A Great Trip with a Few Minor Annoyances

We drove to Fort Wayne, Indiana this last weekend to find a rental house and get acquainted with the town. It was a great trip. We really feel like we know Fort Wayne a little. We drove to Ben's new work building:



I think it's awesome. When I went to pick up our rental car on Friday I got to Enterprise at 11:30am and they said: Oh, you reserved this starting at 8am and now it's almost four hours later so we gave your car away. All we have left is a VW bug or a 12 passenger van. Wait, wait, wait. I reserved it. That means it's mine. You can't just give it away. It shouldn't matter what time I pick it up. I RESERVED it for the weekend. So I obviously chose the bug:




The girls thought it was awesome. By the end of the trip I realized that we were way too close to each other. It's just such a small car. Whatever, it worked. But it was annoying. I also did not find it very comfortable.

I had seven houses for us to look at a week ago Monday. By Thursday we were down to three. When we showed up on Saturday morning the realtor said we were down to one! I cannot believe how fast rentals disappear in Fort Wayne. Luckily, the realtor found one that wasn't even listed yet. Here it is:



I found out this afternoon that it is ours! We signed a six month lease and we are excited. It's a little smaller than we wanted but it's on the newer side, has lots of storage in the garage, and has a fantastic neighborhood and school. It is 1575 sq feet and was built in 2000. I will have my own bathroom and a walk-in closet. And just to brag because I can't help it: you can buy a 2500 sq ft house with a master suite, walk-in closets, and all the bells and whistles, 5-10 years old, all for $215,ooo. Fort Wayne is so incredibly inexpensive. It's awesome.

This is the school the girls will go to. Deer Ridge Elementary. Well, it's the playground and it's awesome! Brown Deer has the worst playground I've ever seen. It has so little for the kids to play on. This one has swings, teeter totters, climbing structures, and more. We just had to stop on Saturday to let the girls play here for awhile.


Audrey just being cute.

Okay, they are both just so cute!

Our neighborhood:

Another view:

One of the things I love about this area is that there are bike paths everywhere. I was told that you could ride for 15 miles and only bike through neighborhoods. They are all connected by bike paths. I am excited to go on family bike rides!

I had a super long post about how Enterprise sucks and messed up our weekend a little bit but Blogger erased it all when I tried to publish this post earlier. So I am not retyping it all because it was really long. And it was clever, witty, and really engaging (you'll just have to trust me on this). I'll sum it up this way: Enterprise gave away our RESERVED car because we came to pick it up at 11:30am and not 8am. Silly me. I thought that by RESERVING the car it was mine to pick up whenever. They told me when we returned the car we could put the billing stuff in Ben's name. However, we returned the car on Sunday and Enterprise was closed. It's closed on Sundays. Funny how they didn't tell us that. When we called this morning they told me we couldn't put the billing in Ben's name because the account was already closed. I said no way, fix it. When Ben got to Enterprise at the scheduled time they made him wait 30 minutes before even starting to help him. Needless to say we will never, ever rent from Enterprise again. Believe it or not this is much shorter than what I had written earlier (maybe it's a good thing it got erased).

Saturday night we had dinner with two of Ben's soon to be co-workers. They are both female and are so nice and wonderful. They are both married and one of them has two girls, Abby, 8, and Ava, 6. I know! So funny! The girls hit it off beautifully and had a blast playing together. I am excited for Ben to work with these ladies. It's nice to know he has good co-workers.

So to sum up: A great trip with a few minor annoyances.

The Last One

Question: How long does it take two TLCB fans to wrap a cake box with cupcakes in it and an etch-a-sketch in a mini-van?

Answer: About 20 minutes!

Amy and I went to a TLCB gig last Friday night. I realized at the beginning of the week that that was my last chance to see them before I move to Indiana. TLCB doesn't go anywhere near Indiana so I needed to get one last gig in. After I begged and pleaded and sounded pathetic Amy said she would go with me. It was in Janesville at the Time Out Pub and Eatery. We've been there twice before. The first time there was no one there except some kind of pimp daddy (which was HILARIOUS). The second time it was super crowded.

DeAnn and Amy told me I had to make some cupcakes for the band as a group birthday gift (okay, I wanted to bring them something cheesy too but I was told by them to bake! And I know it's pathetic and stalkerish to bring the band baked goods but I don't care! They love us! No, they really do! Stop laughing!). Amy and I decided to wrap it in birthday wrapping paper and at the last minute decided to throw in the etch-a-sketch. We thought it would give them something to do on their road trips.

Anyway, they LOVED their gifts. Immediately after unwrapping the etch-a-sketch they all took turns using it.


Now, on to the gig. It was really crowded and when we got there I could already pick out at least one extremely wasted individual. He was so obnoxious to me. He kept standing in front of the band, thus obstructing my view. He also talked really loud which I found annoying. So the band played for an hour and then took a break. About 15 minutes into their second act some guy jumped the wasted individual and started pummeling him. Then a HUGE bouncer jumped on that guy and they crashed into the sound equipment blowing the lights and sound. Then another individual jumped on the bouncer (and honestly what an idiot. Like he even had a chance against that bouncer! He's gigantic and totally ripped. Idiot.) Then a second bouncer jumped into the fray and after 30 seconds both bouncers had two guys out the door and it was over. It was a good thing we sat in the very back that night. The band then packed up their equipment and we headed out as well. Which was a good thing because Amy and I were tired and still had to drive 90 minutes home.

I think it scared Amy (well, I know it did because she said it did on her blog) but for some reason I wasn't scared at all. Maybe I saw too many fights during high school basketball games. To be honest, it was kind of entertaining because no one got hurt. I think the bouncer's tank top got ripped because he walked around showing everyone. He must not have seen any fighting action in a long time because he looked a little jazzed up afterwards. Anyway, it's a good thing we didn't have our whole MKE Crew there. I'm sure some of them could have handled it! No offense ladies. You guys are just sweet innocents and it might have tainted your view of gigging (although maybe it has for Amy?) and we just can't have that! :)

It was definitely one to remember. Now I just need to convince TLCB to go to Indianapolis!

It's Official

We are moving! To Fort Wayne, Indiana! Ben starts his new job there in three weeks. I will follow him there when school gets out. In the meantime Ben's new employer will fly him back for the weekends so we won't be alone for the entire three weeks. We are really excited about this but sad at the same time to leave such good friends here. The best thing about this is the new job. It is a great company and we will finally (after four years) have Ben back! His four hour commute every day for the last 14 months has been really hard on him and us. He will truly have his weekends with his family and we can eat dinner together every night. So, until we have more news on houses I might not be updating any time soon. We have to put our house on the market and I have to get it ready to show. Lots and lots of work on top of regular life and helping at the kids school. Okay, that's all for now!