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We're still waiting to hear if we've been approved for the house or not. Waiting is maddening, isn't it? I feel like I should be doing something. For example, we need beds. We decided to toss all our beds when we packed all our stuff into storage. They were old and worn, moved at least 10 times and dropped a couple of those times. Now, we need to purchase new ones. That would be something we could do today IF we had an address to tell the delivery guy...

In order to pass the time here are some of our pictures from the Badlands. The whole family loved visiting the Badlands. It is such an amazing place. Most of South Dakota is farmland. Pastures, fields of sunflowers, and fields of hay. It is a beautiful state, and I thoroughly enjoyed our drive across it. It was in Sioux Falls, SD that I heard my first snippet of the north-midwestern accent. We were sitting at dinner in the Olive Garden and I overheard our neighbor's speaking. "Do you hear that?" I asked Chris. He didn't at first, but I kept saying "right there~Hear it? Listen to her A's." Anyway, I really like the accent. I just like accents in general :) I sometimes feel gypped that I have no accent. I'm just your average generic American with no region accent. Ah well, I guess that's what comes from being an army brat.

Back to the Badlands...Petey declared that South Dakota was his new favorite state because he loved the Badlands so much. It is an amazing place, popping up in the midst of all those farms. Fossils are also scattered all over the place. There are signs everywhere stressing the importance of not removing fossils if you happen upon them. Leave them for scientists. Zack thought this was unfair, why do only scientists get to dig for fossils? I pointed out that when he's a famous paleontologist, he can come back to the Badlands and dig them up himself. That appeased him.



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Images of Iowa

We spent about half a day driving through Iowa and stopped in a dinky town for a gas fill-up. Here are some pics I took at the gas station. This and the next photo are from the old, closed down restaurant next door to it.

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We've been approved for the little cute house!! We get the keys on Friday. Wow, what a relief this is. Now we just have to buy beds, set up cable, internet, phone, gas, and electricity, figure out which school the kids go to and get them registered, find the church, and put in a change of address. Peice of cake.

Chris just told me he finds himself wishing he was back in China, where everything is familiar to him. I find myself wishing the same thing, but about Tucson. I wish I was back amongst all my friends, in my old neighborhood. I'm just tired of change. I thought college professors had settled, boring lives. How did I end up married to the one who tromps all around the globe?

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According to my calculations, I have traveled over 38,000 miles over the past 12 months.




This just shows my travels in the US, not to China.

Reptile Garden/Montana

I LOVE this picture of Zack and the tortoise. As we were driving through Rapid City, we knew we had to stop at the Reptile Garden. Actually, and this may seem awful, but we chose to go to Reptile Garden instead of Mt. Rushmore. We knew it would take less time and mean more to the boys at this age. We'll save Mt. Rushmore for when their older. I like the idea of having an excuse to go back to South Dakota. Back to Zack: he loves reptiles. He has been in love with them since he was a toddler...lizards, turtles, snakes...he just loves them. When we saw that it was ok to pet these tortoises, Zack just rushed right up to them without a trace of fear. He started scratching the tortoise's neck and it stretched its head up high just like a cat, enjoying the feeling of Zack's fingers on his skin. It was so sweet to see how much both the tortoise and Zack were enjoying each other.

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Sorry that it has been such a picture heavy day. It's just that I know in a day or two I'm going to be super busy and I want to try and get these pics up before I get distracted.