Brief Absences

Things have been pretty busy on the home-front and so any absence of blog entries is due to the setting up of house, running errands, and endless cleaning and cooking.

True, we moved in over three weeks ago but it seems to take a lifetime to get anything accomplished (it is also difficult to get big projects done because Justin works a lot - and thankfully so since I am still unemployed, however there are some tasks that simply can not be completed be one.)

A few weeks ago I took up the daunting task of painting our bedroom while Justin dealt with the morning crowd at work. While the bedroom isn't the biggest room in the apartment it was still a lengthy and strenuous procedure that left terrors in my mind about trying to tackle painting the living room and dining room as well.

After finishing the bedroom, that technically could still stand a third coat of paint, I waited until the muscle of this couple had a few days off so that we could face the largest room(s) of the apartment together.

We finally found the time early this week and swiftly got to work. Even with two people the room(s) still took two days and three coats of paint. We are happy with the results even though the job left us battered and bruised. I think I have counted four blisters on my hands thus far.

We also happily received a free dining room table whose previous owners were Justin's grandparents. This was very much appreciated since we had been dining set hunting for a while now and had been eating on the couch in the meantime. Unfortunately the chairs didn't survive and so we'll have to track some down elsewhere. Did I mention how hard it is to put a home together?

("secret garden" dining room and new table)
("secret garden" living room)

Admittedly, the colors of both bedroom and living/dining room are fairly similar, which wasn't our exact intention, but we will live with the yellow-based apartment just the same. Anyway, now that the painting has been completed we can begin to be a little bit more serious about putting the rooms together. There are still several boxes that are unpacked and countless things to organize and rearrange. Moving is a very long process.

The Big Move

Technically "the big move" occurred well over two weeks ago, however the internet just arrived yesterday and all blogging was forced to wait until a more convenient date (i.e. today.) Unfortunately, all good stories (or should I say blogs?) are incomplete without a proper beginning and so before today can be discussed the issue of "the big move" must first be addressed.

Moving commenced bright and early on a Monday morning, specifically the Monday of August 31st. We dutifully packed up the rental truck the day before and hit the road by 6am Eastern Standard Time - I wasn't kidding about the bright and early part.

In the first day we (a caravan of the pictured van and my little Nissan Sentra accompanied by my parents, Justin, and I) drove through the entirety of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and part of Indiana. This was no small feat, in fact we drove for nearly ten hours on the 31st with only a few stops along the way. When the night started to fall we checked into a hotel in South Bend, Indiana which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is the birthplace of Notre Dame. Luckily school had either only just begun or was not yet in session so the little town was only mildly packed with tailgaters and students.

Day two (on September 1st) consisted of another early morning, this time a little less bright as the sun was still sleeping when we set out for the highway. The drive took us through the remainder of Indiana, part of Illinois and Wisconsin, and then finally to Minnesota. The scene outside the window was pretty predictable and mostly looked like this:

We stopped several times on day two, but mainly only to meet up with our old friend, Wisconsin Dells bear located at a gas station somewhere nearby. Only later did I find out that the bear is actually a ride car from the Minnesota State Fair, but that story is for another entry.

By the early afternoon we made it to Saint Paul, just in time to sign the lease and receive the keys for our new home which is located in one of the cutest and coziest neighborhoods that I have yet to encounter in the Midwest.
Previous to this trip I had longed to drive cross-country on a road trip. Little did I know how exhausting the whole ordeal would be or how monotonous the drive would seem. Still, it was an experience that I won't soon forget, early mornings, commuter traffic, and all.