Hopping/Hoping Into Spring

As March leaves like a lamb, with beautiful days that brought out my summer pants and Matt’s shorts, I hope April will follow and keep spring coming. I’m a little doubtful after waking up on Easter Sunday and seeing snow covering my car and the yard and Matt’s work cell going off. Here’s hoping this is its final hoorah before spring fully embracing its own possibility.

Work has become more interesting as we are getting more phone calls for those who are ready to get into their vehicle and drive up, because housing isn’t as big of scare in the summer, that’s what vehicles are for. It’s frustrating for me because these people are expecting me to be begging them to come and yes there are jobs but these people don’t want to come for $11/hour McDonald jobs or $13/hour noon rush Taco John’s jobs, they want $30/hr plus a per diem and to find a job within hour 1 of arriving. I’m not sure what my summer will be but I’ve started to become immune to the woeful stories and Matt’s relieved that I won’t be borrowing out our room anytime real soon to some lost soul.

House count up to 22. This house had a price that’s better than we’ve seen, great deck that was south facing and a ton of cupboards. Matt had a few issues with the amount of closets that the house had as well as the construction of the garage, but I was prepared to have a more serious talk, or at least a look at the property disclosure. We both need to agree, so the search is still on.
Weeks looking: starting our fourth
Summary of feelings: still frustrated

It was a great weekend, very relaxing with a kick off on Good Friday. Matt and I did some running around town but not after making one kitty very happy. Matt decided to take Lola for a walk, something that she has never experienced and I’ve strongly discouraged her outside activities. She seemed to enjoy herself despite my nervousness that she was going to break out of her harness and leash and explore further. I think this is a cue to our possible parenting styles for the future. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Lola now wants to go out more of course; she’ll stand on the bench by the door and pull on the blinds in an attempt to get her way. To try to appease Lola, Matt did put the screen door on the front so even though he can’t continue to take her for a walk, she can enjoy the fresh air through the screen. I think my second favorite part of watching the two of them “take a walk” was watching Nike watch them. I couldn’t tell if she was mocking Lola and her collar/get up or jealous that he was dividing his attention from her.

Saturday offered a special treat for me. Matt decided he was craving key lime pie, so he must bake. I enjoyed the show as he made his own graham cracker crust, waited impatiently for it to cool, and then made the key lime filling. That would have been great but then what he decided to have/prepare for supper enhanced this even further. He cooked a prime rib roast for me. It was amazing. Probably the best prime rib that I’ve ever had, warm and cooked perfectly. After we were done eating I was so uncomfortable I probably should have puked, I would have at least felt better. I wasn’t even hungry for breakfast the next day. We finished the night off with good friends and enjoyed some local brew and their local/homemade blueberry wine.

Ended the weekend with Easter. It was a great day at Descie’s and only would have been better if had had been able to go versus staying close to town for the airport. They had a full house and the food was amazing. It’s great to see everyone and catch up!

Best Meal: While Easter dinner was great and the left overs were amazing too, I have to say that Matt’s prime rib and key lime pie has to be in the top 3 meals of the year so far. I can’t wait until we have open faced sandwiches as left overs.

A Few Bits of Conversation 

MJR: I need graham crackers.
ALM: Here they are. You can ….
MJR: (slam slam slam) What?
ALM: Use the food processor.
MJR: That’s unnecessary. That’s just another thing to clean! Crap, I ripped a hole in the bag.

ALM: I thought you were going to.

MJR: You’ve never seen me bake.
ALM: That’s why I’m getting my camera.
MJR: Let me go put some shorts on.

ALM: Bakers wash their own dishes.
MJR: Hence, why I didn’t use the food processor.

MJR: What do you want as a side to the prime rib?
ALM: Do we need one?
MJR: Well, we probably should.
ALM: Okay, how about bread?
MJR: So all you want for supper is bread and prime rib?
ALM: Is there anything else that we'd need?
MJR: Well I was thinking like potatoes or something.
ALM: Unneeded filler.

Talking about Plunges.

Well, we had our first slow weekend in a month, I had big plans to sleep in and drink latte and let the cats snuggle on the bed. Matt had to wake up early-ish by my Saturday standards to help out with the Special Olympics “polar plunge” where individuals would jump into the precreated outdoor pool, which had the ice skimmed off the top. Matt really seemed to enjoy the event. He helped out as part of the Dickinson Rural Fire Department’s Dive team. He did tell me that some of the people had to be crazy, jumping in with feathers, just in underware, two pairs of cowboy boots were ruined and he said the water definitely had an effect on people.

