To Indiana!

After one of the longest and most stressful weeks (was it only a week?!) of my freakin' life, we are finally heading to Indiana!

We got up early on Thursday (August 29th), and headed to our new home with our new home. It was a pretty smooth ride. I drove my X Terra and lead the way while Josh followed and focused on pulling the Raptor. We took a few detours in order to avoid Chicago and the surrounding cities and in the end it only took us an hour out of our way. 

During the drive I called some friends and family member and told them about the engagement (I told my immediate family the night it happened). I loved hearing everyone scream and cheer when I told them the good news :-)

I'm glad we left Wisconsin so early because we had a HARD time parking the Raptor once we got to the RV park. That thing is a beast and the RV park is next to a lake in a wooded area so there are a lot of big trees around. It was hard to maneuver the Raptor into the tight spot but with the help of Zinc (a fellow inspector) we were able to get it in and all set up!

We had to make sure that everything that wasn't in the cupboards was placed on the floor so they would be safe during the ride there. Apparently Josh hit a bump and the big tupperware that holds the flour flew out of the cupboard and landed on one of my Egyptian papyrus paintings! Luckily, the actual painting wasn't damaged, just the glass and the frame broke. That was our only causality so I will count my blessings!  

We have been here for a week now and things are going pretty well. We got the Raptor all set up (complete with water and power) in the RV park, Josh started his job (he's been training in Michigan all this week), I've been running around town doing errands (I had a two page long "to do list" for when we got here), and we have DIRECTV (with the NFL and NBA packages)! 

[Our first meal in our new home]

Oh bummer... I just got bad news. Josh's crapy old truck broke down. It was old and had almost 300,000 miles on it. It looks like he already found and bought an old Jeep Liberty for cheap. You can't buy nice new vehicles and take them onto the rough pipeline right-of-way (ROW) or else they will get destroyed. Gotta buy something cheap that you can beat up a bit. I hope this one last a while!

I think she's adorable! :-)

WE'RE ENGAGED!

Yep! After being together for 2.5 years Josh proposed to me!

The night before we left Wisconsin for Indiana, Josh and I went to dinner with Josh's sister, Jessi, and her girlfriend, Ally, at the Radisson in Duluth. The hotel has a fancy restaurant at the top that spins (slowly) so that you can get a view of the cities and Lake Superior. It takes over an hour for a full rotation so it is pretty sweet! During our delicious dinner I noticed that Josh got a text from Jessi (his phone was on the table). I thought it was strange and decided to ask him about it later. We finished our meals, said goodbye to Ally (she is a manager at the hotel and had to get back to work), and then headed to a local bar to meet up with some friends.

On the way to the bar I asked Josh about the text. He immediately got all squirmy and said he couldn't tell me because it was an "inside" joke. I told him that he was a bad liar and he better tell me the truth! He didn't. He just kept saying that it was an inside joke and to forget about it. Well, I didn't. I gave him the cold shoulder while we were at the bar. I knew he was lying and I wanted to know why.

We left the bar early and went back to our Raptor at Shorty's. I continued to give Josh the cold shoulder while I got things ready for the long trip tomorrow morning. Josh was just wandering around the living room. Goober.

Finally, he said, "Come over here." And I said no because I thought he was trying to trick me or because there was a scary bug or something. He said "fine" and then came over to me. 

Then he got down on one knee, pulled out that gorgeous ring, told me how awesome I am (along with some other personal things), and then asked me to marry him. I started crying and of course said YES!

Turns out the text from his sister was about the ring and when he was going to propose. I don't think she noticed it was on the table when she sent the text :-)  Oops!

I honestly was surprised! I knew it was eventually coming and I figured it would be before Christmas, but I had no idea he already had the ring and that he was going to do it before we left for Indiana!

I loved the proposal just like I love Josh. It was totally appropriate that he did it in our brand new home. I am so excited to marry him and to spend the rest of our lives together!

Journey of the Raptor

After a lot of debating (A LOT), Josh and I decided that we should buy our own fifth-wheel, camper, or RV. It's so much easier to deal with a mobile home when your job takes you on the road so much. We did a lot of research and found a Raptor Toy Hauler that we LOVED! It was huge, had a master bedroom, a bathroom with two entrances, a large kitchen/living room, washer/dryer hookups, a toy hauler which can be used as a second bedroom (queen bunk beds come down from the ceiling), and so much more! The big kicker was that it was on sale and marked down $30,000 from the original price! 

The problem was that it was still expensive and we needed a loan to make up for what we would put down.

We called the RV Center that had the Raptor and talked to them for a while about finances. They told us that we probably couldn't get a loan (Total BS BTW!) unless we have a cosigner. We called trusted people in the family but couldn't find anyone to cosign (something I was VERY upset about at the time but now understand). 

So, Josh and I decided to cut out the middle man and go straight to the bank. 

Josh and I arrived in Wisconsin Sunday (August 25th) afternoon. We headed straight to Shorty's to see how the RV was doing, move all of our things into his giant shed/barn, and then headed to the hotel to get things ready for our meeting with the banker.

We arrived at the bank early the next morning and explained our situation. The loan officer told us that it usually takes 3-5 days to get a loan approval. We didn't have that! We had to BE in Indiana in 3 days! So our loan officer got to work and really dedicated himself to our cause.

Because of my great credit, Josh's fine credit, and Josh's income, we were able to get the loan and got approved within the day! Take that RV Center!

