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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Bah Microondas.

Taking a cue from The Trophy Wife, I came across some instructions yesterday that I wanted to share with you. I was reorganizing the items in our storage closet when I came across an old microwave box.

It looks fairly standard, right?

Now take a closer look.

1) Broken wine glasses are permitted near the microwave. Either that or the box is telling me that the microwave will work for breaking my wine glasses OR it will make them shine.

2) Levitation of cubes is not only permitted, but encouraged in and around the mircrowave.

3) When operating the microwave in the rain, please us an umbrella.

4) Do NOT use the microwave to heat up your boots so they are warm and toasty when you go outside. Either that or do not wear the Grinch's shoes that are too tight when operating the microwave

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It's not every day...

So, on my usual jaunt to the gas station to nab myself the most giant cup of Diet Mountain Dew I can buy (which, by the way, is NOT big enough), I had an interesting encounter.

The 7-Eleven worker (we'll call him Joe), was ringing me up and whisting along with the music in the background (Beethoven, I believe. Yes, Beethoven, at the 7-Eleven), Joe then looks at me and says "I'm so glad you came in today."


Why, you may wonder? Well, it was NOT my beautiful face, hair, clothes or smile. It was NOT because I informed him that it was about time to refill the syrup in the machine for the Diet Mountain Dew, and it was NOT that fact that I let him keep the 13 cent change from my dollar bill. It was the fact that I cannot whistle. As he whistled classical tunes to me, I happened to mention that I can't whistle.


Much to his delight, Joe asked me to whistle for him. I'm ashamed to admit that I did...er...tried. He smiled and then said to me, "I'm so glad you came in today! It's not everyday you meet a non-whistler." And I'm thinking in my head, "actually, that IS every day, most non-whistling morons just don't attempt whistling with the 7-Eleven checker." And as I'm walking out the door he calls out, "Can you swim? Because a non-whistler, non-swimmer would be a real treat."


Unfortunately for him, I can swim. Sigh, I'm not even cool enough to be the biggest loser he's met.

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