I'll be home for Christmas...

Well, it's been a week since my last post and quite a lot has happened since then.

Last Sunday, we went to a Christmas party with our new friends! The young couples group that helped us move in very kindly invited us to join their Christmas party. It was a progressive dinner and ended in a limo ride, touring town looking at Christmas lights. We all got dressed up, men in suits, women in dresses.

Here we are, all cleaned up:



It was really fun getting to know everyone. They are all so fun and nice, and we all laughed a lot. One of the most fun things was the East Peoria Festival of Lights. It was the coolest Christmas light show I've ever seen! Seriously. I told Nathan I wanted to go again, but he's making me wait till next year. (You can check out a promo video for the light show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FhdlKS7izE) Nathan got super excited when he saw Christmas light displays of a Star Wars X-Wing. Actually, all the guys seemed pretty excited (they were also all SUPER excited by one of our White Elephant gifts, a book of Star Wars Mad-libs). And they are all exactly our age. I'm the oldest of the whole group by one week. The youngest is 24. When we drove home, I was just so happy! I'm so glad that we have friends already!

On Monday, I had my first day of work. I was nervous, but I think it went really well. I helped out in the 3-year-old classroom, the "Oaks." The teacher in there was really nice. She's newly married, 24-years-old, and she is an amazing teacher. She was very encouraging to me as well, which put me at ease right away. I did my best to observe her closely and learn as much as I could.

I worked again on Tuesday and Thursday, working in several classrooms. All the teachers are really nice, and my boss is super fun. Of course, there is never a shortage for funny conversations when working with children. A couple of stories from my first week: (Names are changed to protect the innocent =)

A sweet little boy was quietly asking for his mommy while sitting next to me. He has such a cute voice and drops his r's, which just melts my heart. I tried my best to console him and redirect his attention to something else. Just as I began to cheer him up with another activity, another little girl in the class joined us (she happens to be a lot younger and louder than the rest of the children, and though she is sweet, tends to get on their nerves). She started repeating rather loudly "I want MY mommy" over and over and over, in our faces. About the 10th time, the little boy couldn't take it anymore and shouted (dropping his r's) "SA-WA! YOUR MOMMY ISN'T HEE-UH!!" This cracked me up all week.

The next story involves the same little boy. It was close to the end of the day, and he got bonked on the head while playing with some of the kids. I sat down to comfort him and place him on my lap. He was really sad, so I asked if he liked songs. "Ya." -Sniffle- "Do you want me to sing jingle bells?" "No... I like Star Wars." He began humming the theme song and I joined in. So I sat on the floor, cradling a 4-year-old in my lap and humming the theme to Star Wars. Practice for soothing Nathan's children? Needless to say, my husband thought this was AWESOME.

On Thursday, I got to work in the classroom I will be taking over in January, the "Twigs." They are the 2-year-olds and they are all so sweet! They remind me of my wonderful 2-year-old friends back home: Caleb, Andrew and Toby. So glad I had spent so much time with the little guys in the past couple months back home. It really prepared me for my new job! And I got to hang out with the other two year old teacher, Jimmy. He is super fun and has a great sense of humor. Truthfully, I love EVERYONE at my new job. They are all really nice, great sense of humor, and have been really welcoming. One teacher told me I am a "great new addition." Another told me I should be "a comedienne if working with kids doesn't work out for me." Another told me that a coworker texted her "I love Marie" after meeting me. While I'm not sure about the comedy career, nor the love at first sight, I'm happy to have made a good impression and be welcomed by new friends (especially since my last job was really more like a family).

Friday I started to come down with something, but I had to take my finals for this semester. The finals for the online community college course I have been taking needed to be proctored, so I had an appointment at a local community college to take 4 finals on Friday morning. I really wasn't feeling well, but it was the last day of the semester and I had to take those finals. I took some Dayquil and powered through. After the finals, I got my second wind and did some shopping for the house. It seems everyday we find something else we are in need of: a shoe rack, plastic bag holder, garbage can, bookshelves, and on and on. The most fun store I visited was the local teacher supply. I picked up a book for lesson planning, and I'm so excited to use it!! So I did some shopping, then went to pick Nathan up. By then I was wiped out. Definitely sick.

