Things we have learned

1. It snowed in Minneapolis. I thought this was funny. It's getting cold here but not that cold yet.

2. They drive the speed limit here. However, the speed limit on the freeway is 70 miles per hour. I have to set my cruse control to keep up.

3. They wear their shoes in the house. This is hard for me to comply with. We have been to at least 4 different homes now and each one says...Please keep your shoes on, really, we wear them in the house. Kylie, have you learned to do this yet?

4. No tax on food in WA but cheaper sales tax in ID.

5. Mostly conservative in political choice

6. Hunting is huge here. Everyone seems to own multiple guns and bows.

What a busy week

What a busy week it has been and I think Dan told me tonight that it's only Wednesday! As I said earlier, we arrived last Wednesday. My parents stayed with us on Thursday. We toured the town, found the Wal-mart, Post Office and of course the Library. There are two malls in town, I'm looking forward to buying a couple new pieces of clothes soon. My parents went home early Friday morning. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming with us. Friday night we went to a really good seminar on Spiritual Warfare. I thought this was very interesting because my mom has been teaching me about Warfare since 1991, it was nice to have so much confirmed by someone else. And it interested Dan enough for him to start reading the book I bought. I'm looking forward to hearing what he thinks. The seminar continued on Saturday as well. Church was fantastic on Sunday. We got here just in time to start a new series on the Sermon on the Mount. After church we were invited to two different places. First breakfast at Larry and Ronnie's and then lunch/dinner at Doug's sister-in-law's. Both were great opportunities to start meeting people. I went with Dollee on Tuesday night to the woman's Bible study. We are going through a book on Ecclesiastes, it should be interesting. Tonight we were invited to one of the many growth groups at church were we again had the opportunity to meet some new people. Friday we are having dinner with some leaders of the college age group. Like I said, it's been a busy week.
Dan started work this week as well. He said it will be a process before he is off and running. So far, it's been talked about Dan getting involved in the college/young adults group which has a service on Thursday night...hmm, I wonder if we are going to that tomorrow night? He had a meeting today with about 15 other area pastors and Western Seminary. They are trying to start some lay leadership training classes (CD & DVD) to help grow there leadership in the area. This might be something Dan will help out with as well.
I'm in the process of learning how to do some cooking with a Microwave. I've been given a couple of books and tried to make some chicken pasta last night. The chicken tasted like chicken in the microwave tastes like. :( Perhaps 6 minutes was too long...next time I'll try 4 minutes and see if that helps. A few of you have suggested getting a toaster oven, I love this idea however, we have one in storage back home... The neighbor said she has two crock pots and said I could borrow one anytime I want. I might look into that as well.
Below are a couple of picture I took from my desk in the living room. :) Nice huh.

We Made It

Well, we made it to Idaho without any problems. Our cars did great over the mountains even in the snow we passed through. Yep, there are places with snow already. But not here in Post Falls, ID. It's been very pretty looking out here but it's a bit on the cold side. However, I just checked the weather for today. 49 in Minneapolis, 54 in Post Falls, so not too bad. :)

We are living in the lower level of Jack and Dollee's house. We have a very large living room area which we separated into two parts. The first part is where the TV is, it has two couches and a lazy boy. On the other side of the room we put a desk for me to work at and I'm hoping to find a 6 foot table to add to it so I can have room for my work laptop, a second monitor and perhaps even my personal laptop. Too many computers. We are a bit sad that Dan will most likely be taking his nice computer to the church...not real sure about that yet though. We also have a "kitchen" area. Table and four chairs as well as cabinets, sink and a microwave. I'm going to try to check out a book at the library on how to cook with a microwave. We are welcome to use the kitchen upstairs any time we like but it would be nice for us to have some Independence as well. We brought our Select Comfort mattress with us so we can "sleep in our own bed". I have slept better the last two night then I have in the past 3 months. Very nice. There is a guest room down here as well that we are welcome to use if we receive any company...so come on out. :)

Dan and I both start work on Monday. I'm looking forward to working from 6:30-3:00. Which will be 8:30-5 in MN. I think it will be great, I can roll out of bed, throw some clothes on then come out to the computer. I won't need to take a shower before work, make lunch or drive! And the best part is that I will be done by 3:00 in the afternoon! Not sure what I'm going to be spending my time doing after 3:00 but it sounds fun anyway.

Dan will begin Monday morning as well. First meeting at 9:00. We don't know yet what he will be doing. I'm already looking forward to hearing how his first day goes. Dan and I both attended a really cool Spiritual Warfare class both Friday night and Saturday morning, and Dan got up early this morning to attend the 7:00 men's breakfast. It sounds like Dan might need to learn to be a morning person. hehe.

Tomorrow is Sunday, our first day at church. I'm looking forward to this. So far everyone we have met seems excited to have us here. Hopefully it won't take long to make friends. We are invited to Doug and Linda's (pastor and wife) for Monday night football. I've been told they project the HD TV onto a 22 ft screen. Go Vikes!!