We made it...

Tuesday afternoon the movers got everything loaded and we finally left Ashley that evening around 5:30. We stopped in Shelbina for the night and left for Redwood at 4:00 Wednesday morning. We arrived in town about 12:30 that afternoon and found our new home- a one bedroom apartment downtown. The first apartment we looked at was pretty much a dump, luckily the lady had another one to show us and that is where some of our things are right now. Most of our belongings are in storage right now...just so we had a chance to make sure we had a place to live before it all arrived! The past couple of days we have been doing all the fun things you get to when you move- finding a bank, getting insurance, cable, new cell phones, and new licenses! I start work on Monday, but won't be there too long before I head to Iowa City for a meeting and then Jason & I will be back in Missouri for the 4th of July weekend! We have a few pictures of our apartment. Once we get things moved in I might take some more. Right now we have an air mattress, card table & chairs, and no dressers so our clothes are staying in the boxes they were brought in! The rest of our things are supposed to be delivered July 8th so we won't be living like this too long!

One last look at our old house

Driving to MN Luckily I just had to ride the whole 8 hours!

Finally made it to MN

Still driving- real safe, huh?

Redwood Falls- our new home!!!

Our apartment is right inside the door at the top of the stairs- this picture is from the back parking lot.

Our red door- I told Jason I had always wanted a red door and he said he could have painted one for me, we didn't have to move to MN for one

The living room as you open our door

The kitchen and doorway to the bedroom

The bedroom

The other side of the bedroom- 2 closets!

Our first supper in our new apartment before any of our things had been delivered. Any guesses on our first meal? Duh- tacos!

Our living room full of boxes

Our bedroom & bathroom with a few boxes

Unpacking- I made a mess and Jason kept trying to contain it to the area of the living room

Minnesota Bound

Friday was the last day of work for both Jason & me. My coworkers brought in food for my last day. It was tough to leave this group of people that I have come to know as my friends. Jason ended up taking a vacation day and going fishing with one of his buddies. They got back to the house in time to man our garage sale and were fairly successful. That night a couple of our friends came over and we barbequed and stayed up late playing cards. We got up early and I covered the garage sale and made a whopping 20 cents! Jason told me I was bad luck. I think that may be my last garage sale!

After closing up shop we loaded the Escape with Jason's turkey and a few other things that we took back to his mom & dad's on our way to a wedding reception in Columbia. The reception was beautiful and we were very excited to learn the bride & groom now live in MN, not to far where we are moving!

Sunday our group of friends from church took us out to eat at Applebee's in Mount Vernon. Another tough group of people to leave- I think Jason already invited the guys up to go hunting and I let the girls know we weren't going to be too far from the Mall of America! We were very fortunate to find such a welcoming church in Nashville and such a great group of friends!

Today the movers are here boxing everything up and they are on schedule to load everything tomorrow and head out. We have a few things to take care of over here still, but should be ready to leave tomorrow afternoon too. Our things are supposed to be delivered Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning depending on how quick tomorrow goes.

I'm not really sure how soon we will get the internet at our apartment so it may be a while before my next update. Here are a few moving pictures from today.

Busy Weekend

Last week I was in St. Louis on Wednesday & Thursday for meetings and was heading back to northeast MO for the weekend. Instead of taking two vehicles back Jason took off work on Thursday and rode the Metro to St Louis. He had never been on it before and I don't think he will ever get on it again. After many stops he finally made it to the airport where I picked him up. We finally made it to Shelbyville after making stops in Columbia and Kirksville!

Friday afternoon I headed to Monroe City to help decorate for one of my best friend's wedding. That evening before rehearsal Jason & I went to my Uncle Heath & Aunt Katie's house to see them and their boys. After rehearsal we went out for one last time with the bride as a "single" woman. We were back at the house pretty early and let the bride-to-be go to bed as a couple of the bridesmaids and I stayed up well into the morning...luckily we didn't have to be up early the next morning.

