Bread.....It's serious business!

I"m not sure if I mentioned before that the bread here is less than wonderful. I'm not sure if I just got spoiled by having so many awesome bread options living in Seattle or if the bread is just truly NOT GOOD here. I equate it to eating sawdust (yes I know what sawdust tastes like). So we were blessed to be sent a bread machine and I have started baking bread in the machine and by hand. Last week as you know I made French bread. It was French yummy!! We have also started making croûton (my fav!) with the older pieces of bread.

My First Loaves of French Bread!

Yummy Yummy Croutons!

Yay Yay things are on there way!!

So when I got home from the coffee shop guess what had been done? The carpet people showed up ten minutes after I left and then the cleaning people showed up too. So we FINALLY have new carpet. There have been several other things that have happened since then so on to that.

We have had several really great or bad thunderstorms since we have moved here. According to weather.com we are 14 inches over the predicted rainfall amount for the year. Can I just say that these are not rain storms they are flash floods. On minute everything is nice and the next minute BAM I am watching a river run through the front yard and yesterday everything that was on the back porch almost ended up in the neighbors yard. I enjoy them for the most part but we have lost power several times (since we live in rural NOWHERE) so we now have candles and lighter strategically placed around the house.

We have started to plan out our meals so we took the 3 hour drive to Costco in Des Moines, IA and stocked up on food for a month. We also went out and purchased a standing freezer for the food since everything rots so quickly here. NH was very proud of me because I have food issues and I have been doing well with them. What food issues do I have? Well first I have very sensitive taste buds and I can usually tell when something is about to go bad and so I have refused to eat ANYTHING past it's expiration date and secondly I have issues with eating leftovers. I just don't like them. But since we are now dirt poor I have eaten left overs and yesterday morning one of our bagels that we just bought at Costco had 3 tiny mold spores on it and I picked those off and still ate the bagel. NH was super proud! LOL

Anyway, when I woke up on Tuesday morning I noticed that the fridge was not working and the freezer had almost completely defrosted. I panicked since we bought so much food. Called the wonderful landlord (sarcasm inserted here) and they luckly sent someone over THE SAME DAY. Miraculously the fridge started working about an hour before he showed up but apparently there was something wrong with the hinges that he could not fix so on Thursday we got a NEW FRIDGE. I must say I was shocked! BUT NOW I"M SUPER HAPPY.

So what else has happened this week. I have started searching for a job and it's not been easy. I baked french bread (pics to come). NH parents found us a 200 dollar bread machine for 21 bucks and shipped it to us.

NH started medical school yesterday and have the white coat ceremony this morning. I'm officially a future Dr's (insert title here). LOL

School officially starts on monday and its going to be grueling. I hope that I can not be selfish and demanding (I know it would be totally out of character to be.. ;-) ) and be super supportive.

So far around the house I have seen 2 cardinals, a frog that hangs out on the kitchen window and a bunny in the front yard. Not bad I'd say.

Trek to Misery!!

So here is the update of how our move from Seattle to Portland to Missouri went.

First we had way more crap than we thought we had. I of course over reacted and was histerical! We picked up the 24 foot moving truck and the full car trailer on Monday morning. Took it to the house and unloaded the trailer. We then went to the storage unit where the majority of NH's stuff was and loaded the truck, no problem (expect it was ridiculously hot). While we were out we missed the comcast pick up! When we got back I proceeded to get one of the worst migraines I have had (in true fashion) and had to sleep the rest of the day and night while poor NH was stuck loading the truck. Only after another meltdown!

On Tuesday things were looking up. I felt better and we got started loading right away. I thought it would only take a couple of hours and we would be on our way to Portland to spend time with Mom and Mo and the girls. NOPE.... 12 hours later (9 hours of loading and 3 to clean) we finally hit the road and 9pm and rolled onto Mom's block at about midnight.

On Wednesday we loaded all the stuff from Mom's house (including the stuff I inherited from Carleen) and then I went with Mo and we got our Memorial Tattoo (which is really cool btw) then we went out to dinner and it was nice. Went home and I proceeded to try to finish all the school work i had (did I mention I"m still in school fulltime and it was FINALS week) only to have a few meltdowns in the process . What a tard I am... But with the help of Stephanie, I did it!!

We left on Thursday morning, a little later than expected (who would have thought that we were tired and needed to sleep). We stopped closed to Oregon City so that I could say goodbye to my only friend in Oregon. I had NH park the trailer in a church parking lot. After visting we proceeded to almost get stuck in this parking lot. Turns out its much harder to back up a trailer. So after I lost my mind, my temper and my will to live (slight over exageration) On the road we finally were!!

We had purchased Walkie talkies so that we could comunitcate and still drive and not break any laws. These worked out very nicely!

Thursday night we stayed in Twin Falls and slept like logs. I forgot to mention that I drove the Jeep which contained the two cats and Daphne the mini daschund and we trailered my car.

