Can you believe it’s October already? It’s amazing how fast time has flown. We’ve been South Dakotans for a month and a half by now. It seems short and long at the same time. We’ve managed to fit quite a lot of adventures into our time in Sioux Falls so far. Here are some photos from September that didn’t make it up in prior posts.
It’s getting colder outside! Better hold hands to keep warm.
We got a new bed — and a new mattress. I posted a bit about it earlier, but here’s a good photo of it in all it’s stripped-down glory. Sweet dreams!
Our front door is exceedingly cute. The geraniums from my mom are in full bloom.
There was some sort of street sweeper convention that took place for a very long time outside our house one afternoon. They filled up the entire water truck from the fire hydrant on our intersection and all sorts of street sweepers pulled up and had a meeting of the minds. Here’s my Serious Journalist sneaky spy shot I took by poking my photo lens out my front door. 007 here I come.
We made a quick weekend trip back to MN for my grandparents’ 60 wedding anniversary. We managed to sneak in a quick trip to IKEA for free breakfast!! We found out later they usually sell breakfast for 99 cents. But still. It was free. We followed up our free breakfast with a shopping trip around the store to pick up "a few things" for our new home. When all was said and done we concluded it was the most expensive free breakfast we had ever received.
We also snuck in a super quick trip to the Renaissance Festival with Corey and Sarah Moore. Woot! We may have spent as much time sitting in traffic and then hiking the horrifyingly long and hot trek from our car to the festival as we did actually at Ren Fest, but it was super fun to spend the afternoon with our good friends in such a wacky place. Warning: We saw this R-rated yet hilarious van while waiting in traffic. We kept passing each other with the slow-moving flow of traffic and giggling every time. Afterwards we had an awesome BBQ with a great group of friends at Mike Burrow’s house. We brought our camera to the BBQ but had so much fun we forgot to take pictures. Rats. We’ll just have to do it again!
On to my grandparents’ 60th anniversary. 60 years!! Such an inspiring and strong example to us in our marriage. We didn’t get a good picture of my grandparents together since they were working the crowd and talking with so many of their friends. Michael pointed out it’s easy to see where my extraverted social-butterfly qualities come from. Here they are in action! My grandma is in pink and my grandpa is in a brown suit on the right in the first photograph. I love the photo of Michael and my sister-in-law Erin, the exhausted two who have dared to marry into our goofy family.
We mowed our lawn for the very first time!! Boy did it need it.
I bought a bike from our neighbors across the backyard. They’re moving for the 3rd time in 2 years with a 3 year old daughter and another baby on the way. Yikes! You always hear how easy it is to ride a bike even if you’ve been gone for a while, but it’s been since about 7th grade for me so I’m pretty wobbly. I’m a bit worried about bulldozing someone over while I’m getting the hang of it again but I’m hoping this will be good exercise while I’m "in transition." Here I am in my super dorky oversized helmet. Indoors of course because I’m dorky and couldn’t figure out how to make it fit right. I actually answered three phone calls while wearing the bike helmet indoors that afternoon. If you called me recently it could have been you. I’ll never tell. More bike pictures to come, I’m sure.
And! I got a free pedicure from an Herbal Essences product promotion. Yep, this is how I’ve been spending my unemployed time lately. I mailed in my receipt a few months ago from two specially marked Herbal Essences products to get a voucher for a free manicure or pedicure — so I finally put it to good use a couple days ago. I’m excited to have pretty toes for Erika and Brendan Johnston’s wedding vow renewal this weekend! In continuation with the dorkiness, here is a before and after photo. If you are grossed out by feet, specifically my feet or my dorkiness in general, I sincerely apologize. I don’t have much going on right now.
Coming up in October: This weekend I’m making a solo whirlwind trip back up to MN for my Gustavus Adolphus College 5 year reunion and the previously mentioned wedding vow renewal for Erika and Brendan Johnston. I keep calling it a "vowel" by accident. It will be the longest trip I’ve ever driven by myself. Erika was my maid of honor 4 years ago and I was her matron of honor 3 years ago. I donated my bridesmaid dress from their wedding so I think I’ll be wearing the dress from my brother Jon and Erin’s wedding. I may however be resurrecting the super fun matron of honor toast I did at their wedding. We shall see… As far as the reunion goes, I sent out a bunch of emails to see who among my Gustie friends will be there and didn’t get much back in way of responses so I’m not really sure what to expect. It would be fun to see my college buddies again, but if it’s me and a bunch of people I didn’t really know during my college days it will be fun to make new old friends. Ha. Here are some photos from Erika and Brendan’s fun 100-degree wedding back in July of 2005 so you don’t have to look at photos of my feet anymore. For the wedding ceremony Erika wore the same antique lace dress worn by her mother and grandmother. Very cool.
Michael and I are celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary on October 9th — hooray! We are hoping to sneak in a short get-away that weekend. We’re also getting ready for at least two more weekends of Minnesota visitors, Halloween in our new neighborhood and Celine Dion!! My heart will go on! I’m also optimistically hoping to land a job. I’m interviewing for a real job opening with the South Dakota Symphony on Tuesday and have an iron in the fire for an activities director position with a really neat museum. Only time will tell. Have a great October!