Well we’re finally in Williamsport! We’ve been here almost a week. We’ve quickly settled into our room at the Fisher’s home and both started our new jobs this week, which we’re both really enjoying. I’ve put in 4 days at J.R. Judd Violins… learning all sorts of stuff! Karls been working hard this week to get things caught up where they need to be to start the year off for college/young adult stuff and the jr high ministry. Rufus has been loving her time here thus far… though she wakes up at 7am every morning and decides to wake me up as well. Now if I had to get up at 7am this wouldn’t be a problem but I don’t have to. I can sleep another 45 minutes, but she hasn’t been letting me. We’re still searching for a home… quite a process. Internet is spotty for us. There’s dial up out at the house but it’s pretty slow, so today is our second day at the Coffee and Tea Room using their free wireless and of course enjoying tea and italian sodas… We’re off to a birthday party this afternoon followed by some youth ministry team bonding (aka painting).

This week is one of those that’s going to fly by but at the same time is so packed full of stuff that it will be crazy and seem kind of slow. My parents packed our kitchen up yesterday. What a blessing! We packed all morning, patched up the holes in the walls & loaded both my parents Escape and our Jeep and left for Williamsport in the afternoon.
Karl and I did another walk through of the house we’ve had our eye on with a contractor friend of ours. His biggest concern… the roof… so we’ll have to see about that. It’s not awful it’s just a slate roof that doesn’t look like it was well maintained the past couple of years. We were there for awhile and I tried to understand everything they talked about down in the basement about electric, heat, air conditioning… it was rough though.
We followed that up with a nice cheese steak dinner at The Crippled Bear, one of my favorite places in Williamsport. Once my cheese steak was finished I realized I never put it back down on my plate. It was too good.
This morning I woke up and began filling more boxes. My parents came back to State College after a night in Williamsport and refilled the back of the Escape to take right back to Williamsport. My dad is quite a packer! The apartment is definitely feeling a lot more empty. As it should. Like I said having my parents help here was really a blessing.
We had lunch today with the staffers of the CMA at Quaker Steak. Good lunch buffet.
Rufus today has scared us… our typically crazy pup has been lethargic after waking up this morning and puking twice. She had a nice mound of grass in her stomach this morning… but unfortunately it didn’t help much. So she has some pepto-bismal in her now. We had to give it to her in peanut butter which ended up all over her face by the time we were done. She was quite a sight.
We got lots of errands done this evening as well. We’re really getting things wrapped up. Tomorrow the piano goes, Thursday we get the Uhaul and take all the big stuff, Saturday the carpets get cleaned and we’re outta here… well the apartment not State College. Sunday night is our last night and we’ll head to Williamsport so Karl can get to work Monday morning at First Church and then I’ll start work Tuesday. Quite exciting!

So we’ve been packing… alot… and I wondered tonight “where did we get all this stuff?! I didn’t move it in here!” Then I remembered… Wedding Presents.
My parents are coming up to State College tomorrow to help us patch up our walls and move things up to Williamsport. So I’ve been packing most of this afternoon & evening and now morning. I feel like there’s no end!
Heard good news today from Florida. My best friend is getting married! To a very wonderful man. Too bad the books I should send to her are now packed in a box labeled “books”. I should have been more specific in my labeling process. Oh well.
Karl and I spent Saturday looking at houses in Williamsport. Many in our price range were pretty rough looking and had a lot of “differed maitenance”… meaning stuff that should have been kept up to date that wasn’t and we’d have to put some big bucks into it… We did come across one house thought that is great… it was just occupied by people that MUST have been blind and LOVED gaudy wall paper. Despite the cosmetics of the home though it seems to be in great shape. We’re checking it out again tomorrow with a contractor friend. It would take some work but the thought of putting work into our first home is exciting Karl and I. So we’ll see. Hopefully there’s nothing too wrong with the house that we should just run from.
Well… that’s the update for now. Should probably go to bed.

Well we’re buzzing here around the apartment… as many have found out already Karl and I will be moving to Williamsport. Soon. In less then 2 weeks! Last Tuesday Karl was offered a position at First United Methodist in Williamsport to be their director of college, young adult and junior high ministires. We’re so excited about this new job. I will also be starting a job at J.R. Judd Violins where I’ll be doing many things… So with all this happening so quickly we’re in a whirl. Things are being orchestrated so wonderfully by God though and we’ve been blessed so much. We’ve already taken a Jeep load of boxes up to Williamsport as well as our keyboard (which was already in the Jeep from Mike & Elisa’s Wedding this past weekend.) I spent today filling another 8 boxes or so and finding things that can go without being packaged up. Karl’s parents have been wonderful and have allowed us to start storing our boxes and items in their garage in Williamsport… we’re not so sure what we’ll do with our LARGE items… but that comes next week! Our days are packed and we’ll be making several more trips to continue moving our things and checking out homes… that’s right… we’re looking at some houses. We know that we won’t have our dream home in the next 2 weeks to move into… in fact we may have to wait a number of years before we get our “dream home” but there are some great homes in Williamsport that we’ll be looking at… thank goodness though for family, because we’ll definitely be staying with Karl’s parents for a little while til we find a home and can close on it. So well I guess that’s all thats new with us. If you’re free and want to help us pack or move give us a call!