Wait...Blind Means You Can't See?

Santa Rosa, CA weather: foggy and 51 degrees (feels like 51 degrees)

Fargo weather: cloudy and 18 degrees (feels like 7 degrees)

Maybe this little stint to CA was a mistake...we'll get used to 50 degree weather just to head out to 10 degree weather. Oops. :-)

So, today was a lovely day in the neighborhood. Daddio had a meeting in Oakland, so Ma, Geoff and I came along and after the meeting we went to Bay Street and Ikea in Emeryville. After that we came home. When we got back to the house, Geoff and I took the dogs outside to "do business." They prefer grass for businessing, so we took them up to the 3rd level of my parents backyard - the level with the hot tub. Rubio and Rom were wandering around the grass sniffing and peeing. At one point, Rubio walked toward the hot tub and Geoff headed him off. I scoffed and said, "Geoff, he can feel when there's a drop, he won't fall in."

Geoff looked at me skeptically, but said, "okay, honey." As he stepped away from the tub's edge, Rubio started off in that direction again and walked right into the hot tub without hesitation. I learned my lesson in blind dog ettiquette. Poor dog. Lest there was any speculation, he really is blind. And, occasionally, very wet.

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Spare Some Change?

Provo Weather: currently cloudy and 36 degrees (feels like 27)

Fargo Weather: currently cloudy and -3 degrees (feels like -20)

Countdown to Fargo: 14 days

Well, my clock just switched over to midnight, which means that today is my second-to-last day of work at BYUB. It's still all a little surreal for me. I mean...tomorrow will be my last day there? I'm going to go to Fargo? In a matter of days, my whole life will change into a new life I've never imagined?

As a girl who doesn't embrace change much (a character flaw I am working to change), I feel like all of this should be freaking me out...but I'm feeling surprisingly at ease. I don't know if it's that fact that I'm going to be working for a great company, the fact that everything still feels a little make-believe, or the fact that I get to go with my amazing hub, but I just feel like I don't have anything that I need to fear. Things will be different, and certainly hard at times, but, ultimately, the whole experience of North Dakota can be nothing but a good one if we choose to make it that way.

I have to pack up all the stuff in our current apartment tomorrow night so it can go on the moving truck Tuesday. Yowza. I can't even begin to say how much I DO NOT want to box stuff up again...but I do want it to go with us, so I must.

P.S. NEVER get your cell phones through Best Buy Mobile over the phone. In store, I'm sure is a great experience. The phone ordering, however, was a nightmare. Seriously. Barely made it worth the $150 bucks I saved. Seriously.

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Double Trouble

Provo Weather: currently clear and 9 degrees (feels like 9 degrees)

Fargo Weather: currently clear and -9 degrees (feels like -21 degrees)

Countdown to Fargo: 19 days

Well, things are carrying on. I'm working on training my co-workers in the many tedious tasks that make up my job. They are doing a great job learning everything. It puts me in this weird limbo at work, though. My supervisor told everyone to "pretend like I'm not there" and only ask me questions when needed, but I'm not to really do anything. Hopefully I don't forget about anything on which to train the others!

My dogs had a rough day yesterday. Well, for Rubio it started on Sunday or Monday. He got "the runs." Which mostly means Geoff and I got greeted with more then our fair share of "mistakes" around the house. (Yuck). So, anyway, by Tuesday morning...things were getting, well, honestly, bloody. So, I knew he needed to see the vet. Diarrhea + Blood = time for a professional. Anyway, I called the vet early and made an appointment for a little later that morning. I then hopped in the shower.

At this point I had (what I thought) was a stupendous idea. Move all the rugs out of the bathroom and bring the dogs in with me. That way if Rubio had another accident, it would be easy to clean up. However, I didn't anticipate that during my 7 minute shower Romulus would throw up. Four times. (Double Yuck). I called the vet back and told him to make that a double.

Both dogs were diagnosed with stress and tummy aches (note to self: you just paid to find out that your dogs are fine). However, the vet gave each dog a couple shots of drugs to harden their poops and stop anyone from throwing up. I also got prescriptions for the dogs (two pills per dog two times daily. note to reader: dogs don't like to take pills). But neither dog has thrown up or blown up (or out?) since. Hallelujah.

If only they knew the stress (and scary-cold weather) that lies before them.

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Time flies when you're...moving to Fargo.

Weather in Provo: currently snowing and 24 degrees (feels like 18).

Weather in Fargo: currently lightly snowing and 10 degrees (feels like -3).

Countdown to Fargo: 21 days

I can't believe how fast time seems to be passing. Thanksgiving was 11 days ago. We've been moved out of our old apartment now for 11 days! My last day of work in Utah is in 8 days. The moving truck arrives in 8 days. Christmas is in 19 days.

Snow fell in the valley yesterday for the first time. It was, honestly, the most beautiful snow I've ever seen. And I don't mean that is some deep, "now that I'm moving to Fargo I see snow in a different light" kind of way, but literally. It was 19 degrees outside, so the snow was REALLY frozen, and it looked just like glitter falling from the sky. The whole world was sparkling.

I also made it to work driving in the snowy leftovers with no problem. Driving in the snow is really my greatest concern about Fargo (and Utah, I guess) and I just need to relax a bit behind the wheel. The last thing that's good for snow driving is to be on edge...then the slightest error gets magnified by panic.

