Mississippi

Here we are in the dirty sipp (as it's called by the locals). We've been here a little over a week, and it has been a bit of an adjustment for all 3 of us. Shayna is home alone with Trace from about 7am until 6pm every day... her belly is getting bigger (for a good reason) and Trace takes good care of her. I drive 40min each way to my clinical rotation, spend as much time on my feet now as I did on my rear last year, and am trying to find time to study at the end of each day. We are adjusting! Our new "RV Park" is a bit muddy since it rained most of last week (we are finding out slowly why its called the dirty sipp). Our home started to sink so we had to repark it a few times, but I think we've finally got it so that we wont find ourselves submerged in the middle of the night. We've made some new friends: The Kimbroughs, natives to the south, have had us over a few times (their son Kyle is a friend from school) and have proven that they have mastered the art of southern hospitality (we feel very blessed to live so close to them). It was a relief to finally meet Shayna's midwife, Norma Clark, yesterday for the first time. We are totally confident in her abilities to be a part of the birth of baby #2- she's been delivering babies for 18 years now in 3 states. The town we are in is officially considered to be a village (population 229). It does have a gas station/convenience store/pizza buffet... what more could we hope for. The branch, only 15 minutes away, is even smaller than our last, but still a very friendly group of southerners. The weather is finally warming up and we are thankful for it.

 Gentry RV Park

Tiny New Albany Branch

The Holidays

The 2 weeks we spent in Wallsburg went by too fast! There was hardly any snow on the ground but at least enough to go sledding behind the 4 wheeler and take a quick snowmobiling run. The nightly temperatures ranged from just above 0 degrees to below 15 degrees. So so cold. Trace got sick for half the trip... so we didn't really sleep for half of the nights. Good thing our time consisted of eating, playing, and catching up... needless to say we slept in a lot. Christmas eve we all slept over at Sarah's and some brave souls stayed up quite late watching random Christmas movies... again we are thankful that it is the season for sleeping in.  Christmas day was really fun! This was the first Christmas we have had together with my family. We received so many meaningful presents that we are grateful for. The giving didn't end after Christmas either... my mom gave us our long awaited wedding quilt... It is a work of art... she does some really nice work. Kenyn, Jenny, and Lawson came up for new years eve which ended up being an eclectic combination of food, watching the boys play, and not really doing anything. We're so grateful that the Koops aren't hard to please- we had fun just being with them! We also got a traditional bite of sushi thanks to Megan and Cory... thanks for keeping the tradition alive. It all ended, though, at 3:30am on the 4th of January when we headed to the airport. Thanks for driving Dad! We used desperate traveling parent tactics to make sure the seat next to us was empty on the plane... boarding the plane is the only time a parent really hopes that their child has a stinky diaper or is throwing a fit, because it means that the seat next to that child will remain empty unless the flight is full (in that case we have pity on the poor soul who boards last). So many things went right... up until we got home after the sun was already down... something had gone wrong with our trailers electricity. So from about 5 until 11pm I worked on figuring it out while Shayna and Trace slept over a heater vent in the kitchen powered by our battery. We went to bed before we had the power back on, hoping that the battery would power the furnace through the night. Somewhere during the night the battery ran out, but the 3 of us stayed perfectly warm under our covers. In the morning we were greeted by a reading of 38 degrees on the thermostat... a few hours later my dad and I had the power back on. Thank goodness for cell phones and amazing dads! My dad talked me through the trouble shooting process... and now a day and a half later we think we have it figured out. I wonder if my mom knows that she married a trailer repairman in disguise? At least now we have electricity and are done camping. Tomorrow I start a week of classes before we venture to Mississippi. Can't wait to get up and go!

p.s. Shayna got the news towards the end of the trip that her sister's house caught on fire. We were so sad to be far away and unable to help. We are so sorry for the loss, but thankful that everyone was safe. Summer, Sunde, and their families have such good attitudes and just keep going. Thanks to God that they are all safe.