Our Temporary Home

Our apartment building--ours is the center door

Even being all in the same room, they are still not close enough. Here is Jarem and Alex in the same bed.
The kids room set-up with double bunk beds.

Well, we are officially in the South now. I've already tried some good southern food like: fried okra, fried green tomatoes, bread pudding, sweet potato pie, and fried dill pickles. So far, so good. People are warm and friendly here and very polite in every way including addressing everyone by sir and maam.

It is very hot. I understand the meaning of the term "heat wave" much better here because that term does describe what hits you when you go outside. :) We've realized when the temperature in the high 80's and low 90's we feel like it is cooler that day. A little breeze can make a big difference too. But we are adjusting to the heat and humidity. Jesikah said already it doesn't feel as hot as it first did.

We are temporarily living in a 2-bedroom apartment, but it does have a washer and dryer and is completely furnished. The builders of our house own these apartments and have generously provided it for us until our house is finished. It is turning into a little longer than we expected as our new house completion date has now been pushed back until October 6th. The downfall is it's crowded(obviously) and all our things are in storage until we get into the house. We are starting to get used to it, but don't stop praying for us.

Busy and stressed are two adjectives that describe the past 2 weeks since we have been here. We got here August 1 and the kids started school August 8th, so between getting the kids settled with school supplies, clothes, teachers, schools(a long story below), and making decisions on our house along with the closing of our house in Washington things have been very busy.

We went through a lot of trouble and forms our first week here to get the kids registered in the school where our house is being built only to be informed on the first day of school that the zoning had changed over the summer and our new house is now in a different school. It was a frustrating week, and the poor girls had to start the first day at one school(Friday), and the following Monday at yet another new school. The worst part was that we had only searched for houses that were in the boundaries of the original school, so it was very frustrating to find out that had been changed.

But, it does no good to complain, so we made the decision to attend the school that the apartment is zoned for since it is 2nd only to the original elementary school. The girls are very happy there so far and I hope and pray things will work out for them to finish the year there once we move. They both have good teachers.

Fortunately for Alex, he is zoned for the same school here and there, so the changes didn't affect him. He likes his new school, but he's trying to adjust to middle school. He's had some lunch and locker dilemmas this week, but all in all, things are good. He is trying out for the middle school soccer team this week also, so we hope he makes it. They only keep 16 kids out of a school of over one thousand 6th-8th. He says he doesn't like all the cussing and kissing in middle school.