we're here (for good!)

well, we got all moved to North Dakota! It was a looooong drive, but we made it. last week absolutely FLEW by! finalizing stuff at work, packing the house, having goodbye lunches and dinners with friends and family, "one last trip"s to several special places... it was too fast. we had been packing, and each time jared camp up he took a carload. still, we just had so much stuff! we rented a 14-foot uhaul, and i swear if it hadn't been jared packing the truck, using each nook and cranny, we wouldn't have made it. the morning of the big move, most of the ladies from GLC came over to help!! we definitely wouldn't have made it without them. my baby sister was also a HUGE help that day (and for the days prior too), and my little brother and his girlyfriend came too. it was very humbling and wonderful to have all these people helping us move away from them. we really miss you all. we have amazing friends.

at the last minute, my mom decided to come along for the move! she had a good time. She thought our little house was "darling", liked the look of camp, and loved staying in the retreat center. She went through "downtown" Garrison, and was relieved to see a hospital/clinic/ER right in town. We spent Sunday in Bismarck, shopping and eating and at a movie, so that was really fun. It brought me a lot of peace knowing she approved of the new venture - no matter how old you are, your mom's opinion still matters.

we are slowly getting settled in here at camp. Hardly any boxes are unpacked, but all the furniture is finally in the right places, so now we are able to unpack and put things away. When we arrived, the executive directors' wife had prepared a meal for us that was waiting in our fridge. The staff helped us unload the truck, and Sarah and Ben (site caretaker and his wife) brought over fresh veggies picked from the large camp garden. The next morning, we found a loaf of homemade summer squash bread on our door! So that all made us feel very welcome.

on a yucky note, the second night we were here, we couldn't sleep in our house because there were 15+ HUGE wolf spiders in our bedroom!!! SO GROSS!!! So we bug-bombed the house and slept in the retreat center. There haven't been any around since, which is a gift straight from God because if that was the norm, I would be sleeping in my car!

I had my first day of work yesterday, and it was kind of hard for several reasons: i missed my friends terribly, Jared is coaching volleyball at the high school and had to leave camp for practice, I didn't think we were going to be able to come home until Christmas, my eye mysteriously swelled up and i was hopped up on benadryl for a while, and I just generally got overwhelmed by everything. Today, day 2 of work, has been MUCH better. I got a handle on the calendar for the year - we will be busy! There are groups scheduled to come to camp every weekend through January, phew! Even though I'm still figuring out just what my new job entails, I am glad to have it and excited to really be doing it. We met today with an Air Force chaplain who is bringing a group of young adults (17-30yrs) from the Minot AF base on a retreat over Labor Day, and that was fun.

I miss you all very much. We will be home over my birthday (October 4-8), and hope to see everyone sometime then. I will update the blog as often as I can. Know if days go by w/out an update, I am still thinking of you all.

Lots of love and hugs,
anna <><
(& jared)

t-minus 1 week...

it's now exactly one week until we move, and not a thing is packed in a single box. blah!! tomorrow i'm driving to moorhead, and husby will meet me there. then we'll drive to luther dell (yay!) for a friends' wedding, and will return to apple valley sunday night. next week is full of dinners and time with friends and family, and then friday is the big moving day! last sunday was the beautiful celebration for us at church, and monday was a fabulous girl's night out with my office ladies. the uhaul is rented, i's are dotted and t's crossed with final stuff at work, and camp is ready for us to be there. so look out north dakota, here we come! but first the packing... =)
anna <><
(& jared)