Where is Fayetteville?

Nick originally wanted our blog name to be Where is Fayetteville?  Had I expected that everyone would need to know that fact given the wonderful weather we've seeen, I may have agreed!  We first want to let you know that we are okay!!! 

Arkansas continues to make national news...flooding, tornadoes, more rain, more storms...you've seen it all.    We want you to know that we appreciate the texts, phone calls, and emails more than you know!  Below you will see that Fayetteville is in the NW corner of Arkansas and is relatively protected (or so "they" tell me) from tornadoes.  We've been hit with LOTS of rain and flooding...but no tornadoes.  The U of A made history yesterday as it shut down for the first time in its history due to the rain and floods. 

Tonight, I'm staying in Branson, MO.  My territory is somewhat large so I have to do an overnight every other week up here.  As you can see, this area also has been hit very hard with the rain that won't stop.  Notice the stairs, lamp post, and sign that shouldn't be under water!!! 

Praying for some sunshine...

Sometimes the details don't matter...

There are some days that end up not turning out quite like 'you' had planned - and at the end of the day  you realize that while the specifics may have been different - the result was the same.

I had envisioned this Easter for a while now.  It has been a big year for both Nicki and me in many regards, but most importantly, the time from Easter 2010 to Easter 2011 has been an amazing step forward in our faith journey together.  During that time frame we settled in at a church 'home' at MCC, made life changing friendships through life changing experiences with our small group, and individually had incredible experiences.

Based on all of that I had been anticipating this Easter as a culmination of the year - and felt as if we were in for a truly special day.  Nicki and I started the Easter weekend off on Friday by renting and watching The Passion of the Christ together - which was an amazing experience to watch together.  I had an image of a beautiful spring Sunday, sitting with our family and friends in church listening to Shane and Tom set an incredible worship scene and enjoying a day relishing the uniquely incredible gifts God has provided us, and all this day represents.  After that I was sure we would spend the day sitting on our back patio with our families enjoying the sun, family, and life.

Well, along the way we moved to Fayetteville, and Easter falls during a time when we are still on our 'church surch' or 'chearch search', and haven't quite settled in on a social circle.  We began the day by having to make the decision if we were even going to test the roads given it had been raining for about three days now and there was flash flood warnings all over NWA.  We were adamant about heading out and started a tumultuous drive to Fellowship Bible Church - which we have attended for a couple of weeks now.  We figured we would arrive early - but when we got off the exit we quickly realized the entire state of Arkansas was headed to Fellowship.  We sat in a 20 minute line just to pull in to the parking lot.

By this time we were about 7 minutes late for the start of service, but still in good spirits.  As we walked in to the sanctuary the greeter said "we're really sorry, the only space left is standing room only".  Hmmm...now what to do?  Well, like I said I was convinced this was going to be a special day for both Nicki and me - so in we went.

After all the dramatics - it indeed was worth it.  The music was awesome, the message was impactful - and most importantly we were able to spend some time giving thanks for all God has provided us and what he has done for us not only over the last year, but throughout our entire lives.  It was readily apparent that God was with us - and the emotion of the day was not lost even amidst our chaotic surroundings.

As for our Easter celebration - while we may not have had our families, we had...Matt Wormer.  As you have seen on our recent posts Matt has been a constant presence in our Fayetteville lives.  Matt moved to Fayetteville from Cleveland a little over a year ago and has helped us to engrained in the community.  We realized early on in our stay here that we both were going to be without family on Easter and decided we would join forces to celebrate.

As Nicki does, she put on an incredible brunch - which could have served 12 - for three of us.  It was topped off with a few cookies from a incredible basket of cookies my parents sent us, which were legitimately the best cookies I've ever tasted.

All in all, today served as a wonderful first celebration of Easter in Fayetteville, and a true reminder of the significance of the day.

Nicki put together an Easter Basket for Wormer - but we decided against having him take on his own personal Easter Egg Hunt.

A couple of mamosas or bloody marys to help celebrate

While the table was only set for three, there was enough food for 12.

Tornado Season

As all of you know, I've lived my entire life in Ohio.  Every spring/early summer we would occasionally see the tornado watch on the corner of the tv screen.  Even less frequently would the warning come across and the sirens go off.  But you better believe every time I would hear the siren, I took action.  I have vivid memories as a kid rounding up the family and dog with the flashlight, radio and even a pillow to head to the basement.  Usually, it ended up being the dog and me in the basement but nonetheless.  Can you sense my anxiety of tornadoes?

