Hello Indiana...

We made it. After a 6 hour trek, we made it to our new town home (for the next 3 months-until we actually find a house). We packed the U Haul trailer up on Wednesday afternoon, stock piled our cars with everything we need for the next 3 months, and hit the road Thursday morning. We debated moving on Friday, but with snow in the forecast, we decided it would be best to move on Thursday, and good thing we did because a huge ice storm hit us last night, and left a couple inches thick on ice covering everything! So glad we brought the "Wisconsin winter weather" along with us.

The trip down went extremely well. Reese rode with Kyle, and I had the two cats (whom I gave sedatives so they were nice and sleepy) and Preston. We left in the morning, so Preston took a good nap, and then woke when we stopped for lunch/his bottle. He then napped again for another hour, and only really fussed one time when I accidentally bonked his head while reaching back and giving him a toy :) A very successful ride- for both vehicles. Reese got to watch 3 movies and took a nap, and according to her Dad, asked many times "If we were to Indiana yet." When we drove by downtown Indy on the interstate, Kyle said "Look we made it!" and Reese said "THIS is INDIANA?" Guess she wasn't too blown away, her expectations must have been alot higher! :)

We arrived around 4:30 (we are now on East Coast time- so an hour ahead) and started unpacking. Man, I am so used to lots of storage space, it was hard to find a spot for everything. But, we managed and have been taking care of odds and ends today (utilities, cable/internet, groceries, change of address, etc.) All the fun stuff that accompanies a move.

Rent-a-Center came today and delivered the bedroom and living room furniture. We brought Reese's bed and Preston's crib, but Kyle and I slept on the air mattress last night until our bed was delivered today. Not sure what is in store this weekend, possibly just exploring the town (surrounding areas) and getting familiar before Kyle gets into the work grind again on Monday (this past month he has had off has FLOWN!)

We also accepted an offer on our house yesterday! SOLD! With being on the market 3 weeks, we are ecstatic to sell it as we get a bonus from his company for selling it on our own (vs. them buying it in 60 days from us.) The closing is March 15th, so we will be back up to Evansville before that when the moving company comes to bring all of our things into storage. Luckily, they move it into storage, and then move it into a new house when we find it. Crazy to think we only lived in our "dream house" for 5 months- but I am positive we can find another one to call home!!

Counting Sheep

I have done it. Finally sleep trained Preston. Bye Bye swing. Hello crib. I am not out of the woods yet, but am I in the right direction. Reese headed up to my sister's house with my parents on Friday for a 4 day weekend, so I thought what better time to let Preston "cry it out." Kyle is working furiously to get his 67' Firebird running before we move, so he was down at his parents house painting the rear end Friday night. With just Preston and me, it was time. I laid him down (fully awake) at 8:00 on Friday night. When crying ensued, I went in after 3 minutes, then again after 5, and then he fell asleep. WOW, not bad. But I prepped myself for the worst, knowing that going to sleep wasn't as big of an issue as staying asleep. But, he did great. He woke up at 10:15 for a bottle, and went right back to sleep...until 3:45!! Ate again, and then slept until 7:45! I was amazed. I felt SO refreshed yesterday. I met a friend for coffee in the morning, and then we had a showing on our house in the afternoon, so his first two naps of the day were in the car seat, but when his evening nap rolled around, he did fine putting himself to sleep for it. I think now that I have a handle on his tummy issues, he is more comfortable, thus falling and staying asleep better.

Last night, (again putting him down fully awake), he didn't even make a peep. I went in after about 20 minutes, and he was fast asleep. He has a soft owl blankie he likes to sleep with (more so have it touch his face) so I am worried he is going to cover his face up with it. But, it has helped him fall asleep both nights, so I am surely not taking it away :) He gave me 3 hour stretches last night, but when he would wake in between feedings, he would cry for a few seconds, but put himself back to sleep without me even having to go in.

Today, he put himself to sleep for both naps thus far. I am hoping we are on the road to a decent nights sleep. Maybe he will sleep long enough now to start counting some sheep, I sure know I am ready to! :)

Pack, pack, pack. With Reese out of the house, I must get our things packed! So, here is the scoop. We move to Indy Thursday or Friday. We are going to live in a townhouse (corporate housing) for 3 months- or less if we find a house before that. Kyle's company only pays to move us one time. So, instead of having them move us now (1/2 things into the townhouse, 1/2 things into storage), we have chosen to pack our own things for 3 months and move it ourselves, leaving the majority of our things here in Evansville so that when we find a house, they moving company can move it all straight into a house. It will also help "stage" the house by having all of our stuff here to hopefully sell faster. But, if our house sells and closes before we find a house, then it will all get moved into storage anyways, leaving us to move it out of storage and into our new house by ourselves. Whew, did you catch all that?? :) So, I am making lists and deciding what gets taken with us for the 3 month stay. We are "renting" furniture for the townhouse when we get down there (bed, living room furniture, dining room set)- which the company pays for. They give us an allotment of close to $6000 to use as we please for living costs for the 3 months. It will go towards renting furniture, rent, and cost of food. With that said, I better get back to packing. This move is approaching too fast!!

Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken

Whenever I come across a delicious (& super easy) recipe, I love to share. Here is a new favorite of ours. I made this a few weeks ago (and since it has milk in it, I didn't get to eat any) but Kyle raved about it, so I made it again and it is just as good as he described. It is SO easy, with few ingredients, and so yummy. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Marinade:

For the marinade, combine ingredients in a ziplock bag:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 Tbs of lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

Let marinate for a few hours.

