to the mountains we shall go.

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I've written my last post. To all of my fans (which is definitely just Rachel Zahniser-Cranston), I apologize. To everybody else, you're welcome.

So much has happened since April. For starters, I am sitting about 600 miles due East of where I wrote my last post. Before I get into that however, I'll back up even further.

The school year ended at Greenville College, and Michael and I had to say goodbye to a few of our housemates. Several new people moved into Big Blue for the summer, and we shared plenty of good meals, watched plenty of great shows, played many a game of fierce badminton (not so much), ate lots of party potatoes (a Trapp family recipe- it's the best thing that has ever hit my mouth), and celebrated numerous birthdays. 

Michael and I celebrated our one year anniversary in St. Charles, Missouri, and our housemates surprised us with cake and wine when we returned. We vacationed in Pentwater with the Trapps- which is always such a relaxing and fun time. We picked our dear friends Josh and Rachel up from the airport from their year-long stay in Norway. We were able to reunite with old friends and laugh our butts off as usual. We were glad to spend the summer with some new friends as well. I also created and sold a painting. All in all, I'd say it was a mighty fine summer.

But also, we got bed bugs. About a month before we moved, our housemate Carrie found a few bites on her body. And then Haley did as well. And then we started to find them on our stairs. And near our beds. And in our cups. And in our eyeballs. And on our windowsills. And in our couches. 

All of these are true besides one. You decide.

Seriously though, bed bugs are the worst creature you can imagine. They come out at night when their prey is most vulnerable, sense your body heat, and then come suck your blood. Then they leave and crawl back into their stupid little bedbug havens. Since you have no idea where they are exactly living, you then have to assume that they are EVERYWHERE. So, we had to disinfect everything. This meant washing all of our clothes (high heat kills bed bugs) and storing most of them in someone else's garage. It also meant using our car to heat all of my husbands books (which by the way, is so. many.). It also meant spraying all of our items with 90% rubbing alcohol. Michael started to have bad dreams about CVS running out of the alcohol. What a terrible creature. But, it also forced Michael and I to pack up our belongings earlier than expected and be ready for our big move.

My lovely sisters came down for a day and helped Michael and I pack and my parents came a few days later to help us move our stuff to Virginia! My husband's impressive brain has taken him to Virginia Tech to receive his Master's in Philosophy. He was able to get tuition remission as well as a stipend to be a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Yes, I'm allowed to brag about him. If I could high-five his brain, I would. So, we are now living in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and we seriously couldn't be any happier. We are living in a renovated carriage house on a Bed and Breakfast property, and it is the coolest place that I think we could have found. Here's some pictures:

Oh yes. We love it and all of the rustic charm it has to offer. I'll post soon about some of my favorite details in our little carriage house.

In the first few weeks we were able to spend a weekend with Jordan and Niqui (who just moved to Durham, NC), go to North Carolina and visit Grandpa and Grandma Trapp, finally hang out with the Schade family, and have dinner at Jordan and Niqui's new place. Michael started school and is loving it, and I found a job as a full-time supervisor at Starbucks within two weeks of living here.

We are finding friends through Michael's philosophy program- it has been extremely encouraging how welcoming everybody has been. We've also visited a few churches, and are excited to return to a few of them. To top it all off, we live in a drop dead gorgeous area.

God is good.

Till next time.

Grace & Peace.