There has been so much GOOD going on here on the Prairie. So, so much good. This week (and the next week or so) will more than likely set the tone for the rest of the year, if not our lives. [Note: I'm probably making this much more dramatic than it really is. Truly this is something that will be very awesome if it all works out. It's not some insanely wonderful change or plan of events, but rather just a few little nods we've really been needing.]
I can't say more than that at this point, at least not directly, but we have some very interesting opportunities that seem to keep falling into our laps. Our Taurus has started becoming more and more, well...unreliable, so we're working to getting another car. She died for a few days this week until we could get the parts for her to get up and running again. Her "death" was actually quite wonderfully spectacular, and made for a good story at work with customers, though anxiety was high.
Tim is at our friend Dan's wedding in Ohio this week, and while I'd love to be there I couldn't get the time off work I needed, and besides, one of us should be here to maintain the house.
So that's what's up in the Prairie. Summer has really hit and we're surrounded by trees and leaves and grass and lakes...not to mention lots of little babies for wildlife. It's wonderful. And gorgeous.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Spring has Sprung
Spring has finally come to our little place here, and while we like that the trees and grass are starting to turn green, we're not really enjoying the insane amounts of pollen in the air. It's making us both feel bad.
We have been living very quiet lives in the last few months, always managing to make ends meet, and living as best as we can. We are pretty happy with the way things are, though I always like to dream about what COULD be. We've been talking a lot about the state of things and we've realized a few very important ideas that we are doing, without even realizing it.
A few weeks back we were surfing Hulu and came across Dave Ramsey's show. We hadn't listened to him before, just because we didn't know/didn't watch his channel back in Chicago when we had TV...and we realized we had one of his books (wedding present from a friend's parents). We realized after reading parts of his book (and watching two episodes of his show) that we're already doing the things that he wants suggests. Honestly this is like the best sort of affirmation we can have here.
Tim has been driving more, which is a good thing, and hopefully he'll be able to get a driver's test date sometime this summer. He's doing really well, which is a wonderful thing and I'm hopeful that he'll be driving on his own within the year. :)
We are doing well, despite our silence the last few months. All is good, Spring has Sprung, and I'm glad that we're in the Prairie. It feels really, really good.
We have been living very quiet lives in the last few months, always managing to make ends meet, and living as best as we can. We are pretty happy with the way things are, though I always like to dream about what COULD be. We've been talking a lot about the state of things and we've realized a few very important ideas that we are doing, without even realizing it.
A few weeks back we were surfing Hulu and came across Dave Ramsey's show. We hadn't listened to him before, just because we didn't know/didn't watch his channel back in Chicago when we had TV...and we realized we had one of his books (wedding present from a friend's parents). We realized after reading parts of his book (and watching two episodes of his show) that we're already doing the things that he wants suggests. Honestly this is like the best sort of affirmation we can have here.
Tim has been driving more, which is a good thing, and hopefully he'll be able to get a driver's test date sometime this summer. He's doing really well, which is a wonderful thing and I'm hopeful that he'll be driving on his own within the year. :)
We are doing well, despite our silence the last few months. All is good, Spring has Sprung, and I'm glad that we're in the Prairie. It feels really, really good.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Very Merry
Ah, 2010. How quickly it seemed to creep up on us, especially since the last few months have been, at best, a blur of epic proportions. The "holidays" are done for the most part and we can pretty much just continue on and not worry about it. We actually had a really GOOD Christmas and New Year's Eve, and that's something that we are grateful for.
We hadn't planned on doing much of anything on Christmas at all, especially when the weather reports were saying things like 20+ inches of snow in 72 hours...but on Christmas eve, our friend Chris came in his SUV and told us to get ready and come over to his house since his mom had pretty much demanded we show up. So we went over on Christmas eve to our friend's house and ate some finger foods, had a few glasses of wine and had a few cookies. Later towards the end of the evening, we hooked up their St. Bernard up to a sled and ran up and down the road with him pulling people in it. The weather was perfect and it was probably the best night we'd had in a few weeks. Tim, Chris and I then drove around Lake Minnetonka (like we did on July 4th) and looked at all the prettily decorated houses. It was a wonderfully great evening. Tim and I got home, and slept.
