The first few weeks

WEll, I have now been in Richmond for a little over two weeks. The first week was nice in that my sister, Kathleen, was here. We did lots of organizing in our apartment and cleaning ( I love doing that stuff!), grocery shopping, shopping for essentials for the apartment, and of course some shopping for us! I mean, come on, a huge mall and lots of department stores within miles, what girl wouldn't do that! In doing all this, I learned how to navigate the town, with the help of my GPS of course. We even ventured onto highways to figure them out. I have to say the most frustrating thing that week was the second day when we put in a store we were looking for into the GPS. It told us it was 11 miles away, when in actuality it was 19 miles plus 2 tolls and then it ended up to not even exist! We were beyond frustrated, and I think, to top it off. we were not on a good side of town either! Well, a classic example of living and learning:)

The day Kathleen left was very sad. We drove 90 miiles to meet my dad who was vacationing about 3 hours away with my mom and brother. We were each driving a short distance to meet so Kathleen could finish up vacation with them then head home. In driving highway 95 north toward DC we realized it was a very bad idea. On a saturday morning, beginning our journey at 9am, it took us 6 hours to drive 180 miles total! Little did we know this highway is a bad idea to drive on weekends because all the tourists are out driving to DC and Alexandria. So, coming home, we sat and sat going 10 miles an hour for like 2 hours!! it was awful. I have to say people up here do NOT know how to merge onto a highway from a carpool lane ( stupid idea I must say). However, everyone made it back safe and sound, I was very sad, but happy to be out of the traffic! That night we took Tyler to Dominick's boss's apt complex to go swimming and bar b que with his family. It was Tyler's first time in pool and he did awesome. It was also the same night we discovered his 2 top teeth coming through! Lots to be thankful for!

Last Monday, our good friend, Fr. Joe Post drove up with all of Tyler's furniture and other belongings that we needed from our home. He is such a wonderful friend who has been through a lot in our lives and our move across the country is one more thing he wanted to help out with! For that we are forever grateful! So, he arrived Monday afternoon and stayed till Wednesday afternoon. Again, it was very nice to have a familiar face around. He and I took Tyler downtown Richmond on Tuesday and tried to navigate and find our way around. We ended up going to the State Capitol and walking around the main street area, eating lunch at a cool Brewery. We also frequented the huge mall and then made our way home to unwind after a long and fun day. We met up with Dominick for lunch Wednesday so Fr. Joe could see where he works, then Fr. Joe headed back west. After he left it hit me that we are here to stay. Others will come and go for visists, but this has become our new home. It was a hard rest of the day, but I made it through.

The next day I decided it was time to get to know Dominick's boss's wife and her two kids who are ages 6 and 2. I called her and Tyler and I spent the day with them driving around, going to the park, and to lunch. She told me that is what she has been doing is just driving around a lot during the day to find places and figure out the city. They, too uprooted their lives in St. Louis and moved here for a better opportunity. Its nice to go through this with someone else who feels the same way. Its been hard on all of us, but we are slowly getting adjusted. Its nice to have friends here now. Instead of just sitting in our apt that friday night, we went over to their apt with two other ladies from St. louis who also work here now and we all ordered pizza and played board games. On saturday we ran a lot of errands and then went to a Christmas in July festival at the Short Pump mall which was fun- lots of music and activities for kids. We then took Tyler swimming. It was a nice family day! That Sunday, we ventured into the city to attend mass at a Catholic church that was recommended to us by my brother's friend. It was very traditional, even some parts in latin. We felt a little out of our element, but met a very nice guy with a little baby as well who said its a great parish. We may give it another chance. After that, we came home and I got to take a nap while Tyler napped. It was so nice and peaceful. We then went to the park with Dom's boss's family to play soccer and walk around, so nice and fun.

So, as you can see, we are slowly getting out in our new world here in Virginia. There is still lots to see and do, but we have lots of time to explor it all! Ill write more as we do more. So, stay tuned, lots more to come! Enjoy,

Bridgette