Bubye 2009...Hello 2010!

Let’s see, what’s new since our wedding? Hmmm Zara took up a position in the Research and Development department at a canning company MN. We found a nice rental townhome in Maple Plain (population of 1800) which is about a 40 minute drive from work. Kathy and Greg (Grant’s parents) helped us with the big move up here November 21^st. Zara started work November 30^th ...wow, it’s already been two months.

We did visit family and friends back in Iowa--first for Thanksgiving at Jeff and Kellie’s (Grant's uncle & aunt), then for Christmas at Grandma D’s, back home to Minnesota, then back down to Des Moines to spend New Year’s Eve with friends. Pheeew, you can say we got our (or should we say Grant did) fill of driving for the year :). But overall it was a fun month!  December was like a month of Christmas for us; we finally got to open and use all our awesome wedding gifts that had been packed away.

Grant had just a month to relax before he accepted a contract position in the Enterprise CommandCenter (IT/Computer stuff) at a transportation logistics company in Eden Prairie, MN. He started work December 21^st and has a 35 minute drive to work. 
January has been a good month and we are both getting used to “working life”. Zara loves her job and the people she works with. She is currently working with different baked beans and pastas. She leaves at 6.30am and gets back around 5.30pm. Grant likes his easy going job too; he leaves for work at 5.45am and gets back around 3.30pm. Once we get back we cook food, eat, watch some TV and sleep by 10pm. That’s pretty much our work week.  Weekends are pretty busy but relaxing...sleeping-in, laundry, bill paying, grocery shopping, trying out new restaurants and watching movies. We enjoy trying out new dishes we see on food network or ones we make up :).

We love living so close to the Mall of America (MOA) and IKEA (only 35 minutes away).  Initially, to Grant’s grief it was our weekly pilgrimage, now not so much -- we have had our fill of the MOA :). So we have been familiarizing ourselves with the area and the stores around us.  It’s nice that everything is only a 15-20 minute drive away. We can’t wait for the warm weather to actually be able to walk around and explore more. Surprisingly the weather has been much better up here than it has been in Iowa. We have had just one blizzard and a couple of light snow showers. It is still really cold…but hey, spring is just around the corner :).

We ended this month celebrating Zara’s birthday, which included going out for some responsible ;) drinking to downtown Minneapolis with some of Zara’s grad school friends, and going to The Melting Pot for a fondue dinner (Grant’s treat). We loved it! Grant gifted Zara an awesome big easel for her painting.

Till our next update….keep warm, be safe and have fun :)