Starting to Plan a Life

Our lives in Pierre are slowly starting to take shape.  Here in NY, we are finishing--we accepted an offer on our house this week, and the packing is coming along nicely.  The garage is full of yard sale treasures and it's much fuller than our shed of keep items (that will change, I'm quite sure!).  I packed all the baking items! :-(  Officially no more baking till the other side!

What's exciting to me is making plans on the other end!  We actually have South Dakota dates penned on our calendar at home.  I can't wait for some of this good stuff...

On May 19, we will finally get to see our house in person!  On May 20, we will close on our little cottage in the city and on May 21, we will have our stuff delivered.  We'll spend the weekend trying to get somewhat organized, and then the real fun begins!

I start work on May 24th.  It will be the first time, I realized today, that I have worked full time in 12 years.  I am both excited and terrified to have a real schedule, and my own work space, which I have never, ever had in my professional life--it's always been shared space.  Funny what a luxury my own cube seems!

Mary sent me the Zesto recipe calendar for May.  Zesto is the local ice cream joint and on May 24, we will definitely be enjoying blackberry ice cream--it's like they knew we were coming!  On May 25, the local Expedition League baseball team, the Pierre Trappers, has its home opener for the season, and I bought Greg season tickets for his May 27 birthday, so we have a fun family activity to do throughout the summer.

Mary also clued me in to Oahe Days, a local arts and music festival with a small rodeo and carnival and food trucks, which sounds like so much fun!  So that is on our June calendar. 

Since we'll be living kind of right downtown, we've been mapping everything for walking and biking, and I think we're going to manage to be much more active.  Leah has already charted a course for the local grocery and convenience stores for snack runs, as well as the Y and the library so she won't be stuck home all summer.  This brings with it a lot of fear for me, letting her zip around alone, but I'll get her a phone plan and she'll be under strict instructions to keep me posted on her whereabouts.  

Right now I am, if I'm being honest, struggling with sitting around waiting to get moved and going.  Our reasons for waiting are valid--Leah is performing in her last show here at her current school and she's got the lead role.  Greg has two weeks of college left.  We need to get the house in order for our buyer.  There's so much to do, it's not worth rushing.  But boy do I want to! 

Just a short update for you all, and sorry there are no interesting pictures, but I hope you've enjoyed getting a little local flavor of life in Pierre for now!