Dinner with the missionaries :)

We had the wonderful opportunity to feed the missionaries Friday night! We have 6 missionaries serving here in Hattiesburg and I was a little worried about fitting all 8 of us in our apartment, but it actually worked out a lot better than I expected :) I made my mom's bulletproof poppyseed chicken recipe for dinner. I call it bulletproof because it's nearly IMPOSSIBLE to mess up and I needed a recipe I could count on! I love the spirit the missionaries bring along with them everywhere they go. They are always smiling and willing to serve in any way they can. I hope they enjoyed having dinner at our home as much as we enjoyed having them. I have no doubt we'll be feeding them again in the near future :)

I pretty much thought about my sister, Stacie the whole time the missionaries were here. I actually got a little choked up when the sisters arrived at our apartment and gave me a hug, haha! I miss Stacie like crazy, but know she is doing amazing things in Pennsylvania! I know the sweet peace and joy the gospel brings to me and my life, and I'm so glad we have full time missionaries sharing that joy and peace the gospel brings with others. Its such a comfort to know I have a loving Heavenly Father who is aware of me and cares for me in every way possible. I'm not sure how I would have survived this move to Mississippi without His comfort and love.  I am grateful for opportunity I have to learn and grow while living in Mississippi with my sweet husband :)

Cody went to an appointment with the Spanish speaking elders tonight. They have made contact with a few people who speak Portuguese and thought bringing Cody along would help them with the language barrier. After the appointment they came over to our house and we had a few discussions about the gospel. I know I said this earlier, but I love having the missionaries in our home! I made them sandwiches and just kept giving them food hoping they would stay, but I know they have better things to do than chat with us! haha.

Not much more is happening. Cody is still going to the school to help Dr. Holcomb every so often and I'm still applying for jobs. Luckily I have received a few call backs, so hopefully I wont be unemployed for much longer! :)

Mississippi, "The Hospitality State"

I struggle at how to start these blog posts. I'm not the best writer, (as I'm sure most of you can tell!) but I'm working on it. I guess I'll just start this post with our latest experience here in Mississippi.

Today, we went to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to get our new drivers licenses! I think today was the first time we officially got lost since we have been here. Before we left our apartment, Cody typed the address into google maps to ensure we knew where we were going, but little did we know we had the wrong address! While we were driving to what we thought was the right address, we both kept saying, "I hope we are going the right way," because we were driving in the middle of no where! There would be a house every 100 yards or so, but besides that alls we could see were trees and road. When we "arrived at our destination" we quickly realized we were not where we were supposed to be. At that point, Cody called to get driving directions since obviously the address we had was wrong. The woman on the phone gave us an idea of where the office was, but she wasn't much help.. we still really didn't know where we were going. She told us the office was in the industrial park so as we drove towards Hwy. 49 we started looking around for this so called "industrial park."- Keep in mind we are still driving through the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees- While driving down the road, we saw a water tower which read, "Forrest County Industrial Park" so we knew we had to be in the right place, but were so confused because we didn't see any buildings.. until we came upon this beaut.. 

Yes, this is the Department of Public Safety. I'm so used to the DMV in Nevada that I really wasn't expecting this! We still weren't even sure we were in the right place when we pulled up, but we got out of the car and read the door.. it was confirmed, we were there.

Luckily, we weren't there very long. From the outside I thought we wouldn't have to wait at all, but I was surprised at how many people they could fit in that building. About 30 minutes later, we walked out with our new drivers licenses. We are now officially residents of Mississippi! 

The rest of our week has been pretty boring. I am still applying for lots of jobs and Cody is getting ready to start school. He has been helping Dr. Holcomb with a few things here and there, but nothing too time consuming.  I applied to Jones County Junior College in hopes to be able to start their nursing program in January. I still have lots of things I have to do to finish my nursing school application, but at least I've got the ball rolling!

We made it!

We made it to Mississippi and finally have internet in our apartment! It took us about a week to get everything together, but now I can recap on the rest of our trip to Hattiesburg!

The drive from Amarillo, TX to Shreveport, LA was a piece of cake! The morning started off right with Texas shaped waffles at our hotel. (I never want to be THAT person who takes pictures of their food, but how can you not take a picture of a Texas shaped waffle?!)

The drive through the rest of Texas was pretty boring. Even our ride along DJs couldn't keep it interesting for us..

While driving through Texas, I was hoping we could make it to Dillon to find Tim Riggins and Coach Taylor, but unfortunately, this is as close as we could get :(

We made it safely to Shreveport Friday night without any hiccups :) The next morning we woke up and drove to Vicksburg, MS on our way to Hattiesburg to see the Vicksburg National Military Park. 

We stopped to fill up our gas tank right outside the park and while Cody was filling up the car a cannon went off! From inside the gas station it just sounded like a loud boom, but when I came outside I thought I was going to have to peel Cody off the pavement. I guess cannons going off can mean different things for Iraq veterans.. poor guy :( (It's safe to say he was a little edgy for the remainder of the trip.)

