What's new in Northern Iowa

Okay getting a little carried away with the blog thing, but oh well. :) So here's an update on what has been happening in the last year or so.

Gene and I are still living in Mason City, Iowa - known only as the birthplace of Meredith Wilson who write the musical The Music Man (which they milk for more than it's worth). I'm teaching HS English and directing the fall and spring plays. Next semester I get three sections 10th grade Language Arts - oh joy. Gene just (okay a month ago) a new job as a CAD drafter for a company that build horse trailers. Its an hour away, but at least it is somewhat in his degree field. We are both looking at jobs in Chicago and Minneapolis because there is simply nothing to keep us here - no decent jobs, no friends, nothing.

Two weeks ago Gene was on his way to work in icy conditions so he was driving my Alero. Remember the Alero? Greg even made a jingle for it. Well, a woman pulled out in front of him illegally causing Gene to swerve to avoid hitting her. He hit a patch of ice and spun out of control and hit a light pole. He was unharmed (Thank God!), the car was not. There was a huge dent in the driver's side door right where the driver's side view mirror used to be and the windshield was cracked. We waited on the insurance - and they finally got back to us - they decided to total the Alero :( It was $200 over the amount they'd pay to fix. So I went to Des Moines last weekend and looked at newish used cars after pricing and doing research on the Internet. We ended up getting a cherry red, 2004 Alero like the one we lost. The new car has 35,000 miles, but it also has new brakes and rides very well. The funniest part was that we got it at the Betts Cadillac dealer! When mom, Bob, and I walked in the first thing a salesman said to us was, "What can I get you to drink? We have 6 kinds of coffee, 2 kinds of hot tea, 2 kinds of Hot Cocoa, and a full line of Coke products." Imagine our surprise - and this was in the used car building - not the main Caddy building. When he brought out the cups he served us in real china - not Styrofoam or Dixie cups. I mean this was cup and saucer, thin rimmed, real china! They must have really needed the business! So we bought a service loaner car - which means only the dealership owned it and loaned it out to customers who had vehicles in for service. It was $10,600 - which is only $2000 more than the pay-off on our old Alero and it's 3 years newer. We get to go pick it up this Saturday morning.

For Christmas my entire family is going to Hawaii for a 7-day cruise! This Christmas Eve is my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and my mom's 1st wedding anniversary with her new husband Bob. Grandma always wanted to go to Hawaii, but Grandpa was always too cheap to take her. So, we decided to all go and celebrate with them. We fly out next Friday, the 23rd, and stay two nights in Honolulu before boarding the ship. The cruise leaves Christmas Day and comes back January 1st. We visit four of the Hawaiian islands. I'll post pictures to make you all jealous when we get back.

Okay I think that constitutes everything major that has happened recently here in Northern Iowa. Love you all, talk to you later!