1 week

If you're keeping track, it's been a week since we fell in love with that cute little yellow house in Iowa! The biggest news to report is that we made an OFFER!!! Sadly the builder is out of town so we're having to wait a little longer than our realtor anticipated to get a response. We're trying to be patient!

Mike is wanting to start work on Friday 3/9/12 so we're hoping to hear something quickly so he can make plans. His company said they offer temporary housing on a case by case basis, so that may be an option, but ideally he wants to move into the house early while we're waiting to close.

Isn't this all just so crazy? Man oh man! How things change in a blink of an eye!!

I made things official this past Wednesday with my employer. I gave my boss an unofficial heads up before leaving for Iowa last weekend since there has been a lot of turnover recently and they are busy with interviews - wanted to make sure if they found someone great they liked they knew they would need one more person! Anyway, it feels good that more of my coworkers know, as well as HR! It's funny to see how word spreads - people randomly approached me last week saying "I hear we're losing you!". Word travels!

My last day at work will be 3/30/12! After spending time in Quad Cities and discovering how much we love the area, I considered pushing up the move to get out there faster, but this felt right / honorable. So! End of March it is. We're still working out the details with the movers for when I will move. Mike will be working 12 hour shifts, 3-4 days in a row, and then have a few days off. We want to plan to have the movers arrive when Mike is off work so he can help with everything, but we won't know his schedule until he gets out there. I'm also hoping Mom will drive out with me and help get things settled, and then fly back to Cincinnati - so we also have to coordinate this! More patience and waiting for things to fall into place!

Think that's about it for updates! Hopefully we'll hear something this week!!

P.S. We created a new blog link with "Places to Visit" in the QC area! Take a look!

Day 3 + local food

Day 3 in Iowa and I'm pretty sure we're in love. Iowa, I apologize for prematurely judging you and thinking you were filled with country and Walmart and nothing else. So not true!!! Actually I don't even think I've seen a Walmart! Based on recommendations from the realtor and Mike's future coworker (we had dinner with his family! so fun to meet people!) we've been eating our way around Iowa!

Saturday night we crossed the river to Rock Island, IL and went to Blue Cat Brewpub for dinner. Good beer, laid back atmosphere! We even saw a guy with a green mohawk! I never knew I could be so excited by this!! Culture! We also saw an advertisement for a GLBT movie night! Good sign for an open minded area! It was super easy to cross the river - like 10 minutes, maybe. Easy. And there are other cute looking places that we'd like to go back to!

Yesterday we had lunch at Hungry Hobo - a local Subway type place. It was delicious and we'd definitely go back, and likely take you there for lunch when you come visit. You are going to come visit us, riiight? :)

Last night we had dinner with Mike's future coworker and his wife and daughter. They took us to Front Street Brewery in downtown Davenport. A great family place and good beer again!

This morning we went to the favorite local breakfast joint called Village Inn for a late brunch. After brunch we drove by what I hope is our future house and drove around the subdivision and stopped in the library near by. All positive! Then tonight after going back to the house to do a more thorough inspection with the realtor, Mike and I went to Moline, IL for an appetizer and beer at Bent River Brewing Company! All of these local breweries! It's awesome!! We did a sampler and tried their 8 beers - including a strawberry and a jalapeno beer!

L to R:  Dry Hopped Pale Ale, Jalapeno Ale, Strawberry Ale, Uncommon Stout, Oatmeal Stout, American Wheat, Pale Ale, Mississippi Blonde

We ended the night at the best rated sushi place (called Osaka) according to Best of Quad Cities. It was very tasty! Another pleasant surprise! And now I'm officially stuffed and thankful for pjs!

Back to Cincinnati tomorrow! It's been a great few days! Life changing even. I guess there have been a lot of those recently!

new house?!

Today we saw a house that we both absolutely fell in love with! It's a 4 bedroom, 3 bath with basement, fireplace and a deck!! Time will tell how this pans out, but I'm hoping to be living here in a few months!!!! At minimum, it's exciting to have a new favorite with great possibilities!! (I'm excited!!)

Stay tuned! :)

Day 1 completed. Next up, day 2!