While he was watching the divers, I spent the afternoon with Shantelle helping to work out her wedding details. It’s been great to plan a wedding with someone else as it’s surprising how she understands my feelings of frustration, being overwhelmed, and also wanting to make sure that the biggest day of our life is memorable and special to both us and the guests that are excited to share in our day. We are having VERY different weddings, but it does surprise me that we have some of the same issues and projects that we are working on.

Sunday was a slow day too. It was Matt and I’s turn to talk wedding. We worked out some details, listened to a few songs, and talked about some of the things that were coming up. We did have on and off snow, which was the only damper of the day, but it got both of us out for awhile to shovel. Have I mentioned that I’m ready for spring?

House Count: 21 (and holding)
Weeks looking: Starting our 3rd
Summary of feelings: disappointed

Best Meal: Ironically, it was a fish weekend. Matt and I both prepared white fish. I made a mustard encrusted orange roughy and he made fish tacos on the grill. Both meals were great but the conversation over the tacos lead back to Cabo and the memories there(the Dos Equis didn't hurt either), which may have made that a better meal.

ALM: Doesn’t it overwhelm you?
MJR: What?
ALM: We are getting married, our worlds are going to change, FOR-E-VER!
MJR: How?
ALM: You know, it’s official, it’s legal, it’s you and me, no break ups, no going back.
MJR: Well, you can always go break up, it’s just more expensive.
ALM: It’s just more serious, you know when we are married.
MJR: You didn’t think we told people we were serious when we moved in together.
ALM: This is DIFFERENT!

Home is where....your pots and pans are.

House Count: 21
Offers made: 1
Offers rejected: 1

Well, the search continues. We did make an offer on a house after we showed it to Michele, Randy, and Kevin last weekend. We ended up submitting it the same time as someone else, and got ourselves in a blind bidding war, that we couldn’t compete in. Won’t lie, bummed us out, especially me when I thought of how much that house fit our needs and the work that we didn’t need to do…and then to sit out on the deck! Boo for not getting what I want. But we move on (and secretively wish that the other’s offer financing doesn’t go through).

So we’ve looked at three more houses. And one, we’ve kinda seen before. If you remember back to the first weekend we looked we mentioned about the beautiful new construction home that was ruined by the neighbors to the east who had a trampoline, 3 cars, a boat, a swingset, a couple dog houses, a unfinished kid’s playhouse, and no sod/grass, well we looked at that house. And the upstairs was fine, until we went down stairs to a mess. Trim was missing, ceilings were missing, they started a dropped ceiling but didn’t quite get out of a room, the house was dirty and their favorite form of storage appeared to be diaper boxes. It’s amazing sometimes how people don’t realize that their personal items make it impossible to look past them to see the house.

The other house was much cleaner and had some great features, such as original hardwood floors and a beautiful island. But the lack of central air and closed/makeshift floor plan made us decide to go another direction.

The most recent house was built during the last boom in a neighborhood I’ve been warned about. I loved the openness but what we didn’t like was there was no place to put pots/pans, it was severely lacking cupboard space and in the basement the carpet came halfway up the walls to cover the foundation, a project that if we decided to change wouldn’t be a small endeavor. Needless to say, we decided to keep looking.

Best Meal: I have to revert back to Matt’s steak dinner from Sunday night as the past couple days’ meals have a lot to be desired. He cooked steaks perfectly.

ALM tapping MJR on the arm: See aren’t you excited?
MJR: For what?
ALM: We put in an offer!
MJR: We’ll be excited when it’s accepted and we close. You have to keep your game face on.

Who Likes Kevin?

Well it’s been a week. We had beautiful weather, in the 60’s and today I scrapped snow off my car. We’ve been house hunting and Matt’s been having work issues but we had the chance to forget about them this past weekend.

Matt and I took off for Bismarck early Saturday morning. We stopped in at Target to do our registry! I’d been warned that it may not be a fun ordeal. We had a great time. Matt, being the hog that he is, wouldn’t give up the scanner, but he was on good behavior. We struggled with a few items of if we need it and what we have and what do we want. We’ve both been so established for so long that we have so many items and it’s hard to imagine what to get. We know we needed glasses and silverware but wanted to give a good range of items. We went through kitchen, cleaning, linens, outdoor, and even electronics. Matt wanted to register for a flat screen television, I put the Kibash on that.

