We have arrived.

Yes, we're in Iowa.

Yes, we LOVE it.

Yes, it's different.
But different is good.

Lindsey was kind enough to voluntarily make the drive from Chattanooga to Davenport to save the sanity of the Hodgens. We managed to sneak some local activities in amongst the unpacking, organizing and painting.

Iowa is...

proud of their pork. Bacon scented candles are just wrong. But the bacon band aids were tempting.

Yes, those are cinnamon rolls the size of your head.

The Midwest is the best.
John Deer is next to our chapel. Adam's in heaven and must sit upon every tractor he crosses.

I've lost count of how much corn we've consumed.

Let's just say that we're not tired of peaches and cream corn.

(the secret is to boil it in half milk/half water with a pinch of sugar and no more than 3 minutes! - straight from the locals, I swear!)

I hate the smell of card board. In typical Hodgen moving tradition, it down poured while loading up , thus leaving the heavy scent of wet cardboard on all items in a box, in essence - everything! My only creative outlet was the freedom to pick paint colors for the kids rooms....which was a first for me. Not quite as easy as anticipated. After 3 sample colors, Lindsey and I set up a lab and got to mix'n, painted a piece of cardboard, marched to Lowe's determined that this was it and they matched our home brew perfectly. I believe we went with the blue farthest to the right.

Painting took a wee bit longer than we had budgeted, but in the end there was pride in our crisp corners. Not that Adam, in his two year old flurry of activity, will ever care or appreciate. But I'm happy....and when Mama's happy....

The green, if you were wondering, is Benjamin Moore Dill Pickle. Love it!

Sadly, Lindsey left us and we're still unpacking, organizing, and cleaning. But we have taken a momentary pause from the chaos to enjoy activities ranging from the local farmer's market to a road race called the Bix7. Steve scored some pity VIP tix (a coworker was driving them to a meeting, barely missed killing Steve and felt a kinda bad) so while 15,000 people were doing this
We were staying dry in a tent stuffing our faces with orange ricotta crepes and ham (remember, pride in pork).

Ugh, I don't want to post this pic, but it was all I had. Please note that I had walked blocks in the pouring rain and discovered that my hair can resemble a french poodle.

Shannon's ticked because she requested copious amounts of eggs (while refusing to do a taste test to determine if she might actually like them), discovered they were yucky, requested a muffin, and was refused until she ate her eggs.

We managed to drag our lazy bums 5 feet outside the tent into the rain to see the Olympians cross the finish line and regret that 7th crepe I had eaten. Adam sat upon Steve shoulders, mainly to keep him from running away, and became a favorite of the camera man, thus making his first TV appearance in Iowa. We're just hoping the camera didn't catch our frustrated faces as our 2 year old had meltdown after meltdown. He's not a fan of rain.

But he is a fan of balloons, which I hate because they are everywhere. Especially at road races and since we were VIP, and VIPs are always right, I took some from the tent to quiet my toddler. You can see how wet they, and the kids, became.

Ok, that's all I have to give now. I took on a project, painting Shannon's room, that I'm in WAY over my head. High probability I'm going to hate it, but I gotta give it a try. We miss you!