I'm not a tourist, I live here

We've been to the Mall of America many times, but this time I was happy to claim that mall as my 'home' mall.  Finally, after living 9 years in purgatory (North Dakota) we are returning to civilization again.  Walking thru the mall on Sunday afternoon, I was annoyed by the mass of people there that were sight-seeing.  Don't these people know that it's MY MALL?  Sheesh

The movers come on December 10th and will spend two days packing us up and two days loading.  We will be in our new home about December 14th and all of us are excited beyond word.  Marc is really happy about his new office.  We went into meet everyone there and Marc hit the jackpot!  His office is on the 8th floor, and overlooks the Mississippi River.  He has the enviable corner office with floor to ceiling windows and a couch and occasional chairs.  It's officially a big boy office.  His agency occupies 34,000 square feet on the 7th and 8th floor and is really, really impressive. It's honestly a fully contained mini city.  But the best part of his new office is.....wait......because of the building's location and the fact that he has underground parking, we can walk from there to the Twin's Stadium, the Timberwolve's venue and the Viking's Stadium.  I have some very happy boys in my house right now!

Our new home is exactly 32 miles from the Mall of America.  Trust me, Madison is pretty darn happy with that one!  My Nordstrom card was used exhaustively the past 10 days and will enjoy future exercise.  There is so much more to do and explore there than there is here.

I've had numerous people in Bismarck tell me what a great place Bismarck is to raise a family.  All I can say to that is, that might be true if your family is homogeneously white.  But if you have black kids, this is not the place I want my kids to grow up.  I'm tired of people expressing out-rage at our racial incidents, but being too cowardly to make a stand for us and the 'right' thing.  It takes a strong person stand up for those who have been maligned, but sadly, we haven't met any of those strong people in Bismarck.  The incident at church this past summer was a true blessing.  It brought to light the meek and cowardly nature of those whom we had once respected and pushed Marc's agency to move us quickly....and give him a promotion to boot!

We still marvel at the fabulous good fortune that came our way soon after the loss of our church family.  From this, good things have continued and we can't wait to begin the next phase of our life.  Change is good!  More people need to embrace that belief.  Isolation and insulation from change causes the narrow and spiteful, racial comments and ignorance we encountered. 

The next few weeks will be busy, busy, busy.  So busy that we might forget to be thankful to God for His blessings, but each time we get overwhelmed with all we have to get done, we remember that we could be stuck here and very bored and lonely.  God is good and we look forward to sharing our new home and fabulous new city with our dear friends and family.  To the Watkins and Dorcheus families, you will always, always have room in our home and we won't consider it our official new home until you have come and stayed with us and broken the house in with  our collective gaggle of children.  See you soon!

House hunting is for the birds

This sucks!  10 days to find a new home is just not enough time.  Today we looked at 4 houses scattered throughout the western edge of Minneapolis.  We took our time and were methodical in sizing up each homes potential and likelihood of meeting our needs.

The first home was lovely and was by far the nicest house in the neighborhood.....which probably explains why it's been on the market 500+ days.  Great house in a not so great neighborhood equals no resale value.

The second home has a fabulous barn and indoor riding arena.  It also had a wonderful built in pool and was in a fantastic location.  The house was nice, but needed a little up dating.  What you ask, was the problem with this one? Well it had a small heaving problem where the patio foundation would heave up in the winter and drop back in the summer.  Yep, not buying that problem no matter how nice the property.

The third house is in Buffalo and is a lovely, lovely home in a great small suburb of Buffalo, MN.  It has a barn with 4 gorgeous stalls and we would have to add a few more, but completely doable.  The house is move in ready.  Great house.  HUGE!  BUT.....it seems to be a little over priced.  We'll have to see about this one, but as of today it's number one on my list.

Fourth house was also a nice house...HUGE at 4800 square feet.  Great jack-and-jill bath for the boys and a ginormous bedroom for Madison and bachelor pad for Thomas.    A little further out than we would like, but it's on 22 acres but has no horse fencing and is close to a busy road. 

Decisions, decision.  One thing I do know is that Marc's government per diem for food is not nearly enough to cover happy hour needs.  Cocktails are most needed when we must choose a home in a few days.  Mas bebidas, por favor!

Where my kids can just be kids

The excitement in our household is building as we get closer to our move.  We head out on our house hunting trip this week and will probably pack a month's worth of looking, investigating, searching, shopping, negotiating and eating into a few days. 

We have had two appraisals, a home inspection, a pest inspection and a septic tank inspection done on this house for the relocation company which will ultimately purchase our house from us.  So far everything is moving smoothly.  We've had two offers on our house, but we were unable to accept one offer since it was contingent upon the sale of their current home and the other people, well, let's just say they weren't living in the real world.  Their offer was a little low and they wanted us to pay their closing costs and give them all our mineral rights.  UM, that would be a huge NO!

Mineral rights are the hot topic these days in North Dakota.  As oil and gas exploration expands south and east of the Bakken, everyone who owns land and the mineral rights are reserving their rights due to the potential for huge income on those minerals.  I guess some people enjoy living in la la land with Tipsy and Po. 

