Hello friends and internet weirdos.; Sarah, here.; Oh my goodness, where to begin
Well, since Michael summarized The Big Move and talked about his new job that brought us here, I guess I’ll fill you in on what I’ve been doing since we arrived at the cute house with the red door in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.;
Basically, I’ve been a literal œhome maker all this week.; While Michael’s away at work I’m unpacking boxes and arranging furniture.; When Michael’s home from work we’re both unpacking boxes and arranging furniture.; When I sleep at night I dream of unpacking boxes and arranging furniture.; It’s a lot of work and sometimes overwhelming when I look around and see all that’s left to be done, but more so it’s very exciting to be creating a livable space.; Making a home.; And it’s rewarding when the outcome is so tangible.; Something I don’t usually get to experience in the computer-type work I tend to do.
Before we moved I envisioned this week as being really relaxing.; I had accrued almost exactly one week of vacation from my old (sniff) job at Internet Broadcasting which I got paid out for when I left last week.; So I’ve kind of looked at this week as not necessarily œunemployed “ just more like being on a "final vacation.; I thought I’d take Riley on long walks to explore the neighborhood and finally read all the Oprah magazines that have been piling up on my nightstand “ of which there are many.; I’d cook my first homemade lasagna and make at least 5 friends by the end of the week.; I’m chatty and love strangers, so how hard could it be?; Well, I honestly have hardly left the house and have been too consumed with unpacking boxes to do much reading, walking, friending or lasagnaing.; However.; There is always next week.
Next week, in fact, is a bit daunting for me.; I will officially be unemployed and making exactly zero dollars per hour.; Michael has his first overnight video shoot Monday-Tuesday so I’ll be home alone with potentially no human contact for two whole days.; I’m not that worried though.; Really.; I’m a grown up.; And I have Riley to keep me company as he snoozes in various places around the house.; After being cooped up in the house all this week I’ll definitely be taking Riley and my extroverted self out on more walks, writing more blogs and talking to more strangers, dogs and myself alike.; I’m sure Michael will arrive home on Tuesday night amazed at all I will have accomplished in his absence; He will be filming at a golf course but was told to bring big boots and snake chaps just in case.; Snake chaps?!; We’re certainly not in St. Paul anymore, Auntie Em.
I took some photos today around the outside of the house as a visual aid for this blog and because I promised Heidi some good pictures of squirrel poo.; Oh, yes.; Squirrel poo indeed.; I don’t know anything about walnut trees but there are about 6 of them around the property of our new rental house, including a big one that hangs over the super skinny driveway.
The garage is unfortunately way too narrow to drive my car into, so I’ve been parking it on the driveway just outside the garage and under the walnut tree to leave enough space for Michael to park his car in the driveway too.
This is the very walnut tree where the squirrels hang out.
And eat walnuts.
And poo ALL OVER MY WHITE CAR.
It’s pretty gross. Actually, remove the word œpretty and replace it with œvery.
The squirrels are really cute and I’m happy they’re eating the walnuts.; Because otherwise the walnuts lay all over the ground and we will have to run around and pick them up before we mow — since they fall from the trees in baseball sized apple things.
They look this this when they first fall from the tree.; Almost like an apple or a lime.
And then they rot away to something more resembling a walnut.
I also found a neat little South Dakota beetle or box elder bug in a pretty flower in the backyard.
Here’s a close-up.
He’s cute because he fashionably matches the flower and is not a spider.; We do however have quite a few spiders, like the one that appears to be living just outside our front door in our welcome mat.; Check out the web with the ominous hole of doom.
While I was wrapping up my photo safari in the backyard I noticed a squirrel leave the tree and come closer to inspect what I was doing.; It seemed it was attracted to the camera.; It got really close so I turned the point-and-shoot camera back on to take a better photo of him.; But he kept getting nearer and it suddenly hit me that I didn’t know this squirrel.; I didn’t know if this squirrel would eventually stop and not come any closer.; What if this squirrel had no fear and leapt into my arms to munch on the camera and infect me with a rare strain of South Dakota rabies or the bubonic plague?!; I took a couple shaky photos until it dropped out of the tree just a few feet away on the other side of the garage and I took off for the house.
Look at it’s beady red little eyes as it peers out of tree at me.; Taunting me.; œCome closer, my sweet.; Threatening me with infectious diseases and unimaginable quantities of poo.; Actually, he’s really quite cute in person but does look rather evil in this photo.; I’d like to give him a good name that calls to mind how cute and yet frustrating he is.; I’m thinking maybe œStinky.; Any suggestions?
I need to find a way to make peace with the little critters and keep my car from being covered in purple and green nasty-nast excrement.; Looks like I won’t be able to pull my car all the way up the driveway anymore and we’ll have to leave the other one on the street for now until hibernation season begins.; At least they provide hours of daily entertainment for Riley.
So what’s next?; This weekend we’ll need to de-spider-ify the house and garage, as well as de-squirrel-poo-ify the car.; After that we’re planning on checking out a new church.; We’re not sure which one yet.; Know of any good ones or see anything on this church listing page we should check out?; We’re looking for a good community where we can meet a bunch of people, hear an intelligent and challenging message and participate in music.; At least for me.; Michael said he isn’t interested in joining a choir with me but said he would volunteer on a tech crew œso we could be together.; 🙂
We’re really looking forward to Life Light which is the massive free Christian music festival in Sioux Falls next weekend.; We’ve heard fantastic things about it.; Michael’s new company, Vision Video Inc. does a lot of video work for them, including the sweet sweet promo video on their homepage: http://www.lifelight.org/; Chickadee-check it out, yo.
That’s it for now.; I was hoping to take some goodbye video for you of Riley snoring on the chair next to me as I typed, but every time I tried to catch it on film he would wake up.; So here’s a picture I just took of him sniffing my face.; So long for now!
