The weeklong move to Avondale

Alright, here we go.  It's been quite the few days here in our camp.  We filled in all of the days last week with daily trips to our new apartment.  The Subaru was a champ and safely transported us and all of our belongings to our new home.  Although it was not time efficient, we saved a bunch of money doing it ourselves.  And, to be fair, Nick did most of the moving, heavy lifting, and all around strenuous activity.  I did the cleaning, organizing, packing, and a handful of trips up and down the stairs.  

Here is the photo montage of the moving week

Our car is great.  The top and back ends are so utilitarian! 

This week involved a lot of these faces.  "Uh, Nick, I'm not sure we can do this."

And a lot of this.  I decided to take the empty room opportunity to do some dancing with Arnie.   He was all about it. 

There was also a lot of sweat, as is demonstrated by Nick's back.  We didn't pick the hottest days of the summer, but it was pretty hot, truth be told.  

One last shot of our multi use, packed to the gills, car. 

And here we have our NEW kitchen, just as the unpacking was starting

Here is the kitchen today, still needs a lot of work, but is definitely live-able. 

We have a BIG pantry.  I am loving my mason jars of grains these days. 

I don't know if you noticed, but we have a WASHER/DRYER in the kitchen.   I have underestimated the joy of this treat for my entire life until now.  I love it. 

Here are the very beginnings of a dining room.   Still in need of some furniture, and a bigger dining room table.   I found a beautiful door with glass panels in the alley and someday, Nick is going to make it into a couture dining room table for us.  

The bathroom is not very exciting, though the tub doesn't move when I step in it, which is an upgrade from Pilsen. 

In our living room, Arnie is finally enjoying the rawhide that he's been burying in our pillows and under the rugs for a few days now.   And Nick is lounging on the computer.  We have a great big couch that is in Iowa that we can hopefully fit up the stairs and this room as well.   It will fit perfectly along the fourth wall. 

The living room has a great big fireplace (with outlets in the bottom where the wood would go) and a beautiful stained glass panel.  This warms the room up a lot, and adds some character. 

This photo does not do justice to our large bedroom, but you get the idea.  On the far left you can see the red IKEA dresser we got yesterday for me.  I am finally feeling a little more organized now that I have someplace to put my clothes.  

You might have noticed this contraption on the bed.  It is a SNOOGLE (thanks for the tip Kristina!).  The Snoogle has drastically changed my quality of sleep for the better.  I lounge with it, cuddle with it, and it elevates the right parts of my body.  Highly recommend for anyone that needs extra support while sleeping.

The last room, the one that's going un-pictured is the baby room (in 18 weeks) because right now it is just full of boxes and guitars and my giant 2 headed aloe plant.  

We need a more beautiful table cloth,  cozy curtains, and some furniture here and there, but for the most part, we are feeling good in our new place.  It has good energy, the neighborhood is friendly, and there are lots of trees.  Now, if only my transition back to work will go as smoothly.  I start back in the class tomorrow, organizing and planning.  A little bit nervous is an understatement.  I am definitely having back to school jitters 

Welcome to our world Subaru!

I apologize in advance for the brevity and simplicity of this post.  I have been sucked in to Americas Got Talent, and Prince Poppycock just got voted off.  I am not the only one, which makes it a little better.  Theresa, Nick and I are a trio of Macbooks, and we all keep glancing up at the tv when the screen lights up.  This is terrible. And embarrassing. But I sort of like it.

Anyway, here's the important stuff.

It's done, we are in love.  My sadness about buying a car and exponentializing our carbon footprint has dissipated and now that I've gotten the hang of the clutch and gas relationship, I love our Subaru.

Our car behaves so much better with a big hug.

Another important note: 

Dear Beautiful Bicycle, that has gotten me so many miles, I promise not to neglect you in the coming years.  My legs will continue to take me places, even if I allow 4 wheels to carry me across the country. 

 
On course for tomorrow: more grown up things like life insurance, life planning, and trial running a recipe for pumpkin energy bars, but for now (I mean when Americas Got Talent is over) we are going to open mic night at a local coffee shop/ bar (called Monks), just for fun.  This is one of the nice things about Dubuque, it's really easy be convinced to do things because there's always an element of newness.

Before we close it up for today, again, I am astounded by the kindness of people.  Nick's long time friends Ken and Ann Kemen offered to let us borrow XTRA large therma-rests for our trip.   We stopped by their house and chatted for a while today.  They are the sweetest people and thanks to them, we will be car camping in comfort.

 Thanks Ken and Ann!  This is a picture from our awesome Dubuque wedding party on July 31.  

And since I'm thanking people, today we jump drove 57 great photos from Gina and Paul Cesaretti, who documented our wedding party in Dubuque so well.  Thank you.  What a great memory, I met so many people, and now that we have pictures, I can practice remembering all of their names. 

Sleep tight!

HyVee, backyards and my cute boy who loves his truck :)

A blog that encompasses the time we spend in Iowa would just not be complete without significant homage to HyVee, one of the few places in Dubuque that offers bright lights, bulk foods, and mood lifting solace all in one, big, high ceilinged room.  Yesterday after we purchased our new camera for blog and life documentation (highly recommend the Sony DSC-W350, it has a 4x zoom and music!) we stopped at lovely HyVee to pick up some more whole wheat flour for making bread.  I have finally zeroed in on the right ingredient measurements and combinations (which include the highly technical terms "pinch" and "when it looks right") that produce great, whole wheat, flax and oatmeal breads.  Of course, I couldn't do this without the help of our handy bread maker, a wedding present that tops the list of most used gifts so far (thanks Jill and Dave).  But, the real reason that HyVee gets a mention in this blog is because the first time I visited Dubuque with Nick, it wasn't the great historical significance of the city that he waxed eloquent about, it was HyVee, where the aisles are wide, and people are nice.   

"HyVee, where there's a helpful smile in every aisle"

Also requiring documentation is the beautiful surroundings we've found ourselves in here in Iowa.  Theresa's backyard is really an oasis and we haven't taken advantage of it nearly as much as we could.  There is such a variety of plant life, and we have a little taste of home outside too, as the remainders of our house plants and Nick's propagation experiments have taken up residence on the back patio.   If you squint you can see some of the bounty of tomatoes we've been enjoying on the table: there is absolutely  nothing in the world like a home grown tomato, and we've been eating up tons of Theresa's, our bodies thank us for the vitamin C and lycopene!

Look at Nick's simultaneously cute and sad face as he says goodbye to his beloved truck; we are trading it in for some value to offset the cost of our new car that we're picking up tomorrow.  Don't uncross your fingers yet, there are still a few more little repairs that have to happen before we buy it.  By this time tomorrow, if all goes as planned, we will be part of the Subaru family!

Nick does indeed keep promising to write funny quips about this time in our lives, stay tuned.