TriHawk

Early this morning Jeremy hopped into the chilled Iowa water to do the first leg of the Tri-Hawk triathlon with a relay team from his class. The boys did awesome- 3rd place!


...and they're off- they were in the 2nd heat

I finally picked him out as he edged the finish

Jeremy didn't look as beat down as some others did coming out of the water- he's still got it
Sam put the team together and rode the cycling leg of the relay

Dan ran the group to the finish with a final time of 1:11:45

So this is how life starts to fly...

We've almost been married for 7 weeks now and life seems to be happening faster and faster. I think the criminal is busyness- it seems to steal time like no other. For the past two weeks I've been working for ACT (the testing company) in their production building.

I must admit I loved being a housewife- I would be perfectly happy cleaning, cooking, running, errands, paying bills, and making sure our home is in order everyday. During my 5 weeks at home I never once felt bored or lazy. Everyday I woke up with Jeremy- made his lunch, had coffee together, spent time on devotions, and then began working down the days to do list. Before I knew it Jeremy would be returning to a perfectly balanced home and wife along with a home cooked meal. It was also easier to do things for other people and entertain. I love this concept- it may seem a bit 1950's-ish, but I see the light on it. Every day I really felt like I was serving in an incredible position- doing a really big important job- and living with complete purpose.

However, there is a little tool called a budget that we've been working on and it has become clear that at this time I need to work outside of the house. With a husband in school, it would really help to have a job with benefits and a way to begin paying off loans. I've been applying for jobs since we got back from our honeymoon and there haven't been too many bites. Then two Thursdays ago I put in an application at The Loft and ACT. The loft was the first mall job I had applied for- I figured it would help to go ahead and get a part time job going while I searched for a regular position. The next morning I got a phone call first from the Loft setting up a noon interview and then at 1130 from ACT offering me an immediate full time temporary position under the same supervisor as the regular position I had applied for. So, I canceled my Loft interview and began work at ACT the following week.

Since then, life has really gone full speed. With rush hour traffic I've been making it home around 6. Then at night time I do the things I would typically do in the morning so that I can leave the house by 8. I pack our lunches, prep for the next nights dinner, pick out an outfit, get the coffee set on a timer, and then before I know it it's time for bed. I treasure dinner time. Jeremy has his first test this week so he's been incredibly busy studying, but he always stops completely when dinner is ready. We both sit down at the table (we have one now!) and share our days. I look forward to this time. I also enjoying sitting down to eat my lunch and thinking about how Jeremy is sitting down to eat the lunch I packed for him. One day when I was running out the door for an interview followed directly by work Jeremy packed my lunch for me and at lunch time I opened it up to find a vitamin, calcium chew, and note among the food :).

I still haven't made complete sense of the whole work situation, but I am trying my best to have ears that listen. I'm up for two full time positions that I should know about by the beginning of next week and I am realizing to even have a job right now is a blessing. Working alongside other temps at work that have masters degrees, 10+ years of experience, and excellent internships but are struggling to find work has made me truly appreciate this. During the first week of work I felt like I was a helping part to a tiny piece in an assembly line and wasn't even being considered for the full time position. I continually reminded myself of Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." There are so many situations where this reminder is incredible. I didn't remember the two verses that followed, but when I looked them up this is what they say: "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." What a pretty promise.

Well, Friday is almost here and it is time for bed.

Goodbye for now from the Land of Corn,

Leanne

Job & 1st Hawkeye Game

Finally a lead in my job hunt! Since we returned from our honeymoon I have been on a constant search for a job here in Iowa. We're fortunate enough to be sandwiched between two great towns for work opportunities, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, so that expanded my possibilities a bit. However, knowing very few people in the area (other than students) there were no places where I had an easy in. I've applied for over ten jobs in the last month, always trying to followup within a week hoping to be more than just a resume in a stack of papers. No such luck until yesterday. On Thursday I applied for a position with ACT testing, expressing my interest also in temporary work. Yesterday, I received a phone call from human resources with ACT that they had forwarded my resume for the full time position and would like to place me immediately in a temp position that is under the same supervisor! It's definitely a start. I go to work this Tuesday.

Sadly, this may mark the end of my stay-at-home wife position. It was a lot of fun to play Martha Stewart while it lasted, but I guess I should use some of my other gifts for a while. It's funny how much work there can be in a home. There's a lot of love to put in it. I know that I've put a full months worth of days into cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and errands and we don't have any kids to care for or animals to clean up after! I never once felt bored while I was at home and it didn't grow old. There's a time for everything though and right now it's time for me to get a job.

In other news, today was the first Hawkeye game of the season! Jeremy is a hawkeye and I married him. According to Jeremy, this means I too am a hawkeye. I can agree to that as long as he'll agree that we are still horned frogs. I'm not a big football fan, so my favorite part about TCU games was dressing in purple. This was a little different than TCU games. Iowa has about 22,000 more students then TCU does- imagine what that amounts to in alumni, staff, family...fans. It was a bit of craziness. A lot of people get up at 6 and 7 am to start tailgating. Jeremy didn't subject me to this- we showed up around 10 am and enjoyed coffee and breakfast at home. Good choice- by the time the game was over we had been out in the sun for long enough and I was glad I had a full nights sleep and coffee under my belt. We won by 1 point- blocking two field goals from UNI in the last 30 seconds of the game! Close start to the season.

