Wednesday, August 21, 2013

I KNOW, I KNOW...I suck at blogging. But here I am! With pictures and everything! So don't be too mad, okay?

Steve and I made it to Ohio, obviously. (I say obviously because I hope that all the people reading this would have heard about our untimely demises had we not made it.) You know how you read that "studies show moving to be one of the top 5 stressors in life, second only to your spouse running off with your fortune and leaving you penniless"? Well, it's true. I am never one to pass up an opportunity for a nap, but Steve is not a big sleeper-inner, and he has slept later in the past two weeks than ever before in history. We are still living out of boxes in some places, we have nothing on the walls (except curtains!), and we sleep on a lonely, bedless mattress, but some things are starting to feel normal.

Instead of boring you with the play-by-play, here are pics from our trip and new place (I will post more pics as we get our furniture and get more rooms arranged, and also an update on school and such soon):

Brea house as we pulled away for the last time. 

Did not realize we would be driving through Arizona...this was the first time we'd driven past Vegas, which was weird. 

Utah sky. 

My co-pilot (also a nectarine hog). 

Nebraska. I'm sure there are lovely things to see there, but we didn't drive past any of them. 

FINALLY!!!

This was after our first of about 11 Target trips in the first three days we lived here. That ottoman was here when we arrived, and other than that all we had was what was packed in our cars. 

The downstairs bathroom was the first (and still, only) room finished. 


Bunny in our yard, outside my office window. 

This is the air mattress we lived on for a week. Steve says we have to keep it for guests, but my preference would be to set it ablaze in the back yard. 

Not one to be discouraged, I bought all kinds of accessories even though there was no furniture to accessorize...

My office, with blue tape to help me decide what size rug to get. 


We're official!!! In Ohio, they hand you your license about 2 minutes after taking a picture. So crazy. (And they didn't make us take the written test! Whoop!!)

Our wonderful neighbors loaned us patio chairs so we could eat dinner on our side table, instead of on the floor like we were picnicking. 

I am making all kinds of new friends. 

It took a week, but our cubes finally came!!! (They were supposed to arrive Monday...they actually came Thursday.)

And then we looked at all of our stuff, and probably took a nap. 

My treadmill won't fit into the basement, and sadly must be Craigslisted. I'm distraught. 

New desk and chair!!! I thought this was all I would need to be able to work, but it turns out that bookshelves are probably more important than a desk. 

Steve started acting normal once we got the TV hooked up. And chairs! We have chairs! One will live upstairs and one in the basement once the couch arrives...which will probably be never, it feels like. 

We went to several Indians games the first week we were here. I have ALL of the Indians and Browns gear from Target. ALL OF IT. 

We live right down the street from the most amazing bakery. AMAZING. 

We got (and put together) bookshelves...still waiting on the media stand. 


Caprese salad with tomatoes and basil from our neighbors' garden. This was followed by dessert of peaches from the farmer's market at the church across the street. 

He's been fairly useless since we got here. This is where you can find him 90% of the time. 

Curtains! Our landlord came over and hung curtain rods for me, and one of the living room chairs arrived. If you stand in this one spot, you can pretend the couch and rug and other chair and everything else is missing. 

More curtains! I hung these myself, with the new drill Steve bought me. This is the reading chair in my office.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Greetings from Omaha! We are checked in and hitting the hay in hopes of getting an early start tomorrow. Here's our pic from the Colorado/Nebraska border.  Tomorrow, Cleveland!!!


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

We made it safe and sound to Grand Junction, CO! We're checked in and our babies are eating dinner while Steve and I wait for pizza delivery. Today was almost exactly 12 hours of driving and we lived through it so we think we'll be fine for the rest of the trip. 

We drove past Las Vegas for the first time ever.

We also drove through Arizona, which I didn't know was part of the trip. 

 We both visited Utah for the first time; it's pretty. 

And Stella missed the memo that Thelma and Louise would never have stolen the last bite of nectarine from the other. 

So rude. But everyone did okay in the car, and we will all five sleep great tonight!

Saturday, July 27, 2013

It's really happening. The moving cubes are here and almost packed and we are now living on an air mattress. T-minus three days...


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's official: Steve and I have a house! It's in Cleveland Heights, walking distance to a bakery we've heard great things about, and a very short drive to Little Italy and about three other areas with restaurants, bars, and shops. It'll be a 10-minute drive to campus, and about a 20-minute drive to downtown (read: Progressive Field, where the Indians play). I don't have a picture of the backyard, but it's so big we might lose Frankie in it. We can't wait to show it to him. The move-in date is August 1st, so once we've unpacked and it's decorated there will be tons of pics of all of that, the backyard, and the neighborhood. 


Front

Living/Dining ("Great") Room

Living/Dining ("Great") Room & Front Door; Stairs to Second Floor Master

Kitchen

Downstairs Bedroom 1

Downstairs Bedroom 2

Upstairs Master

Ensuite Master Bath

Monday, April 29, 2013

Thursday, April 25, 2013

As promised, a post of pics so you can all start getting really excited about coming to visit.

(I did not take any of these pictures. They were all stolen from the interwebs. One day I'll work on my own Cleveland photo journal and you'll know I took them by the much lesser quality than these.)


The Jake (Progressive Field; where the Indians play...Go Tribe!)

Hope Memorial Bridge

Hope Memorial Bridge

Cleveland Browns Stadium on Lake Erie (or FirstEngergy Stadium if you want to be politically correct)

Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art across Wade Pond

Westside Market

Downtown Cleveland from Lake Erie

Little Italy

Ohio City (sorry about the cones; it was still the best pic I could find)

Cleveland has a Gehry building! Peter B. Lewis Building at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western 

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Shaker Lakes Nature Center

Shaker Lakes Nature Center

Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra

St. Theodosius in Tremont