We called the RV Center immediately and told them we would be there in the morning to sign the final paperwork and to take our new baby home!

[The Raptor on the lot]

We arrived the next morning, signed the necessary paper work, handed over the check from the bank, wrote a check for the remaining amount, and then were told to come back in a few hours to pick up the Raptor.

We came back a few hours later and took a tour of the Raptor with the mechanic, got Shorty's truck (he let us borrow it to pull the Raptor down to Indiana while he had Josh's little truck) all hooked up, had the sales representative take our picture, and then we headed out!

[Me in front of the Raptor and Shorty's truck]

[Proud owners (yes, the sun was DIRECTLY in our eyes)]

We pulled the Raptor to Shorty's were we hooked it up for the night and then went to A&W to celebrate!

The next day we spent HOURS unpacking and organizing our things. There is plenty of storage space but finding a good spot for everything was hard. We also took a lot of pictures so you can all see what she looks like:

[The toy hauler folds out and becomes a large patio. Those benches can also fold down and become a queen-sized bed]

[Me for scale] 

  

[Inside of the toy hauler when it is all folded up. The beds come down and become queen-sized bunk beds.]

[The rest of the toy hauler with a door to the outside (on the right), a door to the kitchen/living room, a TV, a hook up for the Dyson vacuum, AND washer/dryer hookups.]

[Me in the living room showing how high it is]

[Living room]

[Complete with an entertainment center. The door on the right goes to the bathroom and the door on the left goes to the master bedroom]

 

[And yes, it has a fire place]

[View of the living room/kitchen]

[I LOVE the large fridge too!]

[Bathroom]

[Door to the Master bedroom] 

[Master bedroom]

[Master bedroom with a door to the bathroom]

[Outside] 

We are so excited about our newest purchase! A lot of blood, sweat, and tears (all on my part) went into getting this and so far there has been no regret!

Exodus from the Land of the Frozen

This last month has been CRAZY for Josh and I! We moved twice, bought a Raptor, got engaged, and ended up in Indiana. I promise all these things will be documented here on this blog in due time :-)  For now, here is the story of how we left North Dakota:

For the last month or so we knew that Josh's job was going to be coming to an end in North Dakota. Around that same time we found out that Josh got a new job in Indiana. Great news right?! Well, it was and it wasn't. First, it is very nice to have jobs lined up. BUT when there is very little time in between them it is hard to move and get things organized. What made the situation even more difficult was the fact that Uncle Shorty needed his RV back (the one we had been living in for the past 8 months) *Booooo!* because he was going out on the job in Indiana too *yeah!*

Also, Josh's job in ND had some sweet bonuses BUT you had to "finish" the project in order to get them. The first one is that they give you a $80/day bonus (so everyday that you work you get an extra $80 and it comes in one lump sum) and then the second one was a flat $2,000 check. Between the two bonuses Josh was going to get well over $10,000 so we really needed him to "finish" the project. 

Needless to say we had a lot on our hands: we needed that bonus, we needed to get Shorty's RV back to Wisconsin, we needed a place to live, and we needed to get to Indiana ASAP!

Can you imagine the stress?!

Well ,Josh's job ended just in time and he got the bonus checks! Score! So we could mark one thing off the list. 

Even though we had a lot on our hands (where would we live once we got to Indiana? How would we get there?!) we really needed to focus on getting the RV ready for transportation back to WI.

Shorty told Josh that he could drive it back (such a trusting guy) to Wisconsin so that Shorty didn't have to come all the way out to ND (a 9 hour drive) just to pick it up and then drive all the way back.

So, Josh started getting the RV ready while I packed our things on the inside so they would be easier to move out of the RV once it got back to Wisconsin. Done and done. Pretty easy. 

[I moved all of our movies into a CD case to save space]

The hard part came when Josh was trying to get the RV slides (2 of them) to come in and the motor decided to die on us! You can't move an RV with the slides out! What will we do?! We called Shorty and explained the situation. He and Josh talked on the phone all day and tried all the tricks in the book but nothing worked and the clock was ticking! Shorty then decided to grab one of his buddies and to head our direction. While they were driving out here our neighbors at the RV park came home and offered to help us. They tried a few different things too and nothing worked. Ugh. I was on the verge of tears! Then someone suggested that we use "man power" and push the slides in manually. We all lined up and pushed like crazy! And guess what?! It worked! With their help we were able to get both slides in! Booyah!

[Josh standing next to the large slide that was stuck]

[We had to remove the couch in order to get a crank in the floor to help us pull in the slide]

  

[Good ole "man power"]

[All in and ready to go!] 

We called Shorty and told him the good news. He was really happy and told us to get on the road and we will meet halfway. We scrambled to get things ready and then headed out. 

[Last meal in ND]

[All ready to go]

  

[I felt bad leaving our spot in such a mess but our neighbors offered to clean it up for us. Such nice guys! Pipeline people form a family and really watch out for each other!]

[Josh filling up with gas (it cost $300 to fill up that beast!)]

[And yes, he towed the Silverado]

[I pass this little red barn all the time and I love it! It's leaning a little and it has such character. I'm going to miss it!]

[Josh following me]

We met Shorty and his friend just a few hours down the road (they could go a lot faster then we could). By this time it was 11:30 PM Saturday (August 24th) night and we were exhausted! Shorty and his friend took the RV and headed back to Wisconsin (they were both truck drivers at one point so pulling an all-nighter was in their blood) and left us on the border of MN and ND to find a hotel for the night.

Phew!