Life in Iowa City

Iowa City Area Development

This past month-our first month in Iowa City-has been too perfect. God definitely led us here. I've been working from home part-time, and have been lazy about getting a second job. However, I have applied to be a "Donut Artist," a cashier at ALDI and a baker/cashier at K-Mart. Please pray that I could get a nights and weekends part-time job!

I love being at home during the day. But I'll be a little honest with you, being at home all day with Bryan is a little overwhelming at times. I love my husband a whole lot, but we are not quite used to having so much time together. Let's just say, he's out inspecting apartments this morning, and I'm very thankful to have time to myself.

I'm currently reading this book, called You Are What You Eat and Miranda and I watched Food, Inc. the other day. Between the book and the documentary, I'm seriously challenged to start thinking more about what we eat. While I can't make any drastic changes to our diet if I want to stay on a budget, but I think I'm going to start shopping at my local Farmer's Market, and move forward on my plans to plant a garden next summer.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE these people?
Clint and Miranda Robinson-we love you! Miranda and I lived together way back when. Today, we hang out pretty much every day, are trailer park neighbors, and are going to lead a group of Salt girls together this fall. Bonus: our husbands are awesome friends too! I call us the perfect storm of friends. We get along too well together.

My awesome cousin Lauren also lives in Iowa City and I've loved reconnecting with her. We're only seven months apart, so we were always together when we were kids. Lauren is the one teaching me how to knit! She and her awesome husband Lee had this freaking-adorable baby back in December, and I have the pleasure of being his personal nanny every time they need me to! Here is Louis Cosmo Willberg in all his cuteness:
Are you kidding me with that smile? Love him!

Our house trailer has been filled with people ever since we moved in and I wouldn't have it any other way! Sara stayed with us the day after we moved in (she was so awesome about the boxes EVERYWHERE!). My brother Mark's future roommate here in Iowa City got a job and needed a place to stay, so Corey has been living with us for the last few weeks. I'm glad we've had the chance to get to know Mark's roommate-Corey is awesome!

My kindred spirit/best friend has already come to visit me-I'm so blessed by her! Audrey and I enjoyed one of my favorite places in Iowa City so far, Artifacts. We also got to see where her brother Collin is living this fall.

My dad also visited last week and I got to go our to lunch with miss Valerie Allen this past tuesday!

I'm blessed with so many awesome people in my life!

So many people are coming to Iowa City for Veritas. It's been so amazing and encouraging to meet the many people eager to see God work all the more in Iowa City. I'm so excited to get The Salt Company and Veritas Church up and running this fall!

Whew, that was a long post, but hopefully you feel a little caught up on our lives! I'm off to call one of my dear friends in Ames, Paige!

Gas Leak!

I've promised some stories, and I'm not about to let July get away before I share them.

One of the many things I love about our new home is that I have a gas-burning stove to cook our food on. I've never had a gas-burning stove and I'm definitely enjoying the difference it makes, albeit small.

The one thing about a gas burning stove is that it's actually directly connected to a gas line (I know, who would have thought?) thus increasing the risk of a gas leak.

About a week after we moved in to our new home something fell behind our oven. Bryan went on a quest to retrieve said item and pulled out our stove slightly. He was able to retrieve the item, but in the process, he saw this little gem:

How could we possibly pass up a darling little porcelain cow that doubles as a salt shaker?

Bryan made the obvious decision to pull the stove out further, so he could in turn fit his entire self behind the oven and retrieve the precious item.

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Yep, he ripped our gas hose.

As I could smell the gas from across our trailer in another room, I became worried at the amount of gas that was pouring in our atmosphere. Bryan thought quickly to turn the gas off as I opened the windows.

The next morning, we called Mid-American Energy to come and replace our hose and all was well. But our trailer smelled of those glorious gas fumes for a least a few days.

The joys of owning a trailer!

The best part of all of that, is that we received an adorable little cow salt shaker for the price of about $40 to replace our gas hose.

You may ask, was it worth it?

And I say, is that even a question? Look at that cow! : )

Guess who's knitting...

I feel a craft day coming on...

My brother Mark got me some heavy duty thread for free the other day:

And then I had a dream about doing something like this:

Yes. I do dream in good ideas.

StuffMart...Free Couch Giveaway!

Have you ever seen the Veggie Tale of Madame Blueberry? If not, I highly recommend it, even as a 22-year-old. This lesson is not just for kids, folks!

Before our IKEA trip, we made sure to check out this highly recommended consignment shop ("shop" is understatement, "warehouse" may be more appropriate) called Stuff, Etc. Let me just say, it was amazing. There was so much...stuff.

