Rosie's Fairy Books

Rosie loves to read her Fairy Books.  Nee-Nee and Jessica (friends and child care providers in Portland) gave Rosie three Fairy Books before we headed out of town to come out east.  Fairy Fun Time, Fairy Tea Party, and Fairy School Days.  We read them in that order before quiet time and bed time.  Rose also likes to read them to her Lamb-E and her baby doll too.  I wish the video worked that I have of her reading, but I'm having trouble posting it...I hope to get it figured out soon.  Just a couple of cute pictures of Rosie reading.  Thank you Renee and Jessica for the books!  Rosie loves them.  

Moving Day

Our stuff finally got here on Wed. Feb. 18th.  The moving truck backed down the road to our place and started unloading.  Much of the stuff went into the basement and garage, as our place is a little smaller than our old house.  We are only here (at this house) for 6 months, so the plan is to unpack the stuff we need/want right now.  Thank goodness Andy got the driveway shoveled, but it did get icy.  I had to borrow salt from the neighbors to put on the driveway so the movers wouldn't slip and fall.  And it started snow again.  Of course the snow ended just as the movers were driving away.  

Snowing 

Rosie's room before

Dinning room and kitchen area before

Rosie taking a break hanging out in her car seat - Thank you Chris and Tracey!

Kitchen, still unloading more boxes.

I hope to post the after pictures, once I get EVERYTHING put away. 

Our First Snow in Wisconsin

On Feb. 18th we had our first snow fall in Wisconsin, since we got here on the 14th.  It also happened to be the day our moving van arrived with all our stuff.  So, Andy got up early in the morning to start shoveling the driveway.  Here are some pictures.

The view out our front window

Andy shoveling snow

Are you sure you don't want to get a snow blower until next winter?

The view from our back window

DO NOT OPEN UNITL YOU GET TO WISCONSIN!

Michael B., a volunteer from Medical Teams International, gave me a mystery bottle on my last day of work there.  However, he wrote on the box that I could not open it, until I got to Wisconsin.  I was going to open it at the state line, as we crossed into Wisconsin, but that didn't work out, because the state line is on a bridge, and there was no place to pull off the side of the road.  So, I waited until Sunday, Feb. 15th to open the bottle.  It was wine!  Andy and I celebrated by drinking the whole bottle that night.  Thanks for the wine Michael!  It was delicious!

Fargo, ND to Schofield, WI (2/14/09)

Heading out of Fargo, ND at about 9:00 am, its sunny and COLD  +4F.  We are hoping to find some coffee - Starbucks here we come, since it's everywhere, I know we will find one.  Andy is out pumping gas, we sure do miss not having to pump our gas.  Oh the little things one misses.

Ahh, Starbucks found an on the road we are.  Rosie is watching The Incredibles right now...she does like Mr. Incredible.  It will be nice to get to the new house so Rose can do other activities besides watch movies. 

How to describe the scenery that we see, one word - FLAT.

Yeah, we get to get out of the car for a real sit down lunch - beats fast food.  We stopped in St. Cloud, MN, for lunch; it was good but took longer than we expected.  Oh well, I don't have anything else planned for the day.

We finally here, at our new house in Schofield, WI, at 5:00 pm.  Andy unpacked the car, and our exciting evening out what going to the grocery store, stopped and got pizza and came back to the house to sit on the counters to eat pizza.  The moving van gets here on Wed., so we have a few nights of "camping" in the new house.  Thankfully we at least have an air bed, so we're not sleeping on the floor.

Tomorrow we have an exciting day planned of doing laundry (gotta go to the laundry mat), grocery shopping, and purchasing some stools for our breakfast bar...it will give us a couple pieces of furniture till our stuff gets here.

Thanks all for your prayers as we were on the road.  We arrived here save and sound.  

Welcome to our new house

Mudgy the Moose driving

Scenery from the road in Wisconsin

Welcome to  Wisconsin

Rosie being a fashion model with Mommy's glasses

Scenery from the car in Minnisota

Welcome to Minnisota

Billings, MT to Fargo, ND (2/13/09)

Wow! It’s flat out here! As I type this, we have just entered Rosebud County in Montana. Just out of Billings we drove through the last bit of mountains, I think we will see for away. Also, the ground is now covered in snow and we are seeing our first snow plow on our journey.

Note: it was the only snow plow we saw on the whole journey. Also, we saw more mountains just as we entered North Dakota...the west side of ND

As I’m writing again as we are about 149 miles out of Fargo, ND. I (Renee) have now moved to the backseat to sit with Rose. She has done good so far in the car, but she was having a little meltdown and wanted me to sit next to her…so Andy is driving, Henry (the dog) is sitting in the front passenger seat, and Rose and I are in the back seat watching Elmo’s Potty Time.

