Faith's Monumental Visit to South Dakota

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When I received my niece, Sydnee's graduation announcement in the mail, I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to visit my brother and his family for the first time at their home in Spearfish. I also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to see Mount Rushmore, which I had never seen before!  My nephew in Nebraska was graduating that same weekend, and my sister Dawn and I tried to put together a plan where we could go to both of their graduation receptions. I knew though, that Faith would feel left out and would want to go, too. I also knew it was going to be difficult to find someone to look after Faith over Memorial Day weekend.  Our finalized plan involved Dawn traveling to South Dakota with me and Faith and then her flying to Nebraska by herself. Faith and I would then drive back to Bismarck by ourselves.  3 adventurous travelers  I must admit, as the trip got closer, I started to get a little anxious about how Faith was going to do with so much drivi...
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Transitioning at Home and at Work

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We have been in our new apartment for about two weeks now and I have also made the transition from working at Coventry to Aetna. In the midst of moving upstairs in our building, I also moved up north to the Aetna building. In both moves, I am happy to find that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Faith watches her pink tv in our new apartment

On the home front, the main reason we wanted to move to the top floor was because we were hoping it would be quieter. And it is! No more constant noise above our heads at all hours of the day! Although Faith still asks, "How long are we going to be living in this apartment," she is making the adjustment rather well.

If there has been one thing to get used to - it has definitely been that it is a lot warmer on the top floor facing south! I mean, like really warm! The temps have gotten down to about 40 degrees at night and we still haven't turned on our heat. In fact, we had to hook up Faith's portable air conditioner in her room because it was getting to be 85 degrees in there! I don't know how we're going to survive the summer up here, but we'll focus on getting through winter first.

There are advantages to facing south though. We have a much prettier view and can see the Capitol building from our balcony. We can also see Faith's school. Rob likes it because he can keep an eye on the vehicles in the parking lot. Plus, it is much quieter than facing the busy street right next to our building. 

our view from the balcony

I am finding it has also been a nice transition with my workplace moving up north. It takes me five minutes to get to work! I get home a little earlier in the evening so that helps with our supper and Wheel of Fortune-watching routine.

All in all, both the transitions at home and at work have been good for all three of us. It was a little crazy there for a little while with everything happening at the same time. but I'm happy to report things are getting better day by day.

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