The beginning of the summer was pretty exciting. First, Brian sprained his ankle a week before Purdue let out, and had to drive to Iowa with a rather swollen ankle, but it was worth the pain to see the wife. About a week later, we flew to New York to attend Willow's graduation from Seton Hall law school. Brian had to give up his life-long dream of dying without ever having visited New York City, but we had fun. We wandered around Wall Street and sailed past the Statue of Liberty. Then as soon as we got back to Iowa, Mariah ran off to South Dakota to live in a teepee. Actually Mariah went on a cultural immersion program to live on the Lakota reservation in various parts of South Dakota. It was sponsored by Wartburg College and was designed to expose people to the Lakota way of living. Mariah attended a Sun Dance, a Lakota funeral (unexpected) and a conference called the Buffalo Institute. She was gone for three weeks and really enjoyed herself. Of course, during this time Brian was in Iowa taking care of the cats and writing up his math article.
We had a fun summer after Mariah returned. We explored Iowa a bit. We had fun doing genealogy research in state. Both of us had great-great grandparents buried in Iowa, so we looked up the old death records and found their grave sites. Brian kept busy writing up his math research and Mariah worked on preparing course material for the coming semester. We went back to Indiana for a week to move Brian into a new apartment. He found a quieter, cleaner, less expensive apartment to live in. Hungry graduate students whom we paid with pizza moved what we couldn’t move in the car. Much to everyone's surprise Brian did not re-injure his ankle moving comic book boxes up and down the stairs. We enjoyed our last month in Iowa soaking up the local culture. We saw a tractor pull at the county fair, which seemed to us to be a tremendous waste of time and gasoline. We wandered around looking at some of the local Waverly houses trying to get a feel for the real estate market. Since we plan eventually to settle in here, we thought we would start seeing what was available. We figured out the kind of house that we were looking for and found that they were in scarce supply. The perfect house would be a large old house with a big porch and an interesting roofline (i.e. not a box). It needed a yard for Brian to putter around in, and plenty of remodeling projects for Mariah. Then two days before Brian had to return to Purdue for the new semester, a house came on the market that interested us. We managed to see the outside, but not the inside before we left. We spent a few weeks together in Indiana until Mariah's school started up and we were back to double households again. Mariah arranged to see the inside of this house soon after she returned. This house was a project. It was built in 1890 and owned since that time by a single family. The owner, Eldora Babcock died over the Summer at the age of 94 with no heirs, so the house was sold as part of her estate. There had been no improvements to the house in twenty years and little maintenance. She had shut off most of the house and lived primarily in three rooms. The yard was overgrown and the house desperately needed a paint job. But the house, while not well maintained, was well put together and in good shape. The limestone basement was solid, the wood floors throughout the house could be resurfaced, and Mariah made an executive decision that we wanted this house.
We discussed this over the phone for a long time and made plans on how to delay the sellers until we were in a little more stable position (i.e. Brian was actually living in Iowa). Unfortunately, they lowered the selling price to get the house to move quicker and forced a quick decision on our part. So without Brian having seen the inside of the house, Mariah made an offer on the house, which was immediately accepted. Brian had purchased a house in Iowa sight unseen. Of course, Brian is lucky to have a wife blessed with such good judgment that she can be trusted to buy a house and he can know she did a good job. When Brian finally got to see the inside of the house, he agreed that the correct decision was made. Now we are the proud owners of the "Babcock House". It will require some renovation before we move in (hopefully in May); things like a water heater and a furnace. We also decided to renovate the kitchen as long as they are tearing things apart.
On the family front it was a quiet year. There were no new Birgens to report this year. Mariah's sister Willow graduated from Seton Hall law school and officially passed the Bar exam in California. Brian’s sister, Judy, received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and got a job teaching at Chicago State University (we know Chicago isn’t a state, but try to tell her that). Mariah's father, Don, is back on his boat and sailing around Australia trying hard not to catch Malaria. Brian's brother Bill bought at house in Arizona, after which he found a job and left St. Louis. Brian is applying for jobs and is trying very hard to get something closer to Iowa (or even in Iowa). The ideal job is at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. If everything goes as hoped, next year you will hear from us reunited and moved into our new home. The address of the Babcock House is 322 3rd Street SE, Waverly, Iowa 50677, but don't send us anything there until May. We hope Christmas finds you with those you love and that the coming year will bring you everything you could wish for.