Saturday we took a leisurely morning and went into Chattanooga around lunch time. Stocked up on some fun goodies at Whole Foods and just looked around. There was a neat little toy store across the street and of course, we had to add another train to Judah's table. We came home, had some lunch, and got everyone ready for naps. For dinner, we did some bbq chicken, corn on the cob, barley in a mushroom cream sauce, and some broccoli. Oh! And some fresh bread with lots of butter. Mmmm! It felt amazing to fill our bellies with real food and not quick foods and snacky snacks that we had been eating the past few days. Nothing too eventful the rest of the night, just some more unpacking and getting organized.
We had a little bit of a hard time getting there--our GPS was on the fritz and we would be walking in later than we wanted to be. No one seemed to mind and there were lots of other people coming in right before and after us. The parking attendant greeted us and asked us if it was our first time attending and then directed us to a tent set up in the front where they had some gift bags for us (cute t-shirts & homemade chocolate chip cookies for us and the kids got a neat spiral lolly pop and some other candy that coordinated with the church's colors and a new cup with their logo on it). An older man with a mohawk and red keds came over to say good morning. That was fun and I told him I liked his shoes....and then we got the kids set up with their stickers and other info for their classes. When we went inside and I was relieved to hear the music that we would hear about church back home and not some crazy techno-church (ha!) music. It atmosphere was a little chaotic which made me a little uneasy but I'm not sure how much of that is because we were coming in late, because southern people are just "different" than what were used to or what. When we dropped the kids off, there was a girl in an astronaut suit (we still haven't found out why, besides Judah saying their tanks were empty in outer space...) and Miss Ay went to the playroom. She cried at drop off, like she usually does, but was fine for pickup.
We made our way into the big room and join in on the singing. It was a lot louder and people were moving around more than back home...but almost like a jittery moving around--it's hard to explain. Again, maybe a southern thing? The pastor came out and I immediately look over at Jare. He's a tough critic when it comes to faith matters (which I appreciate) and I was SO anxious to hear what he thought. The message was great--thought provoking, good mix of practical application of scripture, basic concepts presenting in a different manner...just like what I was used to hearing online--but now we were in person! We're both interested in seeing what the next service is like.
After church we went to what will be "our" Walmart. It'll be our alternate grocery store for organic stuff and household incidentals because Whole Foods, for everything, is just not feasible. It was nice, clean, and like a normal store--not like the Walmart that we're accustomed to back home. We loaded our cart and off we went.
We pull into the garage and I start unbuckling the kids as Jared goes to open the door. He yells over, "Did you lock this door?!" Apparently no one (like no one, no one) has a key to any of the bottom locks in the house........and I didn't know that. So, yes, I locked the door. Oh dear. After Jare pulled some crazy moves with his tools, he called our landlord. She came over and called the neighbor who came on over with a piece of siding (yeah, like house siding) and opened the door in 2 seconds. Good golly. Causing problems in the neighborhood already.
Finally, that brings us up to present day! Today we went out on the town! We tried a local sandwich shop for lunch, found the post office, library, drove by both of Jared's soon-to-be campuses (that was really neat!), found a park and tried it (it was icky), and then found another park which is closer to our house and beautiful! While pulling onto the road that the park was on, we saw a welcome center so stopped there and asked a few questions (it's totally strange that there was a welcome center there because the town is SO tiny). We went home for nap times and I sat out on the rocking chairs on our nice big porch and began writing this very blog post. After nap, back to that awesome park we scoped out (the kids loved it! and it's so close to home), I talked to a 'local' about stuff to do around here, and even got to see a (very close) train go by. Judah was in his glory telling everyone at the park about it. Jared left to get some local barbeque (and some green-fried tomatoes for me to try!) and that concluded today's adventures!
Tomorrow we have a fun surprise planned for the kiddos...and let's be honest. Us, too. I'm really excited!
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