The entire basement was devoted to furniture, where we found a beautiful wingback chair for a great price and we also found two, completely different loveseats. We liked them both, and they were both only $50 each. We considered just getting one, but well, we got caught up in the moment. An impulse buy.

I've lived in this blessed country all my life, and I'm not immune to the defects we Americans have. We are a people who cannot live without instant gratification.

After spending $50 on a loveseat we're not even going to use, it made me consider how many times I use the following line, "Oh, and this was just an impulse buy." How much of our money is wasted on things I think I need in that one tiny window of emotional attachment? I don't even want to know.

And how fortunate am I that I have money in my bank account to afford such impulse buys, especially compared to rest of the world?

We are certainly blessed, and honestly, we tend to be on the conservative side when it comes to our finances. But we can easily convince ourselves that we need much more than we do.

That said, does anyone want a free couch?

IKEA & The Perfect Couch

Isn't she beautiful?

Bonus: The couch is comfortable too!

We went to IKEA on the Fourth of July and we found so many perfect things for our new home. We had a long list of things we needed, including a desk for each of us, and a bookshelf, among other things. Wanna see what we picked out? I thought so! I'll take pictures of out actual home soon, but there are still some things I want to finish up before the reveal on the world wide web.

First, the couch story.

We actually weren't planning on getting a couch from IKEA. We had just visited this consignment store in Iowa City called "Stuff, Etc." and we found two really fun loveseats (more on that in the next post). Originally, I was thinking our living room was small enough for two loveseats rather than couches, but once we got them inside, the one looked too small against our wall. I was slightly bummed, but we also decided it was for the best. So we were looking for a couch, but not necessarily from IKEA.

But then, we saw the couch, it was with the 50 other couches on display at IKEA. But we knew, this was a great couch. (Ok, so I'm over-dramatizing a bit) But, really, I feel in love with it. It was comfortable (not all IKEA couches are super comfortable), it was fun, it was stylish, and it was not super expensive. Mostly, it was the perfect size for our living room and for welcoming people into our home and having people over!

On the downside, they had just sold out.

They usually have a lot in stock, and they were going to get a big shipment in tomorrow. But we had already driven 4 hours to get there-to drive another 12 in the next 24 hours seemed disgusting but I was completely ready to do it for this couch.

However, the wonderful employee, Andrew, who was helping us suggested that we simply drive 24 miles north to the OTHER IKEA in Illinois. Bryan couldn't believe that there were two so close to each other. Andrew checked with the other store to make sure they had the couch and cover we wanted in stock and sent us on our way!

Once we got there, I quickly planted myself on the two boxes that held the last couch that was in stock until Bryan got a cart to push it away on-we got our couch!

If you endured that not-so-exciting story (sorry, it was more fun for me, and didn't translate well on paper), you deserve some pictures of the other things we picked out at IKEA. Without further ado:

Back to Blogging!

Consider this blog my comeback blog.

I love blogging, I really do! I know it hasn't seemed like it, as I've taken a little leave of absence for the past month. But really, truly, I'm back for good.

And if it gives you any comfort, nothing really exciting even happened in June. So there's not much to catch you up on. We basically spent the whole month packing, packing and packing. There is one downside to loving organization (as I do) and having slight OCD (as I have): I'm usually alone in my organizational endeavors, namely packing.

I did most of the packing myself, that is correct.

Don't get me wrong, Bryan tried to help, he begged me to help, and when I was exhausted enough to give in, I finally let him help. He's so patient with his crazy wife.

Anyway, we said our goodbyes to many of our friends, I got to hang out with all of the fun high schoolers I know one last time. We had our last "Family Fun Night" with my family. We played Killer Bunnies with our Connection Group Homies. And we drove to Iowa City for good on Wednesday, June 30th.

We welcomed our first guest to our home on Thursday, July 1st. Our house was still completely in ruins, but Sara didn't mind at all-she even helped us unpack.

Oh yeah, I also did most of the unpacking myself-why can't I give up control?! : )

We went to IKEA on Sunday, July 4th, and got the furniture of my dreams. Seriously, I love everything we purchased. And I loved the prices even more. Who doesn't love IKEA?

On Monday, we set almost everything up, and it took THE WHOLE DAY. I did not expect all of that build-it-yourself furniture would take so long to build-it-ourselves! Maybe we're just extremely pathetic. That, or we got too many things at IKEA.

This post is already getting long. So I'll leave you in suspense for the following posts:

• Our trip to IKEA, and what we would do for the perfect couch.
• Our new favorite store in Iowa City, and a Veggietale Lesson
• I feel light-headed, is that gas I smell?
• Termites! Oh wait, that's just an Ant eating through the wood in our cupboard. What?!