A job, a mattress, and lots of rain

We are still alive!

And we have our own apartment. I guess I have been so excited about it that I haven't posted here in a while. We moved into our apartment 12 days ago. It's a great little apartment. You know, you worry that your first night in a new place, you will realize all of the terrible things about it and you'll regret your decision. Like neighbors upstairs who clomp around all night, or terrible water pressure, or cricket infestations, or something. Well, we are still loving this place. So far, it is perfect for us! (And I'm sure if I told some of you SoCal people our rent, you would fall out of your chair! It is a third of what we paid in LA) Unfortunately, we are still very unfurnished. We are building up furniture slowly as our finances become more stable. Our first week here was spent sleeping on our camping mattresses, which were SO much better than the floor, but still not the same as a bed. Well, we bought a mattress and box spring, so at least that is taken care of. It feels luxurious! We'd still like a table and chairs, couch, bookshelves, and desk at some point. But we're waiting at least a bit on those. Oh, the adventures of being young and poor.

BUT, there are two fantastic things.
One: a kitchen. In our last place the kitchen was pretty dirty, and it wasn't really ours, and we were on a super budget. So it was sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner, every day. It seems like such a small thing to complain about, because many people in the world would be delighted with that much... but for me it was very hard. I love to cook and to eat, hahaha. I think we were both cranky because we weren't eating very well. But now I have my OWN kitchen, with big cabinets and counter space. Our grocery budget still isn't luxurious, but it's enough to eat decently and even to eke out some homemade sugar cookies :-)

Two: a mall. This might be the ruin of me (or maybe of Scott haha). We are on the very end of the complex. Thirty seconds from our back door is a path through the grass and the trees, and at the end of that path is a gate leading into a parking lot. And in that shopping complex is an AC Moore (exactly like Michaels... lots of yarn!), a Borders, a teacher's supply store, an Off Broadway Shoes, a Bed Bath and Beyond, and a grocery store. Which is pretty much the only stores I need in life. Throw in H&M and I'd never leave. But in all seriousness, it is soo nice having a major grocery store a 4 minute walk away! Plus, right on the other side of that is a big indoor mall with a movie theater and lots of clothes stores. See, we don't live in the boonies!


In other news, Knoxville is very rainy. Locals say this is very unusual. Average rainfall for August is 2.9 inches... I feel like we've had that each week since we've been here. But it's let up on the weekends for us, which has let us have great adventures!


Let's see... any other news? Hmmm... I'm not sure... what am I forgetting.... oh yeah! A JOB!!! I have been applying to jobs since before we even moved out here, and now I have one. For a while when we moved out here I was applying to anything I was remotely qualified for, and I was starting to apply to retail stores and such. Which would be fine, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do. I had a talk with Scott, and we decided that I really should be concentrating on applying to schools. My dream is to teach elementary school. While I knew that I probably couldn't get a job in an elementary school this year, any school experience would be good. So I concentrated my efforts on that. And lo and behold, I am now a teacher. I will start Monday and have my own classroom of seven little two-year-old kiddies. I'll be with them for eight hours a day. I'll teach lessons, Bible stories, art, potty-training, and more. I think the most exciting part is after being the newest teacher in a classroom with SEVEN teachers at my old school, I'll get to run the classroom this time. It will be my first real experience with it, so I'll get to see how I like it. I am very excited about it. It seems like God just wants me to be reallllllly good with two-year-olds. They're a fun age :-)


I think that's about all the news for now. We are off to dinner to celebrate employment!