Iowa Insights

We are no longer Iowans (for the time being!)  Brent wrapped up his internship on Friday.  We loaded up the 'ole U-Haul and left Iowa at 3 pm.  After 7 hours of driving, we checked in at the Marriott in Dayton, Ohio.  My drill sergeant husband woke us up at 5:30 to get back on the road.  We arrived in Durham at 4 pm and spend the next 4 hours unpacking and cleaning like crazy people.  We were both obsessed with getting the house back to normal as quickly as possible.  {Having not been lived in for 12 weeks, there were cobwebs, people.}  Poor house.  Then, Sunday morning I jumped on a plane to Houston for a week of work.  I wish that being home for only 12 hours was some sort of cruel joke. ...But it's real.  :-)  I've had plenty of time to think over the last few days, and I wanted to share some of the insights I found in Iowa.

1.  I can live with MUCH LESS than I thought.

It's no secret that I love my home.  I love living in a cozy, homey, cute place.  To me, it's worth it to invest in our home since we spend so much time there.  However, I have lived, survived, and thrived for 12 weeks without my house, furniture, kitchen appliances, decorations, and most of my clothes.  We brought very little to Iowa - our sheets, TV, a few pots & pans, some clothes, and some shoes.  Although I did miss my home in Durham, living with less and in lesser quality than I'm used to has been strangely OK.  I didn't die without wood floors and granite counters, and the plain white walls didn't close in on me.  I have found myself telling Brent on multiple occasions how content I am.  And that's not a lie - I feel very sincerely CONTENT.  I've known for a long time that going to a fancy mall will suddenly trigger a desire for a $15,000 shopping spree for things you didn't want just ten minutes prior.  Similarly, without fancy things in plain sight, it's easier to want for less.



2.  I love my husband so much I can hardly stand it.

Since we were in Davenport only temporarily, I can't say we made many (OK... any) lifelong friends.  The John Deere people didn't really reach out to us socially.  If I lived there permanently, I would have reached out more and initiated some social events.  But the fact of the matter was, we didn't know anyone.  We did find one couple friend eventually, but for the most part, it was just Brent and me.  The two amigos.  And I loved it.  It's also no secret that both of us are introverts, so we love time by ourselves and time together.  No offense to anyone, but Brent is probably the only person I never get tired of.  I mean, never.  It's kind of odd to be honest.  No matter what we're doing, I just love to be with him.  That may be kind of sappy, but its true.  I know first hand that marriage is a series of peaks and valleys.  We've had our share of valleys.  But I praise the Lord every day that we are in a peak and have been for a while.  I felt like this summer brought us closer together and strengthened our marriage since we only had each other to rely on.

3.  I want to serve as a response to God's love for me, not out of guilt.

I tend to over-commit and do things out of guilt.  My life in Houston was marked by one over-commitment after another until I basically drove myself crazy.  That's one reason why the move to Durham was so positive for me.  It was a chance to step back, lower my blood pressure, and make wiser choices around commitments.  I always tend to feel like I'm not doing "enough" (whatever that is).  Moving to Iowa for the summer forced me to slow down even MORE, which was a really good thing.  I had some time on my hands and really no commitments, which had been basically my dream for years.  I enjoyed it, but I had a surprising insight from it.  I finally rediscovered my DESIRE to serve and commit that I had been missing for so long.  Instead of doing things because I feel bad or I feel like I should, I finally slowed down enough and got in the Word enough to where I began to re-understand the immensity of God's love for me in a way that compelled me to want to serve.  For example, I've felt guilty for years that I haven't served in a formal way at church.  They are always lobbying for people to join a volunteer team, and I never have because I just wasn't feeling it, and I didn't want to add one more thing to my list.  While in Davenport, I finally "got it".  Remember that church we visited where the welcome team was so unbelievably genuine and warm and gave us homemade bread?  That one thing inspired me, and suddenly, I WANTED to serve on the welcome team at church.  I felt the impact it had on me, and I couldn't wait to get back to Durham to sign up - as a response to God's love for me.

