Sometimes saying life is 'normal' is a great thing. Nicki and I finally settled in to what felt like 'home' this week. That was mainly attributed to the inclusion of cable and internet in our house. Although I must admit it was kind of nice not having tv for a week or so.
Actually, we had some wonderful experiences with new friends this week. We had dinner on Tuesday night with Crystal and Adam Wing, and Crystal's brother Will and his fiance Alex. They were nice enough to invite us over for a wonderful dinner, where we got to meet Noah and Elizabeth (the Wing's two adorable kids). Nicki and I both left and talked for a while about how comforting it felt to have people in the area who seemingly cared so much about seeing us get settled.
Wednesday I was able to achieve two goals in one event. It was the first night playing for the P&G softball team - which made for the first time I'd put on a glove since probably high school. The two goals, as mentioned above, were that I neither embarrassed myself nor did I get injured - which is a major accomplishment. It was a great time, perfect night for softball, and a good chance to meet a new group of people.
It was interesting, though, during the 2nd of the games I had one of those moments while diligently shifting my weight back and forth in the outfield. It was this perfect sunset, on a calm spring night, and I had this moment of realizing I was playing on a softball team in Fayetteville, AR - and took a moment to think about how life works itself out - and no matter what we have planned it never quite turns out how 'we' want it to. Nicki and I are so blessed to be here and go through this experience - and it is moments like those in the outfield of a random softball field where we can step back and think about how lucky we are.
And of course we miss our family and friends. There have been a number of moments of realization that we aren't in Cincinnati anymore. Every once in a while I could handle meeting Ray Moorman for coffee in the morning, and having a man breakfast at Panera or Echo, and it was a bit tough not being around for my dad and brother's birthday celebrations. We talk often of missing our MCC family and I've started thinking about if we can get Shane to be a big time Christian radio star we could bring him to our church as a guest appearance! We also tried the local ice cream shop (Braum's) and it was without a doubt nowhere near a Graeter's experience.
But all in all - we're working towards getting settled in, and couldn't be happier with where we are and what we're doing - although as I type this the 'Weather Warning System' just came on to tell us a there was a tornado warning in the area - except the warning is in Spanish (where is Arkansas?).
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