...MonkeyKnits... A Knitting Blog

sunrise at our new home

First of all... Happy Birthday, Baby! Hope the coming year is all you wish for and more! Here's to celebrating many more of your birthdays right by your side... Cheers!

sunrise, originally uploaded by monkeyknits.

I promised photos, and here they are! The first one (above) is the view from the end of our yard, looking out over Lake Superior. This lake is amazing -- every day it's a new view, I swear!

This little guy (below) lives in our backyard. I try to feed him peanuts, but sometimes the crows get them before he can. I know that squirrels are basically fancy-tailed rats, but I can't help finding this guy cute. He looks like a little old man pulling up his pants. It makes me giggle.

Here are a few more "outside" photos...
looking to the southwest we see the Aerial Lift Bridge

looking to the northeast we see fall colors

this is the view from our back porch

I make it a point to take in the lake at least once a day. It's just amazing to me. Okay, anyway... so here's the house...

the house has a nickname: "Little Vic"

can you say "guh-zee-bow?"

the ladder is the fire escape from our third floor loft - hope we never have to use it!
and the round part is our master bedroom - the head of our bed is in the tower*

I'll have some interior photos later this week. We're finally unpacked. Well, *almost* unpacked. And I shouldn't really say "finally" because there was a point where I thought we'd be living out of boxes until Christmas. My parents helped us out a lot -- not just with the hard labor part of unpacking, but also with the interior design part as well. I was really at a loss for how to arrange the furniture in this amazing house. The first floor has three large rooms that are separate yet open, if that makes sense. I'm sure one of them is supposed to be a formal dining area, but as we are not formal diners, we made it into a sitting area.

So those photos will be up later this week. I just have to say a very sincere "thank you" to Greta and Tyler for allowing us to rent their lovely house on the Lake. We are so happy here and it truly feels like home. So, thank you!

There has been a little knitting going on here, too. I currently have two pair of socks on the needles -- one is intended for my Sock Monkey Swap pal. They'll be going out in the mail next week. The other pair is for an unnamed male -- unnamed because they are quite possibly going to be a Christmas gift, so no photos to share yet. In the middle of all this unpacking, I've also unearthed a handful of UFOs that I had forgotten about. So I'm working on a couple of them and contemplating what comes next for a few others... I see some ripping in my future!

*so I just learned the difference between a tower and a turret. I had thought that we had a turret, but it turns out we have a tower. Who knew?

Home

We're here! We're in Duluth, in our new home. We just found the box with the camera in it, so I'll post photos soon. This house we're renting is amazing. I don't think we'll ever want to leave!

The move went amazingly well. The ladies who packed our belongings could not have been nicer. They packed each item as if it were their own. And they were so pleasant. We were very impressed.

The guys who loaded and unloaded the truck were great, too. 99.9% of our items arrived safe and sound. They worked so hard to make us happy. And they did an awesome job.

Now I'm packing my bags to hit the road this afternoon. My mom/new boss and I are heading to Des Moines for an Aveda business course. This will be my introduction to the salon world of business. I hope I'm hip enough to hang with the beautiful people. The good news is that I saw my stylist yesterday and I'm having a good hair day, so I should be alright. I'll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

Milestones

Jen, originally uploaded by monkeyknits.

 

Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I had trouble deciding what I wanted to post about it because I really had (have?) mixed feelings about this milestone.

On one hand, I always thought that I would have a child (or two) by the time I hit my thirtieth birthday. I  thought I would have an established career -- or at least an idea of what I'd like to pursue. And, truth be told, I always thought that I would marry Dave Letterman.

But, on the other hand, I am very happy about the person I've become over the last few years. I think I accomplished a lot in my third decade. I (finally) graduated from college with a BS degree. I fell in love with and married a wonderful man. I marked my sixth year of sobriety. I've worked towards becoming debt free (just the house and the student loans to go!). I discovered my passion for all things fiber -- knitting, spinning, quilting. And I've really learned a lot about the kind of person I'd like to be.

So, although I'm tempted to be the person who celebrates the first anniversary of her 29th birthday, I think I'm okay with being thirty. I definitely wouldn't trade 30 to be 20 again. And I truly am happy with me at thirty.

*  ~  *  ~  *

In other news, this is our last weekend in Sioux Falls. There's a little bit of last minute packing to do before the movers arrive on Monday to pack up the rest of our belongings. They'll load up on Tuesday and deliver it to our new place in Duluth on Thursday. By this time next week, we'll be sleeping in our new home on Lake Superior. I'll post photos and details next weekend. I can't wait to share it with you!