The Shafferland Shuffle

We are so glad that our season of living in transition is wrapping up! It will be so nice to be able to establish new routines! (We are aware that our new job isn't entirely about routine, but there will still be a chance to have SOME routine back in our day soon.) But in the meantime, here's a peek at another week of learning for us!

* Last Sunday, we started the day by visiting one of the churches in Grabill. I dialed down the Bekahrazzi, so I don't have any photos of church, but Ryan did take this picture of me making breakfast for lunch after we got home! We spent the afternoon doing a little more hands-on training - and part of that took place during a HUGE storm that took down a tree near our building! Ryan suggested getting pizza for dinner, and I did NOT argue with that at all. We ended the day with some online driving training! (Sunday was not a day off for us - our weekend was at an alternate time this week.)

* Monday's adventures began with Bekah re-learning to drive a minivan! (Turns out that's easier to do when you're not used to driving a compact car every other day. When I sometimes drove my parents' minivan in my high school days, it was a beast compared to my little bitty car.) We transported one of our tenants to work and then checked out the local coffee shop. Sigh of love. I'll have to tell you more about it later. And the big news from Monday? CLOSED ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!

* Here's a funny picture from Tuesday. Our boss's daughter named her doll Braeya (after our cat, of course), so when we found the doll in the van on Tuesday, we did a little Braeya Junior photo shoot. That day I learned that it's really fun to live in a small town where you can walk to the store for lunch supplies. That evening, Ryan helped Rob move some of the big things out of their apartment - the one that we're moving into. (No one asked for my help....what???)

* Wednesday was the first of our days off since we began training, and we started our "weekend" with a trip to Rise 'n Roll. PEOPLE!!!! We live ten minutes from a Rise 'n Roll now. It's the best of times for my belly and the worst of times for my clothes. We drove back to Kokomo, and our girl was SO HAPPY to see us!! (She's had fantastic sitters while we've been in training.) We spent the day seeing a bunch of people from both our old work places - and even got to have dinner with some of them! That was fun!

* Thursday we did some more work at our Kokomo house, and then we loaded up another carload of stuff - and Ryan's truck too - to head back to Grabill. We stopped to see my parents and they even took us out to dinner! We got back to Grabill without incident except for the ENTIRE bottle of coffee creamer that spilled in our cooler. I may not cry over spilled milk, but I sure will cry over spilled creamer.

* Before our training class on Friday, Ryan took me on a date! We went to the Mexican restaurant here in town, and we enjoyed it! Then we headed over to a class that didn't fit into our week-of-classes lineup. Learned all about the history of Gateway Woods - and both of us really enjoyed that class. And look at these beautiful views from our walk on Friday night! Poor Ryan - he'd spent two miserable hours on the phone working on canceling/transferring services, and THEY HUNG UP ON HIM!!!!  So the walk was definitely in order for clearing our minds, and it was so great to have a beautiful sunset to enjoy!

* Yesterday we did a lot of work in our new place! Yes, you read that right! Our new place! We both love it so much and can't wait to fully settle in and make it home! It was the first day we were able to walk through with tape measures and see what things will fit for real that we were pretty sure in our heads would work! (Always a risk, right?) It was so much fun to work in there together - and we had some help, too, from one of our new co-workers!