From there, we met Michele, Randy, and Kevin, who flew in for a work thing. We grabbed a quick bite and headed out to the farm for the official $10 tour! We got to take in the newest calves too and Matt even checked out the two that we have on the ground. He told me we have a great big guy and then the one we just purchased has some opportunities to show great growth. It does feel good that Matt is excited to be involved and is taking an active interest. From there came the “big show”…the pizza showdown. I’m impressed with the extent that both Randy and Kevin go to in delivering a quality pizza. And the best gift that Matt and I ever gave Randy is the deep dish...he’s really perfected that since day 1, it’s never been bad, and I realized this weekend that they’ve changed my habits and I like the pepperoni and jalapeno that is the house special. Now I don’t know if I had a favorite chef, couldn’t force me to choose because Kevin used havarti cheese and that added a great flavor and his Stromboli should be sold!! So I’m torn and then add my mother’s peach cobbler and it’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven! It was fun to share this experience with my family, who has only heard about my previous experiences with the Remynse pizza.

On Sunday, we kicked off the day at St. Anthony’s club at the annual breakfast and bake sale for the Ladies Auxiliary. I was able to done on my brand new Aux shirt too! Michele was impressed at how Matt and I finished out! Matt and the rest of the firemen did the cooking and the ladies watched the bake sale and managed tables as people came through. After that, we showed off what’s been going on in Dickinson between the growth, the new building, and the oil/energy activity to the three of them, it was also good for me as I haven’t driven around for awhile. We then concluded with a tour of homes, two to be exact. We needed outsiders’ opinions on some houses that grabbed our attention when we looked at them.

From there Matt cooked steaks on the grill to perfection and we enjoyed talking, conversation, and 2 out of 3 kitties for the rest of the night (crabbie Nike). It was such a great weekend and reminded me how great family is to have close and also made me lucky that I have such an amazing family but I’m also get to have another amazing family that isn’t shy to share, laugh, or joke!

Best Meal: I love pizza showdowns. MMMMMMMMMM. Could do that every week..probably a good thing I can't!

“That’s disgusting.” KMR watching Nike cuddle Matt.
“Welcome to my world, Ever.Night.” ALM to KMR
“Hey, you you’ve lost your girlish figure, he’s going to move on!” KMR to Nike, who seemed unimpressed with this statement, I think she plotted his death under the shoe bench all night.

Searching....

House Count: 19 houses (and counting)
House Hunt: 1 week

Well we’ve added a couple more showings to our pooling number. With that we’ve seen a few more “gems”.

-One had a galley kitchen, a dark bathroom, but it was well kept and had three stalls. I tried to convince myself that I liked it but Matt finally told me to give up. It didn’t break my heart that it got an offer on it after being on the market for 2 days.

-One house had 8 Hispanic men renting a 5 bedroom room. Matt’s “favorite” part of the house was their Budlight furniture. They had empty beer boxes duct taped together to form their household furniture. The house had a distinct smell and the need for hand sanitizer when we left.

-Another house, split entry looked nice, had a beautiful yard with garden space, was well kept up, it actually reminded of the house my Aunt Lynn and Uncle Wade used to be in. We had a few hiccups including 70’s carpeting, but that could replaced, what couldn’t would be the interstate and associated noise in the backyard.

-Final house, I liked. Older than I wanted but had complete updates and a huge basement. What Matt didn’t like was the busy street that ran across the front of the house. He counted 10 cars in 1 minute, which are not good odds for Nike the runner. We’d need to fence her in the backyard…and maybe put some bird feeders in to keep her occupied.

So the house hunt continues.

best meal: I made some chicken alfredo linguine (no I didn't have fettucine noodles, it was fine).

“It could be worse, we’ve seen worse. Has anyone been shot in here yet, that we know?” ALM

House Hunting

The search is on. Matt and I have made some big decisions lately, we’ve decided it’s time to start looking for a house. We’ve met with the bank, we have a realtor, and we’ve been looking. We have officially looked at 15 houses. And some of those I use the term “house” pretty loosely. We have some criteria in mind as we look. We’d like 3 bedrooms, we’d like 3 garages (but we’ll settle for 1 stall), built after 1975, built before 2011, more than one bathroom, a yard for Matt to play in, not on a busy street for Nike, and in a neighborhood that has future potential.


