Our New House!!!

This is our new place!!! Its a two bedroom and two bath place with a huge living/dining area. As you can see Daren has wasted no time digging out his tools and getting started on projects. We're going to do some yard work this weekend and put a little garden in around the back of the house. It even comes complete with a good sized shed that Daren has dubbed his project area or his man cave. The deck is really nice, we can't wait to do some BBQing on it this summer. We're almost settled in. Daren has a three day weekend so we plan on finishing up the odds and ends we have left this weekend. We're really excited for our starter place here. After talking to the other students in the area, this is the way to go. We actually bought the place from a 4th year vet student. These houses tend to just pass from senior to freshman and so on, so the chance of selling it when the time comes is pretty good. The previous owner has done a ton of work to the inside, so we have new carpet and dry wall in all the rooms except the bathroom. And my favorite part about the whole house (other then its mine) is a toss up between the yellow living room or the huge garden tub in the master bathroom. So bring on the bubble baths!!!!

Our Iowa Wildlife Encounters (So Far)

Well, things are progressing and seem to be falling into place on our house. We're hoping to move in by the end of the week!!! Here are some pictures of the animals we've seen on our little walks around the river. There is also a lake out on the edge of town that we found while looking for the church house. A few days ago we took a trip there and walked around the smaller half of the lake. There were geese everywhere and lots of people fishing so Daren thinks he's found a spot that he can go to almost every evening for fishing. I told him that was okay, but I'd probably take some bread and feed the geese instead. Also here are some pictures of the cotton tails I was talking about earlier. They are everywhere, these ones were just in an empty lot by a parking lot. The place we're moving into has them all over so the first thing on my list to do is bunny proof the flower beds so I can start a garden. So stay tuned for more exciting wild life, with my husband I'm sure there will be deer and turkey on the agenda as soon as he can get an Iowa hunting license. I want to go walk around the river again so I can get pictures of the big bridge we crossed (and will be re-crossing to get pictures) and there were raccoon tracks in the mud so hopefully I'll get to see one. Also the school has a themed garden that changes the theme yearly, and this year is dinosaurs so when we finally get settled Daren said we could go walk through it too. Hope everyone is doing well, we miss you guys!!!

Our First Week in Iowa

Well, Daren had a few days off here and we have reached a point in house hunting where we're waiting on other people now. So we went and did a little bit of playing. We went on a walk through one of the many gigantic parks in town. This one was kind of like the green belt, but had so many trees and wild plants growing that you couldn't see very far. We walked half of the trail before we found our way back to the pick-up and didn't feel like walking the other half since we weren't sure how long it was. On our little adventure we had to cross this huge railroad tie bridge. The ties were spaced about four inches apart and in the middle of the bridge you are about fifty feet above the river and trees. It was really pretty and I was enjoying myself quit a bit until Daren had to point out that the gaps were big enough you could slip your foot through. Then the rest of the way across we had to go much slower!!! We also found a sports/outdoor store that we had to stop at. We also had our first shushy of the season and Daren was glad to find they are the same in Iowa as in Idaho. They even had his favorite flavor. They were huge though. It was like 2 dollars for a small and we couldn't figure out why, but then when she made them, we knew. There was 4x the amount of ice stacked on top as what fit in the cup. That was also why they sell drip cups for an extra 50 cents. We went to the laundry mat today and stopped at a pet store for some furry mice toys. Echo's been kind of bored in the hotel and has taken to radomly attacking you even if you're just laying/sitting there. Hopefully the mice will help with some of that. Well, I'll keep everyone posted. We're having an inspector come tomorrow to look at the trailer we're hoping to buy. If all goes well we'll be signing papers tomorrow also. If not we still have our second choice, so we'll still probably sign papers tomorrow anyway. Just keeping our fingers crossed that our 1st choice doesn't have any broken pipes and the furnace and water heater work after sitting vacant all winter. Oh, and I almost forgot, there are these crazy rabbits all over the place. They look like cotton tails but with really short ears. They are every where though. They run through the town, parking lots, and yards like squirrels do back home.