Update on Us

I have a lot to blog about but this one is exciting! For those of you who didn't know, I have a job! I will be starting at Bethel University in one week in the Financial Aid office. I am excited to be going back to work (weird right!?!). It will be fun being back in a college atmosphere. I love working at Piedmont and  being at Bethel through my undergrad. I cant wait for the opportunities I will have here!

Also.... we have a place to live! On September 1st we will be moving into our new rental home in South Minneapolis. It is in a nice neighborhood called Seward. It is SUPER close to Augsburg - where Eric is also teaching part time. We are excited about the location and the layout of this unit in a tri-plex. Here is a pic of the whole house..... I will post more pics once we move in. :) Our place is on the 2nd floor towards the back of the house.

4 Years Old

I keep thinking how lucky we are to be back in Minnesota. We have been able to do a lot of fun things this summer! About 2 weeks ago we were able to go to Tyler's 4th birthday party. You will remember Tyler, and his mom Tara, from my 4th of July post. It was great to go to a 4 year olds party, all the kids were super excited. Tara is such a great mom too. The party was pirate themed so she made a treasure map for the kids to follow and made pirate hats (with the help of her sister Megan) for the kids! We really had a good time watching the kids and talking with friends. It is so nice not to miss out on these things!

Tyler and Aunt Megan

Tara & Tyler singing Happy Birthday!

Tyler after eating cake.... Nice!

Where has the time gone!?

Time has been flying by this summer! We have been so busy seeing friends & family, looking for jobs and looking for places to live. I promise to post some new things soon! And I have a fun update on my job search! :) Stay tuned...

Limbo

We have been living in MN for over a month now and it still doesn't feel like we have actually moved back. Some days I feel like we are still visiting and have a small shock of awe when I remember that we actually don't have to leave. I think it still feels like we are visiting since neither of us are working full time and we don't have our own place. We are both getting the itch to settle in....find our own place, unpack, get involved in the community, and get into a routine again.
Eric starts teaching in only 6 weeks. He is excited to teach again and some something to do each day other than read & write his dissertation. I have a couple job prospects that I am hoping to her about soon. If all goes well I will have a job by the end of the month! Once I get a job offer we will be on the hunt for our own place. We want to live in S. Minneapolis close to where Eric will be teaching at Augsburg College. He will mostly be commuting on his bike to Augsburg but will have to drive to the other school he will be at (Bethel University).

I hope in a couple weeks I can post about our new place! Until then we are still enjoying spending our down time with friends & family!

Friends around the world

In college we had a core set of friends (who were also roommates for a couple years) and since graduating college we have ALL lived away from MN for some period of time. Before we moved to Georgia our friends Jenessa & Jason moved to China for 2 years and they returned back to MN three years ago. Our friend Tara lived in Chicago and Seattle. Tim & Sarah lived in Figi for a couple of months and Rachel & DJ lived in the Philippines for a couple years all while we lived in Georgia. Now that we are finally back in MN Sarah is in Michigan (only until August!) and Jenessa and Jason are moving back to China in a week!

So for the 4 weeks we have been back in MN we have been trying to spend as much time with Jenessa, Jason and their 5 month old before they move. They leave tomorrow on a plane to Seattle to visit with Jenessa's family before jumping on a plane to China on Wednesday. We have really enjoyed spending the last few weeks with them catching up and getting to know their son, Oren. It was truly a blessing to be able to move back to MN before they made the big move to China. We are also grateful for Skype as we will still be able to see them and talk with them while they are abroad.We also hope to visit some day down the road... I never thought I would ever go to China but having friends there is a big incentive!

Today we will be able to see them one last time before they go. Today is Tara's sons 4 year birthday party AND the premier of the final Harry Potter Movie. So we are all going to the birthday party and the midnight showing (sans Sarah and Tim) as a final farewell.We have gone to many midnight premiers with these friends and it is only fitting that we spend Jenessa & Jason's last night here in MN doing the same.

Oren

Jason, Jenessa & Oren

We will miss you guys so much!

4th of July

We spent this 4th of July on the St. Croix river with my family. We had a great day just relaxing on the boat (we saw two bald eagles!) and swimming in the river with my parents. The water was much warmer here than at Rainy Lake and I definitely got in a lot to cool off.

In the evening we picked up my friend Tara and her little one, Tyler. It was so much fun to have them on the boat for the evening! We anchored out close to the Stillwater bridge and prepared ourselves for some amazing fireworks. We had a couple hours to kill before the fireworks started so we took another swim in the river. Tyler was great on the boat and he was amazed when the fireworks started!

Tyler driving the boat (with my dads assistance of course!)

Tyler & Tara swimming

Me & Tara

Downtown Stillwater at night with all the boats anchored on the St. Croix for the fireworks.

It was a great 4th! We enjoyed being back home on the river for the fireworks but we still missed our friends in Athens!

Rainy Lake

Last weekend we went up to Eric's family cabin on Rainy Lake. It was Eric's 10 year high school reunion so we got to see and catch up with some of his close friends from HS. Eric's uncle, aunt and cousin have a cabin right next door so we also got to spend some time with them and Eric's sister who is living in International Falls.

On one of our days we went to Voyageurs National Park to look around and go for a hike. Unfortunately, there is only one trail on the main land and it is maybe a little more than a mile long. :) There are other parts of the park where we could hike for a lot longer but you have to take a boat to get to them. Maybe some day we will make the trek for a weekend and camp in the park.

Eric's uncle was nice enough to take Eric water skiing while we were there. I dont water ski but Eric is pretty good. Everyone else took a couple tries at skiing or wake boarding. Maybe one day I will give it a go.

We decided to take the cats with us to the cabin to see how they did. We thought if they did OK we could bring them with us every time. They did OK in the car. I think Rainy may have had a panic attack at first but she calmed down after a half hour. Once we got to the cabin though, she hid under the couch & bed for the first day. She seemed to get more comfortable as the days went on. We arent sure  if we will take them again but it was nice having them there!

We enjoyed a great weekend on the Lake and are excited to spend more time there now we are back in MN! 

Como Conservatory

A couple weekends ago we went to the Como Conservatory to kill some time. It is always fun to see the beautiful flowers they have planted everywhere. This year the main wing was filled with lilies. They were so beautiful you know I couldn't resist taking some pictures. :)

MN State Parks

Wow! I haven't blogged in FOREVER! But we have been busy! It has been great being back in MN and we have been enjoying our State Parks....that is until July 1st. The MN government shut down on July 1 when they couldn't reach a budget deal....so the state parks are closed! So Sad! Luckily we got to go to two before the shut down. There are two within 30 min from where we are staying right now. We walked/hiked about 4 miles at each one.

First up: Afton State Park. South of Stillwater on the St. Croix River.



We also went to William O'Brian State Park: North of Stillwater, also next to the St. Croix River. I have been here before when I was in High School/College with my friend Tara and her family.

We really enjoyed the open spaces and all of the beautiful trees. Everything here is super green and beautiful! The only thing we didn't expect was seeing a HUGE snake at the end of our hike at William O'Brian. It was white with black spots....no idea what it was but I don't think it was poisonous. Still freaky though!

I promise to pump out some more blogging in the next week! Hope you are doing well!