Here’s a rundown of some of the houses we looked at:
-When the fridge dies, we’d have to remodel the kitchen.
-One had a bedroom off the kitchen/dining room, Matt didn’t like it. It also had the yard sectioned off into multiple pieces so it really was a fenced yard.
-One had been a do-it-yourselfers dream, beautiful curb appeal, but that was the only good thing about the house, the outside.
-One was purple: purple walls, purple doors, purple steel siding, purple wallpaper, and a million feet of decks to paint
-Two didn’t have garage entrances from the inside, yet they were attached.
-One had a fire hazard in the closet and was on a truck route
-One was a modular with a peek-a-boo kitchen in a questionable neighborhood, on a half lot, meaning if we ever had a fire, we probably couldn’t rebuild
-One was beautiful, new construction with a pantry, master bath, and great den and then you looked at the neighbors yard out the huge sliding glass door and you saw the swing set, the rundown dog house, the add on unfinished shed, the 3 dirt bikes, the car on blocks, the garbage everywhere, the kids cars, and the ditch filled with water five feet from the front door.
-One was so scarily messy, we even had a warning before we walked in. They told us it was a finished basement and I can’t confirm or deny because there was so much stuff I couldn’t see the walls or floor. And the utility room also served as a the secondary bath, they just put up a picture screen.
-One was the perfect image of the seventies, complete with yellow/green/white shag, ½ the wallpaper was yellow flowered, ½ was green, orange, and yellow striped, and it looked well taken care of and pristine and it was looking hopeful until we went downstairs and Matt couldn’t stand up right without the fear of bashing his head.
-One had Matt’s hopes high until we got there and the backyard was missing, the back of the house was a trailer/camper, and when we went to leave Matt remembered that a shooting had happened.
-One had no upper cupboards, only a closet. It also had 13 different colors of primary color paints, all the carpet was different, and the redesigners seemed to like platforms and cutouts. I got suckered in because there was a pic of the French doors.
-One hasn't had updates since it was built in 1975 and it said it had a fenced-in yard. The fence appeared to be missing, unless they were refering to their neighbor's fence, and it should have said, 1/3 fenced yard which contains pitbull. Great, Nike would HATE us.
-AND "eat-in kitchen" is not a beneficial attributed, it basically means, no dining room, you better have a small table

When we were finished we felt exhausted and disappointed. We did find something we like with a great open floor plan but after some more research we determined it’s in the 100-year flood plain, which means we are forced to buy flood insurance and we are also waiting to find out a bit more about the settling and the foundation. We are still looking as we sort this house info out but I did forget how it’s a difficult venture to move forward as we look. Good thing we have family to bounce ideas and questions off while we are searching.

Brendan came for guards this past weekend and him and Matt were able to spend some quality time together including a few hands of gin which escalated into yahtzee which grew eventually into drunk yahtzee.

“I had high hopes for this one.” MJR after looking at the added-on trailer “But it would be like living in a camper all year. You think you could get something in this town!”

Life is Tough for the Unhappy Kitty

So Matt’s in Fargo, “working”. I say he’s “working” because technically he’s there for the airport and his job but I use the quotes because he’s basically sitting with other airport nerds talking about ramps and runways and air space and wx and environmental assessments and impact studies and tsa and faa (not ffa) and on and on and these people actually talk back about ramps and runways and air space and wx and environmental assessments and impact studies and tsa and faa AND THEY LIKE IT! And then sometimes they take these conversations and enhance them with libations, so yes, Matt’s in Fargo, “working.”


Meanwhile I’m at home with his very angry kitty. She is pissed that I’m there. I think she was pissed that no one was there for awhile but my daily presence may be even more exasperating. To top it off, when I came home on Sunday it had been raining and everything was soaked so I chose not to let her go outside, not to torture her but to prevent a wet angry kitty. Well, I avoided the wet part. She sat by the door and screamed at me for an hour, went and ate and then sat by the door and screamed again for another half hour. Then she had a slap fight with both cats who I’m sure were not appreciative of her “lockedinsidehissy” fit. And then to top it off she went and skulked into the back bedroom and laid under the bed on Matt’s gun case for the rest of the night. The next night was a basic repeat of the first night except I let her go outside into the wet snow. That excursion lasted about 7 minutes until she decided she wasn’t happy outside either. Life is tough when Matt is off gallivanting without her.