So Saturday, Sunday, and now today, Monday, I've been home sick. I haven't left our basement since Friday, except to shower and sleep. I wasn't even up for church. Again, I'm thankful for the great food delivery around here. It snowed this weekend and I wasn't up to making myself dinner last night, so I ordered salad and a small deep dish pizza yesterday. I will need to join a gym soon, or all this delicious delivery food will take up residence in my backside. I'm really sad to be missing work today, but I'm trying to get better quick so I can join all my friends tomorrow.  

As for Nathan, he was busy with household projects on Saturday. He assembled bookshelves in the basement and did a lot of sorting. His "man cave" has really shaped up. It's the coolest room in our house and we spend a lot of time together down here. He assembled a shoe rack for me, finished organizing our closet, and even shoveled the driveway for the first time. Then quickly realized we don't have the right kind of shovel. The other driveways look spotless, like a machine systematically removed every scrap of snow. Our driveway looks like a child hacked at the snow for an hour and then gave up. It wasn't his fault. It really was the shovel. And it didn't take him an hour. But now we need to buy a different shovel. Another thing for the list.

Then last night, the guys from our young couples group had a video game party. Nathan went over and played for 6 hours. Needless to say, he found his people.

I'm just looking forward to being over this cold and enjoying Christmas in a couple days.

Winter Wonderland

Well, it's been quite a week.

It was wonderful having so much help from new friends on Saturday and Sunday. The young couples group even invited us to their Christmas party coming up this weekend! It's nice feeling like we are building a community already, espcially since I'm missing all my friends and family so much.

After the crazy move-in weekend, we checked out of our hotel Monday morning and spent our first night in our new home on Monday night. We still had so many boxes in the house and didn't really have any "livable" rooms yet, but we slept in our own bed, warm and cozy, while it snowed outside.

Since we are sharing a rental car, I have been driving Nathan to work in the morning (about 30 minutes away) and then returning to Peoria for whatever I have to do during the day. On Tuesday, I had to return to Peoria for two job interviews, and they both went really well. Both were mid-morning and by mid-afternoon, I had two job offers! It really put me at ease, knowing that I'll have work to go to and people to talk to during the day. Especially, being so far from home. Huge sigh of relief.

Of course, I had to wake up with a horrible sore throat on Wednesday. (I told Nathan on Thanksgiving to keep his illness to himself, but did he listen?!) Nathan drove himself to work, and I hung out in the basement all day. Now, if you have ever been home sick as an adult, you know what a bummer it is to make yourself meals. Not a problem in Peoria!! Let me extol the virtues of home sandwich delivery!! I was tired and feeling like this might be the beginning of a bad cold. Even if we had food in the house, the last thing I would want to do is make myself something to eat. Then there was the weather. It was really blustery and snowy on Tuesday, and if I was feeling 100% I would NOT want to be driving around searching for food. Back in San Diego, the only thing I could have delivered would be pizza, but in Peoria we have a PLETHORA of delivery choices. Even in crazy, blustery, snowy, freezing whether, the sandwich delivery guy was at my door in 10 minutes. AWESOME!!

As you may know, Nathan's favorite food is sandwich. He now orders sandwiches for lunch at work pretty much everyday, delivered to his office. It's his new favorite thing in the world.

Thursday morning, I felt 100% again. I think I was just run down from moving and traveling and cleaning and unpacking. But we had so much to do, so I dropped Nathan off at work and went out on the town with credit card in hand. I went to Wal-mart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, the grocery store, and stopped by my new workplace to fill out paperwork. Phew!! And it was COLD outside. Check out all the snow!

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Though the snow is beautiful and really makes me feel like I'm in a Christmas movie, it is ridiculously cold. I feel like I should be wearing all of my clothes at once. But my weather vocabulary has also quickly changed in response to the cold. Nathan and I were discussing how it has "warmed up" this weekend... at 35 degrees. Who are we?? When has 35 degrees been considered WARM?!

After the giant shopping extravaganza, I spent Friday organizing everything. Our room is pretty much set, until we buy some additional furniture. The basement is looking better everday. The kitchen is almost perfect, we just need a microwave that works. I bought one earlier in the week that was too small, returned it on Thursday for a bigger one, but that one doesn't work. Oh bother. And we have food in the house!! I made dinner on Thursday and Friday night, which was really great. Eating a home cooked meal together in our new house. Very nice.

