Hello everyone. I have been here for almost a month and am finally getting settled in for the most part. I discovered that I did not downsize enough - I should have disposed of more stuff or put more stuff in storage...everything is working out ok though.

The first week we got here, to my dismay the temperature was in the mid 90's. I had though I left that behind in Texas... But the heat wave is over and it has finally cooled down. Temps are in the 70's in the daytime and in the 60's at night.

The area where we are is just beautiful. We are kind of out in the country surrounded by lots of trees and beautiful scenery. I will post some pictures soon. The town of South Hamilton is very small. The town area has a mom and pop grocery store, a bank, a CVS , few knick-knack kind of stores, and the train station. The nearest mall is a couple of towns over - about 15 miles away - that is where there is a bigger grocery store, a small mall and a Walmart.

We are getting used to living on the third floor. It has its good points and bad points - very bad when you have a lot of stuff to carry up. We have learned NOT to shop every other week and get everything at once, but rather to shop more frequently and get much less at a time. I try not to get anymore than will fit in a reusable grocery bag or maybe two as I really don't like to make more than one trip up the stairs if I don't have to. Usually every three to four days works out ok. The good point is that on the third floor we can sleep with out windows open (for a while anyway until it gets to cold). It is so nice to let the fresh air blow in and to listen to the nature sounds of the woods.

Robert really likes his new job. He is an Operations agent at Southwest. He works with the ground crew and the pilot to make sure everything that is needed is taken care of. When the plane is on the ground, he communicates to the pilot which gate he is to go to. He also is the one who boards the passengers on the plane. There are reports to fill out for each flight such as how much fuel is needed, how much weight is loaded on the plane, and how many passengers are boarded are a few of the many other things that also need to be kept track of. All in all it seems to be a very interesting job and he is rather enjoying it.

Well, I have 8 more days until class starts and then I will be very busy. I am somewhat overwhelmed with the number of books that I will have to read. The professors have started to put up their sylibi on the school website listing all the required readings. One of my classes has seven books...whew.... I noticed on the school calendar that we are given TWO reading weeks where there is no class. Now I now why....oh boy... Registration is next Tuesday and class starts on next Friday ( I do not know why they start something on a Friday but....). Then on Saturday, the seminary puts on an annual Clamfest for new students. They will be serving Clam chowder of course. That's just one of the ways they are getting the new students together to meet and to get to know one another and to start forming a community. It is kind of cool I think.

That's all for now. I'll post more later.
Blessings