Today's Coffee: Millhouse Regular

Thomas and I have officially been living in New England for over 3 weeks now. Lots has been going on as we are still settling in and getting used to what real rush hour traffic is. (Greenville, you haven't seen anything!) Thomas has received the job at Zion Lutheran Church and we are so pleased to see this answer to our prayer. I am still looking for a job but am now expanding my options to the realm outside of music. There are several places near Yale campus that will be hiring for the transition into school starting and I have decided to apply to some of these places. I believe that my southern charm will help me become the most awesome waitress New Haven has ever seen. :)

We went contradancing last Saturday night and found a really great group of people. The call, Bill Fischer, was a super cool guy whose house is an old barn (turned into a house). Once a month they host a festival for music and dancing where you can bring your instrument and they help you learn more about fiddle/folk music and then they contra later. Everyone jams together and Thomas and I know that this is where we might take our little bluegrass "band" next. Haha! We have found a church that preaches the Word pastored by Johnathan Holst. We are trying to get plugged into this church and do what we can to praise the Lord with our skills and talents. We are very blessed to have this church to go to.

We are trying to get back into the habit of running daily (the move stopped us for a few weeks) but we have found that it is a bit harder than anticipated. One problem that we have run into (hehe - no pun intended) is that the air here is not nearly as humid or heavy as the air in Columbia, SC. Our mouths get dry here when we run - it's strange how something so small like that seems to have a huge impact on our running.

In other news, we are huge fans of Chef Gordon Ramsey and we hope to go to his restaurant in NYC in August for my birthday. We watch all his shows online and we feel like we know him - so if we meet him, it could get weird. Our tomato plant is doing really well - we hope to have ripe juicy purple tomatoes by next week... and hopefully our oregano will decided to start sprouting soon as well. It's raining now - I was hoping to go running after this - but it has started raining (something we see A LOT of here). So, I guess I will go play Risk 2210 A.D. with Thomas. I told him I would play with him and he needed to set it up before I change my mind. ;)

Continue to pray for us while we are here. We thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

In Christ,
The Russells

Today's Coffee: New England Eye-Opener Blen

Funny how appropriate today's coffee was. Thomas and I are settling into our new apartment very well. Our location is amazing. Beautiful neighborhood about 10 blocks from main campus and even closer to the Div School (where Thomas will be - a lot). On our way up we stopped at my Granny's house in Virginia Beach. We got to visit with family on my mom's side and do a lot of other fun things. fish, canoe, eat a lot, pogo stick, swing, drive the tractor, and lots of talking.

Thomas and I arrived in CT around 3.00 pm on July 1st to get keys to our apartment and then once we were inside we both agreed - much smaller than we had thought it was going to be. Waiting for Dad, Mark and Taylor (friend of Mark's) to arrive with all of our stuff we tried to occupy ourselves, ended up getting hungry and ate fluffernutter sandwiches. Dad finally rolled in around 9.45 pm (after getting lost and driving for about 13 hours) we decided not to unpack the trailor because we are on the 3rd floor of an old rickety house and didn't want to wake up anyone. We all slept on the floor that night. Getting up super early Thomas, Dad and I began moving stuff out of the trailor around 6.40 am so that we could move the car. Eventually all of our stuff ended up in the apartment. I still do not know how the loveseat fit through our tiny door - but maybe I don't want to know. Well, on July 2nd (while we were moving) Thomas had an interview for a church job at 1.00 pm and another at 7.00 pm. We were all so tired we all slept again that night, but we had a bed this time. The next morning we all ate bagels and cereal and then decided we wanted to show Dad and them the Yale Campus. It was awesome. Dad, Mark and Tayor left early Saturday morning to go back home - making a stop in Philly to try the famous Geno's cheesesteak.

So, Thomas and I have been living in New Haven now since Wednesday and we are really starting to enjoy it. Trying to get jobs has taken up a good portion of time, but there is a lot of time in the day when you know hardly anyone and do not have the internet. We are reading lots of books and practicing banjo and mandolin and playing games. I almost played Risk with Thomas, but then thought better about it and backed out. We are scheduled to get internet on July 12th and then we can Skype and do all that business.

All of our pictures are up on facebook - friend me and see them. We hope to have a video tour soon of our apartment. More to follow when we can get to the cafe.

P.S. The left picture is from the inside of the Yale Sterling Memorial Library. ;) The right picture of of the houses across the street from us.

In Christ,

The Russells