Overwhelmed... With Convenience!

Okay, I'm not sure what I expected out of Des Moines or what I truly pictured it being like here. Fine, yes, I do know what I pictured- a small town feel with older houses and lots of fields everywhere.

I understand it's the state capital but, let's be honest, so is Jeff City, MO and there ain't much there... Sue me for being stereotypical!

I didn't expect a beautiful downtown much less one filled with people out having a good time on St. Patrick's Day. I didn't expect an AWESOME parade that was over 2 hours long and had one float HANDING OUT BACON! I'm told by my friend Kara, who grew up here, we are about 5 minutes away from the HQ of the Pork Society of Iowa AND they serve a pork chop on a stick at the State Fair in August. Wow. No more turkey bacon for the Byrnes! Which is fine, I read it's one of the things making Americans fat anyways....

We've been here a week now and I'm absolutely in love with the city of West Des Moines (yes, Des Moines is big enough to have a West designation thank you very much). It's an amazing city (mmm hmm, I said CITY) with SO much to offer. Coming from St. Thomas I am literally overwhelmed with all it has to offer! I've tried to go grocery shopping but I'm not sure where to start- Walmart? Target? Dahl? Hyvee? Trader Joes? Costco? I HAVE OPTIONS!!! And I can use COUPONS! I've found myself going multiple times because I keep forgetting things and it's an easy in and out experience. This is very exciting to me and I've actually had to upgrade my Shopping List Ap on my iPhone in order to help me get organized (ListPro in case you are wondering)!

Everything here is so new... and nice! I mean NICE. Right around us is everything anyone could want- bars, restaurants and the nicest mall I have ever, I mean ever, been in. There's several gyms to choose from and they all offer amazing things- pools, new equipment, group fitness, tanning- at a pretty ridiculous price.

Even the gas stations are nice, new, all-brick buildings!

We've even found a house! It is actually the first one we looked at. The real estate agent thought we were nuts (actually 'people who just wanted to look around a new development and waste her time' to be exact) as we called from the driveway and asked her to come open it for us to look at. She clearly was happy with us when we signed our offer letter 24 hours later though! We know it's crazy to buy the first place you look at so we did our due dilligence and looked at 10 more and toured 3 more but we kept coming back to the first place we saw. I have a rule when I shop- if I find something, look around and keep coming back to it buy what I caught my eye first... so we did and we close April 11th (sooner if our loan officer can get thru the red tape that is the IRB, poor lady is getting a lesson in how the VI operates).

Now it is time for the fun stuff to begin- the shopping for the house! I've relegated most of our Chicago furniture to be basement worthy so there's lots to do and the possibilities are endless! There's an awesome store called Homemakers that is the mecca of furntiture stores. We found basically our entire living room set and kitchen table & chairs there in under an hour. My list of things to buy just keeps growing and growing and soon we will be playing 'item survivor' in order to prioritize things. We ordered our first item on line last night- a SUPER COOL coffee table with fun ottomans that double as storage and seating underneath.

Trust me, it rocks.

Well, now we are off to St. Louis for a quick trip in and out. Tim has some training at AB HQ and I have some movers to meet and miscellaneous items to pack! During that oh-so-exciting drive I'll be figuring out what to do with this blog. Obviously it's time to change the background and update the bio but I'm thinking I'll keep the name. Cornfield Telegraph just doesn't have that ring to it... nor is it even true!