Oh, and By the Way . . .

We moved.

We live in Dickinson, ND now--"Explore the Western Edge," "The Queen City," etc.--and it has been a whirlwind last coupla months. Basically, we accepted job offers one week in July, put our house on the market the next Monday, sold it two days later, bought a house in Dickinson four days later, and spent the remaining weeks packing until the movers came August 11. I started work August 1, so I spent a couple weeks living with my father-in-law in his apartment during the week and driving home on the weekends. Susan, the girls, and I spent one weekend with her dad in the interval between our departure from our former house and the closing on our new home.

Now we're "home" and loving it. It's a mess; we've been ripping down wallpaper (with the help of Susan's family--thanks Cassie, Nick, and Roger!) and painting and leaving many boxes unpacked until we're done with wall work and can move furniture into place. It's a much bigger house than our previous one, so it's fun to move around in and arrange our stuff in and imagine purchases we'll need to make for it (a dining room set, an entertainment center, storage shelves, etc.). It'll be great when we've got our last box unpacked and everything in place . . . several months down the road, probably!

No more driving five or six hours to visit relatives or "go home" for the holidays. Susan's family are right here, and mine are now only about two hours away to the north. And Dickinson is proving to be a warm and welcoming city with a lot to offer. We miss the friends we've left behind, but this feels right.