Of Windmills and Wooden Shoes

Last weekend, Matthew and I visited his hometown of Pella, the second most fun ethnic, touristy community in Iowa (sorry, but I think I'll forever be biased towards Amana!). I've visited Pella with Matt several times in the last eight months, but last weekend was the first time we were there with decent weather. Thus, we decided to see some of the sites:

Our first stop was the Vermeer Windmill, the tallest windmill in the United States.

We then toured the Historical Village.

And then we went to Lake Red Rock, where we climbed the observation tower, took the trail out to the cliffs, and even spotted a fawn.




We also enjoyed time with Matthew's family, including his newest niece, Rachel Johanna, who was born to Dave and Kristine a couple of weeks ago. He now has five nieces!

It was a fun weekend... and now I'm off on another adventure- I'm headed to Seattle tomorrow for a conference for work.

As the Dutch would say, "vaarwel"! (I actually don't know if that's how the Pella Dutch would say it- I googled "goodbye in Dutch" and it came up with several different options). So, maybe I should stay on the safe side, and stick to my German: Aufwiedersehen!

The Last Five Years

This past weekend marked five years of living in Omaha. I remember that I went to Josh and Katie's wedding that Saturday, and then moved to O-town on Sunday. Josh and Katie now have three kids, and I still live here. If you had told me then that I'd not only be here five years later, but love it here, I wouldn't have believed it.

The first few days/weeks/months I spent here were brutal. I will never forget how alone I felt in my empty apartment, watching my parents drive away that first Monday night. I was so scared. Earlier in the day, as I was freaking out about the choice I had made, I remember being silly and making a list of all of the people I was going to miss at home and in Cedar Rapids, and then I made a list of the people I knew in Omaha, and the contrast was terrifying. I was practically counting down the weeks until my one-year lease would be up and I could move back to CR where I belonged. But God had other plans.

A few weeks into living here, I decided to visit a church that caught my eye in the phonebook. And that (gradually) changed everything.

From that church, I have made some of my best friends and met my Matthew. The dynamics of my life here have changed a lot over the last five years, with many ups and downs. I spent a lot of time wanting to leave and go anywhere else. But now I am so, so glad I stayed.

The fact that I'm basically working at the same place surprises me, too. Who knew that one internship at the Nebraska Arts Council six years ago would lead to this?

Five years later, I have five roommates now. Yep, five. Our friends Julie, Cammi, and Meghan moved in about a month or so ago to join me, Charlotte and Aleeta, and it's made life here all sorts of fun. In fact, right now they are all being rambuctious and giggly in the kitchen, so I will blame this dis-jointed blog post on them. I'm a bit distracted as I write, but it's fun. I'm enjoying having so many people around all the time. It's almost like being back in B5 again.

Speaking of B5, Emily got married last month (yeah, I know I still need to work on updating this more regularly!). That makes over half of us married now also in the last five years:

I asked my roommates how I should end this post. It's a toss up between "Good night! Don't let the bed bugs bite!" and "I am done writing now." The end.