a house, a house! my life savings for a house!

ok, well, not really our life savings, but man it feels like it when you're lying on the floor signing all the loan papers. wow. definitely a jump up from 380$ a month in Jackson. I know, I know...home equity is a good thing. *sigh* It's just so final! Nobody talks about getting cold feet before you buy a house. (and yes, I know I'm stretching the title quote, but it fit....sue me.)

Great news though! We're buying a house! Well, a townhouse really, but it's close-ish to church and in our price range. Hot dog. It had been rented out for about 15 years, and the owner did his own 'home repairs,' so it's going to need a little cosmetic TLC. But that's alright - I can wield a paintbrush with the best of them. And hey - the new Nate Berkus decorating book I was going to buy at Borders? Yep, that's right - it was free at the library. Yessssssssssss. Which is good, since I don't think I'm going to be spending money on anything else, ever. :)

"I think chocolate is very acceptable."

...whispered Grandma Bee, who is 97 and a half. (She points out the half.) Now she's not a direct relative of mine, but she's sort of the 'grandma' of most of our new church. She was giving us the grand tour of her apartment attached to her daughter's house, and the tour included her chocolate stash on top of her mini-fridge. After telling us that someone gave her the goodies for Christmas, she leaned in close like she was going to tell us a great secret. And that's when she winked and told us that she thought chocolate was very acceptable. Then she asked us if we had ever heard of M & M's. Hee hee!

This tour was the beginning of the most...unique...Easter lunch I've been to. Her daughter and son-in-law head up of the international ministry to UDel, and several times a year they invite an enormous crowd over for a holiday meal. There were probably about 50+ people at the house, and let me tell you, the learn-everyones'-names-as-fast-as-you-can game gets a little tougher when the names are Shu Ping, Gui Ja, Woo Kyung, Li De, Hitomi, and Yu Ni. Thank goodness there were name tags, although (as you can imagine) they only helped so much. It was nice of them to include us though, and we went home very full and even more tired.

As much as I miss the people in Mississippi, can I tell you how nice it is to have a real spring? It's been in the 60's to low 80's and sunny pretty much since we've been here, and all the many kinds of flowering trees that grow here are in bloom. What's that? It's 95 in Jackson? Like I said folks, you know you want to road trip. :)

Toto, I don't think we're in kansas anymore

Yes, so the whirlwind that picked us up and plopped us in Delaware is finally starting to simmer down. We really love our new church (the people there are great!), but at the moment it's next to impossible to communicate all we're soaking in (Josh's blog does a much better job.) So I'm just going to post a few things that struck me as oh-so-not-Mississippi.

1. It snowed this morning. I know - what the heck?! When Josh stepped outside this morning to see if we needed coats, he said, "Man, it feels like it could snow outside!" Silly husband, it's April. Sure enough, in the middle of the women's meeting at church this morning, I look outside to see a blizzard of snow coming down. And everyone else there is just carrying on like this is NORMAL! Of course, I'm staring outside watching like a loony, since it's been years since I've seen snow. (Nothing stuck, but still...whoa.)

2. The Italians. And their food. South Beach Smouth Beach, I'm going on the all pizza diet, at least for a week. You know it's a good sign when you see no pizza chains anywhere...no Little Caesar's, Mazzio's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Domino's....nothin'. Why is that good? Because the stuff that you get around here is an entirely different creation. In every shopping center, and on almost every street corner, there are little Italian pizza/steaks/strombolis places run by the real deal. Like today - we got pizza at Tony's from a guy named Vinny who sounded like he was straight out of the Godfather. Raspy and everything. Seriously guys, this food is worth a road trip up here.