Welcome to Oxford, NC

Memorial to Confederate Dead

Oxford, NC

We've done it. Not only have we survived this whole summer living out of a suitcase, but we now have a place to call home. Excited, perplexed, relieved... these are all emotions that we've been experiencing over the past few days as we've come to the realization that we are no longer vagrants.

A sneak peak at our humble abode

No, I'm not saying "wow," Jackson caught me yawning.

It's hard to believe that just over a week ago we were living in Chicago, and now we are residents of Oxford, a small town just outside of Henderson. We found a cute two bedroom apartment right across the road from the Revlon factory (that's right). After visiting several other homes and apartments for rent, we are very satisfied with our new place. It's not huge, but we've got an extra room for guests and a pool in the complex. We even have a bed for visitors. In fact, our spare bed is the only piece of furniture that is currently in our apt. All of our earthly possesions (aside from our suitcases) are en route to NC, so for the next few weeks we'll be sleeping, sitting, and generally hanging out on the bed. We eat standing up over the kitchen counter. But even with the obvious lack of furniture we feel very blessed to have found this place and moved in after only a few short days in North Carolina.

Aside from house hunting we've been spending the week preparing for teaching in the fall. Jackson is very satisfied with his teaching position. This week he met with his principal and learned that he will be taking on 8th grade social studies, and his curriculum covers US history from a NC perspective. He also hopes to take on some assistant coaching responsibilites and will be meeting with the athletic director of his school this week to see where he will be put to work. I have been going over what I'll be teaching in Earth Science this week, I'm excited to be teaching something that can be so hands on for the kids. I also look forward to teaching Spanish, but have yet to dig too deep into what I'll be required to do there.

Northern Vance High School, where I'll be teaching Earth Science and Spanish I.

Henderson Middle School, where Jackson will be teaching history.

We also went to our new branch this week. More news to come on that. Let's just say it's been an eye opening experience to see how things are done out here.

Quick example: On the ward bulletin, there was a small little paragraph talking about the one and only missionary from the branch who is currently in the MTC. The bulletin encouraged members to write to "the Mission Base in Provo, Utah" if they wanted to contact the Elder. Just cute, that's all. (I realize you have to be a Mormon to really get that joke, and so I apologize. I'll explain it to you sometime.)