Finally Settled!!!

Well let's try this again. I tried to post yesterday but it wouldn't save it (lousy service interruptions that lasted ALL DAY). Shannon and I have finally got settled, things out of boxes, rooms organized -- except for one. Tuesday we bought a bookshelf (one fell apart in the move), and yesterday, we bought a computer desk (again, it fell apart in the move)--all this in an effort to organize our 2nd bedroom/computer room/home office-whatever you want to call it. It has almost worked, and the room almost looks like a room. When we get things exactly right, Shannon will take pictures to preserve history and we'll post them for all the world to see.

We moved in on the 13th of July. With a lot of help, hard work and 4 solid hours, we hoisted, heaved and lifted our entire life up two flights of stairs into our new home. We had my parents, a brother and his wife, two men I am working with next year, and one of my closest friends, Leland who drove from Arlington with us, and one of his students Greg. Thank you all so much.

Really it has been a great 2 weeks. The hardest part wasn't the move -- it's figuring out what to do with all of the stuff (anyone who has seen our house knows we have a lot). We are cramming a 3 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom apartment. NOT a fun chore, but after a garage sale, getting rid of a lot, plus a storage unit, it works.

We have begun learning the traffic around here. The beauty is we really have anything we need right in the area. 2 minutes from Walmart(not good--we'll go all the time), not too far from a mall, Super Target, HEB, tons of other shopping and of course, eating places. The thing I can't get over is for example tonight, we went to church, and drove 11 miles and it took nearly 20 minutes. Were used to being 5 min. from everything.

By the way, we have found a great church home. It's a congregation about the size of 14th & Main. The preacher and his wife are just a few years older than us, they have 5 kids. The preacher reminds us of Scott Prather. He has a lot of biblical knowledge, very energetic,and has as Leland says, a library of useless knowledge. His wife and Shannon seemed to click right away. There are a lot of young couples, middle aged couples and a huge youth group. We felt right at home from the second we walked into the building. There are a lot of great people to worship with. There is never a shortage of people that just come up and say hi. We didn't even visit another place, this one just felt right. It's called Lake Houston Church of Christ.

We got to experience some of the culture last Saturday night. We went to the Symphony as part of our ninth wedding anniversary. (It was on the 18th.) The Von Trapp family singer's were the featured artist's. They are Captain and Maria Von Trapp's great grand children from the Sound of Music. Their grandfather was Curt in the movie (the encouragable one). It was very good, the orchestra was good too.

We really miss 14th and Main, and (some of) our students. We have some really good memories of Big Spring. I can't say we will miss our jobs there or the school in general. The things that we remember and cherish are the things that have made this move possible--the encouragement from people at church, Leland and Harmony for their support and just listening, no matter how many times we say it. Scott and Lauren, thank you too for listening, and sharing your kids. We look at this a fresh start, a chance to try something new, have new opportunities, to learn new things, and to be able to want to get up and be happy and go to school.