One final note in this rambling blog post. Geoff and I took the dogs out on a walk last night in the snow. It was Rom's first experience with the snow and he didn't seem to mind it one bit. We buttoned on coats for both dogs (well, one of the coats it a little small for both dogs, so Rubio had a little chest hair peeking out) and took them out with Steffanie and her Mini American Eskimo pup, Apollo. We had a lovely stroll in the sparkly winter evening. Rom and Rube are gonna do just fine in Fargo. Hopefully Geoff and I will, too!

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Moving truck, check

Weather in Provo: currently 25 degrees and cloudy.

Weather in Fargo: currently 7 degrees and partly cloudy.

Countdown to Fargo: 22 days

Well, Geoff and I finally decided to bite the bullet and have a moving company trek all our stuff out to Fargo for us. I think it's going to be the best idea (despite the extra mileage on the Mercedes). Especially given the potential weather hazards we may encounter on our drive up and over to North Dakota. I called and booked the truck. It will be dropped off on the 15th, we'll have a few days to load our stuff up, and then they'll take the trailer off to Fargo. Our stuff should arrive roughly the same day as us. Luckily they'll hold our stuff for a couple days while be scout out the city and find an apartment.

Today is Geoff's last day of work. He'll take the next week to study for finals and get ready for school to be over. His last final is on the 16th and my last day of work is the 15th. It's so weird to think that in just a couple weeks (or less!) our lives as we know them currently will be over! It's exciting...but also very surreal. Next up on the checklist is to get our new cell phones (no AT&T in North Dakota for Geoff and BYUB is going to want my cell phone back) and a few final items of "cold wear" including face-masks, heavy duty gloves, and wool socks. Who knew this California girl would need to stock up on clothing for sub-zero weather!

We're as ready for our adventure as we can be!

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One + Two = uh...

Mama G always seems to be beating me to the punch (I know, you were expect the word pulp there instead of punch, but those beatings have tapered off for the time being). She blogged the other day about oxymorons and poor grammar. Well, I've got one heckuva typo for you.

Imagine this. Geoff and I are cruising around TJ Max (obviously). Items make their way to TJ Max for various reasons. Overstock from other stores, last season's pants from the department store, and (as you will see), items, that are otherwise perfectly usable, but bear an "idiot" mark on them.

In this case, I was looking through TJ's pile of "random-boxed-stuff-to-give-people-particularly-men-for-Christmas-even-though-it's-useless-and-no-one-especially-men-want-it" when I came across this beauty:

Not too shabby, eh? Charge your phone AND look at pictures. Nice. It doesn't hurt, either, that the display pictures are doggies. Kinda pulls on the heart strings.

However, as I read the specs on the box, I noticed...

It is a triple photo frame charger that holds 2 photos.

Oops. Fred probably got canned for that one.

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Moving (and grooving)

Countdown to Fargo: 27 Days

We had a pretty eventful weekend as our preparations for life in Fargo began. On Tuesday night, I began the (surprisingly) tedious task of packing up all our stuff. Wednesday, we loaded up as much as we could into a small trailer and the Parker's suburban and dropped a load off in the parent's garage for storage until the actual move. We hijacked Harrison (Geoff's little brother) the whole time. It was SO great to have an extra set of man-hands around to help with all the heavy lifting.

Thursday (yes, Thanksgiving), we loaded up another full load and took it up to the parent's just in time to arive for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. However, the moving wasn't quite finished. We took Harrison and Rebecca back to the old apartment for one final load and delivered it to our temporary-pre-California-before-we-go-to-Fargo-for-good-apartment in Steffanie's (another of Geoff's siblings) basement. We are again SO grateful that Steffanie and her husband, Chris, are allowing us to stay down there! What a blessing to save us a month's rent.

After that final load, the four of us (me, Geoff, Harrison and Rebecca) begain the Black Friday shenanigans. We went to Wal-mart, Kohl's, Target, Best Buy, Shop Ko...all the hot spots. We tried to stay smart and make som Fargo-friendly purchases which included a down comforter (on an AMAZING deal), long underwear (sexy, I know), and, get this, a heated mattress pad. It's the most amazing thing, EVER! And will, undoubtedly, come in handy in the frigid temperatures that await us. Note: Picture below = 3:30am in line outside of Kohl's with hot cocoa and iPhones for entertainment.
Friday night, I went back and did the "moving out cleaning" full with carpet cleaning and toilet scrubbing.

Let the preparations continue!

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Top Ten

The top ten things you didn't know about Fargo, North Dakota:

10) Fargo is the largest city in the U.S state of North Dakota (in 2008 the population was estimated to be 99,200)

9) The city motto is "Gateway to the West".

8) The city of Fargo was originally named "Centralia," but was later renamed to "Fargo" in honor of Northern Pacific Railway director and Wells Fargo Express Company founder William Fargo.

7) Yankee great Roger Maris, one-half of the immortal M & M Boys, hailed from Fargo.

6) Since the late 1990s, the Fargo-Moorhead Area has consistently had one of the lowest unemployment rates among MSAs in the United States.

5) The average high temperature in January is 19 (F), with an average low of -2 (F).

4) CariDee English - winner of America's Next Top Model, Cycle 7 is from Fargo.

3) None of [the movie] Fargo was shot on location in or near Fargo. The majority of the movie was filmed in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the local areas around Grand Forks, North Dakota.

2) Fargo was ranked as the #1 urban environment by The Earth Day Network in its evaluation of 72 cities across the nation.

1) The newest residents of Fargo, ND as of December 28th will be Geoff and Amanda!

Whoa. You heard right. For more details, click here.

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