I am a notorious night owl/insomniac.  This tends to be a bit of a huge problem with an infant around.  Lately it hasn’t been too bad but this past weekend I had a night where I absolutely could not sleep.  I read all night & Abe woke up early so we decided to take a load of stuff over to the new house.  As we were leaving the sun was just beginning to rise so I snapped a few photos. I was so fantastic to be out in the fresh morning air enjoying the fact that we will so be living in the country.

One of my favorite bands is going on tour.  Of course life being what it is I’m unable to attend any of the tour appearances.  The tour preview is on the East Coast this coming weekend.  (Too bad I don’t have a sack of money lying around…Magnus would enjoy the concert as much I me.)  The official tour starts October 3–in the Netherlands.  Ah well, some day I will be at a Shadow Gallery concert with my little rocker in tow. (Magnus has been listening to SG since he was in the womb & he loves it.)

Follow this link to listen to Shadow Gallery on their ReverbNation page.

If you are in Europe this fall check out one or more of the shows listed below.

This past weekend we attended my family reunion in New Ulm, MN.  We’ve had the Lee family (my maternal grandmother & her brothers et al) reunion as long as I can remember.  I talked about it in this post.

We haven’t gone in the past few years as it was a long trip for a few short hours.  This year we are closer & we were anxious to show off Magnus to the extended family.  There weren’t many people in attendance & unfortunately it appears that this will be the last year we have the reunion.  I’m saddened by this…so many of my childhood summer memories are tied up with this event.  I would love for my child (and my nieces/nephews) to have a similar experience.  However, the family circle has drifted to all corners of the country & a yearly reunion just isn’t feasible.  It remains to be seen what will happen. In the meantime I got a few pictures that I really want to share from this year.

Last week was the regional fair.  There were a lot of musical acts performing & we decided to check out the Friday night concert.  Lifehouse was the main act with The Spill Canvas as the opening act.

The Spill Canvas is a local band that I was just introduced to a couple weeks before the concert.  After listening to their new album I was very excited to see them live.  I’ve been aware of Lifehouse for several years & so we decided that this would be a great time to take Magnus to his first concert.  (Okay his first concert since he was born.  We attended RockFest 2010 in Kansas City, MO this past May.  He bumped & grooved in my belly throughout that event.)

Anyway here are some photos of us in the grandstand before the concert. Enjoy!

There have been very few posts on here lately & they have pretty much been serious & a bit depressing. I won’t apologize for that because I’m hella depressed. However I have not forgotten to notice the beauty around me. Though I haven’t been outside much this summer I have managed to take pictures while traveling to & from the doctor’s office.

Out here my scenery is comprised of extensive corn & soybean fields covered in a bright blue bowl filled with puffy clouds. Summer here is hot & humid during the day; the nights are hot, humid & stormy. Many nights I have woken to fierce lightning & thunder rocking my house. When the rain starts drumming on the house & lawn I roll over, snuggle deeper into the covers and slide into slumber again.

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I’ve captured this summer….

So a couple weeks back I previewed some upcoming posts. I haven’t forgotten that promise…however life has had other plans for me. So rather than recap “Wheels & Squeals” like I had planned it will be a bit of this & that.

This past weekend was the local summer festival weekend. There were tons of activities along with plenty of vendors for the all important RibFest. Friday night the action kicked off with a Burnout contest followed by an ugliest/loudest car contest. Unfortunately I missed all of that as I had spent most of my day in the maternity/delivery area of the hospital being monitored for extremely high blood pressure. I was released & sent home to R E S T!

burn out remains

Burn Out Alley

Saturday was promising as a bright sunny day & we had plans to be out for a bit enjoying the weather and festivities. Of course I wanted to check out all the cars at the car show & late in the afternoon was the greased pig chase I was anxious to witness (hey, I wanted pictures to share with you all). As life would have it none of those plans were to be. After being awake for awhile it became apparent that I was headed back to the hospital.

I spent about 6 hours lying in the labor/delivery area of the hospital hooked up to the fetal monitor & sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff). I also had blood drawn & a urinalysis. After several readings it was apparent that my blood pressure was normal & Baby was doing great. I got a large IV bag of fluids to keep me from getting dehydrated (when they finally placed the IV…I got 2 blown veins in my right forearm & some nice bruising) & was subsequently released to head home.