Mariah & Austin had a beautiful wedding and I am so upset I didn't get any picture, but at this point I was pretty sure I had left my camera at my mom & dad's. After a good time at the reception we headed to my aunt & uncle's house where we spent the night and headed to Macon the next morning for a baptism & birthday party.

Our nephew Rhett Hunter Pollard was baptized at church that morning and then we headed back to the Pollard's house to celebrate Rhett's big sister's birthday. Allison turned 3 earlier this month and we are glad we were able to be a part of her celebration. It was on the way to church that I realized I stored my camera in my console for safe keeping! I got a few pictures of the birthday party.

Allison had a princess party and her first gift was a princess dress Megan's mom made for her.

The princess with her cake that her mom made. Doesn't it look great?

I was supposed to have training in Iowa City on Tuesday so Jason & I were going to head up there on Monday and he was going to use the last of his vacation days, but it was cancelled due to the flooding. I was already scheduled to be off work Monday and Jason had a vacation day planned so we ended up staying Shelby County one more night and drove back Monday morning/afternoon. After a nice fun-filled weekend we pulled in our driveway to this! There was a wind storm Sunday night and it blew part of our pool, deck and all, over! It is pretty crazy because we don't have any limbs down in our yard and nothing else has any damage.

GiRl'S nIgHt OuT!

Friday night the girls from work took me out, sort of as a going away party. We had a blast dancing the night away, at least Stacy & I did, and then we headed to Pam's mom's house to stay the night. I am going to miss these girls so much- it is so hard to believe it was only a little over a year ago that we met!

One Year!

Monday marked one year of marriage for Jason & I. It is crazy to think that a year ago we were leaving Shelby County and heading off to make Ashley, IL our home. This past year was definitely an adjustment for both of us as we are still trying to get used to living with one another!

After loading up the car with everything Monday morning, including the top of our wedding cake that had been in my mom & dad’s freezer the past year, we headed for home. Since we didn’t have any luck car shopping in Quincy & Hannibal we decided to go back through Columbia. After 4 ½ hours at the dealer we left with an Escape. Jason has definitely set my expectations high for future anniversary gifts! We stopped in O’Fallon, IL to eat and finally made it home before 10. Yesterday was my first day back at work since the 15th so it was a super long day.

House Hunting

Last Monday we made the trip to Redwood Falls to begin looking for a house. It was a nice drive, but long! We visited the site that I will be working at starting the end of June and met everyone. After touring the plant we met up with our real estate agent. Tuesday & Wednesday we looked at several houses. By the end of the week I couldn't keep them all straight. We found a couple of houses we are thinking about, but aren't getting real excited about the house hunt yet, we still have 3 weeks to find something though. It was nice to have a little vacation from work. We made it back to Missouri Thursday afternoon to start our weekend. Jason spent quite a few hours on the river over the weekend checking bank lines. He promised he was just going to leave the camera in the truck, but Sunday morning when he got back he wanted me to check out the action shots he had gotten. I'm not sure how he took them from the truck- I'm just glad my camera isn't in the river! We decided with selling most of the dogs and the high gas prices we don't really need the truck so we spent Friday and Saturday car shopping which was almost as much fun as house hunting! Sunday afternoon I traveled to Monroe City for a wedding shower and Jason stayed in Shelbina at a family gathering. He got to see most of his cousins and had a good time! Our annual Memorial Day Croquet Tournament was later that night at my parents’ house with my family. We had a good time even though Jason didn’t win either game.

Jared atop a bluff on Salt River~ I'm glad Jason wanted a picture and didn't climb up there too!

BJ Jared Jason

Andi ready to swim at mom & dad's

Par-tay!

