Emily visits Memphis!

My dear friend Emily decided to visit us a few weeks ago! She traveled the whole 13+ hours in one day by herself...without air conditioning, and the added bonus of poison ivy that drove her crazy the whole drive down. Wow, she loves me a lot! She was here for 3 days, and we saw a lot!

We decided to have a picnic in the park that looks out onto the Mississippi. Isn't it beautiful!

And you can't go to Memphis without doing a trolley ride that takes you around the city...but she didn't want her picture taken! Too bad :)

Then we went to the pink palace museum. This was the mansion of Clarence Saunders. He started the first Piggly Wiggly which was the first self-service grocery store!

Next up was one of the art museums they have here. Brooks museum of art...ohhh Emily :)

One of the days she was here we went to the zoo. I LOVE this zoo! It's only 5 minutes from our house, and it has great exhibits! Some of my favorites: the Panda bears, the Tigers, and the huge Komodo dragons. We also made it in time for the Sea Lion show which was quite adorable.

We didn't have time to go inside and tour every place so we did some drive by sight-seeing. We made a quick stop at the Sun Studios: This is where B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash recorded some of their music.

We also stopped by the National Civil Rights Museum which is where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We didn't go through the museum while she was here, but Erik and I went with our parents when we moved here. We were very impacted by it.

Finally, we went to see the house of Elvis Presley at Graceland. We didn't go through it, but we got pictures in front of it, and in front of his airplane!

We also went to a backyard concert. That was a first for me. It was a concert that was literally in the backyard of someone's house. You bring your own chair and drinks and sit in their yard and enjoy! It was 2 blocks from my house and it was quite enjoyable.

We had a fun few days, and I sure hope the drive was worth it to her!

Barefoot and pregnant!

Many of you know that being pregnant, your feet can change sizes. They can swell up, or literally grow, thus making shoes very uncomfortable. I just bought a pair of shoes...and did they ever feel amazing having a pair of shoes that were comfortable and that fit!

Today, I found out a different solution other than buying shoes...barefoot! Someone posted a picture of barefoot sandals today. I have never seen them before, but they are cute! Here is the picture my friend posted today.

                                                       I thought these were super cute, and really fun! I started searching through pictures of barefoot sandals and found some cool ideas. I decided to make my own! Now I can be barefoot and pregnant all the time :) Or...at least in the house.

I decided to go for the beaded look mainly because I have no idea how to crochet! 

Here is what I made:

          They are not perfect, but it was a fun first try! I only broke 2...actually maybe 3 needles in the process, and almost gave up after the first one, but I did it! 

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!

New friends: Lots of fun :)

In the neighborhood we live in, there is a doctor and his family right around the corner. They have 7 kids; 4 girls, and 3 boys. Today, 2 of the girls (who are both adopted from China) came over to hang out! We decided to make delicious rice crispy treats and watch a movie (Despicable Me). 

Here are some pictures from our lovely afternoon together!

Getting our supplies ready! 

They were so excited!

Mmmm marshmallows!

We also added in a half cup of vanilla cake mix! YUM!

Shannon and I!

We mixed sprinkles into the mix...

And added more on top!

Doesn't it look good!

If you take a trip to Memphis, I'll make some for you too!

Tour of our new Home!

We moved into our house 3 weeks ago, and it is already becoming our home! I don't have all the boxes unpacked, but I am nearly there! We hope you enjoy the pictures! And notice...Rocky wanted all the attention :)

Living room

Living room

Living room

Our bedroom

Our Bedroom

Our bedroom

Dining room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Kitchen

Back hallway

Office/extra bedroom

Office

Second bathroom

Mud room/Rocky's room

Laundry room behind the curtain

Main bathroom

Main bathroom 

Isabelle's room/guest bedroom

Isabelle's room/guest bedroom

Isabelle's room/guest bedroom

Our house

Our backyard

Wine and cheese...or just the cheese

Erik and I like to enjoy a glass of wine together every now and then. Now that I'm pregnant, Erik likes to enjoy a glass of wine, and I enjoy my glass of water :) It was our first Sunday in Memphis, and both of our families had left that morning, so it was our first evening together in our house alone. Erik wanted to pick up a bottle of wine that evening, and I thought it was a good idea...it was our first evening with nothing to do, and so doing anything sounded great! 


