Just a Quick Update

Sorry to have been MIA the past week or so. Jackie and I went on a mission trip with our church, the First Baptist Church of Columbiana, down to Baldwin County to do Vacation Bible School-type ministries with migrants and Hispanic families.

Our church has been going on this mission trip, which we call Migrant Camp, for approximately 43 years. (Depending on who you ask, you'll get a different number.) Migrant Camp is completely deserving of its own blog post, and it will get one. So stay tuned!

Jackie and I have also been prepping for our big move. This will be my third move in three summers, but hopefully this will be the last one for a couple of years. We're moving to her granddad's old place, which happens to be a stone's throw away from both her parents' and maternal grandparents' houses.

Yep, we're moving to the Hawkins Family Compound! <gulp>

In all honesty, I'm really looking forward to the move. It will be so nice to have a place to call our own...and to not have to share walls and floors with neighbors!

Today I told the office manager at our apartment complex that we were not renewing our lease at the end of the month. When she asked why we were moving, this was the image that immediately popped into my mind:

Jimmy McMillan from The Rent is Too Damn High Party!!

While I may have been thinking it in my head, I did not tell the manager that the sky-high rent was the reason. However, rent is playing a major factor in our decision to move. I've always hated paying rent. To me, it always seemed like I was flushing money down the drain. You pay all this money for an apartment that you will never own and that will never earn you any money in return. With what we've paid in rent this year, we could easily have bought a nice, new small car (like a Kia or Hyundai).

While I'm looking forward to living in our own place, I am dreading the thought of packing all of our stuff up. (How do two people accumulate so much stuff in just a year?!?!?) We are going to move as much stuff as we can ourselves and then hire movers to move the furniture. (I'm not carrying all that furniture down from the 3rd floor. Momma didn't raise no fool!!)

Hope this doesn't happen to us!

So this will be a month of packing, remodeling, moving, unpacking, and trying to settle in...all while I'm trying to get my independent study done for school this summer. And we're doing all of this in the zillion-degree heat of an Alabama summer!! (I've already decided that when we move again, it will be winter time!)

I have also recently become addicted to Words with Friends. I love that game!!! My handle is BruceFinklea, if any of y'all want to start a game!

So that's pretty much what's been going on and what will be going on in the next couple of weeks. I'll try to type up the Migrant Camp blog in the next day or so.