We Are The Thorsons: Hello Omaha!

We are now in Omaha and boy, what a road to Omaha it has been!

Let's start back in Minnesota. While packing, Ryan came across a box full of cat stuff. Well, in this box contained some cat nip. So Ryan poured some cat nip in the top of the box lid and the cats went nuts. They became very territorial over the box lid and fought with each other for a chance to roll around in the cat nip. Here are some action shots. Unfortunately for Cooper, Zoey took of the whole box lid so he didn't get much access to the cat nip unless Zoey was off some where else.

Things are getting nasty between the two of them!

This is probably to most active Zoey has been in quite some time.

Last Tuesday, Ryan picked up the moving truck and we began loading it up. We were boxing things up at our house and getting rid of things for more than a week prior to the truck arriving. Well, to make a long story short, I have the best mom and mom-in-law ever! Without them, Ryan and I wouldn't have gotten a wink of sleep Tuesday night. My mom took off of work early and came over to help. When she arrived, we didn't have a lot in the moving truck, in fact we only had our two big dressers in there. I could tell by the look on her face that she was thinking "oh, my gosh, there's so much to do yet!" Slowly but surely we kept packing things up and loading them into the truck. We worked and worked and worked and worked....it seemed like we were never going to be able to finish. I didn't know Ryan and I had accumulated so much stuff/junk in the last two years. To make matters even worse, it rained and down-poured the entire evening and night. We had one of our beds loaded into the truck along with some boxes and then the truck started leaking. So, time out! We had to move the mattress and box spring out of the way of the leak and figure out what we were doing to do as the rain wasn't stopping and neither was the leak. It rained so hard that we even had to shut the back of the truck so water would stop blowing in the door. It was wet. It was hot. And we didn't finish loading up the truck until the wee hours of the morning. Ryan's mom drove up after she finished a dentist appointment she had and helped us pack as well. Again, I don't know what Ryan and I would have done without them {besides not get any sleep}. It was a LONG night! As the clock was approaching 1:30 am, I told my mom she better hit the road as I was concerned she would end up falling asleep on the drive home. She was such a good sport and such a hard worker the entire night. She ended up getting home at 2:30 in the morning! Ryan and I finished loading up a few last things {in the rain} around 3am and then laid down to go to sleep. We had to be on the road to Omaha by 8am to make it to our final walk through and closing on time. I was exhausted but I could NOT fall asleep. I had my alarm set for 6:00 as we still needed to load a few things into the truck and clean some things. Well, I think it was after 4 when I finally feel asleep and then I woke up at 5:30 and got back to work. I'm such a light sleeper when I know I have things to do and a time deadline to meet. Anyways, after a long night of packing and a short little nap, Ryan and I were both up and moving for the day. We got everything done that needed to be done, loaded up Zoey and Cooper and pulled out of the driveway just after 8:00am. Right on time!

The big 'ol moving truck. Good thing we had such a big truck. As the night wore on, our packing became less and less organized and therefore took up way more space.

The cats trying to figure out what is going on. Zoey looks a little panicked here.

They settled down in no time. Coop found his spot right in front of the air vent and Zoey got comfortable on top of Cooper.

As the trip continued, roles reversed and Cooper got comfortable laying on top of Zoey.

It was pouring rain {of course} as we left Minnesota but the rain stopped shortly after getting into Iowa. Ryan was driving our 26 foot moving truck with his car on a trailer behind and I was driving my explorer with the kiddos {Zoey and Coop}. I had to follow Ryan as when we did a light check on the trailer, they didn't work! Apparently they were working when Ryan picked it up at the rental place the day before {according to the rental store employee} but they weren't working and we needed to get going. So I followed behind the trailer. I could see the lights on the back of the truck so it was okay but a slow drive none-the-less. I was a little nervous that the cats would make the drive not so fun as in the past they haven't been good travelers, but my mom had the idea to put them together in a bigger cage {see pictures above} versus separate in little cat carriers and they did awesome! They barely made a peep they entire way.

The moving truck and Ryan's car moving down the interstate.

We got passed by a big blade from a windmill. These things are HUGE!

I got a little nervous as this big blade was passing Ryan since the truck took up most of our lane and there was lots of other traffic around. My knuckles were probably white at this point in time.

Once we got to Omaha, the final walk through went well and then we were on our way to the closing. Good thing I have an automatic start on my vehicle. We were able to leave the cats in the car with the air conditioner running while we were in the closing. It worked out perfectly. By the time we got back to our house, I was exhausted but there was work to be done. We took Ryan's car off the trailer so Ryan could go return the trailer. Prior to Ryan leaving to take the trailer back, I made a few trips from the car to the bedroom closet with clothes and I was just beat. I literally pulled out a blanket, threw it on the floor, laid there and fell asleep. When Ryan got back from returning the trailor, we looked on the internet on our cellphones {thank heavens for internet on cellphones!} and found movers to unload the truck for us. The BEST decision ever. We found a company by the name of Smooth Movers and within an hour and a half three guys showed up and had the truck unloaded within two hours. It was awesome! Ryan and I got to just point and tell them which rooms to bring all the boxes. It was so nice to have a bed to sleep on that night but honestly, I would have settled for the floor. But to not have to unload the truck was so nice as we were both physically exhausted.

The cats found a spot where they could keep an eye on everything. They are in the dining room looking down over the living room.

