Our Life

Sunday, July 30, 2006

I'll try to catch you up!

I'm going to start out by apologizing that this is my first update since May. Life has been crazy, but not so crazy that I couldn't have posted sometime in the last 2 months. So this one is going to be really long because I feel the need to catch everyone up on whats been going on with us. My last post announced that we were moving back to New Orleans, which we did. But before the big move we went to Kansas for the little brother's graduation from high school. Here is a picture of Clay . . . can't you tell he was loving the bright red robe?!

Just a few days later we made our way down to south Louisiana! I must say that it was kind of a shock moving back into post-Katrina NO. Honestly, it was depressing at first. Our neighborhood still seems so deserted and devastated and everyone you see seems lonely and depressed. There are only a few stores or fast food places near us, so grabbing some McD's when I don't want to cook means driving clear across town. We were driving home from church one day and saw this abandoned building going up in flames. Unfortunately that is really common nowadays.

We have gotten all settled in our new apartment which we like to describe as "cozy." It's a little small at times, but cozy is a good thing so that is how we are trying to look at it!! The bad part is that Chad's desk is in the living room with our only TV so I can't watch while he is studying. This hasn't been too bad, but as I anticipated Grey's Anatomy 3rd season I realized that we were about to be in a bind. The answer: headphones! We got me some wireless headphones that connect to the TV. Chad can't hear a thing and I look like a dork!!

By far the most exciting thing that we have done since being back down here was our alligator feeding trip to the bayou. You are probably thinking "feeding alligators at a zoo . . . no big deal," but this my friend was throwing chunks of meat from the side of the road to alligators about two feet away. Thank goodness I have the pictures to prove it! Chad even let one take the meat out of his hand. I would've killed him if I hadn't been trying to get a good picture of it!!

The last but not least highlight of the summer was my family's reunion at my parent's house in Kansas. I think there was about 20 of us staying at the house . . . it was a blast! Each family had a night to cook dinner with a theme. Hence the chef's from Italy and our mexican fiesta. Everybody got into it so it was great. The guys played golf and the rest of us stayed at the pool ALL day. The little ones, Audrey and Reed, were so cute and I think might have given Chad a little baby fever. Just look at this picture . . . don't you think he will be a great dad?!

Chad and I are about to go to student week at Glorieta to recruit for the seminary and we can't wait for a week out there. Tough job huh? We are both working on campus, Chad is about to start up classes again, and we are spending a lot of time loving people through our church. God has been providing in amazing ways and giving us many opportunities to love and share with those hurting here. It is good to be home.