Spontaneity

At around 10:30 last evening, Shannon and I spontaneously decided to take a trip to Birmingham. We arrived around 1:30 am central time. We're helping to pack up Shannon's parents house, as her Dad just took a job in Georgia. Birmingham is where Shannon grew up, and we have spent a majority of our first day here driving by the schools, churches, and houses she spent so much time in during her early years.

We'll head back to Georgia sometime next week and then make our way up to Harrisburg, PA, for my next project. We have begun planning some of our Pennsylvania itinerary, including a trip to the Little League World Series to meet up with Shannon's bro-in-law, Brian.

But before then, it's back to Birmingham!

Fun day

I'm sitting at my sister Christine's house with Sean, Ethan, and Allie. Christine and Brian are out on a date, so we volunteered to spend some quality time with our nephew and niece. We've had a blast today hiking up to Little Falls and splashing around in the water at the base of the falls for a while. We capped off the evening with their first taste of chinese food - which they fortunately liked. Allie was fondest of the egg drop soup and chicken lo mein, while Ethan liked the fortune cookies the best (although he also enjoyed the sweet and sour chicken which he affectionately dubbed "chicken puffs"). They both loved the chop sticks too! Sean and Allie are currently waiting for me to start a game of monopoly, so I'd better sign off. I'll leave you with Ethan's fortune from his cookie, "Visit a park. Enjoy what nature has to offer." Perfect for the day...

Weekend in Charlotte

We headed over to Charlotte this past weekend for one last hurrah. Yesterday's church service was our last there. They asked Sean to do the sermon, and, I have to say, he worked that pulpit over. Of those who shook Sean's hand afterwards, my favorite was a little 8 year old boy. He shook Sean's hand and said, "I wanted to tell you that I enjoyed the sermon." To which Sean responded, "Great! What was your favorite part?" This cute little guy said, "I liked the whole thing. This Sunday I actually listened." I told Sean that would be the best compliment he could get.

They also presented Sean with 2 photos of the church framed. We are sad to be leaving Charlotte, but are grateful for the experience we had there. Several families have already told us we could come and stay with them anytime we are in the area, and we just might take them up on their offers one of these days.

Today, we are at Sean's parents' house. We will be here through the week and then head down to Georgia to spend time with my family. I'll get to spend another birthday with them before we head up to PA in early August.

Texas

Sean and I arrived in Texas on Thursday night. Lance and his girlfriend, Cheryl, met us at the airport and we spent the evening catching up. Saturday morning we left for Austin for a weekend where we went to a jazz cafe, a sculpture museum, walked along the shops of Columbus Ave, and ate a LOT of good food! Sean and I cashed in some Hilton points left over from Hawaii and stayed in style for free (which you know I love.)

We came back to Houston last night, and Sean and I have just been chilling out today at Lance's apartment while he and Cheryl are both at work. We plan to see them tonight, go get more good food, and enjoy our last night together. We head to the airport early in the morning, and will hopefully be back in Virginia by lunchtime. It's been a really good weekend - we look forward to seeing them both again soon!

In limbo

Well, it's been a whirlwind week. We moved out on Friday and headed up here to Virginia to stay with Sean's parents for a few days. Yesterday, Sean and I were to go up to Harrisburg for the day to look at some apartments, but I got some weird stomach bug and had to stay home. Sean went up by himself and found a place for us to live this fall, so that's great news! He also got to meet with the church committee, which he really enjoyed. He'll be headed back home this afternoon, and then we'll get ready to leave for Texas on Thursday of this week to visit Sean's brother Lance.