So, where do we move?  Arkansas....where they not only have the longest tornado season ever but also don't have basements.  In just over two weeks, we've already had two tornadoes.  Luckily, the first was a good 40 miles outside of Fayetteville.  Tonight however was a different experience.

I'm staying in a hotel in Little Rock for a work function.  As we were finishing up our meeting, the sirens started.  My heart rate started to increase, and naturally I started asking everyone what to do?  The front desk was extremely helpful as they looked at each other and said they didn't know protcol and would have to ask management.  Awesome.  Now, the knot in my stomach was growing.  Sure enough, security announces everyone to make their way to the ballroom.  As I looked around, all I could see was this huge open room filled with people, mirrors everywhere and glass chandeliers.  Safe?  I wasn't so sure.  Mark, my awesome partner, found a closet just outside of the room and given my slight anxiety of the situation agreed to sit in there with me...yes a closet.  Safe and sound.  No tornado, just left with an increased heart rate.  Wine PLEASE!    Thank you room service.

New Resident Orientation

If you can conjure up the image of yourself walking on your college campus for the first time with your map out, blowing in the wind, and trying to figure out if you were north, south, east, or...well maybe northeast...that was the theme of our weekend.  Each of our experiences this weekend left us with a distinct feeling that we had a sign on our backs that read "We're New Here".

We started out at the Fayetteville Farmers Market.  Not only was it a beautiful day, but an awesome event.  They like to say around here that the population consists of 1/3 hippies, 1/3 college students, and 1/3 professionals.  This is where they all come to congregate together...and mainly stare at the hippies.  While the assortment of fruits and veggies hasn't hit its heights, the beautiful weather, the assortment of different ukulele's being played, and the wonderful people watching made for a great start to our Saturday.

We moved on from there to the Promenade in Rogers - which is like a miniature version of Easton.  Admittedly, I'm finding out one of the drawbacks of bringing your wife to a distant land where she doesn't know anyone is the expectation that I join her on all shopping experiences.  I think I made it right up until the last stop in Bath & Body Works - which is right about when I lost my "hey I'm having fun" look.

Sunday was literally picture perfect.  The wind had died down, the streets were calm, and the birds were chirping.  We decided to try out the contemporary service at a methodist church which is about a half mile from our house.  Once again...we were the newbies.

We first walked in to the traditional service - directly in to the mix of the choir and staff preparing to walk down the aisle in traditional Palm Sunday attire.  It was as if we walked in and the music stopped - everyone stared - and we politely asked "excuse me, we are looking for the contemporary service".  We might as well have asked a Catholic priest when the organ player would be playing a little David Crowder Band.

After escaping from the traditional service, we followed a group of young couples to what we believed to be the contemporary service.  Everything was going great until a nice woman asked us "what is your child's number"?  We quickly realized we had made it to the child care center - not the contemporary service.

Our third attempt proved successful - we made it to the service - and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.  The message was impactful, and continued a theme we've discovered here of churches focusing their sermons on a study of scripture prior to the practical life application.

After church we had the chance to walk to the historic square and just take it all in.  It was as if the streets were empty and silent, and we had a chance to just enjoy a beautiful day, with each other.

You will see below we finished off our weekend with an 'attempted' bike ride on the trail.  As I tried to prove my 'mastery' of the cycling world, my chain popped off twice - and just as I had concluded it was unfixable...Nicki summoned her inner Dale Freygang and fixed the chain no problem (the only problem was the oil that got on her hands).

 We finished off with an amazing dinner on our deck - while we threw Jack his new frisbee in the yard.

All in all, it was an incredible weekend.  Sometimes weekends are great for all the busy-ness that comes with them - and sometimes they are great just because.

A Little Bit of Normalcy

Sometimes saying life is 'normal' is a great thing.  Nicki and I finally settled in to what felt like 'home' this week.  That was mainly attributed to the inclusion of cable and internet in our house.  Although I must admit it was kind of nice not having tv for a week or so.

Actually, we had some wonderful experiences with new friends this week.  We had dinner on Tuesday night with Crystal and Adam Wing, and Crystal's brother Will and his fiance Alex.  They were nice enough to invite us over for a wonderful dinner, where we got to meet Noah and Elizabeth (the Wing's two adorable kids).  Nicki and I both left and talked for a while about how comforting it felt to have  people in the area who seemingly cared so much about seeing us get settled.

