New Glarus Brewery

Moving to Iowa has been slightly stressful for Tony.  He has been struggling to find some good Iowan beer. He has been wishing for some good Wisconsin beer and the trip back from the family reunion was the opportune time to get some. So, on the trip back to Iowa we stopped at the little town about 30 minutes south of Madison area known as New Glarus. To those of you who don't know, New Glarus contains a brewery that brews a number of well known beers in Wisconsin, including Spotted Cow. We spent the two hour detour walking around the gift shop and taking a self guided tour of the brewery where we found an employee to explain to me the process of beer making and a few other facts about the brewery itself. We jumped back into the car at about two o'clock eighteen bottles of beer heavier and a couple more hours to drive.

Thanksgiving Travels

Being newlyweds, firsts are abundant. This included our first Thanksgiving together. Actually, I'm not going to lie, Mom did all the work, we just showed up. We left Iowa mid-afternoon on Wednesday, detoured through north-east Iowa accidentally, to arrive at about 8pm. Thursday brought about Thanksgiving with Mom, Dad and the three little girls, with Tony and Naomi's boyfriend Zach. We all fit around the table without more than one leaf! Mom cooked a delicious meal and Tony roped all of us into doing the dishes. The afternoon was spent playing dominoes and apples-to-apples followed by eating delicious pie, made by Naomi, and watching Elf. Friday was spent hanging with my friends from Wisconsin, Saturday chopping wood with the Feyereisen's and the weekend rounded out with the Dieringer Family reunion. It was a busy week, but such a blessing to see so many people on the Feyereisen and Dieringer sides, as well as friends from back home.

Date Night

I know we are grown-up people now and college is behind us, but I just can't get used to the idea of going out for dinner quite yet. Maybe it's because I haven't have a few kids and had to cook dinner every night for the last number of years. Anyway, regardless of the reason, I had the week of from school and decided to make a special dinner for Tony and I to enjoy. I guess you could call it something of a date.

When our friends visited from Milwaukee, they treated us to the Mongolian grill in town. Tony loved it so I decided to replicate their traditional Asian stir fries. Since we only have one car, I spent a good half of the day walking around Coralville to get some remaining groceries, candles and check out Goodwill for a larger frying pan. Dinner didn't turn out to be terribly spectacular (I overcooked it a little), but it was a fun night ending with some Pride and Prejudice and falling asleep a quarter of the way through the movie on Tony's lap. Maybe one day we'll go somewhere else.

Michigan Meandering

Tony started No-Shave November...thankfully got rid of it for
a mustache for about ten minutes

Why do I feel that the beginning of the month was so long ago? It's only the 18th (a little over half way through) and not that much has happened with us. Maybe that's why.

Well this month starts the holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had the opportunity to visit Tony's family in Michigan last weekend for the first time since the end of July. It was nice to see the whole family again. Most of the weekend was spent doing everyday tasks. Tony spent Saturday morning and afternoon in the garage, while Beth and I did homework in the living room. When Heidi got home from work pizza was picked up and we all spent the night watching movies and TV shows, everything from The Avengers to Star Wars: A New Hope. Tony and I also got to show off our popcorn maker, however, I failed to salt the popcorn so I don't think anyone was impressed, including me. Sunday, ended with a delicious dinner made by mom!

Video Games and Good Times

This last weekend found us gazing upon some old, but wonderful, faces. Tony and I were visited by Percy, Austin and Nick, three of our good friends from MSOE. It was so nice to just hang out with some old friends and catch up. The weekend consisted of playing Taboo on Friday night, guys vs. girls (we won!!!). Then Percy and I talked until 3:15am about everything from God to painting our nails. The guys managed to outstay us by playing video games until about 4am. I forgot how long people can play video games for. Saturday morning was a lazy time of waking up. Percy managed to get her Tony time in the afternoon before our friend Nate, who also works at Rockwell, came down. We ended up playing Settlers of Catan with 6 people. Man alive was the board crowed, but it was fun. Tony won that one. The night ended with Percy, Nick and Austin taking Tony and I out to dinner at a Mongolian Grill and a night at the movies. The guys went to Taken 2 while Percy and I opted for some great laughs at Pitch Perfect. Perfect movie for us girls. It was so much fun to get in touch with my ridiculous side with them and I know Tony truly appreciated the time with Austin and Nick.

This week once again finds us going through life and settling in. Tony continue to works long hours while I am  adjusting to a new school and my increase responsibility in the lab. Life is good through it all and we are continuing to learn much about life. I have found that Thursdays are quite boring for me. They are usually my short day so I get home early from school, but they happen to be Tony's long days due to a volleyball league that he joined through work. Since it is all the way in Cedar Rapids, he usually stays after work until the game starts anywhere from 6:30 to 8:30. Tonight's game is at 8:30 so he came home and I get to go watch this time! Maybe I'll convince him to get some ice cream on the way home :) I have also found that it is awesome to skype with family and friends. I had the chance to have long conversations with both Naomi and my friend Jenny in these last two weeks. Amazing times to just catch up!