Chattanooga Day 1-14

A regular feature where I document our first year in our new city …

We loaded a huge moving truck — by "we" I mean dear family and friends who earned lots of good karma points — the last Monday of 2014. Not surprised that not everything in the house fits in our temporary apartment so Chris and I have made a pledge to get rid of junk in the new year. At the moment, wall to wall boxes. But hey, we have two bathrooms now. Woo-hoo!

I was really happy we got to Chattanooga in time to celebrate New Year's Eve. How fitting! We started a new adventure and new year together. New Year's Day we had a traditional serving of black-eyed peas for luck. The boys are not big fans but they had to eat at least one! Tradition!

Since arriving we've found the closest frozen yogurt, the closest Mexican restaurant with yummy white salsa (Joseph nows calls it cheese dip but, to me, it will always be white salsa!), the closest Pizza Hut —one day the kitchen will be open again. Finally found the silverware on Day 12! Still looking for the can opener.

On Day 3, we found the library and have already been back four times. We loved our library and our library people in Birmingham. There were a few tears as we said goodbye. So it was really nice to walk onto the 2nd floor of the downtown Chattanooga library and feel at home. The entire floor is dedicated to children and tweens/teens. Will loves it because there's a Pokemon club on Saturdays. (Oh yes, Pokemon is back in a big way). It is truly a space for creating and sharing and hanging out. Yes there were teens, tons of teens hanging out at the library on Saturday afternoon. And the 4th floor is full of toys for "big" people — vinyl cutter, laser cutter, 3-D printers. Chris and I plan to go play soon!

Day 5 we took dinner to daddy at work. He's back in the newsroom, working nights to get the paper out. Got to see the presses. And got our hands covered in ink. It's nice for the boys to see Chris' desk and work space so they can visualize where daddy is when he says I'm going to work. I so want to work there too. I miss the smell of ink and the hustle and bustle. Maybe a job on the day side will open up soon! Chris and I both can't work nights. Exploring other job opportunities while I wait.