St. Charles, Missouri

Greetings from St. Chucks, MO!!

I am glad you are stopping by to check out our blog for the premier post!  Johnnie and I decided to start a blog (well, really I did the starting and will continue to do the majority of blogging) so that our friends and family can follow along as we embark on our new life adventure of moving to Malaysia and other traveling along the way.  Our blog will also serve as a digital journal for the two of us so that we can always look back and remember this fun and exciting time in our lives.

Now that the blog introduction is taken care of...here is a recap of how we ended up in St. Charles, MO (and I'm sorry, this first post is going to be a novel)...

As anyone reading this is probably aware, Johnnie accepted a new job in January of this year with a company called MEMC Electronic Materials.  In taking this job, we signed ourselves up to move to Malaysia for about 3 years.  Holy curry!  Originally, the plan was to move abroad in May or June.  Well, it's July now and we're still here.  Johnnie and I have come to realize that change is inevitable with this project.  We will move to Malaysia whenever we are told to do so and until then, we'll live it up here in the states!  

Wait...sorry...backtracking...

In March, it was finally time to (tearfully) say goodbye to Cincinnati and all of our wonderful friends.  We had one last Evans Casa get together (and no, Blaine does not typically wear American flag shirts in public...this was a special occasion):

Then we packed all of our belongings into a 10X10 storage unit (and I promised my glorious All Clad pots and pans and Kitchen Aid stand mixer that I would miss them and would be back for them in 3 years):

Said goodbye to 3615 Amberson Avenue..."our first place"...

And through quiet tears (on my part), we watched Cinci grow farther away in our rear view mirror:

While Johnnie was working in St. Peters (right by St. Charles), I headed to Houston to our new home - yep - we "moved in" with my parents.  :)  I like to remind Johnnie that he lives with his in-laws, to which his response is always, "Hey...the economy is tough right now." :)

In May, I first joined Johnnie here in St. Chucks in his company-furnished apartment (which can best be described as the place where we park when we're in town for Johnnie's work).  I used to tell people that St. Charles was a suburb right outside of St. Louis.  That was until Johnnie and I were eating in St. Louis last night and a local told us there is "the city" (St. Louis), "the county" (the burbs outside of St. Louis), and then St. Charles.  Dang...we're not even "the county."  This was kind of hard for us to swallow, being city-loving folk.  Here are some pics of the apartment for those inquiring minds who have been inquiring...

Front view of a cottage apartment (not ours, but a similar, more festive unit):

Inside:

Balcony pics:

The apartment is part of a living community called New Town.  The best way I can describe it is it's like living in the Jim Carey movie The Truman Show (only New Town was built in the middle of cornfields).  I've also heard it described as Pleasantville.  Here is the link to a Southern Living article about the development if you're interested: http://www.southernliving.com/travel/south-west/new-town-st-charles-st-louis-missouri-00400000046775/ .

Although it is a little creepy how "pleasant" it is at times, I will say that New Town can also be attractive.  Here are some New Town pics:

One of the perks is the lake in the center of "town"...some of these pictures I took when I was laying out on the piers (with all of my high school friends who also do not have day jobs haha):

Koi pond:

Strange zoo animal statues...still haven't figured this out really:

The aforementioned corn...was knee high well before the 4th of July!:

Well, now you all know where in the world Johnnie and Katherine are this week.  However, we've been doing quite a bit of city hopping as of late.  I will fill you in on those travels in posts coming soon!  In a couple hours we are off to "the city" to hit up the 4th of July festival at the Arch.  John Legend plays this evening and then fireworks.  Hip hip hooray for America!  Happy 4th of July everyone!!

-Katherine