New Location, Still Strangers

Two weeks ago today, Jon and I coordinated a crew of about 14 friends and family members who arrived promptly at our apartment on Basile-Patenaude at 8 am and spent the next 3 1/2 hours parading up and down the three flights of stairs carrying boxes and furniture for us. They managed to get all 118 of our boxes plus major pieces of furniture down to our moving truck. There, Jon's father proceded arrange it all to fit within a very limited amount of space so as to leave room for commercial shipments behind the bulkhead, helping us to avoid incurring extra fees from the company shipping it for us. Jon's father pulled it off beautifully in what could truly be described as a chef d'oeuvre.

After our work was done, we had a pizza picnic lunch on the lawn in front of the building. Soon after, the goodbyes started. There was a second whirlwind of activity as we tried to pass off our unwanted items on friends, say our goodbyes, get our suitcases loaded into the car, and hand off our keys to the landlord. We finally turned off the street just before a huge downpour let loose. Thank God for his provision in holding it at bay until we had finished!

Jon, Liam, and I flew to Chattanooga, Tennessee to spend a couple of days with my family there. Our suitcases didn't make it until the next day, and our camera didn't make it at all! We accidentally left it on the plane in the hurry of trying to make it to our connecting flight with a crying baby. We're still trying to get in touch with Northwest Airlines over this. (Their Customer Care Line should be renamed the Automated Voice Abyss). We had a nice time in Chatt-town resting a bit and hanging out with Mama Jean, Papa Steve, Susan and Brian, and Grandma Livingston. And my parents very generously gave us their Toyota Camry, after getting it tuned up and detailed.

Mama Jean rode with us from Chattanooga to Dallas. It took 14 hours of driving which we split up between two days. We went through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana and mostly only saw the interstate. Some our highlights included enjoying free diet cokes at the Mississippi welcome center, a delicious dinner of southern cookin' at the Cracker Barrel, and some of the best barbecue we've EVER tasted at Bodacious Barbecue near Tyler, Texas. (Who knew that Texan barbecue could rival Tennessee's barbecue ?!)

Finally, on June 27th, we made it to Dallas and got to our place. We finalized everything with the landlady. The first week in our place was challenging, to say the least. We found things had not been repaired correctly, and so we had to fix up quite a few mistakes. Also, the companies responsible for our electricity and water had made mistakes and our power and water were turned off the day they were supposed to be connected. We discovered that Dallas is literally sweltering in the summer, especially the day and a half that we had no air conditioning! But God provided for us through various means including our friend Greg Galloway, who let us stay with him after helping us move some of the heavier items from the truck into our house. We also have very nice neighbors who let us use an extension cord to keep our refrigerator running.