The greater Minneapolis area has a glut of houses that fit our needs.  We are looking for a home on at least 10 acres, horse ready with a barn and a 4 bedroom house.  So far our realtor there has matched us with 136 house within a 40 mile radius of downtown Minneapolis.  From that list we have whittled it down but we really can't know if a house will 'feel' right until we can see the surrounding area and get a feel for the town.  We most certainly do not want to repeat our circumstances that have occurred here with small town/small minded bigots, so getting there and getting a feel for the neighborhood will be so important. 

The moving company is pushing us to lock in the specific date that we want them to show up and load us.  It's been hard to do since we aren't sure when we'll close on a new house in Minnesota or Wisconsin.  We know Marc must be at work there on December 19th so we are guessing the movers will be here around the 13th.  GULP!  They estimate 2 days to pack and 2 days to load.  Once there they are paid to unpack us...which they did not do last time and literally just dropped our stuff and left.  This time I'm not going to be a nice Nelly.  I'm gonna be wicked Nelly Olson from Little House on the Prairie!

I'm still not complaining.  Really I'm not.  I'm so damn happy to be getting out of here and leaving a community behind that resists new comers no matter how hard they work to adapt and blend with the old timers.  We look forward to blending into a big city again where my kids won't be stared at simply because of their skin color.  A diverse enough city where my kids can just be kids.  Not the black kids with the white parents.  Just simply kids.

Moving on up..to the East side....AKA, Minneapolis!

It was pointed out to me by Tina, that due to our impending move to the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area, I would need to change the title of my blog.  YIPPEEE! 

I am utterly lacking in creativity.  Even though I am a Pisces, I still missed out on the creative aspects I was supposed to have been born with.  Nope, nada, zilch creative ideas originate in my noggin. So darlin' blogland readers, help me come up with a new title for my blog. 

We've hooked up with a realtor in Minneapolis and we are also looking at properties in the Hudson, Wisconsin area.  Funny thing though is that the property taxes are much higher than in the surrounding counties of Minneapolis with the exception of Hennepin County which are outrageous. So with that in mind, even though Marc will be working in Minneapolis we very well could be living in Minnesota or Wisconsin.  Toss out the ideas for a new blog title....Please...I need help here!

Whew, what a summer, but a GREAT fall is ahead

Well most of you know what transpired with our family and the hateful, bigoted racism that was directed to our family....and blatantly ignored by others....in this small backwards community, but out of that has come some true blessings.  Let me share some of the outstanding good fortune and blessings given by God that will benefit our family.

First of all, Marc's agency stepped up to the plate and intervened in hearing our pleas for help living in this community and worked diligently to transfer our family ASAP.  Well, the big kahuna's in the government not only got us a transfer to our city of choice, but also gave Marc a promotion!  In addition, they are relocating us in only 90 days.  Well, it's actually 83 days now since we've known for a week now, but who's counting?  We've already begun the process of listing the house, getting it show ready, and signing up with the relocation company.  If our house doesn't sell in 30 days then the relo company buys it and we leave this hideous state behind. 

It's funny how the cowardice of other people and their hateful words and actions caused us so much emotional pain at the time, but ultimately brought us to a better place.  A better place emotionally, financially and vastly more diverse so that my family will not be surrounded by ignorant, mean-spirited people. 

Marc informed the people he works with here in Bismarck and they are sad to see him leave, but understand the terrible hatred our family has been experiencing.  Someday soon, the people of this state will have to come to terms with people living in 'their' community of different races.  It's despicable for people to idly stand by and witness racism and fail to address it, condemn it and intervene.  Sadly, the vast majority of the people here have acknowledged that our family has been subjected to racism, yet are too weak of character to stand up and publicly declare it as an abhorrent behavior.  We've made excuses for years now for the people who privately tell us it's wrong what our children hear spoken to them, but will not stand with us in public in an effort to change it.  Weak people...cowards...come in all shapes, sizes, ages, religions, and occupations.  Maybe we're just unlucky but we have encountered bigots matching all these demographics. 

While we know racism is alive and kicking everywhere, our new location will definitely provide us with a metropolitan city where the population has actually lived somewhere else than the good 'ol family farm in rural North Dakota.  North Dakota is quickly being pushed out of it's cherished isolationism and will soon need to deal with real world problems.  We as a family are ecstatic beyond belief that we are moving and leaving this hate filled community behind.

As much as I hate painting, I must continue to touch up the white baseboards, dings in the walls and repaint the back door.  When I get so frustrated trying to keep the house spotless (what a joke with 4 kids) I simply remind myself that we have a deadline to be in place in our new state, the movers are coming to pack us up and we can blow a ginormous raspberry to the narrow-minded lifer's as we fly away to a new beginning.

Out of ashes and heartache came blessings for our family.  My faith in God is as strong as ever and we look forward to the future with great excitement and zeal.  To those who maligned us, thank you!  Your spiteful, cowardly natures have blessed us beyond belief.

Going private

I will be taking my blog off the grid soon.  If you would like to continue to follow, please email me or leave a comment and I will make sure you can continue to join me on this most unique adventure that our family is on. 

Welcome

In honor of all my new readers, I decided to change my outdated background.  I hope it adds an air of summer time joy!