Zoey got a little too comfortable watching me in the living room. I thought for sure she was going to get stuck.

Zoey making herself at home on the couch.

The next morning, I was still tired, even after a full nights sleep. It was hard to get motivated to start unpacking everything. Ryan and I decided to start with the kitchen and dining room so we could actually make meals for ourselves. We gave the cupboards a deep clean prior to unpacking all of our stuff. Slowly the boxes started to disappear and a normal kitchen/dining room started to appear. We had to get a little creative as the kitchen is a lot smaller than the one we had back in Minnesota. We are going to miss the extra storage but I think we'll manage.

Here is the mid-unpacking kitchen chaos.

I'm not in love with the orange kitchen walls and have thought about painting them, BUT the ceiling in the kitchen/dining room is vaulted and the wall going all the way up to the ceiling is also orange so we'd likely have to hire someone to come in and paint....we'll see what happens.

Our dining room all set up. {Note the lovely orange walls. It looks worse in this picture than it actually is in real life.}

I'm kind of embarrassed to show this as the "after" picture of the kitchen. I forgot to take a picture when everything was put away and there was nothing on the counters but *sigh* life happens and we are still unpacking other rooms so naturally things have migrated in here. Eventually it will look better :)

Since our kitchen was still not really functional on Thursday, we went out for lunch at Five Guys. Neither Ryan nor I had ever eaten here before. It is a hamburger joint and it was really good. Two thumbs up! I would recommend Five Guys to anyone wanting a good hamburger.

After sleeping in again on Friday, we were up and at 'em, ready for another day of unpacking. We had full intentions to get a lot of unpacking done but plans changed throughout the day. I had to run to the med center to pick up so information and a textbook for my neonatal resuscitation course I have this coming Wednesday. Ryan came with and got to meet Janice, the resident coordinator, who is fantastic. I feel so lucky to have such a good person filling that role as she will make my life a lot easier over the next four years. We talked with Janice for a good half hour before heading home. Once we got home, I took a three hour nap! Ahhh, it felt so good. Once I got up I didn't have the motivation to start unpacking so I finished somethings in the kitchen and we finished the front living room and then called it a day. Ryan and I were both a little stir crazy and wanted to get out of the house and away from all the boxes so we went to the movies and saw Super 8. It was a really good movie. It reminded me a lot of my cousin Joe as the main characters in the movie are filming a zombie movie :)

The movie theater featuring storm clouds in the background.

Saturday morning, we were tackling the bedrooms and bathrooms. We got the guess bedroom all set up and good thing as Ryan and I found out our friend Pete, from college in Mankato, and his girlfriend, were in town for the College World Series. We met up with them downtown and took in one of the CWS games. We then came back to our place for the night. We stayed up pretty late catching up on things. It was so good to see Pete - it has been years!{I had to chuckle. Since we are still unpacking everything, I could not find a matching sheet set for the guest bedroom. I had a blue fitted sheet, light blue pillow cases, a red flannel flat sheet, a cream blanket and a navy blue blanket. Hey, at least it was all clean :)}

We sat in right center field. The cheap seats! Only $8 a ticket - can't beat that. It was super hot and there was no shade - yowzers!

After breakfast Sunday morning, we said goodbye to Pete and then it was time to tackle our lime green bedroom. The lime green color was disgusting! It had to go. So I hauled all the boxes our of the room and got to painting it. It looks SO much better not having a glowing green coming from that room. Painting over the lime green color took a lot of paint. I was surprised that the room took almost a full gallon of paint and we even bought the paint with the primer already in it. Oh well, that doesn't matter so much as having that color gone :) We are going to make this room into our home office. I can't wait until it is all finished!

Before: lime green

After: light grey {this looks a little bit more blue than it is in person}. So much better!

This morning {after sleeping in until 9:30!} I had to run some errands. Ryan came with as I'm not completely familiar with many of the areas I needed to go and Ryan is since he was down here once before. I had to head to the VA medical center to get finger printed. Yes, this will be the second set of prints I have to give in order to work in the hospitals down here. I can tell you one thing, the physicians in Nebraska are likely not criminals considering all of the things we have to do to get licensed here. Well, Ryan dropped me off at the front entrance {since parking was crazy} and I found my way to the fingerprinting office in the basement of the hospital and the fingerprinter machine was broken! So I have to go back someday when it is working. Then we went over to UNMC so I could get a few immunizations and titers drawn so I am current with their standards. After three needle sticks, I was ready to go. Then Ryan and I had to find the bookstore so I could pick up my long white coats. It's official, I no longer have to wear a short white coat. Actually, I could really care less how long my white coat is. Everyone in the medical field, regardless if they are a student, nurse or physician plays a vital role in providing patient care.

Our backyard {right side}.

Our backyard {left side}. Can you see the two plants along the back fence? Those are two HUGE tomato plants. The previous owner must have given them steroids because the other tomato plants in the neighborhood are tiny compared to these huge bushes. Even our neighbors to the right that we met tonight commented on how giant these two plants are!

Tonight we had a roast in the crock pot for dinner and we are sitting here watching the news. There is a bad storm moving through the area so storm coverage is all that is on TV. There was a big storm that came through last night as well - complete with hail and all {but not as big as the one that is passing through right now}. Welcome to Omaha :) I think we are in for many more storms during our four years here.