Since it was dinner time we met up with my brother A & his wife A to head downtown to RibFest. We started with Willingham’s ribs. They use a dry rub & any sauce is served on the side. We tried the Cajun Hot Sauce which added a nice bite & heat to the ribs. We also sampled the Sweet N Sassy sauce which is great if you don’t want anything too spicy. Next we had the pulled pork & brisket from Rowdy Hog Smokin’ BBQ. The pulled pork was tender & savory while the brisket simply melted on the tongue. We sampled the Rowdy Hot sauce with the brisket. For me it really added to the flavor of the brisket while not overpowering the melty tenderness.  Finally we had a single sample of the Dixie Dew Hellbound Hot from Skin & Bones BBQ.  This was the one with the most kick to me but the heat didn’t overwhelm everything else.

Overall it was good to get out of the house even if I didn’t really do anything except sit on a picnic table bench & eat.  I also braved the idea & tried bacon/chocolate kettle corn.  Don’t give me that disgusted look…it was very, very tasty!  I’m looking forward to next year when we can go & I’m not on bed rest.

Every small town in this area (in fact in the country probably) has some type of summer weekend fling. They celebrate the town’s heritage etc. Here we have “Wheels & Squeals”…a combination car show & rib fest weekend. There are quite a few events along with food, requisite beer garden & live music. After reading the proposed events it has been decided that in spite of my bed rest requirements we must attend some of the events. Obviously I will be taking my lawn chair as well as my camera. I could not in all good conscience •not• bring my beloved readers a look at what is sure to be a white trashy good time. I mean who wants to miss the burnout contest, ugliest/loudest car contest, greased pig chase and so much more.

All of this occurs next weekend (coinciding with a visit from my mother-in-law) so stay tuned for what is surely going to be a weekend of ….well quite possibly abject horror.

I also need to recap our trip to RockFest in KC last month. We had a good time & enjoyed seeing Hubby’s brother. I will take the time to post the pictures I managed to take along with a full description of all the craziness we witnessed.

Of course there is always baby stuff for me to carry on about but we shall see if I have the energy to hash over how I’m doing in that department.

In the meantime I highly recommend that you check out the following blogs for something entertaining, thought-provoking & just plain good reading.

Check out my friend Mary at Fit This, Girl! for fitness tips, encouragement, good recipes & general boosting of spirits.

A Twitter friend, Sugarwilla over at her blog is working on 30 Days of Gratitude. Stop for a bit & leave a comment.

Another Twitter friend, Amy over at Taste Like Crazy always has something fun going on. Check her out for wild & crazy stories about being a mom, writer, wife etc.

For a look at what’s happening with one of my favorite bands check out Shadow Gallery. I know they are rehearsing for a trip to Europe where they will debut live at ProgPower Europe 2010.

Another place to check out some great music & writing is over at The Mutant Mouse Chronicles. The head Mutant Mouse has been writing a lot & also has links to where you can get his music. I highly recommend you get some (or all) of what is on offer.

This past weekend (from Saturday night to Sunday night) we had the opportunity to play host to Hubby’s brother Greg & Greg’s friend Michael.  It’s always good to have Greg visit & now that we live so much closer it is a lot easier for him to make a trip up.  The guys got to our house about midnight on Sunday morning & we decided to head into Sioux Falls so they could check out Senor Weiner. (You can see what I said about them in a previous post.)  This time the experience was only slightly better than the first one.  They seem to have improved their service & they guys were okay with their meals.  It was a late night & we all crashed once we got back home.

Sunday morning I got up & made breakfast.  With my new, large kitchen I decided to try something new & made chorizo, scrambled eggs & got all the fixings out for some burritos.  Based on the rate at which they disappeared I’d say they were a hit.  I had some too & am glad I tried them.  I’m not very adventurous with food right now as I don’t know how Baby will react.  Anyway after cleaning up the kitchen a bit we got ready & headed into Sioux Falls.

