But! we are no longer homeless! October/ November proved to be just as crazy as you would expect for two people who lived par time in a sketchy hotel in one city and part time in an abandoned house in another. So to catch you up, we had some VERY kind friends who happened to live 6 blocks over from our hotel who let us use their kitchen and basically their whole house, which, is how we ate our meals when we didn't have leftover's or dinner plans with other friends.
The most stressful parts were packing up every Wednesday night and Sunday Afternoon. We somehow managed and I only left Shane's kindle behind at the hotel ONE time. And at that the hotel people knew us well enough to tell us, " BTW, Shane's kindle is in our hotel safe."
After Thanksgiving, Shane and I caravanned ourselves the 4 hours from my parents on back to our new place. Which, we discovered was still a lot like a construction site even though it was complete. Due to the amount of dust and cleaning it needed, we opted to stay a couple days at his parent's and clean it in our spare time.
However, Shane's mom is a saint and ended up giving the place a thorough cleaning while we were at work which helped us move in faster. On top of that, she came over the first evening or two to help us haul box after box out of storage in the basement.
It was a lot of work. And slow... still to this day we will wonder where something is and then venture down to the basement to see if we might find the box it's in.. I usually give up before Shane does.
Anyways, we will hopefully be officially closing on this house by the end of the month.(We're crossing our fingers). In the meantime.. the good ol' township of Wellman has yet to let us have a mailbox. That's a long story. That is on our list of battles to keep battling.
December came upon us all rather quickly. My grandfather, Dr. Robert Kohl, went to be with the Lord and Shane and I drove the 7 hours to South Dakota to be with family for the funeral. Lots of tears were shed along with fond memories shared. It was nice to see all the cousins and aunts and uncles, especially with it being so close to Christmas. It has been so many years since we were all converged in the same spot close to the holidays and we counted it a blessing.
Although Shane and I had thought our life of long weekend trips were behind us, the weekend following our South Dakota trip we returned home to my parent's house for family Christmas, which was only 4 hours instead of 7. We spent the week of Christmas with Shane's family back in Kalona and then went another weekend to my parent's to see some Florida cousins. We figure another 8 hours in the car is worth it when they had traveled 100s of miles more.
After THREE consecutive weekends of driving a total of 30 hours, Shane and I finally spent a weekend in our little new town. Three of my siblings came to visit and we loved showing them the rolling hills and the bald eagles and deer and buggies and all the native things.
It's funny to think how different the opposite sides of the state can be. Where I come from, Iowa is flat and you can see the lights of town 30 miles away just by standing out on a porch or a deck. There's only fields and little patches of trees where a house or farm might be and all the roads are almost perfectly North/South East/West, sectioning off the fields in square miles.
Over in my new neck of the woods, there are hills and trees and roads that curve and don't connect or make much sense. But it is beautiful all the same.
Over in my new neck of the woods, there are hills and trees and roads that curve and don't connect or make much sense. But it is beautiful all the same.
So now we are to January. My new year's goals are:
1) To put things on my walls.. pictures, clocks...anything to make it look like we actually LIVE here.
2) To buy this house. Which Shane's parent's have let us squat in since we arrived in town.
3) Sort my socks
4) Paint some of our furniture to give it an update.
5) Write more letters.
---I'll probably come up with more goals throughout the year, but, I like feeling good about myself with I do all I resolved to do. 😊
