For Real This Time

So I finally got the call yesterday... we close tomorrow at 11am! We are so totally stoked. Mike was like a little kid last night. Super hyper!!! Today the refrigerator arrives. Last night they said it would be between 9 and 11 that they would come and install it. Then as I walked in the door to the house at 9:15 they called and said unfortunately it wouldn't be until 4 or 5 this afternoon! I wasn't too happy. Fortunately I have awesome in-laws and they are going to go to the house and wait for the fridge people to come. :) I'm so excited to have a new refrigerator. Should hold lots of leftovers this holiday season. Let's hope the weather holds on this weekend so we can get a few things moved. That would be nice.

This is the week!

So this is the week we are supposed to close on the house. All I ask is that only good vibes be sent in our direction. We do not need the Walters Curse to rear it's ugly head! Well, off to work. Should be a great week with moving to close out the week.

Dogs

It's a nice cool morning this morning. I will work late tonight, so I have some time off this morning. I let the dogs out to do their business, one at a time of course. Emmitt did a good job. He went out did his thing, walked around the farm, and came back 10 or so minutes later. I let him in and Bingo (mom and Carl's dog) was out there with him all excited. So I asked Maddie if she wanted to go out and say Hi to Bingo. She went out and Bingo was just so excited! At the same time they got down on their front elbows with their butts in the air and tails wagging then attacked each other. Maddie proceeded to do her "crazy dog run" - it's a technical term for running like a mad dog around in circles multiple times. She is so funny! Ok, off to get things together for the bank. I'm excited to close on this house!

Weekend

This past weekend was great! It started out having Friday off! My good friend Abby and I went for a walk early that morning so I wouldn't be tempted to just go back to bed after Mike went to work. :) Afterwards, I went shopping around Eagle Grove for some gifts then up to Goldfield for doggie medicine. I was able to get some things done and picked up around the house... laundry, vacuuming, etc. Then I had to go to LIvermore for an in-home visit - so really I didn't have the whole day off, but mostly.

Saturday started wonderfully as well. Mike ended up working overtime, so we were up very early to get him down to Ames by 7. Then I headed off to Webster City to get a massage at 8. It was wonderful!! I hope I get to have another one soon :) Afterwards I wandered to the appliance stores in downtown WC to price out more refrigerators. We decided that's the necessity for the new house... not so much the OTR microwave or even the dishwasher.... those will have to come later. It's too bad these things cost SO much! I finally meandered home and Mom and I decided that it was just too dang windy and cold to work outside and we ventured off on a shopping day down in Gilbert and Huxley. Originally we thought we'd go to FD but there were some antique stores mom had found down south that sounded like more fun. So we met up with Mike after he got off work and continued shopping. Mom dropped us off at Mike's car and mike and I had a little date night.

We started off having supper out, which was crazy to do on a home game day, but we did it anyways. We went to Pizza Hut. Now, I NEVER complain about service, but I did this time and we got a free meal out of the deal. It was the worst service I've ever had. We weren't greeted when we came in, our seats were dirty, I had to get our own silverware, the food took forever, and they never brought Mike his drink back. I think there was more, but you get the idea. We finished up our night in Ames with a visit to Best Buy for printer ink, and we made a purchase we normally wouldn't, but since we had a free meal, we felt it was ok :) We bought Cars2. And it was pretty cute. At Lowe's we found our fridge on the clearance isle, so I think we're going to get that one. I feel really bad that we're not buying it from a local place, but we really couldn't afford not to get it. We'll hopefully be able to get our other appliances from the local stores. We got home around 11 or so and tried watching our move, but we only made it through the first 15 minutes or so.

Sunday morning we woke at 4:30 with the time change. So we watched our movie. We ventured up stairs, had some waffles and got chores done. When mom and Carl got home we went to an auction in Humboldt with my mom and bought some gardening tools, a hose real, and a clothes pin holder with the old style clothes pins. I'm very excited about that last one, because in our new place, I will finally have my clothes line I've wanted!! We made it back home around 4 and worked in the garden pulling more drip lines out until dusk.

I'm able to have some time to myself this morning because I'll be working a little late this evening. I really enjoy the flexibility of this new job. Well, I better run out and care for our chickens. HOpefully the ones in the tractor didn't freeze last night. It sure got chilly out.

