We've moved!

Hi everybody! It's been an absolutely crazy week. The last time I spoke to you, we were moving out of our old house. After we moved out, Erin and I moved in with my parents for a few days and relaxed a little bit. We had a great time! I slept on a real bed for the first time in months :) I rode the motorcycle a little bit and enjoyed the best weather that Peoria has seen in a while.

On Tuesday night, we ordered Godfather's, which is my bestest favorite!!

On Tuesday, we closed on our old house. We met the new owner and his family and they were all very nice people. It turns out that his parents had recently retired to Greenwood, SC, which is just south of Greenville. What are the odds? Erin's car got its first oil change and prepped for the long trip on Wednesday. Wednesday morning, we loaded it up with all of the things that we couldn't pack in the moving truck (chemicals and things).

I spotted this gem in Tennessee. If you can't see it, it is a pink John Deere sticker on an otherwise nice Eclipse.
The trip down was nice...if uneventful. The Honda was a joy to travel in and we averaged between 35 and 40 MPG. Woohoo!

Erin stayed in our apartment for a couple days. Sam loved it there!

Erin's sister flew down to help out with the move.

On Thursday, we went for a nice warm walk down to McDonald's.

After that, we went to Greenville for a walk and for lunch.

On Friday morning, we closed on the new house with Mr. Matlock lawyer guy. Time to move in!


Our truck arrived (Thank the Lord!) on Friday morning, so we came home and started unloading .

Here's our empty new house:

Dennis came to help unload that evening.

Tada!

The Sears guys brought us our new appliances.

Here's our fancy refridgerator. It has an icemaker that actually makes ice. They are funny Korean shaped ice cubes, though.

Our new washer and dryer. They play songs. They barely fit in our laundry closet.

Ashley and Erin....takin' a break.

Now that the trailer is empty, here is our messy livingroom.

We got our Internet, cable, and phone set up yesterday, also. Email me for the new phone number. Hopefully, we will have this house set up for guests soon, so we hope everyone can come down and visit! (not all at once, though). See all ya'll later!

Moving day is here!

Good thing I didn't bring my shorts. Moving day came but the weather was not cooperative. I thought to myself : "Self, it is mid April, the weather should be nice!" I was WRONG! It rained. It snowed. It was below 40 degrees and it blowed. I was not happy! We had so much to do.

Here is the ABF guy bringing our trailer. He was GOOD!!


Here's a before shot of our livingroom

Here's the after picture :)
The trailer was a good size. We were only going to use about 16' of it. They use the rest of the space to haul commercial goods. So far, I have had very good luck with the process. We'll see!


Here's me moving m' stuff.

Here's my dad, helping to put together the puzzle. We packed it all in with few gaps or spaces.


Getting closer! We're making progress, but that's still only about 6 linear feet.


We thought we aren't going to fit it all in. We did, with about 8 inches to spare!!!
Here's our garage when empty. That's cleaner than it's ever been.

Nothing ends a hard day's work like some tacos and Potatoes Ole! brand potatoes from Taco John's. Erin had never been here before so I introduced her to quality west-mex food at an affordable price.


I'm staying at my parents house...which happens to be where my motorcycle is! I took the Krazy KZ out for a ride (mostly to see if it still works after I rebuilt the engine!). So far, it's ridin' smooth. Hopefully, the weather warms up before we leave. We're selling the ol' house on Tuesday and leaving for Greenville on Wednesday. We'll be driving down in time to close on the new house and have some free time. We'll be unloading the same truck this weekend. It should be easier coming off.

Here's a last shot of our first home. It will be sad to leave it, but the new house will be much bigger inside and out. (much closer to a Target)


Josh & Erin's 1st House: 2002-2008

I'm leavin....on a jet plane...I don't know when...Yup - Next week

Well, Friday morning, bright and early....I went to GSP int'l airport to catch my flight to Chicago. I have no problems with flying, but airports stress me out to no end. Just my luck, I was the lucky contestant to be singled out and searched by hand. They didn't even buy me dinner. Nothing like being touched in front of all of those people to increase my stress level.

They must have felt bad, because my seat happened to be in front. I've NEVER sat in the front of a flight!
Look at all of this legroom. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh time to stretch out and nap.


We're gettin ready to take off. There was a short delay before we were allowed to take off, due to some bad weather around O'Hare. Boooo.