About four in the morning we woke up and were unable to go back to sleep, so we got up and opened some presents. At around 7 or 8, we got tired again and slept for a few more hours. Who are we to make our internal clocks make sense? We woke up, showered and enjoyed our gifts, and then left for Chris' house again, since we had been invited over for dinner. We hung out with the sisters and Chris, and ate more cookies and delicious food. The temperature got to 34 degrees, and things started melting, which has resulted in a lot of ice on the back roads. It has cleared up a bit.
New Year's Eve was a pretty good party too. We went to Brady and Jason's house around 8ish, and there were already some people playing music and talking. I was DDing for the night, and was ready for anything. We played pingpong and talked and danced to some funky tunes in the back room and I drank soda all night, which was fine. We all watched the ball drop and kissed at midnight, which was fun and sweet. We finally went home around 1:30ish after dropping someone off home, and we both fell asleep.
We had a very merry season, and we are most definitely looking forward to a year of stability and promise. I know we have a list of goals and things we want to accomplish, and I think we'll make it just fine. Personally, I'm feeling really good about it.
We hadn't planned on doing much of anything on Christmas at all, especially when the weather reports were saying things like 20+ inches of snow in 72 hours...but on Christmas eve, our friend Chris came in his SUV and told us to get ready and come over to his house since his mom had pretty much demanded we show up. So we went over on Christmas eve to our friend's house and ate some finger foods, had a few glasses of wine and had a few cookies. Later towards the end of the evening, we hooked up their St. Bernard up to a sled and ran up and down the road with him pulling people in it. The weather was perfect and it was probably the best night we'd had in a few weeks. Tim, Chris and I then drove around Lake Minnetonka (like we did on July 4th) and looked at all the prettily decorated houses. It was a wonderfully great evening. Tim and I got home, and slept.
About four in the morning we woke up and were unable to go back to sleep, so we got up and opened some presents. At around 7 or 8, we got tired again and slept for a few more hours. Who are we to make our internal clocks make sense? We woke up, showered and enjoyed our gifts, and then left for Chris' house again, since we had been invited over for dinner. We hung out with the sisters and Chris, and ate more cookies and delicious food. The temperature got to 34 degrees, and things started melting, which has resulted in a lot of ice on the back roads. It has cleared up a bit.
New Year's Eve was a pretty good party too. We went to Brady and Jason's house around 8ish, and there were already some people playing music and talking. I was DDing for the night, and was ready for anything. We played pingpong and talked and danced to some funky tunes in the back room and I drank soda all night, which was fine. We all watched the ball drop and kissed at midnight, which was fun and sweet. We finally went home around 1:30ish after dropping someone off home, and we both fell asleep.
We had a very merry season, and we are most definitely looking forward to a year of stability and promise. I know we have a list of goals and things we want to accomplish, and I think we'll make it just fine. Personally, I'm feeling really good about it.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
One Year
Today marks one year since Tim and I moved in together, and a year (give or take a few days) since we got married. It's a nice thing, definitely. We've done so much in the last year, though I know that there is so much more we could do and could have done.
But one year on, we're having a great time. We spent the day relaxing together, which was nice since we often don't get days off at the same time, and the times we do see each other, it is either right as we get home/eat dinner, or sometimes just before bed. So spending a day together was really, really good for us. We wanted to go out on a walk, but the weather was rainy and very windy, so we just drove over to the mall and walked around there instead. We browsed books, shopped for new glasses (for fun) and looked at the terrible (and I mean, TERRIBLE) costumes at Spencer's Gifts. We never go in there, but I wanted to look at the costumes since I knew they'd be laughable.
After a while, we got coffee and tea at the nearby Starbucks and waited for our reservation at Biaggi's, an Italian place that we'd been told about by a few people. We got our table, ordered and had a nice, leisurely dinner and talked about the things we wanted to accomplish in the next year. It's a pretty small list, but I think we'll manage it just fine.
After dinner we went home and watched some movies, then read some library books. We've also been allowing ourselves to dream a little bit. For fun we've been looking at houses online, learning what we do and don't like. We've noticed one thing for sure: we definitely look for things that most people don't think twice about. We're weird that way.
I'm excited about what the next year has to bring.
But one year on, we're having a great time. We spent the day relaxing together, which was nice since we often don't get days off at the same time, and the times we do see each other, it is either right as we get home/eat dinner, or sometimes just before bed. So spending a day together was really, really good for us. We wanted to go out on a walk, but the weather was rainy and very windy, so we just drove over to the mall and walked around there instead. We browsed books, shopped for new glasses (for fun) and looked at the terrible (and I mean, TERRIBLE) costumes at Spencer's Gifts. We never go in there, but I wanted to look at the costumes since I knew they'd be laughable.
