Where are we now?: Welcome to Mississippi....

Anybody remember Jo's sad little blog about leaving Gallaudet? He wanted me to take this picture of him while he was really, really sad. Well, I'm happy to say that he is now settled into Mississippi and though "the transition was rough", he has decided we must visit Gally regularly but live it up while we're here. So I'm going to try to catch you up on our transition....

After a flight to LA (that's still California to me) and a blazing road trip up the coast, we can now officially say we made it back to the "Deep South." We are fortunate that our classmate and friend Wendy took the job next door in Louisiana, Cheryl's best friend from high school lives three hours west in Texas, and the Links are right up in Tennesse. But for the most part, we are on our own trying to figure out, what does "deep south" really mean??

Honestly, we're not sure yet. We're collecting data. So far it means catfish, family friendly, everybody has a church, and we're the ones with the "really strong accents." The Kudzo vine that has "taken over the South" really is all over the freeways in most of the state, (like in the picture above, it covers up the native plants) but we are in Jackson, which is the largest city and the capitol, and we don't see much of it here. Apparently somebody thought it would be good erosion control for the highways (it came from Japan), but oops! They didn't know it would like the humidity so much. The best story I've heard is how in Tennessee they've hired a committee of goats to handle it...

Anyway, of course our main reason for being here is for Cheryl's new job at MSD. So far, it has been a lot to learn... from achievement tests to character education to crisis response and remembering names, it certainly keeps me busy!! Every week gets better as I learn the school, the staff and the needs of the students.... so far, so good. (breathe, pray, balance...)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the kids are all doing great in school. Shayna made the Cross Country team (though she'll wait to officially start in track) and loves middle school. The boys love their elementary 3rd and 5th grade classes, and can't seem to bring home enough homework. Greg had his first substitute teaching job last Friday, and already has three days lined up for October, all at the middle school. We are still in Winnie, as it is a cozy constant for us.... and we do still love the camp life. Oh! Have you met our new pet?

This is a close-up of Columbia- she is about the size of an oreo. Not quite a dog but we do love her so!! And we love and thank our friends out at Refuge of Hope in DC for the gift!

Now back to the camping... the weather here the first month was atrocious hot, but fall has arrived and we've already forgotten about it. Now the days are warm (75-80) and the nights are cool. We are making some friends at the campgound.... including the alligator Betsy that hangs out down at our end of the lake. We have braved our inflatable boat out their once (the lake is full of alligators, and people water ski all the time....) and I was only a little freaked out as her little eyes came up out of the water watching us paddle away. Just a little. Enough for me to suggest we maybe take our boat to the pool....

Where we had so much fun playing Nancy Drew and capsize and every other crazy game with all the kids in the camp, I couldn't believe we didn't think of this sooner. And keeping Betsy in mind, I know Gran would think that move to the pool was very...