As Promised

I have started my long awaited and dreamed of pursuit of blogging. Please note that my name on here is Iowa.Gurl. Who ever said that the spelling of girl as gurl went out of style in middle school? I'm boycotting. Anyway, as I am now an unemployed US Citizen once again, I hope I have time to keep this up. (At least for a little while...) Oh where to begin, where to begin. God really must have a sense of humor. As Graham and I departed on Saturday AM (way too early in my opinion), after spending the evening with our wonderful friends packing and in Chapel Hill, we said goodbye to the nice, temperate climate of North Carolina. Right...the ground was already covered in 2 inches of fresh snow! You'd think if we were getting ready to move to the arctic, the icy temperatures would hold off for a couple more days, but whatever. As we traveled from state to state on Saturday, I realized that every single state had this white fluffy substance on the ground. NC isn't the only state that has been overly blessed this year. We continued from NC to Virginia to West Virginia...let me pause here for a second. West Virginia.

As I am sure most of you suspect, West Virginia (from the 4 or 5 hours I have spent there) must be one of the worst states in the union. I mean, come on. Other than the unbelievable mountains we were driving through (okay, it isn't all bad--John Denver had it right), the landscape consisted of giant smokestacks, electric plants, awful architecture and an abundance of tolls. Yes, tolls. Everytime you get mad at North Carolina for raising gas tax, just remember it could be worse. Once we were on the highway in West Virginia, not only did we hit one but THREE more toll booths along the way. Being the amazingly prepared human being that I am, I realize as I am pulling up to the toll booth that I clearly am not carrying any cash. Hoping that the toll would only be a quarter or something o that nature (because this is all I had) I pull up after Graham (pulling all of our belongings in a beautifully yellow Penske truck) to find that the toll is $2. Two dollars! Just to drive on a road. Well, justifying this with the fact that I am sure we will not hit any more of these fees, I whip out my credit card in perfect spoiled southern child fashion. After the nice boy in the toll booth explained, "We don't take no cards here," I finally begged my way through claiming ignorance into passing the barrier without paying the fine. Being satisfied with my begging skills, I drive on by, only to get a call by an elated Graham not even 5 seconds later. I hear on the other end, "It was $6.50 for me to get this thing through the toll!" After calming Graham down and explaining that at least we didn't have to pay for my car, we relax and are relieved that there wouldn't be any more booths. Well three booths (Graham paying for me each time at $8.50 total) and $32 later, we finally exit West Virginia--thank goodness.

From West Virginia we entered into Kentucky and then, finally, Indiana, where I knew Indianapolis, our first pit stop, couldn't be much further. We reached our wonderful Marriott Courtyard at around 8:15 PM after 11 hours of traveling. Since we had chosen to just snack on the goodies my my Mommy, Mamaw and wonderful friend Kristi had put to gether for us, we were starving. To our luck, there was a Texas Roadhouse just across the street! Already being in the North and still being able to order southern food was easing the pain of the move at least a little. I must admit, though, that the next time I ever claim some of the people in Hendersonville, NC as being redneck, I will always think back to this Texas Roadhouse experience in Indianapolis, Indiana where I haver never seen so many in one place. Taylor, you would have had a hay day looking and blogging about the people in this place. I mean, at least every other person was wearing a graphic hooded sweatshirt with some sort of jacket on top with hiking boots and light jeans. Bless.

The next morning, we were excited and anxious to get to Iowa. Very excited that we would have my parents familiar faces to meet us there, we traveled another 8 hours through Indiana, Illinois and finally Iowa until we finally reached Cedar Falls! I know now why people have made so many corn jokes and references over the past couple of weeks. Once we got into Illinois, the flatness of the snowy land was amazing and you could tell every sure inch of it was covered in the frozen remains of what once were corn stalks. Although very cliche, this was also one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on. I will definitely be making it a point to travel through this whenever the corn is green and waving in the wind--I'm sure it is a beautiful sight!

Once in Cedar Falls, we explored the area and found our apartment--in all it's glory. Yes, the carpet up the side of the kitchen island and the gorgeous pepto bismol pink tile does in fact exist, but I think my favorite feature of our new home are the Ashley Forest style cabinets. Hookers, I know you can appreciate my glee. Now that we have moved everything in (thanks to mom and dad, 18 degree weather and snow all day Monday) I am actually growing quite fond of our warm little home. I hope to put up some after pictures soon!

Mom and I actually got to attend our first University of Northern Iowa Panthers basketball game (whoare ironically ranked higher than UNC this year) and had a blast! I really love the atmosphere...but could do without all of the purple. For those of you who do not know, the colors of UNI are purple and gold--which reminds me a whole lot of my Apple Valley Middle School days. Unfortunately, my wardrobe only consists of one purple sweater so I will have to go out and by a scarf or something pronto.

Graham seems to be LOVING his job so far which is such an encouragement! We got to go out to dinner with his boss Chris and his wife, Rachel, at Old Chicago Pizza here on Wednesday night and they seem really great! I am sure they will be such a blessing to Graham and I during our time here. Tonight, UNI is playing Old Dominion, which should be a really great game and Graham and I get to hang out together with some of his sponsors in the suite for the game. Can't wait! I also found out we get to travel with the team to St. Louis in a couple of weeks to see them play in the conference tournament. The last time I passed through there I was barely old enough to walk, so I am excited to see that arch again!

Prayer Requests:

Please pray that Graham and I will be able to connect to this community quickly and find some friends! We are going to visit a church here on sunday (not sure which one yet) so pray we can find a home church family! Also, the lease to our gorgeous (ha) apartment ends in July so we are apartment shopping for that move--pray that we can find a great place to live for the rest of our time here because after July I am sure not going to be in the mood to move again for a while!

Until next time...