ER...Waterloo Where's Waldo?

After the movers left today, Jay and I decided to play an old fashioned game of Where's Waldo? I have to admit, we had WAY too much fun with this after an exhausting day of moving. And by exhausting, I mean we sat around and did nothing.

Let's start with an easy one. Can you see Jay and I in this moving truck? (If you answered "no" to the previous question, this game is too hard for you. Oh and Jay says you're a dumba**!)

With Jay's man room all packed, he had to sulk somewhere.... can you find him?

It's a hutch. Seriously. Who can be witty about a hutch?

We never knew big red was quite THAT big.

Our garage looks like a college dorm room. Yep, that's foamy the 15 year old couch.

Scrub a dub-dub.

Uh, here's the kitchen. It has never been this clean.

I'm watching you...

Welcome, guests.

We have to sleep in this bedroom tonight. Nothing left but a bed.

And creepy people hiding.


We think we saved the best for last. Let me know if you find "Waldo" in this one.

We hope you enjoyed our version of Where's Waldo. Jay says you need to now go back through each picture to look for the secret items in each. Apparently, he was a bigger Waldo enthusiast than I was as a kid...

Schmitz out.

They're here....

The calm before the storm

It's Sunday night and the house is...silent.

Jay is gone, the dog is gone, and I'm left with just myself.

Inside, everything is cleaned, organized, and stored.

Outside, the lawn is mowed, our WELCOME is down, and in it's place... a SALE PENDING.

The house is ready, the house is dark, the house is quiet.

It's strange, the calm before the storm.

You know something's coming, but can never quite predict what chaos is on its way.

In 48 hours, it will have all blown through, leaving behind nothing.

So, yes, for now, I'm going to sit in my little house, and just enjoy the calm.

Sneak Peak...

T-minus 2 weeks until the big move-in day. (What does "T-minus" actually mean anyway?)

The Mayflower truck will pull up in Cedar Falls two weeks from tomorrow to drop off all of our belongings at our new home.

In the meantime, I'll be in Davenport, teaching kids, going to parties, and writing blogs.

In Jay's meantime, he'll be doing a little...errr...a LOT of painting. Here is a sneak peak at his progress. Isn't he a rockstar?

(Photos courtesy of mom-in-law Vick)

I have actually yet to see this in person myself, so you are lucky to share in the preview. To be honest, I don't like it when people know surprises ahead of me...so you are actually VERY lucky you're getting to see this nearly the same time as me. I'm not sure what I'll think of this all in person, so cross your fingers it looks okay!

Purple Ribbons

A couple weeks ago, I had the chance to take two of my students to the regional ITEC competition in Cedar Rapids. I had blogged about this project earlier, but as you can see, these girls took their project to the next level.

We were all a little nervous as to how they would measure up compared to the competition. This wasn't something our district had ever participated in before.

The girls came back purple ribbon winners in their division (video) and qualified for the state competition next fall.



I won't say much more, as I think the video speaks for itself. I hope that I can meet up with them at state next year.

SOLD!

I was driving home from my grandparents' house on Friday when a little white dog ran in front of my car. I almost hit it, but Dottie was hanging out the car window in my lap, and the dog stopped, intrigued.

I didn't recognize the dog, so I got out to take a look at it's collar. I was only a block from home, so I figured I could return it to a neighbor. I looked, no collar. I petted the dog, and tried to shoo it out of the middle of the street as a big red truck came driving up.

"Is this your dog?" I asked.

"No, but is that your house for sale down the street?" the man driving the truck asks.

"Yes."

Out of the truck pops an excited 23 year old girl wearing a UNI t-shirt.

"I'm buying your house!" she announces.

She had been driving by showing her new house to her family. We proceed to talk more about the house, my neighbors, and her situation. I come to find out she walked through it the first day it was on the market, fell in love, came back the next day, and had just made an offer.

My dad advises me to keep the emotion out of business, but I could not be more thrilled to sell my house to this girl. She reminds me so much of myself 3 years ago looking for my first house. Yah, sure, the house is a little more move-in ready than it was when I found it, but I swear we share the same excitement.



(This is what the house looked like on Christmas Eve when I found it 3 years ago...)

There's something special about buying your first house, and I'm so glad that the person moving in will love it just as much as I have.


Oh, and the dog? I never saw what happened to it. No one saw it run off, but I'm sure it found it's way home.