One Little...Two Little...Twenty Three Little Indians!

Friday, each class had a Thanksgiving feast. The Redbirds dressed up as Indians, and I borrowed one of the four year old classes' teacher, Marilyn's pilgrim outfit. This is a picture of Gennifer, the other four year year teacher, and me the day of the feast!
The children had a lot of fun feasting on Thanksgiving food and playing Thanksgiving themed games. They played pin the pilgrim hat on the turkey, blend BINGO, and made turkeys out of oreos and candy corn. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the turkeys, but in all the chaos of the day, I forgot! They were really cute! Most of the children went home after we finished games, and the six children that stayed watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while I decorated the Redbird Chrismas tree. It was nice to get all the Christmas decorations up and ready for when we return after the break! We head out next week to Georgia to spend some time with the fam!

It's MY Birthday and I'll Blog if I Want to!

The Birthday Celebration began last night on my birthday eve. Stephen brought me a pumpkin latte from Starbuck's and a decorated cake to share with my teacher friends at school on my birthday. We watched the Falcons VS Ravens game on t.v., happy to see a Falcons game ACTUALLY air on Who Dat t.v! Then today my co-workers sang to me during prayer circle before school started. This picture shows my lovely assistant Connie holding my cake as I blow out my candles! I, of course, am wearing my birthday tiara that my mom had brought me to school last year on my birthday!

My kids were very excited that it was my birthday. The whole school sang to me at chapel in the morning. My roommom brought cake and ice cream for the class, and we had a party in the afternoon so I could open my presents and cards from them. It was really sweet of them to bring me things. I got some really cute winter socks, a pretty pink sweater, some gift cards, some cute bracelets, some flowers and decorated cards. Lots of fun!

I came home to find some yummy smelling bath and body works stuff and Beauty and the Beast on DVD from Stephen. For dinner, we dressed up and went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse...delicious! We got a complimentary dessert from the waiter. It turned out the be really funny because when we first me the waiter, he wished me a happy birthday, but the rest of the dinner he kept talking about us celebrating our anniversary. We didn't correct him because we figured he was serving a lot of tables and probably just got confused. However, when he brought out our dessert, it read, "Happy Anniversary." Go figure! Oh well! It was cute either way! I was just happy to eat a great dinner and wear my "little brown dress." The dress was a real find over the summer. Nicole and I were out shopping, and I picked it up on a whim and tried it on. Of course I loved it as soon as it was on, but was terribly disappointed when I saw the $80 price tag. It was on the clearance rack, so I was hopeful that maybe it was mismarked...it WAS! I got it for $20! I was glad to finally get to wear it for my birthday! 26 has been a win so far!

Making Groceries...

We spent our Saturday today "Making Groceries," which is what the New Orleans locals call grocery shopping. Just another one of the interesting ways that people talk around here. It's never a dull moment in New Orleans, and this includes shopping for groceries. Stephen and I had a very entertaining experience, as always! The free sample ladies were giving out free alcohol samples again haha! Last time we went, is was rum and coke; this time there were two ladies--one was giving out wine, and the other was giving out vodka martinis. There's nothing classier than alcoholic beverage samples in a mini dixie cup. Oh the life in New Orleans! I tried to take a picture of them, but I couldn't figure out a way to do that discretely and not get kicked out of the grocery store!

We continued our trek through the store in search of shrimp for Stephen to make shrimp etoufee this week (yum)! We headed toward the seafood section, and boy was that a find! Because we are so close to the gulf, all the local grocery stores offer a wide variety of fresh seafood. However, I did not expect to see some of the things we saw today. I'm going to attach some pictures that I took of those interesting food choices. The seafood butchers were way in the back, so I was able to snap a few quick shots before they could yell at me. It was comical. There was a whole tuna fish with a jumbo shrimp in its mouth on display. It was very disturbing! Then right next to that, there was a whole octopus for sale. If only Stephen would have bought it for me--we could have had a fantastic dinner--NOT! Ewww! I've gotten to where nothing suprises me here anymore!

Round, Orange, and Rhymes with Bumpkins...

