Welcome to America's Dairyland

We made it to Madison!

The journey out here went swimmingly. We experienced zero weather or traffic "hiccups"along the way. We stayed in several "interesting" hotel rooms and ate a surprising amount of food from The Olive Garden (haha no wonder I gained 7 pounds!). We officially moved into our little home last Wednesday and have spent the past 5 days unpacking as much as we can in between JDawg's naps (little missy only snoozes during the day if she's being held; which I don't mind doing). Looking around the house I'm actually surprised at how much we've accomplished. The entire upstairs area is almost completely settled. The only room that's a complete disaster is the second bedroom (aka the "catch all" room). Oh, and the garage too. That's has become the place where empty boxes go to die.

We've explored a good deal of the Madison area in the short time we've been here. Of course we've visited all the local groceries stores and have thoroughly assessed their prices and products. I can say with much confidence that Trader Joe's is our new grocery store of choice. Followed closely by Whole Foods. Hooray food!!

I can't wait until Spring so Josie and I can go exploring around our neighborhood! I've got my eye on a pretty sweet jogging stroller from REI.

We've also decided to hold off on getting another vehicle right away. We're going to try our best to be a one car family for as long as we can. Once the ice melts, Tim is going to start biking to work (Madison is a HUGE biking city. Bike lanes here are the size of normal car lanes! Crazy, right?!). That way I'll have the car most days so JBird and I can hit up the town like the wild women that we are.

Did I mention there's a Super Target like 2 miles from our house? Be jealous.

Gettin' Stuff Done!

We leave in less then 2 weeks for the land of lakes and cheeses! CANNOT WAIT! The more I learn about Madison, the more I fall in love with it! I've contacted a few of the local midwives for pediatrician recommendations. They all HIGHLY recommended the same doctor, a woman who is SUPER pro-breastfeeding, natural parenting, attachment parenting, etc...AND she's accepting new patients! I just need to make sure the clinic will take our new insurance. It is such a relief to find a GREAT doctor before we even get out there. Of course we'll have to meet her to really know if she's the perfect fit for our family, but I have a feeling we'll absolutely love her.

Funny story: I was reading through one of the midwife's profiles on their website and turns out she lived in Ithaca for several years, got her nursing degree from Binghamton University, and worked in one of the local hospitals here! Small world right?! We go ALL the way to Madison, WI and one of the first people I've been in contact with knows the Binghamton area!

It also looks like we've found a place to live. It's a ranch-style duplex about 5-10 minutes outside of the city (rockin' the suburbs!). Which means it'll only be a 10 minute (or less) drive to work for Tim! The place sounds really great (and looks pretty great too from the photos we've seen). It has 2 bedrooms, one and a half baths, a living rooms, den, and decent size kitchen with dining area. Plus, it's got a nice yard and even a little deck (and a garage!). We're really excited. The landlord seems like a trustworthy guy too. He's mailing us the rental agreement to look over along with some other info on the property.

Tim still has some loose ends to tie up at ESF for his thesis but that will all get taken care of next week (hopefully). All we really have to do is pack up our bedroom, bathroom, closets and some random items we have around my mom's house. We should be hearing back from the "Relocation Team" tomorrow regarding all the craziness that goes into moving halfway across the country.

Tentatively, we plan on leaving NY on February 16th and arrive in Madison the 18th or 19th (depending on how our little travel buddy does with spending 8+ hours a day strapped in her carseat). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have another "Snowpocalypse"for our drive out.

Stay tuned for more updates!