I can't think of a title.
June 15 - August 7
The Facts
Last post I mentioned working towards earning an Urban Bourbon T shirt (by visiting a certain amount of local eateries). I'm absurdly delighted to report that I not only earned that one, but I also got one from Red Cross for donating platelets and have another one on the way from Trek for completing 100 miles on my bike in July. I find t-shirts incredibly motivating.
I tried Kroger's grocery pick up for the first time and loved it enough to do it again. It's helped me pinpoint exactly what it is about grocery shopping that I hate. Turns out, it's physically going into the store that ruins it for me. I enjoy putting together the list and scouring for coupons. I know that's a mundane update, but THIS IS WHERE I'M AT IN MY LIFE. Also, Joey and I were disproportionately excited about adding a trailer hitch to my car and buying a new bike rack for it.
We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on June 21 by going to a fancy Italian restaurant where we kept pretending we were in an episode of The Sopranos. Then we treated ourselves to a sleepover in the living room so we could watch Games Done Quick all night. I promise I'm not being sarcastic-- it was genuinely a special occasion to inflate an air mattress and watch strangers play video games for charity. THIS IS WHERE I'M AT IN MY LIFE.
Towards the end of July, Lauren, Lisa and I went on a cross country road trip. I can't possibly sum up all the adventures we had (and weirdos we met) in this post, but I'll include some pictures.
For real though, we had oodles of new experiences and if you're interested in hearing more details about it, I can send you my 4,738 Snapchat summaries. Whaddya gonna do?
Pastor Bill passed thru Louisville and it gave us a reason to eat at Feast again. He is a pastor at Joey's home church and he officiated the majority of our wedding ceremony. The visit was too short (no surprise there), but it's always nice to spend time with people we care about (and people who care about us).
New places checked out in Louisville:
The Feelings
I love my job. I didn't expect to love it so much. I was legitimately happy to go into work on my day off for a 45 minute meeting in the middle of the afternoon. It probably has to do with it being the only place I have anything resembling friendships in Louisville. I like being around the residents. I have enjoyable coworkers. I know this is rare and I've started feeling sad about leaving.
Every holiday we've experienced down here has been treated with indifference on our part (mostly because I've been scheduled to work on literally all of them)... until the 4th of July-- easily my least favorite holiday. I don't know what it was about this particular event, but for the first time since moving, I experienced some real FOMO knowing that every 4th of July when we were in Michigan was spent with Justin and Candace. And realizing that they were 4th-ing without us reminded me that everyone was 4th-ing without us. And it finally clicked that we're alone down here.
Which leads me to this realization- Before moving, we thought about how we view Michigan (and when I say "Michigan" I specifically mean southeast Michigan AKA Downriver) and realized there is nothing drawing us there. If provoked, we can go on and on about the things we dislike about life in Michigan. Especially after being in downtown Louisville for 9 months, we're finding more and more things we love about this area that Downriver simply doesn't have. One thing we (accidentally) significantly underrated was our Michigan friends-- the day-to-day, "do life together" friends. I'm embarrassed to admit that an actual thought we had when considering the plan for after launch went something like this- There is literally nothing for us in Michigan besides our friends... and we can make friends anywhere. While that sentiment is technically true, we severely underestimated how valuable our current friendships are. And although we don't want to stay in Michigan forever, we're definitely looking forward to returning for now.
The Requests
We're thankful to report that Joey has his annual colonoscopy scheduled for August 19. In my last post, I mentioned being a bit anxious that the timing would be too tricky, but it was relatively easy to schedule. We also got the results from his most recent blood work and were happy to learn that the stress of launch has not has the physical impact on him that we feared!
Launch is beginning to wrap up for us and we've started apartment hunting for our return to Michigan. We're looking forward to being around our friends again (as if I haven't already said enough about that) for a while. Joey and I have used terms like "unplugging" and "recharging" to describe this time in our lives. We unplugged from all responsibilities besides work and discovered that we truly enjoy spending time together. Honestly, that wasn't crystal clear for much of our marriage... but looking back I'm not surprised. We dove in to service at church and my first years as a teacher and graduate school and new cities and lots of other hard transitions right away. We didn't have an opportunity to simply hang out. If there's one thing I'm most grateful for about our time in Louisville- it's the realization that I love Joey and I like him.
The recharging part comes next... when we return to a new version of 'life as usual' and recommit to serving at church and hanging out with people besides each other. I fear we're on the brink of getting a little too comfortable with this weird (but totally great) version of life down here.
A word from Joey: "It's nice to know that our friends still exist despite the fact that we live in different states... and they still like us... I think."
The Facts
Last post I mentioned working towards earning an Urban Bourbon T shirt (by visiting a certain amount of local eateries). I'm absurdly delighted to report that I not only earned that one, but I also got one from Red Cross for donating platelets and have another one on the way from Trek for completing 100 miles on my bike in July. I find t-shirts incredibly motivating.
I tried Kroger's grocery pick up for the first time and loved it enough to do it again. It's helped me pinpoint exactly what it is about grocery shopping that I hate. Turns out, it's physically going into the store that ruins it for me. I enjoy putting together the list and scouring for coupons. I know that's a mundane update, but THIS IS WHERE I'M AT IN MY LIFE. Also, Joey and I were disproportionately excited about adding a trailer hitch to my car and buying a new bike rack for it.