Can you guess what this week has been all about? That's right folks...PUMPKINS! And in "Bubba Gump" style, here's what our week looked like: PUMPKIN books, PUMPKIN crafts, PUMPKIN experiments, PUMPKIN pulp, PUMPKIN "snot," PUMPKIN muffins, PUMPKIN seeds, PUMPKIN patch, PUMPKIN Mickey, and PUMPKIN carving!

Whew! Busy week!! On Thursday, my Redbirds and their parents did lots of experiments measuring and observing pumpkins. They weighed and measured their pumpkins then counted the seeds. The kids surprised me at how grossed out they were by the pulp, or as one child described it, the "pumpkin snot" Ewww. Kindergarteners. Go figure. Then the kids got to sample pumpkin muffins and pumpkin seeds I had prepared earlier. Lots of fun. We also made some paper bag pumpkins by stuffing a lunch bag with newsprint, tying a the top with a swirly green pipe cleaner, and painting it orange. VERY messy, but very cute. Friday, we took a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and each child got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. It was a really neat pumpkin patch. They had a wide variety of pumpkins. There were kinds of pumpkins I had never seen before. There were short wide green pumpkins and lumpy pumpkins that looked like they had worts. Today, Stephen and I carved one of the leftover pumpkins from my class. (and by Stephen and I, I really mean me, and Stephen watched, haha) I made it into a C for Craver. Or it could be a C for Crystal because I was the one who carved it, hehe! You might think this is the end of all my pumpkin adventures this week, but fear not! Today at K-Mart, I found the perfect pumpkin for me. It is one of those plastic pumpkins with a light bulb--completely free of "pumpkin snot" and already carved--right up my ally! And to top it off, can you guess whose face is carved in the front?? Mickey, of course! :) And so the Disney obsession continues! Stephen's been working more this week because NOBTS is on fall break this week. I'm jealous of the time off! But it will be Thanksgiving break before long!

P.S. In the picture of Stephen and me, ignore that ugly piece of hair in my face. I had to set the timer, and it took us like 300 times to get an ok shot. This was the best we could get! :)

Free Food and New Shoes

We haven't really done anything terribly interesting here lately, but I realized today that it has been quite a while since I posted, so super interesting post or not, here goes! School has been pretty busy. We had Open House Parent Night at school Tuesday night. It was fun showing parents everything they're child's been up to since the beginning of school. Connie, my fabulous assistant, has been out since Thursday and won't be back until Tuesday. She and her husband are on a short vacation. It has not been the same at school without her! My room-mom is subbing for her, and she's been a big help. However, knowing that Connie is out has thrown off the kids' routines, which is never a good thing! I'll be happy to see Tuesday come!

Friday night, Stephen and I were given tickets to attend a silent auction seafood dinner fundraiser at our church. The benefits went to Mrs. Priscilla's (one of Stephen's bosses) husband's minstry, Global Maritime Ministries, which ministers to men of the shipyards and ports of New Orleans. We ate a very yummy seafood dinner and bid on a couple of items. We were hoping to win the bid for tickets to the New Orleans Aquarium, Zoo, and Insectarium (didn't really want that one, but it was included. Bugs. Ew. Gross.) But as things go with silent auctions, the bids got really high, and we opted out. Oh well. Dinner was good, anyway. I'd like to go see the aquarium and the zoo at some point. According to the locals, they are both good.

The majority of the day today was devoted to going on a scavenger hunt for new shoes. Both Stephen and I had shoes with holes in them at this point. Very sad! So we headed to one of the malls here in search of shoes. We had already looked for shoes two weekends ago at Lakeside Mall in Metairie, where I work, but it's a very upscale mall and had mostly department stores. No Rack Room Shoes or Famous Footwear. Both of those stores have never done me wrong when it comes to shoes. So today we headed to Kenner, one city over from Metairie, to Esplanade Mall, and were very successful. It's amazing how gross and worn out shoes get over the years. Stephen and I both were very overdue. I needed some more "fake sperrys," those tan "boat" shoes that I love to wear with jeans or khakis at work. Super comfortable! Stephen needed some more tennis shoes. His were beginning to look like a Jim Henson puppet on Sesame Street because they looked like that had a mouth where the sole of the shoe had come loose! Needless to say, we were both very glad to have a new pair of shoes when the day was finished. We closed out the day by eating dinner at Copeland's next to the mall. They have very delicious "authentic" New Orleans cuisine. Very flavorful. Not spicy, just zesty! Anywho, this post is not the most interesting, clever, or funny, but it does give you a picture of some of the things we've been up to. :)