4.  Every place has a few bright spots.

Confession:  I cried when we first got to Iowa.  I think I already admitted that on a previous post.  It ain't no Durham and it ain't no Texas.  But I have to say... it grew on me.  The summer was SO RELAXED.  There was no traffic and no stress.  Life moved at a slower pace.  There were less options and fewer choices, but that kind of made things easier.  As we went through the summer, we found a few bright spots that we really enjoyed.  We LOVED the walking trail right behind our apartment.  It was literally steps form our door, and it was BEAUTIFUL.  We had perfect walking weather, and we enjoyed our nightly walks.  We also found a few restaurants that we frequented.  There was a great Mediterranean place where we had lunch most Saturdays and a fantastic stone oven pizza place that we ate at (ahem) six times.  I know if we lived there longer I could find more things to love if I looked hard enough.


5.  Getting sleep is worth it.  Every time.

I thought I'd leave you with a funny one.  Some might think this contradicts my #1 insight, but Brent and I have decided that sleep is so important we'll do almost anything to get it.  Especially since we know we will NOT be getting sleep from January on.  We have been married for 7 years, and we've slept in a king size bed for that entire time.  That's a long time to get used to a sleeping arrangement.  Upon arrival in Iowa, we found that they had provided us with a bed somewhere in between a full and a queen (we measured).  We tried valiantly to sleep on this bed (with Blazer) for 3 nights.  I woke up every morning tired, sore, and annoyed.  My arms and legs were literally hanging off the side.  After night three, I picked Brent up from work and he said, "We're going to the mattress store".  I had entertained the thought of buying an additional bed, but never mentioned it because I thought he would say I was being ridiculous.  Apparently, he was entertaining the same thoughts :-)  We ended up purchasing the cheapest twin mattress they had, about the cost of one night's stay in a hotel.  It was pretty funny trying to explain to the salesman what we wanted it for.  We pushed the twin up against the full/queen and put sheets over both.  It's kind of "I Love Lucy" style, but more pushed together :-)  The result is what we lovingly called "JUMBO-BED".  Y'all, it was hilarious.  And glorious.  I slept on the twin part and  Brent slept on the queen/full part.  I've really never slept better.  We decided that the equivalent of one night in a hotel is WELL WORTH it for a summer's worth of sleep.  We're going to donate the mattress to an international student when we get back to Durham.  Here is JUMBO-BED for posterity.

Farmers and Friendliness

This week, I felt a few pangs of homesickness - a pang for my bathtub, a pang (or two) for Mexican food, and a pang for my Durham kitchen. But despite those occasional pangs, Brent and I have felt so content here. I know the Lord is giving us that contentment and peace.  Iowa continues to grow on me little by little, and Brent and I had a great time this weekend.

  

On Saturday morning, we decided to check out the Freight House Farmer's Market. As it turns out, the rest of the Quad Cities had the very same idea! The market was PACKED, and it was AWESOME. It was a big, vibrant, fun farmer's market complete with fruits, veggies, honeys, jams, popcorn, flowers, candy, taco stands, cafes, clothes, dogs, and a playground. We had so much fun walking around looking at all the farmstands and people watching.

We weren't in the market for bread, but I totally would have bought some Praise the Lord bread!

We ate lunch at the farmer's market cafe - freshly squeezed lemonade, sliders, hand-cut fries, and fruit.

I purchased some peaches and tomatoes.

After the Farmer's market, we were already in Downtown Davenport, which we hadn't explored much, so we decided to walk around.

Figge Art Museum - on my list to visit soon

Riverboat casino - NOT on my list to visit soon

Skybridge across downtown

View of the Mississippi

This morning, we had the coolest thing happen to us at church.  {Now we're transitioning to the "friendliness" part of this post.}  We've been checking out churches in the area each week.  We're not looking for a permanent church home since we're only here for 12 weeks, but we want to find a place to worship and maybe meet a few people.  This morning, we went to Bettendorf Christian Church.  It was a smaller church, but not tiny.  Everyone seemed to know each other.  After the service, everyone was milling around the lobby, visiting.  Brent and I are not exactly experts at small talk, so we glanced around and headed for the exit.

