Little Troublemaker

I promised I would put this on the blog...

Last Friday I was dropping the kids off at day care. It was raining outside, and we were just hanging up our raincoats when suddenly the fire alarm went off! It took me about a second to realize that this wasn't a planned fire drill. I turned around to find Maddy, and there she was, standing on the shoe cubby, hand on the fire alarm. My first instinct was to pull the fire alarm handle back up, hoping it would turn off the alarm, but it wouldn't budge. Their teacher came running out, and I said, "Don't worry, it's not a fire, my daughter did that." But she didn't say anything to me and instead rounded up all the kids and took them outside...in the rain, with no coats on! I looked down the hallway and saw all the other classrooms evacuating. The day care director was running by and I told her the same thing, but she was just trying to turn off the alarms. After about 5 minutes, the alarms were finally off, and the kids started coming back in. Everyone was soaked. The older kids thought it was pretty exciting, but the babies in the cribs (yes, they wheeled the cribs out there) just looked perplexed. There was 1 baby just lying there looking around, face soaked...I felt so bad! The director wasn't too pleased, but the kids' teacher said, "Don't worry, this isn't the first time it's happened...or the second, or the third!" (I don't think Maddy was the culprit the other times.) After our talk I'm sure she won't do it again!

Well, we'll be gone in a couple weeks -- the director will probably be glad to see us go!

Fall is coming...

The good thing about being in Fargo this time of year is that we'll get to have a really long fall...the trees are already starting to turn colors here, and by the time we get home, the trees in NJ should be turning too!

3 weeks to go. Time has gone by so fast! I could get used to this life...quiet days of puttering around the hotel room, watching HGTV...I mean, studying at the library! Seriously, studying has been going well. I've been putting in some extra time evenings and weekends when I can, which is why I'm behind in updating the blog.

Before we came out here, I thought we would be spending our weekends taking little road trips. However, after the long ride out here, nobody has been too keen about getting back in the car for any length of time. Fortunately, there is a lot to do around Fargo with the kids.

A couple weekends ago was pretty rainy. We decided to spend the afternoon at the Hjemkomst (pronounced yum-kost) Center across the river in Moorhead, MN. The main attraction there is a full-scale replica of a Viking ship just like the ones that sailed across the Atlantic in the 1200's or so. It was built by a MN man who wanted to prove that the Viking design was seaworthy. He spent a decade or so building it himself, and after he died, his family finished it. They eventually sailed it through the Great Lakes starting at Lake Superior, through the St. Lawrence Seaway, down the Hudson River to NYC, then across the Atlantic Ocean to Norway! The ship was really cool. The most interesting part to me is that the crew's sleeping quarters were on the deck instead of below. I tried to get a good picture of this. Apparently the main food staple on the journey from NYC to Norway was Cream of Wheat! After a few months' voyage, that would get pretty old.

The best part of the day for the kids was going to the mall to the dinosaur playground. Right off the food court is a large playroom with huge dinosaurs for the kids to climb on, crawl through and slide down. After an hour they didn't want to leave, and they keep asking to go back! It was a good place for a rainy day.

This past weekend we went back to the zoo on Sat., and went on our first mini-road trip on Sun., to Buffalo River State Park. We chose the park because it is only about 20 miles away, and because they have a man-make swimming lake with a sandy beach (it was in the mid-70s that day and sunny). Well, apparently they drain the lake after Labor Day, because when we got there all we saw were the lifeguard stations and sand! Good thing we weren't planning on swimming. We did go for a hike along the Buffalo River, and we had fun trying to catch minnows in the shallow water. We also decided to extend our road trip and drive another 45 miles to a real lake, in Detroit Lakes, MN. The best part of that excursion was that the kids got a nap in the car! The lake was pretty, but pretty much surrounded by residential areas. The few restaurants we could find were dead, since it's the off-season. It was still a nice day for a drive. We capped off the day at one of our favorite area restaurants, the Thai Orchid. They have an awesome dessert, fried banana with coconut ice cream.

Time to hit the books again. I realized that I haven't posted many pictures of Fargo itself. I will try to do this next time!

96 degrees in Fargo?!

Yeah, Wed. was 96 degrees. It's supposed to be in the mid-60s this weekend. Welcome to the Midwest!

Everything's going well...Matt's job is keeping him busy, but he's always home by 5, which is nice. The kids are enjoying their "North Dakota day care" and their extra time with us. I've been studying every day, usually at the NDSU library. I've been working out more too, but today when I weighed myself I had gained a pound in the last 3 weeks. Better stop working out.

We decided that the kids and I would fly home in October in time for me to go back to work, and Matt will stay behind to get as much work done as he can before our vacation in Jamaica at the end of Oct. We still don't know if he'll be able to telecommute once his 3-month commitment is up. Hopefully we'll know soon. So, my return date is October 10th. Now that it's planned, it seems like I don't have much time left here. It's lighting the fire under me to get as much studying done as I can over the next 5 weeks.

We had a pretty low-key weekend. Matt was still recovering from his mystery illness. (He seems better now.) Last Sunday we took the kids to Yunker Farm Childrens' Museum. We had a lot of fun riding the train and the merry-go-round. Billy liked the train sets the best, while Maddy liked the giant bubble maker: you stand inside a circle and pull down on a rope, and as you pull down a giant bubble forms around you. I didn't get many pictures but I have some from our picnic lunch and from the merry-go-round.

Monday (Labor Day) we went to my coworker's sister's house in West Fargo for a cookout. It's a small world! Sherry and her husband Dave have 2 kids, Ben who is 3 and Timmy who is 4 mos. old. My coworker Karen was also there. Dave is a doctor and was on call that day, so Matt got grill duty. Karen made the exact same broccoli salad that Jean makes, so it seemed a little like we were home. The kids had fun playing together.

Matt and I went out on our date last night! We went to an Italian restaurant downtown that was really good, then we watched the Simpson's movie (there were only 2 other people in the theater!) The kids were fine with Steph, our babysitter. We're planning on going to the White Stripes concert in a few weeks so hopefully Steph can come over again!

That's all for now...except for a couple pictures of the kids playing in their duvet covers (or kangaroo pouches, as they call them.) Oh, and the kids say "Norf Bakota" instead of "North Dakota", which Matt and I have started doing :-)