We had to take a different route to Chicago, flying through St. Louis, so the flight was 3 hours long. I was so bored!! Because of the way we flew, I had a very clear view of Peoria and Bartonville when we flew over. "Hey hey! There's my house!! Everyone look! it's my house!!" I wanted to find the rope to pull, so the plane would pull over and let me off. Instead, I had to fly up to ChiTown and take a bus all the way back. What a waste! When I finally got to the airport, I had to wait for the Peoria Charter bus to take me to Bradley. The door in the picture kept opening and closing over and over again. It was driving me nuts! Get me out of here!!

When I finally arrived in Peoria, the temperature was almost 50% lower and it was freaking snowing! Saturday is a big day: gotta load up the moving truck! Wish us luck!

Gettin' Ready to Come Home

My last week in GVille has been very exciting! Lots of work to finish up in Newberry and getting things organized for the week of moves, reunions, and house closings :) The weather really spoiled me this week. It finally got to the point where I was considering turning on the AC in the apartment. I have to use the a/c during my drive home, since it's too windy to keep the windows down. Thursday night was Jimmy John's night, so Dennis and I went downtown. We decided to sit outside this time and it was perfect! Something was going on downtown, because people were everywhere and parking was nowhere.

Here is another picture of the Beast rental that I keep complaining about to everyone I know. Yuck. I was so thankful to get my car back on Thursday night.

Here's what I was working on in Newberry this week. We needed 20 new laptops for the assembly line. I had the fantastic task of ordering, unboxing, labeling, and imaging all of these. Somehow, after I received them, I got them done in a day and a half!

We made another trip to Target to find a fancy clothes hamper for Dennis. What do you think about this clock? Think it would look nice in my room?


I went to Subway for lunch this week...had a big meatball sub. mmmmmm. I got burned out on those in college, but I have been craving one for a few weeks.

I was jealous of Curt's rental...it was much nicer than my boat. It was also brand new when he got it. New car smell!!!!!!!!!!

Well, next week is a huge week! I am flying back to IL on Friday and will pack up and sell my old house. Should be a challenging and stressful week and I can't wait for it!

The countdown has begun!

Less than a week until I come back to Peoria! hoo-ray! This past week has been quite exciting. It marked the my (temporary) return to downtown job duties and exciting adventures to North Carolina. I've been making final arrangements to fly back to IL on Friday, April 11th, so that we can pack up the house and close on April 15th. Erin and I will drive back down to Greenvull and close on the new house on April 18th. Should be exciting. I hope to see some friends and family while I am back in town and probably do some motorcycle riding to keep my mad skillz in check.

I worked downtown this week to help finish a project at the county jail. Also, on Friday, I had the great task of visiting all 200 people in city hall setup the new print drivers on their PCs. It was a great way of meeting people and getting a taste of how we interact with the locals. I'll be in Newberry this next week, and then a vacation week, then probably back in Newberry. The first thing I noticed when I returned to the office was that we finally have our new desks! I have my own desk, which I promptly plan to decorate with my easy button.



On Saturday, Dennis and I made a trip to Charlotte, NC to retrieve his car from airport storage. It was very rainy the whole day, but the drive itself was pretty simple: all highway.

Here's my passenger:

It's hard to see from the picture, but the terrain here was very different, but I liked it. It had more of a rolling hills rural feel to it.


Here's where we went for lunch.
I was running out of gas and it was the only restaurant we found, I swear.

Well, it's dry shelter and they do have food here, so I guess it'll do.

While I happen to be here, I'll try there boneless wings with the hottest sauce they have: the "Call 911" sauce. Three words: "What" "A" "Joke". Not spicy enough for me. Booooo.



For dinner that evening, I had some leftover Chinese. MMMMM General Tso's Chicken!!

Later that evening, we went out shopping. At Office Depot, I couldn't resist this picture. "Step Two....Put a rug in a box. Step 3..."

After we got home, we watched I Am Legend.
Very scary and very sad and very good. A++++


Sunday morning, I went to Mauldin United Methodist Church.
It doesn't look like much, but it's just their gym.


Their "Live" service (live, as in dive) was incredible The band was terrific and it was the first service I have attended that I was obviously overdressed. Oh well, when I go back, and I will go back, I will go a little more casual.

Sunday evening we went out to run some errands. I saw this beautiful sunset and had to grab a poor, pixelated picture.


The following is good advice from John Wayne:


The menu at Zaxby's. LoL.


And finally, I had to go back to the laundromat. We were the only ones speaking English, and there were many many people there. I can't wait to do my laundry at home in our fancy washer and dryer.
That's what I did this weekend. Can't wait to hop on the plane and bus. For now, I need to get to bed so I can get up early :( TTFN!