new church fun

Well, we've finished our first full week in our new home and new church. All in all, it's been great. Peter survived his first hospital and nursing home visits, and his first Board of Stewards meeting (although in the course of discussing going from three services to two, someone did wonder aloud, hopefully to the chagrin of the others present, if that meant they could get rid of one of the pastor positions). I survived my first church event without Peter there - a church league softball game. I may be bad luck as a spectator; it was the first game of the year that they lost. It was neat though that the games are played at the city park within a mile of our house.

We got a visit from the great Kennard last week. It was fun to see him and catch up, and it's always a treat to eat at the All-Steak.

We had our first delivery of fresh homegrown produce from a church member. We were pretty excited. And it's even something I eat, too!

We also survived the welcome reception the church had for us between the two services yesterday. The UMW hosted it, and sent us home with a big tray of mini-muffins, pigs in a blanket, sausage balls, cheese straws, mini ham sandwiches, and fruit. Eat your heart out all you non-preacher types. hehe.

Walking to the recpetion I had a flash back to our wedding reception, walking together to a room full of people waiting on you, wanting to talk to you. We laughed about how we would be announced this time if they did that like a the wedding. "Give a big round of applause for The Reverend and Mrs. Peter von Herrmann!!!" How corny. I told Peter this time he was not allowed to run straight to the food (At the wedding reception, he immediately grabbed a handful of nuts at the cake table. I don't remember it at the time, but we have it on the dvd) But it was eerily similar - lots of smiling, shaking hands, seeing people you don't really know, everyone around you eating, but not really getting the chance to yourself.

At least one thing happened there that did not happen at our wedding reception. No one at the wedding confused a couple we were talking to with us. We were chatting with a young couple (maybe late twenties, thirties), and two ladies walk up to talk to the new pastor and his wife - only they think the other couple is us. That poor couple!
Ladies: "I don't think I've met you, I'm Jane Doe."
((At which point I think, "well, maybe they just haven't met these members and want to meet them. O, no.))
"We're so glad you're here."
Young woman: "I think you're wanting to meet them." (points to us)
Ladies: (still oblivious)"We're just so excited about you're coming here."

I'm still not sure how we got the whole thing straightened out. I can't imagine what must have gone on in the couple's minds.

I'm sure I'm leaving out lots more of the fun stuff from this week. Those were some of the highlights.

settling in

Wow, it's been almost a month since we've posted. Well, in that month we've moved back to the great state of Alabama, moved in to our first house, and spent waaaaay too much time packing and unpacking. We did throw a good bit of stuff away that we realized we wouldn't need, but there was still a lot more stuff than I realized.

Among the things we've learned in the last month:

- Cortez of Two men and a Truck Atlanta is a hoss. That man took care of in 15 minutes the couch that took us an hour and a half, 5 people, and two near death experiences to move in. We gave the couch away to the Burkett's across the street neighbor, which we were happy to do because a) he wanted it and b) we won't have to move it again.

- Packing material is expensive. Luckily, I borrowed about 15 boxes full of biodegradable crinkles from the VON Corporation, so we didn't have to buy those, but we would have had to spend about $15 a box for the material and the boxes. So hooray for Radar Engineers and their packing methods.

- People are pretty gracious at CFUMC your first week on the job. Everyone been very nice and so far no one has called me out on doing anything stupid. Since I'm sure I've done something stupid, it's nice to get some time to figure out what that is on my own.

- Having Wal-Mart within a 2 minute drive of your house is a whole lot easier than having to drive 45 minutes to get to one.

- We're not going to move again without paying movers. Each one of them were the best money we'd ever spent.

- diesel trucks give a nice back massage while you drive, but they nearly make you deaf.

That's about all for now, guess I need to use my office for something other than posting.