New Blog!

Hey everyone! We made it to MN! Below is the link to my new blog. Check it out for updates on me and Eric!

The Things We Do

Blog Title

Hey everyone! Thanks for all your feedback! I have decided on a name that just came up in conversation. My new blog title will be called: The Things We Do. Thank you Michelle for the help!

Please start using this website to view my blog: http://jilliansthingswedo.blogspot.com/ Jillian In GA will no longer be posted on.

We are on the road to MN, check my new blog to see how the move went! We should be in MN by June 13th but I probably wont be able to post for a few days.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Our House

Hey everyone! I have decided on a new blog name but you are going to have to wait to see what it is. The name will be reveled on June 10th as we are driving to MN. For now I wanted to post some pictures of our house. It has changed over the 5 years we have owned it but this is how we will remember it.

Dining/Living Room

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Eric's Office

Guest Bedroom

Kitchen

Basement

We have loved living here over the years but we learned how hard it is to be a home owner. There is always something to do or work on when you own a home. We have loved having our own place but I will be happy to be renting again. We will buy a home again someday.... just not so soon.

The Plan

We are all packed and ready to go (for the most part)!! We will be closing on our house here in GA on June 10th at 3:30 (all prayers are welcome!) and will be hitting the road shortly after for the long drive to MN. Over the next week we will be meeting with friends here in Athens one last time and going out to some of our favorite restaurants. I really don't want to say goodbye to anyone! Luckily we will have plenty of reasons to visit!

Here is our moving plan:

• Pick up 25 foot rental truck (YIKES!) on Thursday 6/9 and start loading it with all of our big furniture pieces.
• Finish packing small boxes Friday 6/10 morning.
• Close on our house at 3:30
• By 4:30 hit the road and drive 8 hours to Paducah, KY where we will spend the night
• Wake up on Saturday morning and drive the rest of the 13 hours to Stillwater, MN
• Stay with my family for two nights before driving the truck up to Zimmerman, MN where we will be storing our things at Eric's mom's (Thanks Becky & Dan!!) and unload the truck

Here is our route:


View Larger Map


We will be back in MN in 9 days!

CONTEST: New Blog Title

With the move to MN coming soon I am going to need a new Blog title!! On the 12th of June I will no longer be Jillian In Georgia. With that said.... what should my new blog title be??

Starting today, I am holding a contest for the best name. Whoever gives me a great idea for a new blog title and I pick it...I will send you a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Start thinking!! You have until June 5th to post a comment with your idea.

Things We Wont Miss

This list is kind of petty... but I had to put it out there.

• Pollen!!!
• No alcohol sales on Sundays :)
• Having to spend money to travel home for the holidays & being away from family
• House maintenance
• Big bugs, cockroaches, fire ants and snakes! 
• Bermuda Grass (I know, its weird...but I miss the feeling of soft lush grass on my feet!)
• Red clay and no sand
• Having to dress up for football games....not that we ever did it, its just the principal
• Humid oppressive hot summers
• Being called a Yankee :)

Things We Will Miss

A lot of emotions have been flooding through me this last week.... excitement, nervousness, stress, and sadness. In the last week I have resigned from both of my jobs, had a yard sale (we made $300!), started packing, had a party to say bye to some friends, and returned the canoe and several other items to Eric's brother. Moving away from Athens after living here for almost 5 years will be tough. We have a lot of great things to look forward to in Minnesota but we will miss a lot of things here as well.... I guess that just means we will have to visit every once in a while!


Here is a LONG list of the things we will miss...

