Note to self....

Don't wear black when you are going to walk in a parade and it's 92 degrees out and don't wear jeans tailgating when it's 85.

This is a picture of Camille at a children's farm that is part of the park system in Overland Park.

Sydney practicing her dance moves.

Who is from here?

Over dinner the other night, Mike and I discussed how most everyone we know at home is from either Minnesota or Wisconsin (with the exception of my mom, Mike's dad and step mom). We ran through the list...Hutchinson, Cloquet, Duluth, Amery, Albert Lea, Minneapolis area, Bemidji etc. Here in Overland Park, it is a completely different story. This is a transient town. I have only run across a handful of people that were born and raised in Overland Park. This is what you would truly call a melting pot area. I've discovered that a large number of people are from Arkansas. Maybe it has something to do with the name.

Yesterday, Mikey and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. We hired our babysitter for a few hours and went down to the plaza for sushi. We were chit chatting with our waiter (never know where you'll find a friend) and it came up that we were from Minneapolis. He said "Now that is a cool town. It's fun here, but not as cool as Minneapolis". I agree. It is nice here, and granted we haven't been out on the town, but Minneapolis is a cool place to live. Maybe that is why so many people we know never leave. There isn't a reason to.

Tomorrow we are going to tailgate with some of my coworkers before the Chiefs game. I don't even know who they play...and I really don't care. I'm excited to tailgate in 80 degree weather. I loved tailgating with the Haugens and Luecks, and I intend to wear my purple shoes that I bought with Angela tomorrow. My old boss, Mike, who moved down here 2 years ago, didn't seem thrilled with my plan. In fact, I think I got a "look".

Apparently, the guys down here really do up tailgating. They have a special van they purchased just for this purpose. I hear it is always a BBQ feast accompanied with a lot of beer and wine. I am glad that we were able to find a sitter so that both Mike and I can go.

It is funny how quickly you fall into a routine, despite a move. We have a pretty busy day today. Sydney is doing a cheer leading camp with the Blue Valley High School Cheerleaders this morning and then next Friday she is going to cheer with the girls at the home game. We drove by the high school last night on our way home...and good Lord! The cars!!! They were everywhere. We passed the field and it was packed. I have never seen a crowd like that at a high school football game in my life. Our babysitter told us people go well over an hour early to get a spot. Yikes!!!

I'll make sure to bring my huge lens (or maybe talk Jane into meeting me halfway to borrow one of hers) so I can take pictures of Sydney where you can actually see her!

Camille has a birthday party today at a little farm for my co-worker's son. The two of them are like peas in a pod. I imagine they'll find trouble in the years ahead.

As most of you know, Mike's company was bought by McAfee on Monday. They won't close the deal until late in Q4. Worst case, he'll get severanced out and look for a new job. He's not worried, and neither am I. What he does is so specialized and in high demand, that he shouldn't have a problem finding something quickly. Hopefully though, he will be able to keep his job. He really likes the idea of working for McAfee, especially if he can do it from here. We'll see how it all shakes out and we'll keep you posted. It was only a matter of time before he went through an acquisition, I've already been through 2.

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

Our last two weekends have consisted of unpacking and organizing, and slowly getting acquainted with our new surroundings. We seem to be in an epicenter of fast food chains. There is Chic-fil-a, Popeye's, Sonic, Whataburger and all the usual suspects. Of course, being true Minnesotans that fear change, we haven't strayed far from McDonald's. That is where we discovered that you can buy sweet tea. However, we aren't far enough south for Mike to be able to order fried chicken livers at KFC (ick).

I'm settling into a large office setting again. I have been so used to working around 7 people who know me better than I sometimes know myself to being one of about 100 people. Mike is also adjusting to working at home quite well. I don't have the attention span to do it. I would be off cleaning something instead of sitting at my desk if I worked from home.

The weather here has been crappy. It has rained at least 12 of the 16 days we've been down here. Normal rainfall for the entire month of September is 3.5", and as of the 13th, we were at 7.5". When we moved here I noticed these giant storm drains. As my dad observed, you could easily fit a small child in one. After the intense rain we had on Friday, I now understand why the drains are as large as they are. It was like having a small rapid river on our street.

Today it is not raining, but it is only 59 degrees. Mike is using this break in the weather to thatch our waist high grass. The model homes on both sides of us still have their sprinklers on, so we have a moat slowly forming around our property. It is supposed to be in the 80s for most of next week...but I'll believe it when I start crabbing about the humidity.

