So, first off, let me just say I really hope that this ends the snowy pictures for awhile! Colorado is slooooooowwwwlllly climbing out of the grips of winter and into springtime. However, as of the time I took these pictures (about a week ago) we had a fresh dusting of snow on the ground.

Sorry if I'm bringing down your springtime groove. Us mountain folks always have to wait a little longer for the green to show up.

However, I'm not going to be 'mountain folk' much longer.

Soon (three weeks from today, to be precise) I will be driving down this road for one of the last times to head to Minnesota, the land of milk and honey, our past stomping grounds and future home. The whole gang and I will be there for a couple weeks, doing a little -- no, make that a lot -- of job hunting. Then Mr. Blue Eyes will return to Colorado and I will stay on with the kids to continue the hunt.

Hopefully, if Mr. Blue Eyes has any luck finding a job too, we won't have to separate for long. We're just no good at that.

But, hey, I figure that if military families can make the sacrifice of being apart for months or longer, we can handle a few weeks, especially if it is for the good of our family overall.

In all honesty, sometimes I'm hugely overwhelmed by the changes that will be taking place in the next few months. It's going to be a many-layered process.

When we moved to Colorado our lives were so much simpler, making so many aspects of the move, well, more simple.

Now we've got children, animals, and more stuff. And we're just older and that sense of wanderlust isn't driving us forward as much as it used to. We're sort of, like, adults now.

The other thing that gets to me is this: When we moved to Colorado, we knew that our families would be there to go back to. Even though lots of things are different than when we lived there before, our families have remained a constant in our lives and will continue to be, even more so, when we move.

However, leaving Colorado, we know that we're just never coming back here. I mean, we might come visit sometime, but we know that's not going to be possible all that much. And even if we did manage to move back here in fifty years when our babies are grown and we're living out our golden years, things will be completely different.

I guess this just feels a lot more like 'good-bye' than it did when we left Minnesota. Leaving Minnesota was more like a 'see you later'.

But please, don't tell anybody around here this. I HATE good-byes, so as a lady at church said to me the other day, I'm going to pull a 'Scarlett O'Hara' and think about it tomorrow.

Have you ever heard the phrase 'Minnesota good-bye'? It's when the good-bye is long and drawn out and you say 'good-bye' but then you keep talking and then you say 'good-bye' again and then it still takes another half hour to get out the door.

Yeah, that's not me.

I'd rather just slip out the back door quietly.

But sometimes it's important to say good-bye. Sometimes it's important to tell people how much they've meant to you.

This is one of those times.

Darn it.

Luckily, I don't have to say good-bye to all of you, because somewhere along the way I'll keep in touch and once we get settled in MN I'll have all kinds of farm photos and such to make this site what it is really meant to be, a journal of farm life.

A few weeks ago when I talked to my uncle on his 90th birthday (and by the way, the man brings new meaning to the Minnesota/Norwegian accent... it was so awesome to talk to him!) he told me, the 'little girl' as he likes to call me, not to forget the way back to Minnesota.

I'll be there soon, and you can bet the farm that I don't need a map to get there.