Clueless from Texas???? (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Anoka: real estate, waterpark, neighborhood)

[Ms. Texas]

Hello I'm hoping that maybe someone can give me some advice on mn. I'm from texas and my family and I will be relocating to mn this late july-august. My husband has family in anoka where we will be staying until we explore more of minnesota. I have never been there and have been doing a lot of research of towns and areas to settle down with a family of four. Need some advice or input of what areas to look at. The economy in texas is kind of hard right now so my husband took a job offer in mn and although it is going to be a big change weather and all i look forward to something new other than texas heat and dead grass. How are the schools? Children are 3 and 6 yrs. What should i expect besides the cold weather? I just finished school for real estate so how is the market will it be easy to get a job up there? What is there for family fun? We are in our mid 20's but we don't go out to much every once in a while we have our date nights. Any suggestions and advice would be much appreciated.

[Ghengis]

Hi clueless and welcum to Minnesota. I kant speek much abut the curint skools becuz i dont have any kids. Howevur I wuz borne and razed hear and went to the skools and Im pretty smard. At leest I think iam. Im sur yor kids will be smard like me to.

[Ghengis]

Oh just kidding. Although I don't have any recent personal experience on education I believe that Minnesota typically ranks in the top ten in the US and generally scores higher than any other state in the Midwest. Lots of data out there but many different ways to be evaluated; cost/student, test scores, graduation rates, etc.

I have a general sense that the housing market has slowed it's decline and have a friend who is a realator that says closings are picking up. Probably a great time to buy if you have the financing.

The whole "ice-box" perception is vastly over-played I think and the two months of Jan-Feb bring the only threat of unbearable (below 0) temps. We frequently have mild temps of 50 degrees that occur right up to Thanksgiving and the inevitable warm-ups to above 32 begin in late Feb/early March. Piece of cake from there on out.

Minnesota has many activities for all ages and there are plenty of parks, rivers, lakes, pools, golf-courses, children's museums, theatres, festivals, county fairs, etc. to keep you and your family busy every day of the year.

[Double]

The winter can be cold in Jan-Feb, but kids don't seem to notice it. They are busy sledding, ice skating, building snowmen... It's all about the wearing the proper clothing, which I'm sure you will start seeing in stores around here in Aug-Sep.

What part of the state are you thinking about? That might determine what type of activities you will find. Overall, Minnesota is a great place for families. There will be no shortage of fun for you guys.

[Haver]

Search for posts in the Minneapolis-St Paul forum by golfgal about schools, she's the most generally knowledgeable about each. She is also the forum moderator.

[golfgal]

To start, where will he be working-town/area not company. Once we know that we can start with places to search. Like others have said, schools are excellent, climate is opposite of Texas-trade your hot, hot summers for our cold winters-except that with the exception of a couple days you can still be out and playing in the snow unlike the 100+ temps in the summer there where you are cooped up all day .

[tindo80]

As a former Texan, the things you need to prepare yourself for are-

1. Winter...Yes, to folks that have been here a while, its not that bad...to Texans, it may as well be antartica. Granted, its only in the below zero area for 2 months a year, but honestly, its still cold for another 4 months a year comparably. The summers are hotter and humider than most people expect. In other words, about normal for northern/eastern/southern texas (but not western texas).

2. Food choice. Get used to eating at home. MN does not have half the fast food choices Texas does, and to be fully honest, does not have much of a decent restraint scene either. The scene that is here is mostly taken from other places and transplanted. Decent Mexican food is nearly impossible to come by. The same goes for seafood. There are an interesting number of chinese/japanese/korean food places though.

3. If you are moving to Anoka, there are plenty of amenities there. A massive outlet mall, movie theaters, costco, anything else you can think of. Traffic is a little sucky though, but thats everywhere in the twin cities. The people here drive H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.Y! Just had to spell it out for you.

If you want to live in a younger, more tendier neighborhood, look to south minneapolis or uptown or downtown.

School wise, there are few that arent very good. One trend here thats different is that with a few exceptions, the older or more socio-economically diverse/working class public schools manage to do much better than the wealthier suburban public schools in college attrition. I dont know why that is, but its worth considering. MN overall is significantly higher in reading, writing and math learning for its public school graduates than Texas, which if memory serves correctly is near the bottom 5 states in those fields.

Family fun? Well, theres the MOA park, the waterpark of america, valleyfair amusement part, the parkways, and countless community centers (well funded ones).

Good luck!

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by Ms. Texas

Hello I'm hoping that maybe someone can give me some advice on mn. I'm from texas and my family and I will be relocating to mn this late july-august. My husband has family in anoka where we will be staying until we explore more of minnesota. I have never been there and have been doing a lot of research of towns and areas to settle down with a family of four. Need some advice or input of what areas to look at. The economy in texas is kind of hard right now so my husband took a job offer in mn and although it is going to be a big change weather and all i look forward to something new other than texas heat and dead grass. How are the schools? Children are 3 and 6 yrs. What should i expect besides the cold weather? I just finished school for real estate so how is the market will it be easy to get a job up there? What is there for family fun? We are in our mid 20's but we don't go out to much every once in a while we have our date nights. Any suggestions and advice would be much appreciated.

Where did your husband take the job? ...commute time is probably going to dictate where you live. Anoka is a suburb of Mpls-St. Paul. Areas and schools, activities, restaurants, etc. are going to vary depending on where the location is. Minnesota is pretty large, but even smaller communities will have something to offer, and sometimes depending on what you are looking for...more...

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

Hi clueless and welcum to Minnesota. I kant speek much abut the curint skools becuz i dont have any kids. Howevur I wuz borne and razed hear and went to the skools and Im pretty smard. At leest I think iam. Im sur yor kids will be smard like me to.

I think I am actually 100% stupider after reading your post.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by knke0204

I think I am actually 100% stupider after reading your post.

what i love is you say "i think im smart"


hahhahahahaha, hahaha, hahha, hahah, hahhaha, hahah


hhahahaha


ahahaha

ahhahaha,

you cant even spell more than 2 words right, how could you possibly think you are smart. you are retarded at the very least!