New Homes, Old Friends, and Long Walks

Last Thursday, June 25th, was a beautiful day--perfect for moving! Tomkin, Marcus, Nick, and I helped Helena move into her beautiful new home. (Her dad and one of his friends helped, too.) Helena was impressively organized--all the small items were in labeled boxes, and larger items were all set aside and ready to go. It made the day go very smoothly, and we only had to take two trips to get everything moved. I've dubbed the new place Helena's House of Happiness and Healing, aka The 4H Club. Lots of positive energy there. We started the move at 12:30, and it took us less than three hours to get everything over to the new house and into the designated rooms. Tomkin and I headed home to shower, rest, and get a little work done. Then we met up for dinner at Pizza Luce with Helena, Nick, and Marcus. Helena gave each of her helpers a bag of fun goodies and she treated us to a delicious dinner (and dessert!). Of course the best part was hanging out with fun and awesome people! In other news, Thursday was the day that both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. Quite a sad one-two punch. That evening, Tomkin biked over to Kowalski's (I stayed home to start packing for my trip to Iowa), and he ran into his ex-wife, Claire. She told him that their cat, Naia (who we had renamed Mittens), recently died. So that was sad, too. Before I moved to Minnesota, Mittens was good company for Tomkin (then she went to live with Claire), and she was a beautiful cat.
Friday morning I finished packing, and then I headed out about 12:30 for Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I had my GPS, a cooler full of snacks and drinks, and lots of books on CD. The trip went smoothly, and I arrived at Lisa's about 5:15. Right now Lisa, her fiance Richard, and their baby daughter Kaya are living with Lisa's parents. Lisa and Richard are getting married in February, and they're hoping to buy their own house sometime soon. (She showed me one that they're looking at--it's gorgeous!) I hadn't seen Lisa since October 2007! I stayed with her the night before I drove away from Chicago into the open arms of Tomkin and St. Paul. It was wonderful to see her again and good to meet the rest of her family. She and Richard seem like a great couple--he's really nice and fun. And Kaya is adorable! We all went out for Italian food that night, then just hung out at home and caught up. Lisa showed me her beautiful wedding dress (top secret!) and the invitations, which she's making herself. It was fun to talk about her wedding (which will be in Iowa) and shower (which will be in Chicago). Back in Minnesota, Tomkin had a wedding rehearsal, and then some housecleaners he hired came over for a few hours to do some deep cleaning. What a treat to have that done--especially while I was away!
Saturday morning, Lisa went to a bakery and picked up lots of yummy treats for breakfast. She drove me to the church where they'll be getting married, and then we went to Starbucks and got some coffee. We went back and hung out at home for a little while, then went to Zoey's, a local pizza place, for lunch. We stopped by a bakery to look at wedding cakes and went to Michael's to look at crafting supplies. We went back home, and I took a short nap. Unfortunately, Kaya wasn't feeling too well--she was both teething and gassy. So she spent most of the day either crying or sleeping. Poor baby! Every so often, though, she'd be feeling good and want to play. We watched much of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" marathon, and Lisa's mom made us all a delicious dinner. Tomkin was busy back in MN--Omar dropped off Dulsi, the housecleaners came back (they did 22 total hours of work!), and Tomkin officiated a wedding. He barely had time to miss me!
On Sunday I left a little after 8:00am and was home by 12:30. It was a beautiful day for a road trip, and my book on CD helped the time fly by. When I got home, we took a nap, and then we set out for a walk with the dogs. We found a great new walking place--it's just a few blocks away, along the railroad tracks. It's down in a valley--very secluded, and we could safely let the dogs walk off-leash. There are wildflowers and lush vegetation, the sky was blue, and it just couldn't have been a more gorgeous setting. We've nicknamed it the "Wardrobe" after the Narnia book, since going there feels like stepping into another world. We went home, relaxed, read on the front porch, and had dinner on the patio. That night we watched our first Netflix movie: "Billy Elliot." Tomkin hadn't seen it before. Such a great film!
On Monday, Tomkin started the week by getting his third root canal. Thankfully he has an amazing dentist, so it all went smoothly and painlessly. He went to the library and his office. I spent the day working at home. We went back to the Wardrobe to walk the dogs--another beautiful day. That evening I had a premarital counseling session, and Tomkin met with a couple. Tracy was nice enough to take the dogs while we were both working. That evening we planned our staycation. We had made a list of things we want to do and local places we want to go, primarily ones we haven't been to before. Then we charted everything out for the week. Some stuff is scheduled, and for other stuff we can play it by ear. No matter what we do, I know it'll be fun--and a much-needed break from work!
Tuesday was a stressful, annoying day. For one thing, all my grant work is up in the air since we're having some issues with funding sources. It was just one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. (Although Al Franken was finally declared our newest senator, so that was good!) Tomkin met with a couple, then headed into the office. I did my weekly shopping trip to Target--since I don't want to shop next week, during our staycation, I bought even more groceries than usual. I honestly don't know if I could have fit anything more onto that cart! It was quite a feat of engineering to get everything on there with nothing getting squished. That night I had a premarital counseling session, and Tomkin took the dogs for a walk with Tracy and Wilbur. Then we went for a lovely bike ride down Summit Ave. That was just what I needed.Yesterday (Wednesday), we had lunch at Tomkin's parents' house. Nancy had cataract surgery in one eye last week and is having the second eye done next week. It sounds like her world is literally brighter and more colorful now! Tomkin and I went to a store that sells wild bird supplies (I didn't know there was such a place!), and we bought a hummingbird feeder. Then we went to Menards and picked up a birdbath. It looks beautiful in the yard, and we've already seen a few grackles splashing around in it. We took a little nap, then went back to the Wardrobe to walk the dogs. This time we took along some garbage bags, which we filled with litter as we walked. Tomkin had to go meet with a couple; I caught up on some e-mails and worked. Last night Tomkin brought the dogs along to his weekly poker game--it sounds like they all (Chloe, Dulsi, and Wilbur) got pretty crazy. But they had a good time! I had a premarital counseling session, then talked to my mom. We've set a date now to go to Grand Forks! We'll be going the second full weekend of August. My aunt Candy is going, too! That should be a lot of fun.

This morning (Thursday) Tomkin met with a couple, then biked to the eye doctor for a check-up. He's decided that he wants to bike as many places as possible now. I ran errands, had a phone date with my friend Stephanie (she lives in Chicago and is getting married in October), and did some editing. I was supposed to get one more report to edit before our staycation started, but now I won't get it until next week sometime. Oh, well--a couple hours of work isn't going to kill me, I suppose.... Tomkin suggested that we walk the dogs down to W.A. Frost and get dinner on the patio. That was such a good idea! It's a beautiful summer day, and the servers there could not be nicer or more friendly. They brought out a big bowl of water for the dogs, who--thankfully--were very well-behaved. The woman at the table next to ours even asked if she could give them some bacon. The walk home felt a little long (it's 1.8 miles each way), and we were all pooped by the time we got back. Now everyone is resting. Becca and Omar will be picking up Dulsi tomorrow. It's been really fun to have her here! She and Chloe have become good pals. We'll be starting our staycation by going to the Elko Flea Market. I hope everyone has a fun, safe, and relaxing Fourth of July weekend!