Falcons Voodoo No Help for Who Dat?

I've never been one to watch football, at least on T.V. I like watching high school football games in person, but mainly because of the social opportunities and listening to the band. T.V. football usually bores me. The crowd noise and announcers make me sleepy and want to take a nap, especially on Sunday afternoon games. However, today was a very different story. The Saints were playing the Falcons here, so of course, since I talked so much "smack" on Friday and my car was attacked by "evil" Saints fans at school, my students included, I had to watch the game today! Wow! What a game! The Falcons won by a field goal in overtime! You could ask Stephen, I was making comments and yelling at the T.V. just like a real fan. So funny! It was a really really good game. Both teams really put up a good fight, and the game went back and forth all afternoon. My favorite commerical right now is for NFL Sunday Ticket from Directv. It shows an old man making a voodoo doll with a red Falcons jersey of his next door neighbor, a Falcons fan living in New Orleans who has the audacity to watch Falcons games on NFL Sunday Ticket. Today's game just just shows that it doesn't matter how much "voodoo" the Saints fans have to offer, the Falcons will put up a fight. It wasn't easy, but it sure is nice to have a "W" for the Dirty Birds since it's not always easy being a Falcons fan in the Who Dat? Nation. :)

Pranks and Polish

A couple of funny stories of life here in New Orleans. Sunday, I was attempting to paint my toes before church, but the open bottle of hot pink polish flew out of my hands. I attempted to catch the bottle, but it only bounced off my hands and all around the bathroom. There was nail polish EVERYWHERE!! All over the tub, toilet, floor, sink, mirror, AND allllll over my brand new shower curtain that we bought right before we moved. Soooo sad! Nail polish remover got it off of everything except the shower curtain. I went to Target to find the same one, but of course they were out, so I just got a new one that was on sale. Still cute, but sad that I had to buy a completely new shower curtain so soon.

Today was a busy day at school. We had a character quality presentation at chapel, picture day, morning tests, AND Johnny Appleseed Day activities. Whew! What a day! We read apple books, tasted apple danishes, chips, juice, and different apple slices. We then graphed our favorite type. Then we read a lot of apple books. My room mom was subbing today for one of our assistants, so she took my kids outside for recess. Or so I thought! While the kids were on the playground she was "up to no good" planning a prank! To give you some background, I have been talking "smack" all week about how the Falcons are going to beat the Saints on Sunday. Today, I wore my Falcons t-shirt proudly! Well...that didn't go over very well in the Saints Nation. After it was almost time for my kids to come in from recess, I got a call over the intercom. She said, "Crystal, your window's down a little and it's about to rain. Come put it up!" So, of course, I believed her because as most of you know, my back window has been broken since before we left for New Orleans. We have it propped up, but it does fall down sometimes. So I went running out the door to put up my window only to be caught by my room mom with her camera snapping pictures of me coming out the door. Then I looked at my car and realized what was going on. There, allllll over my car, were yellow papers that said Geaux Saints, fry the "chickens"! There were even pages in my car that she was able to put in through the crack in my window! Then to make matters worse, my kids were standing by my car singing to "Who Dat" chant that goes like this: "Who dat say they gonna beat dem Saints? Who Dat? Who Dat?" Too funny! It's all in good fun. And we'll see who "dat" is that's gonna beat "dem" Saints on Sunday! :)

Two Dat

It's hard to believe, but we've actually been in New Orleans for TWO months! Wow how the time flies! It's already halfway through September and will be Christmas before we know it (Wal-Mart already says that it is haha)! In two months, we've made a lot of progress. I would say that we are pretty much settled now. We can get around a lot of the city now WITHOUT the GPS. This may seem like an unimpressive feat, but if you've spent more than 5 minutes driving through this city, you know that getting lost, like eating beignets, is part of the New Orleans experience. We still keep the GPS in the car because there is still a lot to learn about navigating this city.


