Well we have officially been in Louisiana a week and a half and what a crazy week and a half it has been. You know the saying "when it rains it pours"? well that just sums up our last week in the good and bad sense. We headed out on March 8th for Louisiana and had a very nice and uneventful drive down (unless you count the diaper explosion). We felt very lucky to have the drive go so smoothly. We stayed at a hotel for a couple days till our stuff arrived once we got there. This is when all the craziness began. Apparently the tenants in the house before us had trouble paying their bills and as a result we had a lot of difficulty getting our utilities turned on. I began working on this the Monday after we arrived in hopes it would be all taken care of by the time we moved in. Well unfortunately this was not the case at all. We thought the electricity would be turned on Wednesday the day we moved inand we were waiting to here back from the gas company. When we got to the house on Wednesday therewas no electricity. Michael called them and due to a mix up we needed to fax them our lease (which we didn't have one) and then 2-3 business days after they receive that they would turn on our power. SoMichael hurried over to the church that we are renting from, they made up a lease, he signed it and they faxed it. All we could do was wait. That night we were blessed to have a lot of people from the branch here show up to help us move in. This was very nice because with no electricity it gets dark quick in the house. They went above and beyond to give us flashlights and even get us a generator to make it through the night. Once the sun was up it was not too bad but the downside was we had no heat. If it were just Michael and I this would not be a problem but we have John and Thursday morning when we woke up it was 55 degrees in the house. John had ended up spending most of the night in our bed and none of us had slept well. Just when its bad the good comes. That day Mike's boss called a friend at the electric company and our power was turned on that day! Yay! We were also invited to the branch presidents house for dinner which was nice not to worry about that since we had no food because our fridge was not here yet. We went and had a great dinner and as we got in our car to leave it would not go into any other gear. Let me tell you as much as it sucks to have your car break down there is not better place to have it do that then at the branch presidents house. We got the car towed to a auto shop and the branch president took us to the airport to pick up a rental car. When we got home that night we were discouraged to discover that our heat used hot water to heat the house so the electricity had done nothing for that. We spent another very cold night in our house with little sleep. We also had started bugging the gas company more wanting to get hot water in the house and heat. They seemed to not be able to help us at all and just kept saying someone would contact us within 10 business days to let us know what to do next. So frustrating!! Friday the car place called and our transmission had gone out so we said goodbye to the ford taurus! Friday night we were invited to a fish fry at Mike's boss' house. It was so fun. We got to experience real southern louisiana cooking. We had fresh fried catfish, crap boil, and shrimp boil. I am not a seafood person but I will admit it was pretty good. I felt like I was on an episode of duck dynasty. It was just like it. They way everyone talked and dressed. It was awesome. On Saturday we got our refrigerator! Which was exciting and we also spent the day car shopping and came home with a new 2014 Toyota corolla. We had no intention of getting a brand new car that morning but as we looked around it was the only thing we felt good about. Yay for a new car! Saturday afternoon we got a call as well letting us know that someone from the branch was bringing us dinner! Great I still had yet to have to cook without a stove! We also had dinner brought to us Sunday, Monday, and yesterday. Our gas was finally turned on yesterday as well and things are starting to feel back to normal. Sorry this is so long but as much as things went wrong this last week we were also blessed beyond belief. The branch here has helped us so much as well as Mike's boss. We had a camping stove brought to us, movies, a portable heater and food. We had people come help us unpack on Monday and watch John as well as a family in the branch let us shower at their house Saturday night so we could have a warm shower. Everyone here has been so generous and thoughtful. It may be a small branch but they have the biggest hearts. Before we left Utah everyone would talk about how great it is that we could go and help this branch here but I am so humbled as they have done nothing but help me and our family. This could have been an awful week but it has been a crazy and fun one. I have made friends and feel more at home that I ever thought I would. Thanks to all those who have blessed our lives and made our trials easy to bear!
On the drive down. He did so well for the 30 hour drive!
On a walk on the levee in front of our house. That is the
Mississippi river on the other side.
Our house from the levee
Jambalaya that we had on our first visit.
Michael eating the fried catfish on our first visit.
Michael breaking open the crabs at the fish fry on Friday.
Our new car!!!!
A lizard on our trash can. They are all over outside our house!
