Living in TN - Move in!

Andy and I officially left Minnesota on Thursday, March 4, around 8:30am or so. As my mom mentioned, this is the second time I've moved out of Minnesota. I thought it'd be a bit sadder to leave the state I've spent so much time in, but I think the stress of packing and loading was so much that it felt good to leave all that behind. I might be sadder later, but I'm not sure. I think this move was a good decision and at that time, I was excited about the new future that lay before me in Tennessee.

We spent our last night in Minnesota on an air mattress in the living room, so when we got to my parent's house in Indiana sleeping on Tony's bed was heavenly. I've never slept in that bedroom before. Friday morning my dad roused us and we were up and at 'em early. Mom and I took to my car and Dad followed Andy in his truck loaded with more stuff.

Mom and I arrived in Smyrna ahead of Andy and Dad. Our first task was to make sure the water got turned on (which, thanks to a helpful person at the townhouse, it was on). After that we headed over to my new home.

We live in luxury now compared to our small house in Minneapolis. It seems as though each place gets better and better. I graduated from living in a closet, to having my own big room, to having my own house to now, an even bigger house! We have a gigantic kitchen, which is excellent for Andy and I to start cooking. I actually got annoyed at first because when I pulled a bowl out of the cupboard, the cereal wasn't just right at my fingertips. I had to walk across the kitchen to get my cereal. That's just ridiculous.

We have 2 bedrooms and both have walk-in closets. The guest bedroom closet even has it's own window! I laid down in my closet, just because I could, and there was extra room. Andy and I both have our clothes (dressers included!) in one closet.

Then there's the weather. It's fabulous here! When we moved, I couldn't get a flower pot out of the ground because it was frozen. Here, I planted a strawberry bush yesterday! I've put our winter coats away and last night on a walk, Andy actually wore shorts. It got up to 70 degrees! This afternoon, it rained! Rain is what happens when snow is unthawed. I know it's probably going to be super hot and humid this summer and I'll be eating my words, but for now, I love being outside and having the windows open.

I'll update more later!

Under the Tennessee Sun

Andy and I are moving to Tennessee on Thursday. We will lay over at my parent's house that night and roll into our new lives on Friday. We'll be living in a 2 story townhouse in Smyrna, TN; which is just south of Nashville.

I'm excited for a few things. The house that we're renting has more square footage of living space than our current house. It has 3 bathrooms! Right now we have 1 tiny bathroom. The guest bedroom has it's own bathroom, as does the master bedroom. Both bedrooms have walk in closets! Right now, Andy and I each have 1/2 a closet in separate rooms. The kitchen is huge and has tons of cabinet space. And that's just stuff I'm excited for about the house.

The area of Tennessee that we're moving to looks really pretty, and it will be near mountains. There's lots of places near by for camping, hiking and even canoeing. The weather will be miles nicer there than in Minnesota. When we get there, the LOW won't even be below freezing. I'm going to throw open the windows and breathe fresh air.

Since we'll have a townhouse, we can't do much gardening. So we'll take up what space we can on our little back patio for container gardening. Maybe we'll have a tomato plant and some basil. We can go to the Nashville Farmer's Market this Saturday when we get settled. I don't have a Tennessee job yet, but that's my focus once we get in and get settled. My temporary job is to unpack, cook dinner and find a job.

About a year or so ago Andy and I were talking about our plans for the future. We wanted to move within 2 years from that point and start seriously searching the January after we got married. Nashville isn't Portland, but it has a lot of what we're looking for. I'm excited that we're accomplishing such a big goal. We can get settled into life down south and maybe buy some land to have a big garden and some chickens.

I will update more once we get down there and start feeling more comfortable. Here's to new and exciting experiences!

Moving can't be that hard, or no one would do it.

Out and About

Andy and I have recently joined a club, the Twin Cities Bicycling Club. It's a lot of fun. So far we've only gone on 3 rides, but it's been a great time. The first ride was a bit slow, but the second ride we went on last weekend was perfect! We went on the same ride again today and I learned a good lesson about the speed at which I ride. The thing about this ride, is that the group is large and it tends to split up into a few groups going at different speeds. Last week we stayed in the back bunch at went between 14 - 16 mph. This week, Andy wanted to keep up with the first group going the fastest. I can't ride as fast as Andy, but I still tried. I was sort of able to keep up with the group as they did their warm up of 20 mph, after that I was toast.

After awhile Andy was dropped from the fast group and we maintained with the middle group. I was pretty tired though. Andy determined that I do pretty good until 17 mph, then I fall back. It'd be neat if I could keep up with the fast people at some point. Right now, I know what pace I can ride at and I will try and keep up to that. Usually when I ride I'm pretty poky, so I know I can pick up the tempo if I want.

Also today Andy and I visited the best bike shop in the Twin Cities, Freewheel Bike. I've thought Freewheel was a great shop and the place I felt most comfortable, but today really solidified that feeling. A couple years ago Pete (from Ireland) got me a gift card from Freewheel, which was really store credit. I didn't use all of it up, but kept my receipt which showed the $9.52 I had left over. Today I went to Freewheel to make some purchases and I remembered I had that receipt, but I wasn't sure if it'd still be valid. So after we shop around a bit and make our picks someone from Freewheel approaches us to check out and I show her my faded receipt from 2007. She recognized it was her handwriting that marked how much I had left and honored my $9.52! It was great, I couldn't believe either!

Freewheel is great for many reasons. They have awesome customer service, they're friendly. They know and love bikes without being pretentious about it. I'm the type of person that doesn't have a type of person, so I feel weird when I don't fit in somewhere, like many bike shops in the Twin Cities. But at Freewheel, I don't feel uncomfortable, I feel welcomed. Not to say other bike shops are bad, but that Freewheel is awesome.

Anyway, off of the bike topic. The garden is doing great. We've harvested all of our bush beans and our crazy pole beans have finally flowered. I made a delicious dinner last night with tomatoes, summer squash, carrots and thyme from our garden. It felt good to eat all that and know we grew it ourselves. Plus it was tasty.