We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on June 21 by going to a fancy Italian restaurant where we kept pretending we were in an episode of The Sopranos. Then we treated ourselves to a sleepover in the living room so we could watch Games Done Quick all night. I promise I'm not being sarcastic-- it was genuinely a special occasion to inflate an air mattress and watch strangers play video games for charity. THIS IS WHERE I'M AT IN MY LIFE.
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| This is the best picture I took of us on our anniversary date. I tried. |
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| At the beginning of August, we went to a wedding! I got my dress at Goodwill! |
Towards the end of July, Lauren, Lisa and I went on a cross country road trip. I can't possibly sum up all the adventures we had (and weirdos we met) in this post, but I'll include some pictures.
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| I-I-I OW A-A AAA |
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| We saw green pastures. |
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| We saw the Badlands. |
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| We saw the Corn Palace. |
For real though, we had oodles of new experiences and if you're interested in hearing more details about it, I can send you my 4,738 Snapchat summaries. Whaddya gonna do?
Pastor Bill passed thru Louisville and it gave us a reason to eat at Feast again. He is a pastor at Joey's home church and he officiated the majority of our wedding ceremony. The visit was too short (no surprise there), but it's always nice to spend time with people we care about (and people who care about us).
New places checked out in Louisville:
- Cave Hill Cemetery My mom and dad passed thru Louisville on their way to Tennessee and this is one of the places we went. I love that going to a cemetery is considered a normal family outing for the Schmidts.
- Caufield's Novelty AKA the home of the giant vampire bat.
- Wagner's Pharmacy Dad wanted to eat here. We made it just before closing and they were out of almost everything.
- Royal's Hot Chicken Pretty good chicken.
- Bearno's Fine pizza.
- Vincenzo's Where we had our anniversary dinner. I would go back to Vincenzo's every year for our anniversary if I could. We rode our bikes there and got caught in a thunderstorm on our way back to the apartment. This was the first of three rainstorm bike rides in the past month.
- Osaka We wanted sushi after a bike ride and we ended up here. It was delish.
- Dizzy Whizz We wanted Ollie's Trolley after work and we ended up here. It was mediocre.
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| Muhammad Ali's final resting place. |
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| We make-a the homemade busketti! |
The Feelings
I love my job. I didn't expect to love it so much. I was legitimately happy to go into work on my day off for a 45 minute meeting in the middle of the afternoon. It probably has to do with it being the only place I have anything resembling friendships in Louisville. I like being around the residents. I have enjoyable coworkers. I know this is rare and I've started feeling sad about leaving.
Every holiday we've experienced down here has been treated with indifference on our part (mostly because I've been scheduled to work on literally all of them)... until the 4th of July-- easily my least favorite holiday. I don't know what it was about this particular event, but for the first time since moving, I experienced some real FOMO knowing that every 4th of July when we were in Michigan was spent with Justin and Candace. And realizing that they were 4th-ing without us reminded me that everyone was 4th-ing without us. And it finally clicked that we're alone down here.
Which leads me to this realization- Before moving, we thought about how we view Michigan (and when I say "Michigan" I specifically mean southeast Michigan AKA Downriver) and realized there is nothing drawing us there. If provoked, we can go on and on about the things we dislike about life in Michigan. Especially after being in downtown Louisville for 9 months, we're finding more and more things we love about this area that Downriver simply doesn't have. One thing we (accidentally) significantly underrated was our Michigan friends-- the day-to-day, "do life together" friends. I'm embarrassed to admit that an actual thought we had when considering the plan for after launch went something like this- There is literally nothing for us in Michigan besides our friends... and we can make friends anywhere. While that sentiment is technically true, we severely underestimated how valuable our current friendships are. And although we don't want to stay in Michigan forever, we're definitely looking forward to returning for now.
The Requests
We're thankful to report that Joey has his annual colonoscopy scheduled for August 19. In my last post, I mentioned being a bit anxious that the timing would be too tricky, but it was relatively easy to schedule. We also got the results from his most recent blood work and were happy to learn that the stress of launch has not has the physical impact on him that we feared!
Launch is beginning to wrap up for us and we've started apartment hunting for our return to Michigan. We're looking forward to being around our friends again (as if I haven't already said enough about that) for a while. Joey and I have used terms like "unplugging" and "recharging" to describe this time in our lives. We unplugged from all responsibilities besides work and discovered that we truly enjoy spending time together. Honestly, that wasn't crystal clear for much of our marriage... but looking back I'm not surprised. We dove in to service at church and my first years as a teacher and graduate school and new cities and lots of other hard transitions right away. We didn't have an opportunity to simply hang out. If there's one thing I'm most grateful for about our time in Louisville- it's the realization that I love Joey and I like him.
The recharging part comes next... when we return to a new version of 'life as usual' and recommit to serving at church and hanging out with people besides each other. I fear we're on the brink of getting a little too comfortable with this weird (but totally great) version of life down here.
A word from Joey: "It's nice to know that our friends still exist despite the fact that we live in different states... and they still like us... I think."
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