A Month Later ...

Today marks one month since our move to Arizona. Here's how things are going:

It's still HOT here. But the mornings and evenings are cooling down a bit, so that is nice. Christian and I try to take a hour-long morning walk each day. We try to start out before the sun rises over the mountains because as soon as the sun appears, it starts to get hot.

We've had encounters with two of the desert creatures mentioned in a previous post: a black widow spider (who had spun her web in a place Christian could have easily discovered - fortunately, that room had not yet caught his attention and I spotted the spider before he did) and a scorpion. It wasn't the huge variety that I envisoned from "The Mummy." It was about the size of the tip of my finger, but I have since learned that those scorpions are especially dangerous. Needless to day, I think we'll need to have an exterminator come out on a regular baiss.

Last night we attended a BBQ for members of "Buckeye's Busy Bees," which is a local parenting group I got involved with at my mom's suggestion (thanks, mom!). The BBQ was our first event with the group and we made friends with a family, and the husband/dad also works at Palo Verde. So he and Jonathan visited for a while last night while Christian and I mingled with other moms.

We attended Calvary Goodyear today for the first time. The pastor follows Calvary's traditional style of "verse by verse" teaching of the Bible, so we felt right at home. It’s a small church, and only provides childcare for the later of the two services on Sundays. We were at the early service, so we sat in a room at the back of the sanctuary with a window separating us from the sanctuary. Prior to starting his message, the pastor walked into the room and said, "I don't know if anybody has said hello to you, but I wanted to come in and welcome you." He made a point of saying hello to Christian, and I said, "This is Christian." And actually, at that moment, we dind't really know he was the pastor, so when he stepped onto the stage a minute later, we were very impressed that he stopped in to say hello to a family he didn't recognize. After the service, he greeted people as they left and somehow even remembered Christian's name and told him goodbye.

Jonathan is really enjoying his job – and having every Monday off. Because last week was a holiday week, he got off work at 3:30pm every day. He's made several friends already, with whom he eats lunch frequently. He's also found a Bible Study group. He attended his first meeting last week and he plans to keep attending.

Stay tuned for continuing updates!

Jennifer