The work week following Mother’s Day was short for us as we left at noon on Thursday for Missouri. After 25 years as the North Shelby Ag Teacher my dad had his final banquet and we wanted to be there. Next year he will be the High School Principal. The banquet was good and we are all so proud of dad and all his accomplishments as an Ag Teacher! Friday I went with my sister-in-law to Kirksville. We ate lunch and I got to watch Rhett for a little bit while she was in with the doctor. Later that afternoon we headed to Shelbina to meet up with the boys. After supper we visited outside around the fire the boys made and got to roast marshmallows (my favorite thing about this time of year!) Saturday morning, decked out in our Mizzou gear, we headed to Macon for Andi’s birthday party. It was a beautiful day outside and the kids got to play with all the new toys and entertain the rest of us. After the party we stayed in Macon to hang out with Jessi & Travis. Sunday morning we headed to Paris for my cousin Callie’s graduation. It is so hard to believe she is already graduating from high school- I am getting old!

Andi Marie ~ 2 years old (almost) Jessi & Andi The party's was MU tailgate theme Andi getting ready to blow out her candle

Mother's Day Weekend

I am a little slow this month and am just now getting Mother's Day weekend on the blog. I promise I will eventually get caught up! Jason & I took a vacation day on that Friday and headed back to Missouri Thursday night for the final weekend of Missouri's spring turkey season. Thankfully it worked out that Jason was able to hunt with his brotherFriday and Saturday. Friday night we got to see Jason's family for Mother's Day at his mom & dad's house. Saturday night everyone was at my mom & dad's and we surprised mom with her present, a swing to go with the frame she has had as long as I can remember! Sunday we were able to visit both sides of my family in Middletown and see my grandparents and most of my aunts, uncles, & cousins.

Jason's MO bird Jason & Allison playing outside Jessi & Andi skipping the fruit tray and going for the leftover icing!

MiNnEsOtA

Last week I was offered a position as the Seed Quality Supervisor in Redwood Falls, MN. This was very unexpected and Jason & I were caught off guard. However, we decided, while this move will take us further away from our family and we will be leaving many people in Southern Illinois that we are blessed to call our friends, we are ready to take a chance and make the move. While we are both nervous about leaving the community we have now lived in for almost a full year and all the people we have met since living here we are also excited to try something new. Luckily, we were able to put the move off until the end of June so we will be able to keep our plans in May & June. We will probably be running around crazy because we have something going on back home (in Missouri) just about every weekend between now and July. I will be sure to keep everyone updated on our move.

Spring Flowers

Spring is definitely here and with the beautiful weather we worked outside Saturday & Sunday afternoon. Jason actually let me on the riding lawn mower to help mow the yard and we finally burned the last of the neighborhood's leaves that seemed to have collected in our yard!

While doing some work in the backyard Jason found a rag hanging in one of our trees. He decided that he would get the rag out of the tree, but there was no way he was going to be able to reach it. Well...we had just finished raking leaves, he had the rake and I guess came up with the brilliant idea that he could knock it down using the rake. It was still too high to just hold the rake up and get it so he had to throw the rake up into the branches of the tree. After several tries and no luck Jason managed to ruin our rake as it broke in two.

He then thought it might work better with just the handle and continued throwing the handle into the tree. A few tries later and he lofted the handle up into the tree and landed it in the branches right above the rag. Of course he still had the rake part left and was going to use it to get the handle down, but after a few tries of throwing it into the tree he got is stuck as well! Off to the house to get the basketball.

I am happy to say that he was not able to get the basketball stuck in the tree and retrieved both the handle and the rake. However, the rag is still stuck in our tree, there are several sticks and small branches from the tree in our yard and I had to buy a new rake tonight!

The whole time this was going on our neighbors were outside on their deck just watching and laughing I am sure. Jessi told me some people just weren't meant to live in town- I think that is most definitely us!

With the lovely weather we have flowers popping up everywhere and our trees are really blooming. Here are a few of our flowers and a tree at the end. They aren't great pictures, but I am hoping my mom or Jessi or anyone else for that matter can tell me what kind of flowers, bush or trees are in the pictures below. I love that we are lucky enough to have flowers blooming around the house. I can't take credit for them or even tell you what they are, but I would like to know!