Day 3 & 4: The Louisiana Leg

For the first time in over 2 1/2 years, I got to see my brother's wife and kids! Considering the kids are currently 5 and younger, this is a big deal. Julie fixed a fantastic dinner for Wednesday night, (which was particularly good because nothing was fried or convenience food) and we spent Thursday mostly relaxing and having a good time.



Then Friday morning, it all started to go south. As directed by Julie, Ben had parked our big moving truck in the driveway next door, because Julie didn't think anyone lived there. (Note: Niel and Julie had just moved in the end of July and it is now Aug. 8th.) Well, lo and behold, someone DID live there, and had just been out of town for a couple of weeks. She had gotten home late on Thursday night, and drove through her ditch to get into her car port. But at 7am on Friday, she was blocked in and couldn't get to work because of our moving truck. Fortunately, the man across the street knew who was responsible for the truck, and came knocking on the door to let us know. She was nice about the whole thing, but Julie and I decided it would be a good idea to make more extra peace with a plate of chocolate chip cookies. So Friday was going to be my baking day. Cookies for the neighbor and homemade cinnamon rolls for Niel's family. About lunchtime Julie and I ran to the store. While there, I got "the call" from Broadway Village Apartments, which is when they informed me that we could not move in there the next day as planned. Because I had done work in the tax credit program, I figured we'd be able to move into a tax credit apartment and pay less in rent. Well, we make too much money, which isn't exactly a PROBLEM, but it definitely felt like one at noon on Friday. So, I spent the next few hours working things out with Ben, and we decided to go ahead and come on to Oklahoma and move into the Intown Suites for a week while we found a place to live and Ben started his job.

So, for the rest of the day we hung out and I baked. There are some very colorful grasshoppers in Louisiana, and Ben took this amazing picture on Niel's back porch.