Settled In!

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes! We are finally in our new house and have, for the most part, gotten unpacked and settled. Our housewarming party was yesterday, and we had a great turnout!

Here are some pictures of our new home. Enjoy!

Movin' On and Movin' Up! :)

It's been four months since my last post, and still never a dull moment! We moved back to Appleton and started our new jobs at the end of March. A month into it, Jeremiah realized that his job really wasn't working for him (primarily because the company was only going to be around for about a year and a half, guaranteeing no long-term employment, and also because installing electric meters wasn't really what he hand in mind for himself), so he quit in an effort to further pursue going back to school and finding another, better suited-for-him job. After a month of planning and applying for other positions, he landed a job that is totally up his alley. His degree is in Criminal Justice with a minor in Management, and rather than getting involved with law enforcement, it has been Jeremiah's dream to pursue something in business where he could be management without being trapped behind a desk all day. I'm glad to say that he found what he was looking for! He's now working for a cleaning & restoration company in Green Bay as the shop manager--a position that keeps him plenty busy. It's also only 3 miles from my job, which enables us to carpool together very easily.

Over the last few months, Jeremiah has stood as best man in two back-to-back weekends in June and we have made several trips back to MI to visit family and to attend weddings as guests. The weekends (and weeks!) have been passing by in a blur and I can hardly even believe we've been back for over 4 months. It's amazing. It's been so nice to be close to everyone and to feel like a part of everything again. While in MN, it was so hard to hear about the different family/friends events that were going on that we couldn't be a part of because of the distance... and now, the farthest we ever have to drive to see everyone is 3 1/2 hours (to Marquette). It's so nice!

Amid all of our travels and events, we've somehow had time to find and purchase our first home. We couldn't be happier--the house is located on the east side of Green Bay, a few miles north of Heritage Hill--and we close on August 8 (only 12 days away!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We're really looking forward to having our own place that we can truly make our own--we're more than ready to be done renting and (as convenient as it was staying with his mom) staying with family. We're newlyweds, after all, and we really need our own space!! :)

I'll post pictures of the house when I get a chance. (We haven't had wireless since we lived in MN, making it really difficult to use our laptop, but we'll get it again at our new house!)

The Final Countdown

It's finally Wednesday of our last week in MN--in 48 hours, we'll be driving toward Appleton with all of our stuff! Jeremiah's last day of work is tomorrow, and I'm only in for a half-day on Friday, so while I'm at work he'll be working with movers to get the truck loaded--then he'll set off for WI, with me following after work. So that's it! All our stuff, packed up and moved out in a matter of hours. We've spent the whole last weekend (and every night thereafter) packing boxes. We've made several trips to Target for plastic totes and bubblewrap... and it feels great to finally have everything boxed up (well... for the most part. It seems that, every time I move, there's always several things that just don't make it into boxes... for those items, we'll just shove them in the car and move on!).

It's almost surreal--we'll be back near our family in no time! I'm so happy and I can't wait to see everyone!!! :)

Goodbye, Minnesota!

It's been a month. Our biggest news? WE'RE MOVING TO APPLETON, WI!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!! I've been applying for jobs in the Fox Valley for well over a year, and when I got my current job at AGA out of college, I just assumed that WI wasn't in the cards for us. Though we've really enjoyed the time we've been in Minnesota, neither of us has really felt at home here. Jeremiah misses hunting and fishing with his friends, and I especially miss my family. Over the past month I was contacted regarding a writing position in Green Bay, and it wound up being a perfect fit! I start on March 26, and Jeremiah and I couldn't be happier to be moving back. We've started to pack a few things already, and in two weeks, we'll move it all to a storage building in Menasha and we'll stay with Jeremiah's mom for a few months--until summer--when we'll (probably) buy our first house. I'm so excited! Everything is happening just as I've wanted it for ages (amazingly, Jeremiah has also found a job in the Valley, so everything is falling into place!), and I feel incredibly blessed. It's amazing how long I've spent worrying that we'd never get back to our families... but looking back, God really had a great plan for me, for us. I needed my experiences here in MN to gain an appreciation for home, to fully realize the importance of family and friends, and to get a chance and explore the big city so that I could not only answer the "what ifs" that I would've always contemplated, but also to gain the working experience I needed to open up career doors in Wisconsin. It's amazing to think that in just two weeks, we'll be packed up and living back in familiar surroundings... I am ecstatic! Things are definitely going well :)

As for things I missed posting about over the last month:
For Valentine's Day, Jeremiah and I headed to Duluth for a weekend getaway. After falling in love with the town and with B&Bs on our first trip for our "mini-moon" in October, we decided to head up and stay at the Thompson House B&B. While we were in town, we also visited Fitger's Brewery (awesome food and beer!) and the Great Lakes Aquarium. If you ever get the chance, take a trip to Duluth--it's beautiful! See photos from our trip here.

My dad & Barb came to visit the weekend after our excursion en route to their trip to Phoenix to visit Barb's mom. Believe it or not, it was actually cheaper and less time consuming for them to drive all the way here and fly out of the Minneapolis airport than if they had flown out of Marquette or Green Bay. It worked out really nicely because we got to visit them for two weekends--on their way in and on their way out--and on the weekend in-between those visits (they were gone for two weeks) we were gone to Appleton for interviews. Phew!! So this is the first weekend that we haven't had anything going on since my last post. Never a dull moment around here! And considering that we're moving in two weeks, the pace won't be slowing down anytime soon. I really, really, really look forward to establishing ourselves in Appleton where we can finally feel settled. It's going to be awesome!

Feel the Burn!