Tomorrow we're driving back to Des Moines after church to spend Labor Day with Jeremy's family :). Hope you have a lovely Labor Day!

Sincerely Yours from the Land of Corn,
Leanne

The Grand Tour

IOWA: the only state that starts with two vowels, the state with the highest literacy rate and the greatest number of tornadoes, birthplace of both the "Eskimo Pie" and Herbert Hoover, a state with 90% of it's land devoted to farming, and home of the Bradys! While Iowa is clearly an incredible state to visit, we know that you may never get a chance to come visit. So, here is the grand tour of our condo. Please make yourself at home.

Our living room

Our Kitchen

Guest Bathroom

Jeremy's office

Our Bedroom

Master Bath

Our deck & lovely view of the Maytag building

Our New Home

On August 11th we arrived into the Cedar Rapids airport greeted by Seth and Grace Brady! Not only did we have an awesome arrival but they had already moved a suburban full of boxes up to our 3rd floor condo in North Liberty, Iowa. We were very excited to move in :).

To preface our apartment story you should know that about 6 months ago I sent Jeremy on a hunt all over the area for our place. For some reason there is an overabundance of kitchens in Iowa City with white laminate cabinets with the wooden colored edges (I don't know exactly to describe them but I know they must have been in surplus during the 80s when places around here were built). Please forgive me if you own these types of cabinets yourself- I applaud you for being able to decorate around them! Needless to say, I just couldn't picture turning a house into a home around these cabinets, so my incredible husband used several afternoons between class and studying to view potential places. After a few I would ask the landlord right away what the cabinets were like before sending him. Jeremy's only requests were that it have covered parking and an office for him to work. Never once did he complain about the conquests that I sent him on and he did find a nice place without the cabinets.

We've now been in our place for 21 days and it has really come together! We had a pod delivered from Texas with stored furniture and boxes in it, a moving truck full of things from Maryland, and a few truckloads from des moines and Jeremy's last apartment. It's incredible all the beautiful gifts we have been given for our house. In every room we can look around and be reminded of all our friends and family. I am loving cooking and baking more than ever in our kitchen. We have new pans, pots, knives, and utensils- everything we need to make any recipe we can find. It almost doesn't seem right to me to have all these new, nice things. In college you use hand me downs or the cheapest imitation you can find. You chop everything with the few steak knives that you have and eat with utensils that bend. Each cup that you drink out of has its own unique history. I intend to enjoy these new luxuries to the fullest. This is probably the only time in our life when almost everything is new.

There are a few more major pieces of furniture for us to get- we have a table on its way and our tv is sitting on the floor, but we are fine waiting on some things till a job comes through. We are blessed to have a hand me down leather couch and chair that look very Texas for our living room and to have parents that would drive across the country to bring a bedroom set, tv, and several other things they have saved up.

Our home is just pulled together enough that we can have a few friends over at a time. Luckily, we found barstools at target for just $30 each that look great at the bar so we do have a few seats to eat on. This past week we had two of Jeremy's friends from med school over on Thursday and two others on Saturday to talk football with him and grill. It's fun to get to cook meals for the boys- you always know they'll appreciate home cooked food.

I will post some pictures of our place in the next few days. Yesterday we were talking about how good it feels to come home here. It's still not a place that we personally own and we know that we'll only be here for the next three years but to us it still feels like our first real home- our first place together without roommates that we are making ours.

Yours from the Land of Corn,
Leanne

Our Anguillan Honeymoon In Photos

For our honeymoon we went to Anguilla said like "vanilla" in the British West Indies. We found this place looking for a remote, relaxing, affordable place to go that neither of us had been to before. We left Sunday (2nd) for Baltimore then flew into St. Maarten Monday. We then taxied and ferried over to our island. The water was clearer than any I'd ever seen before and the place was so quiet and relaxed. We stayed at Carimar Beach Club- a set of 24 villas all overlooking the ocean. Another wonderful thing about Anguilla was how safe it felt- Jeremy and I would walk down the street to the grocery store or out to dinner and feel perfectly safe. We ate breakfast and three dinners on our patio and brought lunch out to the beach each day. Other highlights: our boat trip to Sandy Island and Prickly Pear, sailboat races in front of our hotel on Thursday, Jeremy driving a rental car on the left side of the road, dinners out at the fancy and delicious restaurants on the island, and being chased by a barracuda (we found out later they like to follow humans because they think we are large predators they can get an easy meal by staying near). We also made friends with the owners of one of the villas who gave us lots of advice and even drove us to the ferry on our last day. All in all it was an incredible honeymoon and a great way to start married life!
Sincerely Yours from the land of corn,
Leanne

The Wedding

August 1, 2009 was an absolutely beautiful day in Eden, MD. After a week full of showers the clouds parted and the sun shined down for our perfect day. Everything about the day was a testimony to answered prayers and as Jeremy says being in the center of God's will. Here are some pictures to share with you and a link to the beautiful slideshow our photographer made for the Des Moines reception:
http://www.jamesseipphotography.com/tempdowloads/ljslideshow.html