Moving Back to ND 2007

Wow, life has been a huge whirlwind for the past six weeks. Selling our house so quickly, Lacey graduating, her open house, Relay for Life, deciding to move back to PODUNK...I mean ND...leaving so quickly, packing a million and three boxes of stuff...ugh stuff...I have a sea of boxes and am getting through them a day at a time. People please we don't need all this stuff...I am ready to put a pile in the road and burn it at this point and start over...LOL!!! No one would see the flames for many miles!!

It was really good I decided to leave when I did as Barry's mom was doing much more poorly then I anticipated. She has lost a lot of weight and when I hugged her I was afraid she would break. So I have been cooking for her and if anyone can fatten her up I think I can do that HA...she loves to play scrabble and I have played almost every day with her...I even let her win some so she has some enjoyment...she always accuses me of making up words so I have to get the dictionary to prove they are words...we laugh the whole time...good for both of us!!

I drive the 20 minutes to town each day at some point to remind myself there is really civilization here...there are four houses on the way to town...one is an abandoned farm so I have to be sure there are no problems by that house as I wouldn't get any help there...I am not exaggerating...it is pretty desolate..I had forgotten just how much desolation there is around me.

The weekend after we got here Barry wanted to grill so I went to town to get a new grill brush, propane tank and a few other items at the local Pamida...something like a small Kmart...they were sold out of grill brushes, now seriously, did they only order three for the year??? I had to go to Cenex to get the tank and ice...they had two bags of ice and I got the last propane tank for the weekend...I was a winner on those items...then the dog chewed her leash up so I went back to Pamida to get her a new one and they were sold out of dog leashes...Becky (my oldest daughter in CA) said I should write a book from the country to the city and back...she finds this all amusing...I guess??? The poor dog I guess chewed her leash because she is confused about where we are, too??? Every time I open the jeep door she jumps in and won't get out appears she is saying take me home....I tell her we are home and get used to it...so she gets out.

One night about 10:30 PM I heard a gun shot very close to the ranch and was scared out of my wits...if I have wits...I was terrified and remembered I had left my cell in the jeep...by the way the cell doesn't work at the ranch...but, it did have all my numbers in it...and I did get a landline so I can at least talk to people other than driving about a mile to use the cell...Verizon can you hear me now hasn't made it to Beulah, ND...south of town anyway...no one has made it...so I look like an idiot sitting by the hiway talking on my cell...the neighbor stopped to see if I was OK and I said I think so I just needed to hear a human voice today..LeeRoy is his name (no joke) and he thought I had lost my mind....could be??? I said I have been in Metro Detroit for the past 10.5 years and I am in culture shock...he just nodded drove off in his truck with his dog on his lap!! By the way, the gun shot was him shooting at coyotes that were chasing his sheep...he thought I should know since I moved back and he forgot to tell me they have been chasing his sheep right by the road to my house...thanks LeeRoy! No more being upset about gunshots in the middle of the night just cousin LeeRoy taking care of the coyote problem...good grief...calgon take me away!!!

I have about half of our stuff opened up and put away...the other half I just do a little each day...with driving to town and taking car of Mom each day I don't get a ton done...tomorrow Mom and I are planning to go to Dairy Queen...looking forward to seeing people...temps are in the high 90's and 100's one Saturday it was 107...we were melting...soak up for the cold winter.

I am planning to get some goats to eat the high grass down around the buildings the place looks like an abandoned farm...it will take me a week to weed eat around everything if I start...cousin LeeRoy told me goats are good for eating down the tall grass...thank goodness cousin LeeRoy is full of advice and reminds me that life is good...I still have my teeth, don't chew tobacco that is, and I might become a drunk so I have someone to talk to...I thin when a person is drunk you don't mind talking to yourself...LOL.

I miss my life there in many ways, and I am adjusting to slower life here and helping Barry's mom, I will eventually get together with my friends I left here 10.5 yrs. ago...words out I am back...remember the movie Fargo...they do talk like that here...forgot that, too.

I drove over an hour to the closest Target, McD's, Burger King, and no Meijer...no DSW either...LOL...think of me in the dog leash isle!!

I miss you guys...I just got internet a couple days ago so another happy day for me!! It took them four hours to get it up and running...said some funky stuff was going on with the outside wiring...of course, probably older than LeeRoy!!