crazy...

It's been a crazy week, but finally,

It's official!





We've moved!



We headed to Hattiesburg to pack up all our stuff last weekend and I'm so glad we had one last weekend in the barn. I really am sad it's over! Excited about the future but still sad - these mixed emotions are really draining...

We moved in on Wednesday which also happened to be my first day of school so my sweet parents drove all the way up here late on Tuesday to help James move us in. I walked in after school expecting to see piles of boxes but instead they had not only moved everything in but unpacked almost all the boxes! It was amazing!!

The first day of school is always so exciting. We plan and plan and have lists of things to do but never know quite what to expect. It's exciting and terrifying all at once.

piles of 'Caught Being Good' coins all ready to be handed out for any decent behavior


the classics, of course




even Frog and Toad and Mouse are ready


Oh how I love new, clean, school supplies. So bright and cheerful - is it weird I get giddy over a new box of crayons?


I guess it's official - my own stationary!



And what makes the craziest first day of school in an brand new city and moving day so much better?


Grace sent flowers to my school and they were delivered right when I was starting to wonder what was I going to do with these kids for the next 5 hours - they definitely make everything better



Yea, she's that kind of sister-in-law. Amazing


Besides one kid calling me out because I said the principal's name wrong and another one calling me out because I had 2 Diet Cokes before noon, things are going pretty great!
I think I'm going to love 2nd grade.

Our First Visitor

Look who came all the way to Chattanooga to see us!



Ok, so maybe he also preached while he was here on Monday :)
It was so fun to see a familiar face.
While we were waiting to to talk to Tony, look who walked up to say hey to him:



Oh yea - that's Kay Arthur

I said, "James, why is Tony taking him picture with that...oh my gosh, it's her! it's her! it's her!"
I only freaked out a little.

We'll be headed home this weekend to pack up the trailer so we can finally move into our apt on Monday! yay!!

saying goodbye

Saying goodbye is never fun - it's actually pretty terrible - but when it involves a hillbilly party, balloons, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, a cowboy pinata, and food from the best cooks ever - Shelley and Candice - it' definitely best case scenario!



We have the best friends ever. Seriously. Ever.
Candice spent so much time and energy to give us the best party ever. We're seriously blessed.
And who doesn't love a theme?! um, so much fun!

Here's James in his awesome cowboy get-up - I love it!


And then he decided it was too hot so he went with the hillbilly/redneck...


Fun girls. love them


nice shot






Here's my sweet family. Troy looked amazing. You should totally bribe Emily into letting you see pics of him :)




Sweet girls - I'm definitely missing them!




Lee and Joy - love love them


Mel was out of town and couldn't be at the party, but she made us this amazing scrapbook! It is so sweet that I even cried and I definitely don't like crying!! She got lots of our sweet friends to write notes to us and put lots of great pictures from the past several years in it.

It means so much to James and me - we definitely cherish it.
Love you, Mel!!




Surprise birthday cake for me! I love birthdays!







The amazing hostess herself :)



Awesome decorations! Candice went all out. I love it


Grace is so talented - she can make insulation board look like this. Amazing!












We are so blessed with Godly friends who also spent time this night praying for us, this crazy adventure, and especially my lack of a job. It was so humbling to listen to their amazing prayers for us. And guess what happened 3 days later? I got a job. Definitely a God-thing. Don't you love seeing His awesome work?!

The Sunday before we left, we had some sweet times with family.


















How blessed are we? Seriously. We can't wait for many, many visits from this crew!!

lately...

Hattiesburg - enjoy your abundant amount of chinese buffets! Who knew they were a rarity?!

Apparently the people here like the sit-down chinese restaurants because there are a ton of them.
We like the more refined taste of buffets. That right. We're not even ashamed. Give us the buffets.
Well, we've been looking for a good chinese buffet since we got here on Tuesday and after driving around for 30 minutes after church today, we finally found one! It's nothing compared to Peking Garden, but it hit the spot.

Here's the interesting art sketched into the glass next to our table. Interesting, huh?


Not much else has been going on here in Chattanooga lately.
Since we're not in our apt yet and just crashing until next week while trying not to spend a lot of moolah, we've spent a lot of time watching random movies on Netflix. We've actually gotten pretty obsessed with a short-lived tv show about horses that was on abc family about 5 years ago, now on Netflix. Yep, that's how bored we are.




I've been dragging James around with me doing teacher stuff. He especially loved the gigantic teacher store. He thought their posters were quite inspiring :)



We've also been doing a lot of driving around and looking. Pictures never do the mountains justice. but here's the scene from top of one of the ranges. I hope I never get used to it!!