We've started branching out more and trying a lot of the restaurants every weekend. A lot are special occasion style places and are out of our price range, but we have found several affordable yummy places. One of those places is the Creole Creamery, which is quickly becoming our favorite ice cream parlor. We have always enjoyed our ice cream, so this was a real find. Stephen likes the milkshakes and I like the cookie monster or red velvet ice cream. We have tried several "regular" restaurants, too. Our favorites so far are Churro's (a Cuban restaurant), Deanie's (seafood), and The Louisiana Purchase Kitchen (a cajun buffet, perfect for after church). Hopefully when we come home for Thanksgiving we won't be 300 pounds. Thank goodness for my Ladies Power Hour workout class twice a week!

I've been thinking about the past two months and decided to compile a Top 10 list of the things we've learned so far:
10. The locals here sound like they're from New York. Weird.
9. The locals here drive like cab drivers from New York. Scary. Being an aggressive driver who loves to honk the horn is a must.
8. Canal Blvd. and Canal St. are two VERY different streets. This made getting to church one morning very interesting.
7. It's VERY easy to end up driving on the wrong side of the road. The medians and lanes are not always very clearly marked.
6. Saints fans are very committed fans. They definitely don't like Falcons fans. And they sure do love their black and gold--even on their vehicles.
5. GPS devices do not know how to navigate New Orleans. Is it a bad sign when your GPS voice says, "Good luck. You're on your own"?
4. The waistband of your pants shrink when you live here. It couldn't POSSIBLY be all the yummy food we're eating.
3. There are two seasons here: hot and not so hot. Boy am I going to miss fall! :(
2. There seems to be something is the water. There are families with babies EVERYWHERE! Don't worry, we have a Brita filter! :)
1. In the words of the president of NOBTS, Dr. Kelley, "No one ever moves to New Orleans and says, Wow. This is just like home."

There's just no place like home!

Friends and Queens

Jim and Leslie came to visit us for Labor Day weekend and a gay time was had by all haha! I am very glad that they wanted to come see New Orleans and all it has to offer, but I was sad to inform them that their visit fell right in the middle of New Orleans' own "Southern Decadence Festival," the annual gay pride festival. Oh my what a sight to behold! We still had a very good time, but we definitely saw some interesting sights when visiting the French Quarter, more so than usual anyway. New Orleans is something else on an ordinary day so "Southern Decadence" just made it all the more unusual! We had a good time anyway seeing all the fun sights and eating beignets at Cafe du Monde. Yum!
On Saturday we went to The Camilla Grill, a yummy diner downtown. It has the most delicious chocolate milkshake. After that, we headed downtown via the streetcar to save money on parking. It was lots of fun riding the trolley. Neither Stephen nor I had ever riden a streetcar before. Bumpy ride, but lots of fun! We ate at Deanies Saturday night for some delicious seafood. Sunday we all went to church together at First Baptist then later got some ice cream at the Creole Creamery...super yummy!! They have this ice cream there called the Cookie Monster that was right up my alley!
Sunday night we wanted to go on a "ghost tour," but didn't want to pay the $20 per person or walk the French Quarter for two hours so we went to Barnes and Noble, bought a history of New Orleans book, and found a lot of old houses in the Garden District that were supposedly haunted. It was fun getting to look at the outside of the houses without having to even get out of the car. My kind of "ghost hunting"!
We had a great time catching up and experiencing New Orleans with old friends. Super weekend overall!
I was going to post pics, but our laptop died so we had to get a new one. For some reason, our new laptop is blocking the window that should popup to allow me to upload pics. Any suggestions?? Otherwise, see my facebook account for pics!

