn.

I love the team culture this group has. Their enjoyment of one another is a palpable. I’m super thankful for the group.

After the team gathering I went home and Willie and I sat down to watch the first 49er game of the season. It was a good game and of course we went to bed late because living in Central time means games start and end much later than they did in Alaska.

This morning the kittens went to the vet for the first time here. It took them a little time to get comfortable in the room, but by the time we were ready to leave, they had relaxed.

This evening there was another team potluck, but this time all the families were included. The weather was great and we had a really nice time. I was able to visit with several of my friends and Willie was able to hang out with his and meet a couple new ones.The first year C ran here I dropped her off at this same potluck and ran home to be with Willie and then when it was time for it to end I went and picked her up. Definitely glad we were able to have him there with us today. How far we have come.

Sunday we attended our new church again – but this time we went to the last service because of how late we stayed up Saturday night. (It was really way too late.) We once again enjoyed the teaching. They have been going through 1 John and this was the last few verses. The neat historical tidbit we learned was that while some of the letters of the New Testament were initially addressed to very specific churches, the intent was to pass them along to the other churches. So after the first church received the letter, they would make copies of it, and then send it on to the next church. We are now part of the church who continues to receive the letters written way back then. (Okay, I already wrote about this…and it was on the 6th. Losing track of my days.)

The rest of Sunday was just spent around the house.

We initially planned to get things done around the house on Monday, it being a holiday and all, but Willie was purchasing a table saw and we had to drive to Mankato – an hour and a half away – to pick it up. Once we arrived it took an hour to disassemble the saw and get it up to our trailer. The thing is 400 lbs!

By the time we got home and put the saw in the garage I was wiped and went to bed. It was only 5! I got up at 7:45 for a little bit, but went back to bed. I guess things just caught up to me.

Yesterday it was back to work, though it was fairly quiet. The fire season has been really busy for people who go on fires which means those of us left in the office have fewer meetings. I like days without meetings. I’ve probably said that before. Highlight of the day was my bike being picked up by friends of friends in Canada. It will be in the States this weekend! It is looking a tad sad, but as long as the frame isn’t bent it should be fixable.

C had an eye doctor appointment with a new eye doctor. It went well. We really liked the lady who helped us with her contacts. C said she reminded her of her dance teacher back in Fairbanks. I had actually walked into this clinic last week to confirm whether they took our insurance (they do not) and the eyeglass technician helped me out. I loved her personality and she was the reason I kept Cs appointment there. I told her as much and she told us we made her day when we left.

The kittens had almost free rein of the house last night…we had them locked out of our room, bathroom, and the guest room, but they didn’t seem to mind. When I woke up this morning they were still sleeping upstairs. I confirmed with C that they left her alone all night.

Today Willie took another drive – this time to pick up a dust collection system so he can start building things. He hasn’t owned one before, but with all the projects he has planned, it makes sense. I did not go with him this time. He said the guy he bought it from was a Christian and they had a nice long visit.

The kitten figured out his treat puzzle today. We will be trying it out more to keep him entertained.

We are enjoying the cats. They bring more life to the house, and just a few more pieces of furniture.

Yikes, a few days have passed since I last wrote.

Friday was the 4th. The memorable parts of the day included going to the chiropractor and in the parking lot seeing quite a few thick cardboard tubes from flooring that was being installed in the new dance studio. I went inside and found the one person laying floor and asked him if I could take them. He obliged and so C and I loaded all of them up. She thought I was silly, but my thinking was they could make really nice scratching posts and walkways for the cats. I could have simply taken one or two, but we took the entire stack. I didn’t want to be later thinking “oh, I wish I had grabbed more”. Part of me thinks I should find other job sites and find what leftover scraps are just going to be dumped in the trash that I could make cat things out of.