Wednesday I was able to achieve two goals in one event.  It was the first night playing for the P&G softball team - which made for the first time I'd put on a glove since probably high school.  The two goals, as mentioned above, were that I neither embarrassed myself nor did I get injured - which is a major accomplishment.  It was a great time, perfect night for softball, and a good chance to meet a new group of people.

It was interesting, though, during the 2nd of the games I had one of those moments while diligently shifting my weight back and forth in the outfield.  It was this perfect sunset, on a calm spring night, and I had this moment of realizing I was playing on a softball team in Fayetteville, AR - and took  a moment to think about how life works itself out - and no matter what we have planned it never quite turns out how 'we' want it to.  Nicki and I are so blessed to be here and go through this experience - and it is moments like those in the outfield of a random softball field where we can step back and think about how lucky we are.

And of course we miss our family and friends.  There have been a number of moments of realization that we aren't in Cincinnati anymore.  Every once in a while I could handle meeting Ray Moorman for coffee in the morning, and having a man breakfast at Panera or Echo, and it was a bit tough not being around for my dad and brother's birthday celebrations.  We talk often of missing our MCC family and I've started thinking about if we can get Shane to be a big time Christian radio star we could bring him to our church as a guest appearance!  We also tried the local ice cream shop (Braum's) and it was without a doubt nowhere near a Graeter's experience.

But all in all - we're working towards getting settled in, and couldn't be happier with where we are and what we're doing - although as I type this the 'Weather Warning System' just came on to tell us a there was a tornado warning in the area - except the warning is in Spanish (where is Arkansas?).

Jack may need a few more walks...

As many of you know, Jack is not only the easiest dog going, but has the best personality you could ever want in a dog.  He's always excited to see us, loves to cuddle, naps all day...I could go on and on.  The one advantage over the last five years of Jack's life has been his little need for exercise.  We've never HAD to take him to doggie day care or walk him every night.  5 years later....we have a dog that can only handle 10 minutes at the dog park.  So, although we didn't get to spend much time at the Iams Park here in Fayetteville today, Jack had fun meeting a few new friends and will now be wiped out for the next three days.

Jack walking Nick to the dog park - needless to say he was a bit excited to get in the ring with all the dogs...

Another note of the day - a quick update of our search for a church.  Today, we visited Fellowship Bible Church of NW Arkansas.  This church came highly recommended from a friend of a friend so we were excited to check it out.  Because of my fashion faux pas during our first Fayetteville Sunday church adventure, I made sure to fancy it up this morning.  Dress, heels and even a little southern poof to the hair (ok maybe not the hair).  However, we were surprisingly excited to see the trend at this church was a little less formal.  There was a great mixture of business casual and dressy jeans....just my style!  The church was much larger than we expected.  The childcare alone had it's own building!  We loved the music, the message and the overall feel of the church.  The only downside is that it is a 25 minute drive.  So, we aren't sure if this will be our new church home (at this point we still consider MCC our home...if only it weren't 11 hours away), but we had a great experience this morning.    

First Friday in Fayetteville

It's our First Friday in Fayetteville and all is well.  Nicki and I both had great days at work - and more importantly Nicki made it safely back from Little Rock after 6 hours of driving in one day.

To make it better we had a familiar friend to hang out with at Sassy's.  It was our first experience of being able to walk to and from a restaurant - and the 70 degree weather made for a perfect relaxing night after a long week.

All in all, just an awesome first week in Fayetteville.  We know we have the support of our friends and family in Cincinnati, and the opportunities in front of us abound.

I thought I would add a couple of pictures of the house and our first Friday - but at this point it is time for bed.  Actually, I may be past due - Nicki is already in bed, and I'm up just listening to the Reds play the Diamondbacks.

Big day tomorrow - lots of 'house work' - which I was made to understand would end when we decided to rent.  And then we are headed off to our first University of Arkansas baseball game - they are playing the #17 ranked (and arch-rival LSU Tigers).  We are headed to a place in the stadium called the "Hog Pen" - where you bring your own food to grill - a blanket, and your own drinks.  Based on the 'college' crowd we saw at Sassy's tonight - we could be in for an interesting night.