Exploring the City

It's Friday night so Stephen and I headed out for our usual date night. We started this fun tradition not long after we got married. We made a commitment that Friday night is date night. Period. No other plans except for extreme circumstances. So we went exploring to find a good place to eat for date night. I was in the mood for something New Orleans-like so we hunted for a good cajun/creole restaurant. The GPS got us lost, as usual, looking for several popular eating places here. I think we're just going to have to invest in a map of New Orleans. Eventually, we gave up and ended up at the Acme Oyster House not far from my work on Veterans Blvd. It was pretty good, but definitely a little over rated. Then we headed home and hit a TON of traffic on I-10 because tonight is a pre-season home game for the Saints. Traffic was horrible!! So we exited on Carrollton and made an attempt to find something interesting to look at downtown. We actually stumbled into the Garden District. It was really fun getting to look at all the beautiful houses and watch the trollies drive around. I definitely think a trolly tour is in order soon!

Making a House a Home

Stephen and I busied ourselves this weekend adding those simple touches to our apartment to make it look a little more like a home. We were fortunate to find some great little area rugs at Big Lots that have helped warm up our cold floor (both literally and figuratively!) We now have a nice brown area rug in our living room and a runner rug in our hallway. We also were able to hang most of our pictures this weekend...FINALLY!! Things are really coming together. Our small space is starting to feel like a home.
We went to First Baptist New Orleans for the second time this morning for church and this time stayed for Sunday School, they call it Bible study. They have a really great young married class with lots of couples, some with children, some without. The class is a good size, about 15 couples...lots of potential friends! :) We met one couple today who was also new to the seminary. Stephen invited them to lunch with us, so they accompanied us to Metairie and tried one of the BBQ places, Corky's, we'd been wanting to try. Corky's had a BBQ stuffed potato like the one at Jim & Nick's so I was happy! Overall, I would say it was a very productive and fun weekend! Back to the grind with the Redbirds tomorrow! :)

The Redbirds Have Landed!!!!

The schoolbell has rung and the Redbirds a.k.a. Mrs. Craver's kindergarteners have landed in their new nest! Each class has their own animal name, and our's just so happens to be the Redbirds. Yesterday was the very first day and boy did it start off chaotic!! I know from previous experiences that the first day tends to be a little hectic, but this year it threw me for a loop. I have very involved parents, which is wonderful, but because of that, every single one of my 23 student's parents were present on the first day of school. Do the math. It was A LOT of people in a very small space. They were all there seeing their kids off, taking pictures, etc, etc. After that, things calmed down a bit. However, having dealt with first graders so long, I am having to seriously adjust to how young my students are. They talk and interupt A LOT, but they are just trying to relate to whatever topic we're talking about and need constant redirection. They'll learn. Connie's been a superb helper because she walks around and gives them quiet reminders so I can actually teach! WONDERFUL!! We have had very few difficulties with students due to the fact that all of our students but two have been in the preschool program at the school and already kind of know the expectations. Our year has started off great so far. I had one really cute moment that happened this afternoon when we were dimissing. Most of my car riders had gone, so I only had about six students left to be called. We have been reading The Kissing Hand this week, which is about a little racoon who is scared to go off to his first day of school. His my kisses the palm of his hand and tells him all he has to do is put his hand to his face to feel his mother's love when he feels sad or scared. Well, anyway, we've been doing a lot of activities related to the book and one of my students grabbed my hand today and gave me a kiss on the palm of my hand and said, "There. Now you have a kissing hand from me. Now hold it to your heart." Precious! Then off course all the other kids wanted to do it, but it was really sweet. What a blessing!

Back to School

Preplanning has begun, and school will start soon. I've pretty much gotten everything together for my classroom. Lesson plans and open house packets are complete! Tomorrow is "Meet and Greet," which is what we in Georgia call open house. I get to meet all my little ones tomorrow! I've already met five of them, and they all seem really sweet. I've talked to the two four year old pre-K teachers, and they have been giving me the the "low down" on all of my kids. I now know who not to sit together, who talks a lot, and who has a hard time staying seated. Of course, all of that may change because every class is different! I'm really looking forward to getting the year started and getting into the routine of things. I feel a little scatterbrained right now just because I haven't taught in this setting yet. I'll feel more comfortable once things get going.

Stephen is really enjoying his job and gets along very well with the staff. In fact, tonight we are heading over to his boss Jim's house to eat dinner with his family and the family of Mrs. Priscilla, one of his co-workers. Everyone has been very welcoming to us, which has made the adjustment easier.

We are really enjoying life here so far. We miss home, but are becoming more comfortable here. The only thing that has been really annoying about our apartment is the fact that apparently we share a lease with a large family of beetles???? They are EVERYWHERE! They are teeny tiny flying brown beetles. Fairly harmless, but very annoying. One even flew at my head when we came home from Georgia over the weekend. I think he was having a party while we were gone and was mad that I was invading his space.

On that note, we had a very enjoyable weekend with family. We flew home to attend Stephen's Mamaw's wedding. It was a nice, although brief, visit. I was also happy to be temporarily reunited with our four-legged baby, Porthos. He seems to be very happy living in Grammy's backyard, but I do SO miss him! He turned 2 over the weekend, so I was glad his mommy was there to wish him a happy birthday. He is doing a good job of keeping Dixie, Stephen's childhood dog, company during her pregnancy (not by Porthos of course--he can't be a daddy if you catch my drift lol). He will have lots and lots of new friends in just a few weeks! Stephen and I also enjoyed eating at our favorite El Charro. We still haven't found a good Mexican restaurant to eat at here, but we will, don't you worry!

Well this has been an interesting mix of information. Such is the Craver life. More to come soon!

one week down...a lot more to go!

Well, we made it through our first week in New Orleans. It's been an emotional and physical adjustment, but I would say we have settled in pretty well for the first week. We went to an ice cream "freeze off" last night at the pool. It was basically a homemade ice cream contest. We got to sample all of the contestants entries...DELICIOUS! Stephen's boss, Jim, won with his ice cream peanut butter chocolate with butterfinger! YUM! (We voted for that one!)

We have not met too many young married couples WITHOUT kids yet, so that has been a little difficult. Not that we don't love people who have kids, it would just be nice to find some folks that are in our same "frame of life" right now. So prayers would be appreciated about that.

I've pretty much gotten settled in my classroom. Connie, my parapro, has been a HUGE help! All we have left to do now is move one table out of the room and do the "knitty gritty" stuff to get ready for the first day of school like putting name plates on, labeling the cubbies, decorating the door, etc. I also have got to make my lesson plans for the first two weeks of school sometime, but I'm hoping Connie can help me with that, too. The curriculum is spelled out for me, but I still need a little guidance to understand what kindergarten has done in the past. Everything was pretty much set up for me, which is great! We are the redbird kindergarten class. Every class has an animal name. So everything in our room has to do with redbirds. It's really cute. Not much else is new...more posts to come later!

We're Here!

Well, as of Friday, we are official residents of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. We arrived late Friday afternoon and began the unpacking process. When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the paint color on all the walls was the exact same color as our house in Covington, so I knew that all of our things would match perfectly! The apartment is very small, but it works for us. It's really nice moving into a space that is brand new. I've never had all new appliances before which is wonderful! Stephen's family braved the long trip down to help get us settled. They were a HUGE help!! Thanks to them, we have our entire apartment set up. The only thing left for us to do is hang pictures and window treatments. They stayed the weekend with us and explored the city a little bit. It was nice to become acclimated with our new surroundings with a few familiar faces.

Homesickness has set in a little bit, at least for me anyway. Reality has began to sink in that we're not just on vacation and we're going to be here for a while. However, once school starts and life starts to get busy again, I'll have a lot to keep my mind occupied. Stephen urged me to attend a women's workout class tonight at the gym. It was a lot of fun getting to meet some new people and exercise at the same time. I hope to be able to do more things like that so I can get to know people here.