We did not realize it, but apparently the 4th of July fireworks had been cancelled due to technical difficulties. Turned out they were rescheduled from September 4. So at 8:30 PM we headed downtown to watch the fireworks. Initially we were just planning to go to our spot we watched from back in ‘24, but C had some cross country friends invite her to watch with them from the park. We parked in a nearby neighborhood thinking the parking up close would be full and walked to the infield. By now it was dark and in the 80s. Definitely a hot “August” night, but in September. To us it felt amazing. It took us a bit to find Cs friends – the one she was communicating with was using things like “on the north side, second pole to the south”, which we did correctly identify but we didn’t see them. After a tad bit of wandering, which I didn’t mind, we found them and walked to their chosen viewing spot. Willie and I had completely forgotten a blanket or chairs – last time we simply stood by the cars and watched them. He and I left C with her friends and walked to the edge of the track to sit on a slight incline to watch. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

The parking was not full near the park, which we laughed at.

On our way back to the cars there was a girl fight and the security personnel drove up on golf carts to put a stop to it. All the watchers scattered, running away, and the two girls ended up in handcuffs. I didn’t see both of them, but one had dark hair with some of it dyed bright red. She definitely stood out by her hair and style choice. It made me sad for her and I wondered what brokenness she had around her. We continued to talk about how girls fight – lots of hair pulling – and how to respond if that happens. I don’t foresee C getting into any fights or any of her friends, but sometimes the darkness likes to try to take on the light.

Having gotten to bed late on Friday, we weren’t quick to rise on Saturday, though I can’t really stay in bed too long and once my mind is awake, there is no shutting it down. There is too much to get done anyway to stay in bed for too long. The planned projects for the day included house cleaning and working on the garage attic. We were able to get the attic stairs in, but nothing beyond that. Cs friend came over to help her with some Spanish. I was so thankful she was able to do that.

In the evening we went over to our friend’s house for another burgers and brats evening with visiting and games. It was a slightly different group than last time, but oh so enjoyable. I love the friends we are making here. Our family actually ended up being the last one to leave, after Willie gave his testimony. My friend Allison asked him to tell it to her four children, so as we sat around the fire he told his story, a snippet of it, hitting some highlights. I think if we were to actually sit down and try to tell the story, without leaving any of the miracles and blessings we noticed, would take hours.

Our new church has three Sunday services. We went to the last one because we were all exhausted from staying up until almost 11. Our waking hours are becoming more “night-owlish”, though we are far from night owls. C is perhaps owlish…she definitely isn’t much of a morning girl if given the choice.

Mama stopped by for a quick visit on her way home. It was nice to see her.

Willie and I prepped more floor boards for the attic though we didn’t put any up.

The kittens were able to come upstairs and spend the evening with us. They enjoyed helping C with her puzzle.

Yesterday was a slow day. C was pretty tired. I think we were all recovering from the long weekend. She needed a nap so I curled up with her and she fell asleep on my shoulder. Mango, our red mackerel kitten, slept on my chest and then curled up by my neck for part of the nap. I am a little surprised how cuddly they are already.

We stayed up a little late working on Cs Spanish homework. She is taking a class taught by our neighbor, but it is Spanish 2 so she has a lot to learn. We are trying to encourage her because she is feeling overwhelmed with it and has already mentally failed her class. She is great at memorizing and I think doing well, so we just have to keep encouraging and helping her see she can do it.

This morning the kittens tried to expand their territory. We aren’t ready for them to get upstairs. I had thought they would need multiple days to adjust, but they are ready to explore it all. Mango is the quite the gymnast and jumped over the gate and some of the extra cardboard. Willie spent some time this morning trying to perfect it. They have not been able to get over the latest version. This weekend we plan to catify the upstairs and they will be able to roam the house.

C had a race this afternoon. It was very hot out but Willie and I found some nice shade from an evergreen. We moved around during Cs race to watch from several sections of the course. They were supposed to have a 5k but it was shortened to a 2 mile due to the temps. Her team came in 2nd to a team that is in the higher division. The girls had a great run. We enjoyed ourselves and were able to visit with several friends after.

We had a very nice day overall. Hoping to all get to bed at a reasonable time.