Friday morning we were off again. Top speed 55 mph unless we were going up hills then top speed was 35 mph... We were FLYING!! So the maps said that our journey for the day (goal was Laramie, WY) would only take 9 hours. During the drive, Huntress decided to visit me in the front seat and jumped down to where the pedals were and the car stalled on the highway while i was going 55 mph. It was ridiculously scary and after I figured out how to move to the side of the road and get the Jeep working again. The animals were not allowed up front. Thirteen hours later we rolled into the Super 8 were I apparently booked a smoking room (yay asthma). We snuck the dog into the room in our bag and again passed out!

Saturday morning our walkie talkies stopped working. UGH. We fueled up an intown gas station where we proceeded to get stuck!! I don't mean just pinned by cars. The turning radius was bad on the truck especially with that stupid trailer and we jack knifed the trailer on the island that blocks the fueling machines. So after about 30 mins of backing up and turning and screaming and almost crying (from both parties) we got the trailer free and vowed to ONLY stop at Semi fueling stations. Back on the road traveling through Wyoming, we stopped at Little America and got ice cream cones. And I think I only had one meltdown this day. Saturday night we stayed in Lincoln, NE.

Sunday morning NH took Daphne out to go to the bathroom and when we was putting the dog back into the car. Sinatra (the other cat) bolted out of the Jeep and Steph proceeded to chase her around for about 5 mins until she ran up under the Jeep and decided the safest place for her to be was in the ENGINE!! Steph ran up to the room and got me and after about 45 mins, 6 bottles of water and lot of poking and tugging I was able to dislodge the cat that had wedged herself completely into the engine. We were covered in grease and I of course was crying (ridiculous) and then we were off!! We drove until we got to Kirksville.

We got into Kirksville about 3pm central time, called the landlord to be able to get into our duplex and had to leave a message. No one called back so we rented a room and passed out again.

Monday morning we called (3 times) to the landlord before my temper exploded and I made NH drive us to their office. Once we got the keys the landlord proceeded to tell us that the previous tenants had destroyed the living room carpet (and it was destroyed, torn and dog feces and urine stains all over it) and that the earliest someone could come out and replace it would be Thursday! WONDERFUL!!!

The moving truck had to be back by Tuesday morning so we had no choice but to unload the truck. Turns out that it was 96 degrees outside with humidity of 78% (i.e. which makes the heat index about 106 degrees). So in true fashion, I got severe heat stroke and puked for most of the day (in between moving things in the house). So we put all the things that were in tubs on the back deck and most of the boxes that were meant for the downstairs in the kitchen. The furniture was not set up more like just tossed into the living room. Luckily the house is air conditioned and when we finally went to bed at 11pm we slept great.

So Wednesday morning we were supposed to get the internet set up so that I could still do school work (that didn't happen), now it's allegedly going to be set up tomorrow. So I have to go to the local coffee shop the use their internet and let's just say we have had massive computer problems and many many more meltdowns. Poor NH, i'm just a lunatic!

We called the landlord to find out what time the carpet people were coming so that we could move the furniture out of the living room and to find out if they were replacing the carpet in the whole house since there are pee spots up the stairs and in the hall way. The landlord said they were just replacing the carpet in the living room and they would now be there on Friday after 1pm and that they would have the carpet cleaning people come out on Monday. (WTF!!!)

So Thursday night we moved ALL the living room furniture into the Kitchen (2 couches, 2 chairs, entertainment center, bookshelve and T.V.). We made a path to the fridge and to the utensil drawer but otherwise the kitchen is non functionable. Friday came and I waited until 3:30 to call the landlord since the people hadn't shown up. I called to find out if there was a more accurate time frame of when these people are showing up and after calling EVERY single phone number we have for them all she could say to me was well they haven't told me they are not coming so I assume they will be there. We waited (up in our bedroom since that is the only functional room left) until 630 and when they didn't show. We called the landlord again, I should said I made NH call because I'm sure explatives would have come out of my mouth! She said that she would call them and find out what happened and that was it!!!...*&#(W@.... So we moved the 2 chairs, the entertainment center and the bookshelf and T.V. back into the living room for the weekend.

Saturday we went to the farmer's market(which I was super excited that they had). Turns out that a bunch of Amish people liver here and they brought there vegetable ( I should clarify vegetables). Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Small zuchini, tomatoes, and a couple of extra vegetables. We went to one table were the guy was pretty nice and then went to another table where we wanted to get green beans, mini potatoes, onions and green peppers and the people (3 men and 1 women) that were running the booth COMPLETELY ignored us and infact the women walked to the other side of the stand to talk to the 2 other gentlemen ( i use this word lightly) just so she wouldn't have to help us!. If you don't want my MONEY FINE!! *&@(*#@^$^

So I'm now not going to be nice next Saturday!!

Which brings us to today... I waited nicely until 10am to call the landlord (I was up at a quarter to 7) and she acted like she had no clue what I was calling about. So she called back while I was in the shower and talked to NH.... Apparently the carpet cleaning people did not have us on their list today for cleaning and they are currently cleaning the ENTIRE Super 8 Motel and will see if they can squeeze us in and she is not sure about the replacement people but thinks they are coming today.

So here I sit in the coffee shop, doing homework and writing emails. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!