When we got to the park, Cody very quickly informed the park rangers that they ought to have signs posted at the gas station stating, "FREQUENT BOMBINGS MAY OCCUR, BEWARE!" I really didn't think it was THAT big of a deal, but to each their own :)

We didn't get to spend as much time in the park as we would have liked, but it was still cool to see. It reminded me a lot of Gettysburg, the place is HUGE! 17 miles long of battle filed ground and monuments. I think Dad and Cam would love it! The park ranger was telling us people spend anywhere from 1 to 3 days touring there, but we made it through in 45 minutes and felt pretty good about it. 

After Vicksburg we were Hattiesburg bound! After 3 days of being in the car, we were all ready to arrive at our final destination! We pulled in to Hattiesburg around 2:00 and met our landlord to sign some paperwork. Paperwork took a little longer than we had anticipated, due to our first taste of Mississippi speed. Let me tell you, people down here take their sweet time! Don't strike up a conversation with someone, unless you have some ample time to spare! Mississippians LOVE to talk.. SLOW! It's quite the change of pace, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. Patience is a virtue right? 

We unloaded the truck rather quickly- thanks to the Bremner family helpers. By Saturday night, we pretty much had everything unpacked. I was pretty impressed. I don't know what I would have done if we didn't have Brum, Jennifer and the girls here to help. The girls helped me put together mine and Cody's bedroom while Jennifer put together the kitchen. Brum was in charge of cutting parchment paper for all of the drawers and shelves and Cody assisted Jennifer. It was a great team effort! 

Sunday was a great day. We went to our new ward and met some very friendly people. I think we are really going to like our new ward! It is definitely different from any ward I have ever been in, but I think it's going to be good for us. Brother Hinten (the 1st counselor in the bishopric) was already talking to us about callings the second we walked in! The first thing he asked me was if I played the piano, then he pointed to the organ and a sister missionary was playing for sacrament meeting that day.. so I think I know what's coming! He later told me and Cody that 1 calling per person is unheard of in our ward.. their motto is, "the more the merrier" when it comes to callings so I'm sure we'll be busy!

The rest of the week has been pretty quiet. We dropped the Bremner's off at the airport Wednesday afternoon and really haven't done much since.

We mostly have tried to explore Hattiesburg and find fun things to do here, but everyone we talk to tells us there really isn't anything to do, but I'm sure we'll find something! Today we found TENNIS COURTS!!! 

They are only about a mile away from our house and they are super nice! We started off our day right this morning with a tennis match and poor Cody lost to a girl.. but that's okay, he's used to it! haha.

One thing that is going to be very hard to get used to is the humidity! It's really not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but perspiration just rolls right off your body- I think that's where Alabama came up with the phrase, "Roll tide," but I could be wrong? 

We are very grateful to be in Hattiesburg. It is definitely going to be quite the adventure, but we are ready for it! We love our little apartment! We are literally next door to the baseball field and across the street from campus. We are very excited for Cody and his new adventure in his doctoral program at Southern Miss. He's going to be great! My days lately have mostly consisted of job hunting and talking to Cody. I'm quickly realizing that we are going to get to know each other A LOT more over the next 3 years.. I hope I like him as much as I think I do.. Really, I'm not worried ;)

Amarillo By Mornin'..... or 8:00 at night

Our Mississippi adventure officially began this morning at 5:30 am! After saying our last goodbyes, we pulled out of Henderson and headed for Amarillo, TX. It was definitely a LONG DRIVE (12 1/2 hours to be exact).. but it went by surprisingly fast.

Our first stop was in Winslow, AZ. Really, it's not as exciting as the Eagles make it sound, but the Maverick there was very nice and had styrofoam cups and crushed ice, so I really couldn't complain :)

We had a little hiccup about 15 minutes outside of Winslow...

Dont worry, we only got a warning :) Cody was only going 5 over the speed limit!

Once that was over, our trip was smooth sailing. Cody was a trooper and drove the whole 12 1/2 hours! I tried to be a good copilot and stay awake as much as I could, but being in the car that long is tough! I'm glad we had Cody's little sisters in the car with us, they were great DJs and great company. 

Cody's dad and mom left the day before us to break up the the 12 1/2 hour drive since they were driving the moving truck. They arrived in Amarillo a few hours before us and checked into the hotel so we had nothing to worry about when we arrived. :) 

Tomorrow we drive to Shreveport, LA. It's only an 8 hour drive- pretty much chump change compared to today!  

Here are a few pictures from all of the state lines we crossed today.

I was asleep when we drove into AZ.. so we didn't get a picture

Oh.. and we saw 2 boys in the back of a pickup truck in the middle of New Mexico on I-40 going 75mph! No big deal right? He looks like he's enjoying himself.

On that note.. I'll call it a night!