Good morning! Day 1 of house hunting down, getting ready to start day 2! Yesterday was a long day. It was very exciting though! We saw 8 total places. 1 apartment, 6 homes for rent and 1 house for sale. Unfortunately a lot of the homes for rent were in poor condition, dirty and "not right" for us. We saw a 70s home that had an in ground pool and a cabana bar outside. Hmm. A lot of other strange design choices - like a mini closet 4-5 ft off the ground inside of a regular closet that had a carpeted bottom - which makes us think it was on purpose! Anyway, weird things.

We went into this weekend knowing that if we rented a house, it may not really be "our style" but it could meet our needs. As of now there are 2 places left in the running - the home for sale and another home that could either be rented or purchased. Today we are going to see 2 more houses for sale to give us a better comparison.

As far as what we're looking for, we both ideally want at least 2 bedroom, 2 bath. A garage, basement and fireplace are also high on the list, but negotiable. I also am interested in a bigger kitchen with more storage as our current place is challenged in that department, and a master bedroom that fits our King size bed plus other furniture would be helpful too!

The realtor drove us all around the area and gave us a bunch of food and bar recommendations! I think both Mike and I were pleasantly surprised by how much the area has to offer!

I confessed to the realtor that I conjured up an image of Iowa based on our experience in Daleville, AL! I took the small, country town feel of Daleville, and made it cold and snowy and that's what Iowa was to me! Now that I've spent a little more time in the city I realize how unfair I was to dear Iowa. There are parts that certainly have more of a country feel - but that's where we are, and that is a lot of the industry, so it just makes sense. But as far as businesses, we have more of a selection than Bojangles and Taco Bell for dinner, and there is a grocery store (that isn't a Walmart) close by.

It was entertaining to me to see all of these familiar stores that we never frequent, but just seeing them and knowing that they are in town was comforting such as Wild Birds Unlimited, Pier 1, and Edible Arrangements to name a few. We saw at least 2 Panera and 4 Starbucks + a bunch of small name coffee places! Shopping looks good too! I won't be forced to drive to Chicago to get my shop on! The mall has most of the familiar stores I frequent and some new department stores as well! The department stores are Yonkers, Dillards, Sears and Von Maur. The realtor told us that Yonkers is a chain of Macys! Who knew! We also saw a Kohls, TJ Maxx and Marshals! So yes, the town is a "real town" and has stuff to offer! Phew.

Which brings us back to the house hunting! Originally we had it in our minds to rent. We desperately want more space which is why we were looking into rental homes instead of apartments. Because we've never lived in Iowa it's hard to tell how we will like it - which is why renting seemed "more safe". Based on what we're seeing and hearing - the town has a variety of different festivals, and one kicking St. Patty's day celebration, apparently - this could be completely doable and could be our home for longer than the 2-3 years I told Mike I'd be willing to "try" Iowa!

Alright enough rambling! Must get ready for day 2!

A New Chapter

Well it certainly has been a long time since I've visited this blog!! While Mike was on deployment it was more enjoyable for me to spend time over here, caught up in fashion and the like!

But now - big things are happening in our personal life, and it seems only fitting to revisit the personal blog.

Right now, as I type I'm sitting in a bed at a hotel in IOWA! What the freaking heck!? It's true. We're moving to Iowa! (I still haven't figured where to appropriately add the emphasis to make it sound especially Iowa-ish. Thoughts?) In case this is new news to you, my husband accepted a job in Iowa! And I said yes. Heck - I followed him to Alabama, why not pick another completely random state I never had any idea I'd ever step foot in, and move there!! I kid, but the pattern is kinda funny. I sure do love this man of mine and am actually quite excited about this move!

At some point - perhaps around the deployment, we realized that when Mike came home, if the opportunity presented itself, we'd get away from Ohio. Many couples, our parents included, have told us about how "great it was for their marriage" to get away from home. Hopefully they don't regret sharing this, because we. are. moving. to. Iowa!

So I mentioned I was in bed at a hotel in Iowa. This morning a realtor that is associated with Mike's new company is picking us up and showing us various rental homes and condos! She is also going to give us a tour which will be incredibly helpful! (This is my first trip to Iowa, remember.)

Here are a couple of pictures of our adventure so far! Stay tuned for more!

 Quick stop at Friendly's before getting to the Dayton airport!

 all smiles!

 the first of many, I'm sure!

 serious about John Deer here!

go Hawkeyes!

Wish us luck today!