The Queen City: Revisited

I am absolutely itching to travel. It never really goes away, this itch. Fortunately, I was able to relieve it somewhat with a little weekend road trip. Boyfriend and I headed south for a wedding in our old stomping grounds, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The best and worst thing about driving to Charlotte from anywhere west of Charlotte is the time it takes to get there. Driving through the Appalachians is breathtakingly beautiful and arduously slow. Heading out from southern Indiana took us through Brown County, Indiana (beautiful rolling hills, picture-perfect farms, a postcard of Midwestern charm) Kentucky (the beginnings of mountains, Bourbon country, more beautiful rolling hills) , a corner of Tennessee (Branson East, river camping and rafting, even more beautiful rolling hills, seriously cute little towns tucked into the mountains), and a chunk of very western North Carolina (narrow highway twisting and climbing around green mountains).  For most of our drive it rained. Spring, amiright?

After our beautiful but pokey drive, we made it to Charlotte, checked into our hotel, and promptly thanked Priceline for providing us with a beautiful view of the city. Then it was off to meet Charlottians past and present. We were walking distance to all of our downtown destinations for the weekend (Seriously, Priceline was killing it.) The wedding we'd come to town for was beautiful despite a cozy (although I'm sure unwelcome) grumble of thunder and afternoon rain shower. We ducked from awning to awning on our way to the reception in a restaurant above the city, Bentley's on 27. Cocktails should always be accompanied by panoramic views. This is my new rule. Walking just a few blocks back to our hotel was a great way to end the evening. We did venture out of downtown for two very good reasons during our stay though. Cabo Fish Taco and Zada Jane's. 

Cabo Fish Taco and the wonderful weather are the top two things I miss about living in North Carolina. I can't control the weather, but I can control where I eat lunch. Barbecue Mahi Tacos. This midwestern girl cannot think of any lunch not improved by the addition of barbecue sauce. These tacos are one of my favorite meals and it was so nice to enjoy them with some of our buddies from our Charlotte days. They also made sure we made it to a restaurant we'd never been to when we lived in town. We were missing out, you guys. Zada Jane's was our last Charlotte meal of the weekend and it was a wonderful choice. Awesome giant breakfast on the patio for the win. It will be added to the "When in Charlotte" list for next time.  

While I'm still itching for more travel, I loved being in Charlotte for the weekend. It may never be our forever home, but it'll always be fun to go back and remember our couple of years there.

New House Tour Part 2: Less Chaos

So...this is way overdue. Better super late than never? I hope so! Here is what our house is looking like these days. We've lived here a little over a month now and have managed to get a few little things done.

Our individual work areas are coming along. I think they say a lot about us. Here's mine:

Believe it or not, I find all that color and chaos comforting. I love having somewhere designated for all of my school stuff. When piles of binders are toppled over and my backpack's contents have spilled across the floor, I can shut the door and walk downstairs.

Boyfriend though, has a very professional dusty blue and dark wood office. It's sophisticated- even the Rage Against the Machine poster. He's got a menacing bookshelf, heavy with academic miscellany, baseball bobble heads and empty space. Something about not getting distracted, I guess. Huh.

Our guest bedroom is pretty bare, but the bed is made!

The dining room has taken on a multipurpose life much like it had at our old house. The dining room is where more bookshelves go (so many, so many) and where game nights happen, where Boyfriend works when his office won't do, where projects get laid out, and where dinner rarely happens. Here it is:

Our backyard, you ask? We haven't done a single thing...because it has looked like this since mid-January. I know, I know, it's pretty, right? Nope. Three weeks ago it was pretty. Now it's just
a sick joke. Melt.

And because I am that pet owner, here's a cute picture of Arley enjoying our new digs.

Elsewhere!

Quick update: If you just can't get enough of my writing I have wonderful news. I'm blogging for my K-3 Literacy class this semester. It's much different than the writing I do here (academic, coherent, etc.). I discuss articles, books and podcasts about reading and literacy techniques for younger elementary school students. That blog also doesn't include any identifying info (the course requires that we stay anonymous on the web since we're students) which means I'd appreciate if you didn't comment there with a list of everything you know about me. Here's the link.

I do have a couple non-school related posts in the works including a completely out of control list of things we'd like to do to this house while we live here and details about an adventure I had yesterday involving dissecting an old set of curtains for throw pillow fabric! Stay tuned! 

New House Tour Part 1: Chaos

We're officially moved! During finals week last semester we finished (...pretty much started) packing and moved everything to the new house across town. Moving+ finals week= we've had better ideas. Anyway, we survived the moving process with the help of some great friends and a lot of caffeine. We then fled town for the refuge of Kansas City and our families. Who knew that arriving home in an ice storm would be the least of our weather problems this holiday season?

Chapter 2: The Polar Vortex sabotaged our return to Bloomington!
Our original plan was to head back on Sunday but when we found out that I-70 was all snow-covered car accidents, we decided to wait. Tuesday morning we left Kansas City and made it as far as Vandalia, IL before the highway was so icy that we thought better of continuing. Boyfriend, Arley, and I spent the night at the Days Inn in Vandalia. Wednesday we took a little over 6 hours to get from the middle of Illinois to Bloomington. Along the way we saw dozens of cars off the road, overturned semis (one blocking our access back on to I-70 after a coffee stop), a train stopped in an intersection, and beautiful snowy southern Indiana.

But we made it! In the last few days we've made pretty decent progress but it's still pretty crazy around here. Have some evidence of the madness:

There are books on the floor in every room.

Yes, that's a box spring in the living room? Why?

Stay tuned for a more moved-in tour of our progress!