Blizzard 2010

This past weekend was one of the five worst snowfalls in Minnesota history. It was an all out blizzard! We were very thankful that since we no longer own a car, we didn't have to worry about shoveling!

Outside our garage, the snow was knee-deep!

This car across the street from our building was completely snowed-in.

Early afternoon

Same car, later in the evening

Without the pressure of having to shovel, we decided to bundle up and take a walk. It was really beautiful!

Perfect height for Sallie!

This bike owner is going to be sorry

Street corner at Laurel & Cleveland

There's a park bench under all that snow

Normally, this would be a sidewalk up to JRC.

After our walk, we noticed a neighbor stuck in our alley, so we grabbed our shovels to give her a hand. We ended up shoveling and pushing her to get her back out onto the street and into a nearby parking lot.

It was a pretty neat experience because there were a quiet peacefulness lingering in the air, and there were so many people outside walking around with shovels looking to help out anyone who needed it.

Apparently, there's nothing like a blizzard to bring a community together!

Back to Blogging: A Title I Am Particularly Proud Of - "Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - "Tragic Ending to our House Hunting Saga"

NOTE: As part of SITS Back to Blogging event, here's one of my best titles (certainly not a blogging strongpoint of mine). This was originally posted on November 4, 2008. We have since moved away from the apartment. :-)

After much back and forth with the City of St Paul, we decided to forego buying a house and continue renting.


Luckily, it only took less than a week of searching on Craigslist to find a fantastic place.

Our new address is:
2254 Benson Ave
Unit E
St Paul MN 55116

We have conveniently relocated to the W 7th area. We're about 10 min from school, 10 min from my parent's house, and 15 min from church. Perfectly located!

We rented a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo from a nice young couple. It's an upstairs condo, and we're nearly completely moved in. Everything's here but not quite unpacked just yet.

Of course, Sallie moved with us. There was no way we were going to give her up. She's way too cute and adorable, so that was one of our criteria in our apartment search. She's adjusted very well to our new place. While we are nestled in between two very busy streets, our condo is located in a wooded area right next to the railroad tracks and lots of other housing complexes. It's very residential, and Sallie loves going for walks.

All Settled In

Well...nearly.

We've still got a few totes in the livingroom. Most of them are empty and just need to be moved out to the garage.

It's really beginning to feel like home.

For those of you who may not know, we recently moved (again). Our new address is:
2057 Laurel Ave Apt 3
St Paul MN 55104

We LOVE our new apartment so much!! It is right across the street from campus, which makes it very easy for us to walk to class or the shuttle to Minneapolis (that's where my classes are). Plus I've been taking advantage of walking to the gym a few times a week to workout. It's been fantastic! I've discovered that my shins can actually handle running on a treadmill. Yeah! I can only hope that one day they'll be able to handle running on the street again. I miss running. Wow...what a tangent!

I've seriously been neglecting this blog, but I hope to get much better...starting NOW! Jeff and I have done lots of fun things this year that have not been documented, so I hope to get some posts up about some of our adventures this past summer (and maybe even earlier in the year as well).

I may not be able to blog every day, but hopefully at least once or twice a week.

Come back soon!!

Who Wants to Work on a Day Like Today? Part 2

We shot this video on our walk the other day.

Sallie loved romping in the tall, dead grass around Crosby Lake. Of course, she did most of the really cute things when the camera was not rolling. :-(

Sorry about the sound. We had no idea how windy it was until we were back home watching this video.

Who Wants to Work on a Day Like Today?

Today was beautiful! I just couldn't concentrate on the Vietnam War, so instead we decided to take Sallie for a walk along Crosby Lake near our home.

Here's Sallie sporting her Urban Backpack. It's the first time since the fall since she's worn it.

I'm ready to go!!

Help! I've got something stuck in my paw!!

Can anyone tell me what kind of bird this is? All I know is...it's pretty!

We finished our walk by hiking up a scary cliff. You'll have to take my word for it, because this picture doesn't do it any justice. This is Jeff at the top.

Tragic Ending to our House Hunting Saga

After much back and forth with the City of St Paul, we decided to forego buying a house and continue renting.

Luckily, it only took less than a week of searching on Craigslist to find a fantastic place.