We did pass through a few more mountains in eastern Montana and Western North Dakota. We took a 1 mile detour off the freeway to stop at the visitor center at Theodore Roosevelt National Park to get a cancellation stamp and sticker for our National Parks Passport Book. This past summer when we went to Crater Lake National Park, we purchased a National Park Passport Book. When we go to a national park we purchase a sticker for that national park and get a cancellation stamp – basically a stamp that lists the national park and the date we were there. That makes two stamps, so far, for our National Park Passport Book.

Made it to Fargo, ND. I was hoping to see the large Paul Bunyan and Blue statue as seen in the movie, Fargo, but it was dark when we arrived, so maybe we’ll see it tomorrow. Andy went out and got us Olive Garden for dinner tonight, and now I’m finishing up blogging for tonight.

Next stop, our new place of residence in Schofield, WI.

Please excuse the pictures being out of order...I having difficulty today trying to figure this all out.

Giant Cow, somewhere in North Dakota

Highway Art in North Dakota

Welcome to North Dakota

The hills of Eastern Montana

Changed Tour Books because we are changing regions of the country

Rosie in the hotel (Billings, MT) with the bears

Coeur d'Alene, ID to Billings, MT (2/12/09)

We left Grandma Ellie’s and Papa Ron’s about 10:15am, stopped to fill the car with gas and on the road we were. It was a pretty uneventful day. Rose watched The Incredibles, Wall-E, and a couple Veggie Tales shows. We needed a break from listing to movies, so we listened to music – the CD of “Daisy’s Second Birthday”. Andy and Renee did listen to their iPod’s for awhile, because one can only listen to kid music for so long.

We did learn the hard way that the posted speed limit in Montana of 75 mph, is the maximum allowable, not the “suggested” speed limit. We got stopped by Montana Highway Patrol, thankfully only got a warning.

We stayed at the Best Western, Kelly Inn, in Billings, MT. I would highly recommend it. They had an indoor pool with water slide. As we passed it on our way to our room Rosie told us that she did not want to go swimming. When we got to our room, we had a huge whirlpool tub in the bathroom, when Rosie saw that, she wanted to go swimming in the tub. Daddy filled the tub and the two of them played in our own “little pool”, as Mommy watched Gray’s Anatomy and Private Practice.

Andy driving the car

Renee self portrait, in the car

Lake Coeur d'Alene on the way out of town

Welcome to Montana

75 mph is the maximum speed limit, not not the suggested. Thankfully we just got a warning. Lots of Highway Patrol on the roads of Montana


Rosie playing with the cell phones at our hotel in Billings, MT

Rosie singing in the car

Leaving Portland and Coeur d'Alene

Well the time has come for us to pack our house and head out East. On Monday (2/9/09) the movers came and had our WHOLE house packed and loaded in the moving van by 4:30pm. It was a site to see. I (Renee) had never moved with movers before...I've decided if we can afford it, its the way to go.

Note: Because we are moving for Andy's job, they are paying for the move

Five guys entered the house at 8:00 am, we showed them the things we didn't want packed, explained how we wanted each room labeled on the boxes and away they went. It was like a tornado of packing...and all I had to do was stay out of the way. By 12 noon the house was all packed, break for lunch, and by 4:30 pm the truck was packed, doors locked and headed on its way to Wisconsin.

On Monday evening we had a farewell gathering with our friends in Portland at the Lucky Lab. It was a fitting place to have our last night in Portland, since it's where Andy and I first hung out when we started dating. We will miss all our friends we are leaving behind in Portland...you have all touched our lives in special ways and will miss you.

Tuesday (2/10/09) we had breakfast with Grandma Donna, Uncle Dave, Aunt Sharon, Laura, and Kayla, then headed back to our house to load up the car of the stuff we were taking with us, that didn't get packed in the moving van. Papa Paul came over and helped us finish loading the car. We started the first leg of our journey out east, stopping in Coeur d'Alene, ID for two nights to spend some time with Grandma Ellie, Papa Ron, Uncle Alan, Auntie Lisa, Darian, Anthony, and Choele.

Wed (2/11/09) was nice to spend the day in town with the family and friends. Grandma Ellie made a wonderful prime rib dinner and plum perogy's - YUMMMY!

Our plan is to get on the road tomorrow (Thurs) by about 10:00 am and hoping to make it to Billings Montana....I'm hoping I can post more then.

Good night and we'll keep you updated on our journey.