Greetings from DBQ

The Kruse family has officially migrated to Northeast Iowa.  We've been here for just over a week and the prominent theme seems to be:  Wow.  This is a heck of a lot more overwhelming than I anticipated.  Because we Kruses are used to moving.  We move a lot.  Ask our friends who have helped us move our heavy furniture all too often.  But I didn't anticipate the toll it would take on me to move across the state.

Don't get me wrong.  I think Dubuque is pretty stinkin' awesome and perhaps Iowa's best kept secret. It's even more gorgeous here in the summer than what I thought it was in the winter.  I love the diversity of the architecture, and I love the steep hills, cliffs, and trees that are peppered within the town and on the edges.  I think the evenings and mornings are more crisp than Central Iowa and I'm in LOVE with my back deck (where (I'm writing this now) in the evening.  

But I'm also homesick.  I'm homesick for Ames, which feels like it is laid out more on a grid and I don't get lost every day.  I miss my friends.  And even if days and weeks past between visits with my friends in Ames, I didn't realize how even proximity can make you feel closer to someone.  We've been gone a week and I feel so distant.  Of course that could also be in direct relation to my extended-Facebook fast that I've got going as well.  But I think Facebook would make me even more homesick, truly.  

I've been striving in the past week to set some things up that would make me feel more like I'm making a home here and less like I'm on a strange vacation.  Here's what I've done so far:

1.  Shop at Hy-Vee, Wal-Mart, Fareway, Aldi's....in other words, shop where the inside of the store doesn't feel so strange.  I've tried to explore new territory as well.  Between Kennedy Mall, Asbury Plaza, and all of the other businesses in the area I can't think of much that I'm really "missing"  (other than The Cafe in Ames.  Love that place.  Oh, and a drive-through Starbucks.  That's been an adjustment, but probably a positive one for my bank account.  

2.  Morning walks.  Sam and I get up each morning at about 6 a.m. and go for a 30 minute walk together.  Not only is it a healthy start to our day, but it's time that I prize with just him.  Not much could make me more eager to get out of bed at 6 a.m. than imagining the genuine smile on his face when I brush his cheek in the morning to wake him up for our walks.  

3.  Pool passes.  Pretty awesome deal, and a pretty easy way to spend my afternoon.  We have options to go to two nice city pools, passes for the entire family only cost $94 dollars.  Sam and Noah spent their first day climbing up the steep stairs to two water slides that dump them into a 3-foot pool of water.  They did this for two straight hours.  They were exhausted at night and fell asleep pretty quick.

4.  Speaking of sleeping, it's been an adjustment to have all three of our boys share a small bedroom.  It looks more like summer camp or military barraks in their bedroom than an actual bedroom, but they don't seem to mind.  To get them to sleep at night I've been reading to them every night until they fall asleep.  I love this time with them.  I love watching them drift off to sleep and I love that they love that time as well.  

5.  Planting.  My mom came last weekend to visit (hooray!) and we planted a few things.  Most things were better planted in pots (there seems to be a lot of rocks in our garden areas and not much soil), but still, it was nice to bring some new life around our new house.  We planted a variety of flowers in the front in pots, placed some potted roses in the ground, planted some zuchnii in our back yard along with some "flower rockets" (probably a scam but they were cheap), a couple of strawberry plants that probably won't survive, and some peppers and tomatoes in topsy turveys that I hope turn out well so that I can make salsa and spaghetti sauce.  I also have some herbs I'd like to get planted this week.  I'm not a green thumb so we'll see how this all goes...

6.  Exploring.  I've been trying to be good natured about how many times I get lost.  (Really, these streets don't make much sense) and I've decided to think of it as exploring.  So far we've found what I think is a monastary, a beautiful (and free) arboretum and gardens owned by the city, and a bunch of neighborhoods that I don't think I could find again if I tried.  I've done some on-purpose exploring as well.  We've found some parks, Sam loves it if I cross the bridge over to Wisconsin or Illinois for fun (he thinks going to different states is a big deal), went to Galena with mom (LOVE it) and also explored Eagle Point Park (again, LOVE it, and a pretty amazing view of the Mississippi.  I'm overly impressed with Dubuque's parks system.  God created all that they're preserving and showing off, but I'm proud of them for being so caring of their parks and making them affordable and accessible.  

Well, that's all I can think of now. Except I do want to say that today I got a really pretty stamper in the mail with my new address on it and I don't know who sent it to me.  SO, if you sent it to me, THANKS!  I love it.  In a week or so I'm going to dig out my Cricut and make thank-yous that are past-due from my graduation party and also make some stationary so I can get into some snail-mailing.  I'm excited to use my new stamper in these efforts!!   A lot has happened in just one week.  Below I'm posting a few pictures of our new digs. 

Our back yard and new deck.  Michael is the super mower.  I don't have a good picture of our hill in our back yard
but props to him for having to mow it all summer.  

Front of house before I did any planting.  

The pots mom and I planted, the other plants (which aren't doing so hot) were planted prior to our moving in.  

One of the pots.  This was the first time I actually planted something this way.  It was pretty fun, I hope they don't die...

The roses.  They probably won't grow very big or super well because we had to leave them in the pots.  The ground was too rocky, not much soil in there.....

This area was overgrown.  I actually didn't know there were tiers back there.  Michael and took out what was growing back there and I'm attempting to grow zucchini (random, I know) and some flowers.  I didn't take a close up because I didn't feel like climbing the steep incline to get to it...

My topsy turveys are hanging from the deck..  I planted tomatoes and salsa peppers.