{chicago} my first trip!

this weekend, we made the first of many trips to chicago and had a great time. i interviewed, we tried a church, met a lot of people, tried out chicago style pizza, and even found an apartment! we're exhausted but got a lot accomplished! woohoo!

when we stepped off the plane and the weather was 40 degrees and rainy, i'm pretty sure my sandals and light cardigan screamed "we ain't from around here!"

the nicest couple from the school where i interviewed offered to let us stay with them so we started driving and not far from chicago, this is what we saw. this is all we saw - corn fields. everywhere. it was so strange - there would be acres and acres of farmland and then an outlet mall would pop up out of no where. then more and more fields and then a huge subdivision. james was getting more excited at the prospect of duck hunting, i was getting worried. i mean, as much as i love farms, i don't want to move all the way across the country to live somewhere that looks like the MS delta, you know?

thankfully, we finally got to wheaton and it is the cutest, most quaint little town that looks like it's straight from a movie

we even found an apartment right next to downtown, a half a block from the metro, and less than a mile to james' school. and get this - it even has a (drumroll please...)

DISHWASHER!



can you believe that? a machine that washes your dishes. oh i'm so excited and promise to never, ever take it for granted. not quite as good as a dishwasher but high up on the list - we've got 2 bathrooms! i forgot to ask about an ice maker, but if it has that, then all my dreams have come true. seriously. was God in this or what. oh and we've even got 2 bedrooms so we're expecting lots of visitors, ok?? it set right in the middle of these cute little houses, but fortunately for us, the apt has some sweet 70's style brick on the front and sweet 70's style brick = affordable, if you know what i mean. it couldn't have gotten any better.


we had to stop by the apple store because we forgot our computer charger and they let us plug ours in for a min

and i'm already of fan of their pizza. i'm actually a fan of any pizza but theirs was exceptional


i was a bit nervous about my southern draaawl. it only gets higher and more slow when i'm nervous, so you can understand an interview might not be my best representation. well, we touched down and i though 'i sound just like these people! we've got nothing to worry about!'
apparently "ya'll" gives us away.
and apparently we say "ya'll" a lot.
the low point might have been when i was teaching the kindergarteners for my interview and asked them if they liked to read poems. they all shook their heads and said they'd never read any poems and i was a bit surprised because a lot of K reading is based on poetry, so i read them an example and suddenly they knew what i was talking about.
fyi - don't say poeeeeems, it's more like e like in egg to those northerners :)


we didn't have any time to sightsee downtown, but james indulged me by just driving through

i'm not gonna lie - we're both a bit nervous about the weather and all, but we're trusting God has a perfect plan for us there!

plus MS is only a plane ride away