the road less travelled

Well, it's official, we are in Cleveland! We had an exciting adventure getting here including Andrew thinking that he lost his wallet in Wyoming somewhere (we found it, don't fret), getting pulled over, braking a mirror, thunderstorms, stupid books on tape, no mountains and too many corn fields, I found a kitty and almost took him with us, crazy people in Indiana, Nebraska (nuff said), too much fast food (ugh) and having to buy new tires in North Platte.

So fun.

Andrew did most of the driving, bless his heart.

it's the po-lice!

When we arrived we quickly realized that we aren't in Utah anymore. Our apartment is a nice apartment compared to everything else I saw but it's not Utah nice. What's Utah nice you ask?

For starters there's no AC. Who's the idiot that thought we could survive without AC? Yeah, that'd be me. Needless to say we ended up buying 2 window AC units within days.
Our apartment was dirty when we first walked in. There were spider webs everywhere, the hot water in the bathroom takes forever, paint splatters and scratches all over the floor and since they had just remodeled the kitchen there was sawdust everywhere.

Welcome home sweetie...

And our neighborhood is a tad sketchy. Our first night was accompanied by a group of guys standing by our moving trailer shooting the breeze until about 1 am or so. The next night around 4 am a group of teenagers ran past our bedroom window and hopped over a wall with another group (the poe poe?) following closely after them. Luckily Andrew had the presence of mind at this time to look out the window and get a good description of the thugs in case he needed to testify. 

this is us, the snoopy neighbors

I thought that we had made some terrible mistake in choosing this place.

But there have been some good things too...

Daniel and John, from the ward, and Darrell from next door came and helped us move in. Daniel, an Orem high alum, treated us to Sunday dinner even though his wife was in Utah. So nice! He made it all by himself and it was delicious to have a home cooked meal after hamburgers and fries for 4 days straight. Darrell is possibly the nicest guy I'll ever meet. He saw us moving and just walked over and started helping.

The neighboring women all came to say their hellos. There is Sandra Moore, Darrell's landlord, a retired school teacher who loves to chat. I mean it, LOVES to chat. Wendy, who is moving in next door to us as soon as they finish the renovations. She is fighting lymphoma but you'd never know it with her sassy attitude. Merrell, she is a road biker (with an actual bike, not a motorcycle) and was heading out to ride 15 miles to her parents house when she introduced herself. She gave us some tips about our apartment which were much appreciated. Sarah, a 20 something with a weenie dog that has a select group of people that he actually likes (Yuki?). And Jenni, the woman who lives directly above us. She's from New York and we stole her parking spot one day, oops!

The food here is also amazing. The people of Cleveland know what they are doing when it comes to my stomach. Captain Tony's pizza is already a dinner regular, Melt with their summer chicken sandwich, Five Guys, Chick fil a and anything else you could imagine. We have only scratched the surface.

Melt...mmmmmmmmmmm

The country. I was invited by Sarah, a girl in the ward, to go pick raspberries with her and a few other girls last week. We went to the Monroe Orchard which is next door to the John Johnson farm. The raspberries are divine and the peaches, even better. Then yesterday Andrew and I took a tour of the Johnson farm. It's owned by the Church and completely fabulous, as if you'd expect anything else. Elder Orton from Logan took us on a tour. Then he recommended going to eat in Amish country about 20 minutes away. We arrived at Mary Yodel's only to be welcomed by girls in bonnets and horse drawn carriages. Andrew got the home made Thanksgiving dinner with turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, fries and heavenly rolls. Let's just say he was a happy boy.

To defend myself the reason why I wanted to live in this area is because of Shaker Square. We live across the street from a little shopping area with restaurants, a dance studio, movie theatre, Dave's grocery store, train and bus stops, CVS, an art gallery and best of all a farmer's market every Saturday morning. We walked through it yesterday and it was fantastic. All organic, local grown fruit, veggies, meat, flowers, a crepe station, honey and jams, breads, home made pasta, jewelry and the humane society also has a booth! It is a party every Saturday and I love it!

le square, terrible picture but you get the idea

But most importantly...we found where we want to get our bulldog from. Her name is Linda and she lives in Chagrin Falls, about 30 minutes from our place. Her next litter is September 1st and we are on the list!!!

try and say no to that face, I dare you

Long post but it's been a while. Stay tuned, apartment pics coming soon! Toodles!