And I will finish up with an update on my job! I accepted one of the positions. I think it will be the best fit for me. It's at a local preschool, and I will be teaching the 2 and 3 year olds!! How great is that! The owner seems really smart and fun. All the other teachers are fairly young and really nice. I am praying it's as great a place as it seems and that I have a wonderful "work family" here in Peoria.

The next couple days we'll have even more stories for you. On Sunday, we have our young couples Christmas party. Monday is my first day at work. And on Wednesday, Nathan might buy us a car! We'll definitely keep the updates coming!

Moving Day #1

Well, here we are. We checked out of our hotel this morning, and we are officially living in Peoria, Illinois!!

I arrived on Thursday night and was super excited. There were snow flurries when I landed so I flew in with snowflakes!! Friday morning, we met the moving truck at our house. We realized we hadn't measured the 28 feet that the trailer would take up in front of the house... oops. Luckily there was plenty of room between our driveway and our neighbor's without blocking any mailboxes.

Saturday is really when all the excitement began, but I have to back up a minute. Nathan and I don't know anyone here, so he asked a few coworkers if they (or friends of theirs) would help us unload on Saturday. We were willing to pay them. On Wednesday night, the night before I got on the plane, Nathan said he was unsure about how much help we would have. I decided to help out by e-mailing the church we visited on our last trip out to Peoria (Richwoods Christian Church) and see if there were any people in their congregation that would be able to help on Saturday. When we compared notes on Friday, Nathan thought he had 5 or 6 people coming on Saturday and I thought I had recruted 2 0r 3. Uh oh. What were we going to do with all these people?!

Well, Saturday rolled around and we had.... one. Yep. Just one dude. Nathan's buddy from work, JC, came to help us. I think all the other people fell through with random miscommunication and things coming up last minute. Anyway, JC was a great help and between the 3 of us, we got everything off the truck. Here are some pictures:

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As you can see. JC was a big help.

Funny thing we discovered: Nathan asked me to grab his "beanie" for him to wear. JC squinted. "What did you say?" "Beanie ... why what do you call it?" "A stocking hat... stocking cap." So then we wondered, where did the word beanie come from? Stocking hat seems too long, but it makes more sense. Is beanie some how derrogatory? Hm. Midwest-isms.

We got everything in the house, ordered sandwiches (yes, they deliver delicious sub-sandwiches to your home. Nathan is in love.), and relaxed for a little while. We did a TON of laundry and tried to decide where stuff should go. Then we went to the hotel and slept hard.

Moving Day #2

Sunday we got to the house by 10 am and got to work. I wanted to get the kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom moderately organized so we could move in. I started washing all the dishes and running into the basement to wash all our linens and clothes. Up and down the stairs. Phew. Nathan organized all the boxes we had just plopped in the garage. We were expecting a young couples' bible study from Richwoods Church to come help us after lunch, but since no one showed up on Saturday, we didn't know if we should expect one or twenty people.

Then around 12:30 we heard a knock at the door. The first of our crew arrived, and a few minutes later another couple came. Nathan quickly put the 3 of them to work moving all our books into the basement from the garage. Then around 1:00 we heard another knock. The rest of the bible study arrived. Now we had about a dozen people in our house. I couldn't help laughing that poor JC moved all our furniture and a super heavy TV, working for HOURS on Saturday, and now we had a dozen people ready to work. Oh well.

A couple of the girls helped me in the kitchen: washing, drying, and putting everything away. The rest of the crew was in the basement opening all the boxes of books and other basement items and putting them away (sort of). Another guy assembled our twin bed in the guest room. It was all done pretty quickly and with lots of friendly conversation.

They are all in their twenties, married for 6 years or less, and a few of them have little kids. Most of the couples are transplants from around the country. Most of them moved for the husband's job. Several of the guys are engineers, and they all got a little giddy when they saw Nathan's video games (I overheard some excitement about the original Nintendo game system). There was no teasing about our giant selection of Star Wars books since many of them shared Nathan's fascination with the movies. Sounds like we found our people!

One of the girls was holding her baby, and I asked if she was going back to work. "No, I'm retired." I started laughing since that's what I've been saying to people for the past few months. She and I chatted quite a bit, and she and her husband live right around the corner from us. She even invited me to hang out since she's at home all day like me. I am really looking forward to getting to know her.

So today is our first official day in our home. Lots of stuff to put away (and purchase), but I wanted to give you some "before" pictures of the place... so you can be appropriately amazed when you see the finished product.

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