On our way to church we saw a couple out walking. She was sporting ear muffs. I can't wait to see how people dress around here when it gets down to 30. I put light coats on the kids when we went to church so people wouldn't call CPS. Mike is outside in a t-shirt and shorts (it is still humid despite the cooler temperature), our neighbors are out in jeans and sweatshirts.

This past Friday, Mike and I went to Sydney's school for a new parents breakfast. We met the principal, and learned a little bit more about the learning standards. When Mike picked Sydney up from school, he mentioned that he had coffee with her principal. Her eyes got really big and she sank into her seat "WHY???". I absolutely love the obedience of this child. It is so refreshing compared to the rule breaker of a second child we have.

My dad has recently thrown his hat in to the ring to be the Mayor of Greenfield. After Mike gets in from thatching we are going to start working on his campaign website. I think it would be an exciting adventure for both he and my mom.

I'll take some pictures of the house as we have it decorated and email those out soon. Even though we don't have much of a social life yet, we are managing to stay rather busy. We did find an awesome babysitter in my co-worker's daughter. The girls just adore the heck out of her. The babysitter told her mom that Camille wore her out. I hope Camille hasn't scared her off.

Tonight's menu has a touch of southern flare to it. Fried chicken (thanks to my new co-worker for this awesome recipe), which I will peel the skin off of (thanks to Weight Watchers for ruining food for me), creamed spinach, squash and cornbread. Don't be surprised when my kids come home next and they have a southern drawl. HA!

Kansas City or Bust

It is very surreal to watch everything you own pull away in a moving truck. After 11 long hours of packing and another 8 hours of loading, our entire house pulled away from us a week ago Tuesday.

The last few days have flown by in a flurry of activity. We raced down here on Wednesday to make a 3 pm walk through. On the way down, the girls found a stamp pad and stamps in a little travel kit that I didn't notice. From the back comes a tiny voice "Mommy, I need a napkin". Camille actually needed about 5 gallons of paint thinner to get all of the blue ink off of her. Sydney wasn't too far behind in her need of paint thinner either. We managed to miss our walk through appointment by about 45 minutes.

As soon as we got in the house, the girls were up the stairs to seek out their new rooms. They both shrieked when they hit their new spaces. I wish I would have had my camera with me to capture their faces, but our car looked more like a mobile trash can then a mode of transportation.

On Thursday morning we stopped by my office so I could do a few things before the closing. Sydney largely hid behind me, while Camille stuck her right hand out to anyone who came over to say hello. "I'm Camille Wallick" she'd say as she'd grab the right hand of the greeter. The action garnered a number of laughs, so Camille kept doing it (of course).

We had a very quick closing (34 minutes to be exact...Thank you, Chris!) and we were back at the house to meet the movers. Luckily within 15 minutes we had the go ahead to start moving in. The movers that unloaded our belongings were great. They showed the greatest of care with all of our stuff, and I'm happy to say that outside of the holiday boxes I have yet to go through, everything made it in one piece with no noticeable damage.

My coworker stopped over a couple of hours after the movers were done and brought us some beer. I heart beer. I invited him and his wife over for dinner on Sunday, and he looked at me like I had 7 heads. I am quite sure he believed that I could not have the house ready by Sunday. He obviously didn't know what my mom and I could accomplish.

Sydney loves her new school. She came home today with an award as the "Art Student of the Day". I'm a little fuzzy on what she did to get the award, but I'm sure it was something just short of a painting a Monet.

Camille loves her new daycare. I called to check on her during her first day. When I asked how she was doing the director told me "Just great! She's been an angel". I paused..."Camille? Short brown hair?". The director laughed a little. The joke will be on her when she gets to know Camille and her temper a little better.

Thursday is trash day in our new hood. We still don't have a trash can, but trash is an HOA deal, so when Mike noticed that everyone was just throwing bags of trash at the end of their driveways, Mike did the same thing. We differed a little bit form our neighbors because we had about 20 large lawn bags of trash and a large stinky cardboard box (our freezer died 3 days after the move and the stink resulted from paper towels that were used to clean out the old freezer).
Much to our surprise the trash people took everything Mike put down there. Way different then the trash Nazis we dealt with in Minneapolis.

After the movers come to pick up the cardboard and mountain of paper that have taken over our garage we might actually be able to put our cars in the garage!