• Friends!!
• Our CSA from Roots Farm
• Pizza from Transmet
• Being close to the mountains and the beach
• Spending time at Sandy Creek Park
• Canoeing, camping and hiking with Michelle & Kelly!
• Movies on the lawn at the Kelley's 
• Hiking through the Botanical Gardens (Greg & Eric do this pretty regularly, I know Eric will miss it!)
• An early spring (with all the beautiful trees and flowers in bloom)
• The Founders Garden at UGA
• ZUMBA classes at the YMCA and all my friends there!
• Our church small group
• Eating out at The Last Resort, Taste of India, Farm 255, La Dolce Vita, and several other restaurants
• Our first house
• Great Coffee from 1000 Faces
• Going to UGA football games... GO DAWGS! 
• Warm summer nights



Michelle, Kelly, Eric and I on one of our hikes on the AT



Val, Greg & Eric at Trappeze

One of several trips to the beach, this time in Savannah

Veggies from Roots CSA

Camping on the Altamaha River

Dinner at Transmet: Jason, Bethany, Me, Katie & Matt

Saturday's in Athens

Ode to the Canoe

Well, as you know we have LOVED having a canoe while living in Athens. It was a great cheap way to have fun and explore. We paddled the Altamaha River, Oconne River, Lake Jocassee, and other small lakes around Athens. Unfortunately, the canoe belonged to my brother in law and with the move we had to give it up. It left our home on Sunday and I am going to admit I cried. Not because of the actual canoe being gone but because it was like this chapter of our life had ended. It was a sad moment for me to realize we wont be paddling around Georgia anymore with our friends Michelle & Kelly. So this post is an ode to the canoe....we enjoyed having you around!

Update: The House

Well folks, our house is officially under contract! This has been an amazing experience and a HUGE answer to prayer! So far things have gone smoothly (knock on wood) and we are all set to close on the house on June 10th!!!! Which means....

We are moving back to MN! We have been wanting this to happen for SOOO long that it still feels like a dream. It will be bitter sweet leaving Athens, our friends, and our first house but we are ready to go back home to be with family and friends in MN.

We are officially leaving Athens on June 11th. We would love to see all our friends in Athens again before we go... please email or call so we can plan something soon!

Thank you all for your prayers and support through this whole process.....we are very blessed!

Lake Hartwell

Last weekend we had a wonderful opportunity to go to Lake Hartwell. One of Eric's fellow grad students has a family home on the lake and invited the Philosophy department up to the lake. It was so wonderful to be on the water! Eric and I miss our times on lakes & rivers and we couldn't pass up this opportunity.

One of the best parts of this trip was that we got to spend some quality time with Greg, Val & their new baby girl Isla. She is sooo adorable and was great the whole weekend! I was very impressed that she wasn't fussy or upset at all (I am sure mom & dad noticed a little)!! It was a weekend of firsts for Isla.... first month, first vacation, first boat ride, and first time out of state!

I can't wait to see how this little girl will grow up and what she will become. Val is a talented artist and Greg is a philosopher. Isla is one lucky girl to be the daughter of these two wonderful people!

The weekend at the lake was fun and relaxing! I enjoyed the sun, drinks, conversation, and meeting new people! :) Thank you to Brooke for letting us stay at her family's house.

Greg, Val & Isla

Me & Eric enjoying our 2nd boat ride of the year!

Charleston



Eric, me, Justin, Grandpa, Becky & Dan



A couple weekends ago we were able to go to Charleston for a long weekend. Eric's brother lives in Charleston with his girlfriend Lindsay. Eric's mom, step dad & grandpa came down from MN to visit as well while we were there. We had a great time exploring Charleston and enjoying the company of family! On our first day in Charleston we explored downtown a little. I just love all the private gardens around and the architecture.





One of the many private gardens around Downtown

 On our second day in Charleston we were able to take a boat ride around the inter-coastal waterways. We drove under the Cooper River Bridge. I love the lines on the bridge.

 



Cooper River Bridge



Boats at the Marina



Grandpa & Eric/Iowa vs. Minnesota

 This trip was great because we were able to celebrate Mothers Day with Eric's mom. We haven't been able to do that in 5 years! I, of course, missed my mom but it was great to be with family. We celebrated by going to church, having an amazing brunch on Isle of Plams, and then spent some quality time on the beach.



Justin, Grandpa, Becky & Eric - 3 Generations




Lindsay, Justin, Dan, Eric, Nan, Becky, Grandpa & Me

 


Dan, Grandpa & Becky at the beach




Justin and his girlfriend Lindsay now live in this great house that is close to a chain of lakes. The picture below is of their backyard. It was a great place to relax over the long weekend!