When we first moved here, we found out right away that they only sell beer at the grocery stores. My mom and Erik were picking up some food and looked for a bottle of wine, and the lady at the store said, "You must be from the North. We only sell beer in the grocery stores." So we knew that we had to find a store devoted to wine or liquor. We had driven by a nice looking wine store really close by our house so our hunt for wine started with that store. It was already dark out and we had trouble finding it so we ended up going to a liquor store. We went in, and they didn't have any wine. We asked the guy where we would be able to find a bottle of wine. He told us, "I don't know where you could find wine on a Sunday. Maybe if you drove to Mississippi, you could get some there." 


Mississippi is about a 20 minute drive. I had wanted to go to Wal-Mart earlier that day to pick up some things, but the closest Wal-mart is 15-20 minutes away. We decided that since we had other things to pick up, we might as well continue our hunt for wine in Mississippi at their Wal-mart :)


They do sell wine at Wal-Mart in Mississippi! So we grabbed our wine and our other items and we were checking out. The wine was the last to be scanned, and the scanner said, "Cannot be sold on Sundays". So our search was over. Now we know, stock up your wine if you want it on a Sunday in the South :)


Side note: If you break your Wine opener, don't go to a Wine store because they cannot sell anything but wine, and good luck finding one at a Grocery store because why would they sell them if they can't sell wine?? 

New family member!

Well, it all started when we found out we were going to move to the inner city Memphis. We were both excited for the move; this is where we felt God was leading us to go. We both knew that it isn't the best area to live in, but maybe we didn't know it was as bad as it is...BUT thank you to my good friend Emily, we found out Memphis is #5 on the most dangerous city in the US list. The very next day, Erik and I bought a dog! Coincidence? I think Erik was a little worried about his wife and daughter; what do you think? 


We decided to get a Boxer. They are great with kids, and not too hairy for me to handle. He is a beautiful dog, and we named him Rocky. He is about a year old, and is 60 pounds! We were planning to get a dog when we decided to move here, but I think the article made Erik look for a dog even harder :)
I was trying to convince him to let me get a cat, and put a sign "BEWARE OF DOG" on our door instead, but...I found Rocky online and thought he was one handsome dude. I might still get my way and get a cat too.

We hope you like our new addition to the family as much as we do! 

Why Memphis?

Here we are in Memphis! Erik and I drove up with both sets of parents Tuesday, stopped overnight and made it in time to close on our new house Wednesday. The closing lasted about 45 minutes, and then we began the fun unloading of our 16' truck. As we were starting, 2 of our very nice neighbors came and helped us! It only took about 40 minutes to get it all unloaded! The first day we met 5 neighbors, and Erik's dad met 2 more the next day. Our place already looks like a home (pictures to come soon). 

Now, you may wonder why we moved here to Memphis. Erik and I attended a conference in January and there was a Dr. from Memphis that spoke that weekend. He and 3 other Christian physicians started a clinic in the inner city of Memphis. They have now grown to 7 clinics and are the largest provider of primary care here in Memphis. Some of the physicians and their families decided to move into some of the inner city neighborhoods to have more of an impact on the community here. They started house churches in their communities, and they take international trips a few times a year. They have also sent out missionaries from their communities. 

Erik and I thought joining up with this group of people would be an awesome opportunity for us. Erik was able to get an interview for the Med-Peds (Internal Medicine and Pediatrics) program at the University of Tennessee (UT) the next week after the conference. He was accepted into the program in March. He will be doing his 4 year Med-Peds residency with UT, but he will get to do his clinic time with the group of Christian physicians and will get to go on international trips with them as well. We also decided to move into the inner city as well. We have joined a house church in our neighborhood (which is only a block away), and we have already met several people in our neighborhood from the Christian community here. We are excited for this new experience, and also missing everyone from home already! 

We should be out of our boxes in a week or so, and then I'll post pictures of our house!