Ok, so we arrived in Wisconsin late Weds night. And I mean LATE! Epic put us up in a hotel for a couple nights, which was wonderful. And they don't do anything halfway. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel and had a great cab driver who took on the role of tour guide as we drove through the city. It was late, so it was dark, but the city was gorgeous. Everything was lit, and there was so much snow! (As our plane was landing, I can't even express my horror as I realized the patches I had been looking at were not lakes, but was in fact: SNOW. I mean a LOT of snow.)
We unloaded into the hotel lobby. Like I said, Epic doesn't do anything halfway. In the lobby was a tray of huge freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, and a hospitality table with cocoa, cider, and ice water. Our room had a king bed, a pull out bed for Claire (which she was thrilled about), and a pack and play for Aoife. (I didn't think to ask for one the first night, but we had it the 2nd night and it was AWESOME.)
Thursday we got the keys to our new home and were able to check it out and run tons of errands. We had to pick our home just from what we could learn online. We weren't able to fly out and look at places, so we had to go with our gut. I'll admit, with my first look, I wasn't impressed. I guess I had a picture in my head and at first glance, it didn't match. Friday morning, our stuff arrived and that helped. It was just hard to picture this as home. Now we're mostly unpacked and I do think we're in the right spot.
It's a little bigger than where we were before, and we're in an actual building. So you go in the building and we're up a flight of stairs and on a floor with 4 other apartments. I wasn't so sure about the building part at first, but it's been really nice! Our carpets are going to be so much cleaner!
As we unpacked Claire's things, especially the toys, it was like Christmas all over again. I thought I didn't like packing, but I really don't like unpacking either. We're almost all unpacked, and I never want to do it again. We signed a year lease, but I'm hoping we really, REALLY like living here so we'll want to stay longer. We don't have a washer/dryer, but in the basement we have machines.
So this morning I decided to make a video tour. Mind you, it's not high quality, doesn't do the size justice, we had JUST woken up, our house is full of empty boxes, and I really didn't feel like cleaning. I think that's all of my disclaimers. Oh, and I'm sick. Maybe when our house is all the way put together I'll take pictures.
Yesterday we had our first Sunday at church. It was totally different from our ward in Provo. I guess the ward boundaries go 50 miles in one direction. There's another ward that meets at that building, and I guess that ward has the younger couples that work at Epic. It seemed like our ward had a really good mix though, with tons of youth. (Babysitters, anyone?) I'm excited to get to know them better.
So we're moved in, alive, and well. Let's play a little game: If I say, Wisconsin, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? I'll bet you $20 you said cheese. Or cows. You probably didn't say "Lovelands!" We came out here leaving the little student world not knowing anyone. Which I guess was what we wanted: an adventure. Our first night in our apartment, I had a really hard time. Back in Provo, I had a BFF, Kami. Ok, we're still BFFs. Ross often talks about how we turn into 8th graders when we're together and I had to convince him the other night that Kami and I aren't dating. Our kids were pretty good friends, too. It took us a LONG time to find each other, and once we finally had each other, I moved. Being here in Wisconsin, I think my biggest worry is finding a friend.
I loved being able to call Kami just to show her something stupid, or get together to talk about nothing. I'm really grateful for church for that, and hopefully I'll make friends, but I also joined a few meet up groups from meetup.com. Before Kami and I really met, I had been praying for a great friend, and had unsuccessfully browsed that site for fun get together groups. Before we moved out here, I saw a few postings on craigslist about a couple of these groups. So Thursday I'm going to a gal's house to play Bunco with other gals that are new to the area. Hopefully it's not a big group of weirdos and I can find some gal friends. Next week, our ward's relief society is playing games with the young women, and the week after we're testing out another group I joined and I'll be taking the girls to a kids place for a play group.
Ross started work today. The girls were so blissfully asleep, I decided to give up the car and have Ross drive himself this morning. I'll have to get all of my unpacking and cleaning done so the girls and I can explore this week. We've located Sonic though we haven't been yet. I'm sure whoever works the drive thru and I will get to be great pals.
I know I'm rambling, so I'll end this. I haven't organized my thoughts yet, but we made it. And we're doing well. It's fun and exciting. And I want a Diet Coke.
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