Life in Iowa: weekend recap

Guest free is the way to be! :)

Just kidding - however, after having guests for pretty much 10 days in a row, it is nice to have the house to ourselves!

This weekend was full to the brim with activities!

Friday:: After Ike and Kim left, I spent a while cleaning the house and getting it ready for our third and final set of visitors. I also managed to sneak in some work, even though I took the day off. When Nic got home, I debated whether or not I should head to the Y to get in a workout or head up to Iowa City to purchase a new workout item. Clearly I chose the later and we made our way up to World of Bikes to test drive and ultimately purchase a new bike!

After test driving a fitness bike and a road bike, I ended up choosing the Trek 7.2. Although I like how the road bike felt a little better than the fitness model, the 7.2 is a more practical bike that I can use to get in good workouts, as well use for a commuting bike around town (meetings, grocery store, etc). Oh and...it was on sale. Win!

We got home just in time to get dinner going before Nic's parents, Barb and Kurt walked in the door.

Saturday:: Nic worked. Barb, Kurt and I enjoyed some leftovers for breakfast (I am sure they were very disappointed!) and then Kurt started working on some projects for us! I love it when the father-in-law comes to town!

We headed up to town around Noon to meet up with Nic and do some shopping around the square. Barb has been to most of the stores, so I suggested we head up to Kalona as they have only driven through.

In Kalona, after grabbing lunch at the Tuscan Moon and cookies at the Kalona Bakery, Barb and I both did some major shopping! We found a happy balance between antique/crafty stores (for Barb) and bulk food stores for me. Yes, we were both like little kids in the candy store!

If you are ever in the area, Stringtown Grocery is a must stop! I've only been there once before this weekend, but am kicking myself that we don't go more often. I walked out of the store with:

Golden flax seed
Chia seeds
Adzuki beans
Spelt berried
Green lentils

We also found that they have quite a variety of organic, Amish raised meat for sale. Even though I rarely eat it, we now know where we can find locally raised meat to purchase.

We also made quick trips to the Kalona General Store (I walked out with split peas, apricots and coconut flakes), Twin County Dairy (we picked up two types of cheese for that night's dinner), and after a short drive down some country roads, ended up at JK Creative Wood & Gifts. Here, Kurt was like a kid in a HUGE candy store. He loves working with wood and we all ooohed and awwwed at their amazing work.

Barb treated Nic and I to a set of coasters.

Love them.

Upon returning home, I whipped up a very gourmet dinner for everyone. Tomato soup and grilled cheese. Seriously, it was gourmet - no canned soup or sliced cheese here! I was inspired by the new show on NBC, America's Next Great Restaurant. Have you seen it?? I've been craving a grilled cheese since we watched the first two episodes with Ike and Kim. I was initially going to make up some saucy balls....but decided to keep it simple with the soup and grilled cheese. Watch the show, you will like it!

The tomato soup I made was pretty much the same as this one, but I made a few changes and actually liked this version better. I think I will make it again sometime this week and will post the recipe then. There were not too many changes, but I want to get it up here so I remember the changes I made!

After dinner we all sat down to watch the movie, The American, starring George Clooney. Word to the wise, do not watch this movie with your parents. AWKWARD! There was a point where things were getting just a little too awkward and I had to tell Barb, "isn't this the part where you are supposed to tell the kids to close their eyes and cover their ears??!"We then shifted our focus to the pets while we anxiously waited for that loooooong scene to come to an end.

Our overall thoughts on the movie - meh. Don't waste your time.

Sunday:: I was up at 6:30 to enjoy some peace and a cup of coffee before everyone else stirred. I made another quiche for breakfast - this time it was a spinach, asparagus, mushroom, red pepper and cheese quiche. I used the same recipe for the crust as I did last Sunday, and would recommend that you keep the olive oil in the crust.

As it is the first day of Spring, it was only appropriate that we had our first thunderstorm of the season this morning! It was great (I love storms), but thankfully cleared up after breakfast so I could take the dog for a long walk. While I was out, Nic and Kurt replaced a few hoses on Nic car. It was no coincidence that I left just as they were starting this project...they both have a tendency to think any project will be relatively quick, but ultimately (okay, most of the time, not always) it ends up taking a lot longer than they expect and many four letter words escape their lips. Hey - not complaining...they like doing it, so kudos to them. For most repairs, I'd just rather take my car to the shop.

Speaking of my car - while working on Nic's car, they needed to run into town to get something and took my car. They made it to the end of the block, heard some weird squealing, turned around and the tire popped! When we removed it, we found the cause of the problem, the spring for the strut broke and punctured the tire!! Seriously, soooo thankful it happened so close to home and going at low speeds - if they would not have taken the car today, I would have taken it tomorrow night to a Relay meeting and who knows what would have happened. I could have been going 75 down the highway when the spring decided to break. Anyway, looks like we will be shopping around for a new car this week! Even if this is a relatively cheap repair, my car has 250,000 miles on it and we've been planning on replacing it before I get really busy with work.

Barb and Kurt left after a quick bit for lunch around 3:00.