this quick post goes out to rani. she was the first "baseball" wife that came up and talked to me, and i remember thinking "this chick is funny." rani didn't have kids when i met her. i didn't have kids when i met her either.

since then i've watched rani rally back against cancer, have four kids, struggle along with me to understand how to be a better Christian, a better wife and a better mom. she has this funny idea that i have it all together. he he. after helping me clean out my kitchen yesterday, i think she's feeling a little better about her own organizational skills. she's got me talked into a fancy spice cabinet, for sure.

which leads me to this. thank you rani and ryan for this weekend. when you say the word "moving,' people generally run as far as they can. or maybe that's just me. however, ryan showed up on friday morning with his muscles and a sense of humor as he helped the husband lug the washer, dryer, stove, beds and all the other stuff i could not carry. dear rani first sent a big basket full of HOMEMADE salsa and garden goods and then showed up herself, wearing a kerchief in her hair and carrying a bag of cleaning supplies. she is da bomb. we cleaned away an afternoon, yakking the whole time. thank you thank you thank you rani.

i am taking a break today in an empty house, getting ready to go mow the lawn one last time. but first, i think i will crack open that salsa and a mountain dew. i will go sit on my empty back deck and enjoy our view of this beautiful town one last time.

sigh. i wish i could take it with me.

short and sweet update. one week til the move to the rental. NOT the rental i thought it was, but three doors down in a taller, not-as-cute version. ha. anyway, it'll work. we are packing packing packing and seriously...why do we have all this stuff?

boys seem to be doing ok in the new school. football and soccer start next week and i know that will help. i do like taking and picking them up from school, i get a good chance to talk to them about the day while they are trapped in the car with me :)

work is still crazy. i actually had to turn down two clients today. kind of makes me feel bad to do it, i think companies are in the mindset that everyone should be grateful for work and maybe give them a good deal...when we say no, they are kind of put out. hopefully the work goes to someone who really does need it right now.

finally, happy birthday to one of my favorite people in the whole world. thanks for being my friend, my partner and my sister, bobbi. i love you.

if you would like to watch a really great sitcom, come hang out in my house this week. between the building and the moving and the switching and the new schools and the packed work schedule and the driving and the late nights and the early mornings, i think my little brain is just spilling stuff over the edges. it's actually quite funny. here are some things my stress-induced head have caused me to do this week:

1. i've licked, stamped, addressed and mailed envelopes without putting anything inside.
2. i went for a bike ride and about an hour later realized i never turned on the ipod in my ears. where was that music coming from?
3. i have cried in front of my friends, the muckdogs, a school full of strangers, the postman, the checkout lady at the grocery store and my mother-in-law. all in one day.
4. i have driven down the interstate to retrieve a chair that fell out of the husband's truck, jumped out to save the chair from a man who was carrying it away and THEN realized i was still in my pajamas.
5. i dreamed that i wrote a brochure that was due today, woke up and came downstairs to write it only to find that it WAS written. now that is scary.

on top of it all, i lost my ability to look at blogs or write blogs. something crazy going on with my system over here. maybe i better break out the owners manual to this computer. it's in a plastic bag in a box somewhere. anyway, i told bobbi i was blocked from blogs and she exclaimed, "that means you have no friends!!" funny thing is, she was serious. i have missed you all. wish i had more time to catch up, i have "first day at the new school" pics to post. the kids seem to be doing ok so far, big j was really bummed that he doesn't have recess or lunch with little j. i had a very hard time holding it all together, so MY first day of school was not very good. all i could think was, "look at all these faces i don't know. i don't like this! i want to go home!" at the same time, my kids are begging me to please let go of their hands. he he.

i think i summed up my problem last night. i have no tolerance for change. i like things to stay the same. i have had the same hairdresser for the past 11 years. she works on the very far side of sioux falls, and a lot of the time she rips my eyebrows off and leaves raw skin. which is what she did last night. i was rubbing them on my way home when i thought about getting a new hairdresser in the new town since it will be about an hour and a half drive once we move. thing is, i like her, even if she does cause bodily injury. and i know that i will keep her. just like i'll keep my dentist, my doctor and my optometrist.

it's just too hard to change.

the last few days have been a little frustrating, thanks to a bum email account and a down server and all kinds of computer issues. when you are a freelancer who works remotely via computerl, having a doggin' computer feels pretty scary. as it is, my personal email account is not receiving emails and i have no idea how many of them are out there in cyberspace. i do know that i already missed a press check for some hockey brochures and a client who needed me to call her yesterday. doh.

on top of that, you should see the list i have for stuff that needs to be done before we can move in two weeks. it hurts my head, but i think i will take deann's advice and go one day at a time. people move all the time, and no one dies. i may lose a few jobs in the process, but no one will die. ha!

otherwise, i need to flip this email around and look at how blessed we have been. i will make a list for you (of course):

1. drove by the hole yesterday. it now has concrete in it and we can see the shape of the house. next week: walls!! it looks pretty good so far. i'll try to take pictures when things get a little more exciting.