After a while, we got coffee and tea at the nearby Starbucks and waited for our reservation at Biaggi's, an Italian place that we'd been told about by a few people. We got our table, ordered and had a nice, leisurely dinner and talked about the things we wanted to accomplish in the next year. It's a pretty small list, but I think we'll manage it just fine.
After dinner we went home and watched some movies, then read some library books. We've also been allowing ourselves to dream a little bit. For fun we've been looking at houses online, learning what we do and don't like. We've noticed one thing for sure: we definitely look for things that most people don't think twice about. We're weird that way.
I'm excited about what the next year has to bring.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
New Place, Weddings and Other Such Things
It's been a busy few weeks here for us in Minnesota. We finally got enough money together to get an apartment of our own (thankfully it was reasonably close to our storage unit!) so we got to move out of our friend's house after about a month and a half. I am so thankful to them for all their help and support in getting our feet underneath us and moving forward. We are very grateful.
Our New Place is pretty awesome. It's a two bedroom place, about a room and a half bigger than our apartment in Chicago, on the third floor (no neighbors above us to stomp and scream, like we both have had problems with before). So we're still settling in, and it's been about a week. We are almost all done, and we're just gobsmacked about how much space we have. Before, we had almost none, and now we've got an excess of it. It's nice, but it makes me feel like I'll have to buy more furniture.
My cousin Jill got married to a wonderful guy last weekend, and Tim and I had the honor of coming up to see it. I'm so glad we took the time off to go, because it was an absolute blast. Before the reception and after the wedding we went for a walk down the Grand River, and while on a bridge we turned to look and suddenly we saw Jill and Jim taking pictures. Of course, being the oddballs my family are, we whistled and hollered and somehow got the attention of the photographer, and then we started waving like lunatics. I think the photographer took a few pictures of us waving at them, which I think is sweet and funny. I wonder if they'll turn out or not.
Not much other news. Just a lot of little things.
Our New Place is pretty awesome. It's a two bedroom place, about a room and a half bigger than our apartment in Chicago, on the third floor (no neighbors above us to stomp and scream, like we both have had problems with before). So we're still settling in, and it's been about a week. We are almost all done, and we're just gobsmacked about how much space we have. Before, we had almost none, and now we've got an excess of it. It's nice, but it makes me feel like I'll have to buy more furniture.
My cousin Jill got married to a wonderful guy last weekend, and Tim and I had the honor of coming up to see it. I'm so glad we took the time off to go, because it was an absolute blast. Before the reception and after the wedding we went for a walk down the Grand River, and while on a bridge we turned to look and suddenly we saw Jill and Jim taking pictures. Of course, being the oddballs my family are, we whistled and hollered and somehow got the attention of the photographer, and then we started waving like lunatics. I think the photographer took a few pictures of us waving at them, which I think is sweet and funny. I wonder if they'll turn out or not.
Not much other news. Just a lot of little things.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Jobs, Driving and other Adventures
Things are working out well enough here in Minnesota for us. I have a job working at a local bank, and Tim is in the process of getting a job at a retail chain store that doesn't deal with books.
I'm really enjoying my job, which is something I'm really happy to be able to say. I work roughly 20 hours a week, and I really love it. I have some cool coworkers and I'm starting to have my own social life and social circle. This is a wonderfully good thing for me.
This week was fun for us, as we have been working harder at figuring out our lives. Tim got his learner's permit this week, so yesterday I took him out driving for the first time. I drove to an empty parking lot and parked the car, then moved to the passenger seat. I let Tim basically drive around in circles for about 20 minutes, which was all I decided he needed to just dip his feet in the pool.
In a few weeks we are flying into Grand Rapids for a wedding (which we are pretty excited about) and to have some R&R, which I think we really need. Not too much else is going on with us, as we've been trying so hard to get our lives in order. Also, hanging out with family is good too.
Will update again in a few days/weeks.
I'm really enjoying my job, which is something I'm really happy to be able to say. I work roughly 20 hours a week, and I really love it. I have some cool coworkers and I'm starting to have my own social life and social circle. This is a wonderfully good thing for me.