Best meal: potato soup, which Matt doesn’t like, but I think it’s amazing, so I made it for myself!

“MAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW” Nike

In like a ???

I’m looking out my window at the snow that is covering the ground and am thinking of spring. It’s been a decent winter, we’ve had the snow-melt cycle that’s been working for us here but I will say, I hate the ice that is a result of this pattern. But the snow keeps coming, boo. March always makes me wonder, it’s close enough to spring to be hopefully but usually produce the wettest/biggest storms.

This past weekend we spent away from home. We went to Bismarck so we could support Janice at Jerry’s father’s funeral. I wish that I could have been closer to her this week as I know it was hard for her as Jerry flew in at the last moment and funeral planning for Stan was very trying. The frustration in her voice was obvious to me and it made me hurt that she hurt. She also informed me that she wants to die in a quiet way and her funeral to match. I think we’ll stick with her original plan of sticking her in the front porch swing with a bottle of gin, with a ton of ice, and a beverage napkin. When we showed up in Fessenden, she was so glad, but how I knew that she appreciated it was when our troop (Grandma, Descie, Grace, Mom, Matt and I) went to leave, she hugged me so tight and said thank you and said, I have the best family in the whole world as she had tears in her voice.

The whole endeavor was not completely somber, this was Matt’s first experience alone with Dagman women. It was 5 women to him and he informed us that we were very loud! When we got home, to attempt to balance out his estrogen overload, him and Dad went through our herd so he can start tracking numbers and our efforts, something that I’ve been meaning to do for years. Matt and I don’t have a single calf on the ground yet, Mom and Dad are around 35 to 40, the calves that I helped them work on Sunday were looking pretty good, even the red angus one!

Matt and I also made a major change, we got Straight Talk phone, they are prepaid phones that cancelled out our previous contracts and we are anticipating saving some money. I know my phone will save some money, after getting past the early cancellation fee. The hard part will be adjusting to a new phone again!

Best meal: pizza at McKenzie River, we had a ½ good ol boy, ½ branding iron…and it was Spicy!

“See, I have my own harem, gotta take care of them!” MJR says to me before helping my grandmother out of the vehicle.
½ an hour later after he shushes us…
“Who’d have thought two years ago, you’d have such a noisy harem!” Aunt Descie to Matt

Two Foot Addition

As the end of February looms nearer, I can’t believe a couple things. 1. That it’s the end of February and 2. That winter isn’t over yet. I’m so antsy for spring. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the soupy mud and puddles, but I want the sunshine and the ice to be forbidden. I’ve slipped, fell, soaked, and stomped through this winter. I’d like the next season now. What’s funny, is that we’ve had worse winter and in fact there are others that have had worse winters this year. We made a trip up to Minot/Lansford this past weekend and they still have piles on the edges of the road and in the yards.

This trip to Lansford was life-changing. I don’t mean that sarcastic or snide, but genuine. The purpose of the trip was to meet Jackson Liam Dean, recently born son of Brendan and Claudia. Brendan and Matt have been friends/partners in crime since they were in 9th grade. Matt didn’t even ask Brendan to be in the wedding because it was assumed. They’ve been there for each other for years and on Feb 11, Claudia went into labor with Jackson. When I thought about how this would impact Brendan and Claudia’s life, I hadn’t really stopped to think about how it would change ours. It’s no longer just Brendan or just Brendan and Claudia but Jackson puts a new spin on everything. I also find it funny to hear the second hand conversation that they have about baby diapers, sleeping all night, and more “family” stuff, it’s especially funny when you know that these conversations used to be about beer, trucks, and guns. It was great to see Matt hold the baby, after some heavy convincing from Brendan. Made me wonder what our future may look like.

It was great to spend a little time with their little one but also spend some time with Matt’s parents. I love having Randy make pizza for me, he’s really gotten very good at the deep dish. I feel like our Christmas present to him, the deep dish pan, was very self-serving, but I don’t care. I’m very excited for when he comes to visit to us in March, maybe I’ll have to diet the week before!

Best Meal: Pizza!!! With wine!!!

“He’s so little! What if I break him!” MJR to Brendan