Oh - and it is worth noting we tried to be 'cool' and ask our college server tonight what was going on on-campus...and apparently it is Roe Week - a huge Greek festival where all fraternities/sororities have parties and hold concerts.  When I asked for a beer I tried to be cool and say "we are just pre-gaming for Roe week"...she looked at me with discernment and said "pre-what?"  I guess I just don't have it anymore....


This is a picture of the garden stone our wonderful neighbors gave us.  It is awesome!  It now holds a place on our deck where we can see it - we miss them already.

Nicki took a well deserving break to enjoy a drink and dinner after a full day of organizing the house yesterday.  It doesn't show here but we have a distant view of 'Old Main'.  It is the first building built on the Arkansas campus.  It has two twin spires - the one that faces north is considerably taller - because it was built by a northerner...

The door is the front door - and the kitchen table is just about all set-up.  Ready for some visitors!

The 'sitting area' on the first floor is also almost set...although I'm thinking we should probably replace the sailboat with a good sized tv (if we ever get cable).

This is the upstairs bonus room - it's just about all set to watch a thrilling Sunday at the Masters...or stream a Reds game.

Jack was just a bit tired from a long day of helping Nicki get organized...and running around his brand new fenced in yard.

First Friday in Fayetteville!  Sassy's is about a block from our house and has great food, a great patio, and a lot of college kids showing fake ids.

Matt Wormer has been our saving grace thus far.  He has been in Fayetteville for a year and is in the process of showing us around - tomorrow night he is showing us the Hog Pen at Baum Stadium.

Sassy's at night - the college kids were showing up as we were heading home...

As they say in the south "Y'all come see us now...y'hear".

Hey Nicki...where is the _______?

Well we're almost there - tonight actually felt like home.  Well, kind of.  Nicki spent the entire day unpacking and organizing - which led to me getting to play my favorite game when I got home from work.  The game is titled "Guess how many drawers I will open before I find what I'm looking for".  You can play at home too.  It goes like this:  Nicki says "can you get the cookie sheet out for me" and I say "4" and she says "3".  And then I go around opening drawers trying to guess where the heck the cookie sheet might be.  Trust me - it is riveting.

In all honesty, I simply am genuinely amazed at what she has accomplished in just about two days since our house was unpacked.  Everything has a spot, and all of the spots make sense.

As we sat here tonight we took some time to stop and just think about the adventure ahead of us - and what the last week of our lives has been like.  What a crazy week, and one to remember.  One of the reasons which factored in to the decision to accept this move was because we truly felt it would bring us even closer together and be a great testament to our marriage - and one week in I believe that is already true.  Oddly enough it has been the nights without tv that have allowed us to calm down from the hectic days and just talk to each other.

It is a big day for both of us work wise tomorrow as Nicki has her first day on the job.  She has to drive 3 hours to Little Rock and back in the same day - but she is excited to meet her new teammates and begin fostering the type of awesome relationships she had with her team in Cincinnati.

So feel free to give Nicki a call as she will have six hours of time to pass in the car.

Pictures are forthcoming - unfortunately we are operating on Nicki's 'myfi' which runs at a pace similar to when you were trying to connect to AOL in 1998.

Reds 5-1.

This Week on Hoarders...

Oh boy...unpacking day.  I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed in all of my friends and family who have been through this before, who seemed to conveniently forget to tell us that the worst part of any corporate move is 'Unpacking Day'.  As you can see below, today our house felt like we were in an episode of Hoarders.  This episode would be titled "Too Much Stuff for Just One Kitchen".

The movers couldn't finish unpacking all of the boxes because they said "we don't have anymore empty space to put stuff".

This is the upstairs guest bedroom...doesn't it just scream "come visit".  Don't worry - at this rate we'll have it all set up for you by tomorrow morning.

This is the front part of our upstairs bonus room.You can see that my bachelor pad furniture - including the chouch, chair, and coffee table, still lives.  No matter how hard she tries Nicki just can't get rid of it.

Most likely the problem started with the fact that Nicki let me manage the unpacking process - clearly a big mistake.  The unpackers ripped through about 150 boxes in less than two hours - and the results can be seen below.  It appeared as if they had somewhere very important to be - and this was not the place.