We were literally pushing the door open to leave when this woman RAN up to us (almost out of breath) and said, "Wait...I'm sorry, but I don't know that I've seen you here before.  Have we met?"  We stopped in our tracks and said, "Well, no... this is actually our first time, and we're new to the area."  Her face lit up, and she wanted to shake our hands and guide us over to the welcome table to give us a gift.  She said, "We have so many things going on for young adults like you!" 

At the welcome table, we were greeted by two more ladies who wanted to give us all kinds of information about the church and what it had to offer.  They were so, so nice.  They handed us a gift bag, and as we turned around to leave, the head pastor was standing right there, waiting for us to finish talking to the welcome ladies so he could talk to us.  He wanted to meet us and told us over and over how glad he was that we were there. 

Five minutes later, we left with the biggest smiles and walked to the car.  We were both like, "WOW!  That was like the friendliest church EVER!"  We could not get over the fact that the welcome lady spotted us in a very full lobby and knew right away that she didn't know us.  Then, she CHASED US DOWN to make sure we were welcomed.  How many people would do that?  I can't say that I would.  I just saw so many people there full of the holy spirit and so many people who clearly loved the Lord so much that it came out in their service. 

... and then I opened the gift bag.  Y'all, there was an entire loaf of homemade banana bread in there.  It almost brought me to tears, and it makes me smile so big right now.  There is some lady who bakes loaves of bread every single week to hand them out to strangers who are visitors at church.  I want to be that lady!!!!  I want to make bread for strangers!!!  I want to know people at church so well that I can spot a visitor a mile away!!!  About 3 pm, we got a personal email from the head pastor, welcoming us again.  WOW.  Those old ladies and that pastor definitely gave me an example to aspire to, and it just reminded me how BIG of an impression a small thing can have.  It also reminded me that people are the most important part of a church.  I think we'll be going back just because the people so radiated the love of Christ.  And that's something I won't soon forget.  Texans are friendly.  North Carolinians are, too.  However, no one but an Iowan has EVER tracked me down to give me a homemade loaf of bread for the sake of Jesus.  Just sayin'.

Quad Cities Week One

It's been a great first week in the Quad Cities!  We had a really fun weekend checking out the area, and this week it's been pretty much business as usual with work for both of us.  Though it's not Durham by any stretch of the imagination, we have found some fun things to do!

On Saturday afternoon, we visited a place that we spotted on Day 1, Lagomarcino's.  This place had me at hello.  Lagomarcino's is an old time ice cream parlor and soda shop.  Their tag-line is "travel back in time at Lagomarcino's", and I have to agree!  It was SO COOL!  It's been family owned and run since 1908, and they carry all kinds of old-school lunch counter food, sodas, sundaes, shakes, and homemade candy.  It was a fabulous weekend treat.

The adorable street view

Lunch counter & soda fountain

The tile floors, tin ceiling, mahogany booths, glass candy cases, and Tiffany lamps are all original!

We tried the famous hot fudge sundaes.

I mean, how cute is this place?

That night for dinner, we tried a Thai place we had our eye on called Lemongrass.  It was SO CUTE and modern inside!  I do not understand why there was a 1.5 hour wait at Chili's and Texas Roadhouse, but this place had only 10 customers and no wait on a Saturday night.  Oh well... more for us.

Brent had the old standby - Pad Thai, and I had Gra Pow - ground chicken in a spicy garlic sauce with green beans, green peppers, carrots, and onions and topped with a fried egg.  It was truly delicious!

After dinner, the weather was beautiful, so we went and walked along the river.

On Sunday, we tried out a church we found driving around:  Harvest Bible Chapel.  We actually loved it!  We put on the visitor card that we're new here and don't know anyone, and a pastor personally called me this week to introduce himself and welcome us.  Very nice.  I've also received calls this week from my sweet friends and my sister, all of which made my day!  Life is good!

Things the Lord is teaching me this week:

• To enjoy my friendship with my husband and not take it for granted.  I'm so, so glad I get to be here with him and see him every morning and every evening.  I love going to new places with him, and he's truly my best friend.  I love all the little things we do like drinking coffee, taking walks, watching TV, playing Words With Friends, and going to bed at the same time, so I'm trying to enjoy and savor them.
• To live in the moment.  When I first got here, I cried a lot, and the time here seemed to stretch forward infinitely.  I've always been one to look forward to the "next thing", but I feel God telling me to just rest in the here and now.  He has relieved my mind from thinking too much about the past or future, and let me focus on now.  Yesterday I was even like, "oh yeah!  We have a great house back in Durham!"  I hadn't even thought about it for a while :-)

Green and Yellow are the New Black

The nomadic Norwoods have moved again!  Last week we packed up enough clothes and stuff to survive for 12 weeks, and we hit the road.  We drove through Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and finally Illinois and Iowa over the course of two days.  We are now official (temporary) residents of Davenport, Iowa, one of the "quad cities".  It's been a little stressful and a little disorienting, but we are settling in and doing better and only missing Durham a little / a lot :-)  Brent starts his summer internship tomorrow, and he's excited to meet his co-workers at Deere and get started on his project in the forestry division.

Here Blazer says, "Are we moving again mama?"  as we cross the bridge to Davenport over the Mississippi River.

On Saturday we moved in and unpacked as much as our addled brains and tired bodies would allow.  We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse perhaps seeking comfort since we haven't eaten there since college and perhaps because we know nothing about this town and that was the easiest place to eat!  After collapsing in bed from exhaustion, we woke today to breakfast at Panera.  Fueled by coffee, we took a little driving tour of the Quad Cities to begin to get our bearings.  We found the downtown area of Moline where the focal point is... what else?  The John Deere Pavilion, of course.

It's basically a John Deere museum with tractors inside and out.  Here is Brent with a wheel taller than him and me with the Deere deer.

Here's a close-up of a high-tech tractor (they all have GPS and some cost over $510,000!!)  and the mighty Mississippi flowing through the Quad Cities.

We drove through the John Deere worldwide headquarters where Brent will begin work tomorrow!

After lunch at home, we ventured back out to the John Deere Pavilion since the museum part was closed in the morning and we could only look outside.  It was pretty cool to see all of the historical and modern John Deere products and get a little history.

When we were done with the John Deere Pavilion, there was nothing more to do but go home!  Kidding... sort of.  I'm sure there are plenty of other things to do here, but we're still in the process of finding them. 

In the spirit of keepin' it real, you get a peek inside our summer digs!  Our apartment is, um, basic.  Think 1973.  There is not a plethora of rental housing here, and Deere does put us up with furnishings for free, so I won't complain TOO  much.  My mom insisted that it would be "Katie cute" in no time, but I am pretty sure that is not gonna happen since we only brought the bare minimum and ONE decorating item which you will see below.

Here's our lovely kitchen.  The only decorative item I brought was my "Serve the Lord with Gladness" plate for the kitchen next to the coffee pot there.  It's a pretty important reminder I need daily, so I opted to bring it.  To the right you'll see our lovely master bedroom.

Here you see our living room.  We're going for the minimalist look.  And didn't you hear? Vertical blinds are back in style!  No?  Maybe that's just here.  Last (but certainly not least), our breakfast area / dining nook / home office.  Charming, no?

All kidding aside, this is our home for the summer, and though it's not in the five star range, I'm grateful for it and grateful I can be here with Brent.  I wouldn't want to be without him!  All day long I've been telling him how much I love him and what a great husband he is - because it's true.  I am optimistic that I will find some fun things to do here and the town will grow on me.  If nothing else, I will get some work done, read a lot of books, and hang out with my hubby.  I can sense the Lord is going to teach me a lot.

Stay tuned for more adventures from America's heartland as the Norwoods go Midwest!!