 



I have a LOT to blog about....

Well, I have a lot to blog about and I promise that it will be coming soon! Lately, we have been to Charleston to visit family, at a lake house on Lake Hartwell, and we have some exciting news about our house that I will be sharing soon! We have been so busy I haven't had the time to blog!!

Athens Twilight

Karen, Kelly, Me & Ally

Athens Twilight is always the highlight of the Spring for me. It is sooo much fun to go downtown and watch the bike races. This was my first time staying for the entire womens and mens races.

Last year we got rained on so we didnt stay too long. This year, the weather was great! Not too cold, not to hot, it was just right!


We did see one crash...it was a pretty nasty one during the girls race. It was tough to watch as 5 or 6 girls crashed into each other.

I was able to get some pictures of the womens race... although I am not used to taking action shots. These ladies sure go fast!

When the mens race started it was too dark for me to get any clear pictures. However, I did  get some shots that I think look more on the artistic side that I like...even if they aren't in focus.

Overall, it was a great night!

Womens race going down Clayton

Kelli, Michelle, Kelly, Karen, Me, Eric, Ally & Alen

Kelly was also taking pictures of the races....his are a lot better than mine :) You can check them out here.

Devils Fork State Park

This past Easter weekend we decided to go camping with our friends Michell & Kelly. As you know I have been so restless at having the chance to go hiking, camping and paddling! The weather is finally better for more outdoor fun and Eric's ankle is almost at 100%....so we were ready!!

We had plans to go to Devils Fork State Park to camp and paddle on Lake Jocassee for some time. Eric and I both had Friday off so we were planning on heading out Friday morning for the lake. Unfortunately the weather kept changing from good to bad to good and so on. We were pretty much set to just leave on Saturday morning because we did not want to get rained on when we decided to risk it. We packed up the car, loaded the canoe and were at the lake by 1:30.

Once we got to the lake we unloaded the car and got everything situated into the canoe for our paddle to the campsite. I like this Park because the campsite is boat access only so there aren't too many people around. Friday afternoon the lake was completely fogged out. We could barely see the shoreline at some points in the afternoon but we didn't get rained on during the day. Eric and I just hung around the campsite Friday afternoon, walking around and spending some time reading. We didn't get rained on until the middle of the night, but we were in our tent and didn't get wet at all.

On Saturday morning we headed back to the boat launch to meet up with Michelle & Kelly. It was still foggy Saturday morning but was getting warmer throughout the morning. After they got settled at camp we walked around a bit, had lunch and then decided to check out some waterfalls that are on the lake. Unfortunately, we had no idea where we were going and we didn't find the waterfalls. Fortunately, the fog cleared out and it turned into a beautiful day that we didn't care too much. This lake is very beautiful! The water is so clear it almost looks like Caribbean ocean water.

Kelly likes to make goofy faces....it keeps us entertained.

After our paddle we headed back to camp. We spent some time hanging out in our hammocks before getting our fire going to cook dinner. we made hot dogs, corn on the cob, and of course smores. It was a delicious meal!

Sunday morning came and after breakfast we headed out onto the lake again in search of the waterfalls. This time we found it (with the help from another camper on the lake)! These falls were beautiful! Water cascading down from big boulders....it was well worth the paddle! We had lunch at the falls and enjoyed the rushing water before heading back to camp.

Heading back to camp from the falls was a little tough. The wind was picking up, causing some resistance in paddling against the wind. I am pretty sure it took us a little longer on the way back. Once we got back to camp we all jumped in the water....which by the way was very cold....to cool off from our hard paddle.

The cove our campsite was on.

Since the wind was picking up we decided to pack up camp and head back to our cars. When we were ready to head out we noticed that there were whitecaps on the lake. Yikes! This is no fun for paddlers. It seemed to take forever for us to paddle across the lake. Eric and I struggled against the wind the whole time and waves were close to crashing up over the front of our canoe. I don't know how Michelle & Kelly made it in their kayaks. But we made it back safe and sound...maybe a little wet.

All in all it was a great trip! We paddled around 17 miles (a lot more difficult than paddling down river :). We might just have to make it back here before we move!