Breading and Baking:

Then, I used this recipe to bread the chicken and bake it.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 
2. 1 package Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix 
3. 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 
4. 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix cheese, dressing mix and garlic powder.
3. Remove chicken from marinade and coat with dry mixture. Place in shallow baking dish.
4. Bake 20 to 25 min. or until chicken is no longer pink in the center.  (I cooked mine for close to 40 minutes, it all just depends on your oven and size of chicken breasts.)

Saying goodbye

It's never easy to do. But, the process has begun. We visited my old work/Reese's old daycare today to say goodbye to good friends before we make our way to Indy next week. Reese had a hard time remembering some of the people, but she sure loved seeing her favorite teacher, Ms. Tammy again. We spent a couple hours there and Reese got to play with all her "old" friends and enjoy time with people who took care of her for over a year.
Saying goodbye sure does stink, especially when we know we probably won't be back to Madison for a long time (seeing as our family is in Illinois.) This coming week is filled with lots of play dates/dinner dates with friends and their kids so we can say goodbye to all of them. It sure is bittersweet, as we had such a great 5 years (for me) 10 years (for Kyle) in the greater Madison area. We have met such great people and will miss them all dearly. And so it begins....a new chapter/new adventure in our lives-whether we are ready or not! :)

Making a move

Housing. The one main stress with this upcoming move! I think Kyle and I are leaning towards renting/signing a 3 month lease for a few reasons. One, we have no where to move come Kyle's Feb 25th start date. Instead of me staying here and him moving there and driving 5 hours every weekend to see us until 1. our house sells or 2. we find a house, it would be much easier to have us all together. Also, his company is providing us with $6000 to spend on housing and food until we find a place. Hopefully, with us signing a 3 month lease (at around $1200 a month for a place to rent), that leaves us with a good 2 months of free groceries for the family as well. So, we will basically have all our needs met for 3 months and that gives us extra time to find the perfect home so we don't just jump into something. Even though it is not going to be easy going from our 2800 sq. ft house to a 1100 sq. ft apartment, it seems silly to not take the $6000 and live for "free" for 3 months until we find a place of our own (in hopes more houses come on the market in the Spring months, as they usually do.) These complexes are only 3 years old and are what most employees who are transferred live in until they find housing. Apparently they are really nice and well kept, and are highly recommended by people in the area. Unfortunately they do not have any 3 bedrooms open (those are the quickest to fill- since most people who transfer have a family) so it looks like we will be in a 2 bedroom- yikes. We still have yet to figure the sleeping out, but Reese will have her own room, and I guess Preston will share with us...we will just have to play that out by ear as he is such an awful sleeper as it is.

Speaking of Preston, I have decided to quit breastfeeding. He did such a good job with the lactose free formula over the weekend for my mom, and I couldn't keep up with pumping while we were gone for 5 days, so the timing was right. He isn't nearly as gassy anymore, so hopefully he is feeling better. Not only am I bummed to quit feeding him, but his formula is expensive! $33 a can- which he goes through 2 a week. Going to be a long (expensive!) 4 months until he can start whole milk! I do have to say going back to eating dairy has been amazing though. The cheese on my taco the other night was a little slice of heaven :)

Preston is also developing quite the personality. My mom referred to him as a "flirt" this past weekend. He just bats those long eye lashes at you, and flutters a smile. Such a sweetie pie. His is such a happy baby, and loves to coo and talk. He is also enamored with Sunday (our cat) right now. Any spotting of the kitty, and he is fixated on him for the longest time. It is so funny. He becomes a stone statue that doesn't even blink until Sunday moves out of sight.

Strike One

We flew down to Indy last Friday evening, and began out house hunting search bright and early Saturday morning. We saw 10 houses on Saturday, and unfortunately, nothing really rang our bell. The houses were "all over the map" in regards to the locations. Some were north of the city, some east, and some south. After all the driving we did, it was at least good to see what each area has to offer, and gave us a bit more of an idea of where we want to be, now having seen it in person, not just on the computer. We also have a good idea of what school districts we want to be in, narrowing our list to 2 or three towns (New Palastine- southeast, Fishers-north, and McCordsville-northeast.) Sunday we slept in and re grouped with our realtor that afternoon. We then visited 3 more homes, one of which had some potential, but wasn't in the greatest school district- something that is really important to me. We then had dinner reservations at a well known steak house downtown before heading to a sports bar to watch the Super Bowl. Monday morning we had a tour of the town- a tour set up by Kyle's new company for us. The tour guide was great, and gave us tons of good information about all sorts of things to do, see, and prime spots to live. Monday afternoon was met with seeing 3 more houses. Again, none of which struck a chord. A few had some great potential, but it seemed they all had some things wrong with them that we weren't able to compromise on (small yard, located off a busy road, not the right school district.) Monday night we went out and ate at the most well known pizza joint downtown, and it was delicious. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area- Bazbeau's Pizza. Yum! So we flew  home Tuesday morning feeling a bit defeated,  hoping to have at least one or two houses on our radar.
So, the search continues and we keep checking everyday to see if something new pops up. In the meantime, out house went on the market on Monday afternoon, and we already had a showing yesterday morning. It seems they really liked the house from the feedback, so that's a good sign. As for now, as we continue the search for our own house, we are also looking into the "corporate  housing" we are more than likely going to have to live in for a month or two.
I do have to admit- having 4 nights uninterrupted sleep was quite amazing. That hasn't happened in 5 1/2 months, and it sure felt great. Preston did sleep pretty well for my mom though, so at least she didn't leave here feeling to ragged :)
I have come down with a cold- sore throat, runny nose, tired- which I'm sure I caught on one of the flights- as the planes are factories for germs and such. So, tonight I am making Crock Pot Chicken Noodle Soup, via my good friend Lauren's food blog. She posted it yesterday and it looked SO yummy. As I type the aroma is filling the house and I can't wait to dig in tonight.