I then had to venture to the office for the afternoon and Nicki was left with a house full of stuff with no home.  I arrived home tonight to find that she had worked through the entire downstairs even to the point we were able to eat dinner at home for the first time.  What was on the menu you ask?  Well, I figured nothing says "getting to know Arkansas" than making a Skyline 3-way and listening to the Reds on the internet.

So as I sit here writing this I am watching Nicki amazingly configure the kitchen cabinets to fit all of our belongings (I'm also getting the vibe I should probably get up and provide a little moral support).

As a brief aside - it should be noted Jack ventured in to our 'neighborhood' to meet the neighbors today.  I received a frantic call at work today explaining that while he has a wonderful fenced in yard, today he decided to work his way through an unlocked gate (again that may have been my fault) and Nicki found him across the street talking with the neighbors.  Nothing says "hi neighbor" like a dog peeing in your front yard.

Go Reds!

Movin' On Up...Or In

Life in Fayetteville has begun, with very little time to realize what we left behind.  At this point it feels like we're on vacation - we eat out for every meal, we are living out of a suitcase, we have no tv and internet, and the weather is always sunny and 70 (that is probably a bit of an overstatement).

The movers arrived today - Nicki, in true form, was a bit overwhelmed at first by how we were going to have all the boxes unpacked, furniture arranged, and apparently host a party by 8 p.m.  By the time I got home from work she had the bedroom, the downstairs, and the upstairs almost completely set-up (except for the hundreds of boxes all over the house).

And of course I couldn't be considered a good husband if I didn't buy Nicki beautiful flowers for her first day in the new house.  Okay...so maybe her parents sent the flowers to us...but they made her so happy I have been trying to take credit for them since they arrived.

 Most importantly, the grill, and all the deck chairs made it, which will be very important in relaxing in the evenings.  After spending the night arranging and rearranging, we stumbled upon a restaurant not more than two blocks from us with an awesome outdoor patio, great food, and some enticing drink specials.

All of that said - each night we find ourselves talking about how much we miss our friends and family in Cincinnati.  You know, it seems absence makes the heart grow fonder (man I could probably coin that phrase - it's pretty catchy).

And life presses on - the movers come back to unpack tomorrow - so hopefully by tomorrow night we'll have a somewhat organized house!

As a last point of reference - the Reds are 4-0 since I left Cincinnati.  I don't know that I truly wrapped my head around the significant increase in the success of Cincinnati sports teams now that I am gone.  While driving around tonight we even caught the sounds of Marty Brenneman on 700 WLW - but it wasn't long before the signal got scratchy and Nicki stopped enjoying the dulcet sound of radio static at volume 40.

We Made It!

Welcome to Fayetteville!  After a fabulous weekend with Katie, Jeff, Emily and Zoey, we made it to Arkansas this afternoon.  As you can see in the picture below, we made it but our stuff has not.  It should arrive on Tuesday so until then we have these two blue chairs for the three of us.  Jack has already taken one of them...


We will post pictures of the house as soon as our furniture arrives but I have to give credit where credit is due.  Nick did an amazing job picking out the most perfect place for us to get adjusted to this new city!  

  

Moving Day

April 1st, 2011....April Fool's!!  Move Day is here and this isn't an April Fool's Joke.  Yesterday, the packers came and spent 7 hours boxing up our house.  While it was very sad to see our once decorated home become bare, it made us realize a few things.  1. Why and how do we have so much stuff?  2. How AMAZING a corporate move package is!  By 4:30pm yesterday, our house was full of brown boxes, our 4 Runner was sold, and we looked at each other with an overwhelming sense of relief.  There was nothing more for us to do in preparation for this move except enjoy a great meal and a few drinks with our family and friends. 


This morning the movers came with their enormous 18 wheeler and the loading began.  After packing our essentials in the car, taking a final picture of our first house together, and not forgetting Jack, we pulled away around 12pm.  Thankfully, Ray agreed to supervise the movers while they finished the job this afternoon.  So, our journey has started and we are on our way South....or is it West?  Where is Arkansas???  Good thing Nick is driving....and we have a GPS.  We will hopefuly soon learn this new part of the country, but in the meantime are first finding our way to Kansas City to stay with our best friends "The Engers."  We will make our way to Fayetteville Sunday morning.  I CAN'T  wait to see this house of ours.  Nick picked it out all by himself!  Pictures to come :) 


Thank you for all of your support and best wishes through this move.  While it has been an emotional week, we know our adventure ahead will be well worth it!