Something Old, Something New

I’m still playing blog catch-up…I guess I’m okay with that. I can give a rundown of the past little bit…

While I was off on my “adventure” learning the proper way to park a camper, Mom and Dad ripped down the old barn. I know this sounds absolutely silly but I actually choked up a bit. I have a ton of memories in that barn, both bad and good. It has always been there, was there before us, and I think part of me believed that it would always be there. They said it came down fast and a majority of the burning went pretty quick. It was very alarming for me when I came home and saw “its space” in the light of day. The new barn is already going up, Dad decided, because of how busy his spring has been, he was going to hire it to be rebuilt. So two guys, my age, come out every day and slowly it’s beginning to take shape again, slowly. I feel bad for the guys working in the mud and slop.

Also, in the past little bit, I attended the 2nd Great Plains Young Professionals Summit. I honored to be a presenter. The conference was a great opportunity to broaden my network and hear some amazing speakers. I attended the first summit, in Bismarck, and was impressed with how well Fargo had done in such a short amount of time.

House selling has become somewhat of a pipedream lately. After having the past 2 buyers back out, we were finally able to get our hands on a copy of the report. Nothing surprised us but we decided to try to fix a bunch to help with the next inspection. I put a new door in, repainted the porch, had the shower plumbing redone, reviewed the inside soffits, had a little electrical work done, and so on…and when I say I, what I really mean is my amazing family and Matt. They spent some time helping me, if it weren’t for them I don’t know what I would have done. I admit, sometimes this process has been so overwhelming. I am ready for the house to be sold and to move on, it’s just hard. Someday, I know all of this worry won’t matter….I’m looking forward to that.

This past weekend was great; Matt took me back up to Lansford, as he was the best man in his best friend’s wedding (Brendan and Claudia). We stayed at his parents’ house again, they are so good to me. It was fun to hang out with them while Matt was preoccupied with wedding stuff. I will admit though, my favorite parts of the weekend was seeing him dressed up in his tux, having fun on the dance floor, and being able to hear his best man’s toast. You can tell that him and Brendan have an amazing friendship and I like how genuinely happy he is for Brendan.

With as much good that’s been happening, there have been some dark spots; the flooding that happening around the state is devastating. Bismarck/Mandan has been dealing with the river for the past month. Houses are starting to be taken away, close to 500 families have relocated, and all people are doing is wondering when this will be over. In the meantime, Minot’s Souris has also flooded. It has incapacitated the city with over 1000 houses impacted, many businesses, the roadways, the surrounding towns, etc. It was a shock to see places that I had memories with from my college years submerged or had a levee running through the front yard. Then when the boil order was issued and the tornado sirens go, how much more can they take? While I was in a meeting, Matt assessed the downtown area, he ran into a woman who was crying. She had put everything she owned on the second floor of her house and when she pointed it out to him, all you could see was the roof. She had lost everything and kept saying, “It wasn’t supposed to get this high.”

This quote seemed to fit the weekend; it reminded me of Matt’s speech dedicated to the newly married couple. “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ~From the movie Annie