It was a gorgeous spring day & we spent time at Falls Park enjoying the sun & taking photos of the waterfalls.  After spending a nice time at the park we headed over to the Arena & watched our first ever arena football game.  The Sioux Falls Storm are the local arena team & have won the championship 4 of the last 5 years.  It was fun & funny to watch how into the game the fans were.  There were people tail-gating in the parking lot a couple hours before the game (we stopped to pick up tickets at the box office) & there were lots of people all decked out in team gear.  It’s definitely something we will be checking out more as tickets are pretty reasonable & it’s a fun way to spend a couple hours on a lazy Sunday.

Here are some of the photos from our day out.

This past weekend we were lucky enough to welcome visitors to our new house here in South Dakota.  It was fantastic to see Pete, Anne and the boys.  There was lots of laughter & some adventure.  One of the things we did was visit the Sertoma Butterfly House.  It’s a very cool place to check out & it is also a fabulous place to feel a little bit of summer in the middle of winter.  The viewing house is kept at 86° with 80% humidity.  It is filled with amazing tropical butterflies that flit around & occasionally catch a ride on the visitors.  Check out the pictures I managed to snag with my phone’s camera.  I definitely want to go back sometime with my good digital camera & see what I can capture.

Well it’s official….we’ve found a new place to live.  Over the last week/weekend we made plans to look at some potential houses for the big move.  There were a lot of places that sounded like they’d be great.  One was a nice double wide with some additions…it looked really nice.  It was on 17 acres which was something I really wanted.  However I wasn’t willing to share it with the other tenant who lived in another trailer on the same property.  It just seemed like a bad idea to share space with a stranger.

Another place we actually went to look at was a nice looking (from the pictures) 2 story farm house on four acres with a fenced in pasture & a barn.  Not that we need a barn but with dogs it is nice to be able to put them outside & yet know they have a nice sheltered place to be if we are gone for a few days.  Walking into this house gave me the idea that things would be difficult living there.  The front corner of the house had settled quite a lot so there was a pronounced slope to the entry & kitchen.  I’m fairly certain that putting an egg on the (miniscule) kitchen counter would have led to the egg being smashed in the corner of the room.  The dining room was very nice…easily the nicest in the house…with beautiful hardwood floors, built in cabinets & really nice wood throughout.  However, there were supposed to be 3 bedrooms…well since the upstairs was not available (some lady likes to come & stay there from time to time I guess.  And there isn’t a separate entrance for her plus she’d have to use the main bathroom & kitchen) they had taken the formal sitting rooms (which were divided by a giant pocket door) and closed them off creating 2 “bedrooms”.  This meant that there was only one common living area (the dining room) which was NOT large enough to hold our living room furniture let alone a table & chairs.  So that left us with one more place to inspect before we were back to square one.

The final place we actually went to inspect is 30 miles west of Sioux Falls.  A bit further than we’d like but still easily in reach since it’s interstate driving.  It’s in town (another thing I especially wanted to avoid as I like my space, don’t really like people, and I want to have plenty of room for our dogs) but it was the right size & the right price!  We ended up taking the tour in the dark (the owner had the power shut off & our appointment was for 7 PM) & cold.  It was an adventure navigating the house with only flashlights.  Still it was a really nice house.  There is plenty of space of us & we will have room for guests as well (if we ever have any).  There is a teeny back yard so it will be a huge adjustment for the dogs but we have a nice large garage so they can be in there too.  Overall we are very happy with the house & know that it’s only temporary as we have a one year lease & then can look for something else if we want.

Now comes the packing which I hate.  Our house is a jumbled mess (one because I am a terrible housekeeper & two because we’ve started packing already) & we’ve got 3 weeks to pack, clean & move 400 miles in the winter.  I have no idea how we will manage to move our stuff (there’s a lot of furniture & things like the grill, lawnmower, dog house) without stealing an 18 wheeler.  I can’t think about it too much or I end up crying/having a panic attack.

I will miss our old house.  It isn’t perfect but it is our little world.  We can sit outside without people seeing us, there’s a fire pit & lots of room for the dogs.  We have gorgeous trees that flower & turn bright pink in the spring.  There are lots of birds & even an occasional deer will wander through.  It is my haven, my Fortress of Solitude & I will miss it greatly.