Jeremiah and I have spent the majority of our evenings this week at the gym. On Monday, we met with a personal trainer and he showed us a variety of strength/free weight exercises that he wants us to do twice weekly. I've always thought that I had decent core strength (I'm a fan of pilates!) but the ab work he had us doing was extremely difficult--and the lunges and squats, though they didn't feel as hard--had us hurting for days afterward (we could hardly do stairs!). We took Tuesday off to recover, and Wednesday we went back for more punishment--and we also bought heart rate monitors, which are really quite cool. Next week we'll each be taking two tests--the first to determine how many calories our bodies need on both exercise and non-exercise days; the second to determine what our heart rate needs to be during exercise to optimize our fat burn. I'm really excited about finding out that information. Over the last few years, my sisters, friends Rachelle and Betsy, and I have spent countless hours discussing the most effective modes of weight loss. With these tests, Jeremiah and I will have an actual formula to follow rather than (somewhat) educated guesses!

So that's our life as of late. I have to say that I'm fully enjoying getting back into exercise--I have so much more energy and feel way better!

What are your plans for the weekend? Jeremiah and I are celebrating Valentine's Day early by heading up to Duluth on Saturday, where we'll be staying at the AG Thompson House B&B--we're both really looking forward to it! After staying in a B&B in Duluth for our "mini-moon" we've decided that B&Bs are way better than hotels (and often times, no more expensive!) and we'd like to travel around and visit different ones all over the country. While we're in Duluth, we're also planning on checking out the Great Lakes Aquarium and a comedy club. I can't wait! Duluth is so beautiful and really reminds me of Marquette. Ah, Marquette. I really miss it there.

I'll post again after the weekend when I'll (hopefully!) have some pictures. Have a great weekend!

It's Been How Long?!

I'm not too impressed with myself that it's been almost a month since my last entry. I've never been good at keeping up with journals, and I guess the whole blogging experience is basically the same thing. Also, I tend to feel that the general "mundane" details of our lives probably aren't the most exciting things for people to read... but perhaps I'm wrong. (Is anyone actually reading this?! By the way, family and friends, if you wish to make comments on anything I post, you can do so easily--notice the "comments" link at the bottom of each post--I'd love to hear from you (and know that someone is paying attention to all of my efforts!! :) ) )

This weekend is the big game! I've never been much into football, as in my family, the sport is better left watched by the guys, while the ladies congregate in the kitchen or elsewhere (the farther we can get from the roar of the tv, the better!) but in Jeremiah's family, things are quite different--and it could be argued that the ladies on his side are actually the biggest fans.

Jeremiah is a HUGE New England Patriots fan, and has been for many years (for those of you ready to accuse him of jumping on board just when they started to get good!), and watching his enthusiasm for his team and the sport has gradually drawn me into watching as well. I'll admit, I'm still not up on all the lingo or the finer details of the game, but I now don't mind watching the game on Sundays (and Mondays, and sometimes Saturdays), and I'm actually really looking forward to the Superbowl. I really hope that the Pats win and earn themselves an undefeated season! We're having a few of Jeremiah's co-workers and their significant others over for the big game, where I'll be making football themed food (literally--a football shaped cheese ball and "chocolatey football bites"). What can I say? I love hosting parties--and I get really into the preparation of things. :)

After several months of sitting around in the evenings after work doing nothing but watching tv, we've finally decided to re-join the gym. Our epiphany came one night as we were cooking dinner, and Jeremiah pointed out that we were both already in our pajamas--at 6pm!!--and that perhaps we should look at something better than mindless television watching to occupy our time. When we first arrived in MN, we joined a little gym called Snap Fitness, which was very conveniently located just two blocks from our apartment. We went regularly for awhile, but after the wedding we lost our drive--especially since the place is really small, and variety is limited--so we cancelled our membership when we moved to Edina.

My company offers a (very) reduced rate for its employees when we join Lifetime Fitness, so we decided to check it out. It's the biggest gym I've ever seen! When we walked in, I was literally dumbfounded by the amount of machines (some of them looking suspiciously like torture devices), and people, but by the time we made the tour throughout the whole facility, we were convinced that this was a place we could really thrive in. Besides all of the general cardio and weight equipment, they also have an indoor rubberized walking/running track, an indoor football field (we love to stretch out here!), and 4 studios that house a multitude of classes--kickboxing, step, dance aerobics, pilates, yoga, you name it--so the thought of going to the gym is now feeling more like an adventure than a chore. It's essential that we feel this way, because Jeremiah is completely sick of being a little overweight, and I'm tired of being on this plateau at the same weight for the last seven years (I mean, I'm happy that I was able to lose that 55 pounds and keep it off for seven years, but come on--I'm ready to be fit and actually feel confident about my body!).

And speaking of wanting to feel confident about our bodies, we're in the process of planning our (delayed) Honeymoon! My dad is sending us on one as our wedding gift, and we're thrilled. I've been talking to Tammy (Lisa's sister-in-law who is a travel agent), and she's found us some incredible places/deals--the one we've got our hearts set on is the Sun Palace resort in Cancun, Mexico; we're tentatively planning our trip for mid-April. See the website for the resort here. It's all-inclusive, and adults only--both of which will be really nice. If we do wind up going here, included in the price are the option to go snorkeling and to visit the Mayan Ruins--both of which we're really looking forward to doing!! In fact, it's basically all I can think about lately (perhaps because of the -20 weather we've been having...?).

I hope all is well with you and that you're all surviving the frozen tundra temperatures!

Haircut!

I've been wanting to do it for awhile, and I finally did--I chopped my hair off! I originally intended to cut it after the wedding, but lost my nerve. Then after a few months of being generally sick of it (I've been growing it for almost 3 years!) I bucked up and went in. Since several of you (Becky, Brooke :) ) have been begging me for pictures, here they are! (I have to say, taking self portraits of all angles of your head isn't the easiest thing...)