A few things you should know...

...about the University of Illinois (and the surrounding area):

1) U of I is in the Big 10 - which Nebraska will be joining this coming year. Unfortunately, University of Illinois stinks at football and they're not even playing Nebraska for the next three seasons! Big huge mega bummer times 12.

2) Illinois Men's Gymnastics IS currently ranked #3 and IS coached by two former Olympians - Justin Spring and Ivan Ivankov. Kody is not a fan of me getting season tickets, but I'm hoping to see at least a few meets. :-)

3) I did not know Illinois had a women's gymnastics team, but apparently they do - definitely hitting up a couple of their meets next year.

4) In case you couldn't tell, I'm hoping to live vicariously through Kody for the next four years in order to fulfill my dream of attending a big state school because of the athletics. Just wish he would've chosen a school that plays Nebraska in football at least once! Just kidding, just kidding.

5) Jimmy John - the creator of Jimmy John's - lives in Champaign and the company is based out of C-U - although apparently he's moving it to Florida.

6) Super excited to use U of I's fitness center - well, I'm sure Kody will have access and I'm just hoping I will too.

7) Population of C-U is about 150,000 including students ... 100,000 without students.

8) C-U is almost equally far away from Chicago, Indianapolis (closest) and St. Louis (furthest), hence the airport problem. Apparently C-U, Bloomington-Normal and Peoria also have small airports, so we'll have lots to choose from!

9) Unfortunately, C-U is not any warmer that Omaha, Bourbonnais or St. Charles. But since Kody will be back in school, he might get a few snow days!

10) Right now we live 6 hours from Minneapolis (bro and sis-in-law's family), 7 hours from Omaha and 9 hours from Knoxville (Kody's bro and sis-in-law's family). When we move, we'll live 8.5 hours from Minneapolis, 7.5 hours from Omaha and 7.5 hours from Knoxville. Still right in the middle of everything, which is quite nice. And a long plane ride from California (sorry Todd and Jonathan).

P.S. A big hip hip hooray to Kacey, Kody's brother, for getting into the University of Tennessee vet school!! Two Carr boys in vet school at the same time! Fun stuff!

Movin' Movin' Moving!

We're Moving!!

Since Kody for some reason doesn't want a 6 hour commute to vet school each day, we're going to be loading up all our stuff and trekking down to Champaign-Urbana sometime in the next few months.

Is it sad that one of the first things I got excited about was finding out what grocery stores are in Champaign? I really hope there's a Kroger that doubles coupons!! Yes, I know, mega nerd.

We actually headed down this past week to do a little house searching. Yep, we're hoping to become homeowners!

We were able to get a good idea of what's available (lots!), narrow down what we want (a place that doesn't share walls with another family ... and a fenced in backyard for our mega large puppy!) and see a little bit of the area. No Kroger that I saw, only Schucnks - I have no idea what that is, but hopefully they double coupons! And a super cool bonus - our realtor was a guard for 4 years for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Washington D.C. - how cool!!

Can I just tell you it is going to be AMAZING to have everything we need within 15 minutes of us (except an airport ... not really sure what we're going to do about that) and hopefully WORK within 10 minutes of home.

Neither Kody or I have spent too much time in the Champaign-Urbana area. Kody spent a summer there when Kacey, his brother, went to the University of Illinois. I ran many a neighborhood during the Illinois Half Marathon I blogged about last year here. So it'll definitely be a fun adventure getting to know our new hometown. I'm already super excited about a huge farmer's market, food co-op, lots of parks and bike paths and running in a new area.

And a few other random blog thoughts running through my head lately:
- No, pee-monster Meatball did not become a part of the Carr family. After pooping twice and peeing about a million and a half times within a two hour period, we decided he definitely wasn't a fit for us. Not that we were even looking, but Kody's co-workers were convinced we'd fall in love.
- Loving using my breadmaker to make homemade pizza dough each Sunday - so easy!
- Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice with lunch today after church! Yum!
- Can warm spring weather please come soon!?!
- No half marathon this year - super sad. Apparently the Lincoln Half is extremely popular and sells about four months in advance.
- New job search has commenced - any leads or helpful people to contact in C-U (Champaign-Urbana) would be awesome.

We've got a new friend living with us this weekend:

Meet Meatball (you know, to make a complete meal with our Noodles) -


Before we agreed to this, Kody emphatically said that we would not have a second dog after this weekend. Apparently he thinks this non-dog loving girl has changed her ways. And maybe I have :-)

But after he peed four times in our apartment and pooped once IN MY HAND (yes, I'd rather get the poop in my hand rather than have to clean my carpet for a fifth time!), I think we'll enjoy a sweet little puppy for a few days and then gladly give him back!

Either way, Noodles is LOVING having a playmate around for a few days, even if Meatball is 1/4 his size!

However, I do think Kody is slightly smitten.

I'll report back and let you know if Noodles has a permanent playmate come Tuesday.

Fresh squeezed please

I LOVE orange juice. Always have. Always will (hopefully). But I had never had FRESH SQUEEZED orange juice...until Sunday!

Oh. my. deliciousness.

It was amazing. I think Kody even liked it more than me!

We had a few oranges sitting around that weren't very good to eat plain (they had seeds), so we decided to juice them! We were given my Nana's juicer a long while back and had never used it. I pulled it out thinking it'd be difficult to use and I probably needed to use it once and then sell/donate it. Definitely not giving that device away! It was SO easy and SO good!

The next day I went out and bought 12 lbs of oranges for $3 (which I think is a pretty good price - 4lbs for $1) and Kody made more juice for us! I was hoping it'd end up being cheaper to make your own, but unfortunately I don't think it is :( Kody used almost all our oranges and only got a little more than what you see above. Maybe not an every week treat, but we're definitely doing this again!!

Next up: grapefruit juice!

Best Birthday Present EVER!!!

Kody received an early birthday present in the mail yesterday afternoon ... and acceptance letter to the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Class of 2015!

Yayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay!!!!

We have been waiting for this day since he sent in his application back in October and anxiously awaiting it since his interview two weeks ago (re: camping out by the mailbox almost every day at 1:15 p.m. when our mailman arrives).

Wow, still cannot believe it's real, but Kody so deserves it! He has worked so hard at his job and on this application. But we definitely know it was only because of God that he has gotten this far. And he's most certainly going to need God during these next four years of H-E-double hockey sticks. (Med/Law school friends - any tips on how to survive without a hubby for four years??)

We are having a fun weekend of celebrating Kody - his birth and "academic accomplishments," as the acceptance letter said.

Illini cupcakes and Red Robin, along with screaming, squealing, jumping, grinning and almost exploding were on the celebration agenda last night.

Then I surprised Kody this morning at work with a homemade blue-and-orange cookie cake and some cinnamon rolls to share with his co-workers.


I'm not sure if his birthday tomorrow will live up to the excitement of last night, but the combo makes for a super fun weekend!

Yayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay! I'm soooo proud of my amazing husband!!!!