Home Sweet Dallas

So, I'm here.  

In Texas.  Are you kidding me?  

It's been a whirlwind of a week.  

Seven days ago, I was on my way to Tennessee after stopping by to see a brand new beautiful baby girl named Katelyn Brooke Chucoski, and her precious momma, my dear friend Erin, in Lynchburg.  

I spent last Monday night in Kingsport, TN.  Hadn't been there since Matt & Amanda got married in 2001.  I stayed with my sister-in-law's mom...or my brother's mother-in-law (whichever way makes the most sense :o).  It was wonderful to see her again and was a blessing to not have to pay for a hotel room and be safe in someone's home.  Of course, I totally thought I was going to oversleep, so I kept waking up every hour and finally just gave up around 4:45am and hit the road for what I thought would be a 14 hour drive to Dallas.

The day passed surprisingly quickly.  

I was going from the top right corner to the bottom left corner of Tennessee.  That's quite the trip.  I went through Nashville and Memphis, crossed the Mississippi River outside of Memphis into Arkansas, passed through Little Rock, talked to a few people on the phone until the signal cut out...overall, it was really a good drive...no traffic the whole way except for like 15 minutes going through Nashville.  I was doing great...

Until 14 hours into it.

Hello, 14 hours stuck in a packed-so-full-it-was-claustrophobic Ford Focus and I was supposed to be there, only I still had 2 hours to go... must have been all the $1 Diet Cokes and potty breaks in Tennessee that added to my time.  

Finally, at 8:15pm Dallas time (which is 9:15pm EST)...after being on the road for 16 hours, I got here.  And that's about when the exhaustion hit.  

I spent the night at Laura Beth's apartment and had a HUGE moving day on Wednesday, complete with U-Haul, Derek Cornell (a friend from ODBC), 100 degree heat, and lots of mysterious bruises that I swear I don't know where they came from!  

It really only took the morning and then, my stuff was all moved in and a HUGE mess! 

I finally had a really good night's sleep Wednesday into Thursday and my dear friend from college, Jen Kilpatrick flew into the DFW airport that morning for a job interview, so she stayed with me, helped with getting settled, shopping at IKEA, moving the IKEA stuff into the apartment... she was truly a God-send.  

We had a great time exploring Dallas with the GPS unit she got with her rental car... 

Can I just tell you... God created the GPS for people like me.  

I liked her GPS, so I researched a few on the web that night, thinking I'd go look before I bought, just to see...so I mapped myself directions to a local Best Buy where they had a GREAT deal on the Garmin nuvi 200.  Just 15 minutes away.

So, Jen left the apartment on Friday morning for her job interview and I left to look at Best Buy and run several errands after that.  

One hour, 27 minutes later, frazzled half out of my mind I arrived at Best Buy... I got LOST going to look for a GPS.  Good thing it was on sale (and the pink one was $50 cheaper) because I am now the grateful, completely dependent owner of a GPS unit.  Oh, it makes life so much easier, driving so stress-free.  Seriously... a great investment.  I would be a hermit for the rest of my Dallas days without it.

Big day today (Monday).  I started my job this morning.  Was a great day.  Will be challenging enough to keep me interested but not so difficult I won't be able to focus on school once classes begin this fall.  

So, anyway...that's life in a nutshell so far.

Wish I had time to tell you about my Sunday.  My first church visit was really good.  It was similar to ODBC, had a familiar feel.   I'm sure I'll go back again.  I do have a bunch more churches to visit.  But this post is already long enough and I should get back to unpacking...

Thank you SO MUCH for your prayers, your gifts, and the many ways you have blessed me in support of this journey God has set before me.  The transition has been so smooth.  I'm still far far away, but "The One who calls me is faithful, He will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24  He's faithful.  He's doing whatever He's doing and giving me complete peace as He works.  

Check back here regularly for updates... I'll post when I can to tell you about life.  Easier to keep up with so many people this way but I also won't mind hearing from you on email or by phone!  Life's leisurely these days, especially until late August when classes start.  I'm mostly working from home and not doing a whole lot of anything else.  

Hope to hear from you soon!  

Oh, and the seminary changed my mail box part of my new address:

Katherine Eachus

1107 Saint Joseph St, Box 1119

Dallas, TX  75204