Enjoying the Peach State!

We have been in our home for three weeks now and are settling in nicely. The best news it that we all have real beds to sleep on. We brought a crib for Kyra so she was the first to get a bed. A little over a week ago Jared went to Walmart and purchased a bunk bed. He was a bit surprised when they rang the $189 bunk bed up as $50. He inquired about it and they checked the price from several different tags. All of them rang up the same $50 price, though the tag physically said it cost $189. They checked with the manager and after some inquiries they came back and said it was mine for $50 explaining that someone else had made a computer error. Jared literally robbed Walmart with the store manager's permission! We see it as a great blessing. Along with the bunk bed we also have three new bookshelves from Walmart along with a shoe rack. We have found Walmart has a good selection of nice looking furniture at great prices. Not bad for those of us on tight budgets. Just a couple of days ago Jared obtained a queen size bed at no charge from his new advisor, who had recently bought a king size bed. Thus, after three weeks of unpacking the house is coming together nicely. Still boxes to unpack, but most of the stuff is out.

Amber started kindergarten August 14th after getting all the shots required and paperwork. She has adapted nicely. She loves her school and the teacher is wonderful! She is excited to start riding the bus in the coming weeks, but for now Heather will drive her in and pick her up. She brings her homework home each day and usually Dad helps her with it unless he is at school late. Her teacher has commented that Amber makes friends well and is doing fine. She practices her letters and is learning her phone number, address, and student number. Nathan and Kyra enjoy staying home with Heather and helping her out.

Jared started classes on August 17th and has been busy since. He is taking Statistics, Evolutionary Genetics, and Modern Biotechnology Lab. He gets credits for a host of other things that are not real classes like a department seminar, lab meeting, etc. Thursdays are particularly long for him as he has classes from 9:30-10:45am, 2:00-5:00pm, and 7:00-10:00pm. Other days he is able to get home before or a little after 5pm. Jared has enjoyed taking the bus thus far. We are about a 12-15 minute walk from the bus stop which then takes about 10 minutes to get to campus. Either way it is about a 30 minute communte which is nice because it works in a nice healthy walk twice each day for Jared. As expected, Jared has kept to his usual routine of getting to the lab early and getting a jump on the day. He is usually able to catch the first bus of the day into town and be in the lab at 7am.

Heather is enjoying Athens. She is finding her way around nicely and enjoys getting the house set up. She loves getting all our decorations out that we have had in storage for some time now, including all our paintings from China, her dolls, and other items that really add character to the home. We have been enjoying the peaches down here, which are quite delicious. It is hot and humid, but that was expected. We already have had several nice thunderstorms and found the trees around our home shelter us nicely from the rain and also from the sun, there is hardly a window in the house that gets direct sunlight. All in all things are well here in our new home! We gave talks in Church today that went well and the Church has been very friendly and welcoming. Enjoy the recent pics!

At a rest stop on our big drive out to Georgia, we found a playground that got the kids excited!

Our new home in the background, Heather, Amber and Kyra posing. (Nathan was sleeping.)

Nathan, showing off the playroom with his stuffed animals.

Amber showing off the new bunk bed with the stuffed animals.

Amber on our deck with our backyard behind her!