2. drove by the rental house yesterday too. it's CUTE. all brick with a front porch, and we can wave to the husband while he's at work on the third floor across the street.

3. went to the school open house. i liked it. i think the boys liked it. teachers are energetic and full of new ideas. we passed the library and big j said "now THAT'S a library." we went through the playground and little j said "this is my favorite part."

4. work is NUTS. i almost can't wait to do my billing tonite to see how nuts the past two weeks have been. i know how lucky i am to be working at a job i love every day. thank you God!

5. we got through all but three of our "summer wish list" items this year, and i think we'll wipe one of them off yet. maybe two.

that's about it. now hopefully this thing will actually post. man, how did people do life without computers?

ok. here is the rest of the flippin' story. you know what i mean.

wayyyy back when we first decided to build a house in mitchell, my mom said "maybe you should rent a house over in mitchell so that you can be there while they are building it, take your time, do it right."

i listened, but in my head i was saying "no way. i don't want to move twice. we are going to get this thing built NOW and i will have a new house to move into by the time school starts." renting a house was so not in my future.

fast forward five months. we have a hole in the ground now, but that's about it. school starts next week, and we need to be out of here by september 1.

for the past few weeks, the ONLY thing i have been praying for is a house to rent. there was honestly nothing, and our options were looking pretty bleak (bridge, camper, basement). last week i settled on an apartment that didn't take pets, and was glad to have it.

today, we got word that we can rent a nice house across the street from the hospital (how's that for a commute for the husband?) AND we can take all our pets. we will live there until our house is built. we will take our time and we will do it right.

flip.

and yes, mom. you were right. again.

then...

now...

art girl to the rescue. good thing i have a bobbi, eh?

he he. well, that's what you get when you swipe a photo off your sister-in-law's facebook page. and that's what you get for never busting out your own camera. where is rani when you need her?

anyway. i spent a great last weekend in the black hills with my friend sara, her two girls, my husband's brother and his wife (i'd rather call her my friend) and my husband and our boys. the mission was for us girls to ride the 109 mile mickelson trail while the men hung out with the kids and gave us taxi service. then after we were done riding each day, we'd switch off. we stayed out at palmer gulch resort so there was plenty of fun stuff to do for the kids. they had a BLAST and the dirt to prove it.

so. the bike ride wasn't what i expected. i thought the mickelson trail was this flat trail that wound its way through the beautiful hills. it's even marked as 'easy' in the hiking guide. we started out in deadwood with a 13 mile uphill climb that did not ever decline. it took us an hour and a half to get to the top...that's when i began to question things a bit. however, that big climb was soon forgotten as we got to go down for about 17 miles through some of the prettiest country i've ever seen. my teeth got sunburned because i smiled the whole way. then we hit another 7 mile incline, where we all stopped talking and oohing and ahhing over the scenery and just pedaled. that last 10 miles or so were pretty much a descend into hill city, very pretty and we hit the town on an "up."our taxi service didn't have cell service and were too busy swimming anyway, so we ended up hitching a ride up the busy highway to palmer gulch from a one-legged man with a van and a bike rack. we payed him $10 each. and no, i'm not kidding.

we took my husband and his brother to the start of the decline and they rode into hill city that night. they had a great ride and were pretty impressed with what we'd just done--and they even got to skip the first 13.

the next day we knew we were in for a 10 mile up right away, and were looking forward to a nice easy flat for 50 miles after that. the first 20 or so were probably my favorite part of the whole ride. absolutly gorgeous from crazy horse to custer...but after that, we were rattlesnake bait. everything got ugly and deserty and HOT and windy, it was 98 degrees and we were chasing the fast-moving clouds for shade. we never did catch them.

but, we did finish. we were all worn out and hungry, but as soon as we located some licorice and chips, we forgot all about the hills and the heat and the wind. there were too many great parts to think about. truly, it was so worth it. if i had to do it over, i'd probably skip that part from custer to edgemont. but if you go with kids or you're looking for just a joy ride, ride from dumont to mystic or rochford and you will LOVE it. it's really absolutely gorgeous out there.