Happy Halloween!

Fredrik and Madeline Play Date

We had a play date with Madi last Friday. It was pretty hilarious. The two babies have definately started to notice each other. At first they stared at each other and played with toys in slow motion not taking there eyes off each other. One of them would make a noise with a toy, then the other would decide whether or not to investigate. Great Aunt Bev had given them the Jack-O-Lantern shirts so we had to get a picture which was not the easiest thing. By that point the novelty of a second baby had worn and they were both on the move, continuously plunging head first off the couch into Bev's arms and making a lot of noise.

I'm going to try to bring Fredrik into more social situations where there are other kids around. It was a wake-up call when I brought him into the daycare at our gym and he screamed and trembled when he saw the other kids. Today I took him to a nearby playground with 5 other kids running around. He's too little to play "with" them, but he definately watched what the older kids were doing. He also enjoyed digging in the little pebbles that covered the ground around the playground equipment and he also ventured around via crawling a bit. That's my brave boy!

We have a fun Halloween weekend planned in Forest City visiting Gma and Gpa Hemberger, and Jessa and Jonah. It should be a blast.

Not a Video

I can't figure this out, the extremely short video uploaded, but I can't get any other videos to load. Maybe I have a weak signal.

In the mean time, I'll post some pictures.

First, scrunch face:


The crawler: A video would be more affective, I realize.


Recently Aunt B and I toured some area gyms and settled on LA Fitness. It's a brand new HUGE gym with classes, a pool, DAYCARE, volleyball league and a really nice locker room. We went for the first time today, Bethany, Peter, Fredrik and I loaded into the Toyota. Peter went right to the treadmills and then on to the weight area, while B and I waited 5 minutes for the "Kid Club" to open. Fredrik was the only kid there for the duration of his stay, so he had full attention from a really nice woman, but, she was not familiar and he was pretty scared, I came back to check on him a few times and I could see he wasn't sure, but he was doing OK. The last time I checked on him (after 1/2 hour) he was crying so I stayed and played with him for about 10 minutes to familiarize him with the surroundings and then we went home. I think he will get used to it soon, that brave little guy. It is a pretty awesome kid area so he will probably LOVE it in no time....I hope...

Video

This it a video test. Did it work???


ining frrom

Farmless

After a highly dramatic closing, we are farmless. About 24 hours before our scheduled closing I listened to a voice mail as I headed out of St. Paul. The title company had called to tell me that some glitches had come up, so we spent the next day fretting over numbers and details and we made a lot of calls. We closed a day late (Friday) but we are now officially finished with the August Earth chapter of our lives. Though we've been slowly making our way to this day for a long time, it still feels abrupt. Suddenly we aren't responsible for our dog, Toblerone, who is staying at the farm, and the other 40 acres of life that surrounded us. We are ready to move forward, but we're pretty exhausted from the last two months-the CSA, moving, law school...It's finally time to recover and relax. I guess we can ALMOST relax anyway; after we unpack, get organized, and, well, I guess Peter doesn't getmuch of a break from school, "Fall Break" is not much of a break with tons of studying and a take-home test, and a paper to write.

The three of us had a fun falltime walk through Youngstrom Woods outside of Litchfield on Thursday since we suddenly had a free afternoon. The leaves had mostly fallen, but they were still beautiful. I was excited for Fredrik to have an "in-the-woods" experience, with the foresty sounds, shadows, and sights. He seemed to like it.

Da Busca

We are settling in to our new city house...OK, we are TRYING to settle in. Things are still is disarray. We sell the farm in two days and hopefully things will get easier after that and I will be able to think forward, and not dwell on the fact that I am really going to miss the farm!

Madeline was out at the farm for a visit and they somehow both fit into this stroller.

Fredrik likes to watch me cook. I had taken this picture because I thought it would be the last August Earth meal, but no, we have about 120 pounds of onions, 12 squash, a bag of beets, about 50 pounds of carrots, a ton of garlic, peppers in the freezer, a bushel of tomatoes that are almost ripe... We should be set for a little longer. We grew the bananas, too.

Peter dresses all fancy-pants now.

Fredrik likes to reach out and grab the camera. I've cleaned the lens many times.

Oh, the farm.

Old-Timey

I can't believe this picture never made the blog! It's from a few weeks ago and I just pulled it off of an email from my mom before I lost all my hutchtel.net emails from my inbox. Freddy is sitting in a buggy my mom found at Very Vintage in Litchfield. He's set next to the Allis Chalmers WD45 that pulled the potato digger through the potato field a few weeks ago. It's so old-timey, I love it.

The Big Move

We are pretty much moved in to our new house thanks to: Mom, Dad, Jim, Amy, Curt, Madi, Bev, Emma, Mark, and Sherbie. Thanks guys! We brought too much stuff but I've been figuring things out the last couple of days and I think by next weekend things will be in order. It's amazing how much I can get done during the day when Peter is gone for a bajillion hours studying.

The biggest task so far has been the kitchen. We covered a dresser with a big butcher block countertop for an instant awesome 4'x2' island and brought in two shelving units, a magnetic knife strip, and some hooks. Everything seems to have a spot for now, but I have all of my large canisters still at the farm.

I think I overloaded this bar with pots!


View from our bedroom into the dining room:


Thankfully we had extra help to move the piano in. It does look darling where it is:


Holy pottery!


Hmmmm...I seem to have a few extra things in my studio/office room:


Next on the agenda is a run to Goodwill to drop off some chairs that we just can't fit and some other odds and ends. I've also decided to bite the bullet and buy a swiffer. Excitement overwhelms me.

Breath of Fresh Air

I feel exuberantly happy and proud for filling the last CSA box today! Inside the box members will find 8 pounds of Russet potatoes, 12-15 red and yellow onions, 4 pounds of carrots, 2 heads of garlic, a bunch of green kale, 3-4 beets, 3 pounds of tomatoes, 3 bell peppers, 2 hot peppers, a winter squash, and a pumpkin. Whoopee! I'm still here to talk about it! Life is good and my darling husband just called to say he's making a trip to Hutchinson tonight to take me out for dinner at a new restaurant, Zellas that just opened. I'm pumped. Bring on the bottle of red wine and plate of comfort food.


The last boxes.

I feel the same way.

Farm Days Gone By

I can't say that the last 7 weeks flew by, but here I am about to fill the CSA boxes for the last time tomorrow morning. The emotional part of all of this has been sooooooooooo stretched out that I'm ready for it to be over. I have gotten really good at packing overnight bags for Fredrik and I, we spend 1/3 of our nights at the farm, 1/3 in St. Paul, and 1/3 at my parents' house. I don't know what I'm going to do when we actually can go to our dressor for a change of clothes instead of rifling through bags. Anyway, the big move takes place this Saturday. Last weekend we moved our queen-sized bed to our new place so it feels a little more like home and it feels less like home in Hutchinson where there is now no bed. Still, despite the lack of sleeping quarters, I enjoyed a beautiful sunny, blue-skied, crisp fall day with leaves falling around me today while I harvested squash for the last box.