Baton Rouge adventure begins

HI YA'LL!!!! We made it to Louisiana!!!

First impressions: it's muggy (we are REALLY glad we went through the trouble of selling our other car and getting one with A/C), thunderstorms every day- one right above us right now in fact, seems like everyone has an accent, groceries are more expensive (milk for $3 to 4.50, what?), gas is less expensive, LSU logo everywhere (Geaux Tigers!), everything is green even without sprinklers (we saw grass springing up in the middle of the road), people are friendly, I hear a lot of yes ma'am, yes sir. This picture is crossing the Mississippi on the way into Baton Rouge- that's LSU stadium -- it's HUGE!

Things are going really well! I'll be honest, the first day or two was a little rough- our aparment smelled like a dog and then our power was cut-- obviously two things we didn't expect. We spent Friday night on an air mattress in our hot, stinky apartment, waking up every hour or so due to the heat, smelling the dirty doggy smell, bemoaning our fate (at least I was moaning, Jeff is Mr Optimistic and was handling things a bit better than I) and trying to fall back asleep. It sounds dramatic, but the situation wasn't pretty, at least not what we expected!

But Saturday, things turned around-- our landlord agreed to replace the carpet downstairs to take care of the smell and the power came back on unexpectedly when we had been told it would have to wait til Monday (they must have taken pitty on the pregnant lady).

So life is good. We went to church today and everyone is really friendly. There seems to be a lot of young couples going to school or recent grads and then a lot of older couples. Not a lot of families with primary/youth age kids. Did I say everyone is REALLY friendly? Two other gals are due to have babies in the next month and one had a baby last month, so I feel like I fit right in.

Pictures of the apartment to come in a day or so once the downstairs floor is done and we've unpacked. But here's what the entrance looks like: