this past week

This past week....let's see.........

Saturday, we went to the home of some new friends and had dinner. In Aiken, we'd gone to church with a lady and this new friend is her niece. The lady in Aiken had contacted her-she's just a few years older than me-and she & her husband have been SUCH a big help these last few weeks! She (Lisa) has told me SO much useful information about the area, the schools, apartments, etc. It was nice going to their home. Their 3 children and Gracie & Katie had lots of fun playing together. Gracie played 'American Girl' dolls with their 4th grade girl while Katie played played guns & light sabers with their 1st grade boy. Sounds about right to me! :)


Sunday morning, we visited the church of the above mentioned new friends. It was a very nice church with lots of friendly, welcoming people. One of the best things was that the PE teacher from Gracie's school attends there, so we were able to meet her. That really made me feel better about sending Gracie to school there the next morning. Tonight, Lisa emailed me saying that the coach said really sweet things about having Gracie in class. I guess she's already had PE on Monday & Tuesday and will again tomorrow. It's always good to hear sweet things about one of my girls!


Monday, Chris headed off for his first day of work while I took Gracie to her first day of her new school. Things went well for both of them. That night we went to a local steakhouse because it was one of those things where a portion of the proceeds went to benefit the school. Fine by me!


Tuesday, Chris's car FINALLY arrived! Things went well again for both Gracie & Chris. Katie & I explored a little more-finding a neighborhood I've heard a lot about and the outlet mall that's right at the entrance. That was fun! (Thanks Stephanie for telling me about it-it's definitely somewhere I want to explore more once we start seriously looking for a house!) I made my appointment with my new doctor. I'm glad to have that scheduled!


Today, Chris went into work a little late so he could return his rental car. Katie & I stayed pretty close to home most of the morning & afternoon. We did go out once to try to find a Babies R Us. Chris's cousin let us borrow his GPS unit which has been great, but it made me mad today because it seemed like it was taking me in circles. I never did get to the Babies R Us + this guy honked at me once and really scared me and I started crying! I really needed a Starbucks but never ended up getting one. I've lived in a relatively small town for a long time, so I'm having to get used to this Houston traffic! God has really had his angels watching over me because I know there have been a few times I've changed lanes a little too quickly and have somehow not caused any harm!


Tonight, we went to visit a church that was a little farther from home. My brother had told me about this church because one of his friends had moved here and attends it. I braved I-10 (which pretty much EVERYONE has warned us about!) by myself with the girls and 50 minutes later made it to the church! Chris's work is only about 20 minutes from the church so he just met us there. Getting onto I-10 was probably the worst part. Once on it, it's not like we went very fast b/c of all the other millions of people on there with me but we went along pretty steadily. Coming home, it only took about 30 minutes which isn't too bad.


Anyway, I LOVED the church! We met 3 people before we even entered the building and Gracie took off with a little 2nd grade girl whom she had JUST met. I was able to meet my brother's friend (his wife helped teach Gracie's class). There seemed to be lots of "our age" people and quite a few kids (and apparently there are more on Sundays which is typical). The adult class was well attended and very interesting. We even found out that there is a little girl who goes there (who wasn't there tonight because her mom was sick) who goes to Gracie's school and Gracie thinks she might actually be in her class! One of the people we met (who had the little 2nd grade girl) only live a couple of exits from us, so we know we're not the only people who would drive that far to church if we decided to go there. Apparently, lots of people drive quite a ways. I really, really liked it and look forward to visiting again Sunday. A lot of the men looked like they did similar type work to Chris and I could tell he was connecting with some of them which is nice.


I'm tired so I'm heading to bed soon. I miss my Aiken friends and have had a few moments of "panic" when I wonder what in the world I'm doing here rather than back in my comfortable little comfort zone, but I'm trying to trust in God and His leading. I'm just a creature of habit, so change is hard for me. Things are good though. I'm just trying to be real!