THREE NEW POSTS!!

Finally, three new posts below. There's a long one about the move and the new house. Please read and be updated!!!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Kevin, the love of my life, had his 35th birthday a couple weeks ago. I was going to be in Tampa for the opera for the actual day, so we celebrated a little early. I surprised him with a trip to Chicago for a night cruise and sightseeing adventure. We stayed in a hotel that night and hung out at a drum show the next day. Kevin surprised me by getting off early, so we could leave earlier for Chicago. I had planned a romantic evening on a cruise ship so off we went! We forgot that Chicago is in a different time zone, so we got there extra early and hung out at the harbor. The cruise ship left at about 7 or so from the harbor and we were treated to a 4 course meal with caviar, truffles, lobster bisque, pork chops, and wonderful desserts. There was live music and dancing while we cruised the harbor. It was so awesome and well worth the money. We had such a great time!! I love you, birthday boy!!!

Spring is bustin' out all over!!!

I have been meaning to do a post about all the cute animals here in our yard in Indiana. In Tampa, we had the family of raccoons. 

In Indiana, we have our baby bunnies and baby birdies. SO CUTE!! Everywhere we go, we see a little family of ducks and ducklings or geese and goslings. We have 2 bunnies that live in our yard that I see bounding around every afternoon. 

We also had a family of robin's living in a nest outside our front door in a flower basket. There were 4 little eggs that had just hatched the day we moved there. Less than two weeks later, they had already flown away!!! Crazy how fast they grow.........

Not to mention, our yard is blooming with wonderful flowers and life. I love Spring (or I guess early summer now)!

Goodbye Geddy Dr.....Hello Campbell St.!

Ah, Geddy Dr. You have been such a good first home for us! We will miss you! We promise to find some good renters for you.









Our wonderful neighbors on day one of the move.

Well, a couple days after graduation, the movers arrived and we packed up our home in Tampa. Fortunately, the company is paying for and planning the whole move for us. They set us up with a moving planner to schedule and take care of all the things that I didn't really want to do. The moving company they set us up with packed everything. I never even packed or lifted one box! It was wonderful!! We sat back and watched as they worked all day. It was really cool cause we could have friends and family over and they didn't have to help us move. All went well until day two of the move. We were going to have to fly out before the movers were done, but I got our flight time wrong. We woke up on day two of the move and had to rush off to the airport hours earlier than we had planned. We had a friend check in for us after we left. It was a little stressful, but we made it to Indiana ok. Aside from barfing a bunch on the bumpy plane, all was well. Our utilities (and more importantly cable and internet) were not on at the rental home yet, so we were in a hotel for a few days. 

Finally, the movers arrived in Mishawaka, Indiana at............

Campbell St.!!!!

These were our movers through the whole ordeal. They were great! I had a pic of the moving truck but I don't know what I did with it.

View from the den into the guest bath and kitchen

Why the mirror on the stairs? I don't get it......

We are renting this home for the time being until we sell our home. We are planning on renting out our home until the market gets better, so we will probably be in this house for a year or so.  It is about 100 years old and sits on a big , beautiful lot. It is soooo different than our Tampa home. It is very charming, but very creaky. It has 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, just like our other home but it is much smaller. This home is about 1600 sq ft, while our Tampa home is over 2000 sq ft. The kitchen is new and has granite and stainless appliances, but is half the size of our old kitchen. It has a nice den with fireplace and has really cool bathrooms. The master bath has an old-timey tub and old pedestal sink. The best part is the amazing lot. We have a huge lawn, several fruit trees, a garden, in the front and back, and interesting plants. The yard is so beautiful in person, it's hard to get pictures to do it justice. One thing that sucks (or will in the winter) is that the garage is not attached. We really can't complain though, cause we are renting it for really cheap and it is in a nice area. It even has a yellow room next to the master for a perfect nursery. We are so happy with it! The neighborhood is very quiet and our little town is so friendly and homey. We live near the historic downtown which is so cute! We really love it here so far. We live about 5 min. from South Bend  and hour and a half from Chicago. How convenient! We (meaning mostly me while Kev's at work) are currently unpacking and making it ours. 

Quick update.......

We are indeed here in Indiana and loving it. We moved and received all our stuff here and are currently unpacking into our rental home. I will post a blog about the move and our house soon.  Kevin's job is going amazingly well and we are not sure how we ever came to deserve such an awesome job. My belly is growing and we both went to our second ultrasound a few days ago. I will post our findings in another post with pics. We are currently in Chicago celebrating Kevin's birthday early because I am going to be in Tampa for the opera on the real day. We saw the sights and went on a really nice cruise around the lake while viewing the skyline. It was awesome! It's going to take a few posts to really catch up, but things have been so crazy around here. I am trying to move us in, learn my music for the opera, take care of the baby, and get acquainted with Indiana. Stay tuned for more posts...................

Wagner.

Wagner is crazy! I was asked to sing the part of Ortlinde in Wagner's Die Walkure with the New Century Opera last weekend and the weekend before. It was lots of fun but extremely hard music. If you are not familiar with the music, I was one of the famous Valkyries (bugs bunnys "kill da wabbit" music). It totally fulfills the whole opera singer stereotype. Breastplate, shield, spear, braids, big singing........It was lots of fun. I love finally being a paid performer! No video, but here's a pic.

Graduation!!!! No More School!!!

Goodbye USF! It's no secret that I hated that school and I am so happy to be done. It was so great to see my family and finally have Kevin here with me. So here is what happened. Kev flew in on Thursday night and my grandparents and parents flew in on Friday. Friday night I had an opera (post to come) and the School of Music graduation ceremony. Here's a video of the music one. You can't really hear except when Kev calls out. 

  

On Saturday at 1:30 the USF graduation started. It went by soooo quickly! I hardly even heard my name. All I care about is that a diploma is in the mail and I never have to set foot on that campus ever again. For those of you who don't know, everything about my experience at USF has been awful. My adviser even said that he has never seen someone with my bad luck in his 11 years at the school. From losing my records, to classes being lost off my transcript, and no support from the school of music, it sucked! At least I was on scholarship. So, the next day we said goodbye to our ward and I performed again in the opera, all while getting ready for our move the next day. Then, Monday the moving truck came! What a big weekend! Graduation, opera, family, moving, babies,.........whew! More posts to come about each.