This week was fun for us, as we have been working harder at figuring out our lives. Tim got his learner's permit this week, so yesterday I took him out driving for the first time. I drove to an empty parking lot and parked the car, then moved to the passenger seat. I let Tim basically drive around in circles for about 20 minutes, which was all I decided he needed to just dip his feet in the pool.
In a few weeks we are flying into Grand Rapids for a wedding (which we are pretty excited about) and to have some R&R, which I think we really need. Not too much else is going on with us, as we've been trying so hard to get our lives in order. Also, hanging out with family is good too.
Will update again in a few days/weeks.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Update from Minnesota
Basically, Tim and I left Chicago a little under a week ago. We've kept it under wraps until now (or rather, as much as possible) simply because we didn't have the time to explain it fully. We gave our notice at work, packed up our stuff and high-tailed it to Minneapolis, MN. And we did all of this in a little under 2 weeks. Between the first call (June 9th) and our last day of work (June 20th) we had done nothing but plan, pray and hope to God that it would work out in our favor.
We left Chicago with no jobs, no house and very few possibilities, however we've had people on the ground in the area looking for us and helping us with job leads. This has been helpful. The last week has been an absolute drain on us, and we're still recovering.
As it stands today, Tim and I are renting a room from a friend's parents for short term, meaning about a month or so until we get jobs and enough money for a deposit and such. Tim has a job interview this afternoon, so I hope he gets it. I have a good chance of getting a job at another chain bookstore in the same area. I'm handing in my application today.
The issues we're facing right now are daunting, but we are well equipped to handle them. We've been crashing on the floor of a friend's house for the past few days, and they have been legitimately surprised by our drive to Get Things Rolling and to move on and up. I don't think a lot of people really understood our decision to move here. I'll try to explain.
Graduating college in 2008 was going to be a struggle. The economy, while still not at choking point, was starting to tank pretty bad. Graduating college in Michigan in 2008, with the expectation of getting a job was impossible. I can count on one hand the number of people who had jobs starting after graduation. None of them were instate. This was one reason why we moved to Chicago. We had hoped that the Michigan Unemployment/Job Bubble stopped just short of Chicago, and that we'd get jobs. As you know, this was not the case.
So after a year of working part-time minimum wage, we had a choice, thrust upon us by the rental company. Sign a new year long lease, or get out. Since our jobs were ending in December anyway, we got out. Minnesota's unemployment rate, while still high, is actually under the national average, and there *are* help wanted signs in the windows of stores and places where people work. Now, they're not great jobs, but they're jobs.
So we're in Eden Prairie. Jobs, while not overly plentiful, offer us some more stability than what we have had in Chicago. Once we figure things out a bit more, we'll update again.
We left Chicago with no jobs, no house and very few possibilities, however we've had people on the ground in the area looking for us and helping us with job leads. This has been helpful. The last week has been an absolute drain on us, and we're still recovering.
As it stands today, Tim and I are renting a room from a friend's parents for short term, meaning about a month or so until we get jobs and enough money for a deposit and such. Tim has a job interview this afternoon, so I hope he gets it. I have a good chance of getting a job at another chain bookstore in the same area. I'm handing in my application today.
The issues we're facing right now are daunting, but we are well equipped to handle them. We've been crashing on the floor of a friend's house for the past few days, and they have been legitimately surprised by our drive to Get Things Rolling and to move on and up. I don't think a lot of people really understood our decision to move here. I'll try to explain.
Graduating college in 2008 was going to be a struggle. The economy, while still not at choking point, was starting to tank pretty bad. Graduating college in Michigan in 2008, with the expectation of getting a job was impossible. I can count on one hand the number of people who had jobs starting after graduation. None of them were instate. This was one reason why we moved to Chicago. We had hoped that the Michigan Unemployment/Job Bubble stopped just short of Chicago, and that we'd get jobs. As you know, this was not the case.
So after a year of working part-time minimum wage, we had a choice, thrust upon us by the rental company. Sign a new year long lease, or get out. Since our jobs were ending in December anyway, we got out. Minnesota's unemployment rate, while still high, is actually under the national average, and there *are* help wanted signs in the windows of stores and places where people work. Now, they're not great jobs, but they're jobs.
So we're in Eden Prairie. Jobs, while not overly plentiful, offer us some more stability than what we have had in Chicago. Once we figure things out a bit more, we'll update again.
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