We are really excited (and a little nervous) about being actual homeowners. There is so much more responsibility in the upkeep of a house and a yard. Currently our "yard" is a 2 ft wide strip of grass that maintenance comes and mows each week. They even blow the leaves off our tiny "patio" for me! Now we'll have a yard. With a maple tree. Whose leaves will need to be raked. Big changes. But we are looking forward to it, especially having space for guests to come and stay. Currently guests share a room with David's (necessarily) gigantic desk/computer station, an exercise bike (which we do actually use) and all the boxes there was no room to unpack. Now we will have a basement for those sorts of things!
Basement. I'm from Florida. We call basements "swimming pools" there, because if you dig 2 feet down...you hit water! "Sump pump" is a new addition to my vocabulary aswell. Fortunately, our soon-to-be sump pump is bone dry despite the rain we've been having and the current owners have never had the basement leak in the 8 years they've been there. Yay!
Outside of crunching numbers to make sure we are being wise and not steering ourselves into financial ruin, spending quality time in austere bank lobbies, and learning new vocabulary such as "escrow" we've managed to have a great time in our new town.
The month kicked off with the celebration of the county's 225th anniversary. There was a parade that reminded me so much of the small town I come from that I actually got homesick. We sat next to some friendly elderly couples who reinforced the belief that I have that everyone really does know everyone here! After greeting each person, the woman next to me explained how she knew them, "He attended my church." "Her brother-in-law was my next door neighbor." "My son is her veterinarian" "My mailman once incorrectly delivered his letter to our address."
I may be making some of those up...
Did I mention Ben Franklin is a really big deal up here? This is a pic of one of several "Bens" who attended the parade. I love living in a state, or rather, a commonwealth, with so much history. I can't wait to go to Philly sometime and see independence hall, the liberty bell, etc. Shortly after that, Pastor Stephen and his wife Kelly, our best friends up here (well, really our only friends up here, besides our sweet neighbors) moved back to the land of humidity and sweet tea, that's right, they're in the South again. We miss them, but God has been really faithful in bringing new friends our way and possibly a new church, so we are really excited about that!
A few days after their moving van drove off, David and I headed for the Pocono mountains where he had a training for work. We arrived early so we could visit Bushkill Falls. It was a beautiful, uphill, three hours of hiking. The weather was perfect and I felt so blessed to being enjoying such a wonderful place with David. We passed 3 waterfalls, several streams, stood on top of ridges and walked through leaves that were beginning to turn yellow. Our last big event of the month was David's birthday. We had a surprise party and a great time hanging out with his co-workers. I made a cake, but forgot to take it out of the pan and place it on the cooling rack in time. When I tried later, it was stuck fast and eventually came out in several pieces. I learned an important lesson...enough frosting fixes anything!
I'm so thankful for all the new experiences and friendships the Lord continues to bring our way, it's hard to express it all in a not-so-concise blog, especially when trying to cover a time when so much happened. Maybe I'll eventually get the hang of updating more frequently with smaller posts!
