Mississippi

We are here! The plan is to go back to Georgia Monday but we'll see. We got an offer on our house that I'm sure we'll take, we should decide on which school district we want to be in this week so now all we need to do is find a house!

Some highlights from our visit so far:

• got caught in a tornado my first! I've been close to funnel clouds before but never an actual tornado. I had taken the girls to Walmart, of all places, and all of a sudden the power went out and they were yelling for all the customers to get to the back of the store. Addy was pretty freaked out and now is always wanting to see what the weather is supposed to be like but otherwise we survived. It's probably a good thing we were at Walmart because two of the cars parked where I'd park at the apartment building had their windows blown out.
• looked at houses and I think we need to tone it down. We probably started out looking at the more expensive houses and it's hard to go back but I think we need to. plus this apartment is probably 5000 square feet less than our house in Blairsville and I have to say it's kind of nice not to feel so spread out. I'd like another bedroom, a bigger master bedroom and bath and a bigger kitchen but otherwise I like being in a smaller, more cozy place.
• found a babysitter or two! We had one girl come watch the girls the other night while Mitch, Jessica and I went out to dinner - it was so nice! She wants to use us as her work study next semester so she'd come help with the girls for at least 2 hours every day which would be sweet! And another girl we found has worked with special needs kids before and seems like she'd be a great mother's helper this summer and possibly beyond. I just need to check a couple of her references but I talked to one and heard nothing but good things. Yay!
• looked at schools and we'll look at one more tomorrow. Right now we're concentrating on finding a good preschool program for Riley. I also checked out a private school for Addy and will probably schedule a tour there. Otherwise I've heard good things about the public schools in the two counties we're looking at houses in. But it's nice to have options!
• Target! I went there, bought a few things, and got back to the apartment within a half hour yesterday. Amazing! It takes an hour and a half just to get to a Target where we live in Georgia.
• Starbucks! I'll probably settle down after we get a house and I have my cappuccino machine here but for now I'm enjoying my daily dose.