moving forward

Wow.  Just...wow.  My feet hurt, unfamiliar muscles ache, my house has that clean but destroyed from a constant flow of people look, other people's things are laying about after a frantic departure yesterday morning, leftover party food in the fridge and my entire family is still asleep.  I'm exhausted...but my heart is full from it all.  It's a familiar feeling I had hoped I could get to here in this new place.  And like every bit of joy this year,  I had to work hard to earn it.  It's a tough year, but the lessons I'm learning are life changing.  How did we get here again?  


60 days of "settling in", unpacking and feeling out where we are and how we fit into this new place. 


One last trip to Minneapolis to clear out our house to get it ready for the lovely family that will move in and fill it with their own brand of family energy.  It was a task I took very seriously, I want to hand them a home, not just a place to crash for the next year or so.  They may be renting, but it's their home for as long as they live there.  And it's a great home, I'm so pleased they will be the family to take care of it.  It is really a match made in heaven, this family, our house and us.  Even though we had only communicated through email over the last several weeks, when they entered the house, it was hugs instead of handshakes.  It was laughter, smiles and fast, lively chatter, questions about each other's children and lives.  It was marveling about how the universe brought them to the craigslist ad I posted and all the signs that this was meant to be.  


I was surprised how heavy my heart was as we did a final walk through the house.  Happy to be handing it over, but realizing that I really really miss my kitchen window, with the bird house view.  And I miss getting ready in the morning in my bathroom with the window wide open, listening to the traffic and airplanes.  I was always aware that people were cruising over my house, on their way to somewhere.  That energy I was constantly bombarded by when we lived there, felt good as a visitor.  


No regrets, but lots of reminders of why I love that house and that city. 


That is how we got here.  At the point where we are finally, officially, fully here.  And to celebrate this commitment to being 100% vested in our new gig, we brought our style of crazy to the University of South Dakota homecoming weekend.  Enthusiastic, loud, unorganized, go with the flow, face painting, dancing, the more the merrier style.  Gather people together and see what happens, no expectations, no pressure.  Just have fun with it.


Liam brought his grumpy, screaming baby face and Annika her oh so angsty and embarrassed by her parents face.  Brandon brought his confused but patient daddy face and I my endless enthusiasm for all things cheesy, like parade mixes on the ipod and spontaneous dancing...face.  It was us through and through, so now they know, this is how the Schapekahms roll.  Usually a little late.


A party, a parade and a college football game.  All at the end of an insane work week.  And a week that included pink eye and a couple of kids with colds.  Yup, full heart, tired, tired body.

My Week by Fricka

Giving the house a new "do" for her new family.

Brandon wants me to tell you they were in this position for 6 hours that day, head and arms up.  Never put wall paper on a ceiling.

Wallpaper is truly the work of the devil. Seriously, what kind of NASA space glue is used to put this on?

Thank God for my girl...she always pulls through.



But for every ying, there's a yang. For every craptastic home improvement project, there is family improvement time.


Liam needed some Cece time.  The second we pulled into the driveway at 11pm, he knew we where we were exclaiming "Cece!!!"







It did my heart good to see both babies settled back in the loving arms of my broski for the weekend.




Even the tub is fun when you visit Cece.



Back in South Dakota we are submerged in Fall Fabulous.









And how do you make fall fabulous more fabulouser? Enter Daddy coming home from work:




Mommy thinks it's pretty awesome when daddy comes home too. Just saying...



Which brings us to the last couple of days. The days we became joiners, part of our new community. A coming out of sorts. I picked my comfort zone... fall, floats, parades and football.






And Oh My God...to see my babies invite their new friends over! There may or may not have been a moment that I snuck away to shed a happy tear.






To see my family welcome new people into our home, our lives. It felt good.

Angsty

I had another tear filled moment though, taking photos.  I again recalled the time before we moved, when I realized how different my photos would look from now on.  And indeed, here were a bunch of beautiful new faces to capture.  But the faces that were missing would have been such a perfect match for the activity and I missed them all day long.  And I sent them a text telling them as much.  And they...sent me their faces:)

<3

In conclusion, life is good.  I leave you with  the picture that sums up the spirit of the weekend...



Have a peaceful, lovely Sunday. XOXOXOXOXOXO

hump day nuggets...SD style

hump day nuggets: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week.  Encouraged to steal this idea from Dig This Chick because she is awesome blossom. 

I loooov "Hump Day Nuggets" over at Dig This Chick (grab more morning beverage and head over there...I'll wait) and was pretty thrilled when she tossed out the challenge to do our own nuggets.  Who doesn't love borrowing a great idea?  I would never...ever have done it had she not given the green light, it's too good an idea to attempt to float as my own.  

Plus, I'm a terrible thief.  Remember the shoplifting phase girls (some) go through in junior high?  I could never do it, instead I played the role of "look out" or the "distractor", but really I was playing the role of scaredy cat, chichen shit.  I'm okay with that:P

So, no stealing here, just using an awesome idea to break up the week and pop in without the need for a long post.  

Just some hump day huggets.

Remember before the move, when I was waxing poetic about change and Christmas present houses and walks with my mom?  And how the photos here would surely change and shape shift into...what?  I didn't know yet then.  Well I do now:)

Photo Nuggets:

A lot has changed since we moved.  Some good.  Like lots of safe neighborhood space and yard to run in.

Lots of reasons to wear Woody and Bullseye cowboy boots.



A large prairie style lawn for B to putz around in. So much better than the small, terraced city yard that requires cleets to scale the steep inclines.



Yep....a guy can sure stretch his legs out here.



And apparently a dog can too. This is an example of "bad change"...very bad change. Suddenly Baby Cal thinks he can sneak on our bed in the middle of the night. I totally busted him.



Bitter sweet change. It is no bueno that this picture is in the minority for the first time since The Nerd Herd blog was born:( It does make those less frequent redevous the most special trips ever, but now when Liam is in the car for more than a few blocks, he asks "Cecece?" It breaks my heart every time I have to tell him "not this trip baby".



There is family here though and we are all over the moon about getting to know them and mixing and mingling our families. There are no expectations of how our families should mix or that they need to embrace our craziness. No attempt to recreate the chemistry of our Minneapolis family, rather the thrill of growing new relationships organically and not knowing where our hearts will connect.  There is just palpable joy and the promise of whatever the future brings to all of us.


And for me, the constant reassurance that this move was the right thing to do.


::


Liam is star struck by his new football heroes.

And my mom can't turn around without a grandbaby waiting to tuck in for a hug.



And we are taking those walks I dreamed of while packing up our city house in the stifling heat. Though in the interest of telling it like it is...recent walks haven't been the stuff of happy rainbow blogs.


Lots of sour faces from Lum. At 2, he is definately NOT a good walker. He only wants to run, or crash is trike into cars. Walks have become stressful.



Which equals sour faces from my baby girls.



But he thinks his new "pack pack" is the bomb baby.



::


We are all loving the massive intake of football. Last weekend - 4 football games in less than 24 hours. Suddenly our wardrobes have changed as well.



And... speaking of wardrobes, an old high school friend held good on a FB promise to send a handmade gift to the first 5 posters to respond, but we had to promise to do the same.  And look what I got in the mail this week:



The high today is supposed to be 54 degrees. 54 DEGREES!!!!! Oh yeah, I will be debuting this beauty for sure!  And if you were one of my first 5...I promise my hand made gifts are in the works:) 


Happy Hump Day:)