Our new address is:
2254 Benson Ave
Unit E
St Paul MN 55116

We have conveniently relocated to the W 7th area. We're about 10 min from school, 10 min from my parent's house, and 15 min from church. Perfectly located!

We rented a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo from a nice young couple. It's an upstairs condo, and we're nearly completely moved in. Everything's here but not quite unpacked just yet.

Of course, Sallie moved with us. There was no way we were going to give her up. She's way too cute and adorable, so that was one of our criteria in our apartment search. She's adjusted very well to our new place. While we are nestled in between two very busy streets, our condo is located in a wooded area right next to the railroad tracks and lots of other housing complexes. It's very residential, and Sallie loves going for walks.

Holding Pattern

So...

We are in a crazy holding pattern. We have less than 2 weeks until we need to be out of our apartment, and we have no home. We will be staying with my parents for a short, indefinite time.

The day after the bank accepted our offer on 1323 Randolph, we found out that St Paul, who is financing our house, did not have any money. They will get more money, but they do not know when. As of right now, they are not showing the house to anyone else, so chances are still very good that we will still get this house, which is very good news.

I'll keep you updated!

WE GOT IT!!

I'm very excited to announce that our offer was accepted! Our 3rd pitch was a HIT! Whoo hoo!!

They have us down for a closing on August 29th, but we're hoping to get everything done sooner. We do, afterall, need to be out of our apartment by the 31st, so the sooner we can close the better.

Our new address will be:

1323 Randolph Ave

St Paul MN 55105

We will be directly across the street from a grocery store, Copper Dome diner is on one corner, and PJ Murphy bakery is on the other corner. So much convenience within walking distance!

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we work towards a closing.

Strikes

In the last post, I mentioned that we were going to put in an offer on a house in St Paul.

I'm disappointed to have to report that we didn't end up putting in an offer because there were already two offers in, and we knew we wouldn't be able to outbid them.

STRIKE ONE!

So...we decided to put in an offer on our 2nd choice home. It wasn't in the same location, but we thought that it might be the house for us. We sat down with our realtor and filled out all the paperwork. And we waited. Last week, we found out that another offer had been accepted.

STRIKE TWO!!

We are going out house hunting with our realtor again tonight. Hopefully, we'll find something that we love! And we'll put in an offer! And they'll accept it! And we'll be able to close in a few weeks!

If we strike out again (three strikes, you're out, right?), we'll probably just look for a cheaper apartment--one closer to campus. You see, on June 30th, we put in our 60-day notice to vacate our apartment at the end of our lease. On July 1st, our apartment was rented. August 31st is our last day, so hopefully we'll have something lined up before that day comes...and it's fast approaching.

Wish us luck!

Update / Restaurant Review

OK, so I guess I've been pretty lackadaisical about updating our blog.

We've even taken some pretty cool road trips complete with great photos! We went to Lutsen, MN, in the beginning of May, and Nauvoo, IL (for my cousin's wedding) in the middle of May. Hopefully I'll take some time to blog about them soon.

About a month ago, Jeff and I found ourselves in a Slumberland Clearance center. While waiting to check-out, I sat on a couch by the register. I immediately fell in love with this couch! So comfortable, so soft! Too big, really, for our apartment.

So...we began again the discussion of whether or not to buy a house in MN. After much discussion, the search began. We found a house that holds lots of opportunity for us to really make it exactly what we want and that will fit our needs.

Being city dwellers at heart, this property is less than 1 mile from downtown St Paul, and within walking distance to the Xcel Center and the shops/restaurants on West 7th. We LOVE the location.

Unfortunately, we didn't get approved for nearly as much as we would've liked. Good news is, it is bank-owned, so hopefully they'll accept our very low-ball offer. If you don't mind keeping us in your prayers, we'd really appreciate it.

Last night, we decided to actually go out on a date--something we haven't done in quite awhile. Since I've always considered myself more of a Minneapolis girl than a St Paul, I thought we should go check out the area that we'll hopefully be moving to.

We decided to try El Patio.

This restaurant really helped sell me on the location and St Paul. We dined outside, and it was so relaxing! We leisurely talked about our future as we munched on chips and salsa. Our food was delicious and our server was great! I definitely see us returning to this restaurant and checking out the others that are close by.