Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Oh would you look at that. I live!!

Well Hubby informed me the other night that this is now his blog

And he's been the one writing all the posts

So that would explain the sporadic writing that's been going on here 

And the duration of time in between the postage

I'm glad we figured out the problem

Hopefully now we'll be able to rectify that

it's always nice to have a scapegoat 

especially one that happily volunteers

and even comes up with the idea

I've been here a few days over a month now and we've had some interesting experiences and have learned some interesting things about this new state we (temporarily) call home

(Carrie Underwood's song "Temporary Home" is my new favorite song in light of the move)

...I feel like that makes me sound like I hate it here and I'm miserable

I don't and I'm not

I'm just very much a homebody and a family girl

Utah has always been my home and I've always been close to my family...literally, figuratively, emotionally...

So yeah, it's not easy

Hubby has never had a place that he felt was "home"

Even Texas, where he is from and has lived most of his life

Where his family is

He never felt like it was "home"

So for him, moving isn't a big deal, being away from family isn't that hard

He even said he likes being away from home because he likes that he misses them and feels that they're closer

Yes, absence makes the heart grow fonder

But...no thank you

It's not going to be forever, and there will be visits home

And I'm not on another mission for my church, so it's not like we can't contact each other

But still...I just don't approve

ANYWAY....

Not where this post was going

Adventures in Iowa!!

Let's see...first on this list

Iowa wasn't so sure it wanted me around when I first got here

maybe it sensed my hostility

We were over at the house where Hubby was staying when he first got here collecting all of his stuff the day after I got here

He was on the phone, I was bored, I didn't want to sit on the bed because...partly because it's a waterbed and I didn't want to get lost in it, but also partly because...well, who knows who has sat on that bed? Yes, I'm a little bit of a germaphobe...I blame the OCD

Anyway, I wanted to sit and the bed wasn't going to cut it

I looked and saw this little...makeshift cupboard of sorts that hubby had his computer monitor on

Score!!

Surely if it had Hubby's monitor on it he trusted it

Big mistake

The second I put even the smallest amount of weight on that thing it broke out from under me

The top slammed down, the sides came out, and 4 lovely, long screws came out of their hiding spots

One of the screws decided it wanted to become really good friends with my thigh

Through my pants

I stand up, get over the pain, and tell Hubby I'm fine

He looks at me like I'm crazy

Next thing I know I look down and there's a huge tear in my pants and blood dripping down my leg

Ummmm, excuse me??

I barely move to Iowa and you're trying to cut my leg off?

That's it, I'm moving back to Utah

yeah, I wish it was that easy

Luckily Hubby doesn't have an aversion to blood and got some bandages and stitched me up

Even MORE luckily it healed, no stitches, no tetanus, no nada except a light scar that I didn't even notice until Hubby pointed it out

Lovely welcome to Iowa for me

And then there was the time that we went bowling with car tires...

The city where we live is FULL of hills

I mean it

I can almost look past the fact that there are no mountains because it's hard to tell with all of the hills

And while that might seem to be a big deal, it is when your car isn't anything but 2WD and you don't have snow tires because in Utah it isn't that big of a deal

Well, in Iowa with all of the hills, it gets to be a big deal

We were sliding all over the place, having a hard time getting up the hills

Pretty much the whole route to his work is downhill

There were many times driving to his work that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop and I would run into another car

Something had to be done, and there was no way we could afford another car

So we went and signed away any future fortune plus our first child spent mucho dinero to buy new snow tires

Now when Hubby went to set up the tire change, they told him that they would store our other tires until we were ready for them to be put on in the Spring, and then they would switch them out for free

Or at least that's what he understood

I was the one who took the car to get the new tires

It was a long wait with me reading lots of Philosophy

lucky me...

What a surprise I found when I got in the car afterwards and there were 4 tires, bagged up all nice and neat on our backseat

I started laughing and laughing....all while rolling my eyes

don't we love miscommunications...

Now the only place we have to store tires would be our basement

And, at the time, our basement happened to be cluttered with boxes that we hadn't taken the time to break down yet

Now, the sensible thing to do would be to carry the tires downstairs in an orderly fashion and find a place out of the way to put them

But that night it was snowing and cold and well...I didn't want to

I just wanted to get the tires in the house and out of the car so it would stop smelling of tire

yuck

So, obviously the real sensible choice is to throw the tires down the stairs

As Mary Poppins says "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap! The job's a game!!"

How about we play bowling with tires and boxes and try and clear out as many boxes as possible?

I have to say, I did a pretty good job

Sadly, the other goal was to have all of the tires standing up in the end

Only one was standing up

Rude

But, the tires ended up downstairs and most of the boxes were moved out of the way

I'd say that the objectives were met

However questionable the process might have been

:)

6 comments:

Rawknrobyn.blogspot.com said...

Good for you for bowling with tires. That sounds fun! Sorry for the rough adjustment. I know how close you are with your family. Hopefully, you'll have your own family and that will also include new friends.

Keep faith, and thanks for updating us.

xoRobyn

Julie said...

I know it's hard Amanda, being away from family. Keep yourself busy and make your home a home and hopefully it'll get easier as time goes on. Isn't it time to start working on some Valentine goodies? Make hubs a special something?
Take care, I'm so glad you posted. Blessings my friend!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like a difficult adjustment. I think you must have a great family. Still, I think you are going to have some wonderful experiences in Iowa.

Kind regards always.

Bossy Betty said...

I know these kinds of moves are really hard. I know you are going to make the most of it even though your heart aches for Utah sometimes. Embrace this time of your life, girly! It won't ever come around again. (Aren't you glad i am back to being bossy?)

Jami said...

Make it your business to explore every inch of your area while you are there. It will keep you busy and later, when you are gone, you'll be glad you did. :)

Pat Tillett said...

Bowling with tires! I wonder if it will be a winter, or summer sport?

I really do understand what you are saying. I've been in your situation myself. I'm going to try and make your stay in Iowa a little nicer...

Okay, I'm going to turn you on to one of my go-to websites for finding amusing, weird and just plain old stupid things to see and places to visit. Here is the link to some of each of those things in Iowa. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/ia/all

If you aren't looking for the weird stuff, how about some normal stuff? http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g28936-Activities-Iowa.html

Did you know that Iowa has about 50 ghost towns? http://www.ghosttowns.com/

Did you know that Iowa is the only state whose entire eastern and western borders are made up ENTIRELY of rivers? Yes, it is!

Did you know that so many Iowans moved to my hometown that they call it "Iowa by the Sea?" That's right! (Long Beach, California).

I got more, a lot more!