Let the music play

This week's adventure came in the form of volunteering.  The marketing & PR department at work provided free ice cream at a concert in Melgard Park in Aberdeen.  The concert featured the municipal band playing the big band hits of yesterday and the musical stylings of our Director of Marketing, Patty, and her brother Bob.  The concert was really great and we had a good turnout!  It was an awesome night, the weather was perfect and I got to know a few more people from work and from the community.  Below are a few pics of the evening!

The bandshell at Melgard

The Municipal Band

Patty belting it out

Patty's brother Bob singing "Come Fly With Me"

The crowd enjoying the show....and the ice cream!  

Aberdeen Fun Fact #2

Remember when I said "There's no place like home?" well I figured it was about time that explained why that was so appropriate!

Aberdeen Fun Fact #2....L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" once lived in Aberdeen!

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known of course for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Although born in New York State, after marrying Maud Gage in 1882, L. Frank Baum and his wife moved to Aberdeen in July, 1888.

Baum opened a store, "Baum's Bazaar."  His habit of giving out wares on credit led to the eventual bankrupting of the store, so Baum tuned to editing a local newspaper, "The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer," where he wrote a column, "Our Laundry."  Baum's description of Kansas in "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is based on his experience in drought-ridden South Dakota.

While in South Dakota, Baum sang in a quartet that included a man who would become one of the first Populist Senators in the U.S., James Kyle.

Also during this time, Maud's mother, Matilda Joslyn Gage was living in the Baum household. Gage was one of the first and most outspoken suffragists, a Native American activist, an abolitionist (she grew up in a house that served the Underground Railroad), a freethinker and a prolific author.

Baum's legacy lives on in one of Aberdeen's many nicknames (The Land of Oz) as well as in Storybook Land, a theme park located in Wylie Park which features its newest addition, The Land of Oz, in honor of the time Baum spent in Aberdeen.  The ten-acre park features a farmstead area with Dorothy's house, children's petting zoo, Munchkin Land, Scarecrow's house, Tin Man's house, Wicked Witch Castle, and the Emerald City.

Hopefully someday soon I will visit Wylie Park and Storybook Land and provide you with some photos of this awesome Aberdeen landmark.  So far everything is going well here in SD and at work, unfortunately readjusting to working 40+ hours a week has me pretty exhausted and so I don't find myself doing too much once I'm off work each week!  This weekend will be the first weekend I'm actually staying in Aberdeen though so hopefully I will have some adventures to share!!

There's No Place Like Home....

Well I was finally able to get into my apartment to stay and unpack all of my stuff!  I have it all pretty well where it needs to be aside from my desk/school/office things which I'm not really sure yet what I need to keep and what I need to toss or give away and I'm awaiting the purchase of a new bookshelf before diving in too deep with that mess.  

I am however infatuated my apartment and do think it will be difficult to force myself out the door come Monday morning and my first day of work (yikes!!).  It is really great and I love the decorating I've done so far with my mom's help.  I have a few photos share - nothing too exciting for anyone other than me I'm sure!!  

Here's the kitchen from one angle....

...and from the other.

The bathroom, with a great shower curtain I found on sale at Kohl's to replace my "college-y" polka dotted one and that matched a lot of the towels and accessories I already have.  

The bedroom, which basically is just the massive bed!!  And as you can see a dresser and the closet on the opposite wall with a small nook on the other side of the dresser where a bookshelf will go.  

Finally, the living space, (apologies for the laundry already drying), it's a little cramped with the dining table and desk but it is functional and cozy for now!  

There's also a great laundry room and a coat closet which I have made double as a pantry since I went from many many cupboards in my old apartment to just a few in this one.  But I love the space and so far Aberdeen has been great!!  I am anxious to start my first day on Monday and think this will be a great space to come home to each night! This week will be sure to bring many new adventures for me to share I'm sure!!  

P.S. Later this week I hope to fill you in on just exactly why the title of this post is so appropriate..... ;) 

30, Flirty, and Fabulous!

Well 30 and Fabulous at least! Happy Birthday to my one and only big sister Kristin today!! I'm sad to not be able to spend this special day with you but am confident Will and your friends will make sure it is one to remember!! I love and miss you so much!!

On a different note, the apartment (read: parking lot) is finally done! I'm headed up tomorrow to finally unpack and get things settled before starting work on Monday (with a slight detour back to O'Neill in between for a baby shower being thrown for one of my best high school girlfriends).

I hope to have lots of updates for you as I work on getting things where I want them and everything organized!

...and gettin' there can be half the fun

It has been an unbelievably long couple of days that is for sure, but for the most part everything went well! Although I supposed I didn't see it that way at the time.  Wednesday found us making the 14 hour drive from Columbia, MO to Aberdeen, SD.  After many stops along the way, including a detour in Omaha to pick up new furniture that BARELY fit in the moving truck, we made it to the original Super 8 in Aberdeen (yes, we actually stayed there!).

After a good night's rest, we got up and met my apartment manager at my building and found out that we could move all of my things into my apartment, but unfortunately we couldn't inhabit them just yet.  Hopefully we will be able to live there starting on Tuesday though, which is good news, and I can take the rest of the week to settle in and unpack before starting work on the 12th.  Which leads me to my explanation of no photos of the new place, because everything was quite literally thrown into my apartment and left that way, not to mention some of my appliances weren't even installed yet.  But I can assure you, it is beautiful!!  I am in love with my kitchen (big surprise) and the floors, fixtures, etc. are very pretty.  Once everything is in its place, I promise I will share!

Moving in went pretty well, but I have to admit, I am definitely not as strong as I'd like to think I am.  My mother however, and thank goodness, is.  I was continuously impressed with her resourcefulness in how to move certain items (big thanks to Duane Vosler for telling my mom an easier way to move a mattress - I never knew it could be that easy!!) I also have to praise my mother for very patiently explaining to me how to lift/carry/move many things as my brain does NOT work that way.  I'm not saying it all went smoothly, but there weren't too many bumps in the road.  One particularly funny exchange came when we attempted to move the couch very near the end of the day and were thankfully rescued by my neighbor and his friend who took over for us.  It went a little like this....

(after trying to explain to me how to lift this darn couch...and me muttering something under my breath)
Mom:  "What?  If you'e worried about your face just take your sunglasses off!  what are you worried about your face for??"
Me:  "I'm not worried about MY face, I'm worried about YOURS!!"
Mom:  "What?! Why are you worried about my face?!"
Me:  "Because I'm about to punch you in it!!!:
(uncontrollable laughter ensues, ending with me in tears from laughing so hard and my mother unable to pick the couch back up -- enter very helpful neighbors).

With that I'll leave you with a sampling of some of the songs that were on my Move to Aberdeen playlist for the drive up (there's over 10 hours of music on the actual list).  Unfortunately some of the songs won't play the whole thing or might not show up (one area of blogging I'm still learning), but let me tell you about those.  "End of the Road" by Matt Goss is a great song one of my college roommates introduced me to via the TV show So You Think You Can Dance? It is one of my favorites so please if you get the chance, check it out!  Rascal Flatts' "No Reins" is a little known song from a couple albums back that I have always liked but particularly embraced this go around, and "Ride of Your Life" by John Gregory is absolutely a great song about being ready for a new adventure and for life to take turns you never expected.  Enjoy!!

(p.s. bonus points to anyone who can identify the song from which the title of this post was taken!!)