Hello from Duluth! The last couple of weeks can only be described as an emotional whirlwind. I feel as though its been years since my first post, even though its only been weeks. So much has happened!! This is bound to be a long post, but hang in there with me as there are some very interesting tidbits of information.
First, we said our goodbyes to our special little city of Excelsior. We made a couple of lasting memories by hitting up our favorite spots one last time. We also said “see you later” to our amazing friends in the area, which was hard but we know we will have a lot of visitors up here. Packing up our first home was particularly difficult. We tried to make the last evening as fun as possible by enjoying our favorite pizza on the floor with a bottle of sparkling wine from Cannon River Winery. Its the same way we spent the first night in the house, so it was a nice way to spend out last night as well.
I had forgotten how much work it is to move! It wasn’t long into packing that I looked at Cole and reminded him we bought a house so we wouldn’t have to move anytime soon… ha! Cole and I had a week and a half off before the moving truck arrived, which really helped manage our moving stress. One thing I was SO thankful for throughout the process was that Cole’s new company paid for a moving company. We ended up having Two Men and a Truck move us (though we actually had three men and a truck) – they were fabulous! Really, if you need movers I would highly recommend the crew we had. The big move was on Wednesday, March 30th. I left that house about 7 a.m. with the cats while Cole stayed behind to direct the movers. The truck pulled into Duluth by about 2:40 p.m. and we stayed up pretty late unpacking things. I am incredibly blessed to have a husband that loves nothing more than to organize a house, so he really helped push us through the unpacking. We only have one or two boxes left to go.
On Thursday – our first full day in Duluth – I interviewed for and was offered a job. Par for the course on this crazy little adventure we have embarked on, right? To make a long story short, I got nervous about not contributing to our income, so I put out a couple of resumes a couple weeks ago. This particular job was as the Special Events Manager at the Lake Superior Zoo. The pay was terrible, but the job sounded super interesting so I jumped at the opportunity to interview. The folks there were so nice and the job sounded like a blast! They offered me the position about 1/2 hour after I left the interview. It was incredibly flattering to get the call that quickly. However, after much discussion with Cole and a few folks I deeply trust, I turned the job down. I am still a little sad about it because I know I would have had a really great time working there. However, owning my own event planning business is something I have wanted for a few years and realistically, I can’t get this business off the ground while also giving 100% to another company. As a way to help them out (seriously, they are good people there), I offer to do a little volunteer consulting. They accepted the offer and I am looking forward to helping them figure out how to attract more private rentals.
We spent Friday house hunting – actually, farm hunting. I know, we’re crazy! I’ve coped with this whole move by telling myself that this is our step towards our farm, so getting out and seeing properties right away was super important to me. Thankfully, I have a great husband that supported the idea of diving right in. Of course, we fell in love with a place. Sadly, its 40 minutes out of town in Two Harbors. It is pretty much everything Cole and I want – its on a dead end road, has a house that doesn’t need any work, has a chicken coop and is big enough for horses, but isn’t too much land for us to handle. Plus, it has the most beautiful views of Lake Superior. For now, we have decided not to offer on it. Its just too far from town. Instead, we are going to wait, look at other properties and figure out this whole living in a new city thing. If once we are settled it is still available, we may just offer on it!
I was super thankful for a low key Saturday. We earned it! I hadn’t realized how tired I was until I sat down for a break from unpacking and woke up two hours later. Oops!
Today was another busy day, but I am super thankful to say that I believe we found a church!!! Church is super important to us and is generally where we find our close circle of friends. It took too long when we moved to Boulder and Excelsior for us to find a church, so I’ve been researching churches for a few weeks and decided we should check out Engage Church first. We are so glad we did!! Its a newer church with a younger congregation that meets in a restored iron mill called Clyde Iron Works. We were immediately taken by three things. First, we were welcomed at the door by some super nice folks. Since the church is fairly small, we stood out as newcomers and they worked hard to make us feel welcome. Second, the building this church is in is super cool. Essentially, the church rents out a section of the restaurant and bar in Clyde Iron Works. There was a mix of tables with chairs (the tables were made of reclaimed wood) and rows of chairs. It felt relaxed and down-to-earth right off the bat. I really can’t wait to book some events in this space – it is that neat!! Finally, there was nothing showy about the music or sermon. This might seem weird to point out, but it something that is very important to Cole and I. We love music that is just about worship, not about the performance. We love sermons that are relational to real life. This church had both these elements. Its actually a super great mix of our past churches. It didn’t take long for Cole and I both to agree that we’ve found our spiritual home here! We even spent about 45 minutes after service chatting with the folks there. I can’t wait to get back next week to get to know everyone better.
Deciding to move (yet again) to a new city and to start my own company was a huge leap of faith. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve shed a lot of tears. There have been so many times that I’ve just said a silent prayer asking for some affirmation that we made the right choice. I am amazed to say that every step of the way, we’ve gotten that affirmation. We sold the house fast. We found a perfect little place that we could rent month-t0-month. The movers were amazing. I was offered a job on our first full day here. We found a house that we love our first time out looking for farms. We found a church on our first Sunday in town. God has truly said “yes” every step of the way. Sitting here, I am just in awe of it. We haven’t landed our leap of faith just yet – there are many trials that lay ahead in this adventure. For now though, we are just going to take a few minutes to celebrate being here and the many blessings that have brought us to this moment.
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