Stephen started his new job today, so while he was at work, I went to survey my classroom. I met my parapro, and she kind of showed the ropes of what they usually do at Memorial. I feel a little lost because Christian curriculum is a lot different than what I have been teaching, but I think I'll catch on. The curriculum tells you word by word what to say and what to do. After I talked with my parapro today, I made the drive back to the seminary. This was my first attempt driving around the city, so of course it was a little scary! I used the GPS to get to my school, but on the way back, I thought I didn't need it because I was just retracing my steps....WRONG! I missed my exit and ended up by the Super Dome. For those of you unfamiliar with the city of New Orleans, the Super Dome is not really anywhere near the seminary. It was quite scary, but as soon as I realized I was lost, I plugged the GPS back in and it took me where I needed to go. Needless to say, I will use the GPS from now on. At least until I get to know my way around here!

Thank you for all the prayers and support. We will need your continued prayers as we try to start our life here. It's going to be an adventure! I'm going to try to upload some pics. Please excuse the mess, we're still working on getting settled!!

We're Here!

Well, as of Friday, we are official residents of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. We arrived late Friday afternoon and began the unpacking process. When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the paint color on all the walls was the exact same color as our house in Covington, so I knew that all of our things would match perfectly! The apartment is very small, but it works for us. It's really nice moving into a space that is brand new. I've never had all new appliances before which is wonderful!

Stephen's family braved the long trip down to help get us settled. They were a HUGE help!! Thanks to them, we have our entire apartment set up. The only thing left for us to do is hang pictures and window treatments. They stayed the weekend with us and explored the city a little bit. It was nice to become acclimated with our new surroundings with a few familiar faces.

Homesickness has set in a little bit, at least for me anyway. Reality has began to sink in that we're not just on vacation and we're going to be here for a while. However, once school starts and life starts to get busy again, I'll have a lot to keep my mind occupied. Stephen urged me to attend a women's workout class tonight at the gym. It was a lot of fun getting to meet some new people and exercise at the same time. I hope to be able to do more things like that so I can get to know people here.

Stephen started his new job today, so while he was at work, I went to survey my classroom. I met my parapro, and she kind of showed the ropes of what they usually do at Memorial. I feel a little lost because Christian curriculum is a lot different than what I have been teaching, but I think I'll catch on. The curriculum tells you word by word what to say and what to do. After I talked with my parapro today, I made the drive back to the seminary.

This was my first attempt driving around the city, so of course it was a little scary! I used the GPS to get to my school, but on the way back, I thought I didn't need it because I was just retracing my steps....WRONG! I missed my exit and ended up by the Super Dome. For those of you unfamiliar with the city of New Orleans, the Super Dome is not really anywhere near the seminary. It was quite scary, but as soon as I realized I was lost, I plugged the GPS back in and it took me where I needed to go. Needless to say, I will use the GPS from now on. At least until I get to know my way around here!

Thank you for all the prayers and support. We will need your continued prayers as we try to start our life here. It's going to be an adventure!

Packing Time

So the packing has begun. It was hard finding a place to begin, but Angie, "the packing elf," was super helpful today. We packed up a whole lot today. Moma and I also worked on putting new linoleum on the downstairs hallway and laundryroom. It was a very productive day. We have been trying to take everything one box...ahem...step at a time. Little by little we will be ready by moving day.

Our move-in date has been moved up a week thanks to an unforeseen blessing. Stephen received a job offer from the department of facilities at NOBTS. We will be officially moving July 23rd in order for him to begin his first day of work July 26th. We will have a jam-packed couple of weeks getting settled and beginning our new jobs, but hopefully, everything will go smoothly as we pack up our lives and begin our travels to New Orleans.
Porthos wishes he could go to NOLA with us, so he's hoping to impress us with his mad driving skills in case we might need him as another driver! :) More posts to come soon...

Geauxing to New Orleans

We are about one month away from the official move to New Orleans. Stephen and I decided to start a blog to record all the events from our new adventure and to share those events with all our favorite people back home. I will start posting more when we actually move, but I decided to go ahead and get things started on here. It's hard to believe it, but we are actually "Geauxing" to New Orleans!!