Morning Off

One great perk to my new job is that my supervisor does a good job making sure that I flex my time when I work extra hours. This morning I am off until noon! I"m so pumped. I got to sleep in! Mike let me sleep in and he got his breakfast and lunch ready on his own. I LOVED IT!!! Me and the pups snuggled in until 8:30. We did chicken chores and played with the kitties. I did some dishes this morning and now its catching up on the computer/emails and some light cleaning :). Tomorrow morning we get to walk around with the current owner of the house we're trying to buy to see where the property lines are and where things are buried. Good times.

Face Lift

So I gave my Blog Page a quick face lift. It was so... brown. I am sad we aren't able to go see my friend Nikki get married out on the East Coast. So I chose a view of the ocean. Congratulations Nikki and Andrew!!!

Hello Fall

I figured I should probably write a blog today since it is my week "off" of work. There's much to be done this week! Re-packing things, getting the bank stuff all figured out, sell some of our chickens so we don't have to move all of them, do laundry, teach a class, run some meetings, take a class... wow that doesn't sound like a week off. :) Some of the pictures hopefully show how much work we have ahead of us before the snow flies! We invite all friends and family to come stay anytime ;)

Today I started out with getting the hubby out the door then watched the morning news with the dogs. In a bit I will bake cookies and cook the meal for my parent class then headed to Webster to teach. Tomorrow is mostly open just a few errands to run. Sounds like my father-in-law is able to help me fix Mike's dresser drawer... it has malfunctioned. I can't imagine why; it's never been moved. :)

It's hard to believe that the summer is already over. Mike and I have lived in IA again for an entire year. Exactly one year ago today I started my job and CFR... my how things have changed in one year. We delivered our last CSA's yesterday - well my mom did in Des Moines. It sounds like everyone really enjoyed their shares this year and is looking forward to next year. I think it will be great to have it on our own farm. My husband has decided that we need to brainstorm a name for our farm. It has a beautiful valley view - which is a rarity in Iowa, aka the flat land.

Well, I'm off to go bake and cook. I love days like this with the fog and cool chill in the air... I think it's Chili making season

How time flies!

Life has literally flown before my eyes this year. I can hardly believe that we are nearly 1/2 done with our CSA deliveries and summer is almost over. Mike and I were finally able to sleep in our tent last weekend. I do hope that we are able to do that again. It was quite warm, but it was nice and peaceful. I'm glad to see that our politicians can pass something - I just wish they would settle on something sooner rather than always waiting until the last minute. Makes no sense. We still do not have contracts for our agency. They actually cut my position but rearranged employees so I could still have a job. Not the best option, but at least I'm still employed. Back to the drawing board for me and Mike and our future living arrangements. :)

I finally put up my pictures and diploma in my office so that's feeling more like my space. We've been doing a lot of cleaning out of files that we can now toss with the new fiscal year. One closet down, 3 more to go!

I had a great time last night in Fort Dodge with the National Night Out and Back to School Bash! There were a ton of kids and families there and they were able to make bookmarks at my table - stickers and everything! It was a good time. So glad the weather has finally cooled a bit. Mike sounded like he was enjoying it too today. Let's hope it sticks around.

Robins!

Mike and I were getting the trailer hooked up to the truck last Sunday and found a little nest. I asked if there were any eggs in it... Mike pulled it down and this is what we found

We figured it wouldn't be good to just put them back on the trailer so I placed the next in a nearby tree and hoped for the momma to find them. When I looked Monday morning while doing chores, the momma was sitting on her nest. YAY!

evening out

i had an amazing day yesterday. it was so what i needed. i spent some awesome time with some social work student union peeps. i miss these wonderful ladies and i am so fortun ate to know them. well need to board my plane.

tourist

i was able to take in some sights yesterday while al was working. im always amazed how much history is around me. here is some of what i saw.

breakfast

al and i just got back from the original pancake house in bethesda, md. it was awesome as you can see.

Washington DC

we made it safe and sound to dc yesterday. ordered in hotel food since everything was closed when we got in. sat in conferences all day and went out for supper. its a really great hotel on the potomac river... gaylord national conference center and resort.