Stayin' Alive

Whew! It's been a whirlwind week, and now I'm finally getting a chance to slow down and breathe. I can't believe it's only been 8 days since we left Texas. It feels like 8 weeks! Our driving went really well - many thanks to all who prayed for us! It was REALLY easy drafting behind a U-Haul for 700 miles. Justin's the one who had it hard up in the truck, but I was just sailing along listening to my book on CD. (I highly recommend The Kite Runner, but it's very heavy and serious. Not a light read. I still learned a lot about the history and culture of Afghanistan, and it was a thought-provoking story.)

We spent 3 days in Kentucky at Justin's parents' house. We went out on their pontoon boat in the lake, did some unsuccessful fishing, and ate a LOT of yummy homemade food! The day we arrived, Justin's dad filled up his smoker with venison, dove, turkey breast, turkey sausage, and beef, and we managed to finish off most of it by the end of the 3 days.

Thursday we drove up to Chicago to visit my extended family. My grandparents, 4 aunts and uncles, and their families all came in to spend a few days together - it was a bonafide family reunion! I think we had about 25 people total, including all the children. Friday we went to downtown Chicago and spent a while at Navy Pier, visited a chocolate cafe called Moonstruck.
Saturday we drove to Racine, Wisconsin and went to the zoo there, then had a birthday/pool party at our hotel for one of my younger cousins. Sunday we drove to Willow Creek for church, and we met up with some college friends, Paul and Tara, for lunch. Paul is working at Willow as an intern, so we were excited to have this chance to see them again - I hadn't seen Tara since graduation in 2002! Then we drove back to Cincinnati, where my parents and sister live, and we'll spend this week here with them just relaxing a little bit and enjoying family.

Can you believe that in all of that action, I never took ONE SINGLE photo?! I'm a horrible person. My sis took some pictures, so hopefully I can steal some of hers and post them for your entertainment. My nephews are precious and wonderful, and I look forward to the next couple of days with them. They both have colds which I seem to have caught. But I slept about 12 hours last night and I'm feeling much better today.

On an entirely different note, we have started our Moldova blog! I'll keep posting on this one until we leave for Moldova on August 1st, and then I'll post only on that one. Keep this one on your links, though, because I'll come back to this one after our stint in Moldova!