Walking Home

So out here in Iowa we get AMAZING thunderstorms and the rain just pours! They are really fun to watch because you can see forever since there is nothing to really obscure your view....like mountains, or even a hill, for that matter. So, you can see these amazing thunderstorms that seem like they are right there next to you, when in fact they are miles away. They can also come on very quickly and just down pour like a monsoon. It's nuts!

So I was at work the other day (I work downtown by the university) and there is virtually NO PARKING. Needless to say, I am perfecting my skills on parallel parking. In order to get to work I have to leave an hour early just so I can find a parking spot 6 blocks away so that I can walk 6 blocks to work and get there in time. I actually don't really mind the walk, seeing as though it is the only excercise I am getting these days and holds as a good excuse to justify my lack of exercise. But yesterday, I found myself forgetting that I am in Iowa, and it is the Fall. I got off work at about 7:00 that night and gathered my things to make the trek to my car, and right as I got to the door, I noticed it was raining and I had no umbrella. I waited for a few minutes to see if it would let up. It didn't. I decided to just take the plunge. It really wasn't that bad for the first 1/4 of the trip and then it decided to just hammer down. I started to pick up my pace and run, but really, I was not even half way to my car so I knew there was no avoiding it. When I finally got to my car I was DRENCHED! It was really quite the show to those sitting out on their porches watching me frantically try to find refuge from the monsoon. Yet another lesson I have learned being out here. ALWAYS, carry an umbrella in the Fall because you just never know when that drizzle is going to turn to a flood.

Tornado Warning

I was sound asleep in my bed this morning and was awakened by this shrill siren going off outside. I had no idea what was going on. It lasted for about 2 minutes and then came on once again! I was terrified because their I am in my pajamas, alone in a home without a basement, Brian is at school, my phone won't work and I think I have just heard sirens for a tornado warning. Oh yeah-just to top it off last night we had a terrible and severe rain and thunder storm, confirming my concerns. I have no idea what I am supposed to do. So, I run downstairs and manage to get the internet up to see if their is anything in the headlines. I can't find anything so I google it. Sure enough, I find it was indeed a tornado warning....that they routinely perform the first Monday of the month--granted that their is not occasion for a real alert. I check the weather just to be sure and find.....nothing alarming, thank goodness! Geeze, scare the bejeebers out of me! I did however take the opportunity to read up on a few tips about what to do in the case of a real tornado warning so that next time I won't be so clueless.

Our Humble Abode

Here are some photos of our new home that we were able to purchase out here in Iowa. We absolutely love it and have had so much fun decorating, painting, and getting things into place to make it our own. It is a split level entry home but really designed very well so we don't really mind it. We really like the area that we are in. The neighborhood is really nice and quiet and we have a lot of walking and biking trails around us.

This is a view from our deck into our backyard.

This is our Family room! This is our dining area. The family room is to the right and the Kitchen is to the left. You can also see a glimpse into our bedroom and bathroom from here. the red accent wall extends into the kitchen. Tha was a bugger to paint. It took us a primer and three coats of red to get it the color and coverage we wanted. But in the end it turned out grat and we love it!

This is our kitchen! This is our bathroom. You can't really tell in the picture but we did paint it a light yellow it is the exact color that the lighter stripes are in the nursery below.

This is our bedroom. We painted it sage green and hopefully soon it will have a quilted bedspread that Joan is making for us that is absolutely beautiful! The room below to it is the nursery to be...no there is not an announcement...but someday we hope to fill it with a sweet little Mindy or Brian. This is mine and Brian's favorite room. It really turned out so much cuter than we anticipated, But holy cow it was a ton of work. I knew I wanted yellow stripes but we came up with the final design by accident with a little input from Brian, Joan and myself! It was a good thing that I had Brian around though, because I could not make a straight line with that tape if my life depended on it! But, we finally made it through it. My giraffe colored pencil from high school is what I think I want to design the room around. I haven't decided whether to go with just a giraffe theme or whether to extend it to zoo animals, but I still have time so no rush!


This is our basement family room or living room off of the garage entrance. The sliding doors lead into our backyard with the pond. This is Brian's study, or what I like to call it Brian's Dungeon, because once he emerges into there ther is no knowing when he will come out. However, it really is nice to have a place in the basement for Brian to get away from the noises of upstairs and focus on his studies. It is really nice as well because he has a great view of the pond from his window at the desk which makes it nice for him.

And finally this is our bathroom downstairs. We just painted the one accent wall red and it just happened to work great with the decorations I had for our bathroom when we were first married. I couldn't use them upstairs becase they just didn't go with my decor in my room, so I was glad to be able to use them downstairs.


As I said before we are really enjoying our new home and are SO GRATEFUL for all of our family that helped to make it possible for us. We really fell so blessed and fortunate to have such a wonderful home. It is a great feeling to have a place you can call your own and we couldn't be happier with where we are.

This Year's Fun Events

Our New Life

Brian and I are really enjoying living here in Iowa City, Iowa. There have been so many changes for us in the last few months that things have been a little crazy! Now that we are all settled in things are going great though. Here is a little update with our lives:

I am dying of boredom at the time since we have finally got everything with our new home into place and decorated for the most part. It was fun to paint and have a place that we can call our own. We are truly very grateful to all of our family that has made it possible for us to own our own place out here. We really love the neighborhoood we are in and just have one set of immediate neighbors at the time. They seem like a really fun couple! Our neighborhoood is very safe and is surrounded by quite a few walking trails, a beautiful pond in our backyard and wetland area to the left of us. The bugs are a different story! Our garage is a cricket graveyard!

I will finally start my full time job on Tuesday this next week. I was teaching part time at a Cosmetology school as an Esthetics Instructor but have recently quite there and moved on to the Spa once again. I will be doing the same thing I was back in Salt Lake as far as services go and am excited to get back into the pampering business. I really enjoyed teaching and would have loved to continue but a part time job just doesn't pay the bills. It will be nice to be busy with work once again. I really quite miss it.

Brian is really enjoying school and doing great! He is VERY BUSY but really loves his professors, the school and his fellow D1 students. There are quite a few LDS kids in Brian's group so that has been really fun and exciting. He is already making many friends with the students around him. School pretty much consumes most of his time, but we knew that would inevitably be the case.

New Additions to the Andrew Family

Adrea had her Baby a Month early while we were all in Lake Powell including Scottie! Boede was born on August 3, 2007. We were so happy he came before we left for Iowa though! What a little blessing!


The New Family!


Isn't he Perfect! 5 Lb 14 ounces of Love!


And that's not all! We have been blessed with 2 more additions to our family tree by March! We were so excited to find out that Emron and Harmony are expecting their first in February and on the Anderson side Paul and Corinne will be expecting a little boy in December! We Can't hardly wait! I feel like I missed the boat!