Thoughts on Our Iowa Life....So Far

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• Today I dried my jeans out on the clothes line in our back yard.  That felt very "Iowa" to me for some reason.  I will say, they dried faster than in the drier and smelled amazing!
• In one day I met three neighbors and found out the history of the house I'm living in.  In the 5 years I lived in my Chicago suburb house I met 1 neighbor.  Interesting to me...
• The woman who lived in our house 30 some years ago was a hoarder.  So all I can think of now is how this place use to be filled with garbage and who knows what else.  I told Jake if I see one roach I'm leaving and not looking back.  After living in NOLA with those God awful roaches I will NEVER again deal with them.  They haunt my dreams some nights.  Oh gosh now I'm freaking myself out about roaches again.  UGH! UGH! UGH!
• It's wonderful to live close by relatives.  I took Jackson to his grandma's house just to hang out the other night and it was so nice.  Nice to have someone to chat with.  Nice to let Jackson explore another house.  Nice to just know someone has your back (besides Jake of course).
• I hate that Jake is working 3rd shift.  It sucks so much, but we're dealing.  I cant fall asleep until midnight or later most nights, and don't even ask me to go in the basement when he's not here.  (Have I ever mentioned basements freak the you know what out of me!?!?!)
• Tonight Jackson got to go to his first class. It was at the library and he did great.  He clapped and got excited to see all the kids there.  I realized I haven't had a library card in a good 15 years.  But the library here is so nice and super close so I hope we make this class a bi-weekly event.  
• Our new house is squeaky.  I think every floor board makes noise, and the old windows sound like animals dying when you open them.  It's such a change from living in a house that was built in 1998 to one that was build around 1942.  We're still trying to find things and put things away.  It's hard when you own Ikea sized furniture and put it in a non-Ikea sized home.  Ikea is big and bulky and old homes have little walls, and rooms and don't work well with a lot of what we have, so it's been an effort to get things flowing in here.  I feel a garage sale in our future.  
• I'm having a better week than last week.  Last week was rough getting use to things, and the box mess from hell isn't as huge as it was.  So that is making things easier.  But I am SOOOO tempted to call Merry Maids up and just pay for a few people to come in here and super clean the heck out of this place.  It's so hard to do a lot with a 10 month old crawling at your ankles wanting your attention.  And this old house needs a little TLC in the cleaning department.  
• All in all, so far so good in Iowa.  It's still a huge adjustment, but things are getting better by the day.  I do miss some things from our old house and I miss KB terribly.  HI KB!!!  But we'll make this work for the best.

Our Life (as of late) In Photos

Packing up Jack's room and trying not to cry.

Our last meal out in our old neighborhood...also Jack's 1st balloon.  HUGE HIT!

Living with boxes is no fun.

Playing one last day in our old house.

The moving truck got RIGHT up to the front door.

Let the truck packing begin!

4 hours later...it was empty.

Our new {tiny} home.

Unloading the truck.

Tate was terrified of the new house, and hid in bed for 4 days.

The combine that my hubby will now be making.

Learning to climb.  Please excuse the crazy mess in the background!

Playing in the new living room.

Super sunny day for a stroll around the new neighborhood.

Watching the other kids play at the park, while I makes sure he doesn't fall off the little rocking car.

Our New Home

This my friends, is our new house.  Cute isn't she.  

After driving around, for what seemed like 1 million days, we found this little house on the last day we were in Iowa for the weekend.  It's a small 2 bedroom house that will be home for (probably) the next year.  

After looking for rental houses I have learned a few things.

1. The city we are moving to in Iowa does not have a lot of new houses for rent, unless you want to pay a ton, which we don't.

2. Houses in the area are small.  For instance we looked at one house that was 620 square feet.

3. Iowa has little roads.  Like narrow, and make me freak out that I'm going to swipe another car while I'm driving.  It's odd and I don't like it.  But I'll deal.

Now that we have a place to live, it's on to all the other tasks that come along with moving.  I'm already overwhelmed at how much crap we have in our current home, and don't know where we'll put it all.  Good thing we have a large basement in the new house, or else we'd be having a mega garage sale in February!  

The worse part about moving is that we have to find a new home for one of our cats.  If anyone in Iowa or Illinois would be interested in adopting our kitty, let me know.  She just doesn't get along with our other female cat and our new house is too small to keep the two apart.  It's so sad, but she needs a happier home.

Well, off to pack pack pack.  

Movin' on Over

Well it looks like the Ju Ju gods were on our side. 

After waiting for a week and a half for word, it's official!  Jake got a new job and it's in Iowa. So we're moving West!

This is a huge thing for us, and my mind is racing over what to do.  We're currently looking for a place to rent, finding movers (cause this girl doesn't want to do that part!!!) and making lists of what to do and get taken care of.  It's causing me to have very restless nights, but I know in the long run this is what's best for our family.  Jake is from Iowa so we have family where we are moving.  I know one grandma who is beside herself with happiness.

The hardest part so far was telling my dad that we could be moving.  I must be a real adult now cause when I moved to Louisiana when I was 20 I wanted to get moving as fast as I possibly could.  Now I'm a worrying mess.  How times change.

I am so excited about our upcoming adventure (cause that's what it's going to be!) but for now I'm a wreck as well.  

So for now stay tuned for our Illinois to Iowa updates.

Friday's Favorite Pins

I'm linking up with I'm a Nola Girl today for a little Pintrest love blog hop.

Lately Jack has been taking what I like to call EPIC NAPS.  During this time I get to scour Pintrest and lately I've found some great things and ideas.

Yellow bed frame

We have a black metal bed from IKEA and it is a great frame, but bor-ring!  I saw this yellow bed and thought I could totally spray paint our bed and make it something wonderful.  How perfect would it be for a room with gray walls and touches of yellow all around.  

Colored Chunky Frames

I love a big wall or a hallway filled with framed photos.  I mean love it!!  I saw this idea of using multiple colors and it just caught my eye.  I like how it brightens up things and is a bit different from your run of the mill white or black frame wall.  I like color...can you tell?

Embroidered Initial Necklace

And even MORE color!  I saw these and thought it was such a darling idea.  The different styles of letters is just perfect.  I cant get enough of these!

Paint Chip Heart Garland

I saw this project and nearly ran out to the store to pick up paint chips.  It's so simple it's insane.  I love bunting/garland anything and this is just so cute.  It would be the perfect decoration for Valentine's Day.

That's just a few things I've Pinned lately.  What have you been pinning?

Stuck In This Moment

(cute baby picture just because)

We're waiting.  Waiting to find out some news that could change everything for us.  

I feel like every day all day I wait for the phone to ring, with Jake calling to say it's a go.  Then at night I sit and try to sleep but cant because I think about all the things we'll have to do, people to tell, what others might say, problems that could arise, everything.

But in the end, it'll be what's best for our family.  It's a great opportunity for us, and it'll be a big change, but I think we're all ready for a big change.  We could all use a breath of fresh air.

I'm probably the least patient person in the world.  So, until we hear anything, I'll be the girl putting all plans on hold until we know for sure.

{Disclaimer}

1. It's not bad news at all...it would be GREAT if it happens.

2. No I'm not pregnant.

3. I started believing in ju-ju when this opportunity came about, and I cant stay it out loud or else it'll jinx us...I just know it.

New Obsession...Baby Food

(a very messy 1st spaghetti dinner)

My boy is a very good eater.  Like crazy good.  He started off slow with the rice cereal, but probably cause it tasted like crap.  So once we started giving him new flavors to try he just went to town.  It started slow with how much he would eat, but once the doctor told us to feed him three meals a day, it was on.

We had been feeding him lots of different flavors of baby food from the jar, and he did great on them.  But as time went on, and he was doing great at feeding himself puffs I thought it was about time to start some finger foods.  First we did bananas cause that seemed easy.  Then I thought sweet potatoes would be good and that went well too.  Then I did some Googling and wrote down some suggestions.  The number one suggestion turned out to be avocado.  

I bought one avocado and from then on, my boy was hooked.  He can eat it every day for every meal.  He loves it.

Once he had been eating the bananas and avocados really well, all I could think about was what other foods would he like and why am I buying baby food in the jar.  

Last week Jake and I went to the store and bought all the fruits and veggies we could get our hands on.  And so my obsession started.  One day I'm making him acorn squash, then next its papaya.  I cant stop myself.  I love making food for my boy. 

I've used all the Tupperware we have to freeze some food, and I cant wait to get to Buy Buy Baby to pick up some more baby food storage containers.  

Who would have thought that the girl who hates cooking most in the world would be crazy excited to cook for her son!?!

So, now I'm hooked on finding recipes for what he can have next.  Any suggestion?

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Kate Spade "Mrs." Necklace

Happy Holidays from My Boy!

So, for the first time in my life I am sending out photo Christmas cards!  I have been wanting to do this for  forever and now I have the cutest boy to put on our cards.  

I give you to you...our first holiday card!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...In Our House

We are just about done decorating our house for Christmas.  We still have the outside to do, which Jake is going to tackle this weekend (YAY).  Also, we are going out early Saturday morning and we are buying our REAL Christmas tree!  I'm so excited.  I haven't had a real tree since I was a kid because my sister was "highly" allergic to the tree...worst thing ever to a kid, let me tell you!  We stopped by the nursery last night to see how much the trees cost, and there were so many pretty trees I was in heaven.  I cannot wait to put one up in our house!  Hopefully, the cats don't go crazy over it and knock it down.  I can see it now...timber!!!  Yikes.  Anyhow, we're going to give it a try.

For now, here are some of our holiday decorations.

Merry Merry

Have I mentioned lately that I am in full on holiday mode?!  My house is almost finished being decorated,  just need to buy the real tree(!!!!) and decorate it.  Since Pintrest is my newest go-to place for holiday ideas, I thought I'd list some of my favorite things I've pinned lately.  Lots of ornament ideas and Christmas trees.  

What holiday ideas have you seen that you love?

sources: pinterest

Salt Dough Place Cards

Ever since I've gotten obsessed with Pinterest I've seen salt dough ideas all over the place.  Since it's super easy to make I thought I'd give it a try.  But what to make?  Then it came to me...Thanksgiving place cards.  

I started with this recipe:

1 c. salt

1 c. flour

1/2 c. water

Mix with your hands in a bowl until it is all combined.  Add more water if it's not forming well...add more flower if it's too sticky.  Flour your counter and a rolling pin, and roll it out until it's about 1/2 to 1 inch thick.  Then use cookie cutters or free hand to make shapes.  Bake for about 2 hours at 250 degrees.

Once they're all baked, let them cool and decorate.  Super easy...I did it while Jackson was taking a nap.

Out of the oven and cooling.  

Holiday colored ribbon to loop through the hole.

Starting to look pretty.

Paint pens made it easy to write everyone's name on their place card.

They turned out pretty cute.  I think my handwriting looks awful on them, but better luck next time I suppose.

Happy happy everyone!

Gobble Gobble

This year Thanksgiving is going to be at our house.  I'm super excited for a few reasons.

1. We get to be with our family

2. Jackson gets to be with lots of people he doesn't see that often on his first turkey day

3. I get to use lots of my dishes that are only used for special occasions

4. Making personalized seating tags

5. Food

6. People coming